Monday Menu with Many Smoothies and Vegan!

One of my dear friends, whom I've known for almost two decades, flew in to town the same day that Mr H left again with the Navy.  She eats vegan, so our menus for the next two weeks will reflect that!

 Noms This Week
I wish I could do a detox and a cleanse, but it is unsafe to do so while breastfeeding (the baby will be noshing all the toxins!).  So I've been compromising and enjoying lots of vegetation smoothies! 

Genmaicha  |  A relaxing tea and rice dish for settling and soothing the stomach.

Rice and Salsa  |  Rice, cooked with genmaicha.  Seasoned with Bragg's liquid aminos, sriracha sauce; stuff in as many chips (tortilla chips, pita chips, computer chips) as possible, then spoon salsa on top.  Spicy, seasoned, and crunchy!

Le Belle Verte Smoothie  |  A delicious, sweet green smoothie.  We made super-food shots to boost our nutrition levels - more on that later this month!

Jasmine Green Tea and Raw Nuts  |  Mixed almonds, walnuts and cashews (raw, unsalted) make a nice snack for going on a walk, along with a mug of hot tea to stave off the cool breeze!

Sandy Debris Chocolate Chunk Treat  |  After an evening of yoga, we settled down with a few of these chunky treats.  I especially love them with tea or coffee!

Quinoa Salad  |  Using warm or cooled cooked quinoa, stir in: chopped apples, craisins, minced celery, minced green onion.  If not preparing vegan style, add chopped cooked chicken.  Stir in white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and oil until it reaches the consistency and taste of a salad you desire - this is ridiculously deliciously good!

Orange Julius  |  After tasting this blended drink, my friend Joanna proclaimed she desired to marry me.  Stay tuned for the recipe, schedule to show up this month - it is dazzlingly, wildly delicious.  An imitation orange julius, but NO sugar!

Oatmeal  |  I love oatmeal ... We added crispy dried pears, crumbled to the boiling water before adding the oatmeal (I learned this trick from my mom).  To serve, we stirred in craisins, bee pollen, a little honey, and coconut-almond milk.

Fire Cider: Tonic  |  Ward off winter sniffles with this immunity-boosting, homemade tonic.

Green Almond Smoothie  |  Put in Vitamix or blender: 1 cup coconut-almond, or almond milk, 1 cup water, 2 large leaves kale or mild swiss chard or spinach, 1 stalk parsley, 1 heaping tablespoon almond butter, 2 frozen bananas and a handful of ice cubes.  Blend thoroughly until smooth.

Kitchen Tasks

Almond Butter  |  We made a delicious batch of almond butter using this outstanding book.

Crop Circles
Come into my garden and ... help me weed! 

Cockroaches  |  These nasty critters have been invading our house as the cold sets in.  Fortunately, I am a bit braver than I used to be!  I was in the kitchen when I heard an anxious voice behind me say, "I think I saw a cockroach!"  Joanna was sitting on a chair in the dining room with her feet pulled up underneath her, pointing towards a stack of jarred food.  Sure enough - a big daddy cockroach.  I chased him down, squashed him and removed the evidence.  "I have to confess," she said, "That I sort of thought you were exaggerating a bit ... about how big they were, and - now I see you weren't!"  We had to laugh over it because I have always been the wimp of the two of us, and she the bold intrepid one.  For once, my nerves were growing steely!

Kale  |  Still somewhat stunted, as it tried to recover from the drowning it received from our guest, Sandy.  But, it is alive!!!


Mrs H

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Monday Menu with Chiffon Cake and Hurricane Sandy!

Thanks for reading this post, I'm so excited to visit with you!  

After you've gleaned all the good information you need, visit our new blog platform at www.farmandhearth.com to read even more fascinating tidbits from the kitchen and the fields. 

Hurricane Sandy has visited our coastal Virginia town; as has Mr H's ship, so he is home for a few days!  Happily, as this relieves some of the concern regarding the storm.

Noms This Week

Pumpkin Ice Cream  |   I purchased a quart of pumpkin ice cream from Trader Joe's (I know ... fail on me for not being homemade!) to celebrate Mr H coming home.  If you don't want to regret this life on earth, you will go and treat yourself to this devastation of delectability.

Chiffon Cake  |   STOP.  Stop what you are doing.  Make this.  Save this recipe, pin it, bookmark it, whatever you need to do - DO NOT LOSE THIS RECIPE!!!  It is worthy of fame (and mostly devoid of nutrition, so save it for a special occasion!  Like today).  A chiffon cake is a peculiar hybrid with the airy, fluffiness of angel food cake and the rich, tender mouth-feel of pound cake.  It is an historic cake and has a well-deserved reputation for elegance and decadence.  If your tube pan doesn't have a removable bottom, see how to use it here.

Kitchen Tasks  
That most magical place ... 

Well ... |  Surprisingly little happened here this week ... With Mr H coming home and Hurricane Sandy bearing down, I guess other things were going on!

Makeshift Salsa  |  We did want some salsa; we purchased a jar at Whole Foods, then added fresh corn cut from the cob (raw), minced cilantro, and from our garden added habanero, sweet banana peppers, and chopped green tomatoes.

Vitamix  |  I made a huge batch of pesto!  Watch for the recipe - I will be reviewing it as a guest poster for Alphabet Soup.  Uses fresh or frozen basil.

Crop Circles
Welcome to my garden! Per se. 

Uprooting Tomatoes  |  We systematically cut down the tomatoes, harvesting any remaining green ones for use in the kitchen (you can use them green, or let them ripen.  I doubt if I'll let them sit long enough to ripen!  Yum!).  We did not compost them or turn the roots under, but pulled up all the roots and threw all the stalks, leaves and roots away; this is because most Virginia tomatoes suffered from blight and we did not want to let the fungus back into our soil.

Kale  |  We planted kale, a good fall and winter crop, to help clean the fungus from the soil.  We can't plant any other nightshades - peppers, eggplant, different tomatoes - in this soil next year.  However, garlic, onions, and kale will find homes in the soil.

Hurricane Sandy  |  Now that the kale is planted, it is drowning ... hopefully it survives Sandy!

Other news

Fun  |  We bought some Burt's Bees soap for the little man - he is just over four months now and has yet to feel any sort of chemical, soap or lotion on his body.

Hurricane Sandy...  |  ...visited us - all of our neighbors flooded, but our house is up on a rise.  So far, so good.  Praise the Lord!!  Thanks to all our canned goods, we don't have to worry about grocery stores running out of food.  We could easily live here for a while without ever leaving!

As I write this update, the floodwaters are steadily increasing and have reached our driveway!  Benches on the oceanfront are floating away ... cars are floating, too!!

Our street 

the surf, two blocks from our house

across the street from us

The house behind us 

Out the back driveway

Continue in prayer for New York City and other eastern seaboard areas that will be hit with Hurricane Sandy as she moves up the coast!  This storm is far from over yet!!


Mrs H
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Monday Menu Deployment Edition III with Popcorn Balls!

Another week with the husband away - four lightbulbs went out, and I found cockroaches in my room three days in a row!  But we are managing to survive, as you can see!

Noms This Week
What could be more enthralling than food? 

Betty Crocker Popcorn Balls  |  Definitely not healthy but definitely super fun - a delightful indulgence!! A girl friend and I made these to munch on while watching the new Upstairs, Downstairs online (temporarily available) at PBS.org, and let's just say the popcorn balls never quite made it to the shaping stage ... we ate them right out of the mixing bowl!  Recipe below. 

Vitamix  |  I made a hot soup using vegetables and peppers from our CSA, heaped into the container, and a quart of chicken broth from the freezer, thawed.  About six minutes on high speed, and the friction cooked the soup steaming hot!  ... I made a chocolate milkshake using milk, ice cubes, vanilla extract, ice cream, and chocolate syrup!

Pilau and Samosas  |  With a friend from Kenya and a friend from Washington state, we had an African dinner night and enjoyed exotic, rich fare and girlie pillow talk late into the evening!

Espresso  |  I got an espresso pot and now I can do a lot more in a given day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Just kidding.  Reserved for special occasions like breakfast and dessert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hot Cocoa  |  It has finally started cooling down (although the occasional crisp October day will still climb to 80 degrees), and I've been enjoying the occasional mug of hot cocoa made from mix.  (I haven't made any marshmallows yet this winter, however.)

Espresso, italian style

Bagel, fried egg, cocoa

Cupcakes from an Amish bakery, scrambled eggs n onions, espresso -
having breakfast with a friend! 

Picking up some pie pumpkins, dressed in style

Milkshakes are always in season

Pilau and samosas

Kitchen Tasks

Cowshare  |  Last Monday was my turn to pick up milk for our cowshare.  The farm is about 45 miles away from where we live.  I brought the coolers back to the host family's home, and everybody participating in the cowshare was able to come to her house and pick up their bottles.

Food Auction  |  I didn't pick up anything at the food auction this week, although I did go and browse.  I talked to the grocer at the market there about ordering a Thanksgiving turkey from Polyface.  I discussed ordering pie pumpkins with a farmer there.  A friend generously gave me several later that week (!) and I picked up a few more from another farm.

Bananas  |  I finished dehydrating the bananas and filled two gallon bags.  They are currently residing in the refrigerator until I can bag them separately with the vacuum sealer and put them in the freezer.  I did not dry them rock-hard, which is why they need to be refrigerated or frozen; otherwise, they'll mold.

Apples  |  On Sunday I picked up an order of three bushels of apples (about 150 lbs).  A far cry from the 2,000 pounds we processed back home in Washington the last year Mr H was there; but it's nice to have a little taste of home.  You will probably see them appearing here on the blog again over the course of the next few weeks.

Gotta keep these rolls goin'!

At the farm, he nearly brought a kitten home with us! 

I left him in the back of the Jeep while I went to gather the bottles ... 

Came back to find he and Valentine the cat had discovered the
bag of cookies I had brought along for a snack! 

A hen came to investigate

At the market near our house, we visited the master gardeners,
whom Mr H and Little H always pepper with questions

A friend spent that night and then kept an eye on him while I went
 to an early morning yoga class!

Visiting a military family appreciation event

Crop Circles

Kale  |  Still been too lazy to put the kale in the ground ... must get moving on that! 

Betty Crocker's 1978 Cookbook Caramel Popcorn Balls 
Look away if you like healthy food ... because this ain't healthy!  It's fast and easy to whip up for movie night, if you're in the mood for munching!  

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 cups popped popcorn

Heat all but the popcorn to simmering in a 4-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.  Add popcorn.  Cook, stirring constantly, until popcorn is well-coated, about 2 minutes.  Cool slightly.

Optional:  Dip hands in cold water; shape mixture into 2-inch balls.  Place on waxed paper; cool completely.  Wrap individually in plastic wrap or place in plastic bags and tie.  Makes about 6 popcorn balls.

Mrs H
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Monday Menu Deployment Edition II with Genmaicha and Canning!

It has been a wild, wild week, canning almost every day as the season comes to a rather climactic close.

Usually it's just the little man and I, which can make for a rather long and slow day of stop 'n go, but I've been grateful beyond words for the help of several very generous friends!!!

Noms This Week
Simple food for one ... well, two I guess, if you count breastfeeding. 

Vitamix  |  Breakfast smoothies, banana milkshakes, and a green smoothie (I've only had it for two days now!).

Enchiladas  |  Before the little man was born, I made about ten pans of enchiladas and froze them, an idea gleaned from Miz Carmen.  Thawed and baked at 350 for 30 minutes, they make a delicious dinner ... especially handy during canning season, when there is no counter space left for preparing meals!

Genmaicha  |  I was hankering for this steamy treat - I hadn't had it since I was pregnant!  It is a traditional Japanese dish made of rice and tea.

Caseloads of bananas we received for free.  I was happy to
be able to share with friends and neighbors!!  

Boxes of free oranges (this wasn't all of them, either!).  Unfortunately
they were already cut in half so they needed to be used immediately.  

A friend and I peeled these oranges ... all of these containers are
stuffed with peeled oranges.  Juicing took a long time.  

Juicing took a while - after every pint and a half or so, the juicer
had to be turned off and allowed to wind down, cleaned out, and
then started up again.  I filled two 5-gallon buckets.  

Saucing tomatoes with friends! 

Walking through the dining room this week was a real a maze ...
You can see the floor now!!

Before he left, Mr H ordered this.  WOW.  

32 tender young eggplant for baba ghanoush! 

A simple breakfast, but delicious

Gathering herbs for friends 

Kitchen Tasks This Week
I'll just highlight a few key tasks here, as it's been a very packed week for the kitchen!

Sourdough Starter  |  I keep my sourdough starter on the counter for frequent use, so I tend it daily (stirring for aeration, feeding it flour and filtered water).  I learned how to make a starter from this book, the best bread-making book I've ever seen (and I have seen and used MANY).

Canning  |  Tomato jam made from Juliet tomatoes (the Mysterious Mrs S introduced me to this recipe), green beans, tomato sauce, chopped peppers in water, whole habanero

Freezing  |  Ten gallons of orange juice in pint jars, baba ghanoush, peeled and halved bananas

Dehydrating  |  Banana slices

Baking  |  Two loaves seed-topped sourdough, two loaves sandwich bread, both from this book

Laundry Detergent  |  I mixed up a whopping batch of this stuff - three easy to find ingredients for the best detergent I've ever used and yes, it is cloth diaper-sensitive skin approved!

Crop Circles
What's happening in the garden? 

Compost  |  I picked up some soil and compost from our CSA; we'll add this to our buckets once the tomato plant are whacked down.  All of the peels and pulp from the bananas and oranges frenzy will go back to the CSA for composting.

Rotating  |   A few tomato plants are already cut down, as they stopped producing; I've been focusing more on canning, but once they're all finished I'll cut the rest down and plant kale in their place.

Now I'm out to visit the dairy farm and pick up milk for our cowshare.  Off on another adventurous day!

Mrs H

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