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The kids love rice, but they get tired of the traditional wild, brown or basmati that we normally eat. Risotto is like a savoury rice pudding. It isn’t difficult, but it needs constant supervision. Tomato Risotto Serves 4-6 2 tablespoons butter 1 onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice 2 [...]
When we decided to cut out meat, I knew that the old family goulash recipe would need a minor facelift. (Blasphemy!) I decided to substitute chick peas for the stewing beef, which, incidentally, shortened the prep and cooking time by half an hour, saved me from dirtying a skillet, and turned the dish into an [...]
Home-canned food has saved us from starvation on more than one occasion. On a snowy winter’s day, when the fridge was looking bare and I couldn’t go get groceries ’cause the driveway needed plowing, but the tractor was out of diesel, and the only local pizza delivery place decided they “wouldn’t risk it”, I’ve bounced [...]
It’s been a busy summer of gardening, harvesting, cooking and preserving. This year is, for me, the most productive season I’ve ever had. The early spring gave us an early summer which, in turn, gave us an early harvest. The dry start was scary, but eventually gave way to an almost perfect schedule of rain [...]
June was a blur. But the garden grows without me, now, so there’s little to do there except wait for the harvest. The peas are just finishing, the beans are just starting, the greens are continuing, and the tomatoes are full size and ready to change colour. I have never had such a lush vegetable [...]
Miscellaneous updates for the past week: Fertilized the tomatoes. Replanted (third time) yellow beans; eleven of the original twelve plants had been chewed off by a furry foe. Lost one pepper plant to some critter that left the plant mostly intact, but nibbled on the stem just enough to make it flop over in despair. Planted [...]
It took all winter to come up with a decent garden plan, but at this point, it’s mostly gone to hell. It happens every year, though this year it’s comical. The tomatoes are in the general vicinity of where they were planned to be, as are the peppers and summer squash; there are fewer of them, though. [...]
All tomatoes are planted – only 18 plants this year, less than half of the previous year – but with a little extra care and diligence I could end up reaping the same harvest. We shall see. I lost one tomato to a cutworm, another to a raccoon. To fend off more cutworms, I decided [...]
It’s been an amazing week for gardening, weather wise. On Monday, I sowed cilantro, green pole beans, yellow bush beans and shelling peas. I also finally transplanted my ailing onions and leeks, and my stellar parsley; they should have been put in the ground ages ago. Wednesday, I sowed more beets and carrots; also chard, corn [...]
I like manual labour. I like to see immediate results of my efforts. Weeding dandelions is a perfect example. I’ve been pulling them almost daily. It’s very satisfying work. I already have a fridge full of leaves, so today’s harvest went straight to the compost pile. My first planting of beets did not germinate. Have to [...]
How does one ”EAT Green”? It’s a popular topic, and everyone has an opinion. Here is my answer: 1. Eat something green every day And I don’t mean green and fuzzy with an odd smell to it. ”Greens”, as defined by most people, refer to leafy vegetables – kale, chard, collards, spinach, mustard, lettuces and the like. [...]
Herb gardens, salad gardens, cutting gardens, butterfly gardens, knot gardens, rock gardens, water gardens, rose gardens, wildlife gardens, potagers. What about a juicing garden? I’ve reorganized and replotted my garden four times already. The latest version includes a juicing garden, designed to ease my transition to an 80% raw foods diet. Some of the best juicing [...]
I’ve spent the last several days going through my old seeds and deciding what to use and what to toss. I generally have no trouble germinating seeds that are three or four years old. I don’t even store them under particularly ‘seed-friendly’ conditions, and yet many of them still produce. Now, that’s fine, of course, [...]
I love eating lasagne, but I hate making it. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve made it – tonight was the fifth – because it’s simply too much work. This recipe is a nice variation; it has the same basic components, but the assembly is much quicker. My herbs are still [...]
This recipe is an amalgam of three other baked bean recipes I’ve tried. It’s different every time, but it’s always very good. I always use a mix of beans - navy, kidney, black-eyed peas, or anything else that will bring a variety of shape and colour to the dish. I never use sugar; the molasses and maple [...]
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