It's Hot!

How hot? About this hot.
Today it got up to 37 degrees, but we still have some cooking for you!

Tomorrow is going to be 39, by the way. Hey, it's a dry heat! Seriously, relative humidity today was 18%. It makes me giggle when I see dehumidifiers for sale at Canadian Tire.

Yesterday we went to the Friday Market and got radishes and garlic scapes. It was really nice.
Not just because of the radishes and stuff, but also because they are co-ordinating it with music in the park.
We bought our veggies (the twirly things are scapes)














Listened to good music














Big people napped with very little people.















And I made Radish and garlic scape salad
It's not quite as delicious looking when finished, but the recipe couldn't be simpler.

Radish & Garlic Scape Salad

1 bunch of radishes
1 garlic scape
dill or other fresh herbs
sour cream
salt and pepper

Slice the radishes and garlic scape thinly. Mince fresh herbs. Toss on a bit of sour cream, salt and pepper.Stir well and let it sit for at least an hour in the fridge
Don't use as much sour cream as I did.


















I also made some boiled potatoes from my farmer's market purchases today. Yep. That's excitement.


Boiled potatoes Wash potatoes, boil in water. I guess there is something easier than radish salad

Today's Saturday haul was as follows: Romaine lettuce, bread, rhubarb, swiss chard, spinach, baby potatoes, cherries and eggs. I am quite excited about the cherries. No recipe needed, just eat as is.
One last recipe for such a warm day

Messy Eggs
1/4 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper
3 cooked potatoes
4 eggs
1/4c milk
1/2 c cheese

Saute onion and garlic. Toss in red pepper and potato and cook until hot. Scramble eggs and milk and pour in. Stir a bit until almost cooked, sprinkle cheese on top and put a lid on the pan. Remove from heat and let it sit for 5 minutes. This is a great way to use of leftover veggies or meat.

Success!

After a week of Boi assuming the dishwasher is hooped, I just fixed it with vague instructions posted on the internet. His eczema and my budget thank me.

Also, I finished at 10:59 Pm. Dude, i'm freaking tired. Still easier than washing dishes though

What I do on Satuday

Unlike a certain former children's show star, I will tell you what i do on saturdays.



I painted! Took me 3 weeks to take Yakko's room from this:














To This:
The paint was a mistint which cost me $4. The bunkbeds were $10 at a garage sale. We plan to throw some plywood up where a top bunk would be to give Yakko a sister-proof play area. Add some supplies and the total cost on this bedroom reno was $15.
As you can see, Dot has now moved in with her big bro too.

It was a pretty half-assed job. The walls are rough and bumpy from the former paint and the overall level of house suckage. The important part is, the people who live in that room? They love it.





Here's a forlorn coconut













And my girls.

Footlong Fries and other kid-friendly foods.

This week, our farmer's market recipe centers around kid-friendly food, cheaper than a frozen pizza. I paid $10 and had enough food for 2 meals plus copious leftovers. Ok, so there was some cheating. I have a few things on hand.

Clockwise from left: Romaine Lettuce from Mendel and Paula, Kale from them too, "rapini" and potatoes from Gus and a little bag of fresh basil from Golden Ears farm.
The rapini looks like a very early harvested spanish onion. Either way, they were pretty damned potent.



The inspiration for the footlong fries should be obvious. in reality, the fries were only about 9" long. That's still a freaking huge potato. That's my hand for comparison.




Wednesday night dinner:
Footlong Fries with Pesto Mayo and Smoked Paprika Mayo

Disclaimer: if you eat raw eggs, you will die or something.


Footlong fries are pretty easy. Simply get some huge potatoes, chop them into fries and toss in an olive oil, salt, dried herb and pepper mixture. Be generous with the salt. Bake on a rack at 400 degrees for about 30-45 minutes

Videos are worth 1000 words, so please watch this video

I used a slightly different recipe, but the principle is the same.
Put 2 egg yolks and some dry mustard in the blender. Turn on and whizz around for 20 seconds. Add olive oil gradually, in a thin stream with the blender running. When the mayo thickens, add salt, pepper, lemon juice and a little red wine vinegar.

When I had finished the mayo, I took half and made Smoked Paprika Mayo

1/2 cup mayo
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp hot sauce or chili paste
salt
pepper


Mix everything together. Eat.

The green mayo is the mayo that was left in the blender got made into Basil Mayo.

1/2 cup mayo
1 bunch of basil. I used about 15 leaves
1 green onion'1 cloves of garlic
salt
pepper

The salad was just a delicious head of romaine with crumbled feta and an oil and vinegar dressing.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 from the Boi.
Kids question: What was your favorite part?
Yakko (6): "I like the fries!"
Wakko (2): "Yellow!"
Dot was sleeping.

Thursday Night: Kale Potato Soup


1 lb ground beef
6 really strong green onions (I would probably use 1 big onion normally)
2 cloves of garlic
3 russet potatoes
3 small purple potatoes
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups water
1 tsp vegetable boullion
5 leaves of kale, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper

Brown the beef in a big pot. Throw in the garlic and onions part way through and cook until they are soft.
Peel potatoes and dice. Throw them in the pot and add the chicken stock, water, veggie boullion and some salt. Cook for 15 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Make the potatoes right in the pot roughly with a potato masher. leave lots of chunks.
Add the kale and cream, heat through (4-5 minutes)
Adjust seasoning to your taste



While the purple potatoes are not necessary, they sure are fun. For some reason, when they are cooked, the skin looks remarkably like bacon.

Family review
Boi: 4.5. It would be 5 if there was bacon.
Yakko: "I like the broth. Do I have to eat the green stuff?"
Wakko: "I want more that!

Greens, Greens, they're good for your heart

The more you eat, the more you...

Oh, hi! I know you!

For our first installment of Farmer's market recipes, we have greens. Why greens? Because it's June and that's all that grows.

What beautiful greens they are, though!




Clockwise from left: Red leaf lettuce, red romaine lettuce, oak leaf lettuce, beet greens and heavy rye bread

The lettuce is all from Mendel and Paula from Deadman Creek. The bread is from Bohemian Bakery and the kale is from Golden Ear farm. THe beet greens are from Anna, but we will get to those another day.

I took pictures of Mendel and Paula, but apparently my photography skills leave something to be desired.





The best thing to do with fresh, beautiful greens is, of course a salad. I made some carrot curls and tossed in yet another single radish from the garden for garnish

Salad recipe is obvious. Um, wash and rip up lettuce, add other veggies as appropriate.

My standard dressing went something like this

Salad dressing

1/2c olive oil
1/3c lemon juice
1tsp salt
roughly 1tbsp of minced fresh herbs (I used sage, chives, oregano and thyme)
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, minced
sprinkling of romano cheese
1/8tsp dry mustard

Put it in a small jar and shake it up really well. You can replace the fresh herbs with dried, but only use 1 tsp in that case.

With the kale and bread I made French onion-kale soup
3 tbsp butter
4 onions, sliced very thinly
2 tsp salt
bunch of kale, chopped, stems removed
4c water
2 tbsp soy sauce
dash of Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
Generous application of black pepper (to taste)
dash of hot sauce for kick.
Crusty bread
Swiss cheese

Melt the butter. Cook the onions and salt over medium heat until they are soft. Put the lid on your soup pot and let the onions simmer over lowered heat for about half an hour, until they're really, really soft and quite golden. Add kale, water, soy sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, oregano and pepper and cook for 5-10 minutes (until kale is done) Add salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste.

Toast the slices of crusty bread and then place over the soup in an oven-proof dish. Top with swiss cheese and put under the broiler until browned.

Kid rating 3/5
Husband rating 4/5 (remarkable, as he doesn't care for onions)

I feel better now

I feel better than James Brown

Some much-needed warmth boosted my gardenosity this week. The yard is green and weedwacked.
















I have saskatoon berries ripening.















Small people are invading sandboxes
















I got my very first vegetable from my garden (a radish, which my daughter promptly chewed and spat out)



My 4'x4' square foot gardens are thriving, with sprouts of soy beans, Armenian cucumbers, a couple kids of tomatoes and some rather delicious hot peppers. I also have chives, oregano and caulioccoli.



Did you know that if you google "caulioccoli" you only get 1 result? Well, 2 now. Who the hell wants to eat broccoflower? Caulioccoli is much more exotic.

Those who know me, nag me to start my "farmer's market recipe o'the week" feature. Next week's will likely be a spinach dish

But, y'all almost got no pictures! Why? Because my computer sucks. I blame Vox, because all of these problems started when my husband moved his blog over there.