Picture Day!

My life is crazy right now - busy at home, busy in the garden, busy with friends, and extra-super-busy at work. Whew! I need a vacation from my life. LOL

Anyway, because I'm so busy, today is going to be Photo Thursday (something I just made up). Hopefully, my nutty life will provide you a few minutes of entertainment today. Enjoy!

- Alex

Enjoying a gallery show in the neighborhood.

Having (many) good dinners with friends.

Trying to decide about siding and windows for my house.

Attending cool charity events with awesome people.

Going to conventions.

Dealing with my bees building crazy comb. (An experiment gone awry)

Marveling at my hive.

Meeting cool people (at conventions).

Attending graduation parties and EATING. 

And eating...

Enjoying my peonies and my bees (who are enjoying my peonies).

Visiting the company's "Corporate Art Sale". 

Having a sleepy, allergy-ridden Sunday.

Visiting the company warehouse to prep for another trip.

Wishing I had the time to just sit and knit (maybe next winter!)

Vintage MD: Soup's On

Let's just call me lazy. Or maybe I'm enamored of my own previous posts... 

A few years ago, I wrote this blog post about autumn soups. Because I keep coming back to these again and again, I thought I'd introduce them to any new readers who may not have made it that far back into our archives and also remind our regular readers about these culinary delights. Madison is enjoying an Indian Summer right now but, as soon as the sun goes down, it gets cold and I want warm comfort food. Both of these soups fall into that category. I hope you enjoy them. :)

Soup's On! (originally posted on 9/24/10)

Autumn came unceremoniously to Wisconsin - as it often does. There were a couple of "transition" weeks thrown in there where it rained and got a little cooler but, for the most part, it was summer one day and not-summer the next.

This season is bittersweet. I hate that summer is over because I love the sun and the warmth and the activity. Plus, the end of summer means that winter - my most hated season - is just around the corner. (Argh!)  But there's something lovely about autumn too. The crisp feeling in the air. The smell of crumbly leaves. Wrapping up in a favorite sweater. And, for me, the return of comforting soups.

Now, don't get me wrong - I eat soup year round. I'm a huge fan of cold soups in the summer with Cold Cucumber Soup being my favorite. But there's something so nest-y and "mom" about a good, solid hot soup that I think of autumn and the subsequent unmentionable season asthe seasons for this particular food.

There's also a nice dovetail with soup and the dreaded "garden clearing." The last of the tomatoes (which look kind of puny), the overgrown and flowering basil/fennel/oregano/etc., the squash, etc. all need to be dealt with. They're generally not nice enough to stand alone at this point so they need to be cooked into some lovely concoction and soup is the perfect vehicle.

Coincidentally, Bon Appetite Magazine's September (2010) edition has a really nice article about a woman who taught herself to cook by making soups. It's a fun story and I recommend it for both the treatise on soups and the provided recipes.

So, to kick off your autumn the right way, make a big pot of soup this week! Here are a couple of recipes to get you started. One uses up the last of the garden and the other is a fast and easy soup created from canned beans. Enjoy!

Squash & Tomato Soup

3-4 large tomatoes or the equivalent in medium to small tomatoes, skin & seeds removed, chopped
4-6 cups of various cubed summer squashes (eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, etc)
1/2 a large onion diced 
1-2 cloves of garlic, diced
2-3 T olive oil 
Basil, oregano, thyme, (or Italian-blend seasoning) to taste
Salt & pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, grated, to taste
(optional: diced bell pepper; kale; spinach; cabbage)

Heat soup pot on medium to medium-high heat. Add olive oil. Saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and saute for one minute. Add chopped squash. Saute for a few minutes - until squash is a bit soft. Add chopped tomatoes. Stay with the pot, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have cooked down enough to make a broth. If your tomatoes don't have enough juice to make a broth, add a small can or two of diced tomatoes with their juices. Add your herbs. Once the consistency is sort of stew-like, lower heat to simmer and cover. Let it cook for thirty minutes or so and check that the squash is done. As soon as you're happy with the consistency, salt, pepper, and cheese to taste. Serve hot with a cheese to sprinkle on top.

This is the base soup. You can add many different veggies to this (see "optional"). Any vegetables you add, just saute for a bit before you put the tomatoes in. Common sense says that harder veggies (eggplant, carrots, celery, etc) should cook a little longer. Softer veggies like spinach and summer squash need less time to cook so plan your sauteing accordingly. :)

Three Bean Soup

2-3 T olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small head of green cabbage, chopped
2 cans of garbanzo beans
2 cans of canellini beans
2 cans of black beans
Stock (preferably vegetable) to cover
1 Bay leaf (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Add cabbage and stir well to coat cabbage with oil/onion mixture. Cook until cabbage is wilted and a little soft. Add the beans and mix well. Cover with stock – I use vegetable stock but chicken is also good. The use of vegetable stock means no additional fat is added to the soup. Add bay leaf and salt if desired. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for one hour. I usually cover it to ensure less splatter but if you simmer uncovered, the soup will boil down a bit and be thicker.

edit: When I made this soup yesterday (9/18/11), I added some browned ground Italian sausage. It really adds a new dimension to the soup - if you're not a vegetarian of course.

Buon Appetito!

- Alex

Dirty Hands

Saturday, May 25 2013 was a cold, cold day in Madison. But I'd set my mind to buying plants and putting them in the garden. I simply couldn't wait any longer.

So... there I am, at 7:45 a.m., trudging around the farmer's market, freezing and loading up on tender little bundles of future food. A small fortune later and I had cucumbers, tomatoes, arugula, basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, eggplant, ground cherries, spinach, lettuce, and swiss chard. Oh... and a huge bunch of jonquil bulbs that the woman sold me for a dollar. Of course, once I got home, I felt compelled to get everything into the dirt.

Eggplant and ground cherries in pots. Note how good my willows look!

Arugula, finally not wilting.

Tomatoes, looking good.

The cold was pretty brutal and my new plants didn't take to it very well. They stayed sort of wilty and sad looking for a couple of days. But this morning, with the onset of warmer weather, everyone has perked up. I've already lost one cucumber (it just never took) and two basil plants. I think the basil got chewed or stepped on by the baby rabbit that lives in my neighbor's yard.

My new favorite basil - Pistou. It's a tiny-leaved, globe that's great in pots.

This is the second year that I'm trying to grow greens in a pot. Last year's attempt was mixed. The chard did fairly well (except for getting some pest called a "leaf borer") but my lettuce never really took off. I think I crowded the plants so, this year, I'm going to seriously thin them out after they've established a bit. Fingers crossed.

The other addition to my garden on Saturday was a "As Seen On TV" Pocket Hose. Yes... I couldn't resist. I've been eying on the late-night infomercials for a while and then, the other day, I walked in to Walgreens and there it was - in all its glory.

AWESOME!

You may have previously read of my love of all things "As Seen On TV". I make no secret of my obsession. And, once again, the product has lived up to the hype. I'll never own a regular garden hose again. :)  Plus, I get the added bonus of being able to say inappropriate things to visiting friends like, "Would you like to see my hose grow?" (Yes... I'm really a 12-year-old boy trapped in this grown-up woman's body).

Best products, ever.

Here it is at 50' long. Seriously - it reaches my entire back yard.

 The gardening has started in earnest. I guess summer really is planning to arrive this year.

- Alex

Friday Finds: A Hint of Spring

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The weather outside is frightful with promises of wind-chill temptures between -10 F and -20 F this weekend. There's snow on the ground and low, gray cloud cover. The trees are bare and the ground is hard.

Time to think about planting a garden!! :)

I know, I know. I sound like a crazy person. But, believe it or not, this is the time to start seeds indoors - ensuring a hearty set of plants to put in the garden when the earth finally thaws. The rule of thumb is to start your seeds ten weeks prior to when they're to go in the ground. Now, granted, it's still a tiny bit early to actually PLANT my seeds but it's not too early to order them.

Enter my favorite new site, Baker Street Heirloom Seeds (thank you SSF for the introduction!)  I started defaulting to heirloom plants a number of years ago, finding the fruit of my garden to be more delicious and more interesting. True, the heirloom varities can often be less hardy but I'll trade a little more work for a better tasting tomato (or cucumber, or pepper, or....)

Baker Street Heirloom is a family business with a great story. They produce a gorgeous, funny, and FREE catalog that you can order from the site. And, besides offering an amazing variety of heirloom seeds, they also boycott all gene-altering companies and their seeds are all non-hybrid, non-GMO, non-treated and non-patented.  I really love these guys.

So... get your seeds started now - or, at least, start thinking about what your garden is going to look like. It'll help you get through the remaining weeks of cold, gray winter.

Doesn't this look lovely??

Think Spring!

- Alex

Garden Dinner

Over the weekend, the record-high temperatures finally broke and Wisconsin returned to relatively normal weather for July - with the obvious exception of still having no rain. To give you some sense of how bad the drought has been, the average rainfall in Wisconsin in the month of June is 4.5". This year, the month of June brought us 0.3" of rain. My water bill is going to be astronomical.

Okay...maybe it's not THIS bad but...

I don't usually water the grass because, to my mind, the water is better spent keeping my vegetables and flowers alive. However, last week I heard that, if the grass didn't get some water in the next week or so, it wouldn't bounce back this year. So, I broke down and watered it a couple of times. You know what bounced back? The freakin' weeds.

Regardless, I've managed to keep my garden alive - albeit a bit distressed. The leaves on the tomato plants are kind of curled up, but the plants are making fruit. The cucumbers are still hanging in there, as are the zucchini and eggplant. The arugula suffered a bit from the heat and constant watering and kept trying to bolt to seed. And, sadly, I think I've lost my peas. They're really dry and all the flowers have gone brown. Which brings me to the point of today's post.... eating from your garden.

Even though the peas may not come back, I was able to get one meal's worth of peas from the plant - and boy were they good. In fact, last night the bulk of my dinner came from my garden! It was satisfying to walk outside, cut what I needed and then cook it. This was the menu:

Tilapia served with two types of pesto
Green bean, yellow beans, and peas
Sauteed chard with white beans

The basil and arugula for the sauces were from the garden, as were all the vegetables save for the white beans. A few of the cooking ingredients, like garlic scapes, garlic, and onion, came from my CSA (community supported agriculture) box so everything was organic and super-fresh. It really was a treat.

So, for today, I thought I'd share a few of the recipes from last night's dinner. I hope you enjoy them!

- Alex

Arugula and Garlic Scape Pesto

Arugula is my favorite leafy green

• Rinse about two cups of tightly-packed arugula leaves, removing any very thick stems.
• Dice approximately 1/4 cup of garlic scapes, discarding the flower.
• Place arugula, scapes, 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, and 1/8 cup of olive oil in a blender. Blend until smooth, adding more oil as necessary to get a good consistency.
• Adjust the seasonings, adding more cheese, pine nuts, and salt to taste.

A word of warning - arugula can be VERY peppery and this sauce will pack a serious kick. More cheese helps tone this down a bit but don't let the cheese overpower the arugula and scapes.

Garlic scapes! Yum.

Traditional Basil Pesto

• Rinse about two cups of tightly-packed sweet basil leaves, removing any very thick stems.
• Dice one or two cloves of garlic - enough to provide you with approximately one tablespoon of garlic or more, depending on how much you like garlic.
• Place basil, garlic, 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, and 1/8 cup of olive oil in a blender. Blend until smooth, adding more oil as necessary to get a good consistency.
• Adjust the seasonings, adding more cheese, pine nuts, and salt to taste.

Traditional pesto is amazing on meats, pasta, and even as a sandwich spread. One of my favorite things to make is a "Caprese" sandwich. Slather some bread (preferably something with a good crunchy crust) with pesto. Top with sliced tomatoes and mozzerella cheese. This sandwich is great cold or grilled.

Sauteed Chard with White Beans


1 large bunch of chard (Swiss, rainbow, or a variety)
1 clove of garlic, sliced thin
1/4 cup diced (or thinly sliced) onion
A pinch of crushed red pepper
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 or 3 Tablespoons of water
One can of cannellini beans (I prefer the Progresso brand)

• Rinse the chard, removing the toughest part of the stalks. Coarse chop
• Heat a deep saucepan on medium heat, add olive oil and onion - cooking until onion is translucent.
• Add garlic and crushed pepper and cook approximately one minute.
• Add the chard and stir well to coat with the oil and seasonings. Cover and lower the heat to medium-low. Cook for about five minutes then add a little water to keep the chard from sticking to the bottom of the pan and stir. Cover again and continue to cook until the chard is cooked through.
• Add cannellini beans, stir well, and heat through.

Weekends Are Too Short

I think we can all agree, right? Five days of work and two days of "leisure" is an incorrect balance. I mean, first of all, those two days are never actually leisurely to begin with so, really, you're working seven days a week - just at different jobs.

That being said, I do manage to cram a lot of fun into my two days of housework and errands.

This past weekend, I saw two movies at the theater (trying to keep up with my summer blockbuster movie list). One of these viewings allowed me to spend time with a group of friends that I don't get to see nearly as often as I'd like. I also did some gardening, cleaned my house, went to an Arbonne party where I spent more than planned (imagine that), and hosted a birthday party for two friends who both turned *cough, cough* this month. Not a bad showing for a mere 48 hour period of time.

As for movies, I finally saw Snow White and the Huntsman. It was really good - dark, creepy, and lots of action. The story seemed more like the original book than like the Disney-movie version. I'm tempted to go read the book again to see how closely it followed. There were a couple of "revisions" I didn't care for but, overall, it was pretty awesome. Charlize Theron is the best wicked witch ever. Seriously. I could have done with someone other than Kristen Stewart as Snow White. I just didn't buy her as "fairest in the land". She's pretty and all but she can't hold a candle to Charlize.

I also saw Moonrise Kingdom - the new Wes Anderson movie. *sigh* If you're not a fan of the Andersonian quirk, steer very clear of this movie. It is HIS movie - funny, beautiful, and weird. I was lucky enough to view it with three friends who are involved in movies - two for work, one as a reviewer - as well as three others who are passionate movie-goers with great opinions. After the film, we went out for a drink so we could "discuss it". One of the most film-educated of our group is exhausted by Anderson's need for the set/costume design and shot set-ups to take precedence over the story and acting. We had a lot of lively discussion about whether or not one could love a Wes Anderson film for just being pretty. And, me, being the corporate shill that I am, brought up the fact that, if Anderson stopped making Andersonian films, people might stop going to see them. Regardless of artistic integrity, at some point his style became his franchise. If the dude wants to keep making money, he needs to keep making his style of film. (see: Woody Allen)

You may also be interested in what happened in my garden this weekend. As many of you know, I've been battling a variety of garden pests and learning all about how to control the destructive little bastards as organically as possible. On Saturday, I discovered a whole new level of (*#$&Q$^ bugs on my chard plants - Leaf Miners (aka: Cockroaches of the Plant World) I swear, if there's a nuclear explosion, Leaf Miners will be living alongside the cockroaches in the brave new insect-ruled world.

Here's the deal - leaf miners start out as flies that lay eggs which turn to larvae on the backsides of your chard leaves (also susceptible are beets, spinach, and other leafy plants). The larvae then burrow in between the layers of the leaf and start eating, destroying the leaf in the process. Once the larvae is done, it turns into a fly which then lays more eggs and the cycle continues. Basically, they can wipe you out of leafy greens for the entire summer. So, how do we get rid of them? Well, outside of using some really harsh chemicals, the only option is mitigation and control - trying to stop the cycle before it happens again and staying on top of any eggs/larvae you see.

I spent over an hour on Saturday cutting all the damaged leaves off my chard plants *sob!* (they were almost ready for harvest too), and then sitting amongst my plants with a wet rag and insecticidal soap, wiping the disgusting eggs off the backs off all the undamaged leaves. If that's not garden love, I don't know what is.

Finally, for the birthday party we had at my house, I tried a variation on a recipe that I shared with you all a couple of weeks ago - Spinach and Feta Orzo Salad. Since a number of the attendees are vegetarian, I decided to try making the salad with quinoa instead of orzo. Not that orzo isn't vegetarian - it's a pasta - but the quinoa would add protein to the meal. The texture is very different but I have to say that I really enjoyed the end result - maybe even more than the original recipe. If you're interested in trying it, use all the same ingredients as the original recipe except substitute the orzo with 1.5 cups of quinoa cooked in vegetable broth.

So, those are the highlights of another too-short weekend. I think that, next weekend, I might just plan to do nothing. :)

- Alex

How My Garden Grows

Friends of Mighty Distractible know that I love to dig in the dirt. I've posted about my garden and/or my desire to be gardening many, many times - and this year was no different. I was lusting over seed catalogs and dreaming of putting plants in the ground before the ground was even defrosted.

The early spring and subsequent great weather has made this year a gardener's dream. My plants got in early (although still later than my more industrious neighbors) and many things are already starting to flower or fruit.

Happy Buddha = Happy Garden

When one lives in a relatively urban setting, one looks for any nook or cranny to plant in. I'm forever impressed by people who live in real cities, like NY or Chicago, and find empty lots or rooftops to cultivate. I'm lucky in that I have a pretty decent sized lot which allows me a yard for my dogs and spots to plant fruit, veg, and flowers.

My standard plantings include tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, basil (which gets its own plot), and arugula. One corner of my little plot only gets afternoon sun and I've tried for years to find the right plants to grow there. A few years ago I stumbled on the cucumber/arugula combo which seems to work fairly well. Once the cukes get high enough on the fence, they get more sun and they thrive very well. The arugula is always a bit puny but there's enough for a few meals anyway.

Any strip of ground is fair game

This basil will end up 2.5 feet tall and overflow this space

This "weed" along the edge of the basil is edible purslane

It looks a mess but this is my herb garden.

I was lucky enough to inherit two gorgeous plants when I bought the house - a prehistoric rhubarb and a likewise blackberry. Both of these plants are HUGE and prolific, keeping me in fruit for months.

I'm also lucky in that my thyme, oregano, and chives (of course) keep coming back each year so I haven't had to replant them in a while. My parsley was also perennial until this year when it inexplicably died. So, a new flat-leaf parsley went in this spring. I also decided to plant a raspberry to go along with the blackberries.

Then, for some reason, I went a little nutty. Maybe it's because, for the first time, I cultivated some items from seed. I grew things I'd never grown before - without thinking about where they might actually get planted. These actions led to this:

Greens, greens, and more greens

Eggplant, chard, & zucchini

Beans and peas

There are plants EVERYWHERE. Every container that I had laying about in the garage or the shed now has plants in them. And, when I ran out of containers, I went and bought more.

So, now I've got eggplant, zucchini, swiss chard, rainbow chard, two types of lettuce, spinach, two more varieties of basil (besides my normal plot), bay leaf, two more containers of arugula (because I want more than just a couple of meals out of it), green beans, yellow beans, and sweet peas. WHEW!

My first-ever green beans!

On top of this, I have my flower beds. Most are on autopilot now, having planted lots of perennials, but I did end up with a volunteer lupine that needed attention and I put in a few new flowers to fill in some gaps.

Clematis in the foreground and my lily & iris bed in the back

I had to do something to distract from the back of the garage!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the garden this year. I'm excited to see how much yield I get from my vegetables and how well all these things are going to grow in pots.

I'd love to hear about our readers' gardening exploits. Do any of you have favorite plants you put in every year or a "best practice" you'd like to share? Let us know!

- Farmer Alex