A few more garden critters

We're finding a lot of critters in the few minutes we spend outside each week. It's so hot I have a hard time motivating Mabel to play out there and should admit that I'm pretty happy to sink into the couch for a while each afternoon, too.

We found another batch of swallowtail caterpillars, both of which are now chrysalis. Saturday night I made a sorrel tart. The sorrel, straight from the garden to the kitchen, had lots and lots of little snails which I collected in a jar. I told M we weren't going to keep them, but they're still in the jar on her work table (aka the den coffee table). I'm thinking we could become Matthews, NC's first escargot farmers.  

Pastariffic without the pasta

I'm still on the them of food, when I said our fridge was packed with freshness, I wasn't kidding. We currently have tomato salad, carrot salad and fruit salad at arm's length; tasty veggie packed goodness ready to grab whenever someone has the hankering for a snack.

Last year I posted some ideas for using up the summer rush of zucchini, and to this day zucchini "noodles" are my favorite. They hold the right texture of an al dente noodle, but no bloated gut from wheat overload. None of that crazy blood sugar roller coaster from carb overload either.

How do you make zucchini noodles? Find a baseball bat sized zucchini (or a bunch of reasonable sized ones) and wash and peel it. Run the vegetable peeler lengthwise down the zucchini, creating ribbons of the fleshy part. Stop when you get to the seedy core. Now you have a giant heaping of zucchini ready to lightly saute in olive oil. Do a bit at a time so you don't break or chop the ribbons into small pieces. You want them sturdy and as spaghetti-like as possible; only saute until the ribbons get just tender. Season as you go, I use salt and garlic but season according to your tastes.

Last night we used up a particularly large zucchini, topped it with tomato sauce and homemade meat balls. The meatballs did have a handful of oats in them, but generally the meal was veggie-heavy, meat-light, and very easy on the body.

Okay, so I've been posting a lot of shopping things, mostly because this 90+ degree Fahrenheit weather has me on the sluggish, you-can't-make-me-do-anything side.
I've been doing a little, though:
* Drawing up a storm, getting ready to release a whole new selection of work for the shop.
* Did I mention all of the limited edition pieces currently in the shop will be retired after the
sale ends? That's my subtle way of saying, if you're eying something the time is now to

grab it up!

Only 1 more of these available ever!

* Helping the mister clean out the old carport area that has been without a roof for over 15

years (since Hurricane Hugo!) and roofing it in. He started on Monday doing the actual
framing and roof trusses, and once I thought a little about it, I decided I really wanted to help, so I jumped on the circular saw and cut the 2 x 4s like a pro. (Almost?)
Once the roof is done, he's gonna build a sail boat! That guy never ceases to surprise!
And then, of course, the usual suspects: planting, picking, blanching, canning.
Coming soon:
Tomato tasting, updates on roofing, and achy arms.

closer to home

Oh Summer. Between the heat and the thunderstorms you make it so hard to get outside to put my purchases from Plant Delights (approx. travel: 190 miles) in the ground.

What is it that so desperately needs to stretch its toes out into a greater expanse of dirt? A fernleaf, noninvasive bamboo, Mexican Petunias, and a Voodoo Lily of delicate visual appeal, and hopefully, if it blooms, a difficult stench.

The thunderstorms come every other day, and while the mister has been working through the heat to roof in the carport, I've been resting through the heat. When the rain starts, he is ready for a break, but I head to the kitchen to watch the storm through the dusty old windows and cook up my own storm.

Already added to the rotation of meals is the Grits Soufflés with Tomato Coulis recipe from Vegetarian Times. Having never tried a soufflé before, I resisted the urge to make it vegan. Plus we had a gorgeous dozen pale blue and taupe colored fresh eggs given to us from some friends. Nearly to beautiful to use, but knowing full well the flavor of fresh eggs far exceeds the flavor of the grocery store variety (yes, even the free range ones we normally buy), in they went. And out from the oven came a delicious grits soufflé. Of course, rather than using canned tomatoes for the coulis I used garden fresh ones with a bit of fresh basil and oregano from the front garden.

And for dessert? In an effort to use our resources better, I pulled out a zucchini that was way too big to eat on its own but too beautiful to sacrifice to the compost. . .when squash get of a certain size they loose the sweetness to an unsavory bitterness that works just fine with unsweetened dark chocolate. Chocolate Zucchini bread from Scotto's Sunday Suppers. My own rendition of their recipe, sans eggs and white sugar, baked into nearly softball sized muffins.

Why am I waxing poetic about food lately? The garden is partly to blame, my taste buds have reawakened to the flavor of truly fresh foods. The rest of the blame can be attributed to Barbara Kingsolver and my newest nightly read.

Life in the slow lane. . .

Ahhh, the garden is coming along, with very little need for doting or attention, aside from the occasional weeding spree. We've got a cantaloupe bigger than a softball and two golf ball sized ones (don't let the sports references fool you, I use them in the most elementary, non-jockish way.)
Tomatoes are ripening, squash is growing, eggplants are blooming and all the right bugs are abuzz.
So in the AC I stay, leaving the fingering to others, while kneading a bit of my own. There has been an undeniable spirit of baking at home, though only when time allows. First the banana nut muffins, a couple yeasty pizza crusts, beer bread, and yesterday I made a dozen blueberry muffins. I used Allrecipe's To Die For Blueberry Muffin recipe without the strudel topping, which I've decided must be the instigator for the desire to die. Without the strudel there is no sugar-overload crappy feeling to follow. Of course, I changed the recipe. Interested?


Renee's Not Ready for Sugar Coma Blueberry Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
7/8 cup honey
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer (do not add the water as described on the package directions)
1/3 cup orange juice
1 pint fresh blueberries

Follow Allrecipe's directions, which is to basically preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, grease your muffin tin, mix everything all up (mix this one by hand to keep the blueberries intact), fill up the muffin tin and bake 20 to 25 minutes.

Hello Lazy Saturday

Oh lazy Saturdays with built-in caffeine overload. How I relish you. How I love the farmer's market and the extra time to create an inspired breakfast.
This isn't today's breakfast, I'm still working on the coffee, this is last Saturday's, and boy was it good. Organic, hormone free and delicious.

Does anyone else find it a little funny that you can look at a plate of food in awe when it doesn't have layers of pesticide or fake pregnancy hormones?

PS: In the background there is a bag from last weekend's farmer's market full of cucumbers. Those little fellas didn't make it through the week. They are now 14 jars of pickles, enough pickles for a year for us, a few for gifts, and just enough left over that I'll make relish for all the potato salad and egg salad we'll make over the next year.

Summer, my friends, is here!

This is today's bounty from the garden, and I can just taste the fresh summer squash!

Once upon a time, in the land of Wolfie and the Sneak, there were a bunch of over ripe bananas.
As is usually the case with overripe bananas, these particularly brown fruits seemed destined to become 'naner pudding.
Alas, little chubby R couldn't let such a fattening southern delicacy end up in the fridge, so she began a'mushin and a mixing and a'beating and a'stirrin, then a little dollopin' and a bit of bakin'. Voila! Honey Nut Banana muffins! So very good!
Based on this recipe, but I changed a little bit of it, remembering cooking methods from my days of veganism.
I used organic whole wheat all-purpse flour rather than white all-purpose flour.
Instead of eggs, I used 3 tablespoons Ener-g egg replacer with no water added, just threw it in with all the other ingredients because:
I used about 7/8 cup of honey rather than brown sugar.
The bananas were ones that started turning last week, so I peeled them and stuck them in the freezer until 2 hours before the baking spree began.
I also didn't follow the directions on when to add what, I just blended it all together. I wish I'd broken up the walnuts (oh yeah, used walnuts rather than pecans but not for any particular reason) more, they're big and chunky, though I'm sure some people like that texture.
So that's it! Throw it all in a bowl, mix it together and you'll have 14 or so delicious honey nut banana muffins. Mmm, makes me want some cheerios.

So many things going on, none of them developed or exciting enough to blog about, well, at least not in my life!
Here are some things that keep me in awe, mouth breathing and drooling all over my keyboard: Everything and anything by Something's Hiding in Here. The coverage of Renegade has quite a few bloggers posting images of their work, and I can't wait to see more on their blog or perhaps an online shop for those of us that didn't make it to see them in person?!? (wishbones to left; I want a pile of them, displayed just like that!)

Green Wellies has the most inspiring garden, the cutest dog and the most serene blog. To add to all the goodness, she also has comfrey to make plant tea out of. I can't find comfrey around here to save my life, but I sure love the thought of one day being able to follow these instructions!

These Ships with Lace pillow cases from Little by Jenny. That blue gets me every time.

And Chocolate Zucchini Cake. Okay, so it's probably not new to you, but it is to me. And it is good. Good as a cupcake, good as a cake. Top it with dark chocolate cream cheese frosting and it is heaven. Deep, rich, elegant heaven. (Okay, so it's not the prettiest cake in the world, but if you could taste it, you would know. Plus the zucchini came straight from the neighbor's garden!)

The sweetest sweets for my sweetie!

Cupcakes!
Yesterday was the mister's birthday, we had a wonderfully smashing celebration on Saturday, so yesterday was still dedicated to fully recovering from Saturday. (Apparently, in your 30s it takes 3 full days to recover from raucous behavior.)


I made double chocolate cupcakes (a dressed up mix, thank you Mr. Hines), chocolate icing and topped each one off with a malted milk ball. They were quite popular, but that might be partially due to the flowing lemoncello. Here's a pic of last year's cupcakes: red velvet, cream cheese icing and topped with a dark chocolate covered strawberry.
The other cupcakes are an impromptu venture. . . I needed wrapping paper for C's gifts, so I printed some up on a low weight photo paper and voila! The newest addition to the shop!

Sorry for that latest rant, I just need to say things "out loud" sometimes, air them out to realize the root of the issue and all. But life is great, actually! I have lots of projects going on and lots of love from my boys all around me.

One thing I've been thinking about lately is food; vegetables in particular (as is the substance of my food since I am a vegetarian) and how much of a veggie rut I've been in. Friday night the mister and I went to Dish, where I had a chickpea patty "burger" and collard greens. Mmmm, vegetarian collards are an art, and they have them perfected.
Then the next night we went to Merts, where I had collards again! Again, perfection in the form of a cabbagey cousin.

So what is the point of all this? The point is, C and I are all too faithful to a very limited number of veggies, failing miserably at expanding our flora consumption. Broccoli, corn, green beans, tomatoes. . . really these are the ones we eat most often.

The solution: expand the (our?) palette by eating at least 1 different vegetable a day for 2 weeks. (I'm easing the family carnivore into vegetable consumption, so if this is successful maybe the adventure will go longer.)
Meaning: 14 days of fruit/vegetable based dinners, at least 14 different vegetables involved. Maybe more! Hopefully this will help us gain foodie adventure, but it will also enhance the deliberate nature of a well-prepared meal while inspiring us to eat at home.

The list so far:
Sunday: Black eyed peas, corn, green beans. (All three of these are standbys, so we've gotten them out of the way early in the game.)
Monday: Leftover peas, sauteed cabbage, steamed carrots.

The Tally: 2 days down, 5 different veggies.

It's gonna be a little tougher from here on out!

House of Craft

I'm still sniffling my way through phase 2 of this cold, I slept half the weekend away, and yesterday was spent crafting. One outta three ain't bad, I suppose!

Sunday's breakfast: french toast, cranberry syrup (YUM!!), and orange/carrot/ginger juice (double YUM!!) followed up by an intense vitamin regimen, because this cold is not going to knock me out for a week straight like it did last time.

I had great and wondrous plans for the house (paint the bedroom, finish tiling the bathroom floor) but my sinuses said no.

On Thursday, two significant creative opportunities peered up at me, both requiring a little bit of work I thought I could finish up by Saturday. Said opportunities will not be described out of fear of jinxing myself, though. And, once again, my sinuses laughed in the face of any self-imposed deadline.

One project , however, has required me to catch up on documenting some of the products I'd made and sold through the holidays, which will be going up soon on my etsy page.

The other is getting back to melting vinyl and making purses. I'm working on some prototypes, but am not to set on either of them yet. I need a super hip, easy to make purse design. Wish me luck!

Oh! And Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to you all!

Vegan Cranberry Thumbprints

The above photo is my camera phone documentation of the plate of cookies I took to work. This was taken around 10 AM. Seriously addictive, folks.

I’d never been a fan of cranberry sauce that is until I started making my own. If you have ever made jam before, cranberry sauce is much like making jam, and just as easy to can. With fresh cranberries readily available, now is the perfect time for stockpiling this tart treat.

*1 pound cranberries (fresh is best!)
*1 cup orange juice (I prefer a sweeter orange juice, splurge for the good stuff, it really makes a difference)
*1 cup sugar

Rinse and sort the berries, toss in the compost the ones that are too soft, bruised and generally unappealing.
Dissolve the sugar in the o.j., careful not to burn it. Stir often and keep your eye on it!
Once the sugar is dissolved, add the clean berries, turn the heat up to a soft boil. Keep stirring and be careful not to let it burn! (Can I say this enough?) I like to mush the berries after they pop, if you leave whole berries you will have a tiny little burst of cranberry goodness in each bite.
Lower the temp and cook until the sauce thickens a bit. It will thicken even more in the fridge, so keep that in mind. At this point let it cool and enjoy!

Even better:
Make shortbread thumbprint cookies (adapted from this recipe) and add a dollop of your new favorite cranberry sauce recipe for a slightly sweet, slightly tart cookie with a hint of orange. Absolutely delicious!

*1 1/2 cup Earth Balance, room temperature (vegan margarine, butter if want the nonvegan equivalent)
*1 cup sugar3 cups flour
*1 Tablespoon vanilla
*Egg Replacer equivalent of 4 eggs (6 t powder, 8 t warm water)
*3 additional tablespoons warm water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Beat the margarine in with the sugar. Once this is thoroughly mixed, add the remaining ingredients, except for the warm water. Mix and mix and mix. If your mixture is still too powdery add 1/2 T of warm water at a time until the dough is barely moist. Form dough into little balls about 1 1/2 inches diameter. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet (with the copious amount of margarine included, no additional grease is needed unless you want blackened shortbread cookies) and poke the center with your thumb to create a little divot to fill with yummy cranberry goodness once the cookies are cooled. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool, fill your thumbprint with cranberry sauce. Enjoy!

Bake them in small batches, that way if the first batch spreads too much you can add a tad more flour, you’ll also learn on the first batch how much cooking time yours will need.

Originally published on You Grow Girl.