My own beans!

For a few weeks here, I've had green beans growing on the plants.  I didn't want to pick them yet, though, because I often get green beans in my CSA (community-supported agriculture) box, and I didn't want to be inundated with beans.  So I'm letting my own dry on the vine (the seed packet says you can do this), and today, my first pod was ready.  I opened it up, and inside were three perfect "painted pony" beans, and one that's a little abnormal.

More to come soon, I hope!

Book Review: Joshua

Joshua: A Parable for Today
by Joseph F. Girzone

I have read a fair amount of Christian fiction.  Much of it has interesting and important stories to tell, whether they are rooted in the facts of scripture or not.  But this book misses the mark.  While it shares an important message of freedom in religion through loving faith, the style is clunky, the prose awkward.  Characters speak in pedantic, pompous paragraphs (enjoy the alliteration, Mom), and Joshua himself repeats his message over and over in much the same words each time.  The few actions described carry much more weight than the many verbose soliloquies delivered by the various characters.  Joshua's carvings, healings, and acts of mercy and kindness toward the people in the town are much more powerful than the theological arguments he delivers to ministers of escalating importance.

Overall, an interesting idea that was executed poorly.  Would not read again.

Pickles

S and I made fridge pickles today.  We may have overestimated how many we would get.

Lots and lots of cucumbers.  This is not even all the slices we ended up with.

This is 14 jars waiting to be cleaned.  We added six more after filling these when we still had cucumbers left over.

 

The filled jars, waiting for the hot vinegar brine.

My share of the finished product.  S took home just as many filled jars; 20 pints in all.

Now, as you may know, fridge pickles are not processed in the boiling water bath.  We just made a hot vinegar/spices mix and ladled it over the cucumbers in the jars, then let the heat seal them.  We will keep them in the fridge so that even if the seal is not entirely perfect, the pickles will still be good for at least a year.  Anyone want some?

Pesto!

I have heard complaints that I haven't been blogging.  Sorry about that, kids.  No excuses, I just haven't really felt like it.  But today I made pesto using my own home-grown basil.  It's pretty simple:

3/4 cup of basil leaves
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons pine nuts (thanks Susan!)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Start with everything except the oil in your blender or food processor (more on that later).  Grind 'em up, then start drizzling in the oil until everything's the right consistency.

Mmm, goopy green stuff.

Now, the trouble for me started when I discovered that my blender (which I got free from the pawn shop when I bought my bicycle) leaks.  Not a lot, but there's a small crack near the blade assembly, probably due to someone (possibly me) over-tightening the screw-on base.  This is not a big deal, except that it requires cleaning afterward and I lost some oil along the way.  Since I'm moving soon anyway, I think I'll give this one to goodwill and get myself a spanking-new blender or food processor.

Here's my question for you, dear readers: which should I get?  Black & Decker makes both a blender and a food processor.  The blender has something like 12 speeds and a pulse function, and is tall and skinny, as blenders often are.  The food processor has a pulse/off button and an on button, and is more bowl-like in shape with one of those special multi-use blades.  Both run $29.99 at Target.  I'm tempted to go for the FP, because I think the larger bowl would be easier to clean than the tall blender jar.  What's your experience with such things?

Strawberry Jam

Seven pints of strawberries, from Lorence's Berry Farm near Northfield.

Guest post from SB!

Note: SB won the farmer's market contest, so she gets to guest post today.  I'm hoping to sponsor more guest posts in the future, so if you want one, let me know!  -- LMC

So just because it's more fun then providing a promo for my blog (http://sab023.wordpress.com) that I rarely update ... I decided to guest blog on LMC's Wild, Wacky, Wonderful Wanderings! Normally I blog about things I believe in as well as my adventures traveling but I'm going to take LMC's lead on this one.

Sunday night after church LR and LC came to my house for dinner. I had put a meatloaf (beef and pork) in the oven before I left for church. LR wanted asparagus and mashed potatoes so that would need to be prepared when we got home. The asparagus was prepared on the grill with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. The potatoes were prepared with garlic (obviously and unfortunately not enough).

So the asparagus was delicious but there was about 1 serving left (probably because LH :( is "vacationing" and not with us). I asked LC, "What can I do with left over asparagus?"

LC replied "Make soup!"

"and I would do that how?"

"throw it in the blender and blend it with a bit of cream."

So I didn't have cream but I had half and half. When I got home from work I warmed the asparagus just a bit, threw all but 3 pieces in the blender and added what was left of the half and half. I transferred it to a bowl and stuck it in the microwave to warm it up a bit, then placed the 3 asparagus tops as garnish before I enjoyed it with left over meatloaf and some semi-mashed potatoes.

It was all delicious and one way to use left over asparagus that I would never have thought of before. I probably would have just thrown that serving of asparagus down the disposal. (Sorry LMC no compost!) If LMC lets me maybe I'll share another guest post in the future sometime and share my family recipe for a Vegan Chocolate cake! that is my Grandma's recipe from before Vegan was the thing!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Pie and I have a love-hate relationship.  I love to eat it, I love to help other people make it, but when it comes to making it myself, I hate it.  Not all of it, actually, but just making the crust.  I can never seem to get the right balance between wet-enough-to-clump-together and too-wet-so-it-sticks-to-everything.  Then there's the rolling; mine never come out round or close to round and I never know how thin or thick to make them.

Despite these challenges, I decided to make pie yesterday.  And since it's in season, I decided to make Strawberry Rhubarb pie.

Let's play a game...

It's called "guess what Laura bought at the farmer's market!"

This morning I purchased five items at the St. Paul Farmer's Market.  The first person to guess all five (or if no one gets all five, whoever gets the most) wins a chance to promo their blog here on W4.  Submit your entries in the comments, one comment per person.  Contest ends Sunday at 8pm; results will be posted Monday morning.

If no one's close by Saturday evening, I might post some clues.  Stay tuned, and good luck!

Radishes

News flash: radishes are not nearly as gross if you cook them.

Easter Egg radishes from my farm share.  We already composted the tops, because we didn't like them.

Happenings around the house

Yesterday I planted some new things in my garden.  The spinach had pretty much run its course, so I pulled out about half of it and planted beans.  I have no idea if they will grow well with the limited sunlight I get here, but we'll see.  They're from Seed Savers Exchange, a bi-color variety called "Painted Pony".  I also may have gotten a little carried away, and planted tomato seeds and cucumber seeds, also from SSE, in varieties called "Isis Candy Cherry" and "Bushy", respectively.