June 2012, summarized.

June started off with a visit from Rachel and Reese. 

 Reese loves to be outside, and Lola was more than happy to take Reese to all of her favorite outdoor spaces.

Although, we did have to take him to our newest local find, the children's museum. He and Lola had a blast painting on the acrylic wall.

When they jetted home, we headed to Santa Cruz where we spent almost an entire week camping at the beach.  Lola had a kite and was very proud of her ability to keep it in the air.

During our trip, Josh did active things like running and headstands. Lola and I lounged in our beach tent. I believe that when I took this photo, I was holding the camera in one hand and a handful of chips in the other.

I believe this was our easiest camping trip to date. All Lola wanted to do was play in the sand, and honestly, she spent 90% of her time sitting in front of my beach towel while I laid out and read a book.

Let me repeat, I READ A BOOK. While camping. With a three-year-old. Our trip was awesome.

When we got back, Andrea came into town for a visit. Lola loves her Auntie Andy.

We took Andy to a River Cats game, and then had her take this photo because I know that photos of the three of us are pretty sparse. Unfortunately it turned out a tad blurry.

Near the end of the month, Lola and I went to San Diego. Her Auntie LouLou gave her a "big girl" haircut.

 

And, I attended Liz's unofficial San Diego bachelorette party. 

We were also lucky enough to spend a little bit of time with Michaela (and Laura and the rest of the Fitzy's!) who was visiting San Diego from Melbourne.  The last time Lola and Michaela got to play together they were less than 6 months old, so it was fun to watch them interact.

When Lola and I came home, we found the backyard had bloomed, and Josh was in the mood to harvest the plums. Summer is here.

Eat the Stalks, Not the Leaves, and Other Garden Lessons

One thing that I like about being a novice gardener is that I am always learning something new.

Last spring, after having a conversation with Rachel about how amazing rhubarb is, I decided to try and grow some. I planted a small seedling, and patiently waited for the magic to happen.
It definitely grew.

But, while it was growing, I discovered that rhubarb can't be harvested in its first season. At a minimum, you have to wait until its second season, which is an ENTIRE YEAR.  This required a lot of patience on my behalf because I like to eat my garden bounty as quickly as it grows. 

Given that I was also warned that rhubarb leaves are poisonous (you can only eat the stalks), I wasn't going to press my luck. So I've been waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

And now it's over three feet tall.

Finally, last weekend, I chopped off a few stalks and ran into the kitchen. I knew I wanted to make strawberry-rhubarb bars, but I didn't have a recipe. I decided to combine recipes from two of my favorite cooks, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Martha Stewart, veganizing it in honor of Rachel (and the fact that I didn't have any butter) and now I'll share it with you:

D's Strawberry-Rhubarb Blondie Bars
Compote by D, inspired by Isa:
2 cups of strawberries, cut into fourths
1 cup of rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 tablespoons cornstarch (or tapioca or arrowroot)
1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup sugar

Blondie layer by Isa:
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (6oz) container plain or vanilla soy yogurt (greek yogurt also works)
1/4 cup rice milk (soy or cow milk also works)
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Crumb topping by Martha:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. 

Make the compote:
Mix cornstarch with cold water in small bowl, until dissolved. Combine strawberries and rhubarb in a saucepan, add cornstarch mixture. Add sugar.  Bring to a vigorous boil and then to a low boil, stirring often (it burns easily!). Cook for approx. 5 minutes. Remove from heat.


Make the blondie batter:
Stir together flour, baking soda, salt.  Add yogurt, milk, oil, sugar, and vanilla.  Mix well. Batter will be thick.

Make the crumb topping:
Mix flour, salt, brown sugar together. Drizzle in the oil, and mix well.



Put it all together:
Spread batter in prepared pan.  Spread compote on top, then sprinkle crumb topping on top of that. Bake for 35 minutes, and let it cool completely before serving.

Zucchini Baby

Apparently, if you don't pick zucchini, it will continue to grow, and grow, and grow, until it is the same size as your small (but, overweight) dog.

Early on in the growing season, I asked my mother how many zucchini plants I should put in the garden. She asked me, how much zucchini did I want. I said, a lot. Her response? Grow a single plant.

She was right, one zucchini plant gave us more zucchini that we could even handle. I gave away several squashes to co-workers and friends, and then we ate zucchini for months.

Zucchini garbanzo bean stir-fry.
Curried zucchini.
Zucchini on pizza.
Zucchini in pasta.
Zucchini bread.
Zucchini chocolate chip muffins.
Chocolate zucchini cake.

We seriously ate some zucchini.  The zucchini is still growing, but the weather is finally beginning to cool, so our zucchini days should soon be coming to an end.

In the meanwhile, Lola will continue to play with her zucchini baby.

Autumn Harvest

 As much as I complain about our hot summer climate, I do love what it does for my garden. We have an incredibly long growing season. I planted most of my garden in early May, and I am still reaping rewards in late October. Even as the temperatures have cooled off, the plants are still thriving.

Speaking of which, two basil plants produce A LOT of basil. I love basil, I really do, but sheesh, we have a lot of basil. We have so much that I've started making pesto and freezing it. It takes about 3 cups of fresh basil leaves

to make 1 cup of pesto.

It's pretty amazing what a decent blender can do. I use it for making pesto, soup, and of course, salsa!

This year we also grew strawberries. I have fond childhood memories of eating homegrown strawberries. They taste ten times better than the ones you buy at the grocery store. Lola thought so too, and spent most of the summer raiding the garden for strawberries.

 

 

I planted marigolds to prevent pests, and they nearly took over the raised beds. They don't seem to last very long once they are cut, but they are very pretty.

 

 And, last but not least, the cherries. Our sour cherry trees produced SO many cherries this year. In July (or maybe it was August), Maria came over and we spent an afternoon just picking cherries.

I made and canned sour cherry jam, and then also froze several bags of cherries, with the intention of making cherry crisp and cherry pies sometime in the future. I haven't gotten around to doing that quite yet. Would anyone like Christmas cherry pie?

It's never a bad thing to fall in love, right?

As I've mentioned before, my entire summer garden revolves around the ingredients for my sister-in-law Andrea's amazing salsa recipe. Well, right now, the garden is in full bloom.



As you can see, the boxes are filled to capacity.



This has resulted in a need to... MAKE SALSA! Such large quantities of salsa is even too much for me to eat. So, I canned some and gave them to friends.




This was my first attempt at canning salsa. My friend Maria is taking a canning class through our local university's education extension program, and she frequently shares the handouts with me. I was thrilled when she shared some information about canning salsa with me. I have a feeling that I will be canning more in the near future.

Beneath the Fruit Trees

Taking self-portraits on a cell phone can be pretty difficult,



especially when you have a 27 pound toddler tackling you,


and you're trying to not fall out of a hammock.




Now, if I could only figure out how to get a plum to drop right into our hands for a snack.

Renewal

I am in love with our Spring weather. Occasional rain, temperatures floating lazily at 72, and no mosquitoes in sight. It's been nearly three weeks since I turned off the heater, and I am hoping to go a few more before the air conditioner goes on.

We've spent the last few weekends outside, prepping the yard and the garden for summer. While my winter garden didn't really produce much, I did grow these beautiful peas.



Our summer garden is nearly all planted. On our latest trip down to Southern California, I was inspired by my sister-in-law's incredible salsa. To summarize its amazing-ness: she bought several varieties of peppers, roasted them with tomatoes, onions, and garlic, mixed in cilantro, and created a salsa so good that I ate it for dinner two nights in a row.

As a result, I am growing nearly all the ingredients necessary for Andrea's salsa.

We have:
Tomatoes (Early Girl and Beefsteak)
Tomatillos
Jalapeno Peppers
Habanero Peppers
Serrano Chilies
Hungarian Yellow Wax Peppers,
and a more mild red pepper, but I can't remember what it is called.

Then, in case I tire of salsa (even though I really don't think I will):
butternut squash
zucchini
strawberries
mint
basil

Next month, I'm going to plant the sugar pumpkins, and maybe watermelons.

Hooray for spring!

ps Those peas were delicious. We ate them right there in the yard. You know that they are good when (1) Josh eats peas, and (2) they don't even make it onto the table.

A Gift for Me

For my birthday/mother's day gift, Josh built me a raised bed garden. The amount of time and thought he put into the gift was incredibly sweet and so far, I've done a pretty good job at not killing any of our plants.

We have:
tomatoes,
onions,
serrano peppers,
garlic,
cilantro,
basil,
butternut squash,
acorn squash,
watermelon, and
a super pumpkin.

(The super pumpkin will supposedly grow to be 500 lb. We'll just see how that goes.)



Note, the first five vegetables/herbs are essentials for salsa and guacamole, the two most frequently consumed foods in our house. :)

Lola also loves the garden. She loves to, ahem, help.