Cheap & Cheerful Menus for Late June

We haven't done one of these in a while. What's been on your menu lately?

Here's last week's dinner menus. Anything with an asterisk came in part or whole from the garden.

Friday

homemade pepperoni pizza

*fruit salad

*tossed garden salad

Saturday

refried bean tostados on

corn tortillas with canned tomatoes, cheese and

*garden lettuce

*fresh strawberries

Sunday (Father's Day)
burgers
potato chips

broccoli slaw

oven-roasted vegetables

*sundae bar/root beer floats (strawberry topping, hot fudge sauce, caramel sauce, nuts, sprinkles, chocolate chips, vanilla ice cream, root beer)

Monday

*tuna and macaroni salad over a bed of mixed garden greens

*fresh strawberries with strawberry yogurt

it's strawberry season

Tuesday

white bean chili

cornbread

*fresh strawberries

it's also rhubarb season

Wednesday

hot dog cook-out (used leftover burger buns)

*fresh strawberries

*rhubarb jello

leftover broccoli slaw

Thursday
*Featherbed eggs (our name for eggs with herbs, this time chives)
*rosemary rice
*tossed green salad
*strawberries
*rhubarb jello

You may have noticed, we had strawberries most nights. this is peak strawberry season in my garden. Every morning I go out and pick the strawberries for the day. I then move on to the pots and baskets with salad greens.

The rosemary is wonderful and prolific this year. I've been making rosemary lentils, rosemary bread, and rosemary rice with the abundance. The rosemary rice is cooked brown rice topped with a large handful of chopped rosemary, some garlic powder, and olive oil. It doesn't take much more time than plain brown rice, yet the flavor is amazing.

It's Friday, so we'll be having homemade pizza again while we watch a movie on the roku.

What's been cooking in your kitchen this past week?

One of the Chores of Keeping an Emergency Pantry

image source:
https://synergyappliances.com/blog/
20-kitchen-organization-ideas-to-make-your-life-easier-in-2020-/

If there was a job description for my role in our household, the number one item would be "food supply". It's my job to make sure that there is always enough food for us. I grow it, can it, buy it, and manage it.

Just as we all clean out our refrigerators periodically to ensure we're not letting any foods go to waste, if you keep a back-up pantry or home-can a lot of produce, we need to periodically go through all that we have in store, take an inventory. I do this about 3 times per year. It helps keep me organized, makes better use of my space, and prevents loss of foods from exceeding the sell-by date.

Wednesday afternoon, I had an appointment with my back-up pantry. I pulled everything off the shelves, checked sell-by dates, sorted what I had into logical groups, set aside those items that were open and partially used, then put it all back into place. I made note of what I overbought last year as well as what I was lacking.

The packages that were partially used -- these are products such as boxes of crackers where there are several wrapped stacks of crackers in one box or the same situation with a super bonus sized package of spaghetti pasta, or baggies of foods from the bulk bins, or partially-consumed bags of baking items that I don't want snacked-up (chocolate chips and nuts). These items had been scattered amongst the shelves. In my cleaning on Wednesday, I put them together in a shallow, open box, so at least now I'll know where to look for these foods before opening a fresh package. Why I didn't think to corral these items together before escapes me.

I began building this emergency pantry one year ago this month. It's interesting for me to see what I bought too much of, what I bought too little of, and of which items I bought just the right amount -- the Goldilocks of my pantry.

Foods I bought too much of included pasta, instant mashed potatoes, canned tomatoes, white rice, whole wheat flour, pinto beans, canned corn, powdered milk, and jarred applesauce. And the foods that I bought too little of included coffee and decaf (we constantly ran out) and vegetable oil. I bought just about the right amount of peanut butter (one jar left), raisins (ran out 3 weeks ago), Parmesan cheese (ran out 3 weeks ago), most of the canned vegetables, white flour, sugar,and cocoa powder. The good news for the items that I bought too much of, all of these foods will continue to keep in the back-up pantry for several more months or can be frozen to stretch their usable life even longer. 

One of my observations from this inventory is that I overbought more than I underbought. I had intended to buy just about a year's supply on many essential pantry goods and a winter's supply of produce-related items (knowing my garden would provide produce beginning in early spring). My conclusion is that having never put together such a back-up pantry, I did okay if not a little bit skewed in my planning due to extensive media fear-mongering.

Another observation -- we don't have a basement, just this small space with shelves behind the door in my office. If I needed to store additional amounts or if my space were even smaller, I could cram more in by eliminating the boxes for many items. Boxes make stacking look orderly, but they take up a lot of space. 

My last observation is how fortunate we are to live in a time when we are able to buy what we need and when we need it for the most past. Imagine living on a small farm 200 years ago, a time when you had to produce all of your food for a year in one season and find time and energy to put it all away for keeping. Having a lot of children would mean that eventually they would reach an age when they could be of serious help. However, you still had to deal with all aspects of raising small children before those years while at the same time you were producing and putting away food. And we often struggle in these days just to take care of our smaller families.

These are just some of my thoughts after having cleaned out and organized our emergency food storage. You got to come along for the ride because I don't think any of my family members would want to hear about my thoughts on our back-up pantry.

Growing Next Year's Spinach Seeds

Every summer, I choose one or two vegetables to go to seed for the purpose of "growing" my own seeds. I usually collect enough seeds off of one plant for 2 or 3 years for that vegetable. Two summers ago I let kale go to seed. Last summer, it was beets and radish. This year, so far it's spinach.

When my vegetables begin to bolt, I pick the two most healthy looking specimens and transplant them to a spot where I can nurture them to the seed stage. I look for a spot in the garden that gets plenty of sun and reliable watering. Then I let nature do the rest.

Some plants will set seeds the first year. Others are biennials and don't set seeds until year two. So, I choose a spot for seed-setting that won't need to be disturbed to plant something else.

My spinach plants in pots on the deck were bolting.  I chose the best two plants and moved them into the recovering strawberry bed. (TThis was last years potato bed. This year, I moved some new strawberry plants into the bed and am waiting for them to send out runners.)

Afterward, I plucked all of the leaves off of the other spinach plants, pulled up the roots, stirred up the soil with some fertilizer, and reseeded those pots. I should have more spinach for salads in late July.

I have limited spare space to devote to setting seeds, so I only choose one or two types of seeds to produce each year. As soon as a crop is done in my beds each spring and summer, I move another one in -- maximizing my garden space.

Just an FYI -- the email subscription service that I've been using for this blog for the past 9 years is ending their delivery in July. If you're an email reader, for the time being I won't have an email delivery system (until I figure something out). If I set up another delivery service, you'll need to enroll again. I'll make it obvious and easy to do so at that time. In the meantime, Bloglovin has been a popular way to check out my blog and others. Sorry about any inconvenience.

Another little thing I do to conserve water . . .

Those hanging baskets -- When the temps are hot, I water them once per day. And I water each basket until water begins to drip through the drainage holes. Sounds standard.

Two of the baskets hang directly above trough planters. So when they drain, they water the trough planters below.

For the other baskets, I place an unwatered basket beneath a draining one, so that it too can be watered, using (in part) what drains out of the one hanging.

Just a little thing, but having someplace productive for the drain water to go is a savings.

Hello, friends!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. My weekend was a busy one. I was preparing the house and yard for a visit from our son and daughter-in-law on Father's Day. A lot of work, but worth it. I have a lot of comments from Friday's post on water conservation. You all have some great ideas and things I'd never heard of in one case or never thought of. I'll put together my comments today. I'll also publish another post later today or into the evening. Until then, wishing you a wonderful beginning to your week!

Your Best Tips for Saving on Your Water Bill

the style of rain barrel that we bought 20 years ago -- functional

After posting earlier this week about all of the rainfall in my area this month, I realized that in many areas rainfall is not nearly so plentiful. But beyond the here and now, Seattle summers are usually quite dry. July, August, and September see very little rainfall here. These are just the months that my garden needs water to support vegetable growth the most. I would imagine that for those of you who are also keeping a vegetable garden that this is a concern for you, too.

Municipal water is expensive just about everywhere. And it continues to become even more expensive with each passing year. About 10 years ago, my district needed to improve infrastructure to accommodate all of the new housing going in. To pay for this, our billing rate increased significantly. Then, a few years ago, the district went onto a tiered billing plan. If we use just a little water, we get billed at the lowest rate. (This entire time, we have never used the amount in that lowest tier.) If we use a moderate amount, we get billed at a higher rate. And if, as it is for us, we use a higher amount of water each month, we get billed at the highest rate. Tiered billing sometimes seems unfair to the family that is using their yard to grow some of their food supply. But it is what it is, so I just deal with it and try to conserve. 

I know that my situation is not unique. Water is becoming one of the more challenging bills for many households. A 2017 study suggests that about 10% of households have difficulty paying their water bills. This is anticipated to increase to as much as 30% in the next few years. [Mack, E., Wrase, S. (2017). A Burgeoning Crisis?] I expect that all of us wish our water bills were less.

Today, I thought we could share some of our best water-saving tips to help us get through the dry months ahead. I'be already mentioned a few things we do to conserve water, here. But I'll list them again. Please add your tips in the comments.

• We have two 75-gallon rain barrels. I start the planting season with full barrels and typically run out of water in early to mid-July. This year, the rain barrels got refilled this past week  -- water may last till mid-July.
• I save rinse water from vegetables and do one of three things: top up the nearest rain barrel, fill a watering can to use later, or dump on one of the deck planters.
• I use soaker hoses in the blueberries and rhubarb from late June through August. Less water is wasted on pathways with soaker hoses than using a sprinkler in this area of our yard.

Tell me, what are some of the ways that you've reduced your water bills, presently or in the past.

Old-Time Hot Fudge Sauce

This is the real deal, a satiny and thick hot fudge sauce made with real ingredients just like mom and pop ice cream parlors used to make.

When I was a little girl in the 60s and early 70s, we had an ice cream parlor that had been run by a sweet couple for many years. They made all of their own toppings. The whipping cream was real whipped cream, made fresh each day. The butterscotch topping was made with heavy cream, and the hot fudge was made with real butter. There were black and white photos of teens enjoying double dates in the 1950s on the walls of the seating area. I was just a little girl, but this formed my idea of what it would be like when I was a teenager. Little did I know that the world would change dramatically by the time my teen dating years rolled around.

Thick, rich hot fudge sauce was the topping I chose when my parents treated me to a birthday sundae. When my sundae was placed before me, I scooped up that first delicious bite. The sauce was warm and melted the surface of the vanilla ice cream beneath. I savored every spoonful of that delicious goodness. In the bottom of the small dish, I swirled together the very last of the melted vanilla with remnants of the fudge sauce on the edge of the glass, making a tiny spoonful of creamy chocolate milk for my last taste.

This recipe makes a hot fudge sauce that takes me back to that childhood memory. It's made with real ingredients -- butter, cocoa powder, sugar, corn syrup, salt, vanilla extract. And it's economical. A 10 oz jar of my homemade fudge sauce cost me 60 cents (or 6 cents per ounce). Compare that to Smucker's Hot Fudge Topping at $1.98 for 11.75 ounces (0r 17 cents per ounce). The homemade is almost 1/3 the cost of the commercial product.

This must take a lot of time and work, right? Nope. It takes me about 10 minutes to make a batch and requires no special tools, just a spoon and saucepan.

Old-Time Hot Fudge Ice Cream Topping (yields 10 ounces, or about 6-8 servings)

3 tablespoons butter, cut into 6 or so pieces

6 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/3 cup hot water

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1/16 to scant 1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan over Low heat, place the butter dices and cocoa powder. Stir constantly until the butter has melted. Pour in about half of the hot water and stir vigorously. Add remaining water and stir again until well-combined. The mixture will resemble a thick pudding. 

Keeping the pan over Low heat, stir in the sugar and corn syrup. Continue stirring until the sugar has mostly dissolved, about 1 minute. Add the salt. If you used unsalted butter, use the greater amount of salt (scant 1/8 teaspoon). If you used salted butter, just a dash of salt will be enough, no more than 1/16 teaspoon.

Bring to a boil over Medium heat. Once boiling, reduce to Low and allow to boil gently without stirring for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Cool to just warm for immediate use or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 weeks. 

This sauce thickens as it cools. When using at a later date, reheat briefly in the microwave until pouring consistency.

This Father's Day, we're planning a barbecue followed up with a sundae bar. I bought a bucket of vanilla ice cream at WinCo last week and will add homemade caramel sauce, homemade hot fudge topping, homemade strawberry topping, chopped nuts, whipped cream, and sprinkles. I'm making the sauces/toppings during the week this week, so I can enjoy the weekend with everyone else.

In addition to ice cream sundaes, I also like warmed up fudge sauce on sliced fresh bananas. The taste is decadent without affecting my waistline.

Finding Gratitude For the Non-Stop Rain

That Carpenter's song keeps playing in my mind -- Rainy Days and Mondays. We've had a lot of rainy days in June this year. I'm trying to see the positives instead of the dreariness of these dark, cloud-filled days just as I'm expecting summer to begin. So, here goes.

• the rain barrels are full once again. I had emptied 1  1/2 of the 2 barrels in April and May with watering the garden
• the yard and garden got a good watering without any effort on my part
• our garden vegetables and fruits may grow more with all of this rain
• June showers must bring something, just like April showers
• rainy weather here means cooler temps, which are great for sleeping at night
• I can bake all I like without overheating the kitchen
• some of the electricity in our area is hydro, so lots of water is a good thing for power supplies
• little chance of wildfires, which means no smokey skies
• a rainy day is a good excuse to not weed the garden, wash the car, mow the lawn, power-wash the driveway, paint the deck railing, trim the hedges
• the sky looks clearer and trees greener just after the rain stops
• abundant water supplies for my whole area
• I'm not worried about not having enough rain. In some places, people are really worried about not enough rain this year/decade.

Intellectually I know that the rain will go away. But in the moment I need to find the positives in a rainy day month. And you know what? It does work. Trying to find the positives restores my gratitude even for those things that I thought I didn't want.

Fig Trees Are Not Just for the Mediterranean

I thought I'd show you something else that we grow, here.

These are our two fig trees. They were both supposed to be a variety called Brown Turkey. Our experience with the figs tells us that only one is Brown Turkey and we don't really know what the other one is.

Our trees produce two crops per year. The first crop will ripen in mid July, and this crop will continue for about 2-3 weeks. We typically get about 30 to 40 ripe figs in this first crop.

I had never had a fresh fig before growing these trees. My daughter-in-law tells me that our tree-ripe figs are more firm than figs from the market. My guess is market figs have been sitting around for a few days. My son and daughter-in-law were thrilled when we gave them the leftover fresh figs last summer when they were over for a late lunch one afternoon. 

Some folks cook with the ripe figs. We just eat them fresh because they are simply that good.

The second crop doesn't ripen in my yard, instead it leaves us with an abundance of green figs in late September or early October. They are full-sized, just not ripe. I make the green figs into jam, sweet pickles, and whole preserved figs. In a pinch, we've substituted green fig jam for sweet pickle relish on hot dogs. Otherwise, the jam is delicious on soft cheese, like cream cheese or brie, along with some crackers. The sweet pickles are a nice accompaniment to a meal. And the whole preserved figs are a dessert, very nice alongside rice or tapioca pudding, or with a slice of plain cake.

This is a bowl of sweet fig preserves. Their flavor goes well with lemon, cloves, and cinnamon. I made several jars of these preserves last October and have been enjoying them this winter and spring.

Our two fig trees are planted up against the house on the south side, where they benefit from the sun's warmth. That particular spot is just outside the laundry room. I'm sure the dryer vent helps with the warmth a bit in winter. Our house is situated on the highest part of our lot. In winter, the cold air slides down the slope into the lower parts of the yard. So the spot up against the house is likely the only spot figs would grow on our lot. 

Figs don't like  temperatures below about 10 degrees F. Most years, we don't go below 20 degrees F. In colder areas, folks have had success growing figs in large pots, then bringing them indoors during winter. 

Of course, figs also have value for their leaves. In addition to making impromptu clothing or for pasting onto a statue, the leaves can be used for steaming fish, meats, rice and vegetables in place of sheets of parchment. The leaves can also be used as wraps for baking cheese or fruits (apricots and plums). The leaves are edible and good sources of Vitamins A, B1, and B2, calcium, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, and iron. The flavor of the cooked leaves has been described as a bit like coconut. And lastly, the leaves are large and flat, making them ideal to place decoratively under meats or cheese on a charcuterie tray.

You know, I never would have guessed that you could grow figs in the Pacific Northwest. There is so much that we can't grow here, so this one was a surprise.

My Version of an English Walled Garden on a Suburban Lot

The Garden 2021

The Garden 2013

When my daughters were girls we read Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Little Princess together. I was intrigued by the idea of a Victorian English walled garden, with its brick pathways and formal bed design. We never built the "wall" part of the walled garden but we laid the beds out in a formal design and paved the walkways with brickwork between the beds.

Having the vegetable garden a thing of beauty in itself was important for my gardening motivation. There are days when I really don't feel like weeding the beds or checking for slugs. But having something attractive to look at while I'm in the garden keeps me coming back outside, even in the rainy and dreary days of spring.

All of the coverings and contrived fences this year are less than attractive. Hopefully, the plants will grow quickly as the weather warms and won't need to be so heavily protected for all of summer.

I included a photo from this year as well a one from 8 years ago. In this time, we've replaced the gravel side walkways with brick and added a couple of flanking beds in the far section of the garden. We also added a bird bath at an intersection.

Every year, I get so excited over the prospect of harvesting a variety of vegetables. And every year there are disappointments. Here's what I've planted:

• lettuce
• spinach
• kale
• radishes
• Swiss chard
• Brussel sprouts
• corn
• potatoes
• garlic
• tomatoes
• summer squash and zucchini
• acorn squash
• pumpkin 
• cucumbers
• carrots
• bell peppers
• green beans
• turnips
• beets

In the disappointment category, so far:

• cool and wet weather pretty much killed off my basil seedlings. I've reseeded in two pots indoors and am hoping for something or anything. When the weather warms for the summer, I'll move the pots outside.
• rabbits ate part of my kale seedlings right down to the stems. I've covered the bare plants with translucent coverings made from milk jugs and am hoping to save some of them.
• the cold and wet weather may or may not do the corn in. I don't know if it will survive.
• slugs have eaten several tiny pumpkin seedlings. The cold weather is keeping the plants from growing.

The good, so far:

• planting salad greens in baskets and pots was a good move. Not a single rabbit or slug can reach them.
• the turnips are recovering from the bunny buffet, since covering the plants with bird netting.
• the green beans are under insect row covering and a plastic tunnel which is helping to keep them warmer and safe from rabbits. Last year we didn't get a single green bean. I'm hopeful we'll get some this year.
• Rabbits got to half of the carrots. With the other half, I transplanted some of the thinnings into the soil where the rabbits had their snack. The rain actually helped the thinnings survive transplanting. And the rabbits seem to have lost interest in the carrot seedlings now.
• all of the protection that we've now put around and over the vegetable garden beds seems to be working as a deterrent for the rabbits. The cute bunnies are staying cute on the lawn these days and leaving the garden alone. 
• the weather is forecasted to improve tremendously this next week. This may be just what my garden needs to turn around and start flourishing.

Yum!

Do you know what this is? This is what's left of a jar of homemade caramel topping. Ice cream toppings are super easy to make, keep refrigerated for several weeks, and are much less expensive than commercial ice cream toppings.

A week from Sunday is Father's Day. I thought we'd do make-your-own ice cream sundaes for dessert. My family has 3 favorite homemade toppings: "magic shell" topping, caramel sauce, and hot fudge topping. I'll make 2 of those and add chopped nuts and a fruit sauce (using frozen berries). 

While I was thinking about the ice cream, I searched the internet for making sugar cones and waffles bowls. There are several websites with instructions and recipes for making both. What excited me is they don't require a special iron. The cookie part can be made in a skillet and either formed around a cone or over the back side of a muffin tin to make ice cream bowls. I don't know if I'll get to making these for Father's Day, but this was intriguing.

Back to the caramel sauce, I made this as a dip to get us to eat the apples that are quickly passing their prime. I only hope that the sugar and butter in the caramel didn't negate the health benefits of the apples. It was delicious, though.

Ways to Incorporate More Fruits and Veggies in Our Diet

Continuing from yesterday's post . . .

Can we discuss different ways we have found to incorporate more fruits and vegetables each day?

I thought through some of the things that have been helping me to increase my own intake. Here's what's been helping me:

• preparing vegetables in a variety of ways -- steamed, pureed, oven-roasted, grilled. Changing up how I prepare the veggies keeps me interested in eating them.
• using different sources of pureed fruits and vegetables -- baby food, canned pumpkin, applesauce, tomato paste/sauce,  canned vegetables to be pureed at home. 
• I use my food processor, immersion blender and pitcher blender regularly. Each appliance has it's best use. The immersion blender is great for soups, sauces, and gravies. The food processor is my best appliance for thicker purees, like hummus and cooked vegetables. The pitcher blender is what I use for smoothies, with lots of expansion room and a lid to prevent splatters.
• To any dish with a smooth, pureed, or creamy texture, I add pureed or powdered fruits or vegetables. This would be soups, gravies, sauces (cheese sauce for mac and cheese), smoothies, dips/hummus.
• Baby food fruits or vegetables can be used in place of some of the fats in baking.
• Dips can be made healthier by adding a spoonful of pureed carrots, squash, or spinach to the sour cream base.
• In the afternoon, when I might have a cup of tea or coffee, if I haven't had enough produce that day, I "drink" a cup of vegetable soup instead.
• I add vegetable powder or pureed vegetables to many dessert items. Chocolate and cocoa powder can hide a few tablespoons of pureed spinach or carrots. Cinnamon and other sweet spices can hide the taste of pumpkin, carrots, yams, and zucchini.
• Also, I choose fruit or vegetable-based desserts often.
• Pureed vegetables are great to help thicken the broth in soups.
• I try to include a vegetable (or fruit we eat as a veggie) with breakfast. For example, if having an egg for breakfast, I add a grilled tomato on the side. I add a spoonful of pureed pumpkin or carrot to hot cereal, yogurt, or smoothies. I spread toast with avocado instead of butter, when in season.
• Grated fresh carrot or apple can be mixed into peanut butter.
• Bean spreads with pureed veggies added make nice sandwich spreads.
• When making sandwiches, I'm liberal with the addition of vegetables -- roasted sliced veggies, chopped fresh greens, and sliced tomatoes. Grilled sliced eggplant is almost meaty on a bean-spread sandwich.
• I try not to think of it as 5+ large piles of fruits or vegetables. Instead, I think in terms of small amounts of fruits and vegetables many, many times per day.
• We top rice, potatoes, pasta, and vegetables with dips, salsas, and pestos instead of butter or gravy.
• I sometimes use vegetables as the base for pasta sauce.

If you're just starting to increase your fruits and vegetables, do so gradually. I've gotten too enthusiastic in this area before and paid for it with terrible digestive pain.

The tastiest thing I've made this week that had extra veggies added was hummus with some leafy greens pureed into the garbanzo beans.

How about you? What are your best ways to sneak in a few extra fruits or veggies? What's been your tastiest extra veggie creation?

Enjoying Beet Powder

Vegetable powders have been around for a while. They were mostly for the hardcore health nuts. However, lately I am running into more and more mainstream folks who are using them or know someone who is. Earlier this week, I was remembering Jerry Seinfeld's wife and her book that talked about sneaking more veggies into family's meals by cooking and pureeing them first. Well, vegetable powders are the next generation for undercover attempts to get families or selves to eat more vegetables.

About a year ago, I became serious about eating more produce on a daily basis. The official recommendation is 5 or more servings per day. Did you catch that -- or more. So, I figure I can use all the help I can get when it comes to my health, so I'm going for the "or more." 

The problem with adding more fruits and veggies is that I end up eating much more food than I want. This is where veggie powders are very helpful. I don't create new foods to make to eat the veggie powders. I simply add the powders to foods I would ordinarily eat.

I've discussed my use of carrot powder. Mostly I use this in my morning yogurt. I'm currently out of the carrot powder and need to make another batch. In the in-between time, I've been using more of the beet root powder in the last couple of weeks.

I've used the beet powder in my morning yogurt. I mix a rounded half-teaspoon of the beet powder, honey, vanilla extract, and dried fruit into plain yogurt. I can taste the beet in the yogurt if I don't add enough honey.

I like smoothies for snacks and lunch. Here's a current favorite: banana, orange juice, beet powder (a teaspoon), water, and vanilla protein powder. I don't even notice the beet powder in this drink. 

I was in the mood for chocolate pudding the other day. I decided to make it Red Velvet pudding. I added 1 tablespoon of beet powder to a batch that made 4 servings. (I made my own batch with soy milk and the family's with dairy milk.) Anyway, half way through dessert, I asked my husband if he could guess the mystery ingredient. He had no clue. When I told him beet powder, he was really surprised -- said he'd never, ever have guessed.

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. So I aim for 1 serving of beetroot powder every other day, just to be cautious. More on side effects from eating beets, here.

Beets are high in potassium, folate, manganese, beta carotene, and nitric oxide. Beetroot may improve blood pressure, immune response, prevent heart disease, and increase stamina in exercise. [WebMD: Health Benefits of Beetroot]

I am definitely getting more servings of fruits and vegetables in my diet these days. I can't put my finger on exactly how, but I do feel better overall when I'm eating more produce.

I wonder how kale powder (using our surplus garden kale this summer) would taste? Hmmm . . .

Quick and Easy Cream of Any Green Soup -- Great For Those Throwaway Greens

This is an excellent use for throwaway greens like radish tops, celery leaves, beet or turnip greens, broccoli stalks/stems (peel first), or excess garden kale, broccoli, chard -- those green vegetables that either you seem to have no use for or that have always been "throwaways". I even use leafy greens that are about to go to seed and the tender stems from leafy greens we use in salads, like spinach stems.

extra ingredients that make the
soup thicker and more palatable

What I use:  

(yields about 4 cups)

about 2 quarts of greens, washed and chopped

½ an onion, chopped

vegetable oil

3 cups water

2  1/2 to 3 teaspoons chicken bouillon (sub seasoned homemade chicken or veggie stock for bouillon and water)

⅔ to 1 cup of instant mashed potato flakes

butter (about 2 tablespoons)

Sauté the onion in oil until translucent. Add the chopped greens and cook until limp. Add water, bouillon, bring to a boil. Add instant potatoes and stir. Remove from heat and purée until smooth. (I use an immersion blender. A pitcher blender or food processor would also work well.) Stir in butter. Adjust seasonings. Add salt and pepper, if desired. Thin with water or stock as needed.

Depending on the types of greens used, I may add a dash of nutmeg and/or Parmesan cheese, or top with bacon or ham bits.

You'll notice that there's no milk in this "cream of" soup. I'm lactose intolerant. This soup can be made vegan by subbing margarine or olive oil for the butter and veggie stock/bouillon for chicken bouillon. 

Instant potato flakes are great for quickly thickening soups. Leftover cooked mashed potatoes could be subbed -- reduce the water by ½ cup and use about 1 to 1½ cups of cooked, mashed potatoes.

When I use chunkier veggies, like chopped broccoli, I cook the chunky ones for about 5 to 10 minutes (until tender) with the onion before adding any leafy veggies. 

Even though this soup will be puréed, it's important to chop the veggies before adding to the pot to avoid any stringiness.

Come with me out to the garden while I pick some throwaway greens for today's soup:

The sorrel stalks are growing tall. I'll pick the tender leaves off of the tough stalks before I cut the plants back.

I harvested a dozen or so large leaves from the sorrel.

Next to the sorrel is the patch of garlic that I grow for the greens. (Okay, truth time -- several years ago I missed several bulbs of garlic when harvesting. The plants are now dense, so I harvest the leaves and curly scapes.)

I added a fistful of garlic leaves to the basket.

Lots of chives right now. I might as well use some.

I cut a bunch of chives and added those to the basket.

Up to the deck, next. This is one of the pots of baby spinach that I've been harvesting to go in our gourmet salad blends. See those stems with no leaves still on the plants? I'll use scissors to clip those out.

The spinach stems are still tender. I'll chop them to add to the soup.

I've been using the radish greens growing in the hanging baskets to add to salads. Radishes are fast growers and go to seed quickly. I'll clip a bunch of radish greens before they've fully gone to seed.

I saved the celery tops from several stalks when cooking over the weekend. I'll use those in today's soup.

So, this is what I've got for this pot of soup. I pressed it all down and it looks like about 2 quarts of leafy greens. It looks like an odd assortment, but it will make delicious soup. The strongest flavor in this batch is the sorrel -- a bit lemony. After cooking, I'll add a couple of pinches of nutmeg. Should be delicious!

10 Ways to Use Chive Blossoms

By late spring, I'm about out of the onions that I purchased in a 50-lb sack in the early fall. While I wait until the new crop of onions makes it into the stores before buying another large sack, I am supplementing the last of the onions with chives and chive blossoms. 

I have a couple of patches of chives in my garden. They grow well here and would spread themselves freely if I didn't keep them in check. Anyway, the chives have been blooming for about 3 weeks. I've been using the blossoms in addition to the leaves to add an onion flavor to many dishes. The blossoms only last a few weeks in late spring, so I try to make the most of them while I can.

The stems for the blossoms are tough, so I break the flower heads off and toss the stems. This is in contrast to the chive leaves, which are very tender and usable. The chive blossoms are milder than chive leaves. Blossoms are rich in calcium, potassium, beta carotene, vitamins C and K, and folic acid. Chive blossoms (like other members of the allium family) are high in sulfur compounds (thiosulfonates). Traditionally, the blossoms were used to stimulate the immune system. 

Here's a list of 10 ways to use chive blossoms:

• make chive blossom butter -- wash and pull apart 3 or 4 chive blossoms, crush with a pestle or back of a spoon, blend with soft butter. Refrigerate overnight for the flavor to develop. Delicious on baked potatoes, rice, pasta, and vegetables.
• make chive blossom cream cheese -- similar to chive blossom butter, just use softened cream cheese in place of the butter. Good for spreading on crackers or crostini.
• chive blossom vinegar is both beautiful to look at and flavorful for vinaigrettes. Wash and pull apart a cup of blossoms. Crush with the back of a spoon or a pestle to begin releasing the chive flavor. Place crushed blossoms in a glass jar. Cover with a light vinegar and macerate for a few weeks. Strain and use in place of standard vinegar in dressings.
• use as a flavorful garnish in salads and soups, either whole or pulled apart. 
• Also delicious and pretty in pasta or potato salad, in cottage cheese, in chicken or tuna salad, or sprinkled over savory casseroles.
• Blossoms add a delicate onion flavor to smashed potatoes. Nearing the end of smashing a batch of steamed new potatoes, I toss a handful of blossom pieces into the pot and mix together.
• I also like to add a small handful of blossom pieces to steamed green beans for their delicate flavor.
• make chive blossom and Parmesan biscuits. To a standard savory biscuits recipe, add a small handful of blossom pieces, 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese, and a dash of black pepper to the dough just after cutting in the fat but before adding the liquid.
• add a tablespoon of chive blossom pieces to the yolk portion of 3 or so deviled eggs. After filling the egg white shells, sprinkle a few more pieces as garnish.
• sprinkle into scrambled eggs or add to omelet fillings.

Once the chive blossoms are beginning to fade on the plants (before they dry or shed seeds), I cut back the plants to about 3 inches high. The chives regrow new leaves and sometimes a second, smaller harvest of blossoms. And then I get to repeat many of the uses above!

Your Summer Meal Favorites

I'm always looking for suggestion on what to make for dinner. I think most of us feel this way about cooking everyday meals from time to time. So, here I am, begging for fresh ideas for summer meals. 

I'll share one meal that I've made a few times since the warmer weather hit our area. In fact I made this for our family dinner last night. I made a tuna and macaroni salad served over a bed of garden greens.

What I liked about this meal:

• I was able to make it early in the day and keep it in the fridge until just before dinner time
• it was easy and required very little cooking -- just the pasta -- didn't heat up the kitchen.
• the salad was economical. I used TVP to stretch one can of tuna. I do this as much for flavor as for cost. Canned tuna can be overwhelmingly fishy to me. The TVP adds protein and dilutes the fish flavor. Also, I used the cheapest pasta -- macaroni noodles, some homemade pickle relish (garden veggies pickled last summer) and garden chive blossoms, added to the tuna, TVP, celery, and mayo. A bonus -- I used the whole stalks of celery, leaves and all in the salad. And of course, I served this over garden greens.
• it could be a complete meal by itself as it has vegetables, protein, and grains. 
• it was a cold meal for a hot day, always appreciated in summer.

Last night, I added some crackers on the side and dishes of rhubarb sauce (from the garden, of course). 

So, tell me, what are some of your favorite quick & easy, frugal summer meals? Bonus points if they don't heat up the kitchen! Share in the comments.