Last weekend

I spent some quality time with the girls...


Diva


Lola


...and picked some purple cauliflower from my garden

I turn my back for 5 minutes...

The latest sneaky produce from my garden.

Community Gardening

I've been experimenting with vegetable gardening for the past year and a half, and was really excited this spring to help build a new community garden. My new city has quite a few of them, but in general it can be difficult to get a plot, since so many people hold on to plots year after year. I was delighted to see an ad for a new garden that was only a few blocks from my house. I jumped at the opportunity, and in no time was digging, moving mulch, and learning how to build a fence. The growing season is really short here, and I had to wait until this week to actually plant anything (trust me, I learned the hard way!) But I'm excited about my little plot, and hopeful that all my veggies will be happy there. I'll have tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, radishes, peppers, beans, and purple cauliflower (which I'm a bit skeptical about in the heat of the summer, but I read somewhere that it could be planted now). It's all very experimental, but I just love seeing veggies grow--it's such a departure from my otherwise very urban existence.

Botanical garden

I spent the afternoon at the Desert Botanical Gardens today. It was a really lovely day in the mid-60s, with some intense sun. Visiting gardens always makes me wish that I had a garden of my own. I came away with a lot of inspiration.


They had a whole herb garden that I was particularly interested in. So many chile varieties, and more rosemary that I had ever seen.


But I would say that the Monarch butterfly house was the highlight of the visit. Because it was a slightly chilly day, the butterflies were all lazily sunning themselves.


They decorated the trees like beautiful flowers, or perhaps Christmas ornaments.

Housework

I'm expecting my first house guests later this week, so it's about time I finish putting things away. My porch container garden is going pretty well. I'm really enjoying having so many fresh herbs at my disposal while I'm cooking. I also have some peppers growing, and some tomatoes which may or may not eventually decide to fruit.

I finally hung some artwork:

A hand drawn image purchased in Chennai, India.

My 'Bamenda bag' from Cameroon.

An embroidered tree silhouette I picked up at the Goodwill this weekend for $3. It's signed 'Paula.' I'm thinking about finding some other predominantly black images to couple with it.


And my favorites! Above and below, two vintage French posters that were used in schools to illustrate geography. They are double sided, and remind me a lot of Tin Tin illustrations. The one above is "La Plaine" and reminds me of flying over France. I've always wanted to make a quilt based on the geometric shapes of agricultural land. The one below is "Le marais salant" You can see various workers drying sea salt. My Aunt found these (and others) for 5 Euros a piece in France several years ago. What a find!

New recipes

Meghan's Summer Garden Pasta
(inspired by the bountiful fresh zucchini, scallions, and rosemary in my garden)

1 small zucchini, cut in small cubes
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
2 green onions, chopped
About 1/3 of a package of linguine pasta
A bit of butter or olive oil
salt and pepper
Grana padano parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, or what you have on hand
A squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Prepare the pasta, drain and set aside. Saute the garlic and zucchini and in the butter or olive oil until tender. Add the rosemary, cook for about a minute more. Toss in the green onion, and the pasta. Stir to incorporate. Add salt, pepper, and cheese to your liking. Add a nice squeeze of fresh lemon juice, stir for a bit until the cheese is nice and melty. Serve hot. This will make one very large serving, or two normal-sized portions.

Falafel with homemade tahini sauce, cucumber and pita.

Potato gratin with emmental cheese

A good evening

I came home after work to find a surprise 6.5 inch zucchini growing in my garden! They had all been pretty tiny until this one. I promptly cut it off the plant, sauteed it up, and ate my first home-grown zucchini! It sure was good.

What a beaut!

Since I'm starting to think about packing my place up, I took a moment to look through my fabric stash and pick out fabric for my potential second quilt. It's an assortment that includes mostly clothing or scraps left over from making clothing. I've also thrown in two vintage pillow cases and several items of clothing I purchased in India. I'm not sold on including the darkest blue fabric (it's my favorite!) but over all I think this combination of blues, yellows and greens might be nice.

Any thoughts?

I'm currently thinking either of a whirlygig or string quilt. Though I'm open to any awesome pattern suggestions you've seen around lately.

A belated birthday brunch

There were flowers from my garden,

Vegan tofu scramble with a heart-shaped mushroom,

Cinnamon swirl buns,

Breakfast strata with potatoes, rosemary, and swiss,

A vegan ice cream cake,

And my lovely new butterfly pin from Chile, made with dyed horse hair.

Meet my latest obsession

I planted a vegetable garden in early March, and it's just about all I can talk about these days. It's the first thing I visit upon waking up in the morning, and the first thing I go to see when I come home. It is so satisfying to see the plants grow day by day. This is my first attempt at gardening, and it has been at least 18 years in the making (and that was before I actually liked vegetables).


The radishes are the first edible products from my garden. They are wonderful to grow because they only take about a month to mature from seed. See the little one peeking out beneath the leaves below?


I harvested a bunch of them today, and was shocked to see how big some of them became! Although I did eat a few raw, I decided to see what other possibilities there are for radishes. I came across a recipe for roasted zucchini and radishes that had wonderful reviews. I'm guessing you're like me (and everyone I've mentioned this to) and have never heard of cooking radishes, but I must say it's actually quite good!


Once roasted, radishes lose their bite and most of their crunch, but remain really juicy and have a nice mild flavor.

It's pretty incredible to know exactly where my dinner came from, and that it was as fresh as it could possibly be!

This week in pictures

I voted! This is my first time living in a state where the majority will likely be voting against me [not counting my brief flirtation with the green party...] That made my early vote all the more satisfying! I hope all of you who are eligible will be voting this year.

I officially decided that Karina's Kitchen is my favorite food blog of the moment, and Whole Foods agreed! Her sweet potato black bean enchiladas won the Whole Foods budget recipe challenge. I couldn't resist trying the recipe myself, and let me tell you, this is definitely my favorite from recent memory. There is such a wonderful and complex combination of flavors--sweet potatoes, tangy lime, green chili, black beans...yum! Next time I plan to make more of the green chili sauce--I always seem to end up without enough enchilada sauce.

I spied some changes around the neighborhood. There are even more birds hanging out on the wires above my street--an unbelievable number! Also, my garden is still in bloom. I'm not used to nice weather at this time of year--I can see how people get used to this!

I went to a wool festival at a local farm. There was some beautiful handspun yarn available--a bit too rich for my blood, but it was great to see what the local artisans are up to. We also got to see a wonderful variety of goats, sheep, llama, and alpaca! The regal llama above was probably my favorite of the day--though some dreadlocked goats came in a close second.