A dessert homage to the 4th

A light dessert of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries on slices of angel food cake with whipped cream. A color-appropriate dish without intention. Happy Fourth of July!

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Summer Bites

This was last night's dinner: mozzarella, grape tomatoes, and fresh basil from our CSA speared like mini kabobs on toothpicks, drizzled in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Delicious and perfect for the 101 degree hot and humid day, which found me around six o'clock scratching my head in our kitchen trying to figure out what to eat when neither of us were hungry, most likely due to the fact that it was still above 90 at that time. This hit cold dish hit the spot.

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It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought. ~James Douglas, Down Shoe Lane

After the last few weeks chock full of gardening with a whole lot of love and sweat and dirt, those long hours in the early morning sun out front (we live without access to a yard so we really do our research and expend a lot of energy and research on our container gardens. After a few trips to home depot for really cheap herbs and veggies, some errands to a box store for some colorful containers to plant in, and the like, our current container garden is looking pretty great. I'm worried about the heat we've had and what it will do to my freshly planted bucket of herbs, but I figure if farmers are planting their crops in the sun, we aren't too far off from the arrangement, aside from our fruits and veggies and recently added herbs being on our our downstairs neighbor;s bay window. My green thumb has been diligent with rising at 6:30am to water the roof, again to pull some things in, such as the herbs for a little bit, (if necessary - they just went out today), and to to then head down to our rode bushes, azalea bush, a jack o lantern pumpkin in a 5 gallon bucket, perennial shasta daisies which I'm desperately trying to revive from the scorchers we've had lately, marigolds and roman candlesticks, and a few other pretty flowers and a large lavender plant that needs to be split as there are several plants outgrowing its tiny basket yet to go in...somewhere :)

I have pictures of the 'roof deck' - Are you ready for this urban farming? :) And please, if you have any tips to pass along, this is the first spring/summer I've gone beyond strawberries and tomatoes. SO far everything looks good, though soon we may have to stake one of the zucchini branch leaf for some added support for the buds arriving. Without further ado (drum roll anyone?) The almost completed 'roof deck.'

This was how the project began: a mishmash of potting soil, containers, water, water, and water, some nutrient food, prepping the containers for drainage holes, assessing which veggies and fruits could go into which pots, and of course, running out of potting soil. Eh. You do what you can in a few hours, pack it up, and if you're anything like me, you run out to Home Depot and the WalMart, whose garden center is closing BTW so the soil and what's left is SUPER cheap.

Patio & Lemon Bay Tomatoes

Champion Tomatoes, Zucchini and Cucumber, and three varieties of Peppers - Green, Yellow, and Red

Yellow Squash, Cantaloupe, a large Strawberry plant, and a wee baby strawberry plant.






More pictures to come of our patio/stoop container garden and the newest addition to our 'roof deck' - a delicious bucket of fresh herbs.Our patio is progressing nicely aside from our perennials having just wilted, not from neglect as I have been going Poppa Bear on this garden, but more we think just the humidity and the shriveling heat. I'm hoping they come back. Some of our marigolds have and there are buds on the Shasta Daisies. My fingers are crossed and I do welcome any gardening fertilization, nutrient, and any other advice anyone may have. Bring it on in the comment section.

"In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." - Margaret Atwood

Spring has finally arrived to stay, after a long winter with segue ways into summer-like temperatures and dips into winter chills. A lot has been happening around here as well as in the State of Pennsylvania that has put blogging on the back burner. Bigger things have been happening in PA,  more having less of a positive spin but which have played out and affected our household; countless other less fortunate households even more so.

There's a joke that comes up during elections about how Pennsylvania is really Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Kentucky and Alabama in between. "Pennsyltucky" has never really affected the outlying areas, mostly because we've been a blue state. (Yes, this is a wee political tangent, but it won't be long, I promise.) However, with the first Republican Governer in something like, 12 years, the budget cuts that have been resounding from Harrisburgh have been loud enough to remind us who has the giant red pen slashing services. One thing that has affected our household that really is two fold are the cuts to social services. This is one article which highlights the social service cuts in the PA Dept of Welfare. Why does this affect us? We don't recieve services but as a 3 year post-grad school professional with degrees in Social Service and Law and Social Policy, this tightens the already tiny opening for available positions to be posted. Add to that the macro take I went on my MSS and we are in even more trouble - it seems program evaluation, data analysis and research, which are my nerdy fortes, are on the back burner of a back burner.

The other sad aspect is the Department of Agriculture cuts in total of $550 million dollars. This is ginormous!  Not only does this affect the agriculture industry in terms of consumers, farmers, industry, and inspection, this trickles down to an individual level I think we can all understand, if not first hand, but from watching news footage over our years on the planet: hunger. I volunteer with the Food Bank of our local community organization in our neighborhood, the West Girard Community Council. Today this impact mean that today's biweekly cupboard had less food to offer to our participants.

While I did not intend to lay on thick the depressing political issues, it's a lens into where I'm coming from and the issues I'm thinking about. And through it all, there are positives. Like baking bread, joining a CSA (which our first pick up is today!), testing new recipes, inventing more recipes, getting our garden tilled and in order for the spring, and of course, grinning proudly as the buds shoot up as we smudge dirt across our sweaty brows. Stay tuned to this and more as the weather continues to warm.

Halibut a la Procencal over Mixed Greens

Late last summer we decided to try a subscription to Cooking Light Magazine and we have been far from disappointed.After flipping through a dish makeover edition in some checkout line, we figured 'Why not?' and have been blown away, not only by the
variety of delcious recipes but also the magazine's efforts at promoting cooking and eating in-season.

That said, this recipe was one that we ear-marked and a few weeks ago we found it by shuffling through our tagged magazines. (Seriously, it's ridiculous. Overall the sticky tabs help, but since there is so much that we tag, it's sometimes difficult to find what we're looking for within 5 minutes :)

I hit Reading Terminal for my ingredients, and got about 1 pound of Halibut, asking them to cut the fillet along the blood line into 2 similarly sized pieces. Iovines was next. The recipe calls for bagged salad greens, but I knew we could do better, using some of the ingredients to match the greens to really create a complimentary food profile. I picked up fresh Mustard Greens, arugula, as well as my herbs - fresh thyme and parsley - and then  headed over to the Fair Food Farmstand for a bag of Mesclun and a few shallots.

Much better than '1 package of salad greens' if I do say so myself.

Now to cook. I combined approx 1 teaspoon of herbes de Provence with approx 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice and about 1/4 teaspoon of salt and rubbed it over the tops of the fillets. I heated about 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a skillet and once hot, dropped my fish in on medium heat. It cooks for about 3 minutes on each side, or to whatever specific done-ness you prefer; just be careful not to dry the fish out. I also squeeze a little bit of lemon over the fish and make sure to instead of just using the herb rub on one side of the fish, once I flip it, I sprinkle the same on the reverse. What can I say? I like flavor in my food and not just on one side of the protein.

Remove the fish, sprinkle fresh thyme and parsley on it and cover it with tinfoil. I pop the plate in the oven or in the microwave just so it stays warm.

Finely chop about 1/4 cup of shallots and add approximately 7 teaspoons of olive oil back into the skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the shallots for about 2-3 minutes until they're tender. Remove the skillet from heat, adding about 4 teaspoons of lemon juice, a pinch more of salt (about 1/4 teaspoon), 1 teaspoon of honey, 1/2 teaspoon of Dijion mustard, and 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. You can omit Kalmata Olives, but I love them and encourage you to leave them in the recipe - finely chop about 4-5 pitted olives and gently stir these in.

Combine your greens in a medium to large sized bowl and toss with your dressing. Make sure you toss it well so that the shallots and olives don't end up at the bottom of the bowl and left out until you're scraping the bottom toward the end of your meal.

And that's it. Serve the fish on the warm greens and voila! Pure deliciousness. We also had some fresh french bread with our dinner.

Apology+Blog=Apololog

Dear Readers,
I know you must think I have flippantly decided that no longer is the blogosphere for me; I must say you are wrong in that assumption. The truth is I have been cooking AND eating AND taking pictures of said deliciousness AND writing down the names and ingredients and directions for each recipe AND gathering information to post, but I. just. haven't done. it. I know, friends, I know; I suck it. Big time.

 The last several months have been rough around the edges and have flown by, creating an interesting jumble of events stretched over a couple of months. I spent some time in the unemployment hole, but fortunately that pothole remained a pothole and did not turn into a black hole, sucking away at my soul forever. (Dramatic, arent I?)  I am 100% employed again, with a great organization doing really exciting work, and while I'm sill at that brand-new-and-a-wee-overwhelmed stage, it's okay. That will resolve itself once I get a better grasp of the acronyms and their corresponding words.

My Librarian and I spent the two weeks over the holidays in Southern California. I got to eat citrus and avocado and enjoy the lush, vibrant colors that attacked my vision at the farmers market since it was all seasonal and local! It was incredible - I never thought late December would find me meandering down a palm tree lined street in a hoodie and jeans surrounded by meyer lemons, avocado, grapefruit, organes, satsuma tangerines, persimmons, tomatillos, and much, much more? If there is one thing I will not miss on the East Coast if ever we move it will be the availability of fresh, ripe grapefruit and oranges.

Last week we celebrated our 4th Anniversary with dinner at the brew pub that, although wasn't technically a date, was our first date, even if it was a non-date.It was sweet and quiet, and I think that our actual anniversary falling on a weeknight made it what it was. No wait for our table, no frazzled and fried waitstaff, and while we did go to a restaurant with a brew pub in it, you'd never have known. Our waitress was such a doll; she brought us a free dessert to top our evening off.

So...all that food I cooked and ate over the last few months, all that fresh produce we gorged on in Southern California and more will be coming (this time I PROMISE!) very soon. Spring is almost here (on the East Coast) which means a whole new crop of meals with COLOR! (the root vegetable time of the year always gets me down...). It also means it's time to start anew on our garden with new containers (the two year old plastic storage bins kicked it after being battered by the elements), bulbs, seeds,and more. Stick around; the mouthwatering morsels will make you cry. If you miss it, you'll cry even harder.

The Collected Bounty of the Fall (is occupying my freezer)

October and November were  busy months for us, in terms of reaping the rewards of vegetables and fruit not only thriving during the season, but also in gathering the end of summer fruits and veggies that seemed to maintain a little bit of longevity with our warm and mild September and October.


The kitchen has been hopping with zuchinni, apples, and all variets of squash - summer, butternut, and delicata - eggplant, kale, chard, broccoli and cauliflower.

What could be was grated, diced, cooked, baked, and/or frozen to enjoy as we supplement our winter stock of local roots -

beets, golden turnips, parsnips, jerusalem artichokes, potatoes, scallions, onions, garlic,  and even quince.

 Stay tuned for soups, stews, cakes, cookies, loaves of bread, even a jam (right?!) 

and more of the local deliciousness me and My Librarian have been producing.