Have I mentioned yet that I have an inordinate amount of zucchini being produced out of my garden already? I chose to plant an Italian Largo variety this year. . . it produces very large zucchini (around 1.5 – 2 pounds each), with relatively few seeds for the size. I tried it last year when someone gave it to me as a gift from their garden, loved it, and when I chose the seeds for this year’s garden I thought, “Perfect! One squash will make a meal for our family!” Sounds like good reasoning right? Except when my first haul from the garden produced four enormous zucchini. The next day, two more. So suddenly I’m looking at roughly twelve pounds of zucchini just staring at me, daring me to think [... To read more, click here ...]
Jul 052010
We love Greek and Mediterranean food in our home. A common summertime meal? Grilled kebabs, beef, game or chicken, , seasoned with olive oil, lemon, garlic, oregano and more, served with homemade hummus (my favorite recipe is Ina’s), Tzatziki sauce (recipe coming up soon) with homemade yogurt, dill from our garden and cucumber, served along with or inside pita.
I’ve never really made pita before. Sure, I made the hummus, sliced the (truly grassfed, all natural) meat from my freezer, grew the oregano for the marinade, made the yogurt and grew the dill for the sauce, but the pita was still from the store.
It just wasn’t something I made.
Sourdough bread? Sure. Artisinal french breads? Yes. But simple pita bread? Nope. Just bought the package at the store.
But the last time I bought the multigrain variety, I was highly disappointed. It was thick, almost like a fry bread, kind of dry, and didn’t have a pocket. What’s the point of pita without a pocket? Plus it cost a pretty penny and I didn’t like half of the ingredients. I was not impressed. So I decided to try my hand at making my own.
And now, I doubt I’d ever buy it again. It was so simple, made up quickly before our meal, and was perfect. I love it. And I can’t wait for you to try it too . . .
May 102010
This recipe is, yet again, developed from leftovers. I had a few apples in my fruit bowl that had been there for a little too long. Spring is in the air, strawberries are in the store and those poor apples just got relegated to the bottom of the pile in favor of the newcomers. Poor apples. They weren’t really crunchy anymore, they’d gotten a little puckered along the edges of the skin, but yet they hadn’t actually gone bad yet. They were still good apples, just not at their peak. And then one day, we had a rainy spring day and I was craving comfort food once again. I decided to bake up a batch of apple cinnamon scones. I’d made apple scones before, with recipes that called for grating [... To read more, click here ...]
May 032010
We made this cake for Luke’s first birthday party. Already a big fan of strawberries, (he holds onto them firmly with his fat, dimply fists as he gums them to pieces), with his birthday at the end of April the first strawberries were making their way into the store’s and we had to have some to make the celebration complete. I wanted a special birthday cake that I not only felt comfortable with him eating and enjoying as only a first birthday cake can be, but would be enjoyed by both children and adults alike. When I came across this one, in one of my favorite baking cookbooks, full of good healthy ingredients like homemade yogurt and lemon and adapted lightly, by me, with coconut oil and rapadura, slightly sweet, [... To read more, click here ...]
Mar 312010
Lemon Poppy-Seed Sour Cream Scones. How good does that sound? One of my absolute favorite muffins is a lemon poppy-seed sour cream muffin. Forget those flavored with almond. I’m always disappointed. And if you think to ask the barista or whomever it is that you’re contemplating buying said muffin from whether they’re flavored with almond or lemon, they look at you like, “Why are you asking this you crazy picky-muffin eater?” But seriously. Almond flavored poppy seed muffins? No thank you. Those with lemon? Superb. Refreshing. Made with sour cream? Even better. My favorites are from Baking from my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. The recipe alone is worth the price of the book. That and the Perfect Party Cake, which I also made again recently for Luke’s baptism. [... To read more, click here ...]
Let me introduce you to someone. This is my Great-Great Grandma Laura Martinez. She was 100% Diegueno/Kumeyaay, a Native American tribe from near San Diego and Northern Mexico. She lived and gave birth to my Great-Grandma Louise in the Santa Ysabel Assistencia, a smaller mission incorporated with the San Diego mission. So when I tell you that I have my Great Grandma’s tortilla recipe, you can be sure that it is highly authentic. I love these tortillas. They are what my Grandfather remembers eating as a little boy, they are what my father remembers eating as a little boy and I am thrilled to be able to make them for my little boys. Same recipe, passed on, and made with love. By the way, this is the exact recipe, [... To read more, click here ...]
For Christmas, my parents sent a box of holiday treats. Home-canned Dilly beans for me, Big Jim chile’s for T., dried herbs from the garden and some homemade biscotti. I gave one to my two year old and he fell in love. Perfect sized for toddler hands and crunchy enough that it took him a long time to finish. A perfect treat. It’s interesting how my recipes get developed these days. This one? I ran out of (white) sugar.* But I wanted to make something sweet, and slightly healthy for my little guy for a treat. Biscotti was still on my mind from Christmas. I scoured my cupboards and found just enough brown sugar and decided to make up my own recipe. I figured that we’d at least have something [... To read more, click here ...]
Dec 032009
I developed this recipe as a way to use up egg whites left over from making mayonnaise a few weeks ago. This recipe can be made up in just a few minutes, is relatively low in sugar, gluten free and is just a great special treat for my little (and big) guy! I found that if I used all sweetened coconut, it made the macaroons a bit too sweet for my taste, so I use both sweetened and unsweetened. The unsweetened variety that I use is about the shape and size of rice, while the sweetened variety is longer flakes. The combination of the two textures really helps provide a good solid base for the cookie, while the flakes brown so nicely to make that classic macaroon look. Next time [... To read more, click here ...]
Welcome to the Heartland! Reformed Urbanites, we are enjoying new life on a small family farm/homestead in the Midwest. Join us as we garden, cook, read and enjoy our boys; becoming better stewards of the Earth while raising our family.
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