10 April 2011

Kitchen chronicle

I've been back to cooking a lot more lately, but I've been a horribly lazy blogger! Several wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) dishes have come out of my kitchen in the past couple of weeks so I'll show you a couple of them now!

My favorite dish of the past couple of weeks is Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil, a recipe I found on the Food Network website.


It's light, fresh, and bursting with flavor! It's also very simple to make, which is an added bonus if you want something quick but impressive.
Being the second time I've used this recipe, I didn't follow it exactly ~ I changed a couple of things to suit my taste: I used anglehair pasta instead of linguine, cilantro instead of parsley, and I added a handful of pine nuts to give it a little crunch!

I also tried my hand at making a couple of recipes from the Hobby Farm Home magazine - actually this was my second time making both the Boston Baked Beans and the Moose Bread. The baked beans not only taste wonderful, they're less expensive to make than buying canned beans....


although next time, instead of using salt pork I think I'll use a sweet bacon of some sort - maybe maple cured.....YUM!

the moose bread, however, well, let's just say both times I tried to make it I failed miserably! Knowing that I'm a pretty good cook, I can only guess it's a flawed recipe...maybe something was lost in the editing process? Who knows, but both tries produced a thick, chewy brick that could best serve as a doorstop rather than a meal enhancer!

Last night's dinner was also from Food Network ~ Cajun Chicken Alfredo, and it was really delicious...it took your basic alfredo sauce to a new level of yum!


To go with it, I made a salad with home-made Ginger-Lime dressing


and a fresh loaf of Challah bread....normally I would serve French bread with this type of dish, but I made the bread yesterday anyway so I figured "why not?"



I've got tons more pics of things I've cooked recently, and hopefully I'll be able to play "catch up" a bit in the next couple of days, but in the meantime, click the links I've provided and give these recipes a try! You won't be sorry!

06 April 2011

My little seedlings (and whatnot)

On the last full moon I started two flats of seedlings for this year's container garden. I might have gotten a little carried away, so chances are if you read this and ask nicely I'll send a few of them your way when they're ready!



This is how much they'd grown as of March 26th....still just wee little babies!

I've got several different things growing...5 each of Lavender, Fennel, Cilantro, Tarragon and Tomatoes in one flat, and Thai Basil, Basil, Thyme, Marjoram, and Forget-Me-Nots in the other.



This is them today. Most of them are getting pretty big already, but the Tarragon & Lavender (top left) have some catching up to do!

The tomatoes, fennel and cilantro are growing the fastest ~ I may have to move them into bigger pots sooner than I expected...

On another gardening note, I have a fig tree I grew from a cutting that is now in its third year in a very large pot, but I want to plant it in its permanent spot this year if we can agree where to put it.


You can't tell by this pic, but it's about 5' tall now.

I know it needs plenty of sun and a nice sized area for it to grow in, but we have a small yard so space is an issue....what to do???



My Rosemary is back again this year


so is my yummy Greek Oregano


and my trusty Lemon Balm


I bought a nice English Lavendar plant for the front entrance...I just couldn't wait for my little sproutlets to grow!

All & all, I'd say the yard is looking pretty good so far!


Although it could use some new mulch and a good weeding!