Category Archives: family life

A Way With Words – not.

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It’s all in the presentation, I guess. I emailed Chuck to tell him we were having chicken soup for supper, and I included a few details. I felt rather proud that this soup came from ingredients we had in the house: a pretty darn good pantry raid, that is. However, my email ended up sounding…well, er…not so appetizing.

Tonight’s chicken soup includes a broth from the basement, last night’s waste water from the steamer, and some small turnips and parsnips from out back. It smells good.

I meant well. I really did. The broth was a homemade broth from the freezer downstairs. I keep a pretty good stock of various broths (haha, pun intended) to make cooking quicker and easier when school starts for me and Chuck is tied up in NFL football season shows. So for the broth, it came from the freezer. It was thick and delicious.

I also added the leftover water from the previous night’s vegetables. When I cook vegetables in the steamer, I like to include that water in a broth. It just adds another element of flavor and conserves water, too. Leftover water – that’s a better term than “waste.” Okay, two revisions made.

Turnips and parsnips came from the garden. The bunnies have been nibbling on the carrot greens as soon as they emerge above ground. I suppose the parsnips and turnips must have not-so-tasty greens from the wild rabbit perspective. I’m planning to add replant that section of the garden soon, so I pulled what was there: 2 turnips and 2 parsnips, all rather small. I cleaned them up, diced them, and added the vegetables to the soup.

Also from my backyard, I added two green onions. I planted these in a container on the deck last spring, and they just keep coming up. Yum. If I can provide enough light, I’ll bring the pot of onions inside for the winter.

As for chicken, there were two chicken breasts left in a bag in the freezer. Thighs are my favorite for soup, but breasts will work. I browned them in a skillet and then dropped both chicken breasts whole into the soup to simmer all day.

A couple hours before serving time, I added some little star noodles (memories of chicken and stars soups in a can, anyone?) and shredded both chicken breasts with two forks.

The end verdict: not Dickensian, as Chuck suggested, but delicious. Please, sir, may I have some more?

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Wild Parsnip: Do Not Touch

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Have you seen this plant?

Have you seen this plant?

It’s pervasive; in fact, it’s invasive. Here’s a closer look.

Flowers on the right, gone to seed on the left.

Flowers on the right, gone to seed on the left.

This, my friends, is wild parsnip. It reminds me of dill, and it’s kind of pretty. But when I showed a young ecologist this picture, he quickly exclaimed, “You didn’t touch it, did you?!” Luckily, I hadn’t.

Wild parsnip flowers produce an oil that stings and burns and even scars. Similar to poison ivy, we asked? Much, much worse, he responded. The flowers react with sunlight, so if the park rangers or farmers or gardeners want to get rid of it, they need to cover up, hazmat style. With gloves to protect hands and goggles to protect the eyes, devoted environmentalists will go out after dark and bag up the plants.

With a little more research on my own, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I learned that the wild parsnip was brought to this country from Europe and planted for its edible roots. It spread like wildfire, er, wildflowers. Heck, look back at the pictures, and you can see how many seeds it produces. This plant wants to reproduce!

The moral of my story is this: if you encounter the dreaded wild parsnip, leave it alone. If you’re confident that you can handle it, come out at night in your hazmat suit and dispose of the floral monster. Don’t compost it or toss it in with your brush pile; that’s just another opportunity to spread the seeds upon the land.

 

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That’s My (green and gold) Son.

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Actual text message from Chuck a few nights ago, at Barbershop practice:
Team building exercise tonight is Packer Trivia. Each section is a team. Leads are winning. That’s YOUR son.
Indeed. When they came home, I found out Amigo had missed one question: Bart Starr’s real first name. It’s Bryan – Bryan Bartlett Starr. Amigo guessed Bartholomew.
He also wondered about Lombardi Time. Lombardi Time, for those not in the know, meant fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled. If Lombardi scheduled a meeting at 8:30, his players knew to arrive by 8:15. There was no grace period. Bart Starr remembers getting to an 8:30 meeting at 8:15 only to find out he was a half hour late; the meeting time had been changed to 8:00. Ouch.
Well, that’s my boy. Green and gold to the core. We don’t utilize Lombardi Time in our home, but we know a lot about team history.
How about you, readers? Do you have encyclopedic knowledge of sports trivia? Or other trivia? That knowledge isn’t useful very often, but it certainly is fun.

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And More Rhubarb – this time, Juice!

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I have a bumper crop of rhubarb again this year. I may have mentioned it. I might have also mentioned that I still have rhubarb in the freezer from last year, as well. When the basic conclusion is Too Much Rhubarb at the O.K. Chorale, there is only one solution: can.

Here’s something I found. It looks very pretty, too. You might know how rhubarb can oxidize after it’s picked and end up looking, well, kind of poopy brown? This mush released the prettiest reddish pink juice! Without further ado, adapted from at least two Internet recipes, rhubarb juice concentrate.

Ingredients

  • 12 cups diced rhubarb, fresh or frozen
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • zest and juice of one lemon
  • zest and juice of one orange

Directions: In large pot, combine rhubarb, water, lemon & orange zests and bring to a boil. Stir constantly over medium high heat. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently until rhubarb is soft (10-20 minutes). Remove from heat.

Pour into dampened jelly bag or strainer lined with several layers of cheesecloth set over a deep bowl. Let drip for at least 2 hours, undisturbed.

In clean, large pot combine rhubarb juice and sugar. Stir in lemon juice and orange juice. Stir to dissolve sugar and bring to a brief boil. Remove from heat.

Ladle into hot jars. Leave ¼-inch headspace.
Place jars in prepared hot water bath canner with jars completely under water. Process for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and remove canner lid. Allow jars to sit in canner for 5 minutes before removing. Set jars on rack or towel and allow to cool.

Serving suggestions: Mix about 1 Tablespoon rhubarb juice concentrate with 8 ounces of another beverage. Serve over ice. (The recipe suggested equal parts concentrate and mixer; the concentrate is much too strong that way!)

Beverage mixes can include water, iced tea, lemonade, ginger ale, or anything you can think of.

Enjoy!

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Pea Pod Soup – a classic pantry raid

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It was a day full of food prep. I’d picked a large amount of rhubarb and slashed the leaves off the stems. While the rhubarb was soaking in the sink to get the dirt off, I’d been shelling peas. I looked at this huge pile of pea pods and thought about the big pile of pods I’d dumped in the compost last week. You can see where I’m heading, can’t you? There had to be another way to use the pea pods after the peas were out.

Soup broth was an option. Pea pods, green onion, garlic scapes – a decent broth, probably. It had potential. But where there was broth, could I also find soup? I did what resourceful cooks do all over the world; I searched the Interwebs. Here’s the result.

Ingredients:

2 lb. fresh, whole pea pods

6 cups water

4 Tablespoons soup base (chicken, beef, or other)

1 small onion, diced (I had a yellow onion on hand)

Garlic Scapes (I used 5)

2 Tablespoons margarine or butter

1 1/2 teaspoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Wash pea pods. Pull off strings.

In medium saucepan, bring water and soup base to a boil. Add pea pods, onion, and garlic scapes. Return to boil; lower heat, simmer for 20 minutes. When pea pods are tender, remove from pan. Push this mix through a food mill or use immersion blender until smooth. True confession: I did both. Mix flour, salt, pepper, and sugar. Melt butter (or margarine) in saucepan. Gradually add flour mixture until thickened. Add soup mix little by little, allowing soup to thicken. Heat through.

Serving options: Add diced ham or chopped bacon; top with sour cream and chives; add saltine crackers; add peas, corn, & carrots during the last ten minutes of cooking.

Amigo ate all of his. Chuck did, too, and proclaimed it “Not bad.” I was rather pleased at how well I raided our pantry and freezer all week long without hitting a grocery store for anything other than milk or bunny food. On the other hand, our next shopping trip is going to carry sticker shock. The kitchen looks like Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard.

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Prepping for winter – or summer – with rhubarb

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I’ve been under the weather for several days, and while I rested and drank fluids, the rhubarb patch grew wild and unruly. When I finally get to it, I will have a lot and I mean A LOT of rhubarb. Frozen rhubarb has good flavor, but the texture isn’t great. I’ll only freeze this bounty if that’s the only option left. Meanwhile, as I was resting, I used the power of the Internet to find more ways to use rhubarb. Here’s a list.

rhubarb jam (of course)

rhubarb jelly (I haven’t really tried jellies yet)

rhubarb cobbler and crisp

rhubarb barbecue sauce (I’ve already put up one batch)

rhubarb juice (now this could be interesting)

I made a trip to the always-fantastic Fleet Farm last night to replace my small hot water bath canner, and as long as I was in the aisle, I grabbed a jelly straining kit. This kit can be part of making jelly rather than jam or straining actual juices from fresh fruit. Rhubarb juice? It’s a possibility.

My thanks to Rhubarb Central for the many, many successful recipes!

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Banana Bread with Strawberries

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Ah, good intentions. The road to you-know-where is paved with good intentions. I planned to share another in-season recipe last week, and the time and the baking got away from me. Here’s a recipe that used to include maraschino cherries. Now it has strawberries, very ripe and juicy, in a classic banana bread.

Banana Bread With Berries

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (one stick)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 ripe or very ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups flour (whole wheat pastry flour is my favorite)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 to 1 cup fresh, ripe strawberries

Directions:

Combine butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, bananas, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Mix in strawberries and chocolate chips. Add flour; mix well until all is moist. Pour into loaf pan or mini loaf pans (my favorite) or muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees. Large loaf pans: 50 minutes. Small loaf pans: 35-40 minutes. Muffin tins: 25-30 minutes.

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Fun with Planters

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Folks who’ve been reading me for a while might remember that I had a papasan turned planter in my front yard. I now have a new-to-me papasan and a few more goodies.

Fun with flowers!

Fun with flowers!

On the table: a few herbs and an experiment: hula berries.

On the ground: purple hued grasses, hopefully due to grow taller. In front, the puppy with geraniums in place of doggie dishes. The puppy (a thrift store fun find) has faded in the years I’ve had him/her in the rock garden, but it’s always fun to find a pot or two to display in the pup. The other pot on the ground is actually a wooden bucket surrounded with what looks like bamboo or rattan. I picked it up at a rummage sale and thought it might look good next to the papasan. The table, with its rattan trim, came from the same sale.

I think this scene, so to speak, will evolve as the plants grow. I’ll share, I promise!

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Mis-fortune cookie

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Is it plagiarism when the fortune in your cookie has the first four lines of a Langston Hughes poem?

 

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

That was Chuck’s fortune. Mine just suggest asking a special someone out for a date. I think getting Chinese take-out was our date, actually.

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Rain Barrels and the Law

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The entire West is facing water challenges with a growing population, limited water supplies, and a changing climate.

I saw this in a post discussing a change in Colorado law allowing residents to harvest rainwater. Prior to the law’s passing, setting up rain barrels like mine was illegal. Illegal? Yes. The Water Police would have come over and ordered me to disconnect my big barrels that collect water every time it rains.

At first, it’s illogical, thinking that conserving water would be not only discouraged, but outlawed. The old laws, however, were written for a time when the average citizen didn’t collect and reuse water. The old laws managed water rights for farmers and ranchers, people making their living off the land. The original legislation made sure the folks who needed large quantities of water for their crops and their livestock would have it and not have to fight their neighbors over every drop.

But now, in an era where individuals are concerned about water – saving water, reusing water, even treating water for household use – the old laws no longer make sense.

I’m fortunate to live in a region where water is relatively plentiful and my rain barrels are encouraged, not outlawed. It’s still important to conserve. I’m glad it’s spring, at long last, and I’m glad to see rain in the forecast sometime this week. I’ve been planting and watering, leaving the barrels ready for refilling.

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