Valentine's Day 2010

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. A day of Love and Romance. Since there is no one special in my life. My sister and I decided to do something for my parents.

1. Make a Romantic dinner for two
2. and Leave the House!!!

Mom and Sister #3 went out shopping, just for some fun, so Sister #3 picked up a great olive baguette along with some really tasty olive spread. I forgot the name of the spread. For supper, it was just something really simple. Well it didn't turn out simple. Normally I would consider myself a good cook. Not as good as my mom, but better than most. Who would have guessed that this meal would have presented so many roadblocks. The menu was this...
Spaghetti Squash, with mushroom marinara, chocolate vanilla pudding with heart shaped raspberries, micro green salad, and the yummy baguette.

Normally I cook spaghetti squash in the oven, but Mom said that you could cook it in the pressure cooker. Let's just say that we served them spinach linguine instead. =) That was only the first problem. We wouldn't let them see anything, so they were downstairs watching a movie. I am sure they must have thought that I was destroying the kitchen. I kept dropping everything, I mean everything! The last problem that had to be overcome with cunning and sly personality, which was almost not enough, was the pudding.... *Doom and Gloom music plays in the Background* We thought it would be really fun to make the two different flavors in a swirling type look. You know, Alternating between vanilla and chocolate. The first bowl was a flop. The 2nd ... I got the brilliant idea that the puddings should be in icing bags. I would turn the bowl while sister#3 would squeeze the bags. It didn't work. Puddings was shot everywhere except the bowl. But, it was fun to lick off our fingers! We left shortly after plating.

On cold days like these, when the snow is falling all around you, its nice to cuddle up in a chair with a book and a nice hot cup of tea! This past summer I had the wonderful opportunity to make my own tea blend. All the ingredients in this blend were grown by me. At the farm, we grew Chamomile, Calendula, Feverfew, Peppermint, and Clover. But we never used any of these blooms for anything. They were only used for looking at. Why, I have no idea! I decided, to make my own brew, and Mmmm Doggy, it's good. These are the pics of this wonderful tea, it is so good that I decided to plant most of these flowering herbs in my garden this year. You will see in my previous post, that they are indeed in the plans. If you so desire, you can do the same. All of these herbs are beautiful in your flowerbeds and landscape; but if you spray your flowerbeds, plant it with the veggies instead. I mean really, does anyone want all those chemicals in their tea, I don't think so. Then when your plants bloom just snip off the flowers. This is good for your plants and premoted them to produce more buds!

Here are the ingredients:

• 3 parts Calendula Blossoms
  
• 3 parts Red Clover Blossoms
• 2 parts Peppermint leaves
• 1 part Chamomile Blossoms
  
• 1 part Feverfew Blossoms

Hope you get the chance to try this. It's really tasty!

Garden plan 2010

I don't know about you, but I am extremely excited about this new year of veggies and flowers. After my recent internship on the 150 acre organic farm, I have looked into being more adventurous and trying some not-so-common home veggies. Everyone grows and harvests the traditional mix of vegetables and herbs; such as tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, zucchini, basil and the like. I on the other hand want to reach out into the plethora of vegetables and herbs that most home gardeners never get the chance to do.

Here is a list of what I will be growing in 2010;
Basil, Beets, Carrots, Turnips, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Acorn and Butternut Squash, Tomatoes, Peppers, Oca (not to be confused with Okra), Lettuce, Radishes, Turnips, Garlic, Celeriac, Leeks, Calendula, Chamomile, Fennel, Cucumbers, Nasturtium, Cauliflower, Cilantro, Parsley, Swiss Chard, Kale, and Sun Flowers.

I quickly made a outline of what the garden will look like and we will hope that I got it right. I will go out later and make sure that I have all the measurement correct.

Next post on: Oca (New Zealand Yam)