The first harvest

Our garden has produced its first harvest: 2 cherry tomatoes! Lucas does not like tomatoes, so these were enjoyed only by me. I had to savor them, because I'm not sure the plant will produce any others...it seems to have developed some kind of disease (perhaps blight?) and has no signs of further tomato growth at this point. I plan to continue to water it in hopes that we will get a few more, but at any rate, I am happy to have at least these 2 in my first gardening attempt! Our squash plants are enormous now and have a few flowers that bloomed this week. Although I am really excited about them, I am also a bit sad in that in their growth, they have begun to take over some of the other squares of the garden, completely hanging over and blocking the sun of the peppers and parsley. Both peppers and parsley still seem to be hanging in there, so we'll see...The watermelon has also begun to vine out of the box and we are now trailing it along the side of the deck. And, the basil, which I thought was a lost cause, is finally starting to grow! We also have mesclun, which is fair to good. Something ate half of the red leaf variety, but the rest is looking good. I'll have to get out there soon and take some updated pictures.

Barely food related...

August 2nd, or sometime around then, we're not really sure on the exact day, was our puppy Wembley's first birthday. I had these grand schemes to invite all his doggy friends (really, just our friends who happen to have dogs roughly Wembley's size) over for a fun filled afternoon of water fun. Lucas was having none of that (staunchly determined not to become "those dog people"). I can see how having a birthday party for your dog may seem a little bit overboard, so I was willing to compromise. Instead of inviting other dogs to join in the fun, we bought Wembley a sprinkler. Wembles is a huge water fan anyway and loves the hose, so we figured he might enjoy a sprinkler. Enjoy it he did--he played a good 30 minutes straight in the water, pausing every so often to roll around in the grass to get good and dirty (this birthday party ended with a bath for Wembley--probably not his favorite present ever). When we thought he might fall over from exhaustion, we presented him with his cake (see, there, I mentioned food! This still counts as a food post!): 5 wheat thin crackers topped with peanut butter--his favorite treat. So, happy birthday to Wembley! Fun times. Note: the last picture is a video.

Dixie Quick's Magnolia Room

While I was visiting my family this past week in Omaha, my mom and I met my brother for lunch one day at Dixie Quick's Magnolia Room. The building itself, from the outside, is nondescript, not even a sign except for some paint on the windows telling you that you have just driven past the restaurant. Inside, it is a cute little diner, with murals painted on the walls, a chalk board listing the menu of the day, and an art gallery accessible through a doorway in the dining room. The tables were covered with butcher paper and a cup of crayons on the table indicated that drawing all over your tablecloth was encouraged. The menu featured both breakfast and lunch items, and my family ordered from both areas. I had the magnificent french toast dish pictured above--it was topped with fresh berries and whipped cream and served with maple syrup. Delicious. The picture (from the Dixie Quick's website...click on it to link back to their site) doesn't give you an accurate picture of how monstrous it is--the stack of toast was huge. Being pregnant, I was able to give it a good effort and ate nearly 3 pieces. My mom helped out with the rest. For her meal, she had the grilled tomato, basil, mozzarella sandwich. She loved it. My brother had the black bean and corn quesadilla, also declared to be quite tasty. Dixie Quick's was featured on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" on Monday night and got rave reviews. I don't know if it is available to watch online or not, but I'll see if I can find it. The menu changes daily (or even during the day), according to Chef Rene Ortuna's preference. I'm looking forward to going back next time I'm in Omaha, and recommend it to anyone that lives there or will be visiting!

Dump Cake

At the moment, the most delicious smell is wafting through the house. I just talked to Lucas and told him if he found me on the kitchen floor when he gets home from work, it is because I have just eaten an entire cake and cannot move. Seriously, this thing is dangerously good smelling. And also, dangerously awful for you. After just posting about how we are eating healthy and cooking with non-processed ingredients, I am completely contradicting myself with this post. None of this cake is from scratch. It took maybe 3 minutes to assemble. I don't even want to ask about the nutritional value. But, I haven't eaten it since college, and I have never made it myself, so it isn't like this is a normal occurrence (although maybe it should be...). And, I am further justifying it by the fact that it isn't for us (not all of it, anyway). In about an hour, if I haven't eaten the whole thing by then, it will be traveling to a friend/coworker's home, where she and her husband will join us in our self-destructive behavior. We are actually taking a whole meal over, as they are the proud new parents of a new baby girl, who we get to meet for the first time tonight! The Dump Cake was a last minute addition to the meal, because I had forgotten to plan a dessert. As previously mentioned, Dump Cake is super fast to make, so it was easy to through together in the last few hours before we head over there. I am hoping it is just as good as I remember, and judging by the smell, I think I'm in luck!

Dump Cake
ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
1 can sugar free cherry pie filling
1 can crushed pineapple in water (don't drain)
1/2 c. butter, thinly sliced into pats

(I know, 4 ingredients, how can that even be considered cooking? Well, friends, deliciousness apparently is more concerned with quality, not quantity.)

directions:
1. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray, or coat with butter.
2. Open can of cherry pie filling and spread over bottom of pan with spatula.
3. Open can of pineapple and spread over pie filling, mixing together.


(for those of you who are asking yourself, "Aren't those pineapple tidbits? I thought the recipe called for crushed pineapple!", congratulations on being so observant! That will pay off when you are at the store and looking at pineapple cans--be sure to look for the word "crushed." I obviously was not so observant...hence the tidbits in my cake above.)

4. Sprinkle cake mix over top of fruit mixture in an even layer.


5. Place cut butter pats across top of cake mixture.


6. Bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees, or until top is golden.
7. Try to hold off eating until you are actually at the dinner party (good luck with that).


I like to console myself by thinking that there are 2 types of fruit in this dessert. That totally counts as a serving of fruit. Let's forget that I plan to top this with a generous dollop of whipped cream, and can't completely rule out second helpings...mmmm.

Whipped Cream

To be honest, I really haven't done much worthy of writing about lately, so in the interest of posting for the sake of posting, I thought I'd write about whipped cream. Last summer, I had the time and opportunity to frequent the library daily (all right, not always by choice...we were in the process of house buying and due to the incompetencies of Comcast, spent nearly 2 months without internet, therefore sending me to the library daily to communicate with our realtor, lenders, insurance agents, utility providers, etc. More than annoying.) This did give me lots of time to peruse the shelves while waiting for a computer to open up, and I spent most of my time in the food section, reading books like Twinkie: Deconstructed by Steve Ettlinger, Real Food by Nina Planck, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and most recently, Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. In short, after reading those books I decided to eliminate a lot (not all, let's be reasonable...every so often, you are going to have to eat high fructose corn syrup...it is in everything. If you go out to eat at all, there is a good chance every item you order contains some. That is perhaps an over generalization, but I'm just trying to point out that even though I try to be really conscious about it, I am aware that I do eat some) of processed foods from my diet. Starting with high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. Which is why the Ward household no longer buys "frozen whipped topping" and instead makes our own whipped cream. Which is so easy, I am ashamed to admit that I just started doing this a year ago.

A note: I am only posting these pictures because they are the only ones I have of whipped cream making. They are from earlier this week, and the only reason I have them at all is because I used too small a bowl and splattered the whipping cream all over my shirt (and the kitchen), which Lucas found hilarious, therefore prompting him to fashion for me the "paper towel bib" you see me wearing in the photos. He thought he was quite funny, so he proceeded to take these pictures. Ha.


Whipped Cream
ingredients:
whipping cream
sugar or agave nectar
flavoring (vanilla, almond, liquor, etc)


Unfortunately, I can't offer you measurements or quantities for the ingredients. I just eyeball it to however much we need. I taste as I go until it is sweet enough for us. I like to flavor with almond extract, but vanilla is good too, and when not pregnant, I like amaretto or creme de caramel.



To make:
1. Pour desired amount of whipping cream into an appropriately sized bowl (I have learned that you should always go bigger than you think you need...).
2. Begin whipping with an electric whisk, or make in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. I suppose you could also whisk it by hand, but be prepared to be whisking awhile.
3. Gradually add sugar or agave nectar and continue whisking until cream starts to thicken. When soft peaks begin to form, add in flavoring and continue whisking until desired consistency. Don't over beat, or you will make butter. Very sweet and tasty butter, but probably not what you want on your dessert...

The almond flavored whipped cream is especially good with fresh berries. Mmmmm. Enjoy!

Peach-raspberry pie

Lucas and I had a few guys from his office over for dinner on the 4th of July. In the spirit of the holiday, I thought I would bake a pie, because what goes better with the 4th of July than pie? I had planned to make peach-blackberry pie, but when I got to the store after saving my shopping for the day of the holiday, I was saddened to discover they were sold out of blackberries. So, I swapped the blackberry idea for raspberries at the last minute. In hindsight, I maybe should have just made a peach pie and left out the other fruit entirely, but there's always next time. As a warning, peach-raspberry pie is very, very, sweet.

This pie was my first attempt at a lattice top pie. I made the crust from scratch, and probably should've made a bigger batch as it turns out I made a crust for a regular dish pie, and the dish I own happens to be deep dish. So, the edges weren't turned under as nicely as they should have been, and there are fewer lattices than I wanted, but an overall respectable attempt. Last summer I found an all butter pie crust recipe that I loved, and then promptly lost it. I have tried several times to replicate said pie crust, but cannot recreate the delicious flaky butteriness of the original. This crust was just a version of the Better Homes and Gardens red plaid cookbooks pie crust, substituting butter for the shortening. Eh. Nothing special.

Peach-raspberry pie
1 recipe for a double crust pie (use your favorite)
7-8 peaches, peeled and sliced
1.5 cups fresh raspberries
1/2 c. sugar
3 T. all purpose flour
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1.5 T. unsalted butter, cubed (I forgot this step. Do Not forget this step!!)
1 egg, mixed with a little bit of cold water (to brush on the crust)
sugar (to sprinkle on the crust)

Directions:
1. Make pie crust for double crust pie. Divide dough in half and refrigerate 30-60 minutes. Roll one half of dough to 1/4" thick and place in 9" pie plate. Allow dough to overhand the edges.
2. Mix peaches and raspberries with sugar, flour, lemon zest, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon into crust. Dot with the cubes of butter.
3. Roll out second half of dough to 1/4" thickness. Use a pizza cutter, pastry wheel, or knife to cut 10 strips of dough 3/4" thick. Weave into lattice top over filling. Turn bottom crust edge over edges of strips and roll and pinch together.
4. Brush egg over the strips and sprinkle with sugar.
5. Bake 40-50 minutes on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven (based on original recipe. my oven never works right, so I baked it close to 1.5 hours. maybe your's will work better...). Crust should be golden brown and filling should be bubbling when done.

Garden

So....haven't posted anything for awhile. I have had a few failed baking attempts (I entirely blame my oven. More on this later), have started a backyard garden, went through a few weeks where I made things, but didn't think to photograph them (guess we'll just have to make homemade ice-cream with homemade caramel sauce again...oh well!), and was mostly lazy. I thought I'd attempt to make up for my laziness by promising a series of posts--as in one each day this week. This is a lofty goal, however, and you will be lucky to see one every other day. Though I will try my best.

Today I thought I'd share about my garden. Since we moved in a year ago, I have been talking about the wonderful garden I would have now that I had my own backyard. I suppose I could have managed something during the "apartment days," but the closest I got to gardening then was my window oxalis, which could live anywhere and I'm sure could be tended to by a hamster or other small brained creature with moderate rate of success. Pondering just how we were going to get anything to grow in our clay soil lasted nearly the whole first year we were here. Then, our neighbor told us about square foot gardening, which would eliminate any soil preparation and contain the garden to a set spot all at the same time. Perfect!

3 weeks later...


We have a garden! Looking at the picture above, from the bottom left hand corner, going from bottom to top, then top to bottom: 2 squares of watermelon, cherry tomatoes, basil, empty square (was going to be zucchini, but no stores seemed to carry those seeds this late in the summer), zinnia, mesclun, zinnia, spinach, empty square (was to be zucchini, again), 2 squares of peppers, 2 squares of squash, parsley, and mesclun. All except the tomato and zinnias were from seed. I also have a larger tomato plant in a container on the deck. So, we'll see how well we do! I've already found a worm and some sort of tiny grasshopper looking thing eating the leaves on the watermelon sprouts, which is why I have thinned the sprouts back yet. Want to make sure I leave the strongest one! I am pretty sure I have over planted in terms of big plants--the book recommended one squash plant for every 3 squares. I went ahead and planted 2 next door to each other. Oh well. If one doesn't make it, I guess I have a back up.

In the picture, you will also notice the presence of our dog, Wembley. He thinks it is his job to dig up any bark, pieces of mulch, or large clumps of dirt that might be present in the garden. If you spend any time near our yard, you will most likely hear the sounds of: "Wembley! No! Get out of there!", followed by a crazed black dog streaking through the yard at a speed way to fast for a human to catch. He will then proceed to streak straight by you, through the garden, and start the process over. We are going to look into a small fence. This in lieu of Lucas' suggestion to just get rid of the dog. Deep down, I think he really does like him.

Tomorrow (or the next day, whichever...): Peach-raspberry pie