July 2010
A savory week of stuffed grape leaves
Great for satisfying carb cravings, it's been a week of stuffed grape leaves with LindaJoy Rose, who has a new book in the works. Our raw grape leaves use a lemon marinade to help soften the stems. Our filling uses almonds, sunflower, hazelnut meal, oil-cured zucchini, and almond butter.
July 2010
How to use a crystal ball ...
My green crystal ball is a great exercise tool for hands. It can even open the energy gateways in your palms (this happened to me once, to my amazement). These are very heavy for their 2" size and come in so many colors. The beautiful flowers next to them are my new Apricot Profusion Zinnias, which range from coral to Dreamsicle orange and pale yellow.
July 2010
A little garden of good ideas
A tour of our kitchen garden and the creative projects going on there (read more).
July 2010
Wheatgrass Tea
(— Green veggie tea)
Want to add more wheatgrass to your diet without the bitterness or a special juicer? This is a mild Wheatgrass Tea, great cold or hot, but my usual is a tall glass with ice at least once a day. You won't need an expensive juice machine, any blender will do, plus a hand-held strainer. My technique is to blend it with fresh zucchini or vegetable marrow. Easy to make, this low carb, long life drink has just two ingredients, plus water (read more).
July 2010
Classic Kefir Tea & variations ~
Faster than brewing kombucha but with similar taste, plus, not to mention, many addicting variations:
• Classic kefir tea
• Chai kefir tea
• Strawberry kefir spritzer
• Raspberry-mint framboise kefir
Fresh mint steeps in raspberry kefir for summer afternoon.
July 2010
~ favorite soup ~
Savory Shiitake Hot-pot
Greens and mushrooms tempered in hot broth for just 40 seconds are colorful, nutritious, and soft enough to substitute for Ramen and rice noodles. Shiitakes loose their spongy nature and endive/Tango lettuces stand up well when flash-wilted to combine with nut butter, salt and red pepper (read more).
July 2010
Happy birthday to US :)
Lucky herb sage recipe,
Crispy sage with oil and spices
A lady who grows sage invites good luck, and no wonder, with all its heavenly attributes. This summer we're making Sage crisps which are great with Squash blossoms stuffed with potato-nut cheese filling (yes potatoes temper the sweet flavor of puréed nuts!) (read more).
Repurpose an ice bucket for
colorful storage & kitchen composting
Groovy purple porch
This year, inspired by the emerald hills and blue skies, I used a vibrant lilac paint-wash on the floor of my deck, which would let the natural wood grain show through. (read more)
Tickled magenta, summer tonic
The color is just one of the wow-factors of this pink long-life tonic. This drink hydrates, cleanses, energizes ... the mineral rich, natural sugars destroy bad cells … (read more)
Recycle, re-purpose
Stackable storage for veggies
Our supermarket sells plastic boxes of lettuce, peppers, and sprouts. The boxes are great for keeping the produce looking good, but we've found the vegetables and mushrooms sold without boxes have more flavor. Now we get the best of both worlds by saving & recycling the containers … (read more).
On an old corner of an old porch …
Is this not a gorgeous emerald green paint? I have been restoring our old house gradually and with a lot of love, and in return it has been restoring me. (read more)
Kefir tea
Kefir water brews faster than kombucha tea with similar taste and no caffeine. I just made a batch with chai tea flavor. (read more)
Growing sunflower sprouts on straw
We found these big sprouts prefer lots of light and air, so we moved them to nooks and crannies between the young veggie plants rather than keep them indoors. They seem to love growing in straw mulch, and turned out to be a great use of extra space early in the season (read more).
Weekend window box makeover
Inexpensive window boxes take on natural country charm with rust-colored paint for the metal, and multi-shades of green and yellow for the coir liners. (read more)
Canine joint health and dogs gone raw
Ki-ki was was limping, getting worse every day. The symptoms came on suddenly. A lyme test came back negative. The vet diagnosed arthritis, based on x-rays. He prescribed a dangerous anti-inflammatory and said our pet would need frequent liver tests to see if she was being killed by the medicine. That's NOT for our girl, we decided. (read more)
Strawberry love
Dry fresh berries for 12 hours with oil in a dehydrator, or use a warm oven set on the lowest temperature to make vegan strawberry butter. (read more)
Garden talk: grow an ornamental red maple
Our ornamental maple is just three years old, about 15" tall, and a veritable charmer in the garden, well on her way to being a crown jewel of a tree with gently weeping red leaves and diminutive stature. It's hard to believe it started life as a cast-off seed found in a shopping mall parking lot (read more).
My 123Print notecards, you can personalize …
Recipe: eggplant "bacon" chips
This turned out to be an excellent bacon-like treat I will definitely make again right away (read more).
Mini cheesecake molds from recycled containers
Re-purpose, recycle
There are so many fabulous cheesecake recipes coming out for the holidays!
We like miniature cheesecakes, fresh from the freezer—instead of one large pie melting in the fridge. Our lemon-cashew cheesecake with carob cookie crust was a big hit on Thanksgiving, and thanks to the quick mini-molds we used, each serving stayed pristine in the freezer until defrosted. (read more)
Green olive & kale pesto
I've always been crazy about green olives and they are wonderful paired with fresh kale. Some markets sell raw olives, but if you can't get those, do try this recipe with what you can find from a good olive bar (read more).
contactng me
I apologize in advance if I can not answer your email right away, but I promise to read everything you send.
Pardon my elf …
He's marking things that are not all thereyet, and a reminder that we all need nine extra hours in the day!