Honey Spiced Salmon

This turned out sooo good! I picked up a large piece of boneless salmon on sale. Hubby usually doesn't like fish but he deals with it, this he actually described as delicious!

Honey Spiced Salmon
1 lb salmon, raw
1/2 tsp ginger, ground
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 orange, peeled and pureed
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp sesame oil

Combine all ingredients in a ziplock storage bag. Squeeze out the air, seal and marinate 20 minutes, turning occasionally. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375. This is a good time to prep side dishes too, I made brown rice, sweet potato oven fries and sauted greens to go with. Just cook rice by package directions, it takes the same cooking time as the salmon. The sweet potato fries just cut into sticks or wedges, toss with olive oil or spray with nonstick spray and bake in a single layer on a cookie sheet at the same time as the salmon. The greens were fresh from my container garden, I washed and chopped them then tossed into a hot cast iron skillet
with a dash of canola oil for a couple minutes after removing everything else from the oven.

To cook the salmon, remove from marinade and discard leftover marinade. Wrap salmon in foil, place in a dish and bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. Yum!

This doesn't have a strong fishy flavor, it's slightly sweet, tender and has great flavor! Leftovers get more fishy but are okay for using in things like tuna casserole recipes.

Pumpkin Soup

This is just divine. Warm, lusciously creamy, sweet and laced with spices, pumpkin soup tastes like pumpkin pie - without the huge calorie count or nearly as much work! Ready in about 15 minutes. I used cooked pureed pumpkin I made previously and froze leftover, canned pumpkin turns out more orange. Fresh pumpkins are dirt cheap in the fall and early winter, so I buy several, cook them and freeze leftovers to cook with later. High in fiber, very nutritious, cheap and yummy!

Pumpkin Soup
cooked pureed pumpkin or canned pumpkin, about 2 cups
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
pinch cloves
milk, as needed

Combine all ingredients in a heavy pot
. Add milk as needed to get the texture you want, it takes a bit more than you'd expect. Add about 1/4 cup at a time, stir through and decide if you want more, different batches of pumpkin have different moisture content so there isn't a set amount of milk needed. Heat over low or medium low until warm through.

Serve warm. Great with a couple graham crackers, or topped with a small scoop of ice cream or frozen cool whip on top.

Some people like less or more sweetness. I prefer a bit less than this, so I add the sugar a little at a time and taste it, with this much it really tastes like pie but it does have quite a bit of sugar.

Italian Turkey Stew

I made this for dinner a few days ago. Rich, hearty turkey stew with Italian herbs, served over spaghetti squash. Yum!

Italian Turkey Stew

1 lb ground lean turkey

1 can diced or stewed tomatoes, undrained

2 cups diced zucchini

1-2 cloves garlic, diced or pressed

1 small can tomato sauce or some leftover marinara

Italian seasoning or fresh herbs such as parsley and oregano, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a pot. Simmer over medium low until cooked through. I put it on low and just slow cooked it about 2 hours until dinner time, but it should work just as good to cook it higher until done through.

Spaghetti squash is easy to prepare to serve this over. I used a small one. Just wash it, place on a plate and microwave about 10 minutes. It will pop while being cooked. The shell is really hard, better to let it pop than try to stab a vent hole in it. Once it's cooked, cool enough to handle. Cut or pull it apart, scrape out the seed section in the middle and use forks to shred up the rest like spaghetti.

You could also serve it over pasta, rice, bread, in cooked tiny pumpkins or bread bowls, or just straight as a soup by adding a bit more water.

Creamy Roast turkey & veggies stew with herbed dumplings

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is! Since it's made of precooked ingredients it only takes about 20 minutes to throw together, and looks and tastes like something that took all day! With all the carbs it's not the most diet friendly, but it's relatively low fat, low sodium , nutritious, very cheap, and it's super yummy on a cold day!

The turkey and veggies are leftovers. I thawed and cooked a turkey from the freezer a few days ago, then froze a few portions of shredded, cooked turkey to make things like this or tacos out of. At the holidays whenever the grocery stores offer a deal where I can get one for $5 or so I grab one and put it in the freezer for cheap food later. The veggies I made as a side dish.

Roasted veggies
2 zucchini, sliced (unpeeled)
1 onion, cut into chunks
4 carrots, sliced (unpeeled)
Nonstick spray or oil
herbs of your choice - I used basil, oregano and parsley

Toss veggies with a little oil or spray with nonstick spray. Spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake at whatever temp anything else is cooking until tender. Time is very forgiving but figure about 40 minutes at 325 or 30 at 400. Serve hot as a side dish, or add to other dishes such as casseroles, to stretch meat for tacos, in place of meat in dishes like lasagne, as a simple topper for brown rice with some tomato sauce, like a stir-fry or add to soups.


Creamy Roast Turkey and Veggies Stew with Herbed Dumplings
2 cups cooked veggies (I used the roasted vegges above)
1 1/2 cup shredded or cubed cooked meat (I used roasted turkey)
water, boullion or broth to cover
1/4 cup flour
fat free milk, up to 1 cup
pepper and herbs to taste
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, pressed, diced or cut up
1 recipe herbed dumplings, below

Combine turkey and veggies in a medium soup pot. Add as much water, boullion or broth as you'd like. Season with garlic, worcestershire sauce, pepper and a few shakes of herbs like italian seasoning, parsley, or any fresh herbs you have leftover, to taste.

Combine flour and milk in small bowl, adding milk slowly and stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Can also combine in a small jar and shake to combine. Add to soup, stirring well. Heat over medium until bubbling in a slow boil. Soup will thicken and get a nice creamy texture. You can serve it at this stage if you want, or you can skip the flour & milk to make a thinner (and lower carb) soup. I like it creamy and with dumplings on dreary, cold rainy days, it's hearty like a chowder without the huge fat content.


Herbed Dumplings
2/3 cup flour
1 tbsp dried herbs
dash pepper
dash salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp canola oil

Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl. Combine milk and oil in a small cup, pour all at once into dry ingredients and stir just until combined. If it's a little dry and not holding together, add a dash more milk. Drop by heaping spoonfuls into simmering soup. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 4 dumplings. Yum!

Cookbooks

I often get questions and cookbooks, which are my favorites, which are best. I love a good cook book! I'll read through it, just devour it. Even if I can't use all (or even many) of the recipes, I can learn a lot of things. Different techniques, seasoning combos, ingredient combos. Ideas I didn't have before. I have a pretty large cook book collection, so I can browse for inspiration.

The one I return to the most often is my old favorite, the classic red and white Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book: Celebrating the Promise, 14th Limited Edition . It's the one I learned to cook from, clearly labeled and organized, and a great starting point to learn how to use basic equipment and ingredients. Not always the healthiest or most budget friendly, but the recipes inside that book give you the skills and confidence to face more and more complicated foods. If you're living on junk in a box and ready meals, then the recipes in there can improve your budget and your nutrition a huge amount! I still use some of the recipes in there, it's my comfort food.

Another favorite is the Farm Journal Cook Book
which I got 2nd hand. I love the chicken & dumplings in there, and it's helped me in meat prep.

When I'm feeling nostalgic and festive, I flip through Betty Crocker's Best Christmas Cookbook
which is just pretty. I often get inspired to make something after flipping through that! I especially love their vegetable lasagne. Not the most diet friendly food on earth, but it's better than the sausage loaded version and really tasty. I swap out the cheeses for lower fat versions and use less, whole wheat pasta and extra veggies. Yum! Their cookies are all wonderful too, anyone who I've sent Christmas cookies to at the holidays has probably had at least a couple from that book. Has some craft ideas in there too, some that make good gifts or craft fair ideas. Fun!

So there it is, my 3 favorites. I can usually dig through one or more of those and get inspired what to do with almost anything I drag home. I love to grab obscure produce on impulse or buy what's on sale that wasn't advertised, then I have to decide what to do with it later. That means a lot of trying to come up with meals with little planning, and a lot of improvising. So a good quality basic skills book, a nice classics farm book with a variety of meats and veggies, and a couple books with pretty pictures and appetizing ideas are a great resource. Having that library availble helps me be able to make cheap, healthy and delicious meals with whatever I can find on sale.

So what are everyone else's favorite books and must haves? I'm always looking for new suggestions what makes a good resource!

I dig through dozens of others. I really recommend for anyone to have at least a couple books around, especially at least one that's pretty.

Building a new worm bin

This is super easy! Everyone should give it a try! My worm bin is pretty easy to maintain, reduces how much trash we produce and will give us great fertilizer for my container garden. Plus it's pretty entertaining :D

I have 2 lids for my bin, one with holes, one without. When it rains, I put the one without on top so the rain doesn't pool on top and run in through their ventilation holes. It rained and I forgot. Oops. So the worms are soaked and unhappy. I checked on them and their bedding is sopping, and a bunch of worms all up the sides. So I decided it's as good a time as any to divide the bin, something I've been planning to do for a few weeks.

I made the new bin a couple weeks ago, but didn't fill it until today. It's really easy!

Here's what you'll need to make your own worm bin:

1-2 old Rubbermaid style storage tubs

2 lids, or 1 lid and 1 solid cover
a waterproof support like a couple bricks, cinderblocks, small flowerpots
another tub or lid to use as a drip tray, optional

1 paper grocery bag of shredded cardboard, newspaper, dead dry leaves or a mix, moistened

fruit or veggie scraps

1 lb or so red wigglers worms

a drill and fairly large drill bit

Just take an old Rubbermaid style tub and drill holes all over it on all sides, including the lid to create a ventilated tub. Mine has some dry leaves in it already in the pic, but you can see the holes all over.

To assemble the tub, place the bricks on top of drip tray (spare lid or 2nd tub without holes). Put the ventilated tub on top of the bricks. Once it's in place, begin to fill it. Place a layer several inches thick of moistened shredded newspaper, cardboard or dry leaves. I like to save thin brown cardboard boxes, paper bags, toilet paper tubes and newspaper for this. Before adding to the bin, moisten it lightly. I dumped some rain water on it. You want it damp, but barely damp. It will absorb more moisture from the food you add. The worms really seem to like soft corrigated cardboard. Avoid any glossy paper and try to avoid color inks. No plastic windows from envelopes, staples or other noncompostables. This will be the worms' bedding, it helps keep the right moisture level and prevent odors, but it will also be consumed.

Now that the worms have a nice bed, they'll need something to eat. Fruit and veggie trimmings, bread, rice or cereal are good choices. If you're using banana peels or much fruit, I'd microwave it first to avoid fruit flies - voice of experience!

Only several handfuls are needed to start. Scatter it over the top of the bedding. Add your worms in with their food. It looks like I added a huge amount of food, but most of that is soggy stuff from the old bin. I scooped out a bunch of worms and old bedding from the old bin to start this bin.

Next it's time to tuck them in. Add another layer a couple inches thick of bedding material, your moistened cardboard or paper. You want all the food and wormy layer to be covered. Last, place your lid on top. One with holes is good for everyday use, but if it's raining put a solid lid on top so your worms won't drown. I didn't get a picture of it with bedding on top or a lid, I was working fast to avoid getting rained on.

To maintain your bin, keep it somewhere protected. They can take a light freezing after the bin is established, but it's best to keep them in the garage or basement if temperatures will be below the 40s at night for more than a couple days. They slow down eating when they're cold, so make sure you're not over feeding during cool weather.

To feed them, just scoop back the top layer of bedding and add new scraps then recover it. Try to go in a circle so by the time you dig up a spot again they've had time to eat what was there. I like to toss the contents around a bit when I feed them, to see what they're eating and make sure the worms are looking content. Add food slowly at first, a handful every couple days or a week, until you can judge how much they'll eat before it begins to rot. My worms seem to love banana peels, beans, Cheerios, lettuce and apple cores.

If it's too wet or you notice an odor, add more bedding. If it's too dry, sprinkle with water. When the bin is all full of nice powdered casings (worm poo) it's time to harvest! But mine isn't ready yet, so that'll be another day :)

I fed my old bin at the same time, some old salad, then tossed around some new bedding and more on top to make up for leaving the ventilated lid on and them getting too wet. Here's the bin after a little stirring around and feeding, see all the unhappy worms on the lower edge? They're hard to see, but trust me, they're there. I knocked a bunch of them back into the bin too.

Since the new bin is a secondary, I just stacked it on top of the old one. I'll create a drip tray for it another day, it's pouring today and I barely had enough of a break in the rain to put the new bin together today. Here they are all stacked. The bottom grey bin is my drip tray, the green bin is my old worm bin, the top grey bin is the one I just put together.

Luscious little lemon cookies

I tried making these cookies this morning. I wanted a lemon dessert recipe that is at least healthier than my old favorites, lemon bars. I found a few recipes for lemon olive oil cookies, and modified it. These little wonders are OUTSTANDING! They definitely don't taste like anything I should be eating! They're crisp on the bottom like a crust, luscious and tender in the middle. Not gooey, but moist, soft, cakey and almost a little chewy. Zippy lemon flavor just like lemon merringue pie. I think I have a new favorite easy cookie recipe! Try 'em out, I bet you'll love them too!

Luscious Little Lemon Cookies

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup unbleached flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

dash salt

dash ginger powder (optional)

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp poppy seeds (could probably leave these out)

2 eggs

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup canola oil

zest of 1 lemon, grated

Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. In a separate small bowl, beat together remaining ingredients. Pour into dry ingredients and stir just until combined well.

Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. Makes 16 cookies, only about 92 calories each!

Next time I may try swapping out even more of the flour for whole wheat, or replacing the whole eggs with eggwhite or simmered flaxseed meal. Awesome as they are!

Here's the bottom of the cookies, see how golden and lovely? Perfect crisp but tender. Yum!

Favorite gardening book and newbie gardening ideas

We're in a condo. I -can- plant some stuff in the ground but it'd have to fit in with the (older than dirt overgrown and very poorly maintained half dead) landscaping. I plan to put some sunflowers there, around the base of our deck, and some wildflowers near the front door. Both places the runoff from my containers will keep them watered. My main garden is all in containers.

I really love a book I got for Christmas,



It's a basic guide on what you can do in containers, much of it also applies to small areas. I've learned a couple things I was doing wrong from that book, and got a few good ideas to try this year. Mostly planting more than one thing per pot so they can work together, like tall things that don't need soil surface with short things that don't need much vertical space. I have a few combos planned, like a big pot on the front porch, I have lavender sprouting to put in there and I'm looking for creeping thyme to put with it. I have oregano, chocolate mint and sweet potatoes on the front porch, I'll be adding cilantro, parsley and chives when they're a little bigger. It's my herb area since it gets plenty of sun and is close to the kitchen.

The side deck is my veggie area since it's the largest. I'll have tomatoes there, carrots, spinach, mustard greens, radishes, scarlet runner beans on the pergola, bell peppers, zucchini and a couple other odds and ends. I'm taking advantage of vertical space as much as I can. I watch Craigslist and other sources for plant stands, the kind like a metal bookcase, so I can stack plants a few high without compromising too much light. I have a couple hanging planters, some pots on the rail, some on shelves made of wood and cinderblocks. Some will grow on the pergola, some will be staked or caged (tomatoes, beans and squash).

The rear deck is the smallest and it's where we have living space with a table. It has a GIANT strawberry pot, and a dish pot full of radishes. I just got a hanging planter to go out there that I'm going to plant edible flowers in, I have one of those seed starter greenhouse things full of pansies, johnny-jump-ups and violas for it, and I'll put nasturtiums around the edge so they'll hang down and look gorgeous. Radishes grow really fast, so I can do a few batches in that one dish pot, and when I get bored of them I can fill it up with more flowers or some mustard greens. I'd eventually like to get a dwarf lemon or orange tree to put out there, I already have a giant pot I can put it in - a real find on clearance at Kmart for about $5! It's about 2 feet across, bigger than a barrell half and deeper.

The hands down easiest stuff to grow in small spaces:
mustard greens
radishes (seriously. You can grow them anywhere, and they're ready in 1-2 months)
spinach

Anything else takes a little work or know-how, I learn as I go. Decide what you like to eat and look it up to see if it will grow well in the space you have! No matter what I grow, I make room in the summer for tomatoes. Store bought tomatoes taste like nothing, and they're criminally expensive. I don't get much food from that much space, but it's fun and what I do get is a lot better than store bought stuff.

If you're just starting out though or trying to expand your container gardening know how, check out that book! I'm having a lot of fun planning new things to try out with it, I keep checking back. It tells you the minimum pot depth needed for various things too, which is really useful and hard info to find!

Chili Lime Shrimp

Yum! Dinner tonight turned out really good. Napa cabbage salad with asian dressing, grilled veggies and chili lime shrimp, brown rice with plain yogurt, and fresh cut pear and papaya.

Cabbage Salad

1 small head napa cabbage, coarsely diced

2 small tomatoes, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

handful cilantro, shredded

Asian salad spritzer or dressing of choice
This is one of my most common side dishes. Cut up fresh fruit, whatever is on sale. Wednesday is super cheap produce sale day and the ethnic market I go to, so I'm all stocked up right now! Today papaya and pears were some of the great deals. This is just 2 pears and about 1/8 of a papaya.

The grilled veggies are really easy too, and make a great versatile side dish. I slice up what I have, spray with Pam and put them on the George Forman grill. Leftovers make great scrambled eggs, omelets, salad toppers or pita sandwiches.

This is 2 zucchini, 2 green and 2 red bell peppers, and 1 medium/small onion.

Chili Lime Shrimp

1 lb shrimp

1 lime, zest and juice

1/4 tsp chili powder

pepper to taste

1 tbsp canola or olive oil

Combine lime juice, about 2/3 of the zest, chili powder, pepper and oil. Clean shrimp well and coat them in marinade. Cook the rest of dinner while they marinade, doesn't take long.

To cook, just place on George Forman grill until pink through and curled up. I bought precooked shrimp this time since it was on sale, and just put on the grill long enough to warm them, works a lot better with raw shrimp.

Brown Rice with Lime Yogurt

per serving:

1/2 cup cooked brown rice

1 tbsp plain fat free yogurt

couple pinches lime zest

Top rice with yogurt, sprinkle with lime zest.

First harvest of the year

Yay! I harvested the very first of my container garden today. Just a salad made of thinnings from my big dish of radishes and some baby spinach, but still good! Only about 10 minutes from growing to served up. All I did was pull up any of the baby radishes that were too close together, break off the root end and wash them well. The baby spinach I pulled larger leaves off all my plants. I need to plant more spinach, I eat a ton of salads and fresh right off the plant is so much better than the junk at the grocery store! There's something primal and intensely satisfying about eating something you grew yourself, even if it's just a little salad!

I added half a chopped up roasted chicken breast on top of the salad and a little light ranch and made lunch of it. Yum :D

On a related note, I think the potting soil I'm using has too much nitrogen. The root veggies don't seem to be getting plump roots, just lots of greens. My baby carrots should have some thickening by now, but nothing. Same with the radishes. At least the radish greens are edible (and yummy!) but the carrots may be a flop. Worst case scenario I toss them to the worms and start over with some garden soil or some plain ol' dirt. Until then - my greenery stuff is all doing really well!

Stuffed Cabbage

These are soooo good! Easier to make than it seems. A little time consuming, but worth it!

Stuffed Cabbage

1 head cabbage (I used purple since it was on sale, I usually use green)

1 lb ground lean turkey

1 1/3 cup shredded cauliflower (I shredded with cheese grater)

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup parmesan
1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp italian seasoning or herbs of your choice

1 can diced tomatoes

Boil a large pot of water, enough to cover cabbage.

Meanwhile, cut core from cabbage, discard core. Isn't it pretty in the middle there?

When water comes to a boil, use large tongs to put the cabbage into the water for 4-5 minutes. Move cabbage to a plate, peel off outer leaves that are cooked and softened. Set leaves aside and return cabbage to water for 4-5 more minutes. Repeat until all leaves large enough to work with are cooked.

Meanwhile, prepare filling. Combine turkey with cauliflower, onion, parmesan, worchestershire sauce, garlic, pepper and herbs.

When all the cabbage leaves are cooked, begin filling. Fill each cabbage leaf with turkey mixture, about 1/4 cup for the largest, most take less depending on size. Fold in sides, fold up stem end then roll top over like a burrito. Place seam side down in baking pan.

At this point you can put them away for later if you want. Just put foil over the top and into the fridge. I like to assemble them during morning nap time so I know there are no "little helpers" in the kitchen when I'm messing with boiling water. Or you can cook them right away.

When you're ready to cook, just top with tomatoes, cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours.

I shred the stem and large coarse pieces of cauliflower to make this filling, and cook the nice florets as a side dish. Just pile them in a casserole dish, cover and bake alongside the stuffed cabbage. A little cheese or lemon on top makes them yummy!

These are in the fridge for now, I'll post pics of dinner after they're cooked :)

If you love stuffed cabbage but don't want all the hassle, this is easy to make into a casserole too! Just quarter and coarsely chop up the cabbage, then layer cabbage and filling into a casserole dish instead of making rolls. Top with tomatoes and bake. Yum! Not as visually appealing, but tastes just as good!

..and here's a picture of dinner ready to go!

Planting a few more things

The weather is starting to warm up here already. We're expecting a few more chilly days or storms before spring is 100% here, but I decided to plant a few more early things anyway. A couple nights in the 30s should be okay.

I filled up one of these HUGE plastic pots I picked up at Kmart on clearance for about $5 and put it in the corner of the patio. It took 3 bags of potting mix! I put it on a small cinderblock so it can drain since they were out of the drip dishes for this size. I planted several kolrabi seeds in the middle, with a half circle of carrots in front and a half circle of beets in the back.

You can see that my carrots in the container on the left and spinach on the right are doing well right now, getting bigger. There's a larger green pot off to the left off screen which has baby mustard greens and a couple scarlet runner beans that haven't popped up yet. I planted a couple sugar snap peas near the front edge of that pot, yum!

I planted some nasturtiums in these hanging pots. Hopefully they'll hang over the edges and look really pretty! If they do, I'll add some pansies, johnny-jump-ups and violas to these pots. I have them sprouting in Jiffy greenhouses, but they're not growing much.

These are my tomato sprouts. I had them indoors. They sprouted easily and quickly, but have gotten taller than I'd like and aren't putting out real leaves. I moved them outside in the shade yesterday, hopefully getting a bit more sun will make them turn into at least a couple healthy plants for me. These are grown from the heirloom rainbow blend from Gurneys, I'm a little excited to see what colors I get! That is, assuming they grow for me. I never have much luck growing from seeds.

Yogurt and Fruit parfait

Yum! This little idea is from my hubby :) He filled little sundae cups with low fat strawberry yogurt and topped them with some fruit leftover from our fruit plate this morning.

Really quick, easy, good for you and your wallet! We're having them for dessert tonight.

Lemon basil pasta with fresh sauce

Note: The color on the picture didn't turn out quite right and I don't have my super photo editing software anymore. It's not really pink and orange, the pasta is lighter brown like whole wheat, and the sauce is made of tomatoes - not pumpkin! :D

Mmmmmm! Perfect al dente pasta with the depth of whole wheat, savory herby basil and a little touch of lemony zing, with light, fresh tomato sauce over the top. I served it with some simple baked chicken breast and green beans from the freezer. The pasta is a little time consuming to make, but oh so worth it!

I have a little old Imperia manual pasta machine, very similar to the V177 AL DENTE Pasta Machine which I use to make pasta much better than packaged whole wheat noodles!

Fresh Lemon Basil Pasta

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup unbleached flour (plus more for dusting as needed)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp lemon zest

2 tbsp dried basil (may use 3 tbsp fresh instead)

pinch salt

3 eggs

1 tbsp olive oil

water as needed (about 1/8 cup)

Combine flours in a large bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor or strong mixer (I use my KitchenAid usually, but it's broken at the moment so I used my food processor for this batch).

In a small bowl, beat together eggs, lemon juice, zest, basil, salt and oil. Make a well in the center of flour, add egg mixture. Beat in flour from edges. As it gets thicker you'll probably have to use your hands unless you're using a KitchenAid mixer.

Knead until you have a smooth, solid dough. If it's too sticky, add more flour. If it's crumbly, add water. I needed about 1/8 cup water for this batch.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let it rest 20 minutes. This is a good time to make the sauce! Also a good time to prep side dishes and put your big pot of water on to boil.

When time is up, begin to run the dough through the pasta machine. Read the manual that came with your machine. I divide the dough into handful size balls so it's easier to work with. Run it through on the widest setting, fold it in half and dust with flour, repeat until smooth, then decrease the setting and repeat until you have a solid, thin sheet from the thinnest setting.

I have a pasta rack, but you can use towels dusted with flour to lay the sheets of pasta on as you work. Working as quickly as you can, roll out each ball one by one until they're all ready and drying. Starting with the first one you made, run it through the cutting side of the pasta machine. Mine has a narrow one (I call it spaghetti but it's not) and a thicker side (I think that's fettuccini?) I used the thicker side this time. Place cut pasta on flour dusted towels or a pasta rack until all are ready to go.

When all your pasta is cut and the water is at a rolling boil, salt the water then add all the pasta. Stir to make sure it doesn't all stick together or to the bottom of the pot. Put the lid on to help it quickly return to a boil, then remove the lid. The pasta will float when it's done, it really doesn't take long at all! Drain and return to hot pot until you serve. Don't make it wait too long!

This makes a lot of pasta! If you're going to go through the trouble, may as well make enough for yummy leftovers or a fancy dinner for about 8!

Fresh Tomato Sauce

4 large tomatoes, diced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves fresh garlic, minced

oregano, parsley and basil, to taste

dash salt, to taste

Heat oil in a medium pot over medium. When hot, add onions and saute until they start to turn transparent. Add remaining ingredients. Reduce heat and simmer until tender and thickened as much as you'd like.

The chicken I made is really easy too! I just took boneless skinless chicken breast halves (frozen Kirkland ones), put them in a foil lined pan and baked about 45 minutes by package directions at 375. I sprinkled them with salt, pepper and paprika before baking, then after removing from the oven I let them sit in the pan about 15 minutes. Sliced across the grain, each chicken breast half makes 2 servings.

Fresh fruit

Okay, we all know we should be eating more fresh fruit and veggies.

Here's a great way to get more servings and enjoy them as fruit, without having to try to work them into things and hide them!

I've found just cutting the fruit up into nice bite size pieces or finger food pieces makes it disappear. I often cut up whatever is ripe and fill a plate, then use that as a side dish. In this case it's 2 mangos, 4 kiwis and an orange we had with breakfast today. Almost any meal goes well with a fresh fruit plate! I often try to make the plate look pretty arranging it like a flower, but if I'm in a hurry I just pile it all on there - it's still just as easy to eat and just as delicious!

Try it - slice up an apple or whatever you have around, and see if you actually stop procrastinating and eat it!

Corn Syrup

Has anyone else noticed the recent ad campaign about corn syrup, and found it ridiculous?

We've already seen studies that corn syrup is metabolized different than sugar. Now there's news that 9 out of 20 samples of corn syrup studied contained mercury, as a byproduct of the way corn syrup is removed from corn. And many products sampled that contain corn syrup - surprise! Also contained mercury.

So I'm avoiding corn syrup whenever I can. Not being totally nutso about it, but if I have a choice between roughly equivalent products and one has it and the other doesn't - I'm choosing the one that doesn't!

I think we're going to stop buying packaged granola bars and flavored yogurts too. Easy and much cheaper to buy plain and make my own flavored yogurt, and make our own granola bars using honey, sugar or maple syrup.

This seems like a great time to exercise our ability to let our purchases influence what is available. If we don't buy contaminated, unhealthy products then they don't sell and products without ingredients like corn syrup will be more widely available. Let's all make the change!

Eggin' the worms

One of the things I do for my worm bin is save egg shells. I put them back in the carton, then when they're all gone I put the carton on the fridge or somewhere to dry. When they're thoroughly dry and I have a couple dozen, I mash them up for the worms. They help give the worms grit so they can digest their food, since they have a gizzard like birds. They also improve the calcium content of the compost, which will be great for my tomatoes! Another benefit I've heard but haven't verified is that they can help control the acid level in the bin. Whatever benefits they have, I'm glad to be able to put them into the bin instead of the trash and know at least in part that they'll be recycled.

My favorite eggs to use are nice brown ones, which come in a recycleable cardboard carton and are laid by vegetarian fed hens. The shells are a bit thicker, so they're easier to crack without it crumbling pieces into the egg. I only get those when they're on sale about the same price as the white ones. Sometimes I get massive jumbo brown eggs too - yum!

To get the shells ready, first I put all the dried shells into a gallon size ziplock bag. A reused bag is just fine! Then mash them up with your hands, or use a bowl or plate. Be careful not to poke through the bag with sharp edges! When the pieces get small, you can use a rolling pin to finish pulverizing them. The smaller the particles, the better. They don't get eaten and disappear when added to the worm bin, so keep in mind if you add big chunks then there will be big chunks in your compost. If you add tiny ground up pieces then some will be eaten, some will be there to add texture, and eventually they'll break down to give calcium to your plants. You can use a food processor or whatever you'd like to turn the shells into tiny pieces, this works for me and it's a lot less cleanup than using the food processor.

All I do to put them in is sprinkle them over the top when I need to mix up the bin anyway. Right now is a good time to stir things up since I've deliberately not fed them in a week or two, letting them use up some extra food because I overfed them. I still have a few fruit flies in there so there's wet newspaper on top. It seems to be working, there are only a couple fruit flies left. I just folded that out of the way, scooted some of the shredded cardboard bedding off to the side then poured the eggshells over the top. I used my hands (wearing gloves!) to mix up the bin a bit, trying to pull things from the sides towards the center, and bottom up to the top.

Always really interesting to see what is going on in there! I found some baby worms, part of a sweet potato growing, more melon sprouts and a bunch of fat worms. I love seeing the baby worms, a good sign that things are working as they should be and my worms are happy. When I was done, I just spread the reserved bedding back over the top, put the wet newspaper back over everything, and put the lid back on. A well kept worm bin doesn't smell bad unless you happen to uncover something you've recently added, it has too much food at one time or it's too wet. The rest of the bin smells like good potting soil, earthy but not rotten, so once you get past the ick factor of it being full of worms it's pretty neat!

Can you see the baby worms in the picture above? There are two adults, there's one baby between them at the bottom and another on the left by my glove. These are older babies, they look like red threads. I'm sure there are others but those two are easy to see. The photo quality isn't great since these guys don't like to be out in the light long and my camera takes a moment to focus. I've been looking for worm egg capsules but they must be pretty tiny, I haven't been able to spot any. These guys are on a piece of newspaper that has been in the bin a while, it's just coated in good castings. When I stir the bin up, I try to fluff up any compressed clumped bits of newspaper. I'm trying to use more shredded cardboard, dried leaves and cardboard egg cartons for bedding and less shredded newspaper since the newspaper clumps so much more than the other materials. I'm looking forward to being able to use my castings, and seeing if my tomatoes do well this year! I have tomatoes sprouting in peet pellets indoors. I never have much luck growing tomatoes from seeds, but these sprouts seem to be doing well, so hopefully the combo of strong seedlings and some rich castings for their soil will help them out this year!

New craft, nativity set

I made some of these little figures for the Christmas craft fair at hubby's work last year. It sounded like a good idea to make more, so I made this set! It's more detailed than the nativity I made for the fair. It's just made of Sculpey oven-bake polymer clay, bulked out with foil in the thicker portions so it baked properly. The set has 10 pieces. Mary, Joseph, 3 kings, a shepard and sheep, angel, the manger and removable baby Jesus. They're about 2-3 inches tall. A little time consuming to make, but fun! Side note, this set is for sale, $3o, e-mail me if interested. I'll just save it for next year's craft fair if there's currently no interest :)

They're really fun to make, try it out! Polymer clay is easy to work with, just like modeling clay. It stays soft until you bake it, so you have plenty of time to add little details. This set is all decorated with holly, I put holly on each figure in at least one place, tiny leaves and berries barely bigger than a grain of sand. The sheep has "wool" made of Polymer clay swirls coiled up like cinnamon rolls. I'm a purist, I don't use any molds, premade portions or other material accents, but you can add anything that's safe to go in the oven like bits of wire or beads. Sculpey can also be painted after it's baked. Fun stuff!