Pumpkin Pizza!

As promised, here are the pics of the pumpkin pizza we ate last night. Unfortunately, I did not get a good photo; I was just so excited to eat this delicious pizza!!

It was pumpkin puree mixed with sage and lemon balm, then topped with caramelized onions (with fig balsamic vinegar), roasted fennel and walnuts. OMG SO GOOD.

Cook in the House

There have been many exciting changes going on around here lately:

I became an aunt!

I got a haircut! (and then had a hard time photographing it)

I got engaged!! (and had a hard time photographing it)

And my wonderful fiance finally finished his farm apprenticeship 2 1/2 hours away. It's been a long 6 months of only seeing each other on the weekends, and I'm so excited to have him back home with me. Not least because he is a CIA trained cook. I love that even the small week night dinners he whips up are so delicious.

Last night we ate grilled cheese with a simple salad of butter lettuce with roasted beets, caramelized shallots and a mustard dressing. Yum! And everything in the salad was grown either at the farm at my work or at his.

We've also been dealing with a HUGE cinderella pumpkin I brought home from the farm this week. We roasted it a couple nights ago, and ended up with about 5 quarts of puree!! I ate some of it for breakfast with maple yogurt and pecans. Then we made a pie last night, topped off with some dark brown sugar and walnuts. Tonight, we'll be making pumpkin pizza! I'll try to post some pictures later.

One Small Change - October

This small change feels like a big one for me. I've been contemplating it for months, trying to work up the courage to tackle it. Brainstorming different ways to approach the issue. Putting it off.

But finally I've decided I need to face up to the fact that I use the internet Way Too Much. I use it to communicate with my friends, search recipes, get inspiration for crafts or gardening. I look up how to get stains out of my laundry and what kind of chestnut tree is growing across the street, how to get to friends' houses, and the best way to join seams on the baby sweater I'm knitting. I also procrastinate, snoop on facebook, watch tv shows, and a lot of other stuff. You all know what I mean. So much of our life these days is available on the internet - or really centered on the internet. Philosophically, I don't like that; but practically I end up spending a lot of time online every day.

I considered (and have tried somewhat unsuccessfully) setting a daily computer time limit. But I think what I'm going to try for the month of October is choosing one day out of the week that I will not use the computer except at work. The day will probably change from week to week. This week I'm choosing Monday (tomorrow). It's my day off, and so normally I probably would have spent a good chunk of time online... reading blogs, browsing recipes, getting "inspiration..."  Instead I'm hoping to process all the tomatoes I just picked from my garden, ride my bike, finish that sweater I'm working on, do a lot of laundry, write some letters, and read some of my latest library book (Your Money or Your Life). If I need to look something up, I will have to try other methods of finding answers, or write it down for tomorrow. Sometimes I think I've grown all too dependent on instant knowledge gratification these days, so it will be an interesting exercise to cut myself off from it for a short time.

This challenge will save a tiny bit of energy by not having my laptop on all day, but ultimately I'm doing it so that I will have more time for my life, and to live out the goals I've set for myself. The internet has become for me an all too easy time suck to avoid the reality of life around me... I'm feeling apprehensive as I type these words. Tomorrow could be a very long day. We'll see how it goes!!

Arizona Love

When I moved to Tucson Arizona at the age of 10, I hated it. Really hated it. I'd spent the last four years in a pine forest on the banks of a river at the edge of a wildlife preserve in Arkansas. My sister and I would while away the long afternoons berry picking on our bike rides, catching baby turtles, paddling down the river, and attempting to fish (We once fished from the dock every day for an entire summer and caught only one small fish. We sure were determined though.) So having come from such a  lovely environment, I simply couldn't believe that I was supposed to enjoy this new hot, arid home. I kept getting poked whenever I tried to play in our cactusy back yard. There was no soft grass to run around in, just dust and rocks. There were no tall trees, just what looked like scraggly (thorny) bushes to me. There were snakes and scorpions and a particularly huge and hairy tarantula that live in our house and would emerge from the vents at terrifying moments, such as while my sister was in the shower or right over my bed as I was trying to fall asleep at night. And it was hot. Over 100 degrees hot. When someone would try to point out a lovely sunset to me, I'd make bitter comments like "The sunsets in Arkansas were just as pretty, you just couldn't see them because of all the TREES."

But eventually, over time, Arizona won my heart like no other place ever has. I grew to love the "dry heat." I loved the warm, mild winters. I loved the mountains that surround Tucson on every side. I loved watching the spectacular cloud formations and sunsets. I loved dancing in the warm torrential downpour of a summer monsoon, or splashing through one of the temporary rivers it brought to our normally dry washes. I loved climbing on the roof and watching far off lightning storms. I loved how the mountains turned pink at sunset, and how I could see the milky way at night. I loved the visiting herds of javelina that would congregate on our porch. I loved spotting jack rabbits. I even grew to love the particular beauty of the spiny cacti, especially in the spring with their stunning blossoms. I appreciated the cleverness of all these plants that could survive in such a dry place. The way they stored water, grew small narrow leaves, warded off predators, and how some of them would live almost dormant for most of the year only to burst into green growth and bloom at the coming of rain. Yes, I love my desert. And now, living in cold rainy Portland, my heart often aches for it. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful here too, but I miss the magical desert.

That's why, when I found out I had a month off between Americorps terms at Village Gardens, I knew I had to go back and visit. I recently spent 11 lovely days in Arizona, and I wanted to share a few pictures here.

The first night I was back in Tucson, I hiked Pusch Ridge with my friend Josh. Notice the prickly pear fruit on the right side there. They make delicious jelly if you can get past the dangerous harvest with tongs, and the burning off of tiny spines all over the fruit before you process!

We headed out shortly before sunset, because in the summer you can pretty much only hike at 5am, or at night.

I wish I were better at taking sunset photos, because it was absolutely gorgeous.

Another view of the ridge.

Next my good friend Karima and I went on an adventure to Southern AZ. First we checked out the quirky old mining town of Bisbee that's built into the hills. Then we went out to Cochise Stronghold for some camping and hiking.

This is from our drive down. Aren't those clouds and mountains fabulous?! And look at how GREEN everything is from the monsoons!

Here's a snapshot of a typical building in Bisbee - covered in funky art.

We were very excited to discover, while walking the hills of Bisbee, a fig tree growing on the street level below us.

Kari really liked those figs! hehe. We also foraged some pomegranates, fennel seeds and peaches. It was a very productive walk.
I have a lot of pictures, so I'll have to share some more from my trip later. Just loading these is making me a little homesick!

August One Small Change

My change for August is to learn to preserve the harvest from my garden and foraging... I've canned jam in the past, but that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge. The past few years I've canned massive amounts of blueberry jam from the berries I picked in Alaska. I made prickly pear jelly a few years back, and I canned some triple citrus marmalade this January.

This summer I want to expand my canning to new and more types of jam. I want to can savory things too, like tomato sauce -- if my tomatoes would ever ripen! I'm also going to learn to ferment and to pickle.

I got an amazing book from the library recently called Preserving Food without Canning or Freezing: Traditional techniques using salt, oil, sugar, alcohol, vinegar, drying, cold storage and lactic fermentation.  These recipes were compiled from readers of a French organic gardening magazine, and many are family recipes passed down over generations. The book is chock full of useful information, and fun recipes like Whole Cabbage Sauerkraut (with 70 heads of cabbage!!), Bottled Swiss Chard Ribs, Blueberries Preserved in Honey, Preserved Radishes, etc. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn traditional ways of preservation that are easy to digest, and maximize flavor and nutrition.

In the few days of August so far, I've already started on this challenge!  I made some Strawberry Rosemary Balsamic Jam with Black Pepper and some Mint Jelly. They both turned out delicous!

I also made some kimchee/sauerkraut today at my Americorps team meeting! It was awesome. I'll share some pictures and tips later, and be sure to keep you updated on what I'm learning along the way.

By the way, anyone have ideas of good ways to use mint jelly besides on meat? I'm thinking in thumbprint chocolate shortbread cookies... Yum!