Asparagus

Early spring can be a little depressing when you’re grocery shopping.  By March and early April I’ve had enough of potatoes, kale, and cabbage.  All the apples I stored in the fall have been eaten, and the ones at the green grocer’s are about as appealing as a trip to the dentist!  So the first day I spot asparagus, it’s like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween all rolled into one!  I cram my basket with more than I can eat, dreaming of grilled asparagus tossed with olive oil and balsamic, a flaky tart crust with asparagus and goat cheese, asparagus ice cream (ok, had that once.  Not so good).

One of my favourite dishes on a warm spring day is homemade sushi, and what better inside than asparagus!  Making it at home is surprisingly easy, and the results are so tasty!  And while white sushi rice is good, I prefer to use either all brown rice or a mixture of brown and white rice and quinoa.  The quinoa adds a dose of protein to what can be a low protein meal, and even my husband, a quinoa hater, never notices it!

Sushi rice

1 cup white sushi rice

½ cup quinoa

1 cup short grain brown rice

Water

The white and brown rice take different lengths of time to cook so you’ll need a rice cooker and a small pot or 2 pots for cooking your different batches of rice.

In one pot or rice cooker combine the brown rice and 2 cups of water.  If you’re using a rice cooker, follow the manufacturer’s instructions on cooking the rice.  If you’re using a pot, bring the brown rice and water to a boil over high heat, keeping it covered.  Once it has come to a boil, keep the lid on the pot, reduce the heat to low and cook for 40 minutes.  After 40 minutes turn the heat off and let the rice rest, covered, for 5 minutes.

In another pot (or rice cooker) combine the white rice, quinoa, and 1 ½ cups of water.  If you’re using a rice cooker, follow the manufacturer’s instructions on cooking the rice.  If you’re using a pot, bring the rice, quinoa,  and water to a boil over high heat, keeping it covered.  Once it has come to a boil, keep the lid on the pot, reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes turn the heat off and let the rice rest, covered, for 5 minutes.

When the 2 types of rice and the quinoa have finished resting, mix them together in one pot, stirring gently so you don’t mush the rice. Stir in:

3 Tbsp rice vinegar

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Spread the rice out on a cookie tray, cover it with a tea towel and let it cool to room temperature.Your browser may not support display of this image.

For the sushi:

Your rice/quinoa mixture

Nori sheets (seaweed sushi wrappers)

Assorted cooked or raw vegetables (my favourites are steamed asparagus, roasted red peppers, very finely julienned (or grated) carrots, daikon, and jicama, steamed sweet potato, cucumber, avocado, radish sprouts, arugula, and sliced mango)

Assorted protein bits (thinly sliced sushi grade raw fish if you eat it, tofu, inari wrappers, scrambled egg,)

Sesame seeds

Place a nori sheet on your sushi matt or a clean tea towel.  Wet your hands with a little water so the rice doesn’t stick to them.  Add an even, thin layer of rice over almost all of the nori, leaving a strip about 1” wide along one side with no rice.  Add your filling ingredients in the middle of the rice strip, making sure they’re evenly distributed across the width of the rice.  Don’t use too much or you’ll never be able to roll up your sushi!  Wet the part of the nori that didn’t get any rice lightly with a little cool water (this will make it stick when you roll), then roll up your nori towards the part with no rice.  Wrap the roll in you matt or tea towel, then roll it back and forth a few times to make sure the seam holds and that you have a nice, cylindrical roll.  Set the roll aside for a couple of minutes, or until all your rolls are finished, then cut, using a sharp knife, into 8 pieces.

sushi

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For dinner I normally plan on 2 to 3 rolls per person. This should give you enough for dinner and lunch the next day for 2 people (or dinner for 4).

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when i’m at the market, i try to pick at least one thing that i have no idea what to do with.  my last adventure? fennel.  fennel has always been a bit of a mystery to me, but i’m happy to report that not only is it easy to fix, it’s absolutely delicious too!

by roasting the bulbs, you bring out all the yummy flavors of the earthy, licorice fennel.  if you slice it thin enough, it even gets a little crunchy.  yum yum yum!  do you have any tricks to fixing fennel?

download the roasted fennel recipe here!

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boy, do i have a doozy for you today! i got the sweetest email form a fellow rooster yesterday introducing me to her blog, roost.  caitlin has been writing roost since just about the same time we started here, and i can’t believe we didn’t stumble upon one another until yesterday!  you will be nothing less than delighted to visit her blog and soak it all in.  it’s full of beautiful imagery and the most delicious recipes i’ve ever seen!  she has a wonderful archive section that summarizes all of her recipes and other inspiring posts, as well as an ‘in season’ page as a quick reference to see what’s in season.

you won’t regret getting to know this gal, so please join me in welcoming our latest rooster, caitlin!

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it’s important to eat as local as you can, but what are you supposed to eat in february? when the only thing blooming is your desire for spring, it can be difficult to eat seasonally.  but, there are a few things that make deep winter delicious, and with this new column i’m naming ‘in season’, i hope give you lots of new ideas to eat locally- one season at a time!

with today’s recipes, i’m going to share with you my favorite way to eat brussel sprouts, and then what to do with the leftovers the next morning!  i made these sprouts earlier this week as a side with my dinner, and then yesterday morning made a delicious omelet from them!

i made the omelet with leftover sprouts, fresh local sliced apple and cheddar cheese. i’ve even made it before adding avocado and goat cheese- and it was so delicious!  since i didn’t have either of these yesterday, i left them out- but i encourage you to try it- yum yum yum!

here’s the recipe for fresh brussel sprouts & a delicious omelet!

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this is a cozy, cold winter day kinda meal – it’s delicious eggplant rolls with mini baked potatoes! you could certainly use pasta in place of the eggplant, but the eggplant gave this traditional recipe a new, yum-a-licious flavor.  i love the way ricotta & fresh tomato sauce go together, and this recipe filled our home with the smells of a hearty, home-cooked meal!

here’s the recipe!

wrap up: {baked} {eggplant} {potato} {recipe} {rolls} {vegetarian}

curry tofu & radish chips

hi lovelies!  i made this yummy dish of curried tofu and radish chips last night!  after the mister approved it and confirmed my success by satisfactory ‘mmmmms’ i decided i should share it with you!

here’s the recipe!

p.s. if you’re not the tofu-eating kinda a family, you could easily substitute chicken or any other kind of protein.  also, the same technique for the radish chips works wonders with regular potatoes or sweet potatoes!

wrap up: {curry} {radish} {recipe} {rice} {root} {tofu}

hello dearies!  well, i got a little camera-happy yesterday with all the gorgeous fall colors around me, so i though i would share with you!  some are from my yard, and some are from my grandmomma’s yard.

these are from my front porch. i love the all the different shades of pumpkins- the gray ones are probably my favorite.  i think i’m going to have go get some more colors for a wider assortment- i love pumpkins.

i was surprised to see a butterfly out yesterday! so glad i did though, and so glad it hung around long enough for a photoshoot..

potato time!  i dug potatoes yesterday and was so happy to find so many.  we’ll have plenty of sweet potatoes for the winter- yum yum!

this is my favorite (and very simple) sweet potato recipe, and is great for those skinny, long ones.  slice them about 1/4″ thick and toss them w/ olive oil, salt & pepper (a little rosemary is delicious too).  bake them in a single layer at 400° for 30-40 minutes.   i’ve also done them before with nothing but sugar and cinnamon and they turn out completely different and just as tasty!

this is the green patch full of wintry goodness!  spinach, mustard greens, kale and chard make for a delicious mix.  i harvested all of this yesterday and now have *so much to freeze, but, we’ll have dark greens for the winter which i’m so excited about!

hope you all have a great weekend! what are you doing this early fall?  xoxo, bonnie

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my grandmother’s yard is immaculate.  apple trees, pear trees, black berries, grape vines.. you name it- she’s got it.  early this week she gave me 3 pounds of grapes and together we made grape jam- a first for both of us!

look at all of these beautiful grapes!  did i mention they were organic?

vines and vines galore..

these are her vines post-harvest, still so beautiful aren’t they?

here she is! my grandmomma- hard at work!

(that’s me in my yellow apron!)  here’s for the recipe:

- 3lb grapes

- 1 cup of water

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp ginger

- 1 box of pectin- organic if you can find it!

- 7 cups of sugar

1) wash your grapes- really well!  then separate the pulp from the skin. sorry i don’t have a pic- but it’s easy!  all you have to do is squeeze the grape and… POP! out comes the pulp (don’t worry about the seeds).  keep the skins in one bowl and the pulp in another.

that’s three generations in one kitchen!

2) cook the pulp in a big pot for about 30 minutes, just to get them really soft and juicy.  while they’re cooking, you can blend all of the skins in the blender.

3) after the pulp has cooked, place a few cups at a time into a colander (small enough to catch the seeds!) and whisk it around with a spoon  until all the good stuff sifts through- just make sure no seeds are sneaking through!  then, you can combine the sifted pulp with the blended grape skins.

remember me mentioning my bird’s nest? you can almost see it here in all it’s glory…

4) take 5 1/2 cups of the grape mixture, add 1 cup of water, 1/2 tsp of ginger, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 box of pectin.  stir together and put over high heat and bring to a boil.

5) meanwhile, make sure to sterilize your jars- click here for the know-how.

(isn’t she cute?)  6) when your mixture is boiling, add your 7 cups of sugar (i know, gasp) all at once.  bring back to a rolling boil, and then take it off the heat- it’s time to start canning!

7) once the heat is off, you can start ladling the *deeelicious jam into your sterilized jars.  leave about a 1/2″ space at the top and seal with your lid.  once they start cooling, they will all seal, and you’ll have jam all year long!  yay!

don’t worry it can get a little messy..

i thought i could finish with a pic of david with jam all over his face from our morning pancakes, but i’ll spare you.. :)

hope you all have a great weekend! and let me know if you have any questions! love, bonnie

wrap up: {gladening} {homegrown} {jam} {preserve} {recipe} {slice of organic life}