Friday recipes; or Fricipes

My salad days are back — literally.

This week in my CSA bounty, I received three full heads of lettuce, a bag of baby greens and a bag of spinach. That means salad.

I'm totally not complaining. I would gladly eat salad every day between now and doom's day. But of course, I need a good dressing. A first-rate dressing is important when trying (begging, pleading and threatening) to get kids to eat their green leafies as well.

Personally, I lean on the side of sour on the sour/sweet debate. Here's what I view as the perfect combination. Just blend all the ingredients, the oil in a slow, steady stream to emulsify the vinaigrette. Toss immediately with greens (and if I'm really lucky, some yummy radishes).

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar or fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt (just a pinch if you only have table salt)
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
a few chopped chives, optional


My CSA farmer passed along this dressing recipe recently. I haven't tried it, but I'm intrigued. I'm guessing it would be a favorite with the girls.

Combine about 1/4 cup mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip--it will not work!) with enough milk, thinning it, but not runny. Add about 1 tsp sugar and mix until the sugar dissolves. Add vinegar (cider vinegar works best) to taste, 1 TBSP or more.

Bunny killer

It didn't take long before we forgot to let our dog inside when we headed out one day.

This resulted in a very quick end to our nest of bunnies. While we were saddened by the sight of tiny dead bunnies turned into tasty snacks by our beloved (and kind of disgusting) beagle, I do realize this is nature and nature cannot always be controlled.

We'll try harder next spring bunnies. Only, I hope your mama knows better than to birth you in a yard with a killer beagle.

Successful no-mo

We made it, but just barely.

A weekend without driving seemed like a great idea Friday. The forecast called for sunny and 80 all weekend. So when rain showers threatened even an hour outing, it seemed clear that no car (and no buses running Sunday or Monday) would leave us pretty inside and bored.

But we pushed on, took some chances and had a fantastic weekend complete with three meals from the grill and lunch at a restaurant. It was mostly uneventful, but it was inexpensive and nice to just be home with the family.

No-mo weekend

Since gas prices are ridiculously high, and because my family and I had mostly planned a leisurely weekend of yard work, playgrounds and around-town outings, we decided to go car free this Memorial Day weekend. Plus we have brats from this local farmer, so really there's no reason to go anywhere.

For any adventures we might take, we'll be traveling via walk, bike or bus. I'm sure this will work out perfectly well, without even one 2-year-old tantrum. So happy three-day weekend to us and everybody else.

Bunnies

Today, we discovered a nest of bunnies in our back yard.

Ahhhh. !!! Bunnies!!!

Obviously, mommy bunny wasn't too bright. A dog and two little kids equals bad place for baby bunnies. And because my husband and I aren't the kind of people who kill cute little baby bunnies, or let our dog kill the cute little baby bunnies, or can tolerate the sadness of having mother rabbit continually look for her cute baby bunnies we moved, we put a small fence around the nest.

Turns out, that was the right thing to do. In a few days, the bunnies will have hair. In 10 days, they'll be old enough to move around. I'm thinking of doing a bunny lesson for the girls.

Our neighbors probably think we're crazy. That's fine. At least I don't have to live as a bunny murderer. And that's fine by me.

Friday recipes; or Fricipes

Could there be a more perfect spring dish than spinach salad? The greeny deliciousness. The bacon. The vinegar.

I just love it. But it also needs a perfectly cooked hard boiled egg, one of life's most perfect foods. For such a simple thing, hard boiled eggs can be hard to master. I normally end up with most of the egg going down the disposal with the shell or an overcooked yolky mess that works like cement inside my mouth.

But the following method seems to work well.

Put the eggs in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Cover the eggs and let set for 10 minutes, remove the eggs and plunge them in an ice-water bath.

Just because I'm a huge pain in the ass, I must admit I actually don't do this because I am the lucky owner of an electric tea kettle.

I just plop the eggs inside, turn on the kettle (it turns off when it reaches a boil) and take them out at 10 minutes. If I don't break any, I make myself a lovely cup of tea as a reward for being so smart.

Run them under cold water as you peel to reduce egg-white waste.

Summer starts.... NOW

Our CSA started today. Hooray!

Today, the girls and I went over on the bike (it's a long haul and through some pretty busy sections of town so my husband will generally pick up after work but he couldn't today so, in the words of our beloved heroin Dora, "Lo hicimos.") and picked up our bounty of lettuce, spinach, radishes, green onions and Japanese greens. Even with a crappy, cold spring, we got a pretty nice supply of green leafies.

Belonging to a CSA is about the best thing, other than giving up a car, we've done to go green. It's a bit of cash all at once (about $300 at the beginning of the season) but you get a nice supply of veggies each week and you get the freshest of the fresh. This means eating in season and not having to stand in the grocery store produce section for 30 minutes deciding what to buy.

And it feels so awesome to support local farmers. This might have been our first pickup, but they also had a surplus of asparagus at the beginning of the season that they gave to their members, for free. Two pounds of unexpected asparagus! You just can't beat that.

Long live community supported agriculture. And summer.

Friday recipes; or Fricipes

I recently bid house guests a safe trip home. I made a huge pork roast with basmati rice and broccoli, but I'm pretty sure I could have opened a can of tomato soup, grated some cheese on top and called it a day — all to the same reaction of "What a wonderful dinner."

That's because I made my own bread. Homemade bread is deemed such a luxury that it matters little else what is on the table. And a tasty loaf is truly a wonderful thing. If you've ever looked at the ingredients in your typical sandwich bread, you'll likely see a bunch of mystery ingredients, including high fructose corn syrup.

I make mostly two kinds of yeast breads: American white loaf and Rustic Italian, depending on what I'm serving. Stews and American-style meals, like roasts, are better with the white bread. Everything else gets rustic. Also, the American bread recipe takes just a few hours, whereas the rustic recipe takes two days.

These recipes are pretty complex, so I won't include them here. I use Cooks Illustrated (best cookbook EVER) for both the white and the rustic. You need a subscription (which is well worth it, by the way, but they also have an unlimited search for 14 days free).

The New York Times ran this interesting recipe for no-knead bread that I've never had any luck with, but it's a great idea. I just think my oven doesn't get hot enough. And here's a nice recipe for white bread from a pretty thorough site.

So bake a loaf today, but don't expect it to be there tomorrow.

What's wrong with feminism?

Nothing! It's a movement that has allowed women as many choices as men. Many, many feminists probably think my decision to stay at home with my children is a poor choice, but I think that choice is up to family.

I believe the choice to work is not an issue women should be fighting, and judging each other, about.

In any case, a crazy right-wing columnist made the argument that feminism is bad for the environment. He cites two commuting parents (not to mention the nanny to which I say HA!) are taking to the road worsening climate change, something I'm pretty sure he doesn't a) care about and b) believe in.

But his argument is flawed. Women staying at home often drive just as far, or further, than their commuting husbands. Just yesterday in my local paper, one mom told the reporter she just can't cut back on the 12,000 miles she drives each year running errands and chauffeuring her kids. And most one-income families I know have the working-part driving the sedan while the home-part gets the minivan, or worse, the SUV.

But I should at least be thankful that the right is making the argument that driving is, in fact, bad on the environment.

Seeds of success

I'm nowhere near being able to claim my gardening project a success (I'm somewhere between four weeks and four years away from being able to actually eat anything I've planted) but I'm, yet again, hopeful.

My radish seeds have sprouted in the garden. I don't have much hope for the lettuce plants that my fat beagle is continually attacking, for whatever reason.

And in my south-facing front window, I have the start of basil, chives and, today, parsley. My daughter's popcorn seeds she started at the library story hour are looking the best of the lot. Perhaps I'm Christine (the) Gardner by name only.

My daughter, she was a Gardner right at birth.

Things you learn in nature

My 4-year-old daughter recently walked in on my husband peeing in the bathroom.

"Daddy! How are you doing that?"

A few days later, during a hike through some pretty deserted trails, she started jumping around demanding we return home. I took her behind some bushes and showed her how to squat and just pee outside. We too can be liberated. She laughed hysterically and peed all over my shoes.

Oh, what I wouldn't do for some guy equipment. Not all the time (it's pretty ugly, if you ask me) but definitely at sporting events, at nightclubs when the liquor has poured freely, and most definitely during hikes outdoors.

As green returns to the landscape, we've been spending more time just tooling around our area's green spaces. I can't think of a better way to whittle away some hours than hanging out with my kids in nature. Everything is new and wonderful. (I tried to find an online resources that lists green space, but it's pretty much a local effort. Check with the local parks and recreation department for a list of parks, trails and preserves.)

This morning, I suggested a walk somewhere close. I asked whether they wanted to go to the woods (we live about about a half mile from a small nature preserve) or the playground. My heart nearly burst when my 4-year-old shouted woods.

We even got serenaded with her new song, "I love the forest," on the way. A few birdwatchers let the girls look through their binoculars and told us about the black and white warbler they spotted.

I definitely love spring!

Awesome reasons for line drying

Yesterday, I tumbled dried a load of laundry due to a cold and rainy day. But because I'm me, the housekeeping equivalent of a forgetful nomad, I forgot to take remove the clothes from the dryer in a timely manner and ended up with a wrinkled mess.

My solution? Take the worst wrinkled, which are generally the things that should look flattened like dress shirts and cotton pants, and hang them on my sunny line for a bit.

Sunshine fresh and no iron. Who wouldn't love that?

Eco-healthy

I love how green living is contagious.

I guess it's only in my own family, but maybe you have to be in really, really close proximity to catch an eco-cold.

My husband has hopped on the green-parenting train — well.... the city bus anyway. Since the weather turned more spring-like, he's been taking the bus more often. He likes to read the paper or a magazine, and he's prefers the mile-walk home from downtown rather than catching the transfer because it provides him with some fresh-air exercise after a busy day.

Speaking of getting some exercise, living mostly car free has been challenging after a fierce and exercise-lacking winter. Carting 70 pounds behind me after months of ignoring my thigh muscles is — let me tell you — no easy task. To compensate, and because I recently dog-sat for a farm hound who required much more exercise than my tiny plot allows, I started jogging.

These early morning jogs (check out this really inspiring PBS Nova special about regular people who train to run a marathon to help you set your clock an hour early) merely add to my optimism about enjoying the coming summer, spending time playing with my daughters, focusing on my family's overall health and really just enjoying life.

Wondering where all my self-deprecation has gone? Wow... It only took two years to finally get good at this. Who knew I was just a quick study!