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 The "before" shot – hopefully this plot of land will look a lot happier with vegetable and herb gardens along with some perennials. If I wanted to make clay pinch pots I’d be in luck — unfortunately, I’m hoping to grow an herb garden in our clay-like soil. Actually, it’s an herb garden that I’ve been dreaming about for almost two years, and this is the season where dreams will meet reality. And after one day of turning and composting the soil, it’s not looking too promising.
It all started a couple of years ago when my husband and I had wrapped up the major projects inside our house (new kitchen, updated bathroom, new hardwood floors on the main level, crown molding, painting, etc.). Our first exterior project was tearing down our ugly one car garage and replacing it with a two car masterpiece. The project took all summer, and it enthralled my husband. I was just biding my time until I could finally get in the garden.
And that day has come. But I’ve had way too much time to plan. I’ve read magazines, blogs and books. I’ve taken a class at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I’ve planned my entire backyard (which is basically a mud pit right now) by looking through plant sale catalogs.
 This is the future home of the herb garden. I’ve done some gardening in the beds that came with the house and noticed the soil was a bit clay-like, but I didn’t take into account that these beds had better soil than the rest of the yard because they’ve been worked for so long. The beds I’m digging up – like the one for the herb garden – are going to be brutal. Luckily we’re planning on building raised beds for our vegetable garden. But I have a feeling that I might have bit off more than I can chew with the herb and perennial gardens. Hopefully compost will help. Time will tell.
For now I’ll focus on what is growing…
 I love how sedum looks at the beginning of the season – it makes me think of a cabbage patch.  I've started some Wandering Jew vines in a hanging basket to go outdoors (in about a month or so), and it's doing so well, I think I'll start another basket.
 Fake meatballs made with walnuts, crackers, cheese and spices. Strangely enough for a vegetarian blog, this isn’t the first time that I’ve written about meatballs. The recipe from a few years ago for meatballs with sweet and sour sauce is still one of my favorite appetizers, but I’ve adapted it to make a pretty tasty Italian-style meatball that goes great with a red sauce and spaghetti.
Normally I don’t even use a recipe for veggie meatballs: I just grind up a handful of whatever nuts we have on hand (usually walnuts or almonds), mix them with breadcrumbs or crackers, spices and cheese (usually mozzarella or Parmesan), and then bind it all together with an egg or two. I roll them into balls, place them in a baking dish, top them with sauce (so they don’t dry out), and bake them at about 350 degrees until they’re golden and the sauce is bubbling.
But last weekend we had people over for dinner, and my husband was making real meatballs with a recipe from Mario Batali’s “Molto Italian.” Not only were they real, Mario’s meatballs even had pine nuts! It was clear that I was going to have to step up my game, so I stole Mario’s pine nut idea and got to work.
 Fake Meatballs – Italian Style
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
20 saltine crackers, crushed (about 1/2 sleeve)
3/4 cup shredded provolone cheese
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
1/4 cup diced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon sage
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups tomato sauce
 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix walnuts, pine nuts, crackers, cheeses, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme and sage together in a large bowl. Add eggs, and stir until mixture starts to come together.
Form mixture into 1-2 inch balls, and place in an ungreased 9 by 13 inch casserole dish. (Should make about 12 balls). Pour sauce over meatballs, and bake, uncovered, for about 35 minutes. Meatballs are done when the sauce is bubbling and the meatballs are puffy and golden.
 The Spicy Baja burger comes with pepper jack cheese, guacamole, chipotle mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and fresh jalapenos. Customers can order any of Smashburger's burgers with a black bean patty. (This is a cell phone photo, so of course, the food tastes way better than it looks in the picture.) In February, the SmashBurgers in Minnesota launched a vegetarian menu with a black bean burger, egg sandwich and three styles of grilled cheeses. I had no idea. Although I love burgers (of the meatless variety), I usually skip burger joints because there’s not much for a vegetarian. It’s a real bummer for my husband, who loves burgers (of the meaty variety). We’ve found one compromise at Five Guys Burger and Fries, but I was thrilled to learn (via Twitter) about Smashburger’s new venture into vegetarian foods. And I was even more thrilled when they invited me and my husband to taste the new vegetarian menu.
 The Mushroom & Spinach Grilled Cheese is one of three "grown-up" grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu. It's made with fresh mushrooms and spinach. It was tasty (and deliciously greasy)! We headed off to the Smashburger in Plymouth, and ordered up a mushroom and swiss grilled cheese with a side of sweet potato fries, and the Spicy Baja Burger with a black bean patty. I should note here that most of the sides at Smashburger aren’t strictly vegetarian. The oil used to fry the french fries is the same oil that’s used to fry chicken, and there’s beef in the fries to give them flavor. If you’re unsure about a side, just ask – or order a side salad without the bacon. When they make up an egg sandwich or a black bean burger, they clean down the grill.
Veggie burgers, in general, are all about the toppings. By itself the black bean burger is tasty, but pretty average; however with the toppings its pretty fabulous. We ordered the Spicy Baja, which comes with pepper jack cheese, guacamole, chipotle mayo and other goodies, and it totally satisfied the craving I get from time to time for a decked out burger. The Mushroom and Spinach Grilled Cheese was delicious as well. Overall, I was really impressed with the quality of the ingredients. The black bean burgers are made on site, and the veggies in both of the sandwiches were high quality and fresh.
We ended the meal with a real chocolate shake, and I was in total junk food heaven. Vegans, there’s not much for you on this menu. Vegetarians, when your omnivorous partners and friends are craving burgers, taking them to Smashburger won’t be a huge sacrifice. I might even go without them.
 Uncooked oats: For the days when you'd like to eat like a virtuous horse. Inspired by Mark Bittman’s opinion piece on oatmeal in Tuesday’s New York Times, we experimented with “instant” oats for breakfast this morning with 1/2 cup thick rolled oats, a sprinkle of brown suger (1/2 tsp in my case; 1 tsp for the husband), dried cherries and blueberries and a splash of milk. We let everything sit for a few minutes, and then dug in.
On first taste, I decided that this was the kind of breakfast for people who really enjoyed eating healthy and didn’t mind sacrificing in the name of feeling virtuous. The flavor of the oats really comes through, and instead of the creamy texture of oatmeal, this mix is chewy. I felt like we were eating a horse’s breakfast, and my husband said he could feel his cholestorol plummeting. But after a few bites, it kind of grew on me. I ended up eating the whole bowl and feeling pretty satisfied.
Would I eat it again? Yes. But I’m more likely to riff on the recipe for flavored instant oatmeal that Bittman linked in his story. (I don’t plan on bothering with the plastic bags/prepacking, though.)
These muffins were inspired by guilt — and 13 inches of snow. As I watched by husband out snow blowing for the second time in 24 hours despite having a pretty awful cold, it occurred to me that the least I could do was bake something warm for him. I looked at recipes for cake or quick bread, but the baking times were too long. So I settled on muffins. I wanted to make my favorite Moosewood Muffins, but our supplies were pretty low and I didn’t have anything decent to mix into them – other than frozen zucchini or frozen tart cherries.
And that’s when inspiration struck – in the form of bittersweet chocolate.
I remembered the Chocolate Cherry Bread Pudding I recently made with chocolate bread from a recipe found in “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.” And I thought about the Chocolate-Zucchini Cakes that I made last Saturday with an Everyday Food recipe. And with my Moosewood Muffin recipe in hand, these Bittersweet Chocolate Cherry Muffins were born. They’re not too sweet (which is a good thing at breakfast), and they’re great for alleviating guilt about frozen husbands.
Bittersweet Chocolate Cherry Muffins (aka Snowstorm Muffins)
Makes 12 muffins
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups pitted tart cherries*
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper cups in a 12-cup muffin tin.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg, and then the milk and vanilla. Fold in cherries and chocolate chips.
In a large bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the wet ingredients and fold together until just combined – don’t overmix. Divide batter into 12 muffin cups.
Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the pan after about 20 minutes. (When a toothpick comes out clean, they’re done.)
*If you substitute sweet cherries for the tart ones, cut the sugar to 1/2 cup.
 Hot Tea & Slippers: The secrets to surviving Minnesota winter 2010-11. This blog has been neglected for way too long. August, September and October were busy writing months (of the paying kind, not the blogging kind), and November and December were filled with trips, family and holidays. (Those months were also filled with wine-making, new food tasting, cooking and baking – but more on that in upcoming posts) Then came January.
Although the days are getting longer and brighter, January is always my darkest month of winter. My skin is dry, it’s too cold or too snowy to spend any quality time outdoors and the winter season has officially lost its luster (unfortunately, that won’t stop it from sticking around for at least two more months). But it’s also the perfect time to slow down, read up, take stock and refocus energy, which is pretty much how I’ve spent the last few weeks.
I’ve been reading “The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City” by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, who also write a fabulous blog, Homegrown Evolution. It has me dreaming – literally – about the garden I want to plant this spring.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the work I do now and the work I’d like to do five years from now – and the path I’ll take to get from here to there.
And I’ve been taking plenty of comfort in tea (the loose leaf varieties I’ve been sampling from Mrs. Kelly’s Tea are quite a treat – especially the Irish Breakfast, Lemon and Orange Spice) and slippers (the slippers below I found at Target, but one of these days I’ll slow down enough to make these out of an old sweater).
The local food trend is growing like crazy, and that’s great to see; but I think it should go one step further: I think we all should get to know our food producers and feel comfortable with their practices. Recently, I’ve been writing stories for for co-op newsletters, and the interviews I’ve had with local farmers coupled with a major news story are leading me to rethink the way I purchase all my food.
The salmonella egg scare has me freaked out, just like everyone else. But I’m not just worried about getting sick – I was also heartbroken to read about the accounts of the working conditions at some of the “farms” that produced the infected eggs. (This New York Times article describes an incident the farm had with workers living in rat-infested trailers and being forced to handle dead chickens and feces with their bare hands.)
It made me think about who I get my eggs from. I’ve been buying Larry Schultz’s eggs for a little over a year, when I switched exclusively to organic eggs and dairy products, and I recently got the chance to interview him about raising his chickens and eggs. Schultz, who farms in Owatonna, Minn., talked about why he chose to be organic: It was a farming practice he had grown up with (even though it was out-of-fashion until recently) and he couldn’t stand the thought of touching pesticides or feeding any food that had been touched by pesticides to his family or customers. He also talked about the enjoyment he got from raising chickens and watching them grow.
I was first introduced to Schultz’s eggs at the Seward Co-op, and was happy to note that the co-op only sells organic, humanely raised eggs. (And during a recent trip to Lunds, I was relieved to see Schultz’s name on a package of Lunds brand organic eggs that I was thinking of purchasing). I knew his eggs were good because the co-op helped with the research, and they continue to do my homework for me. As I wrote this two Tweets from the Seward Co-op appeared on my screen:
@sewardcoop: We’ve discontinued carrying Radtke eggs; we’re no longer confident they can provide us w/eggs from cage-free, free-range birds. Returns @ CS
@sewardcoop: Please, if you purchased Radtke eggs from us, return them to Customer Service for a refund. Meanwhile we have safe & humane eggs from others
That’s not to say that I’ll never get sick from the food I purchase (or the co-op won’t make mistakes from time to time), but I do like knowing that the plants and animals providing my food and the humans taking care of them are treated with respect and dignity – it’s worth a little research.
I just started blogging for City Pages’ food blog, Hot Dish. Check out my first post about Peace Coffee’s new coffee shop. I’ll continue blogging here, most likely in the same sporadic fashion, but there’s always hope for a more consistent future.
 Thanks to my friend, Chiana, for the incredibly large zucchini. It’s not even the height of zucchini season, and I’ve already been given a zucchini that’s roughly the size of a baseball bat. Plus, I have two productive zucchini plants growing in the garden. So I made a new rule: if it doesn’t have zucchini in it, it’s not coming out of my kitchen. I have broken that rule, but not before making zucchini ribbon and chard pasta, chocolate chip zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini cookies and zucchini hummus. I still have about 5 cups of shredded zucchini in the freezer just waiting to be added to bread, cookies or other baked goods, and two more zucchinis are growing away in the garden. I have a feeling I’ll be seeking out more zucchini recipes before the season is over. (If you’ve got ‘em, share ‘em!)
Zucchini Hummus
 Zucchini hummus topped with a bit of basil in the food processor. I started making zucchini hummus after our friends, Phil and Tara, made it for us. Since the zucchini contains so much water, you won’t need any oil.
1 large zucchini, shredded
1/4 cup tahini
juice from one lemon
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped basil (or any other herb/flavoring you’d like to try; roasted red peppers or sun dried tomatoes are also good)
salt and pepper, to taste
Place the shredded zucchini in a colander and sprinkle with salt; Let sit for about 10 minutes, then squeeze out any excess moisture. Place zucchini, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and basil (or other flavoring) in a food processor and blend until the mixture is the consistency of hummus. Season with salt and pepper.
 I like to serve zucchini hummus with tomatoes and cuke nuts (another item our garden is producing with over-abundance).  I also serve zucchini hummus in a swiss chard wrap sandwich with tomatoes and cucumbers.
 Tart cherry jam (left) and plum jam (right) are made using the same method. One day I’ll learn how to preserve food by canning it, but until then, my freezer will remain packed with tomatoes, pureed pumpkin, fruit and jam. I started making jam a couple of years ago when I ended up with a couple pounds of sour grapes thanks to Common Ground Garden, a fabulous CSA (community supported agriculture) in St. Joseph, MN. I was delighted to learn that it was easy, if not sticky, work. The biggest challenge is deciding when the jam is the right consistency – my cherry jam is maybe a little thicker than I’d like this year.
I’ve experimented with a lot of different jam recipes, but I like the one below because it works for pretty much any fruit or berry. This year I made tart cherry jam with some of the cherries we picked in Door County, and plum jam with fruit from my parents-in-law’s plum tree.
Jam
prepared fruit (whatever you’re using should be washed, pitted and peeled)*
3 parts sugar to 4 parts fruit (i.e. one and a half cups sugar for two cups of fruit)
lemon juice and zest (Use your best judgment: I used the zest and juice of one lemon for 2 cups of plums; and the zest and juice of two lemons for 6 cups of cherries.)
Roughly chop the fruit you’re using, leaving some larger (or whole) pieces. Mix the fruit with the lemon juice and zest and cook over medium heat until the fruit releases its juices. Mix in sugar and bring to a boil. Cook until the mixture starts to thicken. (Note: the cooking part could take awhile; make sure to stir the mixture regularly.) Cool, pour into containers and refrigerate.
I keep the jam for about a month in the refrigerator and for several months in the freezer.
*If you’re working with grapes (or berries with small seeds), don’t worry about seeding or peeling. Rinse the grapes, make the jam as directed and strain it (I use a metal colander with a fine mesh weave) before serving. You’ll need to work the jam through the strainer using a spoon or spatula.
Jam Recipes
Since the jam doesn’t stay good forever (like the store bought stuff full of preservatives), I’ve been collecting recipes that use up my jam (a girl can only eat so much toast with jam after all). Here are a few of my favorites:
Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars: Amazingly delicious, especially with tart cherry jam, just don’t think about all that butter and peanut butter while you’re eating them.
Pistachio-Cherry Sandwich Cookies from Vegetarian Times: I haven’t tried these yet, but they’re on the list of recipes to sample.
Raspberry Oatmeal Bars from Vegetarian Times: I’m taking these on my next camping trip.
You can also use jam in your favorite thumb print cookie recipe, or make up a batch of peanut butter cookies, roll the dough into balls, make an impression with your thumb in each ball, fill with a teaspoon of jam and bake as normal (although I’d highly recommend lining your cookie sheets with parchment paper).
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