Grandpa's Potato, Broccoli, and Mustard Greens Soup

From Grandpa:

This is what I cooked for dinner tonight. It is a variation on Mami's great tasting soup. This recipe does not take much time to prepare and is healthy and tastes good. And most important it won praises from a few of my grandchildren.

The morning of the “dinner” (that is this morning)….
I scrubbed the skin of a few potatoes and removed the skin of a large yam (sweet potato) and cut them all to pieces and submerged them in water in a crockpot. I set the crockpot to low heat and left for work. I also put in the crockpot some fresh thyme and spicy oregano in a canister meant for tea leaves along with a bay leaf.
I normally cook the potatoes in the microwave oven but I am aware that cooking starch at high temperature creates some carcinogenic compounds and the crockpot is the perfect solution. The jail for the thyme and oregano permits me to remove the herbs after they have given up their nutrients to the soup.

The evening of the “dinner” (that is NOW)….
I sauteed onions, garlic in canola oil.
More specifically… I cooked the onions in the microwave until they were translucent. I normally saute the onions since they require longer cooking than garlic but this is a shortcut that I sometimes take.
I heated some cumin in a pot for about a minute until I could smell the cumin fragrance.
I added some canola oil (canola tolerates heat  more than most other oils) and chopped (in a vitamix) garlic and sauted for a minute.
I then combined onions and garlic mixture and sauteed for 1 minute.
I added the saute mixture to the crockpot.
I cooked some fresh broccoli in the microwave and added to the crockpot.
I cooked some fresh mustard and kale greens  in the microwave and added to the crockpot.
I added a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the crockpot for flavor (dont want to burn the olive oil).

I removed the canister housing the herbs and also the bay leaf and used a hand blender to produce a “soup”.
Added ground pepper and a little salt and some nutritional yeast.

Served it with rice (brown rice and millet) and fresh cole slaw (they type you buy in a bag). For my personal serving I added some chili peppers.

Please pass along to those in your family who are trying to eat more vegetables.

Corn Salad

I created this salad to bring to our Easter Celebration.  My inspiration came from my potato and corn chowder, but the warmer weather demanded something cold.  Since Easter, I have made this salad about once a week at my husband's request.  It usually lasts 2-3 days before I find an empty bowl on the counter.

Salad Ingredients

1-2 bunches green onions

1 leek

1-2 celery stalk

1 red pepper

2 pounds frozen corn

3-5 pounds potatoes

1-2 bunches cilantro

Dressing 

2/3 cup oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup lemon juice (I used Meyer from our tree)

2-3 tablespoons no-salt garlic and herb seasoning.

Directions

1. Cook the potatoes until soft.  Allow to cool, then slice.

2. Slice the onions, leek, and celery into small pieces.

3. Dice the pepper and cilantro

4. Defrost the corn by running water over it in a colander.

5. Add all the ingredients to a large bowl (or two smaller ones)

6. Mix the dressing and pour over the salad.  Stir to combine.

You can serve immediately, but the flavors will be more intense if allowed to sit overnight.  This makes a lot of salad and could easily be cut in half.  It also is open to many other ingredients and combinations.  I have made it with sauteed mushrooms, black beans and cumin, and have omitted the red pepper.

New Growth Quilt

Introducing my most recent quilt: New Growth by Poplun.  I started it back in March (even though I already had another quilt in progress).  It promised to be a quilt that could be assembled in small chunks of time, which was perfect for me since I find that I can only squeeze in 10-15 minutes of sewing every few days.

It worked out well because each of the parts could be broken down in to smaller steps as needed.  I had a bunch of fat quarters that I bought last summer that coordinated really well for this quilt.  For the actual quilting part, the pattern reminded me of argyle, so I quilted some diamonds and rows.

If anyone out there is looking for an easy quilt pattern, I highly recommend this one.

Dinosaur Booties

Our little toddler, K, is becoming more mobile.  She isn't quite walking, but is almost there.  At home she is barefoot the majority of the time and has never worn a pair of shoes.  As she will be moving around more and more, I thought it would be a good idea to start transition her from being barefoot (or with socks) to something that would be more like a shoe.

I saw this tutorial at Made-By-Rae for these cute dragon/dinosaur slippers a while back.  I even made K a pair of non-dragon booties using the same tutorial back in October, but she has long since outgrown them.

This time I thought she would appreciate the dinosaur look, and she did (I think she thought they were toys).  Although I really like the blue and green booties from the original post, it seemed like a pink version would be fun too.

Some changes from the original design:

1. I used ric-rac of the super-jumbo variety (which is why there are fewer bumps running down the front of the booties).
2. For the soles, I re-purposed the feet that I had cut-off some pajamas.  They have a grip pattern so it is less slippery on our wood floors.
3. I substituted circles of felt  for the eyes, as buttons could be a choking hazard if they came off.
4. I used my serger to finish the inside edges of the soles instead of a zig zag stitch.

Potato and Corn Chowder

Photos of batch #1, minus the extra veggies

This simple chowder is made from basic ingredients and is easy to make.  I have made it twice and added some extra ingredients the second time (denoted with an *).  I was able to make it for lunch in about 30 minutes.

Ingredients
3-5 potatoes, washed
1 onion, diced
1-2 cups sliced celery
5 mini or 1 large sweet pepper
5-10 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon oil
3-4 tablespoons No-Salt Garlic/Herb seasoning
2-3 tablespoons dried parsley*
1 tablespoon black pepper (optional)
6 cups hot/boiling water
1/2 cup vegetable stock*
2 pounds frozen corn kernels
3 green onions, sliced*
2 cups greens (Chinese cabbage), sliced*

Directions

1. Pierce potatoes with a fork and cook in the microwave until soft.
2. While potatoes are cooking, saute onions, celery, pepper, and garlic in the oil until browned
3. Add the hot water to the pot.  I boiled the water using my electric kettle (that I love!) then poured it into the pot.  Adding the hot water de-glazed the pot and released any stuck-on pieces of vegetable from the bottom.
4. Add the vegetable stock, seasoning, parsley, and black pepper if desired.  The first time I made this I used the black pepper and it added a bit of spicy flavor.  I omitted it the second time so we could feed it to our 14 month old daughter and not worry about it being too spicy.
5. When the potatoes are cooked, cut them into fourths or eights and add to the pot.
6. Add the frozen corn and bring the soup back to a boil.
7. Add the green onions and greens and cook for 3-5 minutes until the greens are tender

Photo of batch #2 with the added ingredients

The added ingredients from the second batch really add some fresh flavor to the soup.  There is a lot of flexibility with vegetable combinations and levels of spice.  This is another one of the recipes that will help clean out your refrigerator of aging vegetables.

Spring Top #1

Sewing has become one of my go to hobbies because it is easy to start and stop (due to short naps) and can be done even when the weather outside is unwelcoming.  I follow several sewing blogs, one of which is Made By Rae.  I have followed several of her tutorials and have made some really cute items.  Maybe one day I will blog about some of them and share some photos.

This past Monday, Rae launched the Spring Top Sewalong 2012 and I decided I would try to make some tops for myself.  My first top is based on one of Rae's own patterns, Spring Ruffle Top, that she shared over at SewMamaSew.

Here is my top: 

The fabric I used is Indian Flower, "Small Packed Flower/Gold" by Legacy Studio that I found in the clearance bin at Beverly's.  The white is some fabric from Joann's that I had leftover from a quilt. I would say that getting the straps set correctly was probably the most time consuming part of this pattern.  It also gave me a chance to try out making ruffles on my new serger, which worked fantastically.

I have already started my second top and I look forward to trying out some new techniques.

Vegetable Thai Curry

This soup was a result of an overflowing refrigerator with vegetables that were a little past their prime. I decided that a Vegetable Curry would be a great way to use the vegetables and some of the cans of coconut milk my husband acquired en mass when they were on sale a few weeks ago. I suspect any assortment of veggies would yield a similar result. Here is a combination that we really enjoyed.

Ingredients
1 yellow onion, cut into eights
5 cloves garlic, roughly diced
1 leek, sliced thinly
5 ribs celery, sliced thinly
4 green onions, sliced thinly
3 medium carrots, sliced
1 yellow pepper
1 small bunch cilantro
1 small sweet potato, cubed
1 small yam, cubed
1 bunch kale, sliced
ginger, peeled and cubed
jalapeno, whole
1 stalk lemongrass, cut into 3 in pieces and pounded
3-4 tablespoons curry powder
1-2 tablespoons garlic and herb seasoning mix
4 cans coconut milk
8 cups water
oil for sauteing

Directions
1. Saute the yellow onion, garlic, and leeks.
2. Add the water and bring to a boil.
3. Add the celery, green onions, carrots, pepper, cilantro and continue to boil.
3. Place the ginger, jalapeno, and lemongrass into a spice ball or cheese cloth and add to the soup.
4. Add the spices, coconut milk, sweet potato, and yam and cook until tender
5. Just prior to serving, add the sliced kale and cook just until it is softened.

We ate this over brown rice with garlic shrimp on top.  Hope you like it as much as we did.

Simple Spring Garden

With our little one around, time for large scale projects is scarce so I decided to create a small garden with some Spring vegetables just outside our backdoor.  I was inspired by a pallet garden I saw on Pinterest and decided to spend a couple of hours putting one together with two abandoned pallets in our yard.

The process was quite simple:

Attach landscape fabric/weed barrier to the pallets using a staple gun

Fill the newly formed planting beds with soil.  I used this kind for containers.

Plant your veggies and water them in.

I planted spinach, romaine lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and onions from transplants.  I also planted some spinach seeds in the bare spots, hopefully they will grow. I can't wait until they are a little bigger so we can start harvesting without eating the entire plant.  Are there any other interesting Spring Gardens out there?

Harriet's Mixed Bean Soup

This is an easy soup that is perfect for a blustery winter day.

Ingredients (shown above)

4 celery stalks, sliced

1 sweet onion, diced

5 sweet peppers, diced

1 head garlic, diced

mushrooms, sliced

2 cups mixed dry beans

3 tablespoons of your favorite no salt seasoning

3 tablespoons dry parsley or basil (can use fresh if available)

black pepper to taste

1 can no-salt added tomatoes*

2-4 cups greens (spinach, chard, bok choy, kale, etc)

oil (olive or canola)

Directions

1. Soak the beans per the package directions, either overnight or using the quick soak method.
2. Saute the celery, onion, peppers, and garlic in canola or olive oil. Canola does not burn as readily but is not as tasty.
3. Boil the beans for 1 hour then add the sauteed vegetables, mushrooms, and spices.
4. When the beans are soft, add the tomatoes and the greens and simmer for and additional 5-10 minutes.

We eat this soup with brown rice and bananas.
*Of course you can always use fresh tomatoes when in season.

Hello again...

So it's been over a year since I last posted and a lot has changed. Little did I know when I was doing a quick recap of 2010, that I would only have one short month until our little girl would make an early appearance.

Our beautiful daughter was born 6 weeks early and had an 8 day stay in the NICU before we brought her home. It was a stressful time and it took a while before we found our rhythm. Now, she is almost a year old and I am amazed at the blessing we have each and every day.

I can honestly say in the last year my focus has had a great shift and as I (hopefully) get back to some regular posting, I will be able to share some new interests and revive some old ones. Stay tuned.

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

As I am saying goodbye to 2010, I think back on my year in review from 2009. I originally thought I would create a post like that each year to capture a summary of the year's highlights. However, 2010 turned out to be a much different year.

The first 3 months were pretty much business as usual here on Loomis Living. I did a lot of cooking: Lentil Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup, Black Eye Pea Soup, Macaroni and Cheese, Waffles, Flat bread, Scalloped Potatoes, Guacamole, and Mujadara to name a few. We also brought home some baby chicks and built our second chicken residence.

April, May, and most of June were pretty much a blur. I was extremely busy at work and found much less time to do projects, let alone blog about them. There were still some chicken posts and the vegetable garden was planted a little late. The major project was building a new and improved chicken coop where all the chickens could live.

July brought the usual assortment of posts. It also brought some joyful news to Loomis, we were going to have a baby! Pretty soon those lazy summer days I posted about in August became every day.

Since my energy level was very low, I decided to pull out a lower intensity project that I had set aside a few years back. After 3.5 months of work, I finally finished my first sampler quilt at the end of October. The chickens also went through a molt during this time, so they were a little less than photogenic.

By November and December our focus had shifted to our upcoming arrival and unfinished projects around the house. My dear husband went into full bathroom remodeling mode, stripping out the old bathroom to the bare studs and starting from scratch. On the other hand, I started focusing on the room that would be the nursery. I haven't been doing very well with capturing the progress, but am hopeful that I will post some before and after shots at some point in the future.

As I say hello to 2011, I am excited about all that is in store for the upcoming year. First and foremost, we will meet our baby girl in March, we will have a 2nd functioning bathroom in our house, and we will discover how to be a family of three + ten chickens.

Frozen

I was surprised to hear the forecast of a freeze this week. It is even earlier than last year's unusual snowfall in early December. I hope this isn't an indicator of the Winter yet to come.

We did take precautions to protect the citrus and avocado trees. It's a stretch the say that we put our Christmas lights up early, but it does add a festive air to the yard.
The view out the window this morning was filled with frost. The zinnias were edged with sparkly crystals. The thyme and sage also made an impressive showing. Even the little succulents had a light coating.

Today's goal: stay warm

2010 Mandarin Crop

This is our complete harvest for this year (minus 3 that we already ate). It is a decent improvement over the 13 we had last year. We were hoping to leave them on the trees to fully ripen, but we are having a freeze over the next couple of days, so I picked them all yesterday afternoon. This morning, here is what I saw when I woke up:

Apparently, even the green ones were tasty.

My First Sampler Quilt

First, I need to start out with a little history. My husband gave me a sewing machine for Christmas in 2006. I had never used one before, so I started out slowly with a simple patchwork rag quilt. Over the course of that first year I made a total of 5 quilts:

In 2008, I made another baby quilt and a few other small projects. We moved to Loomis this year, so sewing took a backseat to other activities.

In 2009, I did not make any quilts. Being the first full year in our new home, I spent a lot of time on other projects.

At some point over the course of this 3 year period, I came across this sampler quilt. It was for Debbie Mumm's 20th Anniversary. I had bought and cut all the fabric, but had only managed to assemble three of the blocks. This summer, I decided to pull it out and finish it. Here is the finished product:

Each block is 12.5 inches with the log cabin style strips bordering two sides of each block. Here are close-ups of a couple of blocks. I tried some freehand machine quilting as you can see on the left borders.

Overall, I am very pleased with this quilt. It is the most challenging I have completed thus far and I was able to learn some new techniques. I am already planning my next one!

More trees

My dear husband has officially become a tree-aholic. Over the last month he has purchased the following trees (granted some were to replace ones that didn't make it through last winter):

5 Olive
2 Asian pear
2 Peach
2 Cherry
1 Fig
1 Pomegranate

These combined with the original orchard and Mandarin grove, brings our total tree count to nearly 50 since we moved here in August 2008. I am glad we like fruit.

Oven Baked Potatoes

Now that the weather is finally cooling off, my thoughts are turning to more Autumn and Winter-like foods. Baked potatoes are not something we commonly have, but the potatoes looked tasty when I was shopping last week, so I picked some up. I searched around for a recipe and found one that was simple enough. However, the final ingredient was salt which would require a substitute. I decided to use onion powder and granulated garlic.

Ingredients

medium baking potatoes

olive oil

onion powder

granulated garlic

Directions

1. Wash the potatoes well with a vegetable brush and let dry (keep the skin on).
2. Stab the potatoes 4-5 times with the tines of a fork to crate holes for the steam to escape.
3. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on the dry potato and use your hand to coat the entire outside.
4. Sprinkle the onion powder and garlic around the outside of the potato and set aside
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all the potatoes are coated and seasoned.
6. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 1-1.5 hours or until the potatoes are soft.

We at the potatoes with Kefir Labne Cheese instead of sour cream. My husband, who isn't a fan of potatoes, said they were the best baked potatoes he had ever had. This recipe is definitely a keeper after that comment.

Very Berry Cake

I made this cake last weekend after my husband requested a cake with fruit. It is a simple yellow cake recipe with frozen berries added to the batter.

Ingredients
1 yellow cake mix for a large cake (used only 1 cup of sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1-2 cups frozen berries (I used a mixture of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)

Directions
1. Mix all the ingredients except berries in a bowl. An electric mixer was useful for this step.
2. Once the batter is smooth, gently stir in the berries until evenly distributed.
3. Pour batter into a cake pan prepared with butter and flour.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes for a bundt pan. Other shaped pans would likely take less time. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Turn cake onto a plate and let cool.

Mujadara with Cilantro

Earlier this year, I posted a recipe for an onion, lentil, and rice pilaf. I had stored some in the freezer and pulled it out a couple of weeks ago. Wow! It was still super tasty even after being frozen for several months. I decided to make a fresh batch.

The recipe is slightly altered from the last go around. Specifically, I cut out some of the hands on cooking time and added fresh cilantro to the end product.

Ingredients
6 medium onions, caramelized
1/2 medium onion, fresh
2 cups lentils
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
7 cups water
2 cups brown rice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Olive oil
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions
1. Caramelize the onions using the slow cooker. This can be done in advance and the onions can be stored in the refrigerator until ready to use.

2. Slice the fresh onion half into half-moon shapes.

3. Sauté the onion in some olive oil until it softens and turns brown.

4. Add the lentils, pepper, and water to the pot and bring it to a boil.

5. Once it reaches a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

6. Add the rice and cumin. Simmer for an additional 45 minutes (brown rice takes longer to cook. White rice would be done in 20 minutes).

7. After the rice is cooked, stir in the caramelized onions and chopped cilantro.

The cilantro adds a freshness to the dish and really complements the cumin flavor.

Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

I have come across several recipes that call for caramelized onions. After thinking to myself that there must be a easier way than standing over a saute pan for an hour, I did a quick search. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are many websites that highlight caramelizing onions using a slow cooker. I instantly knew I had to try it out.

The process I used is simple:

1. Drizzle olive oil on the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. Add onions (can be sliced, quartered, halved, or whole).
3. Drizzle with olive oil on top.
4. Cook on low for 12-15 hours (overnight works well).
You may want to stir once or twice to make sure the onions don't stick.

The result is a pot full of beautiful onions ready to be used in your favorite dish.

Low Sodium Chex Mix

This is a nice alternative to the original snack mix for folks trying to watch their salt intake.

Ingredients

3 cups Corn Chex (330 cal, 840 mg)
3 cups Wheat Chex (640 cal, 1360 mg)
3 cups Rice Chex (300 cal, 720 mg)
1 cup Mixed Nuts (340 cal, 200 mg)
1/4 stick unsalted butter (200 cal, 0 mg)

1/4 cup olive oil (480 cal, 0 mg)
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce (0 cal, 360 mg)
6 dashes (to 12 Dashes) Tabasco Sauce (0 cal, 0 mg)
1 teaspoon No-Salt Seasoning Mix (0 cal, 0 mg)
¼ teaspoons Onion Powder (0 cal, 0 mg)

4 cloves mashed garlic (0 cal, 0 mg)

Directions

1. Add butter, Worcestershire, Tabasco, seasoning mix, onion powder, and garlic to a bowl and microwave until the butter is melted.

2. Mix in olive oil.

3. Add remaining ingredients to a bowl and mix.

4. Pour the butter mixture over the dry ingredients and stir to mix.

5. Evenly spread the mix on a baking sheet and drizzle with a little more olive oil.

6. Bake at 250 degrees F for 1 hour 15 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes.

7. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Nutrition Info

Servings: 24

Serving size: 1/2 cup

Calories per serving: 100

Sodium per serving: 145