And here is a timely post on the parsley sauce I mention in the video. Guess I should give it a go now that I have mentioned it twice.

Parsley Sauce from Panacae.

Enjoy!

• Vinaigrette
• Chop them up and add them to salads
• Add them to sautéed veggies
• Make a compound butter
• Dry them in a low oven and freeze them in a freezer bag. Refill your spice jars as needed
• Grate/chop them and store with oil in a jar
• Buy herbs with a root base that you can keep alive and only use as you need them
• Blended with a dash of oil and freeze in an ice cube tray. This creates cubes that are about 1 Tablespoon worth. I popped my out and into a freezer bag to be used in recipes at a later date
• Add them to a simple syrup to make the base for home-made sodas. Or better yet, cocktails!
• Make them into a jam. I used my rosemary-thyme jam with a pork loin on the BBQ – Delish!!
• Look for recipes that use similar herbs. For example, Thai curry and pesto will both use basil
• Get creative! What application could you come up with that would use up the herbs before they go bad?
• Start your own herb garden and just cut what you need!

If you would like recipes or more ideas for what I have mentioned here, just let me know.

Recently, I read Farm City by Novella Carpenter. This book was awesome! I was hugely impressed by what she was able to do with a city plot, including raising 2 pigs. I’m not talking teacup pigs either. These were 2 HUGE pigs. After raising them, she had them butchered and made into many different cuts, including a variety of Italian salumi.

Being the nutjob that I am, I was immediately like “How can I get me some pigs!?” I live next to a green space here in Seattle and started scheming on ways to start squatting on the lang and raising pigs. Fortunately(?), my husband is a rational man and he set about to deter me. Quickly. However, he was unable to deter me from tackling making salumi. Even if I didn’t have my own pig to do it with.

I figured the most obvious place to start would be with Italian bacon, otherwise known as Pancetta. I am used to working with pork belly by now, so I did a bit of research and found a couple of recipes that looked manageable and sort of threw them together to come up with something that I thought I would like. I always want to go spicy, but figured I should go traditional until I had a handle on how the whole thing would come together.

I mostly used this recipe from GroupRecipe.com to get things rolling. I never use pink salt (it is a nitrate based curing salt), so I skipped that part. As you can see in the photos, the rosemary in my yard is in bloom, so I included the flowers in the cure. If you have never tried flowers from your yard, you should, especially if they are on an edible plant. I have eaten apple blossoms, kale blossoms, etc. They usually taste like the main plant, but more nuanced.

After our lovely pancetta was hung for 2 weeks, we took it down (per the recipe) and sliced into it. My husband said we should have let it go a month, but I was worried about molding. We did have some slight molding – the bad green kind according to this site, so we simply cut off the end. I suspect I simply didn’t get it wrapped up tightly enough. It was hard to roll. With the fatty side out it was like trying to make a fish into a cigarette!

I have cut off several slices already and have cooked them up with sautéed spinach, as well as wrapped several pieces around a couple of steaks that I threw on the BBQ. Technically, my oldest wrapped them. He insisted that we do so. He once informed me that he would kill himself if I made us all go vegetarian and he couldn’t have bacon. The boy has a problem! OK, so the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

My family loves sodas of all kinds. I am a tea gal, myself, but I can understand the appeal of having something interesting to drink. I like to make my own syrup base and add soda water to it. Some weeks I have used Meyers lemons, others I have used rhubarb. It really depends on what is in season and, therefore, the cheapest. Sometimes, though, I splurge and get something just because I think it will be interesting.

I have never actually done the math on this, but I like to tell myself that it is more economical. If not economical, then at least I can say that I know what is in it.

Be brave! Experiment with different flavors and combinations of things. The worst that could happen is that you have something that you don’t want to drink or may have to use in another application (did someone say vinaigrette?).

Have fun!

Simple Syrup Base
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
1 cup of fruit or fruit juice, plus some zest if using citrus

Add all ingredients into a pan. Heat of medium high until it comes to a boil. Boil 5 minutes to dissolve the sugar*. Remove the pan from the heat and let steep for about 30 minutes. Strain out anything you don’t want to drink (ex. hunks of lemon grass). Store in an airtight jar in the fridge.

*You will want to taste the syrup at this point to make sure that the flavors are where you want them to be. Add more sugar or juice to adjust the flavors to your liking.

Blackberry-Peach Soda

I get up each day, far earlier than I did only a few months ago, with a laundry list of chores; both inside and outside. Then I have to decide how do I split my time? Usually the weather dictates that for me, being in Seattle and all. But when the weather turns GORGEOUS I feel obligated to be outdoors, even if I had other plans. It feels like you are breaking some law by not taking advantage of every sunny day. They really are few and far between at times.

So while I spend months, literally, planning my garden and then weeks more just putting it all in, I find myself hitting a wall and losing interest. BAM! Just like that. This happens every year. It passes quickly, but it still happens. I am not sure why I lose focus. Maybe it is because waiting for seeds to germinate is rather boring. Maybe you can only pull so many weeds before you start asking if you really care about them or not. I don’t really know.

I do know that come July I will likely have more fresh food on my hands than I know what to do with. I will be eying the blackberries and planning for my next big batch of jam. I will be looking at all the apples and wondering how many batches of hard cider we will make this year. It will all be a lovely abundance and I do look forward to it, but for now, I am going to simply work through all the things I put up last year.

This pie was made from the last blackberries in the freezer. I combined them with some sliced peaches (also frozen) and candied ginger. It was awesome! The crust was one from America’s Test Kitchen. They made a big point about “Vodka is essential to the texture of the crust and imparts no flavor; do not substitute”, but since I can’t follow instructions, I actually used Triple Sec. The slightly orange flavoring was delish and combined with the fruits and ginger, really was awesome, if I do say so myself. I also doubled the recipe to make a 2-crust pie. Lastly, I added the alcohol in the food processor and blended it that way. I am lazy, what can I say. Just be sure that if you double it, that you remember to divide the dough when you make it into the disks before putting it in the fridge. Lastly, these instructions were for a pre-cooked pie shell, so keep that in mind when following the instructions. If you cook the pie like I did, use 400 degrees for 40 minutes or so. You want the crust golden and the juices bubbling up.

Since you likely can’t see the recipe without a subscription, I am sharing it with you here:

America’s Test Kitchen Perfect Pie Crust
Makes 1-9″ Pie

Ingredients1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (6 1/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter , cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/4 cup vegetable shortening , cold, cut into two pieces
2 tablespoons vodka , cold (see note)
2 tablespoons cold water

Instructions

1. For the Crust: Process 3/4 cup flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about two 1-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogenous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 10 seconds; dough will resemble cottage cheese curds with some very small pieces of butter remaining, but there should be no uncoated flour. Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining 1/2 cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Flatten dough into 4-inch disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

3. Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 400 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out on generously floured (up to 1/4 cup) work surface to 12-inch circle about 1/8 inch thick. Roll dough loosely around rolling pin and unroll into pie plate, leaving at least 1-inch overhang on each side. Working around circumference, ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand while pressing into plate bottom with other hand. Refrigerate 15 minutes.

4. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch beyond lip of pie plate. Fold overhang under itself; folded edge should be flush with edge of pie plate. Using thumb and forefinger, flute edge of dough. Refrigerate dough-lined plate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Blackberry-Peach Pie

We live on practical terms. We don’t have time or energy for frilly things. This doesn’t mean we don’t like them. It means that those things don’t often find a way into our everyday lives. We more often than not would be seen wearing a macaroni necklace or a sparkly sticker than diamonds and jewels. It’s OK. We like it that way. They were given to us with love and we wear them like badges of honor.

We have managed to memorize all the names of dinosaurs, superheros, princesses, or rocks or whatever it is that our children are obsessing about at the moment. We have suffered through endless conversations centered on Sponge Bob. We put a smile on our faces when we have to listen to the EXACT dialog from their favorite movie, even though we just sat through it with them for the gazillionth time.

We dream of dinners out where someone else is cooking an orgasm-worthy meal. Where the wait staff don’t make us feel guilty for actually being waited on… for a change. We can’t begin to imagine when this will all take place, but we dream about it anyway. Instead, we happily tuck into mac ‘n’ cheese, because that is what the crowd is calling for and we can’t handle a coupe right now. Peace is highly underrated.

We dream about sleep. LOTS AND LOTS of sleep. But crazily enough, when we actually get it, we feel like we have a hang-over because we are so used to running on very little sleep that having more than 6 hours induces a headache. We still like to talk about this little luxury, even though we know it won’t happen. It is another badge of motherhood. One that all our compatriots understand all too well.

Mostly though, we like to dream about the wonderful life we actually already have with our kids. Mine often find me staring at them and are prompted to ask “What?!” and when I tell them I am just looking at their beautiful face, they get all like “Whatever, weirdo!” I know that I embarrass them. Sometime I do it on purpose even. OK, so I do it especially when I know that they are the ones being uptight. I hope that they will just look back on our time together, when they were kids and I was “old”, and think of me as nutty. Nutty, but in a good way. Love you kids!

And to Tom, I love you mostest infinity – you are why I am a mom. It was always more than dinner and a movie

Lastly, I often think of my own mother when I an knee-deep in being a mother myself. I realize, only now, how much work this all is; being a mom. My own mother had 6 children. I can only imagine! I literally owe you my life I have noticed though, when my mom and I are together, we are less mother and child and more 2 mothers, sharing what that means to us both. Mom, wish you lived close enough for me to make you a lovely brunch. Love you!