I get excited when fun things arrive at my doorstep. Today, the postwoman brought me a delivery of 50 alpine strawberry plants!!! I’m way super excited but I haven’t quite figured out where I’m planting all of them. The coolest thing about these plants is …
My two daughters left to spend a week on my dad’s farm yesterday which is one of the things they have come to look forward to most during the summer as it’s become an annual trip for them. They will be hanging out with the …
Adventures in landscaping part 2: I turned my back from my planting project for a moment while the kids were out exploring the outdoor space between the large pine trees which is full of loose dirt perfect for digging and mud pies. I should have known better. I looked back and the girls had disappeared into the house. Inside, I found a set of muddy footprints across the floor and onto the (light colored) carpet but no girls… they had already returned to the outdoors and were shoveling (flinging) dirt high in the air so it rained down upon them. Awesome. My son then met be by the garage and I saw a good portion of dirt ground into his hair and stuck to his arms. When I angrily asked him and his sisters why they had tracked in mud and were so darn dirty, his sheepish response to me was simple and honest: “I was being happy, Mom”. I was instantly defused and gave him a hug. I sent him back to go play in the mud as I to, am happiest when I play in the dirt planting and digging my landscape and garden. Despite the inconvenience of being dirty and making a mess (gasp!), I realize that that a rich childhood (and adulthood) is often made of mudpies and that we all need to continue to find that little snippet of whatever makes us happiest so we can say in that moment that we “are being happy” too.
Aside from playing in the dirt, cooking is one of those “being happy” moments for me which can be equally fun and messy (just ask my kitchen). Today’s adventure is a dairy free poppyseed dressing poured generously over a spinach and berry salad. The poppyseed dressing starts with this awesome homemade minute mayonnaise and uses coconut milk to thin it slightly though you can certainly use almond milk or regular milk. The dressing gets its tang from a mixture of apple cider vinegar and citrus and its sweetness from local honey which I acquired at the farmer’s market.
Be extra fancy and put the dairy free poppyseed dressing in a cool little cruet or just use a mason jar for rustic appeal and it’ll keep for a few weeks in the fridge. The salad pairing is summery simple with fresh garden spinach, celery, red onion, blueberries and sweet cherries. Toss it all together and you have one awesome plate of happiness with a cherry on top.
After a stressful morning yesterday, we pulled it off and closed on our new house!! It was a beautiful day to CELEBRATE!!!!! Now it’s on to more packing as we have about two weeks to slowly move to the new place before we close on …
One week to go until we close on our new house and the process is finally going smoothly so we’re now expecting to close on time. Wheeee!! I may actually get to plant a garden this year and that makes me VERY happy. Vacations also make me happy. This …
Two weeks to go until we are supposed to close on our new house and the appraisal isn’t scheduled until next week which means we may not close on time and we need to close by the end of May. If we can’t, we then would be homeless and unable to close the new house until the first week in June due some odd circumstances happening right now. I guess we just say a little prayer and hold our breath in the rush-hour home buying traffic happening right now and hope it all works out as it’s out of our hands at this point. I HATE that feeling!!
Porchetta seasoned tenderloin is one of those things that can take my mind off of the current life stress as it’s flavor is AMAZING! Yes, I totally cheated and didn’t make the “real deal” porchetta as that involves a pork belly, seasoned, rolled up and tied with butcher’s twine and then slow roasted. This looks super pretty when you slice it but you can get the same flavorful punch and tender juiciness from a pork tenderloin in a significantly shorter amount of time and in a more appropriate serving size for an average family.
The seasoning blend in this porchetta seasoned tenderloin consists of fennel seeds, sage, rosemary, garlic and a bit of crushed red pepper. To get the most flavor, I pan roasted the fennel seeds and red pepper until they just started to brown and were very fragrant. After roasting the fennel and pepper, combine in a mortar and pestle and crush until fairly fine. You can add the sage and rosemary at this point as well to blend.
These spices are then drizzled with olive oil and combined with minced garlic to form a paste. Then give your tenderloin a good rub with the spice paste to coat it on all sides. Let it rest for 30 minutes, then sear it in a frying pan and grill over indirect heat. The best way to do this is to shift your charcoal to one side of the grill or to just light one burner on a gas grill to medium and grill the tenderloin on the opposite side until it reaches 145 degrees which should be about 40 minutes. Alternately, you can roast it in the oven at 325 degrees. After taking off the grill, let it rest for 5 minutes before serving. Slice into cute little discs and serve up some deliciousness!
Serving up deliciousness, right here, right now. And maybe if I’m lucky, my husband will make this for me for mother’s day brunch. I mean, I deserve to have him slaving away whisking this creamy savory hollandaise while I kick back with a cup of …
Mayday, mayday! Stress overload during this first week of May and it’s not about to get better so apologies in advance for any one-and-lonely posts in the weeks to come. In a whirlwind of house touring last week, we did find the perfect house to move into, …
Nothing beats a flavorful grilled steak or chicken. Especially when it’s had a nice long marinade in an Indian spiced yogurt mixture overnight to let the flavors soak in and soften the meat to pure tender perfection. Don’t let this tandoori chicken intimidate you. It looks challenging and has many ingredients but it’s secretly really easy to make and will impress any dinner guests you have over to sample your handiwork.
To really bring out the fragrant spices in this dish, I use whole cardamom and cloves rather than ground and then smash them with a mortar and pestle.
You can use pre-ground spices as well just make sure they’re fresh for the best flavor. All of the marinade ingredients then come together quick as a flash. The key to getting all that deep delicious spice infused into the tandoori chicken is to lightly score the cuts of chicken prior to soaking in the marinade. Then let the chicken rest in its yogurt bath for 24 hours. The yogurt cultures will gently break down the meat just enough to give it the PERFECT tenderness and keep it juicy.
When you’re ready to prepare your meal, either place the chicken pieces directly on the grill or you can bake them by placing them on a baking sheet with a wire rack to elevate them like this:
If you grill them, do so over medium low heat turning every 10 minutes for about 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. If you bake them, bake for 20 minutes and turn on the broiler for an additional 5 minutes to get a similar char to grilling. Both ways you cook it will result in a tasty tandoori chicken. Need a coordinating side dish? No problem! This one-pot vegetable curried rice has ya covered!
Oh sunshine, I have missed you!! I’ll ignore the fact that it is still really chilly and I had to pull out my winter coat only days after sitting outside in shorts and a tee shirt. I’ve learned to expect this sort of misbehavior from a Minnesota spring. …
