Chocolate Amaretto Fudgesicles

Since it's been sizzling outside, I bought I popsicle maker! I love popsicles, but I noticed that even the "healthy" popsicles at the store aren't so healthy and they're expensive! Those "fruit bars" they sell and look healthy have sugar and water as the first two ingredients. So, I figured I could do better! Of course, now that I've gotten it I'm doing all sorts of frozen treat experiments. Enter the Chocolate-Amaretto Fudgesicles/ice cream/mousse or whatever else you might turn this into. These are not low-calorie at all (though reducing the amount of nuts would reduce the calories, but also the richness). However, pretty much every ingredient (except the alcohol) is something that on it's own seems like healthy food to me!

Chocolate Amaretto Fudgesicles

This makes about 14 ounces of deliciousness.

~1/2 cup nuts (I used cashews, but almonds also go with chocolate really well!)

1/2  cup milk of choice (I used unsweetened soymilk)

1 large frozen overripe banana, broken into pieces (the more spots the better, heck it can even be almost all the way brown on the outside-the riper, the sweeter, and it reduces the banana taste)

1/2 tsp vanilla

2-3 Tbsp good quality cocoa powder (I used raw cacao and it was amazing)

dash of salt

alcoholic version:

3 oz amaretto liqueur 

nonalcoholic version: 

2 tsp almond extract

if needed, add sweetener or more banana

Directions: 

1) Add nuts to food processor and puree until it forms a ball/paste. It should be a pretty smooth consisitency, but it's ok if it's not as smooth as store-bought nut butters. If the mixture is too dry, you can add water or oil 1 tsp at a time while processing. Note-depending on the size of your food processor you might need to add more nuts for this to work. You can keep the extra nut butter in the fridge for a delicious spread or to use in other treats!

2) Add the other ingredients. Blend blend blend! If desired, stir in extra pieces of nuts or chocolate.

3) Pour into molds or use the batter for something else delicious. 

4) Freeze overnight for fudgesicles. The batter really needs to be completely frozen, not just soft, or else it won't stay on the stick. The alcohol also means this takes longer to freeze completely than other popsicles.

June 30 Day Challenge!

Remember earlier this year when I posted about the 30 day challenges? Well I got a little busy with traveling, and applying for jobs (more on those things later:), so I am just getting started on the next challenge. So here's the big challenge:

Exercise 1 hour every day


Now, this goal without additional restrictions is not a big stretch for me. I actually get a lot of exercise between running, yoga, walking, and swimming- but not every day and not necessarily for an hour. Also, it would be way too easy for me to fill this hour with walking. However, the main goals I have out of this challenge are to increase my overall fitness, and to make sure I keep exercising even as Austin becomes a solar oven for the summer. So I'm giving myself the following rules to go along with the challenge as well:

1-At least 1/4 of the exercise each week is cardio
2-At least 1/4 of the exercise each week is toning
3-No more than 1/2 of the exercise each week is walking (this might not be needed due to the first two rules)

#2 will probably be the most challenging for me, as right now I do very little in the way of toning. Some of my yoga class probably counts as toning, but to help my goals I'm planning on going to some specific toning classes, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the willpower to do 105 minutes of toning every week on my own. Maybe if I found an outdoor gym...

I've been a little lazy on the gardening

Since we moved, I haven't been very dedicated to our gardening. Part of this is we haven't made new garden beds yet and are limited to pots. Part of it is that I knew we were going out of town several times, and didn't want to have unestablished plants that needed extra care. Even so, many of the plants we have are growing well, I think because this spring is so much milder than last spring. 

Our chard is doing well though I need to transplant it. And see that oregano? Yep, it's the same plant as last year.  Also could probably need a bigger pot, which means we need to get more big pots. We also have basil and parsley from last year, although I desperately need to plant more. One bonus of our new house is it came with a huge rosemary bush! Rosemary is actually a perennial in Texas.

Also from last year is this ornamental pepper. Man these are spicy! We haven't actually used them for much but you would only need a few to add a lot of spice. It's a heirloom so I can get you seeds if you want. Each pepper is only about 1/2" long. The green ones were just put on, the red ones have mostly dried out, and you can see it has flowers so it's going to be putting on more soon.

This is one of our orange trees. Even though they are small, they have a few oranges growing! They smelled so great when they flowered around March. Mostly these oranges are an investment for future fruit though, after the trees get larger. Same goes for the blackberries we planted this winter. 

In spite of giving our regular size peppers zero care, they have also been producing. I think they might do better in the pots than when we had them in our raised bed. We planted sweet and spicy banana peppers, and spicy mariachi peppers. Still waiting for our tomatoes to ripen and cucumbers to grow (I think the squirrels may have snagged ripe tomatoes while we were out of town).

 In our courtyard, we also planted some perennial flowers in January. This is a coral honeysuckle, it's native to Texas and is supposed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds (but none so far).

This is a peaberry, also native. You can't see it well in the picture, but it has small cones of pink flowers. The great thing about most Texas native plants is that they only need watering once a month (and most of the time it rains enough that we do not need to water at all). The only problem we're having right now is lots of weeds are coming up through the gravel so I've been pulling them up...maybe we will have to put down the weed blocking cloths eventually underneath the gravel, but this will be a monumental task to do...other ideas are appreciated (we do not use herbicides).

Wonderful Websites

I took a look at my old links and decided my favorites had changed. Also, I figured that by now everyone knew about Lolcats. So these are a selection of my favorite links that I think you're less likely to know about. Enjoy!

Environmental Working Group -This nonprofit focuses on disclosing how safe consumer products are. You've probably heard about the "Dirty Dozen," the common fruits and veggies that have the highest number of pesticides. EWG publishes this, as well as sunscreen safety guides (UBA/UVB spectrum and chemicals), cosmetic safety guides, and cell phone radiation studies, among others. They have some Iphone apps too, so you can be informed on the go.

Seafood Watch -This guide is published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, another nonprofit. It tells you what seafood and sushi choices are sustainable and which are bad, and also give some info. about mercury contamination. They also have an Iphone app and a printable seafood guide, as well as sustainable seafood recipes.

$5 Meal Challenge Slow Food USA - This challenge was based out of the idea that you don't have to spend a lot to eat well. The $5 is based on the average cost of a fast food meal, so people have now submitted thousands of recipes for homemade healthy meals that are under $5/person (many are well under that cost).

Good Guide - This website rates consumer products and brands based on their impact on health, environment and society. Note they are not rated based on consumer satisfaction or value, you will need to use a different website to find that out. They have guides for pet care, kids, toiletries, clothes, and electronics. And they have an Iphone app too:)

Center for a New American Dream - This website is probably encompasses all of my own utopian ideals! Their mission statement says it all:

"The Center seeks to cultivate a new American dream—one that emphasizes community, ecological sustainability, and a celebration of non-material values, while upholding the spirit of the traditional American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We envision a society that pursues not just “more,” but more of what matters—and less of what doesn’t."

Mediterranean Pasta

This is a recipe that we've been making regularly because it's one of those easy meals that's great for a weekday night, while tasting like you spent a lot of time on it. You can prep all the toppings while the pasta boils. You can play around with the toppings, but I recommend at least keeping in the olive oil, vinegar and garlic, and making sure that some of the toppings will add salt for flavor. 

Mediterranean Pasta

Makes 4 servings (2 cups each)

20-30 minutes

8 ounces uncooked pasta (we use whole wheat penne)

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp olive brine

3 garlic cloves, minced

4-6 cups loosely packed chopped spinach (if frozen, use 2-3 cups and thaw (frozen spinach is denser))

15 oz can navy beans, no salt added (or 2 cups cooked)

1/4 cup finely chopped olives

1/4 cup marinated artichoke hearts (to reduce sodium, you could use fresh or frozen and cook it)

2 Tbsp pine nuts, toasted

1-2 tomatoes, gutted and chopped

3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

1) Follow package directions for cooking pasta. Continue other steps while pasta is cooking.

2) Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, olive brine, and garlic in a small bowl.

3) Combine remaining ingredients together (spinach-pine nuts), except for feta cheese and tomatoes.

4) When pasta is done cooking, drain then quickly return to pot. Quickly add and stir the spinach mixture and oil mixture into the pasta. The heat from the pasta will warm the other ingredients and wilt the spinach.

5) Top with the tomato and feta.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling

Charlie's grandma Jeanne is turning 90 this weekend! In celebration I made this cake. I took a Wilton cake decorating class last year but haven't tested out my skills since. The way we learned to decorate cakes in the class wasn't exactly health-the main frosting recipe we learned was based on shortening. So I set out to make a very special cake. I was worried that if it wasn't healthy, Charlie's grandmother wouldn't eat it. I didn't want it to taste healthy though. I also wanted it to be all natural and vegan. After looking through various recipes for ideas, this is the end result. I think it turned out well. It's not as healthy as eating a piece of fruit (although I did sneak 2 cups of fruits and veggies into this cake!), but as cakes go I think it's pretty good!

Cake batter:

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups flour (I used 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour)

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 Tsp Ener-G egg replacer + 1/4 cup water (you could use 2 eggs instead and omit oil)

2 Tbsp Canola oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups grated zucchini

additional water, if needed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add wet ingredients. Stir until mixed, then add zucchini and stir until just blended. If the batter seems to dry, add more water, 2 Tbsp at a time until a better consistency. Coat 2-8 inch baking pans with cooking spray and pour mixture into pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in pan then remove and completely cool on wire racks. This will make 2 short layers, if you want a tall cake you could double the recipe. The zucchini makes this very moist.

Raspberry filling: 

1/4 raspberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)

1/4 raspberry preserves

Puree raspberries then mix in preserves. This will spread pretty thin, if you wanted a thicker layer then you could use just preserves (but I find this to be too sweet). 

Chocolate frosting:

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup pureed raspberries (fresh or frozen, if you don't want the fruit you can sub water or soymilk)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp smooth peanut butter at room temperature (or you can use coconut oil)

I had to use an immersion blender to get this to come together, since the peanut butter is a little hard to mix in. If the consistency is too thick to spread, add more water, 1 Tbsp at a time. The peanut butter in the icing will make the icing harden int the refrigerator. Although this doesn't sound like a lot of icing, it spreads easily so I even had some leftover. It tastes completely sinful too. Eating it, I can tell that there's peanut butter in the frosting but it's not the dominant flavor and it's not bad.

Buttercream frosting (for keeping filling inside and for decorating the top)

1/4 cup softened butter or non-hydrogenated margarine ( I used organic earth balance, which is vegan)

2 Tbsp pureed raspberries (or other berries, for color, sub water for white frosting)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, plus extra

Mix with a hand blender. Add powdered sugar if it's too thin, or water 1 tsp at a time if it's too thick. I had a lot of frosting left for the amount of decorating I did. I don't recommend making any less than this though because it will be hard to fill the pastry bag. I really like the flavor that the raspberries give the frosting. If I wasn't trying to cut down on the sugar I would consider doubling the recipe and frosting the whole cake with it!

30 day challenges

I absolutely love TedTalks and I found some inspiration from this one by Matt Cutts (who apparently got his inspiration from others). He wrote a novel in 30 days. Was it good? Not according to him. But he did it. I find New Years resolutions to be difficult. A year is way too long for most things. I need mini goals, so I thought the idea of 30 day challenges is great! And I also completely get what Matt says about new experiences slowing down time. Apparently the idea for 30 day challenges is common, there's websites that let you track your progress and many blogs dedicated to various 30 day challenges (see http://30daychallenges.net/ and http://30daychallengearchive.tumblr.com/ for example).

So I started my first 30-day challenge last week. My goal is to work through the book Microsoft Access 2007 Data Analysis by the end of February. I have been trying to learn more about databases for awhile and I decided this is the kick I need to get started. I will let you know how it goes in a few weeks!

I am hoping to get hooked on these eventually, with breaks in between each challenge. Some of my ideas are really something new or different, and others are just things I need to make myself do. These are a few of my ideas so far:
-write a thoughtful letter or email each day
-do something creative each day (like drawing or a poem)
-organize a fundraiser
-complete a big home project (since we moved, there are so many of these)
-learn a newer version of GIS software
-do something outside the house each day (it's easy to stay home since I'm not working right now)
-meditate for 20 minute a day (so easy to do, yet so easy not to do)
-get rid of a file a day (having been a perpetual student, I have way too many files)

Why I love second hand

http://savers.com/Default.aspx

In the past, I've been guilty of buying new clothes and later not liking them. I think there's something about just how good the stores are at marketing the clothes. The displays, the lighting, evening the mirrors in the dressing rooms seem to make everything look better. But then I go home, wear it a few times, and decide that what I bought really wasn't so great.

Now, completely unrelated to the above experience, I have wanted to start shopping for used clothes primarily to lessen my environmental impact. But I starting realizing there are many benefits to buying used. 

1. Less environmental impact. My consumer dollars are no longer going to buy new manufacturing in other countries, since the stores were paid by the original owner of the clothes. Literally someone's "trash" is my treasure. No new pesticides will be released into the environment and no dyes or bleach will be spilled to manufacture my clothes. No gas will be spent transporting them halfway around the world. The only impact I can think of is the utilities to keep the store open, and my driving to the store (if I have to drive). And those impacts are true of anywhere I'd be buying clothes. 

2. No slave labor. I no longer have to worry about poor worker conditions and child labor in other countries when I buy clothes, because I didn't pay a store for their new items that could go toward employing workers in bad conditions.

3. The money often goes to a good cause. This does depend on where you buy the clothes since there are for-profits like Filene's basement and Plato's closet, but a lot of second-hand stores are run by charities that use the money for workforce training, and sometimes more specialized program like afterschool programs for kids. Some stores in Austin with charitable programs-Goodwill, Savers (Easter Seals), Assistance League, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. Michael's Academy.

4. It's much cheaper. For example, I bought an Ann Taylor knit shirt for $9 and a Danskin organic cotton shirt for $4. And you can go even cheaper by looking at what may seem like less desireable items (like this blog that I love!). Sometimes if you spend a lot of time looking around you can get these kind of deals on new clothes, but I'd say it's probably much harder to find deals like these on new, good quality clothes.

5. If I buy the clothes, I must love them. The fancy displays don't exist. Everything is thrown together on the racks. The lighting is bad and the dressing room mirrors are normal mirrors. If I pick it out and it looks good, then I probably will wear it. But if I end up not loving it, I don't feel as bad because it was pretty cheap in the first place.

There's a few items that so far I'm not willing to buy used. Undergarments and socks, for example. I haven't bought used shoes yet but might consider it if they were washable and I could put in new insoles (but I think this eliminates most shoes). I am also sure there will be occasions where I am looking for a very specific item that I will need to buy new. So I'm trying to find responsible sourcing for these items. My experience so far is that it's more difficult (and way more expensive) to buy new responsible items than it is to find something used.

Also, under this system not everyone can buy used. There would have to be new manufacturing coming into the system somewhere. But from what I've seen, once you find the right second-hand clothing stores, there's lots of good second-hand options available. My favorite so far is Savers. These stores probably exist because of people like me, who would buy clothes and later realize that they were not what they wanted after all. If you want to buy used clothes but don't know where, a good place to start looking is Yelp! Now if I could find something like this for good home furnishings I'd be in heaven, but so far everywhere I've looked for used furnishings is actually really expensive when they are in good condition. Maybe because they would be considered antiques, but they are more pricey than what I'd be buying new. Ideas anyone?

Book List 2011

I've decided to keep track of what I read each year, especially since I got some good recommendations from last year's post. This year I didn't do as much leisure reading. I blame my dissertation. Reading  and rereading my dissertation made my eyes glaze over sometimes. That, and I really didn't find a good stream of books that I wanted to read. When I starting writing this, I realized that I prefer to read books in a series. Not necessarily because they're better, but because if I like the first book then it's easy to find more good stuff to read.

Earth's Children Series This series is historical anthropology-that is, it's fiction about when Neanderthals and humans both existed in Europe. Pretty cool concept and currently relevant with the new DNA studies finding hybridization between Neanderthals and humans. Overall I really enjoyed the first three books in this series The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of the Horses, and The Mammoth Hunters. I found out about these books because the last book in the series was published recently and NPR interviewed Jean Auel. I just had to read them after listening to the interview! The books can be long winded but I would just skim the slow parts. There were a few things that also made it hard for me to take seriously, like Auel making the Neanderthals telepathic. I stopped reading in the middle of The Plains of Passage. True to the name, it was a trek across plains so not a lot going on, at least not where I stopped reading But give the first few books a try, they were a nice read, especially if you are interested in prehistory.

Millenium series I read the first two books in this series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. I ended up really enjoying both, and actually enjoyed the second book more than the first. I would classify these as mystery. The main character is a very introverted person that happens to be an excellent computer hacker and uses her skills for fact-finding missions. Hmm I think my description does not do the books justice. The first book was really slow to start, it took me 100 pages to get into it. Usually I only give a book about 50 pages to capture my interest, and the first book would have failed in that regard so I'm glad I kept reading. I'm looking forward to reading last book this year-The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

In Defense of Food I decided to read this since I really enjoyed the Botany of Desire and Animal Vegetable Miracle. I also have gotten much more interested in where our food comes from. I think this is a really interesting and informative, yet easy read about the state of how and what we eat. I have to say that I really like that he's not vegetarian. Although I am vegetarian, I think that much of the food literature published by vegetarians is biased (of course, so are many of the other people promoting specialized diets). Still, Pollan's cover message is "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Great advice.

Small Wonders I love Barbara Kingsolver, so it's no surprise that I enjoyed her essays greatly. Her writing style somehow rings true to me. She writes about everything, including politics, food, and whether she should let her daughter have a Barbie doll.

Books I couldn't finish:

Bitten This is the first book of the Women of the Otherworld series, and I had high hopes that this would be a good read to follow the Twilight and Sookie Stackhouse books that I enjoyed last year. I think I found the fact that the main character was a werewolf to be too out there, I couldn't relate enough. Probably why I enjoyed the vampire books from a female human perspective but haven't tried a lot of science fiction where it's an entirely different world.

Baked Tofu

I am trying to come up with some better lunch options. Charlie and I usually either eat leftovers for lunches or make "Tofurky" sandwiches, which are somewhat processed and high in sodium. So I decided to try marinating some tofu myself for sandwiches and salads. Turned out great! Still maybe higher in sodium than I'd like so I might play with reduced the soy sauce more.

For this, I like the texture of the frozen tofu and you don't have to cook it as long because it gets the water out better. It also absorbs the marinade immediately so you don't have to let it set before cooking. You don't have to freeze it but the texture will be different and you would need to marinade the tofu overnight and bake it longer.

Ingredients:
1 package tofu
1/2 Tbsp powdered ginger (or fresh grated)
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp Sriracha hot chili sauce (could substitute 1/8 tsp Cayenne)
2 tsp honey
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 1 Tbsp regular soy sauce + 2 Tbsp water)

Directions:
1) Tofu preparation (in advance)
Freeze and thaw, then gently squeeze out excess water

Slice tofu 1/8 inch thick. (or as desired, thicker=longer cooking time)

2) Whisk together remaining ingredients. Using a spoon or basting brush, spread thinly over tofu (it will absorb immediately if you froze the tofu)

3)  Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet (or lightly oil the pan). Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until browned, then turn over and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until browned.

My Favorite Kitchen Appliances

I think my cardinal rule for kitchen appliances is that they be multipurpose (no waffle irons or rice cookers for me). So aside from the standard pots and pans, these are my favorite things.

1) Kitchenaid food processor. This food processor is built to last. It came with a smaller bowl so it's easy to make foods of smaller quantities such as chopped nuts or pesto. It also came with a dough blade, and a grating blade that makes it easy to grate hard cheese or even potatoes for hash browns (carrots for carrot cake, zucchini for zucchini bread, you get the picture). Also has a slicing blade for meats or cheese. Purees soups or spreads (like hummus) in a snap.

2) Escali Primo Food scale. While food scales might bring to mind Weight Watchers, I use it mainly for cooking and getting quantities accurate. It makes it easy to measure flour without sifting, brown sugar without worrying about packing it, butter and peanut butter can just be thrown into the bowl without trying to get it in and out of measuring spoons, and dough can easily be divided for equal size loaves.

3) Kitchenaid immersion blender. I love this during the winter for pureeing vegetables right in the pot for thickening soups, during the summer for milkshakes or frappuchinos. Great for blending without getting a blender dirty, the blender part is removeable and dishwasher safe.

4) Presto pressure cooker. Makes meals in much less time! I love it for beans and rice and risotto.

5) Toaster oven. Can't remember what kind we have, but it's large enough that during the heat of summer we can avoid turning on the oven to make a small tray of cookies, rolls, toast nuts, and even makes small loaves of bread.

6) Chemex coffee maker. Ok this goes against my cardinal rule but I think if you want coffee you usually want a coffee maker. I love this one because there's no plastic heating up in it, it takes us less space than most coffee makers and it's not another appliance that requires a plug. It does take more work than a drip maker because the water has to be heated up first, but hey if the power goes out I could still have my coffee.

Vegan Chai Spiced Pudding-Yum!

I wanted something sweet and fast this afternoon so made this pudding. Yum! Makes six 1/2 cup servings (120 calories, 2 g fat, 3 g protein, 1 g fiber).

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups unsweetened soymilk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt

Mix everything but vanilla together, heat on stove and stir until thickens (don't boil), and continue to cook/stir for 5 more minutes. Take off heat and stir in vanilla. Refrigerate.

Note: if you want to use vanilla soymilk, omit the vanilla added and reduce the amount of maple syrup to 1/3 cup.

The salad I've been waiting for

This weekend finally feels like summer! Since I turned my dissertation in Thursday, I've relaxed, went tubing and to the Tap Room in San Marcos on Friday, went hiking this morning at the green belt followed by a cherry lime slushie, and tomorrow am going to a barbeque! Yummy, relaxing weekend to make me feel human again. And to top it off, we just had our first summer salad 100% grown in our backyard.

It's Armenian and bush slicer cucumbers, cherry tomato, early girl tomato, white bermuda onion, and a little basil, salted and left to sit for about 15 minutes to get the juices going. Yum! I love the bush slicer cucumber. I was amazed at how sweet the early girl tomato was and how mild the onion was raw. Hopefully this is first of a lot of salads to come, although I am concerned with as hot as it's been the tomatoes may stop setting fruit.

From left to right: sweet potatoes, leeks, strawberries. The sweet potatoes keep growing, I am hoping the leeks will be ready soon, and the strawberries keep putting out a few berries.

We are getting our first green beans! A little later than we hoped, since we had to replant after something ate all the seedlings.

Our first summer squash! Right now it's about 2 1/2 inches in diameter, a flying saucer squash. It can get up to 4" but I plan on eating it by the end of the week.

Nice view of the flying saucer and bush slicer plants.

Baby bush slicer cucumbers.

A violet jasper tomato ripening. This is the second one that's ripened. It was the size of a large cherry tomato but tasted more like a regular tomato to me.

View of our tomatoes. They seem pretty happy right now.

The okra seedlings are growing slowly.

Harvest as of last post (3 weeks ago):
7 heads of garlic
2 carrots
1 cup snow peas (it's been too hot, they are petering out and we are letting the last stay on for seed)
15 cherry tomatoes (small fry and sweet million)
1 each- roma, early girl, and violet jasper tomatoes
1/4 cup strawberries
3/4 lb white bermuda onions (they did not grow as large as expected, but are very tasty)
1 bush slicer cucumber
1 (small) Armenian cucumber

The cherry tomatoes have arrived!

It has been about a month since the last garden update. Sadly, we still haven't had any rain (at least not enough to count in the rain gauge). It's been what, 2 1/2 months now and it's supposed to be the rainy season! We have mulched the garden heavily now, but it has also been unseasonable hot, 90s most days, so we are still having to water 2-3 times/week. Our garden has had some exciting developments:

This week we started getting ripe cherry tomatoes, 3 so far but at least 10 more in the process of ripening.

Our tomato plants are various degrees of happy. Some of the thinner transplants were killed by something that cut them at the base, so we added a few more transplants late and they are obviously smaller than the older tomatoes. I also accidentally decapitated a roma plant so it is now in the process of growing a new main stem...I also think the east row of tomatoes is getting more sun and are taller than the west row.

The jalepeno has flowered, several times actually but so far none of the blooms have survived to fruit. They keep falling off, but I think they are getting pollinated.

Because of the super hot weather, the lettuce was finished, so we replaced it with sweet potato slips about 2 weeks ago. They have already put on several leaves, and apparently the greens can also be yummy to eat. They are supposed to take 110 days (Vardaman bush variety), so we will see how they turn out in mid-August! If you look closely, behind the slips there is a row of leeks and garlic, and then the strawberries and snow peas. The strawberry plants have grown more, but not fruited much. We also planted some Clemson spineless okra, which is growing well so far (not shown).

If you look really closely you can see the start of our first cucumber! It is an Armenian cucumber.

 

 Our potted cucumber and some of our squash have also really taken off! No fruit yet, but I see some female flowers getting ready to bloom!

We repotted our herbs into a single large pot (except for the oregano, it would take over). Even though they have less space, I think they are happier because the smaller pots dried out quickly. Back-basil, center-rosemary, front-parsley and dill.

An overview of the garden. The HUGE plants in the right bed are potatoes. 

Garden harvest for the last month:

10 cups romaine and mesclum (unfortunately some of it bolted and bitter)

5 cups swiss chard (and a little spinach, also bolted now)

8 small carrots (totalling maybe 6 ounces...)

5 cups sugar snap peas

3 cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup green onions

1/2 cup herbs

3 heads of garlic

5 strawberries? few and far between...

 This month has been more of a transition from spring to summer vegetables, so not very much harvested. Hopefully more to come soon!

Be Green, Save Green

Too often, the face of current ecotrends is advertising and tv shows. Watching them, it is easy to think the way to be green is spend spend spend. There's definitely energy-efficient products that pay for themselves, and if you are in the market for a new product it's better to go with the eco-friendly product. But there's tons of ways to be green that don't cost a dime (and actually save some $$$).

Here are a few things we practice in our home:


1) Composting. You do not need a composter to compost. All you need is space. Your trash won't smell as bad, you won't have as much trash, and it makes rich fertilizer for your yard or garden.


2) Turn off the heat/ a/c. Or at least use it less. If it's summer, aren't you wearing less clothes? I hate walking into a building in summer and freezing because I'm wearing shorts. We keep our house 76 summer and 64 winter. Use fans in summer, layers in winter. Small temperature differences lead to big savings.


3) Zero waste eating. When you plan meals for next week, your first stop should be what you already have. Are the eggs expiring, will the spinach go bad? Americans throw away a huge amount of food, an estimated 40%!!!! So stop wasting and your grocery bill could be 40% less. If you know you have more food than you can eat, freeze it. The refrigerator and freezer also run more efficiently when they are full.

4) Reuse creatively. A lot of "trash" can be useful. I like to reuse food containers. Grated cheese and hummus containers are great for snacks instead of buying plastic bags or "Gladwear." Glass jars are also the best! I use large ones for leftovers and freezing soups or broth and small ones to hold herbs or dry goods. When I start seedlings sometimes, I will poke holes in the bottom of yogurt containers for a temporary pot before planting permanently.

5) Homemade cleaners. 50/50 water/vinegar solution works great for sanitizing surfaces and cleaning toilet bowls. Mix vinegar with baking soda for a stronger cleaner. Not only will you save money, you will avoid inhaling the horrible cleaning concoctions that contain who knows what...

6) Your trash may be someone else's treasure. If you don't want to go through the hassle of a garage sale or ebay, donating your unwanted items still gives you a tax deduction (and creates jobs too).

7) Drive less. Americans spend much more on transportation than other countries, an average of $9500 per household annually. Buying a car, maintenance, gas, insurance, it all adds up. Extend the life of your car and save gas by carpooling, using public transportation, or working from home if possible. Our insurance company (Amica)  asks us how frequently we drive to work and our rate is less because neither of us drives to work often.

8) Eat less meat. Yep, unless you are getting local meat (and grassfed beef, organic, etc. etc.) your meat is probably bad for the environment. About 30% of arable land is used for meat production, not to mention how much energy it takes grow the grains, transport the grain to the animals, then transport the animals to your table. Not only is eating less meat good for the planet, it's usually better for your health and your wallet.

9) Avoid traffic. I hate running errands on the weekend, it feels like waiting in traffic for hours just to spend a few minutes buying something. All the while the car is idling at 0 mpg. Run errands on a weekday evening (8 pm is prime empty time) and enjoy your freed weekend.

10) Don't impulse buy. Advertising and stores are set up with the primary purpose of getting your money. The more you buy, the more energy is put into those products, half of which you may decide you don't need after all. "Every dollar I spend is a statement about the kind of world I want and the quality of life I value." Read more at New American Dream.

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day is tomorrow, and I always feel like it is a day for reflection on how my own life affects everything else. I can be a pretty negative person, so I'm trying to focus on the good and bad, and realize that Rome wasn't built in a day (i.e., I can't just change the habits that I grew up instantaneously, it takes a lot of work). The naysayers say your little contributions don't amount to a hill of beans. But, if everyone did what they could to get us going in the right direction, it would amount to a lot.

So, our positive environmental impacts:

-We do not use pesticides or artificial fertilizers on our yard. 

-Indoors we only use green cleaning products (I am a big believer in the power of baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and scrubbing).

-We recycle almost everything (thanks to the great recycling program in Austin)

-We compost all of our food waste

-We drive small cars with good gas mileage

-Charlie takes the bus to work

-We use reusable bags. We even reuse the plastic bags produce comes in several times and bring them with us to the farmers market.

-We use energy conservation settings at home (cooler in winter, warmer in summer) and we have an energy efficient air conditioner.

-We only run the dishwasher and washing machine when full, we don't leave the water running needlessly.

-We recently tested the toilets for leaks, and we found a slow leak in one that we're getting fixed.

-To reduce even more water waste, we have a bucket that we fill while we're waiting for the shower to get warm, and we use the water on seedlings and houseplants (this is like 60 gallons a month).

-We bought native plants recently for our yard, and native shade tolerant grasses (that we still need to plant...)

-We buy organic food when possible. We support the local organic gardening center and belong to the wildflower center.

-We only eat sustainable seafood (the stuff recommended by Seafood Watch). Often it is expensive to be sustainable so we are usually vegetarian, which is cheap.

-Paper: we bought a duplex printer. I really don't believe you can just buy a sustainable lifestyle, but we needed a new printer anyway and I save a lot more paper with the duplexing. Also, Charlie joined the library and paperback swap.

Neutral or questionable:

-We bought carbon offsets for our trip to Hawaii (probably not as good as just not traveling, but I couldn't do that)

-I work from home. I am not sure if this is good or bad because it means I don't drive much, but it also means I keep the temperature at home more comfortable than I would if the house was empty

-We started an organic vegetable garden. I think in a lot of areas this would be positive. I counted it as positive in the wet cool winter months, but now it's hot and we are in a major drought. I find it harder to justify the garden but I can't help but look forward to summer veggies. We mulch the garden which reduces the amount we need to water. I will point out, our garden is a lot smaller than the yards that most people water...(we maybe water ours once every 3 weeks). Our water use last month was ~3500 gallons, the average in Austin is more like 8,000.

-I loove coffee. The environmental impact is not always so great, but I am sure to get shade grown, fair trade organic. The food miles on this are also big.

-I moved to Texas. The move took a lot of gas, but it means a lot fewer flights between Texas and Ohio (the carbon spent on flights is crazy!)

Room for improvement

-I am pledging to myself to take less time in the shower. I already try to reduce the number of showers i take by focusing on showering after working out when possible, but I am guilty of "spacing out" often.

-I love traveling. It uses a lot of carbon, more than if I didn't travel and didn't conserve any energy. I need to work on carbon offsetting all of my travel.

-Our house could really use double paned windows. They're expensive, we just replaced the air conditioner and are in the process of replacing the fence. It's on the list.

-Our energy use would really go down if we had a "smart" system. I think this is a dream house solution for me, not something that is going to happen anytime soon. But if I spend all day working in my office, and all night sleeping in the bedroom, the a/c doesn't need to be running in the majority of the house most of the time.

-I want to build a workable solar oven. I made one out of cardboard last fall and it worked! But it was not durable, and it was bulky. I think this would save a little energy from not using the oven, but save lots of energy by not heating the house (and thus not running the a/c as much)

-We are still using fossil fuels. None of the green energy options are ideal, or affordable. So while we have reduced lots, there are other things to be done.

-We could save more water by having rain barrels or a cistern. The problem? They are expensive, and expensive to install. The city reimburses a little of the cost, but city water is still cheaper. It's on the wish list though.

-We could replace a lot more of our grass with native plants. It's also on the list.

-Right now we donate a lot of stuff, but we don't buy a lot of used items. We tried doing this last fall, but we have not found a store with items that we are actually interested in buying, and even if it is a store that has some good items, you never know what will be there. It makes a lot of sense to buy used in terms of environmental impact, and I would like to buy used more often.
-We need to replace our charcoal grill with a gas one. That's right, gas takes about half the carbon!

Strawberries and Tomatoes and Squash, Oh My!

Our garden is growing great! We have had our first two ripe strawberries, with many more ripening. For some reason, the very first one had part of it go bad (we could not see any little bites out of it), but the rest have been ripening ok so far. We have since covered the strawberries with bird netting and haven't had any stolen.

 The tomatoes have also been looking great! There were a few that died on us, but we had extras and transplanted them in. We have 10 tomato plants and 6 of them already have tomatoes. Some of the plants are not growing as big as expected, but the tomatoes are all we really care about anyway.  I had a sad accident trying to adhere one of the roma tomatoes to the trellis-it was not as bendy as I hoped and the top snapped off and we lost some tomatoes with it! Oops...now I know. The tomato pictured below is a "small fry" variety and produces cherry tomatoes.You can also see our house in the background.

 The squash and zucchini are also growing at their own pace. There are buds forming, so hopefully we'll have many little squash soon! To the right of the large zucchini, there is a container of slicer cucumbers just starting out. We had hoped to have it started sooner, but there was a little typo about planting the cucumber seeds 3" deep, so the first time we tried they didn't survive.

 The snow peas are also looking great and have a lot of little pods on them that will be ready to eat within the week. I haven't been able to help myself and I've eaten 1 or 2 each day even though they weren't full size yet.

We never gave up on the carrots (front corner), but we probably won't plant them again. Now that sun is hitting the full garden they have a lot more leaves, hopefully translating into more roots. The potatoes (large plants in back) look awesome, hope something comes from it (since we aren't really looking to eat the stems). You can also see a few peppers we have planted. They are not growing very quickly, and something has eaten some of the leaves so we don't know how great they will do.

I have seen several of these little assassin bugs on the potatoes and snow peas. I think they're cute! Though  they are supposed to pack a bite if you touch them. I'm happy to see them, they kill some of the insects that try to eat the produce!

While most of what is planted is revving up with the weather, we had to cut lots of the spinach and lettuce because it was beginning to bolt. There is no way we will be able to keep them throughout the summer, we are just hoping to get a little more to tide us over until some of the other plants produce more. My summer replacement for spinach is going to be chard, and the replacement for lettuce is going to be lots of cucumber salads (hopefully!).

Random cat picture. Cookie, the grey ghost. I wish that the cats actually kept birds away from the garden, but they tend to stalk birds more than chase them away.

Garden total for last 3 weeks:
30 cups mesclum salad mix
4 heads romaine
30 cups spinach
5 cups swiss chard
1/2 cup herbs (oregano, basil, parsley)
1/2 cup green onions
2 strawberries
5 snow peas

I am hoping by the next update we might have a few tomatoes and carrots ready, and I expect we will have lots of snow peas!
Failures: turnips, too many little bugs eating them they can't get large enough to keep growing.Something is also eating the green beans, but we have put black plastic containers around them to try and keep bugs out.

Galveston

 Monday was our 2 year anniversary. To celebrate, we went to Galveston. We stayed at Coastal Dreams Bed and Breakfast, where we stayed the weekend of July 4th in 2008, the weekend before Charlie proposed. It was too cool to get in the water, but we enjoyed walking on the beach.

 Charlie by the pool at the Bed and Breakfast.

 

 The state park in Galveston. I thought there was a great egret somewhere in this picture.

Wedding shot!

I have accidentally been traditional about our anniversary gifts. For our first year anniversary, I made a photo album of our honeymoon cruise (paper is the traditional first year gift) and Charlie got us Mr. and Mrs. aprons. This year, I got Charlie a blue bath robe (cotton is the traditional second year gift). Charlie got me an awesome travel mug with photos of us and a moonstone necklace.

The Spring Garden is the Best? For Texas

In the last week or two the garden has just exploded. It's like someone hit a spring switch.

In addition to the lettuce and spinach continuing like mad (we keep eating salad like crazy and finding new recipes for the spinach), the chard is starting to take off and the leeks actually look like leeks now (as opposed to sad chives).

The sugar snap peas and potatoes are growing like gangbusters. Some of each are about a foot tall, I hope some of the peas start flowering soon!

Charlie made new trellises for the tomato plants. We have lots of tomato plants, I am hoping this is an insurance policy on us getting something! We are still garden amateurs, since we started last fall this is the our first round of warm weather plants. We are also practicing square foot gardening and tried to get only space saving varieties (with the exception of the celebrity tomato, which we potted). We will have to keep on top of the pruning.

I was amazed that the tomatoes started flowering only 2 weeks after transplanting! This is a sweet million cherry tomato, and if you look closely at the tip of my finger you can see a blurry image of the first tomato starting to form. Five of our tomato plants already have flowers. Yay!

We have potted zucchini and squash so that we don't have to worry about them spreading over the garden. So far, so good. We are trying to keep an eye out as we heard the squash borers can be quite a problem here.

Finally, ahh sweet sweet strawberries. We have about 20 strawberry plants, and I'd hoped this mean we'd get something from them. This week the strawberries went from just leaves to having 10 flowers. You can see the start of a strawberry here! We will need to find some bird netting stat. I hope they keep coming. I think strawberries are one of the few fruits that you can plant and harvest the same year (melons and possibly transplanted figs are the others I can think of). I would looove fresh fruit.

The oregano is also looking great! I'm glad I gave up on the seeds and bought the transplant. The rosemary, however, doesn't look any difference since the transplant.

 

Mac says he protects the garden from birds and squirrels. Extra treats please!

Garden harvest for the last 2 1/2 weeks: 
 15 cups romaine (we've mostly stopped harvesting whole heads and just harvest the outer leaves, we're concerned it will be too warm to start new plants)
20 cups mesclum salad mix
20 cups spinach
2 cups swiss chard
1 carrot (sad looking though)
2 Tbsp parsley (sounds sad, but I'm excited it finally grew some!)

In addition to these totals there is much more lettuce and spinach ready to harvest but we can't eat it all that fast. As is, we've had salad pretty almost every day we've eaten at home.


Most of the plants are in transition and not quite to bearing food yet. The tomatoes and strawberries are setting fruit, the peas haven't flowered yet, the carrots and basil appear are on their way.