A Sneak Peak at the Winter Garden

It’s 11am on December 23 and I should really be at the grocery store...BUT, it rained.  A LOT.  It rained for 5 days straight and that’s a lot for our desert climate.

Moss!!!

My garden was calling me to come out and play.  I left the cinnamon dough rising (recipe in the next post), the laundry on the bed (in the washer and in the dryer), a table full of Christmas crafts, and threw on some gardening clothes.  The boys followed me out to the backyard...not dressed for gardening (no shoes...just socks), but I knew I only had a small window of time before it was time to feed lunch to everyone and put the babies down for a nap (it’s a whole routine that involves teeth brushing and books, snuggling...etc.).  I wanted to see the progress of my winter garden and to see how much it really rained.

I found this tub full of water right at the gate to my garden! 

The pathway had sprouted a lot of weeds so the shoeless boys and I weeded the garden together.  I never mind weeding when the soil is completely soaked because the weeds pull out so easily and I feel a huge sense of accomplishment.  I sprinkled some fertilizer throughout the garden and "watered" it in with the rain water.  Even though it didn't need to be watered, the package said to "apply to wet soil then lightly water in"...so I did.

Here's what's growing in my winter garden this year:

The flat leaf (Italian) parsley is still going strong.

These Christmas oranges are perfect this year!

The garlic patch is sprouting nicely.

My celery is growing strong!  I'm so excited about these...

The onion patch is taking off...nice.

Baby carrot plants...

The curly leaf parsley smells so good.

And, the boys played nicely waiting for me to finish.

While the kids ate lunch, I rolled up the cinnamon rolls and set them in the oven to rise then then bake.  I love my “delay-oven-timer” feature on the oven.  It remembers to cook things when I’m too distracted.  Can’t imagine why I’m too distracted!?!?

Now it’s 3:15 and the babies are asleep.  My daughter has a friend over, my son is enjoying some TV time and I’m ready to tackle the kitchen and the laundry...oh, and take a shower...or maybe I should get to the grocery store!?  But first, I NEED a cinnamon roll.  :)

Homemade Pizza on a "Cold" Day in December

We played in the sprinklers on Monday morning (80 degrees) yet had to bundle up for our morning run yesterday (60 degrees)...sheesh!

I LOVE my double BOB stroller.

I took the babies to the Santa Ana Zoo this morning and while I was there I was thinking about what to make for dinner.  Yes, I have to think about dinner way before dinner time otherwise dinner ends up being way late or the dinner turns out just plain awful.  I'd rather plan all my meals for one whole week on Sunday night, go shopping on Monday and then let the week move along just splendidly...that was before the twins.

Pizza.  I have my garden fresh homemade tomato sauce in the freezer.  I have flour (this time I added a few cups of whole wheat flour into the dough), I have pepperoni, ground turkey, veggies (onion and garlic too!) and mozzarella. That's pretty much all you need to make a healthy pizza for your family. It seems that no two pizza nights are exactly the same.

Pizza dough (enough for 3 large pizzas) is 7 cups flour, 2 1/2 cups warm water, 2 Tablespoons yeast, 2 teaspoons salt and any spices you want to throw in to the mix.  I make it early in the day and let it rise on the counter a few times before I toss it in the fridge till I'm ready to use it (which can be a few days, if needed).

I chopped all my veggies up and sauteed them with a little olive oil.  I put the garlic in towards the end so they won't burn.  My kids like to top the partially cooked pizza crusts and then I bake them for an additional 12-15 minutes at 425...hence the Pizza on a "cold" Day title...it warms up your kitchen fast!

...And, who doesn't like pizza?  The babies.

Roma Tomatoes in December?!?

Would you believe that in mid-December I harvested 34 (yes, I counted) roma tomatoes!?!?  We had an unusually cold summer this past summer.  In fact, in all my year, I think it was by far the coldest summer that Southern California has ever had.  So, at the end of August when it was still cold-ish (for August), I bought a roma tomato plant from OSH and plopped it in some prepared soil in a sunny spot.  I thought that it might be a warm fall since we didn’t really have a summer.  September was HOT and so was October.  It cooled down in November and I didn’t think that those green Romas would ripen...but they did.

  

So, today I decided to use them up.  I roasted them skins and all plus some onions and garlic and salt and pepper (kinda like I did when I made my spaghetti sauce this summer).  I followed Ina Garten’s recipe for Basil Tomato Soup...yes, I still have some useable basil in the garden!  My son, who does not like soup at all, at this up fast and said, “Mom, it wasn’t that bad!”  I took that as a compliment ...coming from him.

Pie Pumpkins...and LOTS of 'em!

I hit the jackpot at the grocery store.  They were practically giving away pie pumpkins just after Thanksgiving...so I snatched up...A LOT!  People were asking me "What are you going to do with those?"  Duh...

Pie Pumpkins are the cute small ones.

I found a recipe on line with complete instructions on how to turn them into PIES!!  I steamed the pumpkins (cut in half with seeds scraped out) for about 30 minutes.  The pumpkin scrapes right out of the shell.  I used my stick blender to blend the cooked pumpkin.  Because I had so many pumpkins to cook up, I froze them for future use.

I did make a pie.  Here’s the recipe I used and, to my surprise, it turned out perfectly!
I took the the pureed pumpkin out of the freezer a day ahead of time and once it was thawed I put it in a strainer over a bowl for a few hours to get out excess water.

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
3 cups prepared pumpkin
1 1/2 cans (12 ounces each) of evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Use a stick blender to combine all ingredients and pour into a homemade pie crust.

Bake at 425 for the first 15 minutes (cover edges with a foil tent), then turn the temperature down to 350 and bake for another 45-60 minutes, until a clean knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let the pie cool.  Refrigerate until you're ready to serve...with real whipping cream, of course!

Note:  I used to use "pumpkin pie spice" and now after buying all the spices separately and following this recipe, I will never go back.  The flavor is unbelievable when you use the real spices (cloves, allspice, ginger and cinnamon) separately!  Try it, it’s not that hard!

Note #2:  I saved the seeds, dried them out...and I'll plant them next summer...good plan.

Got left over pumpkin?  There’s always pumpkin muffins, pancakes, bread...the list goes on!

Garlic + Onions Usually = Dinner

I am starting to really pay attention to what our family buys from the produce section and I figured that if I can grow it, I will.

As I cook up dinner each night, I am realizing that dinner usually starts with a diced onion.  Whether it’s in a soup or for flavor in a sautéed vegetable dish, it all starts with an onion.  The house begins to smell like dinner.  So, in October, I planted an onion patch. In November, I planted some more onions.  I think I will plant some more next week too!

For years I would buy jars of pre-minced garlic soaked in a lemon preservative.  I would go through quite a lot of garlic this way.  After using real garlic a few times and learning how to mince it quickly, I am realizing that it makes a huge difference in taste to use real, fresh ingredients.  Last year I decided to plant a few garlic cloves and to my surprise, I got a nice crop of garlic!  ...but I ran out too quickly!

New goal:  plant as much as I think I will use.  So, at the end of November I bought some garlic bulbs from OSH.  I had a section in my garden that was ready to be planted (soil prepped, check, weed free, check, irrigation, check).  One day while the babies napped, I snuck out to the garden and tucked 45 little garlic cloves in the soil.  The package said to plant them 1” deep and 4” apart from each other.  That night it rained a gentle rain...perfect.  Today, I went out to see if any garlic cloves have sprouted...and YES, a few have popped up!