"Ice Cream"

K, so tonight I stumbled upon this blog with all these vegan recipes.  I was looking for a recipe for corn cake.  I don't know. I've never heard of corn cake before, but today, it sounded good to me and I wanted to see if it even existed.  Well, it does, and I am going to try it soon!

Anyway, on the top of the page was this amazing looking sorbet.  So I clicked on it and it looked so delicious.  I decided I wanted to try the blueberry banana recipe after dinner.  During dinner I presented this idea to Chris who made a face, and when I asked what was wrong with that idea, he said, "Well, first of all, there's the banana and the blueberry."  Ok, so the banana blueberry wasn't going to fly.  But I still wanted ice cream. 

After dinner, we were in the kitchen, and all the kids were asking when we were having ice cream (and I think Ellie was yelling something like, "NOW" in her sassiest voice), so I just started throwing things into the blender. 

Beet Blueberry Strawberry Sorbet
One small (fresh from the garden!) raw beet, shredded finely
Half cup of blueberries
One cup strawberries
About 1/3 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup coconut milk
Splash of lemon juice
Splash of rum or something (optional, keeps it softer after you put it in the freezer)

Put all ingredients in the blender.  Blend until desired consistency.  Taste for sweetness. Adjust if necessary. Eat right away, or put in ice cream freezer.  Then eat. 

It went over well.  There was none to put in the freezer.  There are lots of newly stained clothes in my house, though!  Enjoy!

Garden Picture Update

Here are some pictures I snapped in my garden the other day.  It's doing pretty well overall.  :-)  I can hardly believe it looked like this just a few short weeks ago! Here is a tour of the garden from the beginning of the season.  ;-)

Brussels Sprouts

One of two zucchinis

Tomatillos!

Sam and the falling down tomatoes

Potatoes

Zucchini

Cucumber

Acorn Squash!

Butternut Squash

Pepper Rows

Cute dirt baby and Chris (She LICKED off her hands after playing in the dirt.  Gross.)

Chris and our fallen over tomatoes after a storm.

Well, That's all I got tonight. 

Join us at smockityfrocks.com for other garden updates!

Menu Plan 7.11.2011

Hey!  It's 7/11!  Makes me think of slurpees... :-)

Well, it has been officially FOREVER since I posted a menu plan.  Or even had one, really. But this morning I sat down to think about what I would even buy at the store today, and I realized I should make a menu plan.  Or something.  So, I did.  Kind of.  :-) 

It's summer, and it's hot so I don't want to cook ever.  But Chris DID put in the A/C unit in our living room today!  So instead of being 95 in here at the end of the day, it will be 80 or 85, with no humidity!  Yay!  But I digress... here's the plan!

• Grilled mushroom 'burgers'
• Pasta salad
• Spaghetti
• Zucchini Cakes (hoping to post a recipe-- I made these last week and the recipe needs a little perfecting yet.  But I have 8 or 9 zucchini in my fridge, so I have plenty to practice with!) 
• Leg of lamb on grill
• Tuna Salad
• Egg Salad
• Bean and Rice burritos (we had these last week, and I made the best tortillas EVER! and some delicious tomato corn salsa to go with it) 
• Veggie wraps
• Tomato sandwiches
• Cauliflower and potato curry
• Quiche
• Chicken Tikka Masala

Well, that's what was on my list.  Ben requested soup... but I vetoed that due to the heat!  No one except Ben wants to eat soup in 90* weather!

Last night we had a picnic out back.  It was so hot, and we hadn't been home, so the house was closed up and stuffy, and there was at least a breeze blowing outside.  So we had tuna sandwiches (with tomato from the farmer's market and lettuce from my porch planter) and apple slices. 

Alright, the children are begging to go out, so we will ride bikes before it is 100* and while Ellie is asleep. I hope to get back on the blogging bandwagon sometime this week. :-)

Quick Garden Update...

Okay, so there are some updates from the garden, but I don't have pictures. Sorry!

• My tomatoes have bacterial speck... not much I can do about it I don't think. (That I have found in my research-- anyone else have experience with it?)
• Tomatoes also have blossom end rot... got to put some eggshells out there and water those sad plants!  It hasn't rained in weeks! 
• The eggplant is still (somehow, I don't know!) alive, producing very small eggplants that keep turning red-- Chris got a red china.  Haven't eaten them yet, though. 
• The zucchini is getting into gear.  We have five from our garden and three from our CSA in our fridge right now!
• We tried planting potatoes this year... but we planted them very late! and only seven or eight plants came up.  Oh, well, we'll get on that better next year!
• We DUG OUR GARLIC!  Hooray!  Now I need it to rain sometime in the future so I can plant something there! 
• We have baby acorn squash growing!  I love how the squashes start out so small and cute.  I can't wait to have delicious squash all winter. 
• We are making a cinnamon spray as per my MIL suggested.  We have yet to spray it.  Will keep you posted.  
• I picked one beet so far this year and we put it in a salad. Yum. 
• The brussels sprouts are getting all eaten up and sad.  I just want them to grow!  I am hoping some cinnamon spray might get them through. We'll see.

Maybe I will update this with some pictures tomorrow.  We went swimming today.  It was hot.  But I DO need to get out in the garden, give everything a good watering and also put some eggshells around the tomatoes.

check out other garden updates at smockityfrocks.com!

Good night for now!

Breakfast this morning...

My children ate wasabi peas with breakfast this morning and I'm not even kidding. 

That's all for now!

Happy Fourth!

Patriotic breakfast this morning...

Lunch!

Lunch today was a perfect summertime feast!

Cold leftover homemade baked beans, cold sauerkraut (sadly not homemade), tomato sandwich with homemade bread and farmer's market tomatoes, and farmer's market corn! Yum!

With flowers from the garden: echinachea, coriander and broccoli.