Simple, fresh summer pasta

Since the last time I have posted here, my diet has changed. A LOT. No more alcohol for me, and no more fatty foods. Low fat, all the time or I might pay the price. Such as life when one gets diagnosed with pancreatitis (but that is another blog entry).

It’s summer, the days are warm, the CSA is starting to deliver my weekly veggie box and I have to start thinking of creative ways to use tomatoes! But this present of tomatoes and red onions didn’t come from my CSA box, they came from a cookout. Do you find that when ever you have a cookout people are insistent on bringing sliced raw onions and tomatoes to put on the burgers. But at the end of the BBQ what is left over? Red onions and tomatoes! So when we were packing up I said I would take them.. and there they sat in my fridge waiting for me to do something with them.

Then it came to me. I have basil growing in a container this year, oregano up the gazzo that a friend gave me last year and of course I have garlic stashed away. So I saute the onion and tomato in a little olive oil and then added the garlic in herbs. Once that was warmed up I tossed in my cooked angel hair pasta and there you have it a light pasta dish that is great for those hot summer evenings.

I, of course, didn’t think anything of this dish. I mean I make pasta all the time and I made it from stuff from the fridge and garden. The next night I had a friend over, I took out my pasta and started to heat it up, but this time I added sour cream (have I mention ever that I am part Hungarian? we use sour cream in everything!) and my tomato pasta turned into a “vodka sauce” pasta, but this time I added some more garlic seasoning to it to give it more of a kick.

My friend wanted to try some and she really liked it. Now, again, I really didn’t think much of this because remember everything is from what I had in the fridge and garden. Today, my friend tells me that she has been tweaking the recipe and telling her friends about it.

She told me that this meal costs 4 dollars to make and could easily feed a family of four! I mean I know I like to be budget friendly, cause I need to be, but I didn’t even think that this pasta would be such a hit. If I had known, I would have taken a picture to share with y’all!

Women and Roses..

Today I was out pruning my roses and I started to think about roses and women. Roses come in many types, many different colors and can be comfortable to fancy. They are covered in thorns, but stand regal and proud when they are in bloom.

They remind me of women because often times (at least for myself) I feel that I protect myself with a hard outer shell that tries to keep those who wish harm away, much like a roses’ thorns keep people from touching them. If you are not cautious a roses thorns can either scratch you or ensnare you getting you trapped within the thorns and branches. For good or bad a woman can do that to those around her. We can be direct and if you get too close we will lash out. Or we can let you in for a moment and then entrap you with our sharp words or unnatural/unhealthy thoughts and fears.

To keep a rose happy and healthy it needs to be pruned and pampered. A women also need to remember to take the time to take care of themselves and pamper themselves which is something I cannot believe I am saying but it is true. When we do that it, helps us feel beautiful and makes us want to stand proud and be fawned over much like you do when you see a beautiful rose. What I think may stop many women from doing this (even though it may help us feel good about ourselves and help us feel sexy) is that it can feel selfish to take the time out of the day or away from the budget to spend it on yourself for a mani/pedi. Or to get a facial.

This thought reminds me of a story about relationships called The Garden which talks about how you need to care for a garden and its many different flowers and that each flower can help the other but without protection and guidance it can grow wild and become damaged.

Cooking from the Garden

So this year I have planted a few more herbs and trying some vegetables that I really like but are on the expensive side. I am going to be using this thread title to talk about my experiences with cooking from the items in my garden.

Right now I am enjoying the herbs out of my garden. Currently, I have sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, chives and mint. I also have common thyme but that is not growing very well and maybe replaced with another lemon thyme.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching Iron Chef and one of the chefs made a sage butter sauce to go over ravioli and I had been wondering what to do with my sage (besides add it to my beef roasts). So I followed this recipe from Mario Batali . It turned out really good and I plan on making it again. I have to say that this was my first cooking experience with fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano and while the cost of the small amount I purchased made me cringe tasting it made me realize that it was worth the price.

Another thing I tried yesterday was adding rosemary and chives to my potato salad. I am still not sure that you could really taste the rosemary and because we are on a low carb diet I don’t make my potato salad as much as I use to so I won’t be able to experiment with adding more rosemary to it to see if that makes a difference.

So until my next cooking experiment… keep on cooking and gardening!

Roses.. one of my pride and joys

I just wanted to share some of my roses..

This is my peace rose. It smells like lemons.. I love it.

 

This is my climbing rose that is now in full bloom. I have purchased another one so that I can make a rose wall to start to cover the porch.

First Rose of the Season

I have my first rose of the season. It is a pale yellow rose, one of my favorite colors. I checked on them this morning and I had a feeling that I would have a rose in sight tonight. Soon my climbing rose will burst into a brilliant red. I cant wait to show everyone that one.

Edit – I was able to take a few more shots of this first rose.. in the morning it was a bit shy.. but it did want to say hello..

Roses

So I am very excited about this growing season because last year I started to really develop my rose garden on the front side of the house. Roses seem to really like where I live I have been told by my neighbors.

This year Sir had to cut down the tree next to our dinning room so I can expand the rose garden into that area as well. I want to get an old fashion rose bush for one corner of it and then expand the rest out to other roses.

Right now I have long stem roses, climbing roses and rose bushes.

Working in the garden

So this past weekend I was able to get some goodies for my garden. I purchased some leeks, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Earlier I planted garlic and Brussel sprouts.

Soon I will be planting some green beans on a request from Sir and I might try growing some cherry tomatoes.

Got to play in the dirt!

Today at work all I could think about was how I didn’t want to be at work.. I wanted to be home and playing in the yard. So I worked through my lunch and headed out early. I was so excited to be able to rush home, change into shorts and a tank top and go outside to play in the dirt.

The boys enjoyed the fact that the windows were open and they were able to lay in the windows all day and smell and listen to the birdies. They also followed me from window to window while I was working outside.

I planted my brussel sprouts that I just got yesterday and started to rake. I have things popping up all over the place. I even have leaves growing on my roses!

Two out of the five lawn bags have been filled. Pine pitch is on the bottom of my hobbit feet and the roses tried to stab me.. It is going to be a wonderful spring!

Is it Spring yet?

Spring was almost here.. I’m waiting.. I have ordered the seed catalog.. I’m getting ready to go to the garden store and buy some starter kits.. my inside the house greenhouse is up and housing some new plants and plant babies.

I am looking forward to playing in my garden! I’m going to be planting more rosemary and more thyme. Another batch of basil and not so many tomato plants..lol. I am hoping to grow some Brussel sprouts but we will see.

The rose garden is set so the only thing I need to do there is keep it weeded.. The front walkway has been thinned out with the hostas so hopefully I will not be so hostile towards the hostas.

I would like to figure out what to put against the front of the house.. it is asking for something. I will have to see if the transplanted ferns will come back that I put there. If not maybe I will just make flower boxes of some sort.

I can’t wait to play in the dirt!