Valencia for Christmas
At Christmas I went to visit some very special people- the family who hosted me on my high school exchange program….17 years later.
I haven’t been to Europe in ages, so it was an awesome treat. And since Christmas in Spain isn’t over until the three kings arrive on the 7th, it was Christmas THE WHOLE TIME I WAS THERE! Magical Christmas extension!
Christmas tree in El Puerto del Sol.
Meat cones. Yesssssssss.
The glass palace. I wouldn’t mind a greenhouse like this.
My lovely host sister in Retiro Park.
Fish mouth tennis stadium.
Pretending to make paella in “tio’s” farm kitchen.
Architecture details in my favorite neighborhood in Valencia. (El Cabanyal is worth googling.)
Riding the Ferris wheel.
Lovely church in Valencia. The belief is that babies baptized here won’t die in car accidents. Very specific.
…..and Valencia oranges.
Potager Americain
I recently learned the French word “potager” – it means kitchen garden. I love all the various words for gardens. I like the idea of victory gardens, of food not lawns, of your plain old veggie garden…but the simplicity and elegance of potager? That’s a word I can get behind. (I am an English teacher, ergo a word nerd).
My birthday is in early March….and delightfully here in zone 7b, I can get started right around then!
This was after my birthday weekend. Little baby kale and strawberries and lots of seeds you can’t see. (Also: beehive)
After a few weeks and thrifting some roofing slates.
Then I realized I had way more seedlings than space, so I added a few more beds (this is April 15th). (And because I’m a seed hoarder, I might be adding another new bed…oops.)
First harvest! Kale and mustard greens!
First dinner! Gluten free Alfredo with crisped garden greens on top and some super dry homebrew cider. All the deliciousness.
New Hive!
A few weeks ago, I drove out into the countryside and got my newest bee colony!
It had been forecast to be chilly and overcast, but the sun peeked out in the morning and I got the ladies fixed up in their new hive.
One of my gals modeling. 🙂
I got stung on my install, and like every time I’ve been stung, it was my fault. I didn’t notice that there was a bee on the back of my knee and when I went to climb the stairs up onto my porch, she got pinched and stung me. They hurt less and swell less every time, but my adrenaline still goes through the roof.
There have been a few days with high pollen warnings. Allergy sufferers beware, but honeybee fiesta!
After just a month, they’ve built out 12 bars and I’m waiting on a break in the weather to give them some more space.
The queen is free, long live the queen.
Absentee Blogger
Being a first year teacher essentially swallowed my life. I thought I’d have all sorts of creative things to share, but I just had a lot of “tired,” a lot of “frustrated,” a lot of “overwhelmed.”
I’ve seen the belly of the beast: a title one school, one of the statistically worst in the country- kids whose parents are incarcerated, homeless kids, kids in foster care, kids passing through for a few weeks on their way somewhere else, kids who only have guaranteed meals at school…and of course kids with all varieties of more conventional families.
They all think their lives are normal, and for them they are. Even though 98% of my kids get free lunch- they don’t consider themselves poor. Even though 85% of my kids are reading far below grade level- they consider themselves average or above average. Even though many of them are in 8th grade but on their 4th or 5th year of middle school- they consider that a regular feature of school. And for this community, I guess it is.
It’s been a year where I’ve had to really think hard about my lenses, my norms, my perceptions. When another new teacher asked the question I’d been thinking, “Why are we making such a big deal of 8th grade prom and 8th grade graduation?” – the answer surprised me. Many of our kids won’t graduate. I googled the rates for the neighboring high school and it’s under 50%…but only about 35% of boys.
Suddenly my student nonchalantly running out the clock on his 5th year of middle school with an eye toward his 16th birthday makes…I hesitate to say “sense” but I guess I now know why.
Teach for America asks us all to view ourselves as empowered agents of change. It’s hard to imagine the three of us in my school turning around the culture of a whole community…it was hard enough (and I’m not saying I’ve been successful) just trying to create a culture in my classroom where high school graduation is an expectation and college is an attainable goal. Some days, just getting through a lesson while fighting the constant battle against behavior issues felt Sisyphean…
But…next year is a new year…there are just a few weeks left…and for now, I have bees and a garden to meditate on.
One of my kids asked me this recently.
Craving sweets at night…
I crave sweets all the time. I’m a sugar addict. It’s the only thing I’m addicted to. Unfortunately, it’s pervasive and hard to get away from. Being a school teacher has only made it harder to get away from….I keep a bag of starburst in my desk for the kids (that part is my own fault), there’s sweet tea on tap in the teacher’s lounge, french fries at the football games (starchy processed food = sugar, ketchup = sugar), cupcakes or donuts at staff meetings (if I weren’t gluten intolerant, I’d be double fisting)….the list goes on.
I find, though, that I especially crave sweets at night…I’ve popped open my laptop and am double checking tomorrow’s lesson plan, or I’m trying to wrap up grading…and visions of sugar plums start dancing in my head.
Other than giving in (sweet, sweet chocolate)….which I do more often than I’d like…the only thing I’ve found that fixes it is my magical cocktail. The recipe changes depending on what I have in the cupboard, but this is how I like to do it:
–2-3 ounces of aloe (note on aloe below)
–Up to 4 ounces of beet kvass (which you made yourself and is awesome!) (this is the most optional ingredient)
–Eyedropper full of chlorophyll (this is my preferred)
–Hearty splash of Apple Cider Vinegar (Bragg’s right now, but I’d like to try making it.)
–Teeny squeeze of lemon or lime.
–4-8 ounces of water (I just fill the jar the rest of the way.)
Like so! Black magic!
For additional fun, drink most of it and then add a heaping tablespoon of psyllium husks….add more water as needed…drink before it congeals.
A friend of mine was studying to be a nutritionist and my brands of choice were initially strongly influenced by her (and her teacher, of course) but then I went out and tried a bunch of different things (or went looking for what she suggested, couldn’t find it, picked something else)….and then I formed my own opinions. Which happened to be exactly what she recommended at first. (Incidentally no brand sponsorships here, I’m not that cool – I just really like this stuff.)
Oh, Aloe. I’ve tried like 4 million types of aloe and a lot of it was weird or gross, but George’s Aloe is perfect and tastes like water. Half the wholefoods in the world carry it, the other half can order it…also Amazon has it for decent prices. Here’s the cheapest right now
Also, some kinds of psyllium husks make me gag so bad I can’t swallow them no matter what – it’s awful, but I was told to look for the brand with “the smiling Indian man on it” (conveniently actually called Organic India
Bottom’s up! Do you have a favorite health tonic? Have you tried anything like this before? I’m curious to know what you think!
Butternut Squash and Apple Soup – My Fall Favorite
At a wedding may moons ago, I had a fantastic butternut squash and apple soup. I’ve been trying to replicate and/or reinvent it since then. This is one of my favorite attempts thus far:
You’ll Need:
3 Tablespoons of Butter
1 Medium Butternut Squash (peeled, seeded, chopped)
1 Large Granny Smith Apple (chopped, seeded)
4 Shallots (chopped)
3 Cloves of Garlic (diced)
3 Cups of Chicken Broth (gluten free, of course) (or rabbit broth, if you’re feeling frisky)
2 Cup of White Wine or Hard Apple Cider
1 Cup of Sour Cream
Fresh Tarragon
Salt & Pepper
Optional: Bacon! (cooked and then coarsely chopped)
Do this:
Melt butter in the pan, add garlic & shallots. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add the squash and apples, cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the chicken broth, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes (or until the squash is fork tender). Add the wine/cider, tarragon leaves, some salt & pepper. Stir together and then immersion blend (or run through your regular blender in stages). Then stir in sour cream and chopped bacon! (add more salt/pepper to taste) Garnish with a spoonful of sour cream and an apple slice. Try not to eat the whole batch at once….it’s hard.
Gluten-Free Rosemary Potato Rolls
Alright – so here is the final piece of my three day recipe roundup. I have to give about 95% of the credit for this to these guys over at gluten-free-bread.org, this is their recipe with a few tweaks I made to use up the whey we made in step 1…and a few other tweaks because I can’t leave well-enough alone. My mother has always yelled at me for never trying a recipe as written the first time, I always change as I go. So here you go:
You’ll need…
2 cups mashed potatoes (instant potatoes will work great also) <–here’s where my disagreement begins, NEVER WILL I MAKE instant potatoes – they’re not real food and besides they taste weird.
1 cup water (use the water from cooking the potatoes)
2 packages active dry yeast
3 Tbsp. sugar 2 tbsp of honey
1 ½ cup buttermilk, room temperature however much leftover whey you have + enough regular milk or buttermilk to equal 1.5 cups. I had a half a cup of whey so added a cup of milk.
6 Tbsp. melted butter, cooled (I threw in the whole stick – it’s how I do)
3 tsp. salt
2 – 3 tsp. dried rosemary (crushed) 1 tbsp of fresh rosemary (chopped)
5 ½ to 6 ½ cups light gluten-free flour blend King Arthur Gluten Free Flour, this stuff is the bomb.
1 tsp. xanthan gum xanthan gum is pricy and I don’t have any, so I skipped this and they came out just fine
** my addition here, an egg. It might have made up for skipping the xanthan gum.
Directions:
In a large bowl, mix sugar honey, yeast, water (make sure this is just slightly warmer than body temperature or it will kill the yeast), and mashed potato. Set the mixture aside for 5 minutes, until the yeast begins to foam.
With the paddle (or dough hook) attachment on your stand mixer, and with the mixer set on low, add buttermilk/milk/whey, melted butter, salt and rosemary to the yeast/potato/water mixture.
Add in 5 ½ cups of the flour, a little at a time, until the dough starts to get sticky. With the mixer on high, mix the dough for 4 minutes. Toward the end, toss in the egg.
(If you don’t have a mixer, you can still make these rolls. Just work the dough with your hands until the mixture is combined, for about 8 minutes or so.)
Put the dough onto a well-floured work space. Roll the dough, with a floured rolling pin, until it is ¾ inch thick. Using a serrated knife, cut the dough into 2-inch squares or triangles (you can also roll these sections into balls for a true ‘roll shape’).
I skipped the above and just went with a muffin tin, it made the cooking time shorter and also was just less of a pain all around.
Place the rolls 1 inch apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
Preheat your oven to 375°F.
Let the dough rise for 15 to 30 minutes. Fill muffin tin cavities 3/4 full with well-risen dough. Then, place into your preheated oven. Bake for about 18 to 20 12-15 minutes, until they are golden brown.
Et voila! 🙂
Homemade Cream Cheese Recipe! Pineapple Cream Cheese Dip!
So now that you’ve strained the whey out of your yogurt, mix in some salt and herbs or fruit and honey and you’ve got a super easy homemade cream cheese substitute that tastes great and happens to be the byproduct of something you were already making. Go you! You can experiment with any variety of seasoning or fresh herbs from the garden.
My family has a weird affinity for pineapple cream cheese dip, so I made a version of that with my strained yogurt.
You’ll Need:
- 16 ounces of yogurt with the whey strained out.
- 3 tablespoons of mayonaise
- 8 ounce can of crushed pineapple (drained-ish)
- pinch of salt
- pinch of sugar
Do this:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir to blend, cover and chill over night.
You can dip all sorts of things in this. My father prefers to spread it on wheat thins (which I’m allergic to). I dip potato chips in it. Lots of people think it’s gross…until they try it and realize that it’s AWESOME.
Does your family have any food that outsiders think is weird but that you love?
Beet Kvass!
I super love when you start a process and end up with more than one end product – like a few weeks ago, when we juiced lemons and got both lemonade and a citrus infused vinegar. Today’s project will yield three results – so I’m breaking it into three posts! And posting every day! Excitement.
First up is Beet Kvass. I love a shot of this stuff on occasion and when I saw fresh beets in the farmer’s market, I knew it was time for a little beety action.
If you’ve never heard of Beet Kvass, this video (which incidentally is how I found out about it) will answer all of your questions:
The first step is to make whey! Whey is the liquid part in a lot of dairy products. I make it by straining yogurt – I’d definitely recommend this way (ha) of making whey because it yields the project in tomorrow’s installment.
I wrap the yogurt into a little bundle of cheese cloth and tie it around a skewer and leave that in the fridge to drip over night. Different brands of yogurt produce different amounts of whey, so I always get at least two of the little containers – I find that a big 16 ounce is always a little too much for my needs.
As we learned in the video (and as Sally says
Next we chop our beet. I never peel mine, just give them a bit of a scrub and chop them into 1″-ish cubes.
Bua-ha-ha-ha beet carnage.
Then you just chuck your beets and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into the jar with your whey, shake, and wait for two days!
Day 1! Beets soaking, you can see the foam around the top already!
I’ve always been fond of picklebacks (shot of whiskey followed by a shot of pickle brine), but for a colorful twist on that- you can try beetbacks. I had the bright idea a few years ago and they were the hit of a friend’s birthday party- a shot of whiskey followed by a shot of beet kvass. Cures what ails ya!
Beauty is in the Eye of the Storm 