I Made Yogurt!

We eat A LOT of yogurt at our house(Nancy's plain organic or Trader Joe's plain European style). We all prefer TJs European but TJs isn't in our weekly shopping routine, so usually it's Nancy's for us.

For a long time I've watched “yogurt-making" blog posts come through my news reader and periodically I even bookmark them to try another day.

Finally that day has come! Last week I was reading JD's blog post, “Learning to Give" and saw a link to another blog. His friend teaches a fundraising class at PCC and that kind of thing is just the sort of trail I follow. So I hopped over to her blog and while I was there, I found her post on making yogurt.

Her instructions were simple and within my reach. So 9:03pm Wednesday I started stirring the milk. I think it was boiling by 9:30. Around 10:15 (now I'm guessing because I wasn't paying attention to the time anymore) I mixed the 3T Nancy's yogurt with 1/2 cup milk and then put it all back together. We put it in a glass dish, wrapped with a towel, put it in the oven, and turned on the pilot light.

The next morning I went to the oven, pulled out the dish and that's an exact quote--“I made yogurt!"

It was warmish and still kind of runny at that stage. I put it in the fridge and by lunch time it was a lot like the TJs European style yogurt.  Eating yogurt as part of his breakfast Friday morning, Ryan commented that he really liked this kind of yogurt better than the other kind (Nancy's).

That was a successful experiment. I will repeat.

Yep! Those are Auntie Alyson's Pickles. Spicy!

My boy loves pickles. And Auntie Alyson's are the best.

Yesterday I ran down the street to get kale from Mom's garden for the curry recipe I was making. I came home with a bowl of kale and on a whim, I grabbed a jar of Alyson's pickles from Mom's canning shelves.

I have childhood memories of eating Grandma Yoder's wonderful dill pickles. Ryan is collecting childhood memories of Auntie Alyson's wonderful spicy pickles. He loves them. (the curry, not so much)

Maybe I'll talk Alyson into write an entry about pickling pickles this weekend....??

Bunnies & Slugs & the Human Scale

Cold Oregon spring rains......do not bring out the bright stuffed bunnies.

Instead, we have slugs.

I don't know how many slugs I washed out of the CSA stems and leaves this week. But with every slug down the drain, I found myself thinking about the short line between my food source and our table.

It reminds me of this quote from the book, Plenty:

Organic vegetables are frequently the end products of intensive production methods, and end up on your plate after, say, crossing the continent by diesel truck and passing through a plant that washes 26 million servings of lettuce each week.

My fresh market salad was different. It was human scale. I could relate each item not only to its place but to its specific farm and to the faces of those farmers. Greens from the Langley Organic Growers; eggs from the Forstbauer family farm; garlic scapes from a shy man named Albert. The foods that overflowed our big glass bowl were not only the flavors of spring, but of this particular spring, this unique year with its hard rain and rare glory of sun (48).

Human scale. I love that part of the CSA concept. Our CSA box absolutely reflects the flavors and characteristics of this particular spring - slugs included (though I do not speak about their flavor!). I love being able to connect my lettuce to a farmer with a name and to a place with an address.

In fact, this farmer grows my lettuce on the (very) small farm that my parents owned when I was in high school. I can even connect my well known love of dirt digging to the many hours spent hand digging a garden plot on that property so many seasons ago. It was work then. But somehow it was work that gave shape to my soul.

Seasonal Food and Thought. Indeed.

From the Wooden Box.....

...and the wellness kitchen's “recipe creator" for tossed salads:

torn leaf lettuce from the soft greens column,

tah tsai (or tatsoi) from sturdy greens,

arugula from pungent greens,

red onion, an add-in,

and a garnish, which we forgot (could have been walnuts or parmesan cheese or a number of other possibilities). This was topped with orange-balsamic dressing, which included a green onion from "the box."

This wonderful tossed salad accompanied whole wheat biscuits and turkey chili with white beans, a great combination for a cool May Sunday.

God Is an Artist

“A Colorful Meal" featured color as the artist's tool. Behold these far-beyond-boring lettuces planted in our garden! Are they artistic in form, or what? Attractive in appearance, attractive in interesting flavors as well. I love the variety!

A Colorful Meal

I've read that intense colors in our foods are good signs of the most healthful nutrients to put into our bodies. While I rode off to work on my bicycle this afternoon through the pleasantly fresh air and sunshine of one of the first such days in the Pacific Northwest's unusually long, wet spring (The month of May can present some hot days here, but not this year!), Anita tackled the leaves and stems in the wooden box. (We subscribe to the same CSA as daughter Jennifer of the earlier post, “What's for Dinner?")

See evidence of color variety and intensity in the photo. Dinner featured chicken with mustard and spring greens (modified from recipe online) and microwaved yams. Bok choi and tah tsai (a Chinese cabbage) from the CSA box comprised the spring greens, supplemented with carrots, red bell peppers, onions, and garlic. Red pepper flakes added a tang to the spring greens, and ginger, a good sharp flavor to the chicken. The results were beautiful and delicious.

Eating Through the Seasons of Life

Ryan pushed back from the table tonight and announced, “That was a good dinner." David laughed - “Mommy finally made a good dinner."

Any guesses what we had for dinner? (Hint--not asparagus soup or sauteed bok choi--that was last night.)

What's For Dinner?

I am the mother of a 9-year old boy. (I wonder how that would rank in the lists of “best opening lines"?) Nearly every evening I answer his question - “What's for dinner?" Usually by the time he asks, I know the answer and am midway through the preparations. But the question often rattled around in my head much earlier in the day and I had to sort through the possibilities and implications. (Implications = how much work it'll be and whether or not the 5-year old will eat it.)

We live in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Our first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box of the season arrived on our doorstep yesterday. It was filled with lettuces, bok choi, cilantro and green onions. These are the foods of Oregon in Spring. As our CSA farmer says, “This is the beginning of what Oregon grows....basically leaf and stem!"

What's for dinner? Tonight - leaf and stem. I love the CSA program for many reasons. One is because though we have vegetable gardens in our front yard AND our back yard, there are many items I'm not as familiar with or don't bother growing. The CSA box drops those items on my doorstep. And so I have to figure out What's for Dinner?

Yesterday's CSA box not only brought leaf and stem and questions about dinner, but also inspiration for this blog. As the oldest of 4 children, I am an experienced project manager (self-designated). In the coming days, you shall find that I am good at my job. I have enlisted several fine cooks, thinkers, and eaters to bring this blog to life. We live in and write from a variety of locations, situations, and seasons of life. Without further ado, I bring you.....Seasonal Food and Thought.