There is cilantro, spinach, several types of lettuce, kale, bok choy, brocolli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts.

One month later and it has already provided us so much.  The best part it has only been water with rain water.  The first couple of days we hand watered from our rain barrel and since then for basically a whole month it has survived on rain water from the sky.

Everything is still alive, plus we have added a dill transplant from another area of our yard, a lettuce transplant from another area of our yard and dozens of little tomato plants that have come up in our bed.

What a pleasure it has been to share this with Cullen, he ate his first piece of lettuce from this little garden. He loves to visit the plants and to watch the leaves blow in the wind.  I especially can not wait until our broccoli produces, we have been eating a lot of steamed broccoli as a family.

This past weekend I was looking for weeds in the garden and found we have dozens of little tomato plants from our fall cherry, pear, and orange tomatoes.  Super excited to watch them grow.  We are really looking forward to having tomatoes in the summer, Cullen loves to eat tomatoes, and we fully expect him to be eating them fresh off the plant.

We have spent years working on our square foot gardens and I can tell you our three biggest assets have been investing in good soil, a rain barrel, and Square Foot Gardening Guide.  Another thing we have found valuable and time saving is we do not mess with seeds.  We buy transplants.  I know seeds are inexpensive but when you only need a few plants, transplants have truly been a money and time saver.  Seeds are time consuming to get started plus a lot of them you start indoors then transplant.  I would love to have the space and time to do this but right now we do not.  Once I accepted this and stopped messing with them life has been much easier in the garden.  

One more great lesson from our garden, not every plant works well in your back yard.  I use to get so discouraged when a plant did not work out, die, not produce, what have you.  It's ok to have trial and error.  Try again, try something new, or just raise more of what you know has proven itself.  The first years of our garden were a lot of this.  Trying too many things, trying too many of one thing, learning, learning, learning.  I have seen so many people in this phase just give up on gardening altogether...Don't! To me this is the fun part. Every season is going to bring a new challenge and new delight - embrace them!  So far this has been our best garden yet...and it is only winter.  I CAN NOT WAIT to see what the rest of the seasons will bring.

Here is my first meal plan for the week of January 9 -15, 2012:

Dinners:

Steak Tacos with Cucumber Avocado Salsa and Summer Corn & Vegetable Soup

Sloppy Joes and Butternut Squash Soup

BBQ Chicken Pizza & Chicken Tortilla Soup

Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin and Asian Three Bean Salad

Shrimp Salad and Shrimp Spring Rolls

I am leaving two free nights for pantry raid or going out, I am a realist and I know if I tried to plan out every night it would never work out.  Plus I am not assigning days to meals, again because I never know what each day will bring anymore I am just making sure I have food ready!  Also its suppose to be chilly again parts of this week, so I plan to have soup ready this time.  Finally the reason I am doubling up on things that sound like they could stand alone is my hope being that I can do smaller portions and have leftovers to aid in lunches.

Lunch:

Honey Mustard Pork Loin with Roasted Potatoes and Peas

Thai Steak Salad

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Honey Mustard Pork Loin Salad

Summer Corn & Vegetable Soup

My husband always ends up with free meals at work and I often end up out and about so I left open days on the lunch schedule as well this week.

Breakfast:

Southwest Hash

Apple Muffins

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Buff Smoothie

Mini Frittas

Planning on stacking these breakfast choices throughout the week and using some fresh fruit also.

Additionally this is a great way to get rid of leftovers!!

Here is the break down for Lazy Pizza:

Ingredients:

Store Bought Pizza Crust - Central Market (CM) and Whole Foods both have yummy ones!

Favorite Red Sauce - Again I picked up some at CM

Leftovers - Tonight's pie had leftover pork sausage from CM that we grilled over the weekend, additionally I topped with the remnants of the prosciutto from the fig appetizer I just posted, random Italian cheeses I had from making lasagna the previous week.

Other items - fresh mozzerella (sliced), 2 fresh mushrooms (sliced). 1 scallion (sliced), handful of gold cherry tomatoes (halved), olive oil, garlic seasoning

Hardware:

Baking sheet, brush, pizza cutter

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 - or whatever your crust recommends.

Drizzle a little olive oil on baking sheet add a sprinkle of garlic seasoning to the oil.  Lay out your pizza crust.

Brush on your sauce, pile on your toppings, bake 10 minutes

Cut and serve...quicker than you could find your pizza delivery coupons!

This is a very quick easy to put together recipe that is delicious.  While figs are in season I will keep prosciutto and goat cheese in my fridge for this to be my go to appetizer for guest.  My husband claims that he does not like figs but he ate these up and asked for more!

Roasted Figs & Prosciutto

Ingredients:

8 large ripe figs

8 slices of prosciutto

2 Tbsp goat cheese – plain or flavored (I used premade balsamic onion goat cheese)

Olive oil

Hardware:

Baking Sheet

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Remove the hard stems from the figs and cut the figs in half lengthwise.  Cut the prosciutto lengthwise into inch wide strips.  Take a fig half and place ¼ tablespoon of the goat cheese inside the center.  Wrap a strip of prosciutto around the center of each fig half, with the ends overlapping.  Place on baking sheet cut side up and lightly drizzle with olive oil.

Roast the figs for 10 minutes until the prosciutto is a little crisp and the figs are warmed through.  Serve warm.

Serves 4

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten’s cookbook barefoot contessa how easy is that? link here

Meet my 9.5lb 24in excuse:

Cullen inspires and delights me everyday!

We were blessed with our first (and I swear) only son on May 4th.  The previous nine plus months were spent on pins and needles, sicker than riding the tea cups at Disney World, and preparing our home and minds for that little man.  I do apologize for not posting, I had so many posts in the works then I found out I was pregnant.  After that I wanted to lay low until everything was ok at the risk I would spill the beans too soon.  Along the way I had some big scares and complications that made me basically retreat to a corner and put all my focus on getting him into the world.

Now he is here and I am back!  New posts full of ideas and thoughts meant to inspire and delight you.

My life has changed a lot since last August, I can't wait to channel my new perspectives towards this blog and website.  Thank you for your patience and I look forward to the future in so many ways.

All the best - 

Terri

As I stated, I had all the ingredients on hand except for the cookbook recipe called for one 14.5 can of no salt added diced tomatoes, which I bought but forgot to add when cooking, therefore I omitted from my ingredient list, it was very tasty without but feel free to add if you like tomatoes.  Also I had to buy ham.  I went ahead and bought a small ham so that I could make this dish plus grind some up for ham salad, and I still have some left over!  Anyone have any ham ideas?  I am thinking of incorporating it into some sort of breakfast dish. Maybe a quiche. 

One other major change from cookbook version to mine, Ellie does not recommend using brown rice for this dish, she said it wasn't worth it that you should use a long grain white rice.  Which I understand would make it more authentic. But the husband and myself both agreed my version was excellent.  He didn't even realize it was whole grain brown rice until I told him.  I could tell the difference, maybe because I knew, but I still thought it made the dish very good.  I guess we will have to try it another time with white rice to compare.  But we were both surprised at how good this tasted.  I had to show my  husband the cookbook recipe because he couldn't believe this recipe came from a healthy living cookbook.

This recipe is another reason why I advocate always having chicken stock or other stocks on hand. It makes it so easy for to have go to recipes like this one.

Give this recipe a try or the original recipe from Ellie Krieger. Very tasty and easy which are two great things on a Monday evening!!

Link to Jambalaya Recipe

One of my husband’s favorite foods is lamb.  Anytime we are at a restaurant that has a rack of lamb preparation he is ordering it and enjoying every moment of devouring them.  This year for his birthday I wanted to make him something special for dinner since he did not want to go out for the occasion.  I instantly thought of “Rack of Lamb” then I laughed at myself so hard I nearly fell off my chair.  Seriously, the  notion that I could prepare a rack of lamb was absurd to me.

So I thought it was so funny that I thought this that surely my husband would also find it funny so I shared my thought with him.  Before I could get to the punch line he cut me off and said “you would do that for me”.  Seriously, seriously, SERIOUSLY how can you say “Bahahaha I was just kidding, there is no way I am touching a rack of lamb with a 5 foot pole” now?  So the natural response was “yes of course, I can’t wait to give this a whirl”.

Thus began my journey into the culinary preparation of lamb.  Once entering I have now vowed never to go back.

Now I need a recipe.  I tried shouting out to twitter and foodbuzz for some ideas but no luck.  Additionally I did some internet searching of recipes but it wasn’t until I sat down when my new FABULOUS copy of Fiesta at Rick’s by Chef Rick Bayless that I received from entering a twitter recipe contest  that I found the lamb recipe I would tackle for this special occasion.

Grilled Rack of Lamb with Honey Pasilla Glaze

Don’t have a copy of Fiesta at Rick’s, you should pick one up, it is that good.  (Planning to write up my thoughts on it when I finish reading the book – yes I am reading a cookbook cover to cover – first time for me to do this and I couldn’t have picked a better read.)  But if you don’t have a copy the recipe is available at Rick Bayless’ website:  http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=14

I won’t type up the recipe here because I  produced the lamb exactly as the recipe calls for it to be prepared.  Only two modifications, I sprinkled the rack with a little brown sugar before grilling and this was because of the second thing that was modified which was the rack marinated over night.  NOT BY CHOICE.  But because the electricity in our subdivision decided to go out for just long enough that we gave up on preparing dinner at home and ended up have a birthday dinner of La Madeline.  I know…uber lame.  Sometimes potato soup just makes everything better.  But I digress, I added the brown sugar because I was afraid the chilies might have become too strong overnight in the marinade so I thought the brown sugar might tame it a little…don’t know why…just did.  Additionally in the end we cut the lamb and seared it on all edges, I know a big no no for all you rare, medium rare, extra bloody lovers out there, I just really like things cooked so Richard did this for me in order to encourage me to try some.

Honestly, the ingredients I thought were pretty weird…truly I spent the whole time the lamb was being grilled apologizing for the dinner the husband was getting for his birthday.

But Chef Bayless you haven’t failed me yet.  This recipe is EXTRODINARY.  I don’t care for lamb, Richard has made me try his at restaurants several times so I took a “courtesy” chop to try.  Amazing, I am big fan of lamb now.  Richard literally said he couldn’t imagine ordering lamb in a restaurant again after having these, that nothing will ever top them.  I was so happy.  Richard gave me a truly amazing birthday this year and I wanted to return the gesture and thanks to this recipe I feel I did.

So, for all you lamb naysayers, try this recipe.  I know lamb can be a little pricey but it is well worth it, so give it a try.

Let me know if you need any suggestions on finding ingredients, we did so pretty easily at Central Market in Austin but I bet a Whole Foods or any terrific grocer would have them all.

Her bridal bouquet was beautiful, personally I am not a big fan of pink, but I loved everything we got to work with for her wedding.  It came together so well and smelled amazing.

Additionally I thought the bridesmaids' bouquets complimented nicely.  There are amazing shots from her wedding, personally one of my favorites as far as wedding photography and capturing all the "moments" but I felt I would just tease with some floral since it was her wedding.  But again beautiful!

So why are flowers on this post relating to food?  As I thought about writing up this post and how excited I was to be in contact with the very talented @delishfood again, it made me want to look at her wedding flowers again.  Then I thought I should share them with the world.  If you want details of what flowers were used go here: 

Onto what my husband referred to as "the BEST Monday night dinner in a long time" Creamy Taco Mac.

This recipe was so yummy, I now understand why @delishfood refers to it as one of her favorites. Although I want to apologize to her because I feel like I butchered the recipe when I went to make it because the ingredients I thought I had, I did not.  On the plus size, the recipe takes a beating well!  IT was so good, all I heard from the dinner tables were mmmms and yumms.  I was very excited because when she refers to it as her version of "hamburger helper" I was a little worried that my diners were going to think I just threw something together.  It was the opposite though.  This recipe is SUPER simple to make and my husband thought I spent a lot time and effort to make dinner.  What could be better than that?  I was being praised all night long!

Here is the amazing recipe thanks to @delishfood

Creamy Taco Mac

1.25 lbs ground turkey
8 oz dry pasta + 1 cup reserved pasta water
1 can (14.5 oz) petite diced tomatoes
4 Tbsp mild taco seasoning
3 oz cream cheese *
1/2 cup sour cream *
salt & pepper
cheddar cheese (optional)

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta per directions. Reserve one cup of pasta water.

Over medium heat, brown ground turkey until no longer pink. Add taco seasoning and diced tomatoes. Allow to simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Add cooked pasta, reserved water, cream cheese and sour cream. Give it a good stir until cheeses are melty and incorporated.  Simmer over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, as desired. Top off with cheddar cheese for extra cheesy goodness.

Source: Delish  Creamy Taco Mac

Now here is my adaption:

Creamy Taco Mac

1.25 lbs Ground Turkey

8oz Dry Pasta + 1 cup Reserved Pasta Water*

14.5 oz Fresh Tomatoes Diced

4 Tbsp Mild Taco Seasoning

7 oz Mexican Crema

Salt & Pepper

Cheddar Cheese

Cilantro

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta per directions. Reserve one cup of pasta water.

Over medium heat, brown ground turkey until no longer pink. Add taco seasoning and diced tomatoes. Allow to simmer over low heat for 5 minutes. Add cooked pasta, crema, and reserved water. Give it a good stir until crema is incorporated.  Simmer over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, as desired. Top off with cheddar cheese for extra cheesy goodness.

*Since Mexican Crema is thinner then the sour cream/cream cheese combo in the original recipe, I would add the pasta water until you have your desired creaminess.

Source: Adapted from Delish

Looking at the picture makes me want to attack the leftovers!

Here was our dinner plate:

Notes:  

I think the Mexican Crema worked well, I added to much pasta water and it became running.  I think using Crema instead of sour cream with Cream Cheese would also be tasty.  Basically I did not have Cream Cheese like I thought I did, but I had Crema left over from the Enchiladas I made so I thought why not?  Additionally, I used the random sampling of leftover dry pasta I have, it was perfect and fun! Finally my last change were the tomatoes, I did not have a big enough jar of diced tomatoes so I used the tomatoes from our garden, which I can't believe we are still getting tomatoes.

Okay, my apologizes again for butchering your recipe, but it was so good still.  I can't wait to try it the way it is suppose to be! 

I won the @Rick_Bayless Twitter Recipe Challenge for week 2....I am getting a personalized copy of his new cookbook Fiesta at Rick's

You can see my Enchiladas posted on the Rick Bayless Blog (6th picture down).  

Additionally you can see my blog post about making the Enchiladas Here.

There was also a blog about buying the ingredients Here. 

Thanks for all your kind words on twitter, etc... I am very excited to get cooking with the new cookbook!