Month: February 2012 (Page 2 of 3)

Gratitude Sunday * February 19, 2012

February 19, 2012 / Lindsey / 5 Comments

~ I’m once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition. ~

Gratitude Sunday is a time to slow down and remember those thankful moments that graced our week. One reason I love keeping a daily gratitude journal is because it helps keep things in perspective for me. Each Sunday, I open my journal and share some of those moments with you here. If you’d like to join in, just leave a comment!

Gratitude is powerful energy. I love hearing others’ gratitudes!

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– Audio books, so that I can multi-task!

– A really nice Valentine’s day, spent at my parents’ place since F. was out of town. My mom always does such a nice job of making holidays special and different from all the other ordinary days of the year. I love that. She decorated & bought a big balloon, and my dad came home with flowers, pizza, and some incredibly decadent chocolate-covered strawberries!! We played Dean Martin’s Love Songs CD. It was really fun~

– Going to Colorado’s new IKEA with my mom — having lunch at their cafe and then shopping!!! SO FUN! I’ve always gone to IKEA when on vacation in other states, so naturally I felt like I was on a mini vacation that day!

– At IKEA, finding exactly what I’ve been looking for — a small, portable desk/table that I can transport around the apartment according to where the sun is! I LOVE it. It’s a one-person desk, but then it also has a fold-up leaf that slides into place to make it a two-person table! So I can do my art & moneymaking work at it anywhere in the house, but F. and I can also sit at it together! Currently it’s right next to the kitchen window, and I seem to be spending all my time at it right now! I’ve wanted a kitchen table by the window for so long, and I am absolutely loving this thing! The simple things, ya know…

– The beautiful miniature living rose bush that F bought for Valentine’s Day! It has soft peach-colored blossoms; you can see it there on the table. ♥♥♥ That was so sweet. I love having a blooming plant here…

– Getting so many errands accomplished this week! That feels wonderful.

– Getting my garden planned! That’s always a big project that I don’t really enjoy very much. It really helped that I was already at my parents’ house while doing the planning, so that I had access to all my seeds, and I could just walk out the back door and count up how many pots there are to work with. Plus just seeing the raised beds in person helps me envision the plant spacing better. (To read how I go about planning my garden, click here.)

Planning the garden!

– Having my cat take a nap with me, which is an unusual thing for her to do. She kept pressing herself closer and closer into my face that I had to keep moving her fur aside so I could breathe! She is such a little sweet one…

– F. getting home from being out of town and walking through the door, safe and sound!!

– Rearranging our living room… again! It’s even better now than before. I love newly rearranged rooms.

– Chipping away at projects that have been languishing unfinished for a very long time.

– Ideas for new ways to do some things in the garden this year — that breathes some excitement into my plans!

– Cutting up our beloved (but worn) lobster-print bed sheets into strips of fabric that will be used to tie up plants in the garden this year. I love re-purposing things like that partly because it makes my life much simpler since the solution to a problem is right there in front of me and I don’t have to go out and hunt something down at a store. And instead of throwing away our Lobsters, which would be way sad, they get to begin a whole new life by helping me out in my garden.

– Drinking tea, sitting at the sunny kitchen table today, doing a long-overdue project, with soft music playing on the stereo next to me. I think I’ve got a very nice little set-up here now with window-table-sun-stereo! Yay!

– Pu-erh tea with milk! My tummy still isn’t really wanting regular black tea, but pu-erh is the thing I really go for right now — interesting — could it be because it’s fermented and not as harsh? I have no idea. But I do love it.

– Speaking of tea, the eucalyptus that I put into my nettles tea just now… oh it adds such a nice element, and unearths sweet memories of being in Australia and surrounded by the scent and majesty of so many eucalyptus trees in the Blue Mountains. What an incredible & special place that is… I’d go back in an absolute heartbeat.

– Artichokes! I’ve been on an artichoke kick; I’ve eaten four of them in the past couple days. They are so good!

– Reading my Mother Earth News magazine next to the space heater.

– Taking a nap on F’s back. It felt so nice, and kept us both warm.

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What gratitudes have graced your week?

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Minestrone Soup

February 18, 2012 / Lindsey / 2 Comments

Minnestrone soup, (c) The Herbangardener

Minestrone - a variation on the recipe below

This soup is delicious. I sometimes alter the recipe depending on what I have on hand, so feel free to play around.

The recipe makes a pretty large pot. Cut the amounts back if you like!!

Minestrone Soup

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 large carrot, cut into 1/2″ dice

2 ribs celery, cut into 1/2″ slices

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 small zucchini, cut into 1/2″ dice

1/2 lb potatoes, cut into 1/2″ dice

4 cups shredded green cabbage

4 – 6 cups chopped kale or swiss chard (1/4 – 1/2 lb)

28 oz canned chopped tomatoes with their juice (or feel free to use fresh tomatoes!)

2 to 3 tsp salt-free Italian herb seasoning

4 1/2 cups vegetable broth (but homemade grassfed beef bone broth is delicious too!)

1 1/2 cups cooked Great Northern beans (or 1 15-oz can, drained)

Salt/pepper to taste

***

*It helps to have everything chopped and ready before starting*

In a very large pot, heat the olive oil and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until softened.

Add carrots, celery, and garlic. Cook, stirring for 4 minutes.

Add the zucchini and potatoes. Cook, stirring, for another 4 minutes.

Add cabbage and kale (or chard) and cook till cabbage is wilted.

Add the tomatoes with their juice, the veggie broth, and the Italian seasoning.

Simmer, covered, for one hour.

In a blender or food processor, puree half the beans with some liquid from the soup. Stir the puree along with the remaining beans into the soup.

Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Salt + pepper to taste.

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2012 / Lindsey / 3 Comments

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Classic Gingerbread

February 13, 2012 / Lindsey / 2 Comments

Here’s a recipe that I love. It’s for gingerbread, which is so warming and comforting when it’s chilly and gray outside. Serve it with tea or coffee, and a dollop of freshly whipped cream if you like, or just a simple powdered sugar heart, for Valentine’s Day — or any day!

The secret ingredient is dark, stout beer; don’t leave it out! Just as wine gives depth to sauces, the caramel-like flavor of dark beer adds the depth needed to make this cake really awesome!

Classic Gingerbread

3/4 cup dark, stout beer (such as Guinness or something fairly similar)

1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup molasses

3/4 cup sucanat or brown sugar, slightly rounded

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, plus extra to dust pan

2 1/2 Tbsp dried ground ginger (yes, tablespoons!)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp finely ground pepper

2 eggs

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

***

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour an 8″x12″ pan (or an 8″x8″ if you like).

In a medium saucepan, bring the stout beer to a boil, and simmer for several minutes to allow the alcohol to dissipate. Do be present in the room while the beer is on the heat, since it can (will!) rise and spill over the sides of the pan very quickly! Remove beer from the heat and stir in the baking soda. When the foaming subsides, stir in the molasses and sucanat/brown sugar, and stir till dissolved. It will likely still be quite foamy; that’s OK.

In a separate bowl, mix together all of your dry ingredients.

Pour the beer mixture into a large bowl and whisk in the eggs and oil.

Then whisk the dry ingredients into the beer in three parts — after each addition, stirring vigorously until batter is totally smooth.

Pour the batter into your pan and tap against the counter a few times to dislodge any large air bubbles.

Bake on the center rack until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes (slightly longer if you use an 8″x8″ pan).

Cool the cake, slice, decorate, and enjoy!

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Gratitude Sunday * February 12, 2012

February 12, 2012 / Lindsey / 5 Comments

~ I’m once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition. ~

Gratitude is powerful energy. I love hearing others’ gratitudes!

***

– A restful weekend after a hectic week.

– Working on my felted wool mittens on Monday and enjoying that day so much; it was cloudy outside and cozy inside, and while I worked I listened to some old stuff I haven’t heard in many years including Experiments in Truth by Ram Dass. Those tapes really helped me while I was grieving Sonja’s death, but it’s thought-provoking listening during any challenging situation, really. It felt good to hear them again.

– Having my favorite documentary, Alone in the Wilderness, appear on PBS! What a treat!

– Homemade sourdough flapjacks, re-heated in the toaster till the outside is just a little bit crispy, with a bit of pasture butter and lots of homemade wild grape jam!

– Finally moving the stereo to a new location near the kitchen where it’s getting so much more use. What a pleasure to have Billy Holiday playing softly, with the lights down low, while I prepare black beans and flapjack batter to soak overnight.

– A heavenly massage.

– Napping on my parents’ couch after my massage, with my cat sleeping on my chest.

– Interlibrary Loan — one of the best things ever!

– Salt. How salt has escaped a place on all previous Gratitude Sunday posts, I do not know.

– Hot showers for when the body needs warmth immediately!

– Coming home to my Honey. I love love love that 🙂

– Being able to ride my bike again to get from place to place, after the big snow storm where I needed to rely on the buses instead. The bike is so much more free and spontaneous. I love getting around by bike, even in winter. To me, it’s the least stressful of all transportation modes!

– Making black bean hummus using my regular hummus recipe with black beans instead of garbanzos + a little extra olive oil. So yummy spread on a piece of lettuce, with tomato slices, black olives, Dijon mustard, salt + pepper, and eaten like a taco!

– My day planner, a gift from my Hubby’s sweet mom — I’ve never had one before, but am loving it! It’s so helpful and I have a feeling it will be a new staple in my life from now on.

– Staying in bed yesterday for as long as my body wanted to (till noon!). Ohhh my that felt good.

– Having moneymaking work, ’cause it means money coming in which is always a very good feeling.

– Cozy warm house when it’s 5° outside, as it was last night.

– Feeling my body heal. Slowly, but surely. Oh hallelujah!!!

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What gratitudes have graced your week?

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