On a rainy Saturday afternoon I was flipping through old magazines my neighbor graciously passes on to me and, perusing her June calendar, I couldn’t help thinking, “I want Martha’s life!” Her calendar is filled with domestic fun and frolic with friends and family; how great is that! In thinking about my life over the past week, and even past month, I quickly realized I do have Martha’s life…in my own way out here at the lake. Yesterday, I had lunch with a friend, visited the area peony farm, checked in on the neighboring pear tree (my source) and took an early evening boat ride on the lake. Thursday, I took an art felting class, made a run through the greenhouse and planted my final annuals for the season. On Wednesday, after a morning walk to check out a neighbors lovely iris beds, I ironed a beautiful lime green striped linen table cloth and restyled my dining table that, by the way, looks great with my fresh peony bouquet. I also ironed a group of my homespun summer frocks I have written about in the past. On Tuesday, I drove to Milan to spend the day in the weaving room which is always a great fun. On Monday, I did some gardening, reading and enjoyed happy hour with some lake friends. Last weekend, I enjoyed the Ortonville Art Crawl along with the Spoon Gathering I wrote about. Well, you get the picture; I am living a charmed life. During my work years, my Marketing Director used to ask his job interviewees if they thought they lived a charmed life. I am not sure I would have passed his test back then but I sure would today.
So, I will now move on to this week’s tales from our food test kitchen. If you haven’t heard about Cowboy Caviar you are behind the times. Paul made a batch of this delight which includes cans of black beans, corn and black olives along with avocado, tomatoes, onion, cilantro and a variety of Mexican seasonings and a little vinegar and olive oil. Add a few tablespoons of Brewer’s Yeast and you have further kicked up the flavor profile. Use it as a dip with tortilla chips or if you serve it over greens and add grilled chicken, supper is served. It’s very tasty and, even better, a very healthy summer meal. You can find numerous recipes online.
In our never ending battle to stay healthy, did I mention we are making a conscious effort to have salad for supper at least three days a week this summer? My garden bed greens and potted herbs are prospering so variety is the spice of life right now. We served grilled steelhead trout on our greens and veggie salad this week and it was excellent. We always make our own vinaigrette which is easy peasy; again there are lots of recipes online but I encourage you to get creative based on your own flavor preferences. If you make up a big batch you can use it all week and you will never go back to store bought dressings. Tomorrow, we are moving to delights from the middle east including homemade hummus and tabouli salad. Can’t wait!
Did you know….cauliflower and cabbage are making a comeback and being used as substitutes for white carbs (pasta, rice, bread, etc.) which we are all supposed to cut back on in our diet. Cauliflower you can mash as a substitute for potatoes, rice to replace the real thing or use as a flour substitute in pizza dough. Cabbage can be cut and baked in steak sized rounds and used as a base for tomato meat sauce replacing pasta. If you like either or both of these two white wonder cruciferous vegetables and are watching your weight or trying to keep cancer at bay you should give these ideas a try. I have omitted discussing some of the fermented uses for cabbage including Kimchi and Kombucha, all fair game for the test kitchen and a future article. Stay tuned! 2019