Roasted beets and potato

I love roasted vegetables. I don't make them very often because it takes a while to chop them all up then another 45 minutes to roast them. I don't have time or energy for that after work.

Last winter, it occurred to me to chop in the morning or the night before, which would give the veggies a lot of time to soak up their seasonings. Now I do it more often, including yesterday for the first time this season. Here's my favorite way to make them.

Roasted Veggies

• 1# root veggies, including garlic and onions
• <1/4 cup oil (olive and/or canola)
• 2Tbs Balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp dried or 1 tsp fresh thyme
• 1 tsp dried or 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
• salt and pepper

Chop the veggies. I like to make then about 1/4" because they cook faster. Mix seasonings and oil together. Pour over veggies and mix. 425 degrees, greased sheet or Silpat, 40-60 minutes depending on amount and size of veg. Stir every 15 minutes.

I had fresh herbs and I used more than called for. For veggies, I used yellow (from the deck boxes) and red beets, purple potatoes, and garlic. I had 1/2# and it was just a little too much for me for dinner. Nutmeg and Eric aren't too keen on roasted mixed veggies.

Before I started using Balsamic vinegar, I liked the following:

Roasted Veggies II

• 1# root veggies
• 2 cloves garlic, quartered
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1/2 Tbs fresh herbs such as rosemary, sage, thyme
• sea or kosher salt and pepper

Same directions as above.

I guess it's nearly the same recipe, isn't it?

Made more pesto

For weeks, I'm been telling myself to make pesto again, but I keep putting it off. I finally did so on Sunday. Some of the basil had started to flower so I had to do it. The picture is a jar of pesto in the window box that used to be filled with pesto. A left a few leaves at the bottom of most plants as they may continue to grow now that the cooler weather returned again.

Eric made these boxes back in June(?) for the edge of the deck. They aren't window boxes, but I've never heard of deck railing boxes so call them window boxes since everyone knows what they are. It's one long box split in three. On this end was basil and carrots (only 8 grew; we ate two earlier and the other six Saturday). In the middle was greens (only the spinach grew, and it was spindly and tiny, plus one carrot and a Johnny Jump Up; definitely the weird box!). On the right are bunching onions (grew great and stayed small) and beets (need to pick and eat them soon).

I finally thought of using regular jar lids instead of wasting a canning lid in the freezer. In the paste, and I've been making and freezing pesto for at least 5 years, I always used a canning lid and ring. I was never sure if the lid would still be good for canning--I did use them again last summer, and two failed so I probably shouldn't--but for some reason I never thought of using a regular lid. (I don't have the highest common sense sometimes.)

Bread, salsa, and concussions

Aack! It's been too long since I posted. I have done a little in the kitchen, but after making so many desserts while Eric and Nutmeg were gone, I realized I needed to hold off on more sweets for a while. It's continued to be hot, well, at least for Maine (our two weeks of summer have passed and now it's only hot for part of the day to be honest), so I haven't felt like turning on the oven much. Plus, last Wed, Eric got a concussion and it's barely gotten better so I have been a lot busier than usual with Nutmeg, the animals, and everything else around the house.

I did bake bread, but those photos seem rather repetitive after a while. However, the last two times, I let Netmeg make something with a small piece of dough. Since I use a rather wet dough, this hasn't worked out too well (it gets stuck all over her hands) so I've "helped" her make a figure: both times, she's made Sweetie (her kitten). This last time, I remembered to take a picture. See the tail, legs, eye (slightly darker brown bit towards the right) and ear (tiny point on the right above the eye)? She got to actually eat this one. The first one she was eating downstairs, we got an idea and everyone headed upstairs...and about 15 minutes later I remembered it had been left in easy reach of the dogs. Sure enough, it was gone. (And maybe Emma had bread dough stuck in her teeth and that's why she was hacking and licking a bunch?)

It's finally time for some non-cooking adventures in the kitchen: the farmer's market finally has something other than plants and a very few salad items. (My delight at the early opening of the market here was short-lived. Almost no one had rhubarb, there was no asparagus at all, and only a couple folks had salad fixings in June. Mostly they sold plants.) It's time for TOMATOES! And that means salsa time in the Johnson house. We did this a little in Oshkosh, but something clicked last August and we made salsa a few times a week, buying a ton of tomatoes, peppers, and hot peppers every single week. And there weren't many tomatoes in Maine last year due to the extremely wet season combined with the late blight. So we're hoping to have salsa even more often this year.

I used to follow recipes, except that didn't really work since we didn't have the right ingredients. So I finally realized the basic formula and now I just make sure to use the right things and taste for a few (salt and lime juice) and just put in all the tomatoes and peppers we want. Sometimes, I also make a corn and black bean (with my homegrown dried Cherokee Trail of Tears beans) salsa.

Salsa

• tomatoes, chopped into whatever size you like (it does work best if you take out the seeds and pulp; be sure to put these innards in the discard pile, not your salsa bowl or it will still be really wet. Yeah, I wasn't paying attention.)
• sweet peppers (lovely to use a variety of colors although red and orange ones will blend in with the tomatoes. Unless you use a variety of tomato colors, too)
• onions, chopped (green, scallions, or regular; the smaller the pieces, the more the onion taste and chance of tearing up while chopping)
• garlic (I usually use the garlic press, but could also be chopped)
• lime or lemon juice (I really like lime juice and this is the only thing I use it in)
• cilantro if at all possible. Mine didn't grow well this year, so I hope the herb lady sells it by the bunch. It's okay without it, but lovely with it
• salt to taste (often, this is what is missing when the salsa tastes a bit bland)
• hot peppers to taste (Nutmeg and I prefer none while Eric likes his salsa really hot. In the picture, his bowl is to the right, adding them in after the whole batch is mixed together)
• other veggies as desired. I've never done anything other than beans and corn, but you can put a lot of different things in salsa if you like! I might grate some carrots next time, as Nutmeg stopped eating them (except from our garden, which has only about 12 and they are radish sized).

The flavors are best if you make ahead, but also tastes great freshly made. I tend to use more lime juice when it won't be sitting.

I'm looking forward to trying a salsa with pineapple sage. Eric's favorite salsa has some pineapple in it, so why not?

We all love salsa and every ingredient is good for you and hardly has any calories at all. So why not eat as much as you want? We do buy tortilla chips to go with it, but I actually think the fresh salsa tastes fine without any accompaniment. It's rather like a cold, uncooked veggie soup in a way (especially if you don't take out the tomato pulp).

Summer Solstice Lunch

Had a lovely lunch yesterday on the Summer Solstice, including a childhood favorite in honor of the Sun:

My brother, Uncle Monkey (sometimes called Michael) remembers this as well, often served on holidays and Sundays. But as far as we know, it has no name. I need to come up with a cool name for it. It's a simple dish but absolutely delish. It's just sliced bananas with orange juice served in a pudding/custard/sundae dish. I haven't had it in ages as was delighted by the taste. (I rarely buy orange juice and until this weekend, ate a banana only a couple times a year. I try to eat fairly locally, and neither one is native to Maine or Wisconsin. But I oddly made three different banana dishes for yesterday!)

The main course was sandwiches with chevre, lettuce, and herbs from the garden (as I mentioned recently):

The bread choices were homemade bread and a multigrain and seed bread from the Franciscan Friar's Bakeshop, Bangor, Maine (they have no website, no surprise as they take cash only and appear to live a fairly simple life. And yes, the friars are really there. They have odd hours to accommodate their daily prayers. We also got "Sin"-amon rolls and whoopie pies.).

Bread and buns

Baked another loaf of bread this morning so that we can have sandwiches for lunch when my brother, aka Uncle Monkey as his niece calls him, visits. The plan is for sandwiches with fresh chevre from the local Creeping Thyme Farm with herbs, from the container garden on the deck and the itty bitty herb garden out the front door, and greens (lettuce, red lettuce, and spinach) from the Lakes Region Farmer's Market. Also made buns for bison burgers on the grill this evening.

Had some difficult with these as the dough was very stiff. They look a lot like hockey pucks, but they aren't as dense!

Made up a new batch of dough afterward, ABin5 master recipe, but with 2 cups of sourdough starter and 2 cups of brown rice flour. Except I lost count when putting in the flour, so wasn't sure if I was at 4 or 5. So I stopped, stirred a while, thought it was 4, but then put in too much additional flour and had to add some water. ::sigh:: It's a fairly forgiving dough, as I generally get similar results no matter what I do to the dough. Some loaves are denser, some are lighter (well, actually, that rarely happens to me), some I nearly burn, some aren't quite cooked in the middle.

To solve that problem, I need an instant read thermometer. The next kitchen gadget on the list!