Asparagus and Peanut Butter: It’s What's for Dinner
Look at all the baby ranunculus! Next year, they'll be started in Sarabeth and maybe blooming by this time! Eek!!
Another crazy week in the books! Whoop whoop! Things were planted, other things were built. The main veggie plot is roughly ⅔ of the way full, and two smaller plots are completely or near completely full. On today's agenda we have filling a (new!) raised bed with fresh dirt, digging in maybe half of my dahlias, and planting as many flowers as we can. It's definitely sliding into full work mode on the farm as we transition to warmer weather. No complaints here. I seem to sleep incredibly well if I'm slinging dirt all day (weird, I know).
With planting well under way, Clint and I have discovered we are under utilizing space (crazy, right?). The back of our property tends to be pretty low, so it floods when we receive a bunch of rain. The plan is to make more raised beds so we can better utilize the space we have (more vegetables and flowers, yay!). Eventually, we won't have to mow, and will just subsist on massive garden plots with paths twining every which way. It'll be the most intense version of farm hide and seek. I kid, I kid.. or do I?
Seeley’s half hearted attempt at hide and seek would probably work better if he blended in.
With the weather being crazy weird (high winds, random rain, chilly temps), Sarabeth has been left to fend to her own devices. I have no desire to break a window or have plastic sheets ripped out of my hands in a cruel game of keep away with the wind gusts. She's patiently waiting for windows, side walls, electricity, gravity fed water, and tile flooring to be installed. Then it's on. Helloooo heated greenhouse!! I'm just a bit excited. She is really too cute.
I know tulips aren't Sarabeth, but they're gone now and they deserve love too.
I did find time between all of the farm work this week to try a few recipes (I know that's the only reason you read this blog.. that and boredom). Most were awesomely fantastic. Well.. all were pretty darn good, who are we kidding. Food is generally good in any circumstances.
It’s like snow capped peaks of deliciousness, waiting to be mixed up.
Bananas. Does anyone else have bananas that sit on the counter until they're mottled with brown spots? I'm guilty of this more often than not. Sometimes I leave them there just so I can use the bananas in baking (but usually I just forget about them). Good thing I had extra to play with this week. I made peanut butter banana blondies from Namely Marly. I quadrupled the recipe in 2 separate batches. I'll admit, it was so I could use a 9x13 instead of an 8x8. In the first batch, I used an extra banana and cut down on the butter (gasp, why would I leave out butter!? Because I felt like it). I also used a mix of brown sugar and maple syrup (once again, I felt like it).
The second batch was made more according to the recipe and I did mix the two batches up in the pan so they would bake evenly. Bake time doubled with making more, shocker I know. I didn't want to attempt to figure out a higher temp in relation to the recipe, although I'm sure you rockstar over achievers could have everything converted in no time. Once they were out of the oven and cooled, I topped them with the (crunchy) peanut butter icing. I like crunchy peanut butter better, although the recipe does call for creamy. Because I used butter in the bars, I used vegan butter instead of coconut oil for the icing. The bars were dense and delicious. I almost drove into town to pick up ice cream to top it all off. Almost.
https://namelymarly.com/banana-blondies-creamy-peanut-butter-frosting/
When Clint tried these, he said "You're trying to make me fat". Me "Yep, then it'll be harder for you to run away."
I've mentioned before, we love curry, and this week was no different. I give you, panang curry tofu from Running on Real Food. I added asparagus, because both sets of parents gave us a boat load (no complaints...besides the asparagus pee that awaited us). Minced ginger was added as always (minced ginger makes everything curry better). Subbing full fat coconut milk happened (honestly, because that's what I had).
You might've recognized a trend where I only exert so much effort in making dishes. For instance, my pantry is messy. I know the general area where things are stored, and if they're not there, I might look (probably not). This was the case. I totally made quinoa because I was too lazy to find the rice. Instead of waiting until the end to add the tofu, it went in the wok with the zucchini and peppers for more cook time.
I'm about 96% sure I was subconsciously craving peanut butter this week and pizza (well pizza was a deliberate choice)… Pizza strikes again, thai chickpea pizza that is, from Well Vegan. It combines my love of thai with my love of pizza, a win.
For the sauce, I added a tsp/tbsp maple syrup (either once or the other, I'm not sure), ground ginger, more soy sauce, and more sriracha. It's definitely not a sweet sauce but it works soooo well with everything else. Just go with it. I sauteed chickpeas with thinly sliced asparagus instead of baking them for ten minutes (lazy thing again). Ground ginger, sriracha, and garlic powder were thrown into the saute mix. It was soooooo stinking good. Holy smokes. It was peanut butter-y and tasty and I wish I made more.
Yuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmm.
Saturday mornings scream for pancakes...and Clint sent me a recipe from LeBent he thought we should try. I'm all about second breakfast (first breakfast is always hummus toast since wake up time is 4:30am and nobody wants to wait until 7 for first breakfast). Clint (maker of the pancakes) doubled the recipe and used all purpose flour instead of oat flour (we're too lazy to break out the blender). Not going to lie, this recipe was intense trial and error. He added extra water and oat milk, since the batter was ultra thick to start with. See exhibit A.
Exhibit A. Left was the batter to start, Right was the batter after adding milk and water. A more runny batter equals a crispier pancake.
He used the iron skillet (which should've been our first clue that this wouldn't work) and the first three pancakes were raw in the middle. It was a no go (too hot in the skillet, too thick of batter). Darn it! With our will broken, we brought out our secret weapon, the almighty griddle (We seem to have better luck with pancakes on the griddle than the skillet). In the moment thoughts: hooopefully this proves fruitful.. in more ways than just raspberry and blueberry pancakes. Bad pun? Yes. Did I still laugh? Of course.
Round 4: will we succeed? Or will this batter prove to be Clint's nemesis? Yesssssss, more water in the batter and controlled temp on the griddle. We have a winner! Come to mama, you beautiful berry pancakes.
Warm maple syrup topped the pancakes of course (we buy maple syrup about once every couple weeks or so, maybe a little longer). 'Nobody likes cold syrup on their pancakes'- another Clint-ism. Such sweet victory.
Clint says you don't want to make them too big at the end otherwise they won't fit in the toaster. According to him no one likes microwaved pancakes. Also, too many blueberries=too watery of pancake. Flip said deliciousness over when it starts to bubble (a little pancake 101 for those who are pancake illiterate… *waves hand* I'm talking about me, I'm pancake illiterate. This is why I make Clint make pancakes). Then we were off onto a 'Can you make pancakes in the oven' tangent… On that note...can you make pancakes in the oven? Would you want to?
https://www.lebent.com.au/blogs/news/one-word-pancakes
I'm thinking we'll avoid pancakes for a while… Haha. Clint wasn't pleased with how long these took to come out well. Add water or milk right off the bat and thin down the batter. Use a tried and true method of cooking. Eat all the pancakes. You're welcome.
I'm thinking I'll teach myself how to sew this week. The weather isn't conducive to being outdoors most of the week and Clint was telling me I needed a hobby. I'll let y'all know how it goes next week. Cheers.