Just Another Meatless Monday #14 Cold Summer Salad

Oh the weather has been beastly hot this last week. And with putting in gardens, weeding, busting sod and a birthday my cooking has been wanting. I did have one spectacular dinner last week, a cold summer salad with peanut dressing. This is so easy and can be fixed ahead of time and chilled all day so it's cool and ready when YOU need it.

Cold Summer Salad with Peanut Dressing
16 ounce package of regular spaghetti noodles
1 large cucumber
1 large zucchini
3 large carrots
handful of basil leaves, Thai basil if possible
peanut dressing--recipe follows
cook noodles according to package directions for al dente noodles
meanwhile wash and dry vegetables, peel carrots if necessary
thinly slice all vegetables on the diagonal, set aside
when noodles are done drain and rinse with cool water
drain again getting out as much water as possible
toss with the sliced vegetables and chill until ready to serve
serve with the dressing on the side as you would a regular salad

peanut dressing
1/2 cup of peanut butter, I used the chunky style because I like peanut sauce that way use what you like
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vinegar-use what you have I had pear balsamic and it was fine
1 garlic clove minced finely
2 Tablespoons soy sauce, more or less to suit your taste start with some and keep adding
red pepper flakes-optional
in a mixing bowl whisk all the ingredients together
it may take a few minutes so be patient
add more water if a thinner dressing is desired

I need inspiration this week folks that or someone to cook for me. In lieu of a personal cook I'll take your ideas.





Peace and Love-

Birthday Weekend Thrifting Fun

Spent a long lovely morning out thrifting. I left so the guys could bake me a cake. I found some items for reselling and some for keeping. And a few Christmas presents, too. My family knows by now that 'laura treasures' are often the best presents. They are actually starting to give treasures themselves.

For my recent birthday my mom found a flame Le Creuset sauce pan for me in a local thrift store, woot! And an old recipe binder.

This last thrifting trip I found a vintage apron.

 

I love the gingham and the interesting weave and twist here. Does anybody know what that is? Or how it's done?

Oh I found some Laura crack, Christmas kitsch, the best!

These little wooden spreading knives, mmmm love.

This green enameled pot just called to me, anybody know the maker?  PW ring a bell?

And these beautiful Musi shoe clips! I didn't know what they were but I liked them, I still do. I might re-sell them though to help fund my conference trip to BlogHer Food '10. Tough call but I can't keep everything I buy, I'd be buried! What say you? Keep or sell?

Ohhh but the best thing I found all weekend? These boys, dirty lovely baking boys, who were hopefully clean during the actual making of the cake.

I HAD to have a baseball cake. I mean really what OTHER kind of cake does a mom want anyway? And so I got a birthday cake. A baseball birthday cake.

Peace and Love-

Poor poor me

I only got ONE present for my birthday yesterday.

Poor poor me. 

Can 

you

guess

what it is??

 

No not pasta salad

Oh yeah....

That's what I'm talking about!

Now if you'll excuse me I need to take my old one out and shoot it.

Peace and Love-

Thursday Make and Do-dah ::It's my Birthday!::

Well that went fast. Seems like only yesterday I got my Kitchenaid mixer and Le Creuset French Oven yet it has been a year! Here are a few high points in photos from the last year:

 I became the mom to a driving teenage boy and now he is a senior in high school

 And I headed off by myself to my very first food blogging conference.

 So many great things happened this year, I certainly couldn't include them all. Thanks for sharing the year with me. I hope next year is even better. Cheers!



And on to the Thursday Make and Do-dah
Looking for an Eco Friendly way to start your grill? Check out Christina's post on making your own!



Are you heading to the beach this summer? Wondering what to do with the shells your kids collect? Here's a great craft idea to make them into presents for family or friends!

Have you seen Google's big froyo? What is UP with that thing? Seriously Linda should be giving us the back story there.

Pig Candy+Chocolate Chip Cookies=EVIL. Check out my pal Heather making cardiologists richer all over the world.

Thusday make and do is your chance to shine! Want to share a link? By all means please do! Just send me a link via email or dm on twitter and I'll do my best to get you in! Now pardon me but I have to go plant the last of my garden, a great way to spend my birthday.

Peace and Love-

Wallter: An experiment with Buying American Made

Here is another interview in my series featuring companies that are proudly "Made in the USA". There is a certain charm to shopping small town America that is being bulldozed by mega box stores who care only of their bottom line. I will be attempting to track down and interview small business' that:

1. still stand by their products AND

2. make quality products to be proud of right here in the good ol' USA.

Of course living in this day and age where you can hardly find shoes made in America, our small town America is ALL of America. SO if I can't buy shoes made in my home town maybe I can buy shoes made in your home town or the next town over. Who says WAL*SHMART is the only place to shop? I have a computer and I can easily access hundreds of small producers right online. With a few savvy customer reviews and referrals I can find exactly what I want while sitting in my jammies at two in the morning. Kind of like shopping from the old Sears catalog, you have to wait a couple weeks but the wait is worth it.

First of all why don't you tell everyone about your business...

We make modern home accessories, designed and manufactured in the USA

So what's in your product line?

We started with bedding, in 2000, bedspreads, pillows and throw blankets. And since have added Wall Decor, Mobiles and Coat Racks. We're now designing a line of outdoor planters that will be available this Summer.

MUST HAVE!! 

 Ok and this too!!

Where can I find your products? Online? In stores? Catalog?

We sell on our website www.wallter.com. On our website you can also find a complete list of stores that offer our products.

Do I HAVE to have a 'Mid-Century Modern' house to use your products or will they mesh into other design aesthetics? Absolutely not. Our products have found homes ranging from country chic to contemporary to eclectic. We have so many options and ways to use our line, its adaptable in any style.

Why is Made in the USA important to you? To America?

Recently, there has been this huge push for eco-friendly products, however so much of these so called "green" products that was coming to market was made in China, and made to only last a short time. We felt that was hypocritical for companies to use that as a marketing technique. The complete carbon footprint needs to be assessed. We make products built to last and made here in the USA.

It is really tough to stick to our Made in the USA label as many manufactures in the US don't have the capabilities as they do overseas. We recently had to have a part made in CHINA :( to complete a product line. The part will then be shipped to one of our fabricators here in the US that will do the rest of the assembly, fabrication and finishing of the product line. The question we had to ask ourselves is this: "Do we make part of this product in CHINA and finish it here supporting American workers OR do we not make it at all and support no one?"

The made in the USA label is important to us because we want to support American workers and companies which will in turn add to the tax revenue for our cities and state. We volunteer a lot of our time to our public school PTA and know first hand how much our schools need that tax revenue.

Do you live in a Mid-Century Modern? No, we live is a small 1100 sq ft home built in 1930. Not much style, but lots of "charm"

What do you value deeply and how are those values reflected in your work?

We value design that has a lasting impression. We try to steer away from designs, or motifs that are short lived trends. For example, most of our textiles have been in the collection from the beginning. It gives us great pride to complete a bedspread for a customer, the same that we have done for 10 years. We have always believed this and have strive to.

So there you have it folks, you CAN buy quality goods made to last and Made in America! I knew my quest for  quality products built to last would introduce me to new companies and I am so glad for that. For too many years I have been led around by the nose by big box stores selling inferior products for a small price. It's refreshing to find companies whose bottom line has not led them to China, dangerous materials and slave labor but rather quality craftsmanship, care for workers and happy customers. It' a relief to discover each 'new to me' company and I'm wondering if I could ever cut out made in China products completely. Hmmmmmm......

Peace and Love-

Beer Tasting

This past weekend I the extreme pleasure of attending my first ever beer tasting. You can bet your boopy it won't be my last. This was fun people! And it was part of something even cooler, Radio Free Palmer!

What is Radio Free Palmer? A grass roots initiative to bring live radio to our small town and from what I can tell they (soon to be we!) are about half way there. They currently have some streaming music programs and local assembly meetings live. They also have the assembly meetings available as podcasts.

They also throw a pretty great party. For example the beer tasting I attended was nice way to bring in members for their annual meeting. We attended because my husband volunteers with them recording the assembly meetings. I am so glad we did.

It was a wonderful way to spend several pleasant hours sampling the 10 9 favorite beers of a local beer aficionado. We tasted local brews, micro brews, bitter brews, porters and a couple ales. Yes, I got them on film. I started off a crack shot but somehow my photo skills went downhill. I'm really not sure what happened. We also had some hot snacks provided by a local favorite restaurant, Turkey Red.

The annual meeting was quite short and to the point, more non profits should really take lessons from these guys. Or maybe I was just happily sated and enjoying the thoughts of a truly local radio station. Whatever the reason our membership check is in the mail, I want in!

Now on to the photos: First up Sessions Beer, bottled in lucky beer bottles, gee those bring back memories of being poor in college. This was a great beer, probably one of my favorites, not bitter or bland but full flavored! Then there was a Samuel Adams Boston Lager, also good not as good as the Sessions though.

Then came a Stone Pale Ale, good beer! Better than their Arrogant Bastard Beer for sure! And BEER IN A CAN?? Apparently it can be great way to keep beer fresh, but it tasted like a canned beer to me. This was the Hefeweizen Haywire.

And then here is where it starts to get fuzzy, lots of 3 ounce pours at this point. Perhaps a few refills and almost empty bottles left on the table too. I also became rather indiscreet at taking pictures because other folks had started to notice. Moose Drool beer, in a can, blech. Do not want! Black Butte Porter? In a bottle? Yes Please, a very tasty beer.

Milk Stout came next. I'm non-committal on the milk stout, it was meh, to me. My husband really liked it though, so I could have been reaching my limit at this point.

The last two were extremely bitter beers. I don't seem to have pictures of them, which should tip you off right there. They were bitter. They were the last of nine beers. What can I say? Oh, one tasted like grapefruit. This is the last picture I took, these appear to be all the beer we tasted on Saturday.

My official word on the beer tasting/annual meeting of a non-profit: These two go hand in hand.

Peace and Love-

Just Another Meatless Monday #13 Foraging Fun

I had the pleasure of going out foraging for nettles with my good friend Cara the other day. It all started a week or so ago at a going away party for another good friend and teacher Miss Kate. At said party Cara comment that she had found nettles, we started talking of foraging hows and whys and wheres. I was inspired! Cara was a wealth of knowledge having studied herbs back East in her life before kids. Fast forward a few days to a phone call from Cara about gardening which soon turned to nettle picking which soon turned to an afternoon date to pick nettles at a nearby park.

We picked for only about 45 minutes or so and we were definitely freaks on parade. A local school was picnicking in the park and every second grade girl HAD to know what we were doing. Several moms and teachers looked at us like we were crazy. Personally I didn't care I was foraging but I think our kids felt a bit weird because we were the only moms not sitting around macking down on Doritos and oreos and 5 dollar coffee. Or maybe they are used to us not being 'normal' and only felt weird with 100 kids jammed in to one park. Soon enough they left and we had the park to ourselves, we let our kids run off to play while we finished up foraging. We lounged around for another hour relishing the intense play our kids were involved in and the companionship we had in each other

I came home with a huge bowl full of nettle leaves. I set them to soak in cold fresh water. After 5 minutes of soaking to help loosen any river silt (we live at the confluence of two glacier valleys)I swished them and rinsed them. I repeated the cleaning procedure and then drained them thoroughly.  I wrapped them in a green produce bag and tucked them in to the fridge.

These are tricky little leaves to pick! Nettles are designed to sting you if you brush against them. The sting isn't particularly painful but it does last the rest of the day. My pinching finger tips were numbish and tingly on both hands, again not painful but more of a reminder.

Foraging tips:

• go with someone who is experienced, in this case Cara and I were both knowledgeable
• only pick where it is legal
• don't pick every leaf or edible part off the plant, leave some so it can live it's life happily
• thank the plants for their life, their efforts and for sharing
• use what you pick, don't pick something if you are not going to eat it
• do your homework, know what to pick when

Locavore Lunch
Fresh Organic Eggs Served on a Bed of Roasted Potatoes with a side of Nettle Crisps-oven 450˚
1 pound local organic french fingerling potatoes
2 TBSP oil, divided
2 cups nettle leaves or other local greens
8 eggs fresh from the coop, organic, co-op or share program
1 TBSP vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

wash and dry the potatoes
turn the oven on
chop the potatoes in to roughly 1 inch chunks
place in a bowl, toss with one TBSP of the oil
pour onto a baking pan, add salt and pepper if desired
roast at 450˚ for 15-20 minutes or until done, stir after 10 minutes
meanwhile blot the greens dry
place in the same bowl toss with remaining oil, place on another baking sheet
set aside until ready to roast
begin heating the water for poached eggs, fill a large pan 2/3 with water
place over high heat and bring to a boil, reduce heat until the water is simmering add the vinegar
cook eggs 4 at a time, crack each egg and slide in to the simmering water, the vinegar should help keep the whites intact
while the eggs are cooking  stir the potatoes and slide the nettles in at this time
keep an eye on the nettles and stir frequently so the get evenly crispy and crunchy
when the first 4 eggs are done remove them to a colander to drain then place on a plate and cover gently with a pan lid to keep them warm
cook the last 4 eggs the same way
check your nettles and remove when they are crispy, set aside
the potatoes should  be fine in the oven, if they get done before the eggs simply turn the oven off and keep them warm
when the last 4 eggs are done remove them to the colander to drain while assembling the first two plates
divide the potatoes between four small plates
put two eggs on top of each serving of potatoes and the nettle crisps along side the potatoes
serve immediately
enjoy eating local organic wild food
smile

Time to show and tell! I have tried a thumbnail linky this week, what do you think? Like it or love or hate it?  I linked up one of my older recipes just to give myself and everyone a visual. Take my button on the sidebar if you want and be sure to pop in and visit the other linkers.
Update-I love the thumbnail linky! It seems a bit confusing BUT just keep going and when it asks for a picture click the button that says 'from the web/my website' it will take you to a page of lots of photos from the post you just put in, simply click on the best photo and hit save!





Peace and Love-