When I Say Garden Fresh Salad, I Mean It

Salad was on the menu tonight. We went meatless.  I raided the garden and here’s what I came up with…

Ingredients:

Kale

Spinach

Swiss Chard

Collard Greens

Radishes and the leaves

1 Green onion

2 boiled duck eggs (one per plate)

Mango Salsa (left over from last night)

2 cheese sticks (one per plate) – not the breaded kind just two pieces of cheese

Snap Peas

Fresh Salad

I ran a knife through the greens (including the radish leaves) so they would be bite size (ish).

I chopped the cheese, peas, onion and radish.

I put the greens on each plate then sprinkled the radishes, onion and cheese over them.

I sliced one egg each per plate and put it on top.

Then I grabbed the Mango Salsa I made last night and added it to the top.  The Mango Salsa was the dressing.  I added nothing else except my fork.

That’s it. Eat up! I’m still shoveling it in as fast as I can as I type this.  It is WONDERFUL!

Garden Fresh

Fabu Fairy Garden

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All moved in!

Hello Hoecakes.  Heatheroo here AGAIN with a guest entry . . . my sister says it’s a lot quicker to do flower arrangements than to sew an entire quilt, so I am gladly filling in a little while she thinks up some crazy quilt idea.

Today I put together my first Fairy Garden. Like a little dollhouse except . . .outside.  My garden is located under the porch where it gets very little light so I chose small shade plants. Some angel plants, fuchsia, anything compact… If it outgrows its area, I’ll replace. This is a test run since I’m not a big lover of shade or house plants!!!

~BEFORE~

How cute is that little tea set?

Gnome Sweet Gnome

I would love to see your fairy garden! Submit your pics to hoecakesandhemlines@yahoo.com!!!

My Garden 2012

I put so much of myself into my gardens each spring and I get such a pay off!  All the beautiful photos I am going to share with you will be in future posts of recipes.  You can think of it as a preview of sorts!

Before you see the pics, please keep in mind my gardens are organic.  You’ll probably see leaves that have been munched on. It happens.  I can’t help that my garden tastes so good!

Herb Garden

I’ve got mint, thyme, rosemary, oregano, and sage for herbs.  I’ve also planted blackberries and blueberries.  In a separate area I have Thai basil.  It took over my herb garden last year earning it a place of its own in a pot. (I have control issues… lol)

Vegetable garden

In my vegetable garden I have planted cayenne peppers, jalapeno peppers, kale, swiss chard, spinach, collard greens, radishes, okra, lima beans, zucchini, and acorn squash.  I have used every bit of space available in my vegetable garden to get all that in a 10×3 space. Sometimes I wish we lived in the country so I could have a huge garden and didn’t have to decide what to plant each year.  I could plant everything I wanted every year.  Alas, I love the city life too much.  Well really I love the short drive to work and all the conveniences of city life.

So you should see posts on all the goodies I have growing soon!

Sesame Spinach From Garden to Plate

We raided the garden and came up with some yummy goodness!  I threw it together making my version of Sesame Spinach (mind you that version changes each time with what ingredients I have on hand)

Ingredients:

Fresh spinach, about 4 cups (I ran a knife through them so they would be bite size)

Radishes (sliced, I used the leaves as well)

Onion (sliced and I used the green tops as well – waste not, want not)

Sesame seeds (toasted)

Coconut oil (a little less than a tablespoon)

Salt and pepper to taste (I used maybe a 1/4 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper)

Directions:

Toast your sesame seeds in a dry pan.  Set them aside once toasted.  I put them on one of the plates I was going to serve dinner on.  No one will know and anyway who wants to wash an extra dish? Not me!

raw sesame seeds

Toasting sesame seeds

Put your coconut oil in the pan to melt (it is solid at room temperature, unless you are in our house in August)

Saute the onions and radish slices for a couple of minutes.

saute onions and radishes

Add the radish leaves and saute them for a minute or two. (long enough for you to run a knife through your spinach a couple of times to make them bite size)

Add radish leaves

Add your spinach and cover.  Let it cook for a couple of minutes.

Add spinach

Once it has wilted to half the volume add the sesame seeds, salt and pepper (or spices of choice).

Add seeds and spices

Cook about two minutes more.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Sesame spinach with leftover baked chicken

You can add garlic if you like.

If you don’t want the sesame seeds, you can add a few drops of sesame oil instead.  You’ll get the flavor and no seeds to pick from your teeth.

You can omit the salt and add soy sauce if you like.  The options are endless…  It is your meal, you can add or leave out whatever you want!