Transplanted volunteers waiting for their “forever home.”

Earlier this spring I wrote about a random plant making an appearance. After weeding the rest of the bed, I dug out these two seedlings and put them in small containers left over from vegetable transplants we usually buy at the garden center.

I suspect one is squash because it sprouted where we had a zucchini or yellow squash plant last year. The other was closer to the trellis, so my best guess is that it’s a cucumber.

We’re going to let them grow a little more and get sturdier before putting them in a larger pot. It’d be great if these volunteers actually turn into viable plants. If nothing else, it will save us a few bucks this season.

Prep-time: 20 min.

Cook time: 8 hours 10 min.

Nutrition Information:

• 423 calories
• 2 g fat (0.3 saturated)
• 84 g carbs
• 16 g protein
• 15 g fiber
• 475 mg sodium

Ingredients:

• non-stick cooking spray
• 3 TBSP tomato paste
• 2 TBSP balsamic vinegar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 TBSP chopped sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 can diced tomatoes (28 oz)
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, died
• 1 small zucchini, cut into ½” pieces
• 1 medium yellow squash, cut into ½” pieces
• 1 small eggplant, pealed & cut into ½” pieces
• 1 can low-sodium chickpeas (15 oz). drained and rinsed
• 1¼ cups water
• 1 cup couscous

Directions:

1. Coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray
2. Combine tomato paste and vinegar in cooker
3. Add garlic, basil, thyme, sun-dried tomatoes, onion, diced tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, zucchini, squash, eggplant, & chickpeas
4. Cook on low for 8 hours
5. Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan
6. Add coucous, stir, cover, & remove from heat
7. Let stand 10 min or until water is absorbed
8. Fluff with a fork
9. Serve ratatouille over couscous

Recipe from Fitness Magazine

Photo credit: http://www.familycircle.com/recipes/healthy-eating/family-dinners/vegetable-dinners/?page=5

Squash online

Tillagning
Blanda ägg & äggulor med dragon, salt & peppar,fond & Sambal Oelek. Arbeta ihop köttet med äggröran, forma en limpa och grädda i ugnen 20 min på 200 grader. Skölj & hacka champinjonerna, smörstek med lite salt & peppar. Låt stekas under medelvärme ca 7 min, slå över en skvätt sherry låt koka bort. Slå på grädde en bit i taget så den blir tjock & krämig. Servera tillsammans med zucchini pasta.

I first heard about Dinner Lab from my friend Jen (who by the way has now bought a shaker for her apartment) who got wind of it from living in New Orleans.  I took barely a glance and their website before I was PayPal-ing the $100 annual membership fee and had signed up for the inaugural dinner.  The theme was “North Korean” with food by Chef Jae Jung who currently cooks in New Orelans.  The location of dinner wasn’t released until the night before the event and as my friend Kelly and I pulled up to the specified address we were a little confused:  Delta Lumber Millworks, a wood shop and lumber mill on East 5th Street.

CLICK AND MAKE THIS LARGER

As we walked through the front offices and back into the warehouse, we followed strung-up twinkle lights to three long set tables, a makeshift bar and three folding tables set up for the make-shift kitchen.  Music was playing from someone’s iPhone plugged into a portable speaker, the garage doors flanking the back of the building were opened and the drinks were flowing.

The “kitchen”

Chef Jung was introduced and she talked a little of her personal history growing up in Korea and the differences in Korean cooking between regions, then the dishes started coming out one by one.  They were very well-timed, the staff was all extremely attentive without being intrusive or annoying and I give props to whoever made the playlist because it crushed.  Here’s the menu:

Goolin Mandoo (Pyongan Province):  pork dumpling, beef consomme and caramelized spring onion
Goosoo Muchim (Pyongyang City):  cilantro and watercress salad, walnut, sesame vinegarette
DMZ Kimchi Trio:  North Korean style, South Korean style, mustard green kimchi; brisket, tofu, and sweet potato
Hyeju Bibimbap (Hwanghae-namdo Province):  seven grain rice bowl with duck breast, bean sprouts, summer squash, rehydrated pyo go mushroom, bok choy, mushroom cured egg yolk, spring onion emulsion
Hotteok:  cinnamon-laced pan-fried pastry with green tea caramel, black pepper creme fraiche and Korean chili paste paired with cinnamon punch

I loved every single dish, and really the only qualm I had was that since everything was prepped prior to dinner, the Hotteok was fried prematurely and was a little chewy by the time it got to us, but that black pepper creme fraiche was ridiculously good so I didn’t care.  I can’t say the same for the woman sitting next to me… pretentious foodies!  Each dish was well-conceived and had great balance.  None felt too heavy and I couldn’t get enough of the mushroom cured egg yolk.  It had the consistency of a gel (so sort of medium boiled?) and had such great flavor.

Overall it was one of the most amazing dining experiences of my life.  The atmosphere, the mystery of where the dinner will take place, the creativity in the dishes, the unlimited drinks, plus it all feels like some awesome underground club that I barely want to share on here because it’s kind of an awesome secret.  Plus, it’s affordable:  tickets were $50/each, with all drinks/food/gratuity included, which is less than I spend at a lot of amazing restaurants here in Austin.  And it gives unrecognized chefs a chance to shine at whatever type of cuisine they want, not necessarily what they cook at their respective restaurants.  There was just this energy in the room the entire night that made you SO excited about killer food and good company.  I left feeling full and so so happy.  Tickets have been bought for next Saturday’s event “The Duck”.  Stay tuned.

I’m only bringing this up since I’m using them in food today. The common green zucchini and the slightly less common golden zucchini. Both were bought fairly cheap and then sort of forgotten in the fridge. Since it’s very unnecessary to let food go bad I needed to make use of them quickly and decided on a Spanish tortilla-like apparition, but with zucchini instead of potatoes.

Grated zucchinis in a pan, with some oil and salt. A chopped onion was added some time later. Since zucchini is mostly water, it tends to get soggy with cooking, and unless some of the moisture is removed, that sogginess is democratically spread through the whole dish. Leave them in the pan for quite some time to get a proper sear and allow some water to steam away.

Once that was done I added some seasoning (white pepper, garlic, chili flakes, thyme) and then four lightly beaten eggs and a cup of grated Raclette cheese that happened to be lying around (and at least texture-wise, it’s not entirely unlike the Spanish Manchego). Once that’s taken care of one can choose either to fry fairly quick and flip the whole thing over, or fry it on lower heat and on only one side.

I decided on a one-sided fry and then a bit of salad.

Why can’t I believe it? A few reasons. One is because I have a black thumb and always have. Another reason is because I’m lazy, lazy, LAZY. The few times I’ve ever worked in a garden I lasted all of 15 minutes before succumbing to sun/heat stroke and a hurt back from being bent over. The last, and most important, is that I have absolutely NO idea what I’m doing.

But whatever, I got the bug up my ass one weekend and stopped in at the local garden center (one of them anyways, I don’t really have a preference) and picked up seeds for lettuce, tomatoes, squash, bell peppers and strawberries. As of today, everything but the peppers and strawberries have started sprouting. Here’s my little garden!

It’s hard to see exactly what’s going on here but it doesn’t matter because by next Sunday (fingers crossed) almost all of my little sprouts will be moved to bigger, more permanent pots. I am a little disappointed about the peppers and strawberries but I’m not giving up! I’ll keep watering them and making sure they’re getting the light they need until the snow starts falling again.

Oh, and I’m quite partial to the lettuce as it seems to have been named after my grandfather…

Tennis legends Andre Agassi, Kim Clijsters and Stefan Edberg have followed in the footsteps of fellow legend Roger Federer by backing Squash to be added to the Olympic Games programme in 2020.

“Squash is absolutely one of the best and toughest sports,” said Agassi, the eight-time Grand Slam champion who tasted Olympic glory by winning gold in the men’s singles in 1996. “The Games would be proud!”

Federer was one of the first leading tennis players to pledge support for his fellow racket sport: “I think it’s a wonderful sport. It’s unfortunate some sports don’t get the opportunity to be in the Olympics – I think squash would deserve it.”

Since then, fellow tennis greats Agassi, Clijsters and Edberg have also given their backing to squash.

“I think Squash would be a great addition to the Olympic Games,” said Clijsters, a true great of the women’s game who won 41 WTA singles titles including four Grand Slams. “It’s a great competitive game and different from the other racket sports in not having a net dividing the players.

“It shows great intensity. With the modernisation of the game I think it deserves a place in the Olympic Games.”

Edberg first started playing squash when he was on the ATP Tour and used to play in the top Swedish league: “Squash has all the credentials to be an Olympic sport – it would complement the other racket sports that are already part of the programme and it would be great to see it included in the Games,” said the former world number one who won six grand slam titles and Olympic bronze in 1988.

World Squash Federation President N Ramachandran is delighted by the growing list of world top athletes who are backing the sport’s bid for inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games programme.

“It is heart-warming to have tennis idols like Agassi, Federer, Edberg and Clijsters supporting squash’s campaign – and equally gratifying to see top athletes from sports like rugby, cricket, football, cycling, badminton, weightlifting, diving and shooting rallying to our cause.”

Squash will shoot it out with baseball/softball, karate, wakeboarding, climbing, wushu and roller sports for a chance to replace wrestling in the Olympic programme from 2020 onwards. The IOC will make their final decision at a meeting in Buenos Aires in September.

Squash certainly has the credentials of being an established, ‘proper’ sport but does it have a sufficient global appeal and a young enough fan base to please the IOC? Only time will tell.

Of the seedlings planted a week or so ago (guess its like 10 days), the Siberian tomato are really starting to take off.  others are going slower, as it takes several days for them to get their roots settled before the plants grow. 

of my spaghetti squash seedlings, 3 of the 5 have died and the other two look peaked. First year I’ve not grown my own starts on this. will pick up some when out and about today.  The Delicata squash seedlings are not doing well, but are growing slowly.  we’re not big winter squash eaters, although would like to change that, so its not a big deal. 

on the other side of the garden path, we’ve been eating chard like mad and the lettuce is starting to bolt, so more salads are in order.  the plants in the shade are growing slowly, but growing, so in a month or so, there will still be fresh lettuce to be had.  The first of the Broccoli Raab is ready to be picked.  Spinach is slow as always.  this may be my last year for growing the stuff, although its likely I’ll keep going until I’ve used up my seeds.  Just not worth it when chard kale and raab grow so well.  maybe I’ll over winter it like I did with the chard and lettuce and see how that goes.

and will have to get the sun shade up soon. 

Karate’s bid to join the sports programme for the 2020 Olympic Games has been boosted by figures showing that the Official World Karate Federation (WKF) YouTube Channel has received nearly two million visits.

Karate is currently bidding against diverse disciplines such as baseball/softball, climbing, karate, roller sport, squash, wakeboard, wrestling and wushu for a spot on the programme at the 2020 Olympics.

The eight sports will present their cases for inclusion to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board on the first day of their meeting in St Petersburg on May 29 before the eight names are trimmed down to possibly just three sports.

The lucky contenders that remain on the shortlist will then go through to the full IOC vote at the Session in Buenos Aires in September.

Karate will now be increasingly confident of making it through to the vote in Buenos Aires with latest figures showing that the Official WKF YouTube Channel has 1,714,658 views and 11,419 subscribers.

Around 80 per cent of the viewership was men and 20 per cent women, with the majority of hits coming from Italy, the United States and Brazil.

“We are facing an amazing media phenomenon that helps to motivate karate all over the world,” said a WKF statement.

“This is especially the case amongst young people with new technologies such as YouTube.”

The announcement comes with over 19,000 people having backed karate’s 2020 Olympic bid on Facebook on their “The K is on the Way” page.

An analysis of Facebook users has shown that 73.5 per cent of karate followers are aged below 35 years-old.

“These findings indicate how many young adults have embraced karate,” added the WKF.

 These sorts of statistics and demographics will certainly impress the IOC in their deliberations. The desire to attract a younger audience is largely what drove the inclusion of BMX in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

With there already being two martial arts disciplines in the Olympic programme, there are probably many people who wonder if there is any room for karate alongside tae kwon do and judo, but there are few different equestrian disciplines and plenty of forms of cycling so the WKF will be hoping the IOC can squeeze their sport into the programme.

There is certainly plenty of lobbying to be done by all of the candidate sports before that initial vote before the end of the month. Anyone who does not impress will be booted out promptly!

Every tuesday, I go to Muthaiga country club to play with the coach for about 45 minutes, and when you consider how intensive squash is, that is alot of time.

If I would play twice, on sundays i would go to Parklands and play there with a group of similarly aged kids, and sometimes i would get coached by Prince.

My aim was to improve my fitness, and I believe that I have succeeded in doing that because my fitness has improved drastically over the past year.

Well, unfortunately, with all this training, I’ve neglected my squash game. And I’m currently staring relegation from my league, in the face!

Time to get back in the game, starting tonight. I lost my last game to tonight’s opponent, so not only have I got the need to win to stave off certain death relegation as incentive, I’ve also got revenge on my mind.

Not sponsored me for the Ultra? Why not click here to donate to Alzheimer Scotland.

Men should be dirty, sweaty, and in general should have a few calluses on our hands. I am not going to judge you if you like to smell good, or have well-tended to nail beds, or even if you shower more than once a week. The point here is that Men to Manly stuff like plant gardens in our backyards or in a whiskey barrel or in a nice little hanging basket arrangement outside their apartment window.

Men were meant to work the land and make it do what we want it to do. That’s why we build bridges, and dams, and roads through mountains instead of over or around them. The land should do what Man wants and planting a garden is no different.

I am not here to give you a set by step process on how to grow your own vegetables. What I am going to tell you is that it might be the most Manly thing you can do for your family. It’s also a nice way to save money, bond with the kids, enjoy the sunshine and learn a few things along the way.

This will be the first year I am growing vegetables in our garden at home. I have been fortunate in my younger years to have helped my father and grandfather tend to their gardens. So this year I finally had the chance to clean up the garden space we had and really give it a go.

I know a few things about plants. I worked at Home Depot for a couple of years in their garden section. I learned about flowers, trees, and vegetables both through training and word of mouth. Our regular customers were always willing to share some stories and advice on the best ways to do anything. There were all types of gardeners that walked those isles. Hippie Organic Farmers, Old Crusty Throwback Farmers, First Time Farmers, New Age Farmers, and a few Salt of the Earth Farmers.

I was in college when I first started working at Home Depot. It was a different time then. I will never forget some of the people I worked with over the summers. We would solve disagreements behind the store with boxing gloves, we would hop on forklifts at 4am after a long night out on the town and we would hit on all the new cashiers before they learned who we were from the older cashiers.

In college I decided to use my new found knowledge to grow a few plants in my dorm room. First it started out with a fern here or there. Then I moved on to a couple of succulents on the window sill. Then I had the genius idea to grow my own pot plant. I will not expand on this any further except to say that, I was very, very successful, even if it did get me thrown out of the dorms for the remainder of my college career.

So back to gardening, here is my garden in picture form:

Eggplant, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, and Cucumbers to the left.

Green Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers, and Green Onions.

Already home to Carrots; three types of Tomatoes will be added shortly.

Fencing has been added since these pictures to keep the critters and the dogs out.

I live in Pennsylvania so my choices of vegetables must fit my climate. All of the vegetables fit perfectly in to my Paleo eating lifestyle, all can be added to a salad or a meal or eaten raw.

As I was tilling the earth, digging holes, pulling weeds, and working out in the sun I thought back to the times I would bring my plastic rake out with my dad and he would let me putz around in the garden with him. He would point out bugs and snakes and weeds to me. We would get dirty and rinse off with the garden hose and we would water the plants every day. I began to feel a oneness with the earth that only Men that work the soil can really feel.

So get out there, get dirty, and grow some food for yourself and your family. That is what Men were meant to do.

Also, I KNOW you’d rather finally see what became of my bathroom floor, and I PROMISE to put up and update about that soon, but this weekend was so awesome, I must talk about other things first.

We did EVERYTHING this weekend. (And I’m so happy about it, I’m full of capital letters. Sorry about that.) Mostly outside things. For example:

I cleaned all the leaves out of my garden boxes and the side planter.

I then put up sticks for my optimistically-planted peas to grow on, planted pumpkin, butternut squash, and zucchini seeds, and optimistically transplanted two tomatoes and two kales.

Because planting things is tantamount to putting up “Deer Buffet Now Open” sign, I also netted all my garden beds.

Some of them came out looking classier than others. :p

I planted two big pots with potatoes in the bottom.

The internets say that if I do this, I will have a billion pounds of potatoes by Fall. My optimism theme continues!

Also, this year I shall have an herb pot.

For the moment, it has a rosemary plant and basil seeds. I think I will also add oregano and thyme.

The basement plants came out of hiding.

Maybe a 90-degree day wasn’t the right time to do this. They’re looking a little shocked, but I think they’ll recover.

Now look! My tulip pot.

I love my tulips so much.

I planted many things during our first full summer here (in 2011). This year, for the first time, they are flowering!

Hyacynth!

Daffodil! (Yeah, still a little pitiful… And this is the ONLY one that bloomed. Next year…)

And my lilac! Well… it hasn’t bloomed yet, but if you look at the picture really closely, you can see the buds. (Lilacs only bloom on three-year-old branches. I whacked ALL the branches off this one in 2011.)

And… oh bugger. These are not the flowers I was looking for. (Shortly after taking this picture, there might have been a dandelion massacre.)

(Yes, I know picking them doesn’t actually help, but at least it keeps them from going to seed.)

Tada! This quite-boring picture of my house is what my house looks like, all ready for summer. 

Inside, Dustin was working on building a window seat for outside the kitchen.

It will hide the cat box. Handy!

Gratuitous cat-shot.

And here’s what we DIDN’T do with our weekend.

To be clear, all that laundry is clean. It’s just been a long time since folding things seemed like a very serious priority.

Now back to your regularly scheduled day. A tile update will be forthcoming.

My regular readers will understand that I’M SO EXCITED I CAN HARDLY STAND IT because they know I’ve been trying to grow these little squash-like buggers for a long time. You can read about the experiences here, here, and here. Not to mention here. This year I’m trying to grow them in a vegetable container outside my back door. So far so good!

Now I’m going to be a nervous wreck until they get bigger!

This is terribly exciting news.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled life.

If you have a mandolin for slicing it really comes in handy here. It will slice the potato thin and very evenly. I have a plastic one that sits in my lower cupboard unused most of the year so I’m happy when I can put it to work (and feel mildly smug that it did not succumb to an anti-clutter campaign.)

• 4 cups pureed butternut squash
• 1 medium potato, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 chopped onion, medium
• 1 tsp salt
• dash of cayenne
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup greek yogurt, plain
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• chopped walnuts for topping
• salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet, add the onion and sauté on low for about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper and saute until soft, about 5 more minutes. Add garlic and cayenne, saute for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Place the pureed squash in a large bowl. Add the saute, the yogurt and the feta. Mix well.

 Lay the sliced potatoes on the bottom of a 9” square baking dish. Pour the squash mix over. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Bake uncovered 25-30 minutes until bubbly.

The great thing about this is that I'd cooked the pork about a month ago. I'd slow roasted a pork leg and there was loads left over, so I shredded it it into a pan and threw in a jar of the pork fat that I had been collecting from this and other similar pork roasts. When nicely mixed I poured it into another (bigger) jar, added a bit more fat to make sure it was covered, then sealed the lid and left in the fridge for a month or two until the great day arrived…

When it did I cooked up some beans (see my citrusy black beans below for an example – though here I had some pinto beans in there too), made some chilli sauce (see DANGER! Sauce below) and some Fresh Salsa (again below) and some apple sauce (simply apples peeled and dissolved in a tablespoon our so of water over a low heat); and roasted some squash (chop it quite small for tacos). I scooped the pork out of the jar and put over a low heat until hot through, then drained out as much of the fat as poss. Made some tacos, pulled out some creme fraiche, and enjoyed all those flavours…

Deciding which seedlings would live and which would not was difficult.  As the proud poppa, they all look beautiful to me!  I tried not to dwell on it, however, and made the decisions quickly.  I gave preference to the two types of cherry tomato (which should be easier for part-time gardeners to grow) and was prejudiced against the Brandywines, both red and yellow (which I understand are the most difficult).  When I was done, the compost pile (well, at the moment it’s a refuse heap) got the addition of some very nice organic matter.

While I was at work, everybody, whether in a seed tray or small pot, joined me outdoors for a first day of hardening off.  Before starting the potting up operation, I moved all of the seedlings to the back porch where they could enjoy some indirect sunlight (the porch is covered by the dining room) and gentle breezes (a stone wall moderates the gusts of wind that can reach the porch).  After finishing the transplanting—which took just over an hour—I returned the seedlings to their cozy indoor nursery.

Tomorrow, they will come out again, and the visits will continue over the next two weeks.  Some time next week, or maybe the week after, the seedlings will spend some time in direct sunlight in preparation for transplanting to the raised beds.  My plan is to get everything in the ground over the Memorial Day weekend.

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