Adventures in Gardening: Homemade Red Sauce

Yesterday I made my own sauce. I didn't know what to expect since I'd never done it before, but it was truly simple!

Here are my raw ingredients.

My garden's yield

 
No, I didn't put cucumbers in my sauce... That picture is just what I picked from my garden that day--about 30 tomatoes and two cucumbers! I didn't know how many tomatoes I'd get from four plants... I grew these plants from seeds--heirlooms from my bf's uncle--and they've been quite fruitful (pun intended). :)

(Not pictured: chopped red onion. I bought it pre-chopped because I really dislike cutting onions.)

I chopped and chopped and then simmered my veggies in olive oil.

Then I added the stars of the show: my sweet, sweet tomatoes!

I got all my ingredients mixed together. Looking delicious. And the smell? Oh, it's heavenly.

All the tomatoes cooked down nicely over the course of an hour. 

I thickened it up a little and it was ready to serve.

We ate fresh pasta from Giovanni Rana (our favorite). I have additional fresh pasta to eat with the leftover sauce!

This year's garden is just about kaput, but I'm inspired for next year already!

Garden Update: Tomato Flowers and Popeye's Spinach

I have lots more now, but here's the first!

Everything in my garden I have grown from seeds. I'm really proud of my plants. They're strong and they are just about as big as plants I've seen that other people have purchased, so I feel good about their age and maturity too.

Late last week, in between rainstorms, I was pruning tomatoes when I saw some fully opened tomato flowers!

After a few more days of rain, I decided it was time to pick some spinach. My plants took awhile longer to mature, but I think I let the biggest leaves get a little too big... they were as big as my palm!

Nevertheless, the spinach would've made Popeye proud and it was the first yield from my garden this year. I happily made a salad with it and enjoyed each scrumptious bite.

Note varying sizes in spinach leaves. :-o

Summer Garden Progress!

My whole garden!

It's tough to get a garden up to speed with wishy-washy weather and frost lasting through the first week of June, but, at last, summer is here and my garden is thriving!

My meager beginnings indoors with grow lamps and seed pods have led to healthy seedlings and, now, healthy vegetable plants and flowers. This is my favorite time because I get to care for the plants until they burst into color with fruit and flowers.

Last year I didn't really know what I was doing. I bought some seeds and dirt and hoped for the best. The funniest thing that happened was that my labels washed away... I didn't know what any of my seedlings were! I called it my secret garden because I really didn't know what was what...

Makeshift set up

I've come a long way this year. In February I took a short course with a local non-profit, Grow Pittsburgh, to learn some gardening basics. I was more excited than ever to have a garden after that class. Spring couldn't come soon enough!

I planted my original seedlings in April. I didn't have much success, unfortunately. I think the location in my house was too dry and that I used poor soil. So I started a second batch later on. These were much more successful.

Meager beginnings

I've still had attrition, even while hardening off the seedlings... which was sad because so many of them were doing well! But it happens. Not all seedlings are strong enough. It's a really brutal version of evolution's favorite game, Survival of the Fittest.

I know I didn't do everything perfectly. I definitely fried a few seedlings accidentally. :( I also got carried away with potting things as an in-between stage before planting them because the frost here didn't stop until early June. So some plants probably died just from the trauma of moving them too much. My fault. Ah, living and learning, again.

Nevertheless, I have some really beautiful plants right now. The garden itself looks marvelous. The individual plants are making me really excited about what produce I'll get this summer. Here are some more photos...

Itty bitty cucumber plants 

Broccoli... maybe. If it doesn't bolt. Again.

A forest of heirloom tomato plants!

Spinach! Popeye would be proud.

Spring sprouts!

SPROUTS!

I started some seeds for my spring garden crops last weekend and--lo! and behold!--midweek I had some sprouts!

Plastic greenhouse with grow light
and water spray bottle near my
heating vent. This is gardening, folks.

My setup isn't ideal, but I'm doing my best. I used the little plastic greenhouse tray I kept from last year's "Secret Garden" mishap and decided to leave the lid on only until I got my first sprouts. Last year I ended up with mold and sick seedlings to boot... No one really mentions that on the greenhouse packaging. They just say to keep the seedlings warm and moist... but that *duh* equals mold. No more mold for my seedlings! I have the tray on top of a towel on the ground near a heating vent in my house. (My house is old and doesn't warm up really well... so I wanted to keep the plants warm.) I bought a fluorescent "grow light" to give my plants some faux sun since Pittsburgh is anything but sunny right now... not that I have decently sunny windows anyway. Three-quarters of my house is surrounded with porches, which keeps the house cool all year (whether I want it to be cool or not).

I learned a LOT from my garden last year, and I'm taking a new approach to gardening thanks to the stellar class I took through Grow Pittsburgh. (Best $60 I ever spent!) I grew several flowers and vegetables from seeds last year, but I'm going to try to grow all my crops from seeds this year--vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

So far I've started the following seeds:

• lettuce (sprouted)
• broccoli (sprouted)
• lavender (some sprouted)
• Shasta daisies
• lemon balm

I need to get my spinach seeds SOON so I have those seedlings ready to plant when the rest of these seedlings are ready at the end of April/beginning of May. The rest of my spring crops I plan to plant by direct seeding (seeds in the ground, not started indoors for transplanting). But, naturally, I will need to wait for the weather to cooperate for most of those to even have a chance at survival.

This year's garden is off to a great start!

Look at those happy little sprouts. :)

Where I've been, what I'm doing

Oh my goodness, dear readers, I have not forsaken thee. I apologize, blog, that you have gone a full week without an update. For shame!

Working several part-time and freelance gigs is exhausting. Ensuring I have some income, the bills are paid, the dog is cared for, and all the other nuances of life seem more complicated when I'm not going to ONE workplace for a set period of time... and getting a paycheck directly deposited into my account. Invoicing is another element that freelancers don't get paid for that, alas, must be done!

What has happened in the meantime?

I'm excited about the possibilities in store, even if none of them include a full-time job... yet. I'm working hard at accepting what I have, enjoying each day, figuring out what I really want, and pursuing only what I truly desire. That in itself takes more energy than I have on most days, but the allocation of my talent is my own responsibility and if I waste my time and energy doing things I don't like or wishing for things I don't work for, then I deserve what I get. I want to deserve what I get and earn it in the sense that I brush hands with others trying to earn it.

So here's the past week...

I've started kicking my own butt to get to my running group. Tuesday evenings at the track or designated hill (for the beloved hill repeats) are now a must. I have directed my boyfriend to demand that I go when I waver (because goodness knows that I always feel better after I go).

My eyes are closed, but I think I look pretty darn good for
having run seven miles then climbed 45 floors!

Last Saturday I also made it to the group run downtown. It's kind of an expensive long run for me if I don't have other plans in the city before/after it (it's 20 miles there, 20 back), but I went. I ran about seven miles.

After the run, I did the Fight for Air stair climb downtown. Holy moly, stair climbing is a horse of a different color when it comes to exercise... I definitely don't consider myself a stair athlete!

Last week I completed my first set of fifteen freelance articles for a new client. It was a little tough to complete them so quickly without being repetitive, but I did my very best and they were pleased. :)

In the past few days, I've made a few strategic purchases, both of which I will be reviewing in the next few months. Because I have been tutoring a Korean woman for almost a year now and she recently asked me to begin working with her very young daughter, I decided to get Rosetta Stone in Korean. I have some reservations about the program, considering that my background is in language teaching and I have some strong opinions on how people learn language (otherwise how could I teach?!); however, I decided that with the program's guarantee and my current available time that I had nothing to lose.

I also purchased a full month of the Arbonne Fit Kit detox from Becki at Fighting for Wellness. The kit includes protein shake mixes, chews, drink mixes, and a few other items, which accompany an altered diet in order to help the user determine what foods or food entities might be causing distress. I've had issues with food for quite a while now and I'm at a loss for what else to try. I feel uncomfortable no matter what I eat and I don't seem to have enough energy. I decided that I would try the Arbonne detox to try to narrow down some of my issues. Nonetheless, since my half marathon is coming up in just five weeks, I will wait until after the race to begin the detox. I don't want to change anything right now; it's too close to the race. Even if it's for the better, it could affect my running and I might not recuperate properly.

Finally, I started some seeds for my garden! I don't have all the seeds I want yet, so I don't have a full set. I do, however, have lettuce, lavender, lemon balm, shasta daisies, and broccoli planted in my spare room under a grow lamp. Hooray!

Adventures in nutrition: Spinach smoothies 101

I told a few friends on Facebook that I was blending spinach into my smoothies, and they wanted details... So here we are! Details!

My stomach is yelling at me for a bad lunch choice, so I'm not running tonight... Instead, I'll blog one of my favorite spinach drinks for you. :)

My very best friend bought me the little blender you see pictured below for Christmas. The cup disconnects from the blender base and is a handy travel mug of sorts, even though it has yet to venture much farther than my living room... It's small, easy to clean, and blends up a storm when I command it. I've been able to crush ice, frozen fruits and veggies, and every other softer entity (yogurt, fruits, etc.), so it's really a great little addition to my kitchen. It's certainly prompted me to be more creative... because until a few months ago I definitely wouldn't have considered drinking spinach.

Begin with a clean blender and all of your supplies!

I start with about 1/4 cup of water in the blender with any drink. Otherwise things tend to get stuck down by the blades and don't move.

I bought a gigantic bag of spinach and I've only eaten it in liquid form... :) What's nice about that is if the spinach gets a little limp, it doesn't matter at all. If it's clean and edible, it blends.

It's quite reasonable to ask "How much?" when puréeing spinach the first time.


I had no clue. I just grabbed some and pushed it into the cup.

I've found that roughly 3/4 cup (or one hearty fistful) works really well in this size blender. If your blender is larger and you want to blend more, I say go for it! My blender cup measures up to 14 oz. on the side... but clearly there is room to go well over that. I could probably jam more spinach in there... But I'll leave that for another day.

Today's smoothie was made with the fistful of spinach in the photo on the left. (Also, enjoy my snazzy nail polish. Haha!)

Again, to help with visuals, here (to the left) is that spinach, along with the water, in my blender.

And here (to the right) is what that looks like all blended up!

Not really appetizing, I know. But it will be!

For today's smoothie, I'm putting a too-ripe banana to use. I am one of those folks who prefers her bananas to have some green on the peel... If it gets too ripe, I can't eat it straight. It's a compulsion. I have to find something else to do with it. Banana split, on cereal, in yogurt, or in a smoothie.

When I add fruit to my smoothie, I do it in chunks. For the banana, I added half first, blended, then added the other half. In between, I added a little splash of orange juice. Why? I like orange juice.

Personally, I like to add my *taste* fruit/veg (the things I want to *taste* over the spinach and other base ingredients) before I add yogurt, ice, or anything else to thicken the mix. That way, I can see the consistency and freestyle a little more or less, depending on the circumstances.

Okay, so this probably sounds too complex for a smoothie, but bear with me. It's for your good! (No, seriously... it is. These smoothies are good for you!)

Next up is yogurt! Today I have low-fat vanilla yogurt. (I bought this at Aldi's. For those of you who shop there and aren't sure about their yogurt: both plain and vanilla are delicious and worth the bargain price.)

I always freestyle this part, sooo if I had to estimate how much I use, I would say about 1/4 cup of yogurt. This changes if you're using ice, though; I would most likely swap out the ice for the yogurt, to be honest. I don't like to pack the darn thing too tight... I'm not adding ice today.

But I AM adding chia seeds! These are so small you barely notice them (like blending flaxseed, which I also use from time to time), but they add so much nutrition and you don't really need to use a lot! (If you're still stuck on Chia Pets, read this.)

Seriously, I paid like $8 for this bag of seeds (photo to the right; Bob's Red Mill) and for the amount of nutrition I get from each 1-2 tablespoons I add to my smoothies, it's like I bought a bag of gold!

Okay, so everything is all blended together! Voilà: spinach smoothie.

1/4 cup water
3/4 cup spinach
1 banana (blended in two halves)
1 splash (ha!) orange juice
1/4 cup yogurt
2 tablespoons chia seeds

Does it taste like spinach? No. It tastes like banana. :)

Last week, I made one with frozen strawberries. It was green and tasted like strawberries. It screws with your head a little--it's like ordering a Sprite and when you take a sip it's just the seltzer water. It catches you off guard at first... But it is delicious. I promise you won't regret blending your spinach!

I have a difficult time with food sometimes, like not having an appetite, which I am working on (especially since I need to fuel properly in order to run; I did see a dietician a few weeks ago). But getting things into a drinkable form makes food seem more do-able sometimes. Actually, usually once I blend up some veggies and drink it down, I want something else... so it helps me in a couple of ways, I think. :)

Have you tried blending anything that's a little unorthodox? Spinach? Other veggies? Tell me!

From seeds: sunflowers

I have a real sense of pride when I look at my sunflower. It was one of the first plants to differentiate itself among my seedlings that, ahem, were unlabeled, so I knew a little more about what to expect in terms of development. I knew I wouldn't get a flower head until it was pretty tall. This one is about four and a half feet tall. Because I have a raised bed for my garden, this put the flower at nearly eye level for six foot tall Karissa!

The bumble bees in my yard have kept busy in this one flower. Every day I see at least two bees in there covering themselves in pollen. I snapped a picture just the other day, even though the flower head itself is a little worse for the wear at this stage (petals are falling off, the seeds in the center are being pecked away). 

I'm excited to see how my other sunflowers turn out. I have another stalk with at least three flower heads on it. I think it's a different variety of the flower. (I used seeds from a variety pack, adding more suspense to the "secret garden.")

Knowing my success with sunflowers this year makes me want to plant a bunch of them next year. Perhaps the wall along the back of my house, facing sunrise, would do well lined with these beauties.

Pride in zinnias

When I decided to plant seeds this year, I didn't really have a plan. I never tried growing anything from a seed...

My little labels got rubbed off in my mini greenhouse early on, prompting me to regard my experiment as "The Secret Garden," since I had no idea what anything was. All the seedlings looked alike and until they grew and had differentiating characteristics, I couldn't tell a cucumber from a sunflower.

The last plant to really give me clues to its identity was the zinnia. I didn't have much experience with zinnias anyway, so identifying one in its infancy was not happening.

But now they're in full bloom and they're the visual pride of my garden. The colors and sizes thrill me, and they're attracting the bees too! (My cucumbers hadn't been producing any fruit and I was worried, but I think the zinnias drew the bees towards my cucumbers because now I have a plethora of cucumbers-in-progress!.)