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Archive for the ‘garden’ Category

Summer is just about wrapping up in Portland, and we are still getting tons of tomatoes in our garden! I’ve been roasting and freezing most of them, so we can have good garden tomatoes all winter.

This year I planted several yellow and green varieties, and wanted to use them in a special way. This soup is tangy, sweet, and absolutely delicious – perfect for the first day of Fall!

 

 

Golden cherry tomatoes, green zebras, green cherry tomatoes, and blush tomatoes.

Chop tomatoes roughly.

 

This was about 8 cups of tomatoes. You don’t have to use yellow and green ones if you don’t have any! Red tomatoes would be delicious too.

 

In a medium pot, sauté one large onion (chopped roughly) with a few tablespoons of olive oil on medium-high heat.

 

Add a few cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled.

 

 

Add a few tablespoons of fresh herbs. I had oregano and rosemary on hand; but any combination of thyme, basil, or sage would be great.

 

Let everything cook down for about 15 minutes, or until onions are translucent.

 

Add the tomatoes, and a few teaspoons of kosher salt. Let everything simmer for about 20-30 minutes, or until the tomatoes have cooked down and the liquid is bubbly.

 

Add a quart of chicken broth. If you are a vegetarian, you can use vegetable broth.

 

Once everything is simmering, turn down the heat and use an immersion blender until the soup is smooth.

 

Garnish with a little cooked and chopped bacon.

 

Enjoy!

 

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On Saturday night, Ryan and I had the most wonderful dinner at The Side Yard Farm.

The Side Yard Farm is a small urban farm NE Portland that provides local restaurants with produce. The owner, Stacey Givens, is also an amazing chef, and hosts farm-to-table meals every now and then.

Before dinner, we got to poke around the farm.

It was really fun to see a professional urban farm – definitely inspiring for my own garden.

Hoop house for tomatoes, basil, and peppers.

And of course, chickens.

On to the food! This was a special Bastille Day dinner. 5 courses, with really incredible wine parings. Vive la France!

There was a lovely lavender lemon water on the table while we were getting settled.

Menu printed by Cumbersome Multiples.

French Breakfast Radish, with Nasturtium “Capers” and Butter

Halibut. Shaved Kohlrabi. Lil’ Peas & Carrots. Lemon Verbena Beurre Blanc.

Summer GreensFlowers. Herbs. Plum Vinaigrette.  Soft Sheep Cheese. Farm Egg.

Crispy Pork. Rubystreak Mustard Greens. Pickled Cherries. Tarragon

Salt n’ Pepper French Shortbread. Blueberries. Basil & Chevre Ice Cream (actually instead of shortbread, this is a soft gluten free raspberry cookie, which was amazing! So sweet that they accommodated me)

And the wine!

This was one of the best meals we have had in Portland. Everything was so fresh and bright. I can’t wait to go back!

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weekend

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

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Life via Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ad hoc

While we were in California, we finally got to eat at ad hoc, Thomas Keller’s more casual restaurant. Oh my goodness it as amazing.

My parents were so nice and drove us out to Yountville to meet up with Megan and John. On the way, we had to stop at Dean and Deluca. I can’t believe I’ve never been there before!

So many fancy sodas.

My mom is so wonderful. I miss her!

What a hottie!

We had some time before dinner, so we walked around the garden at the French Laundry. It was such a beautiful day!

 <3 <3

It was a pretty lovely place.

Chicken coop!

On to the food! ad hoc serves a 4 course meal that is different each day. It’s served family style, which was really fun.

Amazing salad with smoked trout, haricots verts, cherry tomatoes, and creamy dill dressing. So good!

Braised pork ribs, apples and mushrooms, and broccolini. This might have been the best pork I have ever had.

Polenta with caramelized shallots. omg.

Cana de oveja – this is a really amazing creamy sheep’s milk cheese. We had a lot of this in Spain.

Served with a cherry and pistachio compote.

And dessert! Delicious little fig financiers .

And amazing hazelnut ice cream.

Best and cutest dinner companions.

Ah I can’t wait to go again someday!

Megan and John drove us to San Francisco, and we checked into the Phoenix Hotel.

We took a huge walk all around Union Square. San Francisco is a really beautiful city. We also walked over to where we had our first kiss (like 8 years ago!).

We stopped into the swanky hotel bar for a drink and a midnight snack before bedtime.

Bourbon and soda. Best.

Absurdly delicious mascarpone truffle dip with house chips.

 

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Dragonfly

Earlier this summer I planted three dill plants, which quickly sprouted up into giant dill bushes. I was thinking about tearing them out, because they were blocking the sun for our pepper plants. They didn’t look very pretty either.

Upon closer inspection I found that the dill plants were attracting tons and tons of ladybugs! The bushes were covered with larvae.

I also spotted a beautiful dragonfly just hanging out in the dill.

So pretty.

Hopefully this means I am closer to having a Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat! A girl can dream, right?

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First tomatoes

We had some HOT weather in Portland this weekend. I am not a hot weather fan, but it does ripen tomatoes, which are my favorite thing to grow and eat.

Today’s garden haul: beets, carrots, bell pepper, onions, tomatoes, eggs.

This is a very large beet. Yum!

And tomatoes!

I am planning to eat these for breakfast.

And our first big tomato of the season!

So lovely.

I got really sweaty in the garden.

Ryan worked on the greenhouse/shed today.

It is looking awesome!

Those windows are from The Rebuilding Center, which is one of the raddest places in Portland.

What a cutie.

So what did I do with those beets and carrots? I roasted most of the beets in the toaster oven (wrapped in foil, 400 degrees for 45 minutes), and will use them on salads for the rest of the week.

Mega beet got peeled and grated in the food processor, along with the carrots, and a few small onions.

I made a simple dressing with red wine vinegar, a few spoonfuls of peach jam, salt, pepper, and some olive oil. The peach jam I made was no-sugar added, and the peaches weren’t very sweet last summer, so the jam is good for savory items like a vinaigrette. This is a super easy and refreshing salad! Perfect for a superhot day! Yay!

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Now that it’s August, the garden looks amazing!

Our tomato plants are doing really well. I think it might be because we tried really hard to attract bees so they could do their pollen magic.

We have red tomatoes!!

Overflowing beds and plenty of squash and tomatillos!

Our front yard garden box is producing tons of zucchini.

Ryan built an amazing new chicken coop/garden shed. It’s not quite finished yet, but the left side will be a greenhouse/shed. Hopefully next year we will be able to start most of our plants from seed.

The other side of the coop.

The chickens love it.

It is so incredibly satisfying to grow our own food. There is nothing new or revolutionary about vegetable gardening or chicken keeping, but I love how it forces us to slow down and connect.

And, of course, the food is delicious.

 

 

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One of the reasons we moved to Portland was to have a big backyard and vegetable garden. In the winter, we planted a few fruit trees (plum and apple), and some blueberry bushes, which have been awesome, and will probably produce a lot more fruit next season.

Ryan spent a lot of time this spring preparing our yard and garden, and we have been enjoying amazing lettuce, kale, carrots, beets, snap peas, herbs, radishes and onions. We were hoping to eat some broccoli and brussel sprouts as well, but the worms and aphids beat us to it.

Before there was a garden, we had a fence put in. This was back in March.

This is what the garden looked in May.

Fence construction and laying down mulch between the beds

In June, we had lots and lots of sugar snap peas.

These were so sweet and delicious. Next year I need to stagger my plants so we don’t have them all at once. Snap peas are so wonderful because just when you are getting tired of lettuce and kale, they plump up and are ready to pick.

In June, our garden was green, busy with ladybugs and bumblebees, and everything was starting to come in. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash.

Carrots, onions, and chives in the front, beets and lettuce in the back.

Tomatillo, snap peas, and tons of tomatoes!

Baby squash, lettuce, and red onions.

Pepper plants (which sadly don’t look that much bigger today).

This has been such an awesome year for learning about the climate here in Oregon and how it impacts our plants. And I love that we have the space for so many beds. I feel very lucky to live here. xo

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roses

I don’t really like roses.  They are beautiful when they bloom, but the rest of the year they are just thorny bushes.

Two weekends ago we demolished most of our backyard. It was out of control. Now it’s a blank canvas, which is almost as daunting as having a jungle out there.

I did save a few rose bushes, including the ones that produced these amazing flowers.

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