Ginger Fancy...

Cooking from the garden has proven such a delight for me this year. Finding new and exciting ways to cook dishes that, perhaps, have become a little worn-out or contains ingredients we no longer consume. It has been more than a year since I took our family off beef and there are just a few recipes I really miss, my ginger beef was one of them. Deciding not to give it up completely, I just changed the beef out for chicken. The flavor was not lacking in any way, and I felt good about feeding it to my children. The cilantro, green onions and zucchini were all picked by the kids...which I believe is a great tool in teaching our children the ways around a garden. Getting them involved in every step is important.

The zucchini sticks are simple. Just cut the zucchini into sticks, egg wash with egg-whites and then dredge in breadcrumbs. I like to add freshly grated parmesan to my breadcrumbs. Next, just drop into the skillet with some hot oil, and turn often.

Ginger Chicken...
Combine:
*1/4 cup sesame oil
*1/4 cup soy sauce
*2 cloves crushed garlic
*2 tbs grated ginger
*1 tbs lemon juice
*about 2 tbs chopped green onions
*1/4 cup brown sugar.

Add your 1 lb of chicken tenders and coat well with above marinade. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Add a bit of oil to your wok or iron skillet and cook. We like this dish over rice and with a bit of cilantro...which gives it a nice ending punch.

I always add more garlic, ginger and green onions then the recipe calls for and never cook just one pound of chicken. This is also a great camping meal. Just prepare as above without cooking and store in whichever Ziploc/storing system you prefer. Boiling water for rice and heating up the iron skillet is 'nothin but a thang' on the first night of camp. Oh...and it tastes sooo yummy up in the mountains...

My next change-up in this recipe...switching the chicken out for tofu.

Up Goes the Castle...

Roxie here, practicing her deep breathing with Bert and Ernie's Greatest Hits, Up goes the Castle. Ernie sings... "You breathe in...up goes the castle...you breathe out...the castle goes down...breathe in...high on a mountain top...breathe out...low in the town."

What a great way to teach our children -and ourselves- the importance of breathing deeply, something most people don't do enough of. Breathing deeply helps us to focus and to live in the moment. I love finding my children practicing this in their daily activities.

Another great song/tricky tool for kids also included on this music mix is the song, Imagination.

I remember these songs from my childhood and sharing them with my children is so magical. Hearing them sing along to songs I sang along with just makes my heart melt.

I'm telling you...good clean fun for all!

Tangled Heart Love

Finding love in the garden...in so many ways!

You Say Tomato...

There is a heaping load of garden activity happening everywhere. And, although our garden may be of the postage stamp size variety...we are not short of tomatoes that need canning and peppers crying out to go on a salsa adventure...With so many yummy eats from the garden, I find myself eating salsa for breakfast. Mmm...salsa for breakfast -almost better than coffee!

Time For Some Campaignin'!

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So, this is almost painfully funny...

No Interruptions Please...

Pollinators at Work...

Backyard Visitor...

The Scarlet Globemallow...

Sagebrush will always take center stage for me in my line-up of favorite Southern-Idaho natives, but I must say...the Scarlet Globemallow is hot on it's heels! How can you not fall for it's dainty little flowers and bee attracting qualities?

This species can also be used in highly degraded environments because it germinates quickly and produces a large amount of seeds, which can re-vegetate a poor-conditioned site. If conditions are optimal, the Scarlet Globemallow can grow from seed to producing it's own seed in one season.

If you are in the Southern-Idaho area and are wanting to conserve water the native way, be sure to contact Conservation, Seeding and Restoration.

Salsa Time...

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I whipped up a good batch of salsa from our garden. We used three different recipes in hope of finding our favorite. We made notes about how to adjust it to our liking and, seeing how the garden is ready for picking again, need to take the time to make some more....Nothing goes better with tacos and margaritas then homemade salsa!

Eating the Garden...

A new favorite of the family...and the ingredients are simple: raw corn cut off the cob, fresh mozzarella, avocado, cilantro, cucumber, Roma tomatoes and then drizzled with a bit of seasoned rice vinegar. A lot of these ingredients came from our garden, making it even tastier!

I hope you give this recipe a try...just go easy on the vinegar, you can always add more!

WaterMelon Crusaders...

We celebrated Lance's Birthday this past August. His birthday included (and not all on the same day) kayaking lessons -which I completely loved!- yummy home-brew and a raft trip down the Hagerman stretch. This trip down the river was not like any other regular river ride, it was the "Margarita Run". Yep, exactly how it sounds -Margaritas for all and crazy costume/rafts a-float. We were the "Watermelon Crusaders". Needless to say, as the pictures clearly show, we all had a blast!

*More photos of the Margarita Run madness*





Also for Lance's Birthday, the girls and I put together a "Captain Planet" cape. We actually made two, one for the girls and one for Lance -which we decided not paint as we weren't sure what Lance would like to have on his long-asked-for "Planet Cape".

The girls call theirs the "Cape of Success" and have been sewing and pinning their treasures to it.

Ausha Art...

"And I think to myself, what a wonderful world"

We found this old-school art project this summer at school. Ausha thinks she did it in the 3rd grade, but isn't sure. I love comparing her work from when she was younger to her art now, such progress. We had wished we knew about it this spring, most likely would of won the Earth Day art contest. At least, we like to think so.

How does she, at such a young age, come up with this stuff?!
She amazes me.

Native Turf Takes Off!

Native Scape...Takes Shape

Going from the "Trash of the 'Hood" to the "Smarts of the 'Hood". Our Native-Scape has brought many comments and questions. People are looking for ways to conserve water and time. But when you tell them they have options other than planting a lawn full of water sucking bluegrass, they don't believe you. "Native turf, what's that?" they say. Our area's average rainfall is about ten inches per year. Instead of watering our bluegrass lawn three times a week, we can water our native turf twice a month and spend less time mowing and less chemical input.

As you can see in my pictures above, native in not boring...quite the opposite really. Not only are we saving water by planting a landscape full of natives, we are also providing habitat and creating a sense of place...instead of a typical landscape using fifty or so similar plants, no matter what geographical location, native plants can add diversity and uniqueness in each bio-region across the United States. The native plants we installed are from the shrub-steppe cold desert climate of Southern Idaho.

Pollinators like moths, butterflies and bees often evolve to prefer native flowers over the introduced, ornamental plants found in most landscapes. The pollinators life cycles coincide with bloom times of native flowers and their body structures (ie mouth parts) have adapted to fit the plants native to their area better than a non-native species.

So as you can see, planting natives is a big deal: saving precious water, creating proper habitat for native wildlife and utilizing a landscape that is a better fit into our immediate environment.

Plants provided by Conservation, Seeding and Restoration.
More photos here