Papas con Chorizo

This was a delicious meal. It was hearty and satisfying, yet unmistakably summer. And the best part? Almost all of the vegetables came from my small garden! Beautiful and plump orange cherry tomatoes, a delicious and gigantic zucchini, a few small, but tasty peppers, and they were all grown right in my back yard. It's summer time and local eating at it's best! There is something immensely satisfying about eating something you grew. It's like using chopsticks for Chinese food, it just makes it taste better. Even if your backyard isn't overflowing with tomatoes, this delicious concoction is still worth whipping up, for a fast and delicious summer dinner.

Papas con Chorizo
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 large russet potato (about 2 cups diced)
1 medium yellow onion
1 zucchini
1 bell pepper
1 small jalapeno
2 chorizo style sausages
1/2 cup of chicken stock
1/2 tsp of pepper
1/2 tsp of paprika
1/4 tsp of chili powder
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 clove of garlic
Salt
Avocado and cheddar cheese for serving

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. Chop the potato into small pieces, about 1/2 inch. Add to the oil and stir. Let potatoes brown slightly, while you chop the other vegetables, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Chop the onion, zucchini, and bell pepper into roughly the same size pieces as the potatoes. Add to the pan and stir. Dice the jalapeno and add. Squeeze the Chorizo from it's casings into the pan and break up with a wooden spoon, while the chorizo is browning. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender. Add the stock, pepper, paprika, and chili powder. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until all the liquid is gone. Chop the tomatoes into halves or quaters and mince the garlic, stir into the pan and cook 1-2 minutes more until tomatoes are warm. Add salt to taste. Serve topped with chopped avocado and cheese.

Happy Eating.

I'm Growing!

Despite the forecast of snow for tomorrow, Spring is almost here! That means it is time to build my mini green house again. Yay! So this weekend I dragged the boyfriend to Lowes (it wasn't very difficult)to buy dirt and new containers to plant all the lovely seeds and bulbs he gifted me for Christmas and Valentine's day. My herb garden will be quite plentiful this year. I sowed my seeds in one of those seed starters, with the plastic cover. It's important to keep seeds covered before they sprout so the dirt stays moist, then you just spray them with water about every other day, to keep moisture in and pop open the lid when they sprout. I planted basil, rosemary, chives, oregano, parsley, sage, and thyme. I am using My Folia to track my plants and to keep my gardeners "journal" I decided to take it digital this year, after the relative success of last year's hand written one. I also labeled the plants carefully this year, after I spent hours sorting seedlings last year when all my labels got mixed up. The herb labels are safe, for now, protected by the plastic cover, the flowers on the other hand...

I bought to giant planters to plant the lily and dahlia bulbs. They are sitting in the living room until they can go outside, and the cat loves to climb in them and take out the labels, then when you shoo him away, he slinks back over when he thinks your not looking. It would be adorable if it wasn't so annoying. It's only 2 planters, so it should be relatively easy to keep them straight. I moved the labels to outside the planters today, so Jeeves doesn't dig in the dirt (hopefully). I also planted Ranunculus, but those are safe because they are in 2 hanging baskets. I am very excited for my garden and can't wait until it begins to sprout.

I also finished knitting a lovely and warm hat for the boyfriend. I used chunky red alpaca wool and mohair, both from Loop. I started with a pattern from Martha Stewart but it wasn't really big enough, so I just kind of made stuff up/modified. My pattern was:
C.O 44 sts
K 6 Rows
K 1 Row P 1 Row for 7ish Inches, end on P.
K 3 K2tog K to end
P
K 2 K2tog K to end
P
K K2tog K to end
P
BO and leave a long tail. Pass the yarn through the BO stitches and pull tight, this makes the stitches come together and closes the top of the hat. If you have a little hole you can just sew it up as you sew up the seem. I used only the red yarn to sew up the seem and to pass through the BO stitches. Voilà and enjoy!



Happy growing and knitting

Blog Makeover!

Ok so I haven't written in awhile (and I just deleted out my old posts, to start fresh, and in case they said anything incriminating), this is hard and I am not that interesting. So, I have decided that my that my blog needs focus. Therefore, I will focus on 3 areas of my life that I love to bother my friends with (and most of them don't want to hear about) cooking, my "garden", and knitting. Clearly, I was born in the wrong decade.

So to update on all of them:

Knitting: I am making a gigantic blanket, it is consuming my evenings, in the best possible way, I got the pattern from a blog I like. After some initial hardships, its smooth sailing through calm seas. It is getting really big, it now keeps my lap warm while I knit it. I also recently stocked up on supplies from Loop, my favorite online/in town yarn shop. I will be making a chunky hat next (if I ever finish the blanket).

Gardening: Not a ton to report, I have some supplies to do a container herb garden. I will be planting some of the seeds on Sunday (hopefully) to give them time to establish before they are moved to the deck.

Finally, Cooking: (the only one my darling boyfriend wants to hear about, as in what's for dinner). This week is a short week, for cooking anyways, 3 nights. Last night I made Stir fry, with those Chinese yellow noodles, I never realized that they were made out of wheat flour, healthier than I thought, and a super ton of vegetables. I used, snow peas, onion, baby corn, peppers, chilies, and mushrooms. I definitely over did it on the chilies though, because the sauce I made was spicy too, next time no chilies. The sauce was a made up concoction from Siracha (a staple in the apartment), soy sauce, olive oil, lime juice, and a splash of red wine vinegar, the sauce was excellent (if I do say so myself, but next time NO CHILIES, my mouth is still recovering)

This morning I set up in the slow cooker a "chili". It's really more of a stew though. It has a nice tomato base with black and pinto beans, lean beef chunks, peppers and onions. We will see how it turns out, because I have never used dried beans before and I am not 100 percent sure I did it right. The instructions on the bag say you have to do a whole soaking process to the beans, but the recipe I started with (before I mutated it beyond recognition, as usual) said to rinse the beans off and then throw them in, so that's what I did. I'll let you know how it goes. I plan to serve it with sour cream and a bit of fresh cilantro.

Finally on Wednesday, I will be making a spaghetti with spinach and mushrooms in a truffle olive oil sauce!!! I am so excited to use the truffle oil (which was a Christmas stocking stuffer from the bf. I don't know exactly what will be in the sauce, seasoning wise, but I will let you know after I see how it turns out.

The rest of the week will be occupied with my brother's going away party and a wedding, so that takes us to next week!

Happy Eating!!