Eggs in the nest

My beet garden is completely overgrown, which is very amazing considering the mishap from just 6 weeks ago. A couple days ago I made arugula pesto with arugula from the garden. It's has some kick to it since the arugula was getting pretty big and spicy. This morning I pulled the rest for the composter since they are bolting.

I also thinned the swiss chards, beets and lettuce. It should have been done a long time ago. I cooked eggs in the nest with the big bunch of chard and beet greens as dinner. There's no onions in the pantry so I pulled a few red onions from the garden, even though they are still tiny. I added chickpeas and sprinkled the left over peas and corn on top. It's fresh and delicious, and very healthy.

Beach Day

We are back from our vacation. The day before we left, we decided to drive to Vancouver instead of camping at Kelowna. It turned out to be a good thing since there were wild fire in the region and some areas were evacuated.

Our trip in Vancouver were relaxing with lots of good food, as always. The highlight of the trip has to be our day at English Bay. We spent 6 hours on the beach, playing and laying on the sand. Ben napped for a few hours in the stroller and therefore missed getting wet.
 
Look at the yummy "clam dish" made by Sarah!

After the beach we went for some real sea food at Raincity Grill. We ordered the 3 course dinner and I had the wine pairing. It was very delicious and considering what we got, very good value.

Seared scallops with scallion risotto and carrot foam

Halibut with garden vegetables

A sinkful of goodness

Buttercrunch lettuce, red leaves lettuce, arugula, mizuna, and underneath is a big bunch of pea shoots - great stir fried with some garlic.

Father's Day Breakfast and smoothie season, finally!

Scramble egg on toast with cream cheese, salsa, mixed greens and basil.

The greens and basil were fresh picked from the garden.

And finally, it's smoothie season!

Microgreen Salad

Here's a micro green salad...

... which is actually thinning from the garden. I put some on my breakfast...

... and ate the rest as snack, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Here's my brandywine...

The tomato is looking good, but the plant overall is looking a bit weak. I hope it will grow better as the weather warms up.

Baking day

This afternoon Sarah and I made Banana Crunch Muffin. Since we have no granola at home, we have to first make the granola, which is perfect because we can bring them to our camping trip tomorrow.

Sarah loves eating the granola by itself. You can see the bowl of granola next to her as she's making the muffins.

The muffins turned out great! I took Andrea's advice and halved the amount of sugar and butter. I think the muffins are just the right sweetness. And I love the slight crunch from the crust. Yummy!

The recipe is from Barefoot Contessa and is available here.

Snow last night and a party today

We got 10 cm of snow last night. For someone who planted the tomatoes in the ground just two days ago, this is obviously very upsetting. Here's a picture I took when the rain just started turning into wet snow yesterday. The wall-o-waters' kinda cute with the inverted pots don't you think?

Anyway, I didn't have a chance to check the tomatoes today because I was too busy cooking up a storm for a party with Allen's coworkers. As usually, we cooked too much and ate too much. It was great to finally meet some of Allen's coworkers. Both Sarah and Ben had fun playing with the older girls, which means I didn't need to look after them as much and actually got to enjoy the party.

I am too excited to sleep!

We have an arbor in the garden! I have always wanted one - to have a focal point in the garden, to grow clematis, to put a bench or some sort of sitting implement under. Now we have one. Ideas and todos are running through my head. I can't sleep.

So naturally I do what I always do when I can't sleep - surf. I started organizing the huge list of sewing and crafting sites I bookmarked. There are lots of fun and interested things people are doing and showing. There are two that I will try, very soon:

1. Gardener's Hand Scrub I have been working hard in the garden and hands get dirty even with gardening gloves. This seems to be the perfect solution.

2. Banana Crunch Muffins - they look too yummy not to try.

Once I check off the top priority items from my gardening todo list, I will get back to my sewing projects. And I want to take the kids to heritage park this summer. And visit the library more often. Oh and I want to take Sarah to a movie. And do more baking with the kids. My mother-in-law thinks I am always go-go-go. She's right, but there's so many fun things to do!