A Plant-Strong 4th of July

So, on one of the days when Americans are most known for grilling out, what do you do when you're plant-strong?  You grill out - veggie style.  We actually do this almost every week.  It's nice to casually cook and eat dinner together outside.  Then, cold drink in hand, we kick back and enjoy the fire.  Our menu for the 4th this year was pretty simple, since it was just us this time.  We had veggie hotdogs, hotdog chili, asparagus, zucchini, squash, carrots (make great "hotdogs" when cooked soft enough), corn, and apple crisp.  Yum!

Zucchini, Squash, Carrots, and Red Peppers (for a later project)

Corn, Hotdogs, Red Peppers

Asparagus, Squash, Zucchini, Carrots

Apple Crisp (baked inside early, but warmed over fire)
Cool part - the crisp was not made with butter!  I'll share that recipe later!

German Red Cabbage

My husband made this red cabbage dish for our Bavarian Feast the other day and we all loved it!  The original recipe is Grandma Jeanette's Amazing German Red Cabbage.  He modified it by using the whole head of cabbage (who wants to measure shredded cabbage?), omitting the butter, and adjusting the seasonings accordingly.  It's an easy recipe and one that you can easily fill up on guilt-free - gotta love that!

German Red Cabbage

1 head red cabbage, shredded

2 small gala apples, sliced

2/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup white sugar

3 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Place butter, cabbage, apples, and sugar into a large pot. Pour in the vinegar and water, and season with salt, pepper, and clove.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the cabbage is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Family Meal Time

While catching up on current events today, I found this blog series about the importance of eating together as a family.  Eating as a family is something we strive for at our home.  It is rare when we don't sit down together for dinner and then it's usually because either my husband or I (not both) are working that evening.  I know we have a challenging (brief) period coming up when I will have to put more effort into coordinating our family dinners, but I know it's coming and I'm already putting mental notes together - thinking, as I cook, about what comes together easily and what "picnics" well.   Robin Shreeves does an excellent job in her series of addressing the obstacles of the family dinner, how to overcome those obstacles, and why eating as a family is important.  I hope the information she provides is helpful to those of you who would like to bring your families to the dinner table more and encouraging for those of you who do, but constantly struggle with the obstacles.

Getting dinner on the table, part 1: The obstacles
Getting dinner on the table, part 2: Overcoming the obstacles
Getting dinner on the table, part 3: Why do it anyway?

What I Love About Winter

Last week, on Ground Hog's day, I heard a conversation on NPR about mid-winter traditions that were started to spur us through the last six weeks of the season. Ground Hog's Day whether we should dig in our heels for six more weeks of cold or if we should start looking forward to warmer days. Some cultures have proverbs about making sure you have half of your wood and food left to get you through the rest of the season. I thought it would be fun to make a list of all the things I love about winter, things I think about in the middle of a run of upper 90-degree days in the summer.

• Christmas! - the holiday, not the consumerism
• Playing in the snow - sledding, snow angels, snow forts, snowball fights, etc. We usually don't get much around here, so if there's enough to play in, I'm happy.
• Hot chocolate
• Hot tea
• Soup cooking in the crockpot all day
• Sweaters
• Wool blankets
• Wool socks
• Heavy coats, scarves, and hats
• Snow days (it doesn't take much for things to shut down around here)
• Winter squash
• Fires in the fireplace
• Baking (too hot to do in the summer - I didn't turn my oven on for 2 1/2 months last year)
• Ice cycles
• Seeing cardinals in the snow
• Animal tracks in the snow
• Garden planning
• Curling up on the couch with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate or tea (although I'll do this in the summer with a glass of iced tea or water)
• Bare trees with the winter sun shining through
• Cold groceries staying cold in my car as I run all my errands

Food for thought, in the middle of a long, hot summer, I look forward to all the things I love about winter. However, as much as I may love many things about summer, even in the long cold of winter, I do not look forward to the possibility of a long, HOT summer (i.e. too hot, meaning dangerous, to go out and enjoy ourselves: upper 90s, low 100s). Last summer was way too hot for too long. Interestingly, it has been followed by the coldest and snowiest winter I think we've experienced here.

Seeing as how we had two ground hogs make opposing predictions last week, I think I'll look to the robins playing in my backyard. Then again, we're about to get hit with more snow.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween! Here are some pictures from our evening.

Pumpkin carving is always an adventure around here, as my husband gets REALLY into it. In the past we've had one themed "Snakes on a Plane" and also Bob Marley. This year it was "Scream".



The moon was beautiful and nearly full. We had a great view of it.



Now, to focus even more on what we are thankful for as we enter November.