Cannellini Bean Dip with Garlic Scapes
July 5, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers
We’re off visiting family in the Adirondacks this week, enjoying a small town Fourth of July celebration, fishing, hiking, playing at the lake, cookouts, and evening campfires with roasted marshmallows, s’mores, and campfire pies. We’ll return in a few days feeling rested, a little sunburned, and ready to resume work in the garden, which hopefully won’t burn up in the current heat wave. Read more
Potato Salad with Summer Herbs and White Wine Vinaigrette
July 1, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Grow Your Own, Holidays, Salads, Vegetables
For us the Fourth of July is about celebrating our nation’s heritage as well as family, friends, parades, fireworks, and of course the annual Fourth of July cookout. Our cookouts vary somewhat from year to year, but we always have some kind of potato salad for the Fourth, and this potato salad recipe is particularly good for summer cookouts because it has no dairy, so you don’t have to worry about it spoiling in the summer heat. Read more
Mango Blueberry Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette
June 15, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Dessert, Grow Your Own, Salads
In 2007 we bought two blueberry bushes, the low bush variety that produces small berries like our favorite wild blueberries from Maine. We almost lost them due to flooding both the first and second year, but somehow they managed to survive, though they haven’t produced berries yet. It takes a few years for blueberry bushes to begin producing, and when they do it’s often small amounts at first, but growing as the bush matures. Read more
Strawberry Lavender Lemonade
May 27, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Beverages, Grow Your Own
We started growing culinary lavender in our garden two summers ago, then last summer had to move the plants to pots to make room for more vegetables. One of my lavenders didn’t fare well, but the other two were doing splendidly until the uber snow storms of 2010. They look rather spindly now, a mere shell of their glory last spring when the bees played among the purple flowers. So I’m starting over with a few new plants in the garden and hopefully a better location for them, and maybe we will once again harvest some beautiful lavender flowers next summer. At least I had a few buds leftover from last summer. Read more
Chipotle Hummus
April 7, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers
When we began growing jalapenos a few years ago, we investigated making our own chipotles, which are simply smoked jalapenos. We haven’t tried it yet, though we have a smoker now and and might give it a go this year depending on how good the harvest is. In Mexico the process takes several days, and I’m not sure if we could safely keep the coals burning that long with our three boys running around, so we’ll have to figure out the safety angle, too. Read more
Pesto Hummus
February 20, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers, Grow Your Own
Snow falls occasionally here in Northern Virginia, usually no more than about 4 or 5 inches at a time, and it’s a chance for fun followed by a quick melting, but we have more than our normal share of snow this winter. We still have plenty of snow on the ground leftover from the back-to-back blizzards two weeks ago, which dumped almost 30 inches on us. The DC area set a new record for winter snowfall, beating the previous record set in the winter of 1898-99, and our county has received over 75 inches this winter, far above our average of 23 inches. Read more
