Bean Soup Recipe

Awhile back I posted about my family's favourite soup and was asked for the recipe. Here it is...


5-Bean Soup

3/4 cup of each: pinto, navy, lima, great northern beans and split peas
3 cubes veggie bouillon
3Tbsp. dried chives
1tsp. dried savory
1tsp. salt (only add this after the beans have cooked)
1/2tsp. cumin
1/2tsp. pepper
1 bay leaf
2-1/2 quarts water
14-1/2 ounces stewed tomatoes
*adding broken bits of dried kombu strips (about 3 strips) to when cooking the beans may help reduce the flatuence beans cause.


Sort and wash all beans. Soak overnight OR.... after washing beans put them in a large enough pot to completely cover with water and bring to boil; cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat; cover and let stand for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans. Return to pot and add spices and water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 1-1/2 hours or until beans are tender, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes and heat through.

**The method I use is to soak the beans overnight and then rinse them and add the water given in the recipe to cook them. I bring them to a good boil then lower the heat and add the seasonings (all except the salt, as adding this too early in the cooking will make the beans tough) to the beans. Simmer the beans for a good 1-1/2 hours or more (until beans are tender). The last step before serving is adding in the canned tomatoes (which I like to puree before adding to soup).
*** Don't forget to remove the bay leaf before serving.

Enjoy!

Double flowering almond

I couldn't resist posting a picture of this tree, it is one of my favourites. ( Yes, I do say that about each tree in turn) ;-) It isn't quite as spectacular as it usually is, that snow fall and the cold temperatures that we had a little while back put a bit of a damper on it as it had just started to bloom.But still...it is lovely.

Blast From the Past

This is what has been playing in our CD player lately:

Wow! Does listening to these boys ever bring back fond memories!

At first, I felt a little bad for inflicting The Monkees on my son, but now he is requesting to listen to them. We seem to share the same taste in songs - he asks me to skip all the ones he's not crazy about and it turns out they are the same songs I would have skipped as well. Poor Davy can't even get out one word in I Wanna Be Free before my finger presses the skip button.

This CD is dominated by Mickey's singing, although there is some of Davy (including him saying "girl", and there is no one who says "girl" as cute as him). Actually, thinking back, I can only think of one song that Peter sang and none that Mike sang (but he wore a hat and had those awesome sideburns, so I'm not going to complain). Now if only our library would bring in The Monkees tv show...

Need a quick snack? Hows about some chives?

Quite often I look out the back window and I see E wandering in the garden, he is doing something that I have come to think of as "trolling". Ever since he was a wee one, as soon as he was able to walk, he would toddle around the yard picking things and putting them in his mouth. As much as I wanted him to enjoy his veggies there were time when I found this very frustrating, like when he would pick all the apples or peaches that he could reach and eat them, even though they were only the size of a golf ball. The other day I looked out and saw him crouching over some herbs trying to find something big enough to eat, I went to get my camera and snapped a picture just as he was shoving some sorrel in his mouth. I'm thrilled that he loves to do this and I would never want him to stop - not even when it has meant that he gets all the strawberries and we get none. ;-)Yesterday I was out in the garden and I noticed that my chives looked quite picked at. I thought it was strange that he would have eaten so many because both clumps looked the same. and that really seemed like a lot of chive eating for one kid. I wondered if the dog had suddenly taken a liking to chives or if we had some weird allium loving critter about - and if so would I need to take measures to protect my garlic !?! I asked E about it today because I thought it was possible that he had eaten them all himself, but he let me know that he and his friends had snacked on them while they were playing in the backyard. I laughed at that...I feel certain that his friends' moms would be quite surprised to know that their boys were happy to snack away on chives. ;-)

It just goes to support my theory that if people can be more a part of their food production, if they can actually see, hear, feel and smell things while they are growing, they will be far more likely to appreciate and enjoy those things...no matter what their age.

Fritillaria imperialis

The first year we lived here I couldn't wait for Spring so that I would know what was already planted in the flower gardens here. Early that year little green stubs started to appear in the dirt by the cherry trees, I was quite curious to know what they were. I also started to notice a strange smell about that time, a sort of skunkish smell. These little green stubs continued to grow and grow and soon enough they looked like this, by that time I also realized that the smell was coming from the plants, not a critter hiding out in our yard somewhere.

These are named Fritillaria imperialis and I think their name suits them well - they do have a very imperial look to them (and sort of strange look too, but don't tell them I said that.) ;-)

Pets...an endless source of joy, amusement, entertaiment, and frustration

Our oldest cat has been a part of our family long before we had children, she is going on 16 this year. For the last few years she has been in pretty poor shape (such that when we go away I dig a grave in the garden just in case she dies while we are gone). I have seen some improvement with trying different diets with her -changing from kibble to raw and now to mostly cooked sardines and oats with some additions. For my own health lately I have started eating coconut oil - yes, straight from the jar - and since she was watching me as I was eating a spoonful I thought I would see if she wanted some too. I have been feeding it to her for just over a week now and I feel as though she is improving even more, although it could just be that Spring has finally arrived and she is feeling better because of the warmth and sunshine soaking into her old bones (I can relate!!). At any rate, she has been a real source of entertainment to us this past week. It is as if she thinks that she is a kitten again. She hides behind the laundry basket in pounce position; tucks herself in by a big plant my Uncle just gave us, as if she is queen of the jungle; swats at yarn and tries to jump on it and run after it; runs, hops (!?!) and hides when we come round a corner and all manner of other silliness. The other day she was watching intently as I picked dried bits off an aloe plant that was up on our table, I decided to wiggle the bit a little to see what she would do.For a cat who could barely get herself onto the seat of the couch several months ago (and was barely able to walk a year ago) I was delighted to see her reaching up to the table top to play. Last night W was in the garage, he looked out the back to see her in the backyard heading back towards the steep stairs leading onto the porch, he rushed out so that he could help her up the stairs only to find that she was already on the porch.
Pets...there are times when I wonder what on earth possesses me to bring them home and then there are times that I can't imagine my life without them.

Sheet mulching, my way

This project began like most of my other projects. A little birdie plants an idea in my mind and I decide that I'd like to try it. In this case, we wanted less grass to mow and water, so sheet mulching sounded like the way to go. As usual, I started working on the project (we call this project 'buh-bye grass!') and then decided to read a bit about how to do it. Turns out (as often occurs) that I was doing it wrong. So I inform dedicated and forgiving husband about the change in plans, and we continue on with the project. After a day of work, I decide to read a little more and realize we are only doing it partially right. But that's okay, I tell myself, because we still have a lot more to go and we can see which of the three methods work the best. (I like to think of it as experimental landscaping. I've also created a method of pruning that I call 'wild animal pruning', but I'll save those lessons for another day.)

Here is a little peek at the work in progress:






Front view and side view. It used to be grass all the way up and through the cedars. R created a magnificent wave around the tree and he plans to continue that pattern across to the other, smaller tree. In the cedar gap, we plan to build an arbour to house our bench in, and create the perfect seating area for watching the many sports that get played what's left of the grassy field.






Also on the go is a project to put a path around the garden to the side gate. I took charge of the grass removal on this one and thought I did a fair job - until dedicated and forgiving husband called me over and informed me (with a hearty chuckle) that the start of my line was less then straight. Well, I'd had a little problem working in the tight space by the tomato towers... yes, I could have moved them but then that would have made sense.

And our final backyard project for this Spring:

Lovely garden patio. We will remove the stairs and create a patio in our little garden oasis. Build better stairs, give that poor window a good wash, and spend the rest of the summer enjoying our yard.

Well, when we aren't working on the front yard ;-)