Ground chuck (no pink slime)

The pink slime debate seems a no-brainer--don't add ammonia to food that children eat.  Here is what homemade ground chuck looks like...We took chuck roast purchased at our local Sam's Club.  However, we would like to find a local source for meat. Then we ground it in the meat grinder attachment to our KitchenAid mixer.  Notice that you can actually see white fat in the bowl.  Is it because we put too much fat in?  Or is it because some additive is covering up the white color?

These were really tasty when we ate them last night for my birthday!

Gardening?

My motivation for gardening this year has been low.  I continually make excuses concerning Sarah--it is too hot or too cold for her or I am too tired from not sleeping enough.  She was eating a lot at night.  Then there were nights when her stomach seemed to be bothering her or she seemed like she had confused days and nights.  Why can't newborns behave perfectly from the beginning?  (ha! ha!)

Scott's motivation for gardening seems to be higher this year.  After visiting his family farm in Taylorsville around Christmas, I told him that if his late grandfather could be a successful farmer, he could too.  He has increased the square foot of our garden--doubled the size of our basil bed and added sage and dill to it.  In our tomato and pepper bed, he planted lettuce and whatever jalapeno and tomato seeds we had leftover from last year.  He also ordered some Anaheim and Poblano seeds from Burbee because we can't find them at our local stores as seed and sometimes not in the produce section or farmers' market either.  I question whether this means that our climate is not good for growing these peppers.

As I was watching the noon news program this week, Crystal Sanders from James Sanders Nursery was on saying that it was too early to plant because it might frost.  Scott wondered why we were able to buy tomato and pepper plants from James Sanders Nursery if that was the case. 

We have yet to plant the plants and only planted the seeds.  I considered going out to plant the plants but Sarah was sleeping and I didn't want to take her.  I have lost (Scott put away who knows where) part of the baby monitor so I could not use it.  So there is another excuse to add.

Our garden is mostly organic because we have never put any pesticides on it but I have used some fertilizer on it.  Knock on wood, we have only seen a few Japanese beetles in our yard.  Crystal Sanders also mentioned that to control moles you should use a product that kills grubs, which grow into Japanese beetles.  For the last few years, we have had mole holes so maybe we have had a predator taking care of them.  Predation is my favorite organic garden technique.  I have been trying to figure out how to attract mosquito predators.

Curry and nursing

 Well I am almost 6 weeks into maternity leave and I still have not posted much on this.  This week I tried curried tuna salad from a Food Network recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/curried-tuna-salad-recipe/index.html.  After making their version earlier in the week, I then revised the recipe to make it more healthy--I substituted plain greek yogurt for mayonnaise.  When I did that, it just did not taste right so I added two more teaspoons of oil and heated two more teaspoons of curry powder in it.

Here we have the full complement of Kroger brand spices.  I have considered buying some special madras curry powder when we are in Nashville next week or ordering it online.  Recently, I discovered that Amazon.com has lots of gourmet foods.  While ordering an Otterbox defender for our iPad, a sample of gourmet black and green tea ended up in our order. 

Back to the curry powder, curry powder is supposed to be a blend.  The Kroger brand in our cabinet had a surprising ingredient to me fenugreek.  Fenugreek and blessed thistle are herbal supplements that nursing mothers take to increase their milk supply.  Do you have to take both of them together?  Will my craving for curry increase my milk supply?  Will the amount on the tuna be enough to make a difference? 

Getting started

To preserve a connection to the outside world while on maternity leave, I have decided to start this blog.  Sometimes I wonder how connected people really are through only a computer.  With less than four weeks to go until my due date, here goes...Our food adventure today is cooking a recipe from Bon Appetit.  Living in a small town, we cannot get shallots so we are thinking about substituting a smaller amount of red/purple onions.  Not the delicate flavor of shallots but not sure of what would work better?