Hard to believe the chickens were these baby chicks just 7 months ago.

But now they're big and spend the day free ranging around the minifarm. 

For awhile they were living in our mudroom while we built the coop.

Then they were in the coop with a fenced in area.

Then they free ranged during the day and went into the coop each night.

But for now they've stopped laying eggs (I'm told this is perfectly normal when the seasons change/days get shorter/colder) and now we need to get their permanent coop ready in time for winter.

To do that we had to dig a bunch of post holes, which was miserable. We rented an auger, post hole digger thing, We kept hitting roots and rocks and compacted soil. I ended up with a giant bruise when we hit something in one hole and I lost my grip on the handles and got whacked. Hard. Oh my gosh it hurt.

But, we got the poles in the ground. Then we had to dig little trenches for the fence. This photo was from trench digging that might have been done on Labor Day, but I already forgot.

M did all the measuring and math and planning, I was just a worker bee. Not really even a good one since I'm nowhere near as strong as M. But I helped!

And last weekend, it was finally moving day for the chickens. Here's a look at mid-tear down of the old fence since we needed to make room to wheel the coop out.

Last weekend we got the fence finished so the chickens are now able to basically free range within the very large fenced area out in the windbreak. That allows them to have all kinds of fun in their kingdom and the dogs can have the backyard back , plus our garden plan can start and we can reclaim our deck, free of chicken poop.

To do all of this, we had to first clear the tall grasses and weeds in the rows between the wind break, which is basically four rows of trees/bushes in an L-shape at the back of our house and between the giant shop (aka M's man cave).

That took forever and then I had to clear a few of those trees/bushes for the fence so then I was all about pruning the trees and clearing out the dead limbs. 

Call me Paul Bunyan. 

And as we were sweltering through most of these projects, I was wishing it would cool off. 

This wasn't what I had in mind. On Sept. 10

When I went into the backyard on Monday to let the chickens out, it was business as usual.

I let them out and watered the plants, quickly, since I was running late for work already.

As I was walking up the deck to head back into the house, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.

I thought to myself, surely that wasn't an egg I just saw.

Taking a few steps backward, I saw that it was indeed an egg.

OUR FIRST EGG!

When I opened the side of the coop, I found that there were two.

TWO EGGS!

I was able to reach one from the side door on the coop, but the other one was clear on the other side, near the chicken door.

So, I had to crouch and slink into the fenced area and stick my arm into the coop to get the egg.

The chickens kept following me around and I was worried they'd be opposed to me taking their egg and peck me (I'm new to this remember), so I basically locked myself into the fenced area to keep the chickens out while I was stealing away with their eggs.

I threw some food out into the yard to distract them, for good measure.

Eggs in hand, I crouch-crawled back out of the fenced area and hurried inside to get ready for work, but not without a little happy dance.

When I got home from work, I peeked back in the coop to discover two more eggs.

FOUR EGGS!

I had to do the exact same escapade to get the eggs out, though the second one was harder to reach since it was further away from both coop doors, but I did it and remained chicken poop free!

So our weekend plans involve finishing up the nesting boxes since now they're laying eggs. Those should make the egg gathering process much easier and less comical for anyone who happens to be watching me.

For now, I will leave you with a look at our first eggs, four from their first day of laying. Not sure which hens laid which, but there's a chance everybody laid an egg yesterday since we have four hens.

Suffice it to say I'm one happy chicken mama! 

While I was home, mom and I went to my sister's baby shower in Williamsburg.

Since we were out that way, of course I wanted to pit stop in Colonial Williamsburg. It's one of my very favorite places. 

I grabbed some mixed nuts at The Peanut Shop for M as part of his birthday present, then mom and I checked out the colonial garden and nursery on the main street. 

It's a pretty impressive space that packs a lot of greenery and agriculture into a fairly small parcel of land. The interpreters use colonial agricultural practices and work to test techniques of the era in modern conditions. 

There's also chickens, goats, cows and other livestock wandering about and in the fields. 

We were back a second day and dad and I chatted with one of the interpreters about drainage testing, in which they used pots in the ground to test drainage conditions for a certain plant. They had great cold frames and raised beds and some plants that I really want to try here at the minifarm. 

it's the kind of place that comforts you with the knowledge that men and women have been doing this agriculture thing for centuries before you even existed on the planet. 

They were so creative with their trellises of branches and twine. They used bricks and old windows for cold boxes. 

On days when I think it's too hard, I can think of that colonial garden. They didn't have running water or modern technology. Granted, we're doing a lot by hand and have cisterns, it still has to be at least a bit easier for us now than it was for them. Not to mention the ladies were wearing so many more layers of heavy clothing. 

I was out there sweating in a t-shirt and shorts, getting assaulted by mosquitos and fearing snakes at every turn, but I would have been so much more miserable if I was wearing skirt. So miserable. 

This weekend we were out clearing the windbreak to keep the grass down, which limits the mosquitos and the snakes. That's also where we'll be relocating the chickens and adding some raised beds and fruit trees within the windbreak, eventually. 

That might seem fairly easy, but the windbreak is seriously bigger than our yard at the old house. It's flipping huge. It's four rows of trees on each leg of the L-shaped wind break.

We're both covered in bug bites, hot and exhausted. So exhausted. 

But those colonials did that kind of work without a lawnmower. And without an iPhone to blast music to keep them entertained. And probably without bug spray and sunscreen, though I refused the deet this weekend since that stuff freaks me out. 

All that to say, we have dreams of turning these 26 acres into a small scale working farm, but it's going to be a long, exhausting road and I will probably drink too much wine and flip out too many times along the way. 

Until then, more photos from Williamsburg. Because I love that place. If you're ever in southeastern Virginia, I highly recommend a visit to Colonial Williamsburg, as well as my former workplace, Historic Jamestown and part of my home county, Historic Yorktown. Together they make up the Historic Triangle and you can seriously do it all in a weekend. 

If you've been hanging out in this space lately, you might have noticed my growing interest in food and where it comes from. 

We've been busy tending to our tomatoes, peppers and carrots. We've had onions, lettuce, cucumbers and herbs growing inside while we built another raised bed, which isn't done yet. 

Over the weekend, I found a magazine with great edible container ideas so I had a good ole time with the half-off plants at the local farm and ranch store and made my own edible container with cauliflower, purple basil, African Blue basil, variegated sage, Swiss chard, and a dahlia. I am over the moon about it, assuming the animals don't find a way to destroy it all. Rest assured there will be more on this edible container project later in the week.

You may remember a post about The Dirty Life, a book on farm life that took me awhile to finish, but I loved it. Absolutely loved it. 

So on my flights to and from Virginia at the end of June, I went looking for more. Sadly, I couldn't find anything worth lugging around in the airport bookshops so I opted to do a more thorough book search online when I got back to Montana. 

I went looking for Made From Scratch by Jenna Woginrich, but then I went a little wild with the "you might also like" suggestions. All in all, I ordered seven books on farm life, food and making things yourself. 

Six have arrived. One isn't even out yet, but I got so carried away that I ordered it anyway. And while most of these books have a theme about our society's unchecked consumerism, I did get most of these books for $3 or $4 each. I didn't pay full price for any of them, not that I don't believe you should pay for great writing, but a spending spree on books about making things yourself would seem a bit foolish. So all totaled, I think I spent less than $50 and had a gift card to cover the entire book haul. 

Here's what I got:

Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl by Susan McCorkindale

Grow the Good Life by Michelle Owens

Made From Scratch and Barnheart by Jenna Woginrich

Growing a Farmer by Kurt Timmermeister

Greenhorns edited by Zoe Ida Bradbury, Severine von Tscharner Fleming and Paulo Manalo

I'll be deep diving into these this week and this stack will likely occupy me for a bit. I'll be starting with the one on top, it was the perfect thing to see in my stack of mail when I got home last night from a particularly stressful day at work. 

What are you reading lately? What kind of books inspire you or encourage you to read more of a certain topic?

We got a little ahead of ourselves when we started seeds a few months ago. There were plants everywhere. Every sunny spot in the house was crowded with seedlings, pots and greenery.

We moved some things like tomatoes and peppers into bigger pots and put them outside. But then it was stormy, windy, hot, sunny, it was just too much for those little guys and they just looked worse and worse every day.

So now that the first raised bed is ready, we realized that most of our seedings were toast. I thought about starting seeds again but our growing season is so short that it's much more practical to buy the stronger started plants that are bred for Montana conditions.

On Saturday, we picked up some tomato and pepper plants from my favorite gal at the farmer's market and didn't stay long since it was rainy. Sunday cleared up and we got those planted in the first raised bed. Here's to hoping they transplanted well and produce some veggies. 

We're working on a second raised bed for the broccoli, cauliflower, greens, onions and hopefully some beans. I've got carrots growing in a barrel planter and basil, mint and Italian parsley in pots. I've also got some cucumbers started but not sure those will make it either.

I've also got grand plans for growing corn and a sunflower garden at one edge of the windbreak. 

My farmer friend at the market told us about how well their raspberry and blackberry patch grow, so we want to try that and strawberries eventually. 

We went to the best local nursery last weekend just to look and we're considering talking to a landscape designer for our big picture backyard oasis plan so that we create a great space that is good for us and the plants and the chickens, though they'll be moving to windbreak in a bigger coop with their own chicken garden eventually.

So I've been focusing on what I want to grow and also want I want to eat. There's no sense in growing something I won't actually eat or just don't like. M eats most everything, I'm a bit pickier.

My big, big, big plan includes (this will seriously take years, if not a decade): 

+ An apple orchard.

+ Maple trees. There's a chance we could have our own sugar bush.

+ Tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, kale, peas, green beans, onions, cucumbers, romaine, buttercrunch lettuce, spinach and more.

+ Herb garden.

+ Sunflower garden, a wildflower patch, lilies, tulips, gardenia, dahlias, daisies, hydrangeas and more.

+ Pumpkin patch. 

+ Raspberry, blackberry, strawberry patch. 

+ Grapes. I really want to try to make my own wine, but that will take years.

+ Pear and cherry trees.

What's in your dream garden? Does the excitement and potential in gardening outweigh the work, frustration, trial and error and occasional failure?

About a month ago, I was on my way home from Chicago after running an 8K with Alicia and Eileen. 

Typically, I don't like to buy books or sit down to eat in airports because it's more expensive than it should be. But, I had a long layover and had already finished the murder mystery I'd lugged from the library on the way out. 

I wandered back and forth between a few book shops on my concourse, annoying one book seller because I kept coming back and not buying anything. 

When I'd just about given up finding anything I'd want to read that wasn't stupid expensive and/or hardback, I found The Dirty Life, by Kristin Kimball. 

The back cover told me that Kristin was a big city writer before meeting a farmer, who's from a town near my grandparents in New York, and moving to the country to start their own farm in northern New York. 

New book in hand, I wandered again for food that would fill me and not bankrupt me. I settled on the Rock Bottom Brewery with an appetizer and beer as my dinner while I dove into the book. 

Just a few pages in, I read this: "There are still moments when I feel like I'm an actor in a play. The real me stays out until four, wears heels and carries a handbag, but this character I'm playing gets up at four, wears Carhartts, and carries a Leatherman, and the other day, doing laundry, a pair of .22 long shells fell out of her pocket and she was supposed to act like she wasn't surprised. Instead of the lights and sounds of the city, I'm surrounded by 500 acres that are blanketed tonight in mist and clouds, and this farm is a whole world darker and quieter, more beautiful and more brutal than I could have imagined the country to be."

I don't carry a Leatherman, but we have one, and I don't wear Carhartts year, but M does and there's a good chance I will soon. We don't have 500 acres, but we have 26, and there's nothing around us, but a wildlife refuge, state land, unoccupied private hillside and more farms. It's a world away from my previous life in D.C. and still hard for me to wrap my head around some days. Though there's still some city in me. Just the other day, I interviewed a general, wrote about nuclear weapons and defense budgets, then came home to water the chickens and work on our planting plans as it's warming up. I've talked about this life change before, but the shift is worth further discussion.

Last week, we made salad with greens we grew and fed the rest to the chickens, then dumped the remnants on the compost pile. We're finishing up the temporary outdoor chicken coop to get those birds outside and I've got trays of vegetables starting in all the windows. I went a bit overboard with the seeds, we might have a ton of tomatoes and peppers if they all make it and my pack of broccoli, kale, cucumber, cauliflower, lettuce and more tomatoes arrived in the mail the other day. 

We've still got quite a ways to go and plenty of projects for the summer that exhaust me just listing them out, but the idea of making dinner with ingredients pulled from my land, breakfast with eggs from chickens that I raised and creating a little country oasis is exhilarating. 

For me, it's a constant mental shift since I write about nuclear weapons and mission changes from fighter jets to cargo planes and city government by day, then come home and want to work on my blog, rink events or other projects, but I've also got to feed/water the chickens, tend to the plants, renovate a house, turn the compost and think about the garden layout, the kinds of trees I eventually want to plant, where to put bushes and sunflowers and how to protect the pretty flowers I want from wind and deer. 

It's a cross between big ideas and big dreams with things like growing my own food and the simple life. My brain is almost always tired and I think this is why. We no longer have cable, we don't have central air, we use a pellet stove to heat the house in winter. We're close enough to town to get everything we need, but it's still a far cry from my D.C. life when I could walk 10 minutes to the metro, have cupcakes delivered to my office, get stuck behind a presidential motorcade and spend afternoons shopping my favorite outlets or eclectic boutiques few blocks off the Potomac River.

Kristin's story is different than mine and she and her now husband built a farm from nothing that now feeds their entire community, but there is so much in her story that resonates with me. 

Only a few more pages in was this: "As much as you transform the land by farming, farming transforms you...Your acres become a world. And maybe you realize that it is beyond those acres or in your distant past, back in the realm of TiVo and cubicles, of take-out food and central heat and air, in the county where discomfort has nearly disappeared, that you were deprived. Deprived of the pleasure of desire, of effort and difficulty and meaningful accomplishment. A farm asks, and if you don't give enough, the primordial forces of death and wildness will overrun you. So naturally you give, and then you give some more, and then you give to the point of breaking, and then and only then it gives back, so bountifully it overfills not only your root cellar but also that parched and weedy little patch we call the soul."

I'm still only about a third of the way through the book, but picked it up again this week. It's good reading as we're prepping for the growing season.

Other good reads on food, land and agriculture:

Five links to read before heading to the farmer's market. 

I already planned to create my own apple orchard, perhaps we'll have apples for cider-making since there's a shortage.

We're still thinking of having bees and this one's for Courtney. A look at life without honey bees. 

Looking forward to watching this documentary about young farmers. I might be turning into my sister, who was very aware of these issues years ago. 

Why Alicia started blogging, it involves lots of cooking and interesting recipes.

In less than two weeks, we'll be roadtripping to Heritage Organics Farm to pick up our very first batch of chickens. The plan is to get 8-9, in case a few turn out to be roosters, since we really only want hens for now.

We're creating a brooder box and have to figure out where to put it so the chicks stay warm and safe. We'll puppy proof them for awhile until the dogs get used to the chickens and no shenanigans ensue when we're not home. It's still ridiculously cold, so the baby chicks will be inside for the first 8 weeks or so.

This will be our first go round with chickens and the mostly city girl that I am is a bit nervous. I am by no means an expert and regularly pester my favorite chicken bloggers with questions (you'll find them mentioned below). But, here's a few things I've learned so far in the prep and planning stages. This will all be a work in progress. Get excited, you'll have a front row seat here on the blog.

1. Is it legal? Chickens are legal in many, many places, but not all. Like Great Falls, Montana. But, we live in the county, where chickens are legals. Before you get too excited about raising chickens, make sure it's legal!

2. Do you have space? If you live in a high-rise, fancy pants apartment complex, like I did for awhile in D.C., chickens probably won't work out. But, if you got even a small backyard, it's probably doable. Kate at Farmhouse38 can show you how it's done in the city. We have about 26 acres, so we have room to grow our flock if it goes well this year. Do some research on how much space you need for the number of chickens you want and how much space you need for other projects. For us, we'll have a large garden and possibly more animals later on. I really want an alpaca and/or a goat and M thinks we should get mini cows. Yeah, mini cows are a thing.

3. The environment. Is it cold, hot, windy, snowy? What kind of predators are in the area? For us, it's cold and windy into May and sometimes June. Then it can get cold again starting in October, so we're going with a cold weather breed chicken, the Buckeye. We also have bald eagles flying around. It's pretty cool to see, but they could eat our chickens so we have to build an outdoor area for the chickens with a covered top. There's also coyotes and snakes, so we're planning a large, secure coop with the protected outdoor area. Plus, the chickens will be a great help in tearing up the garden in the winter and helping to prep the soil for the next growing season.

4. Do you have time? This is a hard one for me, I'm already busy, but I think the chickens will help give me a routine that's outside of my wants and needs. And much like Grover did, animals have a way of becoming a top priority in your home. But, if you work 60+ hours a week and don't have someone at home to share chicken raising responsibility, maybe it's not a good idea. M and I are both working full-time, but we are both around for morning and evening chores generally and can come home during the day when needed. 

5. What is their purpose? Will your chickens be just for eggs, for poultry, both? Or pets? For us, they're dual purpose. Buckeye chickens lay eggs for 5-6 years. After that, they'll likely become dinner. I imagine I'll get attached to a few and possibly have a tough time with that aspect of raising chickens, but knowing that at the outset is helpful. If we end up with roosters, they'll go back to the farm during the summer for processing. I feel a little heartless saying that, but it's just a fact of mini farm life. At some point, we might be able to keep a rooster, but for now, it's just too much.

6. What to feed them? Apparently there's organic chickens and there's chickens on medicated feed. We're planning to eat the eggs and eventually the chickens, so we think we'll use non-medicated feed, just in case. But, we haven't quite figured out what kind of feed we'll use. Turns out, there's lots of choices. The chicks will need starter feed, but also grit and diatomaceous earth and other such things. I need to do a bit more research on the feed, but we'll be using the starter feed for awhile, so I'll start with that.

7. What kind of chicken coop will you build? This will depend partly on how many chickens you plan to have and how much space you have. You could get a store bought coop, but to me, that's not much fun. You could build a walk-in coop with lots of room, or a squat coop with no room for a person that has exterior access to the nesting boxes. We are planning a coop + greenhouse combo structure. We've pretty much decided on this as a base design. 

8. How many chickens? Our chickens average 150-200 eggs per year, each. We use eggs, but that's a lot of eggs, so I'll be doing a lot more baking and we'll be sharing with friends. I crowd sourced to Kate at Farmhouse38, Lisa at Fresh Eggs Daily and Jennifer at 1840 Farm to figure out a good number to start with. They suggested 4-5 and that's what we're shooting for. Several people suggested to get double that number in chicks since about half could be roosters. So that's what we're doing. One chicken will be my co-worker's, but it will live at our house since she'd in the city limits. We'll see how we do this first year and we may get more next year, if we find something to do with all those eggs.

9. What kinds of supplies do you need? I've been glued to Tilly's Nest for research and developing a supply list. We still need a heat lamp, brooder box, pine shavings and food. We bought a feeder and waterer for chicks, we'll need more when they grow out of those. When you factor in a coop and run, the supply list goes up. We're still working on our supplies and construction plans, but we've mapped out most of the big stuff and need the snow to let up so we can get to work!

Do you have chickens? Any tips for those of us just getting started? City dwellers, would you have chickens if you could? Or a goat? Because I want a goat next. Or an alpaca.

Holiday gifts have always been something I put considerable thought into. In high school, I made personalized ornaments and/or cookies for all my friends. For a small group of people, I made baskets full of things and special gifts.

I prefer to give something that is useful, something the person wants, or has some special meaning in some way. Whenever I travel abroad, I bring back a handful of gifts for my close friends.

But, as life gets busy and my gift giving budget shrinks, I've turned to writing and mailing mountains of cards instead of trying to send gifts to everyone. The gift list is considerably smaller this year since we bought a house and will have to ship all gifts and it's just not financially feasible to go all out this year. 

Many of our gifts will be things we picked up throughout the year, with the intention of gifting. Like honey from Glacier County Honey, wine from Ten Spoon or other Montana wineries, coffee from Montana Coffee Traders, something huckleberry and our photo collections packaged into calendars.

If I'm not buying local for gifts, I look for those that contribute to charity or other programs I consider worthwhile. 

One of my favorites is Fresh Words Market. I love her prints and for each one sold, Rebecca gives 10 percent of its proceeds to women and children focused initiatives around the world.

Some of her prints will be coming your way shortly in the form of an awesome giveaway. Here's a preview!

In observance of Cyber Monday, here's a few more nifty gift ideas that donate to charity or give back in some way.

Gift Cards 
GlobalGiving, Benevolent and Universal Giving gift cards can be used to support lots of different projects worldwide. And some of the cards are biodegradable. 

Women for Women International lets you support agriculture, education, job skills training and more through their Gifts that Give Back as a gift to friends and family. Choose your gift and personalize a card to the recipient. 

Jewelry

Bravelets let you support all kinds of causes, groups and other programs by donating $10 of each purchase to the associated cause. 

The Brave Collection is jewelry handmade in Cambodia by artists who come from underprivileged backgrounds or suffer from disabilities. Each piece is made my hand and proceeds go to fight human trafficking, sustaining the work of fair-trade artisans and supporters join "a global community of dreamers and change-makers."

Same Sky provides jobs for women around the world who are living in poverty. Same Sky trains them as artisans and the woman can then earn 15 to 20 times the average wage in Sub Saharan Africa. Proceeds are reinvested in the program. 

WeWood makes super cool watches from scrap wood and for each one sold, plants a tree.

Environment/Animals

The National Resources Defense Council has a collection of green gifts to support animals, marine life, plant a tree and more.

The World Wildlife Fund lets you adopt animal for someone or donate to specific programs. You can opt for the gift that goes with the donation, or to put the entire donation into WWF programs. I have to admit, I really love their plush pandas and other animals. Have I ever mentioned how much I love pandas? (Seriously. I once wrote to then President Clinton instructing him to do more to save the pandas. When I was about 10. I always go big.)

This one is super cool. Pangea Organics makes all these great beauty products and their bar soaps are made with palm oil grown on Organic and Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and the carton is made from 100 percent post-consumer newspaper, so it's biodegradable, compostable or plantable. The cartons are embedded with Blue Spruce tree seeds. How cool is that?

Adorable cards and stationary from Hooray for the Underdog support all kinds of animal welfare groups and shelters nationwide. How cute are those pups?

My dear friend Ally is going to love this one. Lush has a special line of products and for each sold, 100 percent of the proceeds go to groups that support the environment, animal welfare and human rights. Soft hands and save the world? Heck yes.

Hunger

There's a bunch of iPhone cases you can buy that give back to charity. I have this one that supports World Hunger Relief. There's also ones like this, that support charity: water. 

***

And if none of that works for you, head over to Ebay Green to find all kinds of products that are made sustainably and/or give back with the proceeds.

What will you be gifting this holiday season? What are your favorite gifts? Do you have favorite gifts that give back?

Since we're getting serious about growing our own food and cooking more at The Homestead, I've been reading a lot from the ladies who are already rocking it out. 

Lucky for me, they're wonderful enough to share their wisdom here on Near and Far. 

First up is the lovely Rachel of De Ma Cuisine. Check out her amazing recipes and online cooking shows where she shows us how it's done. Then go follow her on Twitter. And on Facebook. And Instagram. Do it. She's awesome.

Q: You clearly love cooking, what is that got you into cooking and how long have you been at it?

A: I do. I just love it. It's relaxing, invigorating, enjoyable... One of my favorite pastimes. There are photos of me cooking as a child, but I don't think I really fell in love with it until I got married. I took on that role of the cook because it seemed fun and just kinda happened naturally. I'd done a bit of cooking in the past and had learned a lot from a roommate who was a great cook (Sheila). When I got married and started cooking every day I started to get more comfortable being creative and using what we had. I learned how to not follow a recipe exactly and began to make up my own dishes based on ideas I saw. It eventually grew into something that I was really passionate about.  

Q: It sounds like you prefer organics and/or natural foods, what are the benefits in your opinion of fresh and natural food?

A: I love to eat seasonal, fresh foods. I think that foods that are picked when they're ripe, that aren't traveling as far to get to me, are going to retain more nutrients. Vitamin C, for example, found in foods like broccoli and oranges, dissipates very quickly. As someone who would rather get my vitamines and minerals from food rather than a supplement (if possible), I want to get the maximum amount from the source. 

I'm not a fan of ingesting chemicals. So, if at all possible, I try to stick to organic foods (and products for around our home). I feel better about what we're eating and the products we're using that way. But, I would say that if a person was debating between eating organic and not eating fruits and veggies at all, it's probably still better to eat the fruits and veggies. ;) 

Q: Your cooking show episodes cover a range of foods and ingredients, what are the things you enjoy most about experimenting in the kitchen?

A: I love making a recipe my own. I love using the things that we have to create something new. I love being inspired by an ingredient and having an amazing meal come out of it. And, I love love love when my husband takes a bite of his dinner and through his mouthful yells, "WOW!" because he likes it so much. I couldn't ask for a better compliment. 

Q: How is your garden coming along? Do you taste a difference when cooking with foods you grew yourself versus those you purchased? 

A: Something is eating my plants!! Mostly I garden for fun, since we get such amazing produce delivered each week. This year I planted green beans, tomatoes, cucumber, basil, parsley, quinoa, carrots, lettuce (and some other stuff that didn't come up, like peppers, I've never had any success with peppers!). Last year, the tomatoes, green beans, and carrots were amazing! We had a garden when I was growing up, so picking a tomato still warm from the sun brings me back to my childhood. They taste so good! The carrots were pretty great too. I hadn't had any that I'd planted taste as good as these did. I don't know what I did differently, but I'm hoping they're as good this time around. :) 

I definitely taste a difference compared to most produce bought at the grocery store. But that's because I've been so spoiled by the produce that we have delivered. I'd say that the produce we get from Abundant Harvest Organics is better than what I'm growing, because they sure know what they're doing. Maybe when I have a few more years of gardening under my belt I'll feel differently... Maybe not. ;)

Q: As a culinary whiz, I'm thinking you throw awesome dinner parties. They say breaking bread brings people together. Would you agree? What would your ideal dinner party look like?

A: Yes. Definitely! My ideal dinner party would be with good friends/family who enjoy food as much as I do. It would have mismatched china and our fanciest stemware (which we use everyday). I would probably prefer to make the main course and appetizers and let others bring things like dessert (I'm not a great baker, so I'm happy to let others do this part), salad, and wine. I don't mind making those other things, but the main course and appetizers are the most fun. And I'd love to do a really long dinner, like the French do, with course after course, if we had all day. Maybe with 4-6 guests and lots of time to prepare before they'd arrive.  

Q: What/who are your culinary inspirations?

A: One person that I wish I could have met is Julia Child. She is one of my biggest inspirations and favorite people (of those that I don't actually know personally). Of those that I know in real life, there are many... My Mom works in the food industry. She has a passion for cooking, recipes, and feeding people that I understand and admire. She was a stay-at-home mom and such a great influence on us kids as we grew up with family dinners and homemade lunches. My Oma (Grandma) was one of the best cooks I've ever known. She made simple foods amazing. She died a year and a half ago. I treasure the memories of making Zwieback with her as a child (and as a grownup), of many dinners at their table, and the recipes that I have framed in my kitchen, written in her hand. I like to think that my love for cooking was something that couldn't have happened by accident. With these two amazing cooks in my family, it's in my bones, part of my heritage, something I was, in a sense, born to do.  

Q: Who/what are your favorite food/cooking bloggers and blogs?

A: Joy the Baker was one of the first blogs that I started reading. Joy has become a friend and is someone I look up to. I really admire Aimée from Simple Bites. I love how she approaches cooking, family, and their urban homestead. I'd love to have that someday, if/when we have kids. I also really enjoy Shauna, from Gluten Free Girl. I'm not GF, just love the way she writes and the amazing recipes that they share. 

Q: What recipe, if any, intimidates you or strikes you as especially challenging? I'm thinking of that moment in Julie & Julia and the duck recipe. 

A: Honestly, most of Julia's recipes do. :) I've made her Boeuf Bourguignon twice. It was the most amazing meal I have ever made. But it was terrifying. I (who don't often follow a recipe) poured over that cookbook, making sure each step was absolutely perfect, in an attempt to make the dish as close as possible to what Julia would expect.

Q: What would you want people to know about you and your cooking?

A: Cooking is my art. I might say that I feel about it the way some feel about Van Gogh's pantings. It moves me, it challenges me, it inspires me, it fills me, it delights me. It is one of the ways I show love. If someone has a need, my first thought of how to meet it is with food. For me, food isn't just to fuel the body, but also the heart and soul. It's part of who I am. And because of that, my passion, my goal, is to not only share this love through food at our dinner table, but to empower people to eat well by sharing my recipes and video. I don't mind if not everyone loves food as much as I do, but I want people to know that they can, they can, they absolutely can eat well every day! 

Q: Anything else I didn't ask that you'd want to add?

A: I love to get creative with food. That includes leftovers. Last year I made this amazing Summer Chili on A Cooking Show with Rachel O. Then this year I used it again, but this time to make Crispy Potatoes with Chili and Cheese (oh man, was that ever good!!!). I'm all for heating up the leftover chili, but this was so tasty that I may have even liked it better the second time around!

Summer Chili

Author: Rachel Oberg – De Ma Cuisine
Prep time:  10 mins
Cook time:  60 mins
Total time:  1 hour 10 mins
Serves: 4-6

Chili gets summer-ized with summer veggies. Oh so good!
Ingredients

• 1-2 lb. ground beef
• 4 C beans, cooked
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1 lg. summer squash, grated (squeeze to remove excess water if needed)
• 1 C green beans, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 T tomato paste
• 3 T olive oil
• 2 T balsamic vinegar, divided
• 1 T dijon mustard
• 1 T honey
• 2 C water (or red wine, or stock, or beer)
• ½ C decaf coffee
• 2 t salt
• 1 t pepper
• ¼ t allspice
• pinch cayenne
• 1 T sweet paprika
• 2 T chili powder
• 1 T smoked paprika
• ½ t ginger
• fresh basil, torn (for serving)

Instructions

1. Heat soup pot. Add beef and cook. Drain fat and return beef to pan. Add olive oil, veggies, and seasonings. Cook about 5-7 minutes, or until veggies are tender.
2. Add tomato paste, stir in, cook 1 minute. Add 1 T balsamic vinegar, stir, cook 1 min.
3. Add honey, dijon, water, beans, and coffee. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook over med-low heat for about 55 minutes.
4. Add 1 T balsamic vinegar and cook 5 min more.
5. Serve topped with fresh basil.

Ah, things are busy and I can't keep up with my life! 

But, here's one of our latest projects. I started a few things from seeds, including snap peas, and they were needing a new home. 

So we bought this. 

And turned it into this. 

We'll probably add some herbs or something else to this barrel and we bought another one that we'll fill up this weekend. Some of my farmer's market acquisitions are in need of more space like these guys.