Birds and BeeZzzzz

Another special Sunday dinner with the Ma-in-law

After some circular discussion about "those crazy Catholics" thinking they know it all about Mary - you know God's mother (not the whore he slept with), Ron and I finally steered his mom to a topic that wasn't such a hot button item: the farm.

Ron recently tried setting up mouse guards on the 3 bee hives. He suited up in the space suit with face netting, and poked and prodded at the bees for several minutes. Afterwards, the bees were, well, pissed. They formed a furious cloud and buzzed like mad, so Ron thought he should go out and check on his 60,000 babies. However, overly confident about his relationship with these bees, he heads on outside with a t-shirt and jeans. 5 minutes later he is inside yelping for help with several bee stings to the face. I ran into the living room and almost introduced myself to Joan Rivers, until I realized it was just Ron with his face morphing into a putty-like substance. My first comment: you look terrible (I'm not always so nurturing). We got him to the docs, and he got all taken care of.

Hearing about this unfortunate encounter caused Ginny to speak out against the bees' leader.
Ginny: Well, I think what that queen does to her husband is terrible. Did you know she sticks her stinger in and their guts explode!

Ron: That's not quite what happens. When they mate the drones' parts stay inside her, and when she flies away she rips them from him and he dies.

Ginny: What kind of wife does that?

Ron: I don't think she's in a committed relationship. She mates several times.

Ginny: Fine, but that's what we call "sleeping around".  But I'll tell you, try having sex with me and fly away and yeah, you'd be dead.

Ron: Ok, dinner's done.


As for the meal we shared, we made a very filling, very tasty meal we tried from the 1000 Vegan Recipes cookbook by Robin Robertson. I love flipping through the book to find interesting recipes to try. Last week I tried a few chili ones, but they all sucked. Some tasted weird, but most tasted just blahhhh! And seriously, there are about a million chili recipes out there, so if you're going to make chile, then do it right (and use the meat). Tonight's meal, however, is a keeper.

Lasagna Pinwheels

12 lasagna noodles
4 Cups lightly packed fresh spinach
1 Cup canned white beans (drained and rinsed)
1 lb. firm tofu, drained and patted dry
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
4 garlic cloves
1/2 Cup toasted pin nuts
Fresh basil, minced
3 Cups marinara sauce

1) preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a pot of boiling salted water, cook the noodles over med-high heat, stirring occasionally, until just al dente, about 7 minutes.

2) Place the spinach in microwavable dish with 1 Tbsp water. Cover and microwave for 1 minute until wilted. Remove from bowl, squeeze out any remaining liquid. Transfer the spinach to a food processor and pulse to chop. Add beans, tofu, garlic, salt, pepper, pine nuts, basil, and beans and process until combined well. Set aside.

3) To assemble the pinwheels, lay the noodles out on a flat work surface. Spread about 3 Tbsp of tofu-spinach mixture onto the surface of each noodle and roll up. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Spread a layer of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a shallow casserole dish. Place the rolls upright on the top of the sauce and spoon some of the remaining sauce onto each pinwheel. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Serve immediately

Merry Thanksgiving!

I love Sunday night dinners with the hubby and mother-in-law.  This evening's crisis involved Ginny being told that her daughter, Suzanne, might be coming to the farm to celebrate Thanksgiving with her mother (while Ron and I are out of town). Ginny has celebrated Thanksgiving with Suzanne for as long as I can remember which you'd think was very sweet. However, Suzanne runs a tight vegetarian household which kind of puts the kabosh on the idea of a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Here was my favorite gem of the meal:

Ron: By the way, Suzanne, Dan, and the kids might come here for Thanksgiving while we're away.
Ginny: Oh my God, I can't have her here for Thanksgiving! I need turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes, not some vegetable pie with mashed tofu!  Oh, my Lord, what am I going to do - that's just so unChristmasty!
Ron: Yes, that sounds like a very unChristmasty Thanksgiving.

Since Thanksgiving has been the talk of the household recently I have been fiddling around with different holiday recipes. I am determined to be armed and ready this year; I won't find myself furiously scraping off prices from the Boston Market containers instead of watching the Macy's parade.

With the temperatures dropping (finally!) I've been looking through my cookbook library to find a good soup recipe. Since it seems the vegetarians are descending upon Ginny, I thought I'd try a vegetarian recipe - turns out this is actually a vegan one. Regardless, the outcome was a DELICIOUSly creamy and tasty soup.

The recipe is from Anna Getty's book, Easy Green Organic.
Creamy Butternut Squash and Macadamia Nut Soup
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 medium onion (chopped)
2 tsp chopped ginger
5 Cups diced butternut squash
1 small Fuji apple diced
1 Cup macadamia nuts (soaked in water overnight) and finely chopped
3 Cups vegetable stock
salt/white pepper to taste

1. heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add onion, ginger, and garlic. Saute until onion is translucent, 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly so mixture does not burn. Add squash, apple, and macadamia nuts, stir for 1 minute, then add stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes, or until the squash is fork-tender. Remove from pot from the heat.

2. Working in batches, transfer soup to a blender and puree until smooth.

Enjoy!

Installing Package Bees

Snowmageddon 2010