Favorite tomato sauce, eggplant and wild greens lasagne and rhubarb crumble

Since entering this vast blogging world, I have been ever so inspired by some of 

the recipes I have found here ( as well as obviously an abundance of craft projects ). Therefor I thought I would share some of the things cooking in our kitchen.

The other day, there was a great sale on organic tomatoes, although not quite in season here yet, they had not travelled too far, so I got about 4 pounds and set out to make our favorite tomato sauce.

When tomatoes are in season here I will usually get a lot more (besides what I grow) and make enough to freeze. I use this sauce for many things, on pasta, in lasagna, in curries, in beans, on pizza and whatever else I can think of. Like is often the case I do not use a recipe.

In this sauce I used; 

olive oil

1 large onion

7-8 cloves of garlic (love garlic)

about 4 pounds of tomatoes

splash or two balsamic vinegar

3T or so rapadura (sugar)

good handful of fresh herbs on hand; basil, oregano and parsley

1 small glass jar tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

First I fry up the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent, then I add the balsamic vinegar and rapadura, and let this simmer for a few minutes, I think that this is the secret to this lovely sauce, then again perhaps everyone does it like this:)

Then I cut up all the tomatoes and add them, unlike most I do not skin the tomatoes first, one of these days I will take the time to do this, but as of yet I have not done it.

I add the tomato paste and the fresh herbs, and leave to simmer for quite a while with the lid on. A couple of hours at least. If I had my hand blender I would blend part or all of it. But mine broke and I have not gotten another, and I like it just as well without the blending, the children like it blended though.

Kaleena has been asking for lasagna, so part of the sauce was used for that.

I used eggplant to layer instead of pasta this time. And used lambs quarters, a wild weedy green rich in vitamins, and kale instead of spinach. I skinned a large eggplant (for the children mostly) and cut it into thins slices, put it on a baking sheet, drizzled with olive oil and set in the oven on 375 until soft, I turned them after about 15 minutes. Mean while I steamed my greens and in a bowl mixed them with a tub of ricotta cheese, and added a bit of salt.

Then in a large pyrex pan, I layered first tomato sauce, then the eggplant, then the cheese mixture, then another layer of eggplant and another layer of tomato sauce, topped it with mozzarella cheese, and cooked in the oven till bubbly and brown on top. Lovely, one of our favorites for sure.

And lastly I would like to share this rhubarb crumble delight. It is a recipe from my sister, with a few additions. It is sweet and sour and crunchy. And served warm with vanilla ice cream yum!!!

It goes; (please excuse the metric measurements, this is a danish recipe)

1kilo fresh rhubarb

150g gram sugar (rapadura)

3T flour

Topping;

100grams of soft butter (almost one stick)

125grams of brown sugar

2T sugar (rapadura)

150grams of flour

1/4t cinnamon

50grams of walnuts.

To this i also added raspberries and an apple.

Cut up the rhubarb in little pieces, mix with sugar and flour (plus apple pieces and raspberries)

Put them in a greased pan.

In a bowl cream butter, brown sugar and sugar, and stir in flour and cinnamon.

Chop the walnuts and add them to the mixture. Now crumble this over the rhubarb mixture.

Put the dish in the oven at 350 for about 35 minutes, or until brown and crunchy on top.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, yum!!! So delicious.

That is some of what we have been cooking and enjoying this past week.

I hope you enjoy!

~happy eating~

Lavender air freshener wands, and children's art

Inspired by a post I saw the other day on "Golden Sun Family", I set out to find some fresh Lavender sprigs, I was fortunate to find a few big clusters growing by the road and picked up a few. Check here for tutorial on how to make these wands. It took me a bit to get the hang of it, this is a weaving project, and takes a little effort.

Once I got started I realized that these would make great air fresheners for the car, and the bedroom and well the kitchen area as well. The great thing about the wands rather than simply hanging the flowers, is that the little flowers are contained inside the weaving, and so do not drizzle off the stems. The lovely wands have already filled the air with the sweet calming scent of lavender. Once the scent get weaker, a few drops of essential lavender oil could be added.

I added one to the wreath that we made the other day, to add the calming lavender scent to our bedroom

this one hangs in the dining/kitchen area

and this one in the car, I absolutely love to come into the car, and be greeted by the scent of lavender

I also wanted to share some beautiful pictures the children painted this morning. We had some old pieces of wood laying around, and the children have been wanting to do some painting, other than water coloring that is, so we got out the acrylics some sponges and they loved it.

I really love how they turned out.

This one is Keenan's

and this one Kaleena's

so pretty...

~happy, sweet lovely monday to you~

Making Echinacea syrup

Using herbs has become a way of life for us, and every year I become more proficient and add more knowledge and experience to this wonderful way of caring for my family 

( even so I am certainly still a novice herbalist )

I enjoy all aspects of the herbs, from growing and caring for them, to harvesting and then preparing the herbs.

I love using fresh herbs whenever possible, and right now the Echinacea are in full bloom which is the time to harvest the ariel parts, last year I made tincture from the roots, and the plants I have growing now are just slightly too young for harvesting the roots (which should be done in early spring or fall after the third year of growth), so I decided to harvest some flowers and leaves and make a syrup for the children, they LOVE herbal syrups, as they are sweet and tasty.

I will use this syrup as a supplement and give it by spoonfuls everyday for as long as this batch will last, a few weeks probably. Echinacea is great for immune support, colds and flu.

I also added some Bee Balm flowers for taste, and they are also great for common colds and such.

And just because I had some cherries laying around looking sad, I also added them to the concoction for sweetness and flavor, as echinacea can be strong flavored (especially the root).

I also added one comfrey leaf, just because:)

My basket of goodies 

So pretty isn't it, all chopped up

with the cherries added, just love how it looks, so colorful

after it is all chopped up, I added water to cover and brought it to a boil, and then left it to simmer until

the water reduced to about half

this is what it looked like when done, at which point I strained it, and squeezed out all the remaining liquid from the plants. Then added honey, about one cup of honey per quart of liquid.

and here it is strained, sweetened and ready.

This will keep in the fridge for several months, although it wont last that long in this house.

 ~happy healing~

And in case anyone is interested a great simple reference book on common healing herbs, how to grow them and use them, this is one I love  "Growing 101 Herbs that Heal"

Another great informational book is Rosemary Gladstar"s  "Herbal recipes for vibrant health"

There are so many wonderful titles, yet these are great basic herbal books.

Our yearly 4th of July celebration

Since the very first year we arrived here, we have attended this annual 4th of July celebration.

It is one of those gatherings where families have been coming for generations. This year was the 35th annual gathering. My children remember it from year to year and look forward to it as summer approaches. One of the main "attractions", besides a phenomenal fireworks display, is the baking of pizza in a home made oven build into the mountain side. A huge table of dough is set up, enough for about 300-400 people, everyone brings a topping and line up to make their own pizzas.

This year we arrived earlier than years past, and took part in the kneading of the dough, and therefore became the first to bake our pizzas, avoiding the grand line that forms and remains for most of the afternoon.

After the pizza we always do the hike to the river, it passes through an amazingly rich piece of forrest, full of medicinal herbs, I saw black and blue cohosh, stone root and trilliums. These mountains have impressed upon me in my years here an immense love of all the woodland herbs, and this particular forrest trail has a great many thriving herbs and a very magical and peaceful energy, one I look forward to from year to year.

Once by the river, we go swimming before heading back up to our blanket.

For the rest of the afternoon early evening the children run and play with the many other children.

At dark there is an amazing firework display, and while we missed it this year as Keenan was so tired by 8 o'clock, it is truly a magnificent show, well worth the late hour.

A wonderful day indeed, one that the children will cary with them 

with fond memories for years to come,

and this is one gathering that we are all sure to miss once we move across the atlantic. 

The beautiful French Broad river

See my little mermaid child out on that rock..

Thanks for looking in!

~and may your 4th of July be happy~

This Moment

A friday ritual inspired by Soulmama

A single photo, no words

A moment I want to pause, treasure and remember

Have a wonderful weekend y'all:)

Making a grapevine wreath

This morning we went to our favorite park. While the children rode their bikes, smelled flowers, found blueberries to pick and climbed trees, all the usual, I 

 looked around for inspiration for a project. I have been a little low on inspiration lately, still recovering from a stomach virus that hit us this weekend past.

I passed a beautiful flowering bush and saw that it was covered with grapevines growing 

all over and around it. Remembering that the wreaths I usually use as bases for our advent wreath and any other wreath we might make, are made from grapevines, I thought that this might be a great project.

Helping out this beautiful struggling bush, and making a home made base for future wreath projects.

Here is Keenan bringing the tangly vines, after we all got busy taking the leaves off.

We went back several times until the bush was almost free of vines, this I think was Keenan's favorite part of the project.

Kaleena got straight to work twisting the vines around each other, 

such a monkey she is, look how she uses her foot to work the wreath.

Keenan too enjoyed twisting and turning the vines around, his never turned into a wreath, but he took the task very seriously.

Here Kaleena's is all finished 

And here is mine, I was very happy with it, and believe that it will turn brown once it dries, just like the ones found in the craft stores, although I will have to wait to know for sure.

Back home and after a swim, we all got busy with wool, felt, cutting

and sewing 

This was what Kaleena made, and it was added to the big wreath to make it a pretty summer time center piece, perhaps for the front door once we get a nail hammered in.

This was Keenan creation, he too insisted on cutting and sewing the felt, 

and this was what he made,  he was very proud of it.

I made a sun center piece for the wreath

And here is the finished wreath. I think it turned out very cute,

simple and homemade with love.

And I look forward to see it changing with the seasons, and in time be part of our advent wreath.

Thanks for stopping by!

~And have a lovely day~