Green Chile Pie.

One of the "extra-curricular" activities at my work is a company cookbook. Ideas are being solicited from employees to make a cookbook with recipes, entertaining and etiquette tips and original artwork. My submission is a simple recipe, but delicious. My mom used to make it now and again and it's just melt-in-your-mouth quiche awesomeness. I give you: Green Chile Pie.

1 1/2 cup shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup Milk (or 2 cups half and half)
2 cans whole green chiles (or fresh if you are so lucky)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
cilantro to garnish

Take the whole green chiles and slice them open. Fan them out in the bottom of a pie pan to make a "crust" of green chiles.




Layer the cheese into the pie pan.




In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture evenly over the pie pan.





Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro if you've got it.

Busy.

We were busy in the garden this weekend. I'll post pictures soon. The little starts in the window are starting to get bigger and there are some sprouts outside too - peas, radishes, onions and kale! On the agenda this weekend was:

-Starting tomato seeds
-Sowing more radishes and spinach (two rows of each)
-Pruning the raspberry vines
-Buying seed potatoes
-Planting two grape vines
-A little weeding

Next up on the agenda in the coming few weeks:

-Transplanting broccoli starts outside
-Sowing beets and onions outside
-Making potato towers and planting the seed potatoes
-Building a proper raspberry trellis
-Weeding beds around berry bushes and rosemary. Insert edging to make it look nice!

The busy season is fast approaching. I'm feeling much more relaxed and confident about the things I planted last year like broccoli and peas. But I'm stressing out about things I haven't done before like grapes and potatoes. I guess it's all a learning experience and if something doesn't turn out well this year, I'll do it better next.

El Cheapo Banana Bread.

No, I didn't find a miracle banana bread recipe that uses less ingredients and costs pennies. I did, however, find a giant bowl of overripe bananas in my workplace lunchroom that were on their way out the door.




I spared six the fate of the landfill and made some banana bread with a free main ingredient. I went with Banana Banana Bread from allrecipes. I've made it a few times and it's good and banana-y.





I woke up an hour early this morning and made it before work. I felt so accomplished before I even left the house. I had already baked bread, done the dishes, put out the compost and watered the seedlings. I wish more days were like that.

Transfer.

I spent a little time this afternoon with my seedlings. I have a couple seed trays with 1" pots where I start all my seeds. Last year I transplanted straight to the garden from the 1" pots. I didn't realize until I got further along in the season that the starts would fare better and get larger if I grew them in a larger space. There just wasn't enough space for the roots to expand. So, this year I am starting in the 1" pots and moving them over to 3" pots once they get large enough in hopes of having heartier starts to put out in the garden.

I transplanted the broccoli and cabbage over to the larger pots. Grow, little broccoli, grow!!

The window is filling up now.

I don't know what I'm going to do when I get new windows and I lose my perfect southern-facing window ledges.

First day of Spring.

I've been a little absent from the blog the last week, mostly because I haven't had anything of note to write about. It's still raining, it's still cold and I'm still waiting for my first sowing to sprout.

This weekend is Mike and I's anniversary. When we met, on our first "real date" we went hiking. I remember we had to take off our jackets half way through the hike because it was getting too warm. We ended up going to a jazz show in the evening and we rode our bikes. It was a cool early spring evening, but it wasn't cold. Last year we attempted to memorialize our first date by doing the same hike. We got caught in stop and go traffic on the way out because everyone was headed to the coast on such a beautiful early spring day. We ended up going to the Arboretum and walking around in short sleeve shirts. This year, however, it's still barely breaking the 50 degree mark in the days and the forecast is a consistant 10-day out call for rain.

Yesterday we had some unforecasted sun. We went outside and stood in it. It was glorious.

A Little Comparison.

After a brief review of my blog posts last year at this time I discovered by this date last year my plum tree looked like this:

This year, right now, my plum tree looks like this:

It's been a chilly early Spring around these parts and nothing's happening yet...

On any given weekend.

I feel like it's a pretty average Sunday here. My kitchen looks about like it does every weekend. English muffins cooking on the griddle, black beans simmering, muffins rising, tortillas defrosting, muffins cooling, cheese for snacking, and the ever-present overflowing sink of dirty dishes. The curse of the small, working kitchen without a dishwasher: