Elana’s Pantry

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Usually I plant my garden on Mother’s Day with my husband and the boys –it is their annual gift to me.

This year, we did things a bit differently. We had someone help us with the yard and basically ripped all the flowers out of the beds and replanted with edibles. This took place before May began and gave us a good jump on the season. By the beginning of June we were reaping massive amounts of garden greens from the front yard and having huge salads each night to keep up with the garden yield.

Combine this micro-farming experiment with our CSA share and all-in-all we are experiencing quite the bounty of fresh vegetables this year. It’s amazing! Many friends are sharing in our good fortune (and concomitant good eating).

Getting the garden in early has numerous advantages including a longer growing season. While I usually have green tomatoes in August around the end of the month, each year the plants die heavy with fruit on the vine with the arrival of the first frost in September.  However, this year things may turn out differently. The tomato plants are already fruiting; I think we will have ripe red tomatoes by my birthday (early August). This is a good thing as my husband won’t partake in a store bought tomato! He will be very happy this summer. In fact he already is, other than my regular ritual of piling pounds of salad on his plate each night. I need help consuming those greens –can’t do it alone.

Our massive crop has prompted me to become quite creative with dressings in order to mix things up as best I can. Here’s one of my favorites.

On the baseball front, things are moving along. We are knee deep in practices. My son had one this evening and has a scrimmage tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. He is doing ok on the all-star team, having a fantastic time with his teammates and actually getting a good amount of playing time in. Stay tuned for more baseball updates in the future.

Cherry Arugula Solstice Salad

The boys were buzzed this afternoon –their hair that is. Now the little baldies will be nice and cool in the warm weather.

It hasn’t been all that hot though lately. In fact, we’ve had many cloudy afternoons and so far this summer haven’t made it to the pool yet. I have a feeling that once the summer solstice passes we’ll get a good dose of hot weather and go for late afternoon swims at the community pool before our dinner-time baseball practices.

On another note, because so many of you have expressed an interest in threads and conversations that might not be entirely related to one post, I have decided to launch a forum. Where is it? Just go to the navigation bar on the right hand side and under “main menu” click “forum” and you will be taken there straight away. This forum creates another step in the evolution of our ongoing discussions regarding recipes, celiac, organics, diy eco-cleaners and several other topics that have bubbled up over here recently. I hope we all have a lot of fun with it.

My mother-in-law is having a summer solstice party on Saturday. I created this Cherry Arugula Salad in honor of her event. Although I know it will never surpass her all time favorite dish, Chipotle Orange Chicken, I’m just hoping that she’ll like it enough to serve it alongside.

Top 10 Healthy Memorial Day Recipes

Memorial Day weekend is a great time for picnics and barbecues. Below you will find some of my favorite festive dishes for this great little three day weekend. These are perfect for warm weather parties. Packed with nutrition as well as flavor, this simple, healthy grub will wow your guests.

Select 3 or 4 dishes if you are having a smallish gathering, or cook up just about everything below if you are having a grand affair.

What do you like to do on Memorial Day weekend and what is your favorite dish to cook once the warm weather settles in? Leave a comment and let us know!

Spinach Salad with Pistachios

Well, Mother’s Day was gorgeous. A warm and balmy 70 degrees, we went for a lovely hike and after that, I prepared a big dinner for my husband, the boys, our friends Chris and Larry and their little ones. We had Chicken Marbella (delicious) and a big spinach salad. Chris helped me to surreptitiously photograph the salad above as the hub does not like it when I take food pics whilst we have guests visiting for a meal. Actually, my entire family gets somewhat annoyed whenever I photograph food if it is anywhere near the dinner hour. They just want to eat. And who can blame them!

On another note, I’ve had something in the hopper for a while now. I have been passionate about the environment for quite some time. Having children drew my focus in from the macrocosm (environmental consulting for Fortune 500 companies) to the microcosm –family and home.

Each spring I am saddened when people in my neighborhood begin to spray their lawns with chemical poisons. There is such a well documented risk of pesticide toxicity; I worry about all of those dogs and children playing on lawns and rolling around in pesticides.

Therefore, I have launched a new site, called My Dandelion is a Flower. If you like your pesticides, then this website is probably not the place for you, so just skip it. If you are a little bit earthy or organic, then definitely check it out –you’ll have a good time. Unlike Elana’s Pantry which is a blog, updated frequently with my writing and recipes, My Dandelion is a Flower is a static site, full of fun facts and helpful hints. Enjoy!

Chicken Salad with Almonds

Even though the days of August are long and hot, the month seems to speed by every year, and this year has been no different.

Today the boys started school and my older son had his first viola lesson. He locked the viola case to keep his little brother out. When we arrived at the lesson, he realized that he had forgotten the key, leaving it at home in its “secret hiding place.” Needless to say, not much viola was played at that lesson. It was a lesson of a different type in terms of being patient and not blaming an eight year old for responsibility that he need not have been given in the first place.

When we arrived home from this “lesson,” I continued this week’s binge of food photography. I have been told by a little bird in New York that I need more entrées for my cookbook. The problem: while I have plenty of entrées, I love to shoot desserts. It is impossible to take a bad picture of a cookie.

Tonight’s project was a chicken salad with almonds. Given that it had plenty of fruit in it, the boys ate it heartily and without complaint. That’s dinner success in my book!

The whole family found this “one pot meal” light, yet hearty and satisfying. I took a huge bowl of this summery chicken salad with greens, fruit and nuts to my younger son’s back-to-school potluck last weekend and there was not a morsel left.

Cherry Orange Salad

My boys love this salad. Packed with fruit and full of good greens, they just can’t say no to this one.

Cherry Orange Salad
4 cups mesclun greens
3 oranges, sliced into triangle wedges
1 cup cherries, pitted and cut in half
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1. Place greens, orange triangles and cherries in a medium salad bowl
2. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar
3. Toss and serve

Serves 6

This gluten-free salad is a hit at barbecues, picnics and potlucks.

Cucumber Mango Salad

We’ve just come into another burst of warm weather, so I’ve been spending more time on the front porch watching my boys play and of course, making warm weather salads. This is one of my favorites for a sunny day.

Sun Sprout Salad

After an unusually long, snowy winter here in Colorado, we have been blessed with warmer weather. The sun was shining today as I sat on my porch, read the newspaper and watched people strolling through the neighborhood. Delightful!

My husband took the boys skiing, hence the porch sitting, and time for a leisurely grocery trip as well. I called my friend Tara and we met at the market so that we could chat and do our shopping together. We had fun looking over all of the spring produce and were duly inspired.

The sunflower sprouts caught my eye, as did the sugar plum tomatoes. I picked up a pack of each, eager to inaugurate my spring salad festivities. On these sunny days, dinner is a protein (chicken or fish) and two or three side salads. When the weather warms, I eat as much raw food as I can. My husband too –he helped me devour this one.

More Spinach Salad, Mom!

Children eat salad? Yes, it’s true. The boys eat this in heaps. The secret is fruit. My boys love fruit. I can generally get them to eat anything if I spike it with a little bit of fruit and insist they finish an entire portion before they get more. Common sense approach to avoiding kiddie food waste. And this way they can’t just pick out the raisins and leave the greens for me, the human leftovers vacuum.