Backyard Farmgals

The girls in my 'hood are all abuzz with clean eating.  We mostly eat very clean, minus the occasional dessert here and there.  We also have been mostly sugar free for the last 10 years.  I say mostly because one: I love chocolate, and two: I really, really love chocolate, and three: I really love to bake.  It's terrible!  I have good days and weeks and then I have a particularly stressful week and the chocolate resurfaces or I get the itch to bake something divine, and I dive in.  Then I have to start all over.  It's a battle... I thought I would share a healthy recipe that has been a staple in our family for years.  This is loosely based on Ina Garten's Chinese Chicken Salad.  I modified it years ago to clean it up and my family instantly fell in love.  My kids gobble this like they haven't eaten in weeks.  Clean plates, full bellies, and a happy mama (in fact, I couldn't even photograph this without little hands sneakin...

Asparagus season is fast approaching and I am craving those tender green spears, grilled, wrapped in prosciutto, in salad, in soup... the possibilities are endless and very tasty, I even love it raw.  While ranting away this week about my love of asparagus, I was asked to write a bit about how to plant it.  To know how to plant it, you must understand how it grows. Asparagus is a fascinating plant, you might be amazed at what it is capable of... Asparagus is a perennial plant, which means that if properly cared for, it will come back year after year.  Asparagus patches have been known to live for 30 years or longer, but typically a patch will live for about 15 years.  Because it is so long lived, it is important to prepare the soil properly and select an appropriate site.  Asparagus likes sunny, well drained and fertile soil.  Before planting, a good well rotted manure compost should be incorporated into the soil as deeply as possible, as well as a fe...

I love asparagus, especially the fresh picked right off the farm kind.  We are lucky enough to have a farm close to us that sells asparagus every spring.  I planted my own asparagus patch, but you can't harvest for three years after planting...I have one more year of patiently waiting before I can harvest my own tender little stalks.  This year I decided to try to save a bit for later in the year, so I decided to bravely freeze fourteen pounds of the tender stuff. It is a fairly simple process, you need a large pot of boiling water, an ice bath and a clean dry towel set up.  I always set my process up in a long line, it seems to make everything go faster if I am not walking back and forth all of the time.  You will also need parchment or wax paper, cookie sheets, and gallon sized zip top freezer bags. Here's how to do it: 1. Wash and clean the fresh asparagus. 2. Trim the bottoms, I usually cut about an inch off, if it's really fresh there is no need t...