Easy Like Sunday Morning & Market Day

• Market
• Weekend Herb Blogging

It’s the perfect morning for a nap!

Scene at the market this morning…

Rhubarb & peppers

First tomatoes of the season

Some bunny p0rn

Fiddlehead Ferns

Ramps

ALMONDS!

Fresh wheat

Lavender

A little music break…

Everywhere you looked, there were luscious cherries

Pluots

Peaches and apricots - these apricots tasted like nectar from the Gods!

Summer is here! WATERMELONS!

And bouquets of wildflowers!

Weekend Herb Blogging

My first crack at Weekend Herb Blogging - so be kind. This week it’s being hosted by Wandering Chopsticks. I was at the market yesterday and picked up some lovely greens, however I was in the mood for some crunch. So I made Garbanzo Bean Salad to go on top.  I love the combo of garbanzos and the celery together.

Can of garbanzos
Dice of 2-3 celery hearts
Spring onions or shallot minced
Garlic glove minced
Italian parsley
Juice of a lemon
A drizzle of olive oil
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Champagn vinegar, if needed
Salt and pepper

Eat right out of the bowl, dump on some greens or serve over toasted Italian bread. It’s addicting.

Make extra for an afternoon snack!

You are sharing with the organic garbage disposals… are you not!

Nom-nom-nom

Harvey, we will miss you

You always made me laugh

Idiot

Idiot - Idiot - Idiot! Yes Madam, you are an idiot and a bigot. Sometimes a scarf is just a scarf. Idiot.

Movie Meme the final week

So here we are at the end - W-Z. Thanks everyone for playing with me - Try not to google.

1. Play it cool boy, real cool West Side Story ~Zippy’s Mum

2. My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs. Whale Rider ~Zippy’s Mum

3. You *are* in that chair! Whatever Happened to Baby Jane ~Auntie Deb

4. Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ~Zippy’s Mum

5. One thing puzzles me. Why are you always at such pains to prevent people knowing the truth about you, Sir Robert? The Winslow Boy ~Auntie Deb DKM says - Jeremy… swoon!

6. 4:30. Time for milking Witness ~Carrie

7. Hello. I’m the mother of the notorious Crossroads Killer. When my son comes home after one of his famous crimes, his clothes are just filthy. Clue: Spanish Flick

8. If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day. Wuthering Heights ~Zippy’s Mum

9. Life is like the surf, so give yourself away like the sea. Clue: Mexican Flick

10. Ooh, I’m really scared. No! Don’t! There’s a- a peck here with an acorn pointed at me! Willow ~Jessica, Keeper of the Kale

11. Damn you. Damn you. Damn you! Damn you! Clue: Tyrone Power’s last film

12. ‘UTTIN’ ON THE ‘IIIIITZ. Young Frankenstein ~KC

13. I… I Need to know who he is. I… I need to stand there, I need to look him in the eye and I need to know that it’s him. Clue: Filmed in SF

Meezer Bun Rules

A meezer bun doesn’t need to leave her fort…

unless she wants, especially if there is romaine involved.  Of course, I can always drag the romaine back into my fort any time I want to.

Cooking with DKM

What? Are you cooking again?

What to do with 1kg of carrots…

Fiona Bun - Is this a rhetorical question… you give them to the buns!

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Nope, you make…

Spiced Carrot & Feta Gnocchi in minted cream sauce

From Gourmet Vegetarian

1kg of carrots
200 g of feta, crumbled
280 g of flour
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t garam masala*
1 egg slightly beaten

2 spring onions
30 g butter
2 garlic cloves crushed
250 ml whipping cream
2 T shredded mint

Cut the carrots into large pieces and steam, boil or microwave until tender. Drain and allow to cool slightly before transferring to a food processor. Process the carrots and feta together. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Stir in sifted flour, spices and egg, and mix to form a soft dough. Lightly coat your fingertips with flour and shape teaspoons of the mixture into flat circles.

To make the minted cream sauce, slice the spring onion. Melt the butter in a frying pan, add garlic and spring onion and cook over over medium heat for 3 minutes, or until the garlic is soft and golden. Add the cream, bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes, of until the cream has slightly thickened. Remove from the heat and stir through the mint.

Meanwhile, cook the gnocchi, in batches, in a large saucepan of boiling salted water for about 2 minutes or until they float to the surface. Transfer to your plate and drizzle with cream sauce.

They don’t look as well in the picture as they could… but they sure were tasty. I think they were just too hot when I took the picture. Where is a good food stylist when you need one?

Notes - I would add more spice next time.
* You can buy garam masala, but I prefer to make mine. I toast up coriander seed, black peppercorns, cumin seeds, dry ginger, cardamom seeds, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf and then grind it all up.

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At least I get some skritches after she is all done!

Monday Bunday - Life as a Bunny Slave

My life as a bunny slave
By, DKM

Lando - Will you get on with it!

Clean the greens

Spin the greens

Chill the greens for the week

Lando - Don’t forget… FEED THE BUN!

Lando - It’s good to be the bun!

Easy Like Sunday Morning

I thought I’d share the Secret Garden… The path to the garden is paved in river stones with maples and primroses

Come on DKM, I’ll guide you…

You have to pass through the dogwood and birch trees…

Beyond the ferns…

To get to the bird baths and Bacchus. If you hang out in the garden long enough, you will see bluebirds, finches and hummingbirds. And if you are very quiet a faerie or two.

I hope you enjoyed your trip - right now I’m listening for Bonnie’s whispers in the wind.

Meme Catch-up

We have a couple of meme’s to catch up on… First Miss Boo tagged us for the name meme.’

Three Names Meme - Lots of kitties wanted to know what Tara’s three names were after her Mom went to see Cats the other night. It got Tara and Kavan to thinking of a fun meme. In case you aren’t familiar with The Naming of Cats, in the Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, by T.S. Eliot, we all have three names! So, in this meme, you must link to the originator of the meme (that is Tara), list the following rules, and then tell:

1. The name that the family uses daily (such as Peter, Agustus, Alonzo, or James)
2. The name that is particular, a name that’s peculiar, and more dignified (such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat)
3. What you are doing when you are thinking of the name that only you know, and will never confess (when engaged in rapt contemplation), that deep and inscrutable singular name.
Then tag three cats (and let them know they are tagged) to give us their names.
So - here are mine:

1. Sophia
2. The Diva Kitty
3. Curled up in a sunspot taking a nap with a tummy full of lobster snuggling next to DKM.

We are going to tag some bunnies ’cause they have secret names also…

1. Hugo the Bun
2. Sammy the Bun
3. Racer the Bun

And Sassy tagged Orlando Bun for The Memoir Meme -

The rules are:
1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4.Tag at least five more blogs with links.
5.Don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.
6. Have fun!!

When in doubt, eat timothy hay

We tag:

1. Archie Ann’s Mum
2. The Tid
3. Freckles
4. Princess
5. Ferdinand