Arugula out the Ears

What do you do when you have Arugula growing like crazy in your garden? (I must have some freaky microclimate, perfect for this member of the Brassicaceae family, in my backyard).


You. Make. Pesto.

The first photo was taken after I was DONE! Which just goes to show that I had harvested oh so much. So I gave some away, ate some in a salad, and then started sauteeing the rest with garlic and olive oil. Yum.

Arugula Pesto (Nut and dairy free)

A BUNCH of Arugula*
A BUNCH of Spinach
A bunch of cloves of garlic
Some salt
Some olive oil (enough to get it to all blend together)
A little water (for the same reason as above)

Blend.

(At first, I hadn't added any spinach. Man oh man was that ever spicy! The spinach tones it down nicely, and stretches it, too.)

I warmed the pesto on the stove on low to get it all nice and um, nice. Then froze it in '1 family meal' portions. The spice of the Arugula makes me forget all about the Pine Nuts and Parmesan!

I've tried this recipe with Cilantro, too. The kids loved both kinds!

*You can even eat the flowers! They're slightly sweet, slightly spicy.

Really Cool Gardening Imagery

Some skeptic is sure to ask, "Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this 'resurrection body' look like?" If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a "dead" seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don't look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.

You will notice that the variety of bodies is stunning. Just as there are different kinds of seeds, there are different kinds of bodies—humans, animals, birds, fish—each unprecedented in its form. You get a hint at the diversity of resurrection glory by looking at the diversity of bodies not only on earth but in the skies—sun, moon, stars—all these varieties of beauty and brightness. And we're only looking at pre-resurrection "seeds"—who can imagine what the resurrection "plants" will be like!

This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body—but only if you keep in mind that when we're raised, we're raised for good, alive forever! The corpse that's planted is no beauty, but when it's raised, it's glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural—same seed, same body, but what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality to when it is raised up in spiritual immortality!

I Corinthians 15: 35-44 from The Message

Seriously?

New 'food safety' legislation. I've been snoping it out since yesterday and haven't found any good news yet. I'm so mad I could spit. And not to get political here but Obama's latest video address also made me mad along these same lines. I quote:

"We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can't do on our own. There are certain things that only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and don't cause us harm."

I'm pretty confident that I can ensure that the food I eat is safe with much more efficacy and vested interest than the government. And it seems to me that the right to grow my own food in my back yard is a right as natural as the right to breathe. I feel that way about owning chickens and drinking raw milk too but I understand the need to keep livestock out of the cities: the animals could get sick.

I don't see how the legislation is enforceable. For example, I buy my eggs from a lady who meets me in a Target parking lot at a different time each week. I get my milk from someone who could easily be selling it to me as 'pet food'. I grow herbs and vegetables for medicinal and culinary use but it can't be proven that the tomatoes aren't just decorative. And how do you keep a person from eating the cucumbers handed over the neighborly fence? I for one will continue to grow and buy my food as locally as possible, regardless of the laws, simply because I believe its the right thing to do.

Life After Aphids

I finally figured out why my spinach and broccoli have shriveled and turned yellow. You guessed it: copious aphid populations. Grrr! I've sprayed with a dish soap/tobasco solution. Is there hope for my plants or should I just cut them back, dig them up, and pray that my beets recover? They've covered the undersides of my spinach and put out their gooky goonk. My broccoli is pretty covered too and is definitely not bearing. The beets seem less affected though the aphids are definitely expanding their territory in that direction. I really want my beets to survive! I mean, I really want my spinach and broccoli too but at least I've had them for dinner. Any suggestions? How often should I spray?

Daily Bread: Low Sugar Granola

For my lenten fast from sweets, I decided to develop a granola recipe with much less sugar than what I usually use. I think it turned out quite well, but my husband misses the sugar. If you try it, let me know what you think.

4 cups regular rolled oats (not quick)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, or a blend of other sweet spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg
1/2 - 1 cup nuts and seeds

2 cups boiling water
scant 1/4 cup sugar (white, turbinado, demerara, brown, honey, syrup, whatever)

1/4 cup oil (or melt 1/4 cup butter in the boiling water)

1 cup dried fruit

Oven: 350 degres farenheit

1. Combine the first set of dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2. Dissolve sugar (and melt butter if using) in boiling water. Pour the sugar water over oat mixture and stir until everything is wet. Let that sit for 10 minutes.
3. Drizzle oil (unless you used butter) over the oat mixture. Do not stir. Crumble the sticky oat mixture evenly over a greased, large, rimmed cookie sheet. Drizzle any remaining oil in the bowl over the oats on the cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until the edges of the granola are lightly browned.
5. Stir and turn over the granola with a spatula, bringing the outside pieces in to the center and the inside pieces out. Break up any large chunks into bite sized pieces.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 275 and continue baking until dry, stirring every 20 minutes if necessary to prevent the edges from burning.
7. Sprinkle dried fruit over granola and allow it to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

from Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner

When they brought Jesus to the place where his dead friend lay, Jesus wept. It is very easy to sentimentalize the scene and very tempting because to sentimentalize something is to look only at the emotion in it and at the emotion it stirs in us rather than at the reality of it, which we are always tempted not to look at because reality, truth, silence are all what we are not much good at and avoid when we can. To sentimentalize something is to savor rather than to suffer the sadness of it, is to sigh over the prettiness of it rather than tremble at the beauty of it, which may make fearsome demands of us or pose fearsome threats. Not just as preachers but as Christians in general we are particularly given to sentimentalizing our faith as much of Christian art and Christian preaching bear witness - the sermon as tearjerker, the Gospel an urn of long-stemmed roses and baby's breath to brighten up the front of the church, Jesus as Gregory Peck.

But here standing beside the dead body of his dead friend he is not Gregory Peck. He has no form or comeliness about him that we should desire him, and as one from whom men hide their faces we turn from him. To see a man weep is not a comely sight, especially this man whom we want to be stronger and braver than a man, and the impulse is to turn from him as we turn from anybody who weeps because the sight of real tears, painful and disfiguring, forces us to look to their real source where we do no choose to look because where his tears come from, our tears also come from.

The Tenderest Yield Yet!