Raising a healthy Jane (or just being a healthy grown-up Jane) comes from good food and proper nutrition. Grab your aprons, I’m on kitchen duty with food to spare and recipes to share! When time allows, here’s where you’ll find one of my how-to-convert-to-an-organic-diet recipes.
Winnie Nielsen says: Rosemary. The herb of remembrance whose lovely scent and flavor has filled gardens for centuries. I have some growing myself outside in my little Winter garden along with some flat leaf parsley. Cold hardy for this area, they seem as happy as can be and I love going out and snipping some of each to use in cooking. One idea I made up is to chop both parsley and rosemary into a fine dice, mix with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh ground pepper and then stuff under the breast skin of a roasting chicken and rub on top of the rest of the bird and bake. It gives the meat such a nice flavor and smells wonderful in the process.
Karlyne says: I do that with turkey, Winnie, but I use butter instead of olive oil, and fresh garlic, too!
Cindi Johnson says: Rosemary…. my first experience with rosemary (conscious one anyway) was when I was in my early 20s at a backyard barbecue of someone ~ oh I don’t even remember them now, oops! But I remember the rosemary!!! I was admiring their huge grill laid out with enough chicken to feed an army when two ladies came out of the kitchen, one with a big stock pot of homemade barbecue sauce and the other with a tray covered with – branches?? The chief fire master explained it was rosemary and took a branch, dunked it into the sauce and used it as a brush to slather the barbecue sauce all over what ended up being a mighty fine meal. Naturally, I begged to be introduced to the wonderful plant that produced such intense flavor. Herbs are now always in my garden. Especially rosemary. Grow it, cut it, rub it, smell it, love it!
Ah rosemary for remembrance! I adore rosemary, my favorite herb of all. Have a monster pot of it in my living room, scents the whole downstairs. Use branches of it for skewers when you BBQ.
Winnie Nielsen says: This is an interesting combination and I am fascinated at how to make it with real ingredients and dry yourself. I could try this, minus the garlic, since I have most all of the other ingredients on hand. Is it good on most meats? Or better on some and not others?
MaryJane says: It’s good as a general seasoning (like store bought seasoning salt), which makes it good for seasoning most meats. It’s also delicious on popcorn!
MaryJane says: Nope, just at room temperature.
Winnie Nielsen says: Yesterday I saw tulips in pots for sale at The Fresh Market. It won’t be much longer now.
Winnie Nielsen says: Oh my, the cutest lamb ever!! Look at that soft fluffy wool. So, so sweet! My daughter’s goat gave birth Thursday to 5 healthy does. The vet school said only a handful of does do that in our county in a given year. Three are black with white blazes and the other two are buff with white and black markings. They are small but all healthy.
Cindi Johnson says: Five! That’s amazing. Congrats to the new mom LOL! 🙂
Cindi Johnson says: This makes me feel warm just looking at the picture. There’s a small farm down the road that has an area that they let go for a season or two and then open the gates to let the sheep in. I love watching their grazing progress! When I go by in the morning, you can barely see the animals the growth is so tall. When I go by in the afternoon, there is the most magnificent maze they have created with their grazing. Two days and it’s all gone.
What a sweet face! Reminds me of ALL the lambs that grew up on the farm “with” me! 😀
CJ
Winnie Nielsen says: No too much longer down here before these little busy bees will be happily buzzing from flower to flower. florida can have azaleas in bloom by late February as well as other flowering plants.
Cindi Johnson says: There was a comfrey plant next to the front door of my old house. I used to sit on the steps every morning wrapped in a blanket, coffee in hand, while keeping an eye on the kids at the end of the street waiting for the school bus. Everything from tiny cutter bees to huge bumble bees filled that plant, happily crawling down as deep as possible to gather their gold. I especially loved the smaller bumbles because they would “sing” the loudest ~ almost as if they were talking with the flower as they went about their business. Beautiful and amazing creatures ~ I love bees. Ah, now I have the beginnings of spring fever.
MaryJane says: And you’ve given me spring fever this morning with your lovely description of your morning sit.
NO spring fever here ! Here in Lancaster County PA, are having temps for over a week of 10 degrees or less. We have windchills of – 10+ and that’s during the day, nights are even colder ! Sunny but when you open the door to go outside the cold hits like you an avalanche . I had to venture out to get RX for my sick cat yesterday and was dressed like “Nanook of the North ” ( remember that book? ) I had on my politically incorrect Russian fur hat , the one with flaps that looks like a furry version of Elmer Fudd’s hat? Gotta say it was way warm ( oh and its a vintage hat so slightly less guilt I guess) I can hardly wait for even temps in the 30s now.
Cindi Johnson says: Haha! We had something similar last weekend. I wish I’d had a hat like yours! Hope your cat gets better. The things we do for our fuzzy loved ones 🙂
Winnie Nielsen says: This pizza crust looks more like a regular flour one. My daughter, who is gluten free, brought home a new cook book and we made up several types of recipes using gluten free flours. The combo we used the most was almond flour with potato starch and tapioca starch. The items turned out good but the bread was a bit crumbly. What I like about the looks of this crust is that it seems like it would stay together better and not get so crumbly.
Jody says: Is there any thing I can sub the polenta for? I can’t eat cor n products….
MaryJane says: Here’s what my DIL, Ashley (MaryJanesFarm food guru), had to say:
Hi Jody, since we didn’t test this recipe without polenta, I can’t recommend a substitution with complete confidence. I do have a couple suggestions. The polenta could simply be omitted, but you may find that the dough needs a little less water. It will also change the final texture of the crust (the polenta adds a little chew and creaminess to the dough). My other suggestion is to substitute millet grits for the polenta if they’re tolerated.
Jen says: I would like to know where I can get a pizza pan like that. I have been searching for one for ages.
MaryJane says: Here’s what my DIL, Ashley (MaryJanesFarm food guru), had to say:
Hi Jen, unfortunately, this pan was one of those local finds that I can’t seem to track down online. I did find two similar pans, made by USA pans, which I have always enjoyed using. They only differ from our pan in the depth of the sides:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/deep-dish-pizza-pan-12
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/thin-crust-pizza-pan-12-inch
I hope this is helpful!
Winnie Nielsen says: What a beautiful window plant for a January inspiration.
Winnie Nielsen says: I love all varieties of Kale. This Fall, I have red stem Kale growing and I love it’s tender young leaves and flavor.
Packed up and leaving Iceland in a few hours. We had an incredible adventure yesterday riding the back country in a jeep and hiking up to a glacier. Can’t wait to show photos ! It was amazingly beautiful in the deep aqua blue color. I did fall into a hole of snow and wrecked my left big toe. Ouch!! Hobbling around but at least it is at the end of our trip . We were out last night until midnight and got to see some very faint northern lights. The green did show up on Warren’s photos and will share as soon as possble. The island is rugged , open, and quite beautiful.
MaryJane says: Can’t wait to see photos!
We have LEGOS strewn all over our house on a very regular basis. My 5-year-old, Mia, claims she’s going to be a builder when she grows up. Turns out, she can be, and it could be a result of building and designing LEGO sets. In fact, anyone so inspired can create the next new lego set for sale.
Meet Thomas Poulson, a tree surgeon and gardener in Bristol, UK, whose passion for nature and love of LEGOS have collided to inspire the very first LEGO Bird Set. Poulson credits a chance encounter with a certain Robin Red Breast, who happened to land on his shovel while he was working one day, as the inspiration that began his journey.
A recently rekindled passion for LEGOS (he refers to them as the best puzzle in the world) sent him scurrying home that fated evening to work on an idea, and “Bobby the Robin” was born. The original Poulson made that first night was given to his mother as a thank-you for providing him with his first set of LEGOS. He found the creation of Bobby so enjoyable that he decided to make his favorite birds of Europe. When he finished the first seven and posted them online, he was quickly encouraged to submit his ideas directly to LEGO, where enthusiasts get a chance to see their ideas in production if they get 10,000 supporters. Poulson says the biggest challenge of designing is that he never has enough LEGOS, a sentiment with which LEGO builders like my Mia can sympathize.
Cindi Johnson says: Wow! I have never seen any Lego projects like that! Going to have to share this with my bird-watching friends; after I go visit the Lego site 🙂
MaryJane says: Pretty cool. I agree Cindi. Wow!
Connie-Killarney says: Boy! would I like to own those birds! Thanks for sharing! I so enjoyed this!! I got a new Bird -feeder for Christmas, shaped like an Old-Fashioned Tire swing, bet that would look cool made from Legos!
Happy New Year, Meg! Some of my fondest homeschooling memories include the sights and sounds of LEGOS Both of our children spent hours building. I always felt like the best teacher ever when they were using their creative thinking skills with LEGOS. When they were little they belonged to a LEGO club where they would build with other children… We took photos of their creations to be saved in a notebook for future reference. Nicolette used to create little mini pieces of furniture that were adorable. I bought her the pink girly LEGOS but she used them all as did her brother! I think Thomas’s birds are GENIUS!
Megan says: Haha, I absolutely agree on the best teacher feeling. The girls and I have what we call Lego dates. We grab a glass of water and a little snack and spend hours on the floor designing restaurants, airplanes, monster trucks, etc.
Katy Cervantes says: What imagination! My Grandbabes will love this. Thank you for sharing these talent. Welcome.
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
This photo feels like Spring is coming on although I know it is too early for your area. But not too much longer. Weather.com says the NorthWest will have warmer than average temps for February-April. Who knows? Maybe.
I love these Photo-of-the-Day posts. They have become my second act of the morning (the first is making coffee, of course) and a very pleasant start to my day. It does feel like spring is right around the corner. I’d best get to planning that garden! Perhaps this year’s harvest will yield some pictures just as beautiful as last years ~ and food just as good.
I love it that you love it. It’s like having morning coffee with you, Cindi.
Ah, yes . . . that certainly looks familiar!! 😀
CJ
Wow! This “machine” has become one with the land. It has the same colours and roughness as the land itself. Everything we make should have been the same way, one with the land.