Dig Right In

It's been a busy couple of weeks at Hein household! We hired my talented friend, Alida Coury, to design our master bedroom. She did a fantastic job but boy am I glad to be done with the project. Between paint fumes, wallpaper fumes, and assembling new furniture...we're ready to just enjoy the space the again!
But, because I'm always a list maker and a project do-er, I've got our next project in full swing. We've hired a local, green landscaping company called Dig Right In to landscape our front and back yard. My sister-in-law, Jenn, used them last year to put in her raised garden beds and paver's patio. She was very pleased with their work and I'm excited to have them work on our yard!
We already have a pretty big paver's patio in the back yard but we're asking them to put in some decorative shrubs and flowers along with 2 or 3 raised garden beds and trellises.
Raised beds should allow me to really grow my gardening skills and harvest a bountiful load of crop!
I'm posting some before photos of the back yard. They aren't that great of shots because they don't show the whole yard but you can see that we have lovely lilac bushes and a large crab apple tree that all bloom super fragrant! The landscapers are putting in flowers that will attract butterflies and bees to help pollinate the veggies in my garden. :)

Puppies - Sosua, DR

Reason # 46,852 why we loved staying at Casa Vientuno in Sosua: Saskia and Marc are dog lovers.

There are a lot of stray dogs on the island of the Dominican Republic. It's quite sad to see so many pups searching for food. (It reminded me of Athens, Greece...lots of stray dogs there too. It's heartbreaking.)

Shortly after Marc and Saskia moved to the DR, they found Blanquito (the bigger brown dog). He and his sister were puppies and they were squatting in an abandoned house down the street. The house was being demolished so the puppies had no place to live. One neighbor took the girl pup and Marc and Saskia took Blanquito. He's such a sweet dog.

Then about 3 months ago one neighbor found out their dog was pregnant and just kicked her out onto the street. Marc and Saskia took the dog in, the black dog named Puka, and cared for her through the rest of her pregnancy. She had a litter of 3 puppies, 2 of which had been adopted by the time we arrived on the island. But she still had a 10 week old puppy, with Saskia named Cartouche (Flemmish for Ink Cartridge). Cartouche was so much fun to have around the week we were visiting. She would attack blades of grass and palm leaves. She would sneak up and steal your flip flop while you lounged by the pool. And sometimes, if I was really lucky, she would lay on my lounge chair with me under the shade of an umbrella.

Seeing Cartouche makes me want to get another puppy. I told Chris this and he just laughed and shook his head. :)

Herb Garden - Sosua, DR

Casa Vientiuno had a lovely herb garden on site which provided some tasty pesto for my penne and some sprigs of mint on our desserts. Chicago is so deprived of the color green in the winter that I was quite obsessed with smelling the fresh herbs every morning. Aren't they lovely!

Dorado - Sosua, Dominican Republic

Sorry it's been awhile since I last posted. Chris and just got back from a trip to the Dominican Republic which was such an awesome vacation. We stayed at Casa Vientiuno in Sosua, which is one of the best B&Bs we've ever stayed at. It's really more like a private resort, with only 3 rooms and a small restaurant.
Saskia and Marc, the owners, were so incredibly kind and generous! They were the perfect hosts, showing us around town and making us feel like we were at home. They were truly a blessing!


One of the things I enjoy most about Casa 21 is that they source as much of his food as possible from local, organic farms. They have their own fruit trees (coconut and mango!) and a lovely herb garden on the property. Most of their vegetables come from a local farm and their fish comes from a sustainable fisherman.

On Thursday 3 large Dorados (Mahi-Mahi) arrived and Marc allowed me into the kitchen to photograph. They smelled like salt water and Marc showed me what it looks like when their fin is raised. :)
I was so grateful to Marc and Saskia for allowing me into their kitchen to document the arrival of the fish. They answered all of my questions and appreciated that I cared so much about where my food comes from.



I couldn't resist snapping a photo of the "after" photo. The fish was cooked perfectly and the white wine and garlic sauce complimented the fresh tastes just perfectly.

Make the Pasta Sauce

I understand that every now and then dinner needs to be quick and easy. I mean, really quick and easy. And on those nights, I have no problem opening up a jar of premade pasta sauce to pour over noodles. But if I have an extra 20 minutes to simmer my own pasta sauce, that's exactly what I try to do.
When cooking with any sort of canned tomato, I only ever buy Red Gold tomatoes. I saw an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they taste tested canned tomatoes and this ranked #1 with their testers. The diced tomatoes are stored in tomato juice, not water, so there is a strong tomato flavor with these tomatoes. The runner up canned tomato was Muir Glen (organic canned tomatoes).

Easy Pasta Sauce Recipe

• 1/4 cup onion , grated
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil , chopped

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add 1/4 cup grated onion. Saute 2 minutes. Add oregano and 1/2 tsp salt. Cook with stirring 3 minutes until onions begin to brown. Add crushed garlic. Cook 30 seconds. Add crushed tomatoes and sugar. Turn heat to high and cook with stirring until simmering. Turn heat to medium low. Simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in olive oil and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over pasta.

Makes 3 cups, enough for 1 pound of pasta

Make the Jam

An easy way to get the taste of fresh fruit year round is to make your own jam. I make strawberry jam every June, when the berries are at their ripest. You can make jam with just about any fruit though: peach, raspberry, blackberry, mulberry, etc. It is easy and fun to do and fresh jam tastes so much better than anything Smuckers produces.





Recipe:

5 cups of crushed strawberries (about 2 pints noncrushed)

½ tsp butter

1 box of 1.75 oz of powder pectin

7 cups of sugar

Crush strawberries and place in a large kettle. Add butter and pectin and stir. Heat mixture to a rapid boil. Add sugar all at once and stir. Bring mixture back to a boil and boil for one minute. Remove from heat and ladle into jars. Wipe the lip of the jar to make sure there is no jelly on it. tighten lid and process.

Processing:

Bring a very large kettle of water to a boil. (start heating this water before you start the jelly). Place jars in the water for 5 minutes and then remove (you want 1" of water over the jar tops, once submerged. Any more or less could affect the pressure on the jars, risking them cracking while processing.) Let cool until jars seal. Once jars are sealed, every half hour turn jar upside down for half hour and then right side up for half hour, etc. This makes the strawberries disperse evenly throughout the jelly .

The recipe makes 8 half pints.

Make the Whipped Cream

Last night Chris and I spent the evening at Jenn and Chris O's house (my sister-in-law and brother-in-law). We hung out with my niece and nephews a bit, had a fantastic dinner and then played a few games of Bridge.
I love having family close by, especially on nights like last night. A home cooked Sunday meal, chatting about decorating with my sister-in-law, the dogs wrestling on the floor and the kids climbing on us in excitement as they tell us about their trip to Disneyworld. Oh, and I musn't forget the fun Bridge games we play! What a great way to spend a Sunday night.

The four of us pooled our short ribs together (we all have a meat share from the same farmer) for dinner, which turned out delicious. Chris O smoked them for about an hour and then Jenn slow roasted them for about 5 hours. They were tender and juicy with just the right amount of smokey flavoring.

We took a break from playing cards to have a raspberry tart dessert with homemade whipped cream. I don't bake all that much, so I don't have much of a need to make whipped cream, but I asked Jenn to show me her recipe/technique for making her homemade fluffy whipped cream. It was quick, easy and so delicious!

Jenn O's recipe for homemade whipped cream:
Step 1. Put the Kitchenaid Mixer bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for about 30 minutes to get it nice and cold.
Step 2. Pour 1 cup of heavy whipping cream into mixer bowl
Step 3. Add about 2 teaspoons of white sugar into cream
Step 4. Add about a capful of good Vanilla extract into the mixer bowl
Step 5. Mix on medium/high until soft peaks are formed (anywhere from 1-3 minutes)


Holy cow this was delicious. For sure, if ever I need whipped cream for any dessert I will be making it!

Make the Taco Seasoning

A packet of Old El Paso taco seasoning costs about $1.50 at our local grocery store. And for that amount of money, this is the list of ingredients you and your family get to consume:

Maltodextrin, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, spice, monosodium glutamate, corn starch, yellow corn flour, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, silicon dioxide (anticaking agent), natural flavor, ethoxyquin (preservative).

At least 4 of those ingredients are not available at a typical grocery store and stuff like that scares the bejesus out of me. Also the 4th ingredient listed is "spice". What the heck does that mean?
It's super easy to make homemade taco seasoning and if you mix up a batch in a Ball jar you can keep it stored in your pantry for quick and easy access.

Here's my homemade taco seasoning mix recipe:

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or cayenne)

Make the Guacamole

Guacamole is one of the easiest things to make so I'm always surprised when I see people buy a container of it at a store. I don't think it really saves money to make guacamole but I am sure homemade tastes a lot better and has a better consistency. Who wants creamy smooth guac? I prefer mine chunky.

Quick recipe (serves 1 or 2 people)
1 avocado (ripe)*
1 roma tomato**
pinch of kosher salt
half a pinch of pepper
half a lime (squeezed)

*Take the avocado and cut it in half. Scoop out the flesh on one side of the fruit, and mash it into a pulp with a Molcajete tool or a fork. Take the other half of the fruit and use a knife to cut it into small pieces, then scoop out and mix in with the mashed avocado. This will give the guacamole a chunkier texture.


**I use Roma tomatoes because they have less water and seeds, so the guacamole doesn't get runny. You could use a different variety of tomato I would just recommend first scooping out the seeds/water before dicing the tomato.

If you don't have a lime lying around, a splash of lemon juice will work.

Also, the picture I attached is from a year and a half ago (gosh, has it been that long?) My friend Matt was visiting from Los Angeles and we whipped up a batch of guacamole in my kitchen using the Molcajete that Will and Thea got Chris and I as a house warming gift. :)