Lasagna Gardening 101

Lasagna Gardening

On the other blog I contribute to, http://www.youthfarmers.blogspot.com/, we're tracking the progress of the small farm project my youth program has started. Today at the farm we built a raised bed, covered it in roofing copper (to protect it from the slugs) and filled it using the lasagna method.

The point of lasagna gardening is to make a bed easily, using recycling/composting methods. It's a lot of fun, it uses all sorts of things you'd usually get rid of, and it's simple. enjoy!

Krystal filling in the gaps of the raised bed with some rocks.

the first layer - cardboard.

Then the shredded paper ( or newspaper) and a LOT of water. Worms love wet paper. yum.

Krystal added some compost...

Sid added dried grass cuttings.

Wheelbarrows of dirt!

Krystal and Sid planting in the lasagna bed.

Lasagna bed done! hopefully the copper keeps the slugs away.

Ginger Peach Pie for Pa's Day

hmmm....peaches! millions of peaches, peaches for me.

let's quit the jibber jabber and get to the recipe, shall we?

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

4 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups butter, chilled

1/4 cup ice water

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp ginger juice/shredded ginger

Egg Wash:

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT PASTRY ARE THAT

1) THE BUTTER IS ICY COLD AND

2) THE WATER IS ICE WATER.

there is no way getting around this. your pastry will suck otherwise. trust me, I'm on the internet.

1. sift flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.

2. cut butter into chunks and then rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse meal. this takes awhile but unless you again want your pastry to die a thousand deaths you will do it.

3. combine water and ginger juice, adding to butter/flour mixture one spoonful at a time.
4. Knead dough slightly, don't overwork it. form into a ball, cut in half, form each half into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins before rolling out and putting into pastry pan.

Ginger Peach Filling

2 lbs cut peaches, frozen

6.75 oz of peach&mango fruit juice

2 c sugar

4 tsp grated ginger

2 tbsp corn flour

1. Mix all ingredients together, pour into prepared pastry dish. Cover with lattice pastry work if you like. I chose to do the lattice work because the peaches are so bright and inviting as they poke out of the crust.

2.Brush pie top with egg wash, and sprinkle some sugar on top. Bake at 375 for 35 mins, or until golden brown and bubbling.

We ate ours a la mode, with some vanilla frozen yogurt.

enjoy! and *hugs through the internet*

Kitchen Ninja

announcement:

i was completely uninspired by the camp theme.

i tried, i really did. but i sucked it up Big Time. also, can we negotiate an every OTHER week theme? i don't have that much time for crafting. :(

sad story.

kittens and sunshine,
j.me

beets are scary and lino is bliss

Kitchen Ninja is on a mission. While, actually, Kitchen Ninja has many missions. I believe I can become excited and passionate when it comes to just about anything. It's an affliction.

This current mission was one of block printing. I needed a handmade way to reproduce a logo, and I didn't want it to look flawless in ANY way. I quite like the buy local one, partially because the text in it is a bit dodge.

And then we have BEETS. I must have subconciously known that there was an alarming side effect to eating straight-up beets for dinner, but 8 hours later, I was mildly alarmed nonetheless.

Eat 6 beets and there are consequences my friends.

But first, my recipe for:

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Eat 'Em Beets

6 fresh beets, scrubbed, not peeled and halved

kosher salt

pink peppercorns

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

you'll also need a muffin pan and some foil.

1. roll halved beets in olive oil, then season with salt and pepper.

2. foil the muffin pan and place each 1/2 into it's own muffin section.

3. bake at 350 degrees for 20 mins.

4. test to see if they're done, if so, cube or slice, then drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

They're good with a bit of goat cheese if you have it, or cold as a beet salad.

The theme this week is camp, and I will post my camp project as soon as I get to a sewing machine. but, there'll be a template! Yay! Templates!

Also, this post could be sort of "Camp" if you imagine Bette Midler or a Drag Queen reading the title of the recipe.

but really, as Susan Sontag once put it,
“ You can't do camp on purpose."

Campity camp camp camp!

Summer camp, that is.

As we craft ninjas are somewhat infrequent with our blog posts, Kitchen Ninja suggested that we pick a weekly theme and make something to fit that theme and post it to the blog. So, to kick things off, we have the theme of "camp." I have a feeling, we will all interpret the theme differently, but that's part of the fun.

I have the good fortune to be working with a Shakespeare camp as a part of the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival this summer. I worked with them last year as an education intern, but this year I get to be a "teaching artist." How pretentious does that sound? It's pretty much the best summer job I can ask for. I get to spend the summer playing games and talking to high school kids about theatre. Love, love, love it!

Anyway, I have a bunch of shiz I need to haul back and forth from the classroom every day, so I thought to myself: "Self. You should make a bag to put all that shiz in." And so I did.

Here it is. Hanging on the bathroom door.

The inside.

The inside pocket. It's very difficult to photograph a cloth bag and make it look nice. Any pointers would be lovely.

I carried it all of the first week of camp and it is lovely and quite durable, which are great things to look for in a camp bag.

But wait! There's more!

This afternoon, I was feeling like I wanted to make something food-wise. It rained all morning and on into the early afternoon, but by one o'clock it had pretty much dried out. Unfortunately, since this is the midwest, that meant soul-crushing humidity rolled in to take the place of the rain. Ergo, it was way too hot to cook anything in my tiny apartment with only a window unit A.C.

So I made a metric ton of salsa.

I tried to make it as mild as possible, since the heat of my salsa seems to grow the longer it sits. Now I need to find some salsa-lovers to eat some of it. If I ate it all, garlic would start seeping out my pores.

Lovely.

Raspberry Mojito Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tbsp. dark rum
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 325.

Combine vanilla, buttermilk and rum. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Sift all dry ingredients. Combine dry ingredients, rum mixture, and creamed mixture. This batter is quite dense, and will take about 20 - 30 mins to bake through.

While cupcakes are baking prepare the mojito filling.

Filling:

1 cup sugar
1 pint raspberries
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup rum
2 tbsp lime juice

Muddle sugar, raspberries, mint, and lime juice. let stand. Prepare Frosting.

Mojito Buttercream Frosting

3 cups confectioner's sugar
1 cup butter
4 tablespoons whipping cream ( or buttermilk for a slightly tangy flavor)
1 tsp raspberry extract
1 tsp mint extract
1 tablespoon lime juice

Mix all ingredients until incorporated, add more confectioner's sugar if frosting is too runny.

Putting together cupcakes:

Once cupcakes are completely cooled, cut small plug out of cake, trim down until it's more of a lid, fill to the brim with mojito mix, and replace lid. Raspberry mixture will sink into cake, so don't be worried if it seems too full at first.

Frost with buttercream frosting.

I like to decorate them pretty simply with a halved raspberry and a fresh mint leaf.

kitchen ninja out.