Green Living Tip #11- Don't Throw Away That Dehumidifier Water

The warm days of summer on Long Island also bring humidity. I use two dehumidifiers in my basement to keep it free of dampness and protect the items stored down there.  The dehumidifiers need to be emptied twice a day. Instead of dumping the water down the drain, I use the water and put it to good use. I pour the water into my hanging baskets, pots and houseplants. The water can also be used to water plants in the ground as well.  There is no need to turn on the house and waste more the water, just let the dehumidifier create it to water your plants!  You are using electricity to take the water out of the air, put your money to good use.

Are there any other ways you can think of to use the water from your dehumidifier?

Weekend in the Veggie Garden 2013

This was the weekend of the vegetable garden.  I have been so busy at work and the spring was so cold and rainy I have been unable to get into the vegetable garden.  I was actually disappointed that this far into the season all I was growing was weeds.  I took a half a day off from work in Friday and spent the afternoon in the garden.  My dad even came over to give me a hand.  We spent three hours getting my vegetable beds into shape. Saturday afternoon was spent putting together my containers with annuals and planting basil plants in the vegetable beds.  Sunday morning I found myself planting beans.

We weeded my strawberry patch and found it full of ripe strawberries ready to be picked.  Unfortunately, my herbs did not fair too well over the winter. My Bay Laurel bush, Oregano, thyme and Rosemary did not make it through.  On the bright side, the chives, mint and sage are all flourishing. 

The remaining area of the garden was just full of weeds.  We weeded the entire thing and found a nice surprise - three tomato plants growing which were seeded from last years fallen tomatoes.  I have no idea what kind of tomatoes they are and look forward to finding out.  We put the three volunteers in cages.  I now have to go purchase some more tomato plants, pepper, and eggplant to help fill in the bed.

We put compost out from one of my bins.  The Envirocycler bin was finally all broken down and ready to go into the garden.  Unfortunately, water got in and the bin was very heavy.  We spread out the compost along the trellis are where I planted three kinds of organic beans.  I found Burpee Organic seeds at Home Depot and was happy to plant them on the trellis where they will take up little room:  Provider Green Beans, Garden Wax Beans (these are yellow) and Royalty Purple Pod Beans. The Wax and Purple are bush beans but the trellis can help give them support and keep them upright. I think the three colors of beans will be provide me with a nice variety for dinners. 

I also planted Early Russian Cucumbers along the trellis.  They are an early variety which is good considering I am getting started so late in the season. The seeds are organic from Seeds of Change.  I planted two rows each of Cozelle Bush Zucchini, Wildcat F-1 Zucchini, Golden Bush Zucchini and Butternut Squash.  I planted so many because every year I get squash vine borers and I am hoping to get as many as I can until they invade.  I also planted one row of Scotland leeks.  I would like to see if I can get some more seeds and plant carrots and rutabaga,, but the summer is getting away from me in terms of growing time.

It felt really good to be back in the garden.  My veggie bed may be a bit behind but the warmth of the days and nights ahead will bring me rewards before I know it.
 

Beef and Mushroom Barley Soup

I am kind of obsessed lately with coming up with soup recipes.  Barley has been my ingredient of choice.  I have made a Beef Barley Soup and a Mushroom Barley Soup, so this one combines both!  Easy to make and using inexpensive ingredients, this soup is easy, delicious and affordable. The recipe can be made in the slow cooker by adding it all to the cooker and cooking for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.

2 cups water, boiling
1 cup pearl barley
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1.25 lbs. stew meat, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 large onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
3 carrots, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
8 cups beef stock, homemade preferred
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp dried thyme


Here's how:

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.  Add the barley and let it sit while you prepare the rest.

Pearl Barley

Soaking barley

In a large dutch oven or soup pot, add olive oil and heat until hot.

Add the meat and brown on all sides, about 5 minutes.

Meat Browning

 Add the mushrooms and saute another 5 minutes.

Mushrooms added to the meat

Add the onion and saute for 1 minute.

Onions added

Add the carrots and celery and saute for 3 minutes.

Veggies in

Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.

Add 1 cup of broth and scrape the bottom of the pot to get up all the brown bits off.

Add the remaining broth in and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 25 minutes.

Pot is ready to go

Strain the barley and add it to the soup.

Barley added

Simmer 30-40 minutes until the barley is soft and plump.

Looks good enough to eat

Remove the bay leaf.


Serve and enjoy.

Spicy Sausage and Lentil Soup

I found smoked Italian Sausage at my local BJs.  They are spicy and delicious.  You can use any of your favorite smoked sausage, chorizo, kielbasa etc. in this recipe.  The spicy sausage adds great flavor to the broth of this soup.  Just another simple and easy recipe from me.  I use organic ingredients from my CSA and pantry to make this recipe.  All of the ingredients (except the sausage) are things that I always have in my house. 

Ingredients:

1 lb smoked sausage, such as Italian, cut into cubes
1.5 large onions or 2 medium, diced
2 large onions, diced
4 celery stalks, diced
1 parsnip, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 cups green lentils
2 32 oz boxes chicken stock, or 8 cups homemade
2 bay leaves
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 Parmesan Cheese rind

Here's how:

Saute the sausage for 5 minutes in a large dutch oven or soup pot.

This is the size you want the pieces

Sauteing the meat

Remove the meat from the pot with a slotted spoon and set the meat aside.

Meat set aside

Using the fat from the meat, add the veggies, salt and pepper and saute or 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Fat left over after sauteing the meat.

Veggies into the pot

Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.

Garlic added

Add the lentils, stock, bay leaf, tomatoes, Italian seasining and cheese rind.

Organic tomatoes and stock

Everything into the pot.

Put the lid on and bring to a simmer.

Remove the lid and let it simmer for 35-45 minutes until the veggies and lentils are soft.

After 40 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf and rind.  Serve.

Organic Tomato French Lentil Soup

Here is yet another of my soup recipes.  I made this after mistakenly buying French lentils instead of green lentils.  The taste is pretty much the same but, since the French lentils are smaller they cook much faster.  I used tomatoes in it to try a different texture and flavor from my usual lentil soups.  This is also a soup that can be made vegetarian by using vegetable stock instead of chicken.  I use all organic ingredients in this recipe but conventional are fine too.  The veggies can be bought at Whole Foods or BJs or Costco or your local farm stand.  The tomatoes I buy at Whole Foods.  The stock I buy at Costco or BJs, where they carry a box of 6 for a great price.  The thyme and Bay leaf are from my garden but Whole Foods sells them.  I buy the lentils at Whole Foods from the bulk bin. You can buy just what you need.  This recipe makes a lot of soup so you can feed a crowd or freeze it for later.

Yield: 5- 6 quarts

Ingredients:

1 TBS organic olive oil
2 carrots,organic,  diced
1 onion, organic, diced,
4 celery stalks, organic, diced
2 garlic cloves, organic, minced
2 Bay leaves,organic
3-4 thyme stalks,organic
2 28 oz. cans tomato puree, organic
64 oz. chicken stock (this is two boxes) organic and homemade preferred or water
2 cups French Lentils, organic, rinsed
2 smoked ham hocks
1 tsp Pepper

Cut up all your veggies.

Veggies cut up

 Heat a large soup pot on medium heat.  Add 1 TBS oil to the pot and let it heat for 2 minutes.

Add the celery, carrot and onion to the pot. 

Veggies just into the pot

Saute the veggies for 5-7 minutes until they start to soften and the onions get translucent. 

Veggies after 5 minutes

Add the garlic, bay leaves and thyme and saute for 1 minute.

Cooking for 1 minute brings out the flavor but doesn't burn the garlic

 Add the tomatoes, broth, lentils, hocks and pepper to the pot.

Lentils are rinsed and check to make sure there is nothing in them that doesn't belong.

Everything is in and cooking away

 Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 30 -45 minutes, until the lentils are plumped and soft.

Remove the bay leaves and stems from the thyme.

Remove the hocks. Take off any meat on the hocks and add it back into the pot.

If the lentils soak up too much liquid, you can add more chicken broth or if you like a looser soup, add more broth.

Serve and enjoy.   You can freeze this too!

Organizing My Utensil Drawer

I know that this post does not sound too fun or exciting.  However, this is something I have been unable to master in the seven years I have owned my house.  As you can see below, my kitchen drawers are very wide.  This may seem like a great thing for storing large amounts of utensils and it is.  But for keeping it organized, that is another story.

Embarrassing and inefficient

 You can see the drawer is a mess.  I try to keep things that are the same or similar together.  I bought a small green plastic basket (see it in the front left) to keep some of my baking things together like scoops and teaspoons.  But that little basket could not contain the mess.  Adding to the problem was that every time the draw was opened and closed, the items would shift forward and back and get out of the places I had put them. 

I tried to place frequently used things like spoons and tongs in the front and not used things like the turkey baster in the back.  But, you can see that my attempts were not working so well.

It all began by taking a trip to the Container Store to buy a large plastic utensil holder that expands for a drawer my size.

Next, I removed all the items and placed them on the counter.  Once I did that, I was able to see what I had in the drawer and get rid of things I never use and discard broken things.  I had 3 can openers but only one worked - so 2 went in the trash! 

After I pared down the items, I removed the things that really had no place in the drawer.  Sure I need a lighter for my kitchen but I do not need the contents of the Costco pack of four.  So, one stayed and the other 3 went by the grill. 

Finally, I sorted the items into "like" categories s that things that are the same or used together were put into piles together.

Then I placed the expandable holder in the drawer. It still left a place for the green plastic basket on the left.

Then I filled it up.  Here is how it looks now:

Organized and proud

 I put all the wooden spoons in one slot, tongs, spatulas and large plastic spoons in the next, can opens, graters, peels and garlic press in the next, lesser used items like the ice cream scoop, baster, potato scrubber next and the ladles and meat pounder in the last.  The upper left corner is used for oddly shaped things like the pizza cutter, bottle openers and meat thermometer.  The baking green basket in the front is now easy to see and contains the items nicely.

Since I am hoping to sell my house soon, little things like organized drawers, pantries and closets make the house look like there is a lot of storage and that you take care of the home.  I just wish I did this sooner.  The trick now is to get my husband to put the things in the proper slot!

This whole task took me about 10 minutes and it makes cooking so much easier.  Since everything is in the right place I can find what I am looking for without digging in a mess.  I hope you can find some inspiration from my mess.

Mushroom Barley Soup in the Slow Cooker

It seems to me that there are very few people who do not like soup. No matter how many different kinds I come up with, there is always someone who wants it.  I like to bring soup in to work to share with my friends there are they are always so appreciative.  This recipe, like many of my recipes, came from me looking in the fridge and pantry to see what I had that I could use to make a new recipe.  This recipe is easy and can be made vegetarian by substituting the beef stock for vegetable stock.  The soup is full of earthy flavors from the mushrooms and filling from all the root veggies and barley.   Using the slow cooker allows you to make the soup in the summer without heating up the kitchen!  The soup can be made on the stove in a large put by sauteing the veggies in a Tablespoon of olive oil for 5 minutes and then adding the remaining ingredients, bringing it all to a simmer and simmering for 20-30 minutes.

Ingredients:

2 cups pearl barley
4 cups water, boiled
8-10 oz, sliced mushrooms, white, baby bella or any of your favorites
2 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 parsnip, diced (optional if you don't have one)

2 garlic cloves, minced
3 fresh thyme stalks
1 large or 2 small Bay leaves
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
16 cups beef stock, you can use chicken or vegetable if you prefer

Here's how:

Place the barley in a large bowl and pour the boiling water over it.  Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit while you cut the vegetables and prepare the soup.

Place the vegetables, seasonings, and stock into a large slow cooker.

Sliced mushrooms

Close up of veggies and herbs

You can see that I use a Reynolds Crock Pot liner for easy clean up

Drain the barley and pour the soaked barley into the slow cooker.

Everything is in.  The mushrooms float to the top.

Turn the cooker on and cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 8-9 hours until the barley and vegetables are softened.

Turn off the cooker and remove the Bay leaf and the stalks from the thyme.

Serve now, refrigerate for 3 days or freeze for up to 6 months.

All done and packed into a soup container to give to friends