What is a Brick Sandwich?

A Brick sandwich is something good to pack for a picnic or to keep in the fridge for a few days to "nosh" on. http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/brick-pressed-sandwich You can put anything on it you like. I made mine with just veggies and Provolone Cheese. I also made my own Olive Tapenade and Hummus....they are easier to make than you might think but Trader Joe's carries a good Olive Tapenade as well as Hummus spread.

Since my Chabatta bread was a day old and a bit dry, I refreshed it by putting it in my Pannini maker for a few minuets......just enough to heat the outside crust before wrapping it up and putting it into the fridge.

Tapenade
1 cup Green olives, pitted
2 cloves garlic, peeled, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine olives, garlic, in a food processor and process until smooth. With the motor running, slowly add the oil until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

I like to use the green olives with pimentos. You can also use Kalamata olives or any other kind you like. I only use enough of the olive oil to make it a spreadable consistency.

Easy Hummus

1 (15-ounce) can chick peas, drained
1 lemon
1 sprig fresh oregano, leaves chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
handful chopped parsley

Combine chick peas, juice of 1 lemon and oregano in food processor. Add garlic, oregano and parsley. Process hummus until smooth (add a splash of olive oil if too thick)

Some things to put on a Brick Sandwich: Sliced Mushrooms, Red Bell Pepper and thin slices of Zucchini. I like to take my vegetable peeler for long flat Zucchini slices.

You can keep stacking it all up. With the Hummus spread on both sides of the loaf you can add your vinaigrette before pressing it all down together. I find that it all melds together nicely and will not be soggy.

Also, here is a recipe for a good Basil vinaigrette

Sweet Basil Dressing

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoons honey (add more if you like it sweeter)
3/4 cup pure olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 basil leaves, chopped
Whisk together vinegar, Dijon mustard, and honey in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Salt and pepper, to taste, and then add the basil.

Here are my Green Beans with a friendly soul upon it's leaves. My first Ladybug of the season.

As you can see my Radishes are coming up nicely.
They will need to be thinned a bit. I am hopeful the little critters who like to chomp on tender greens will stay away. So far so good.

Yesterday I was able to pick some of the Read Leaf Lettuce for my sandwich. Very tasty!

Vegetarian Chili

I made a really great Chili the other day. Not only is is low in fat and calories, it is simply delish! The secret ingredient is......Sweet Potato!
I sauteed a chopped onion in olive oil. Added minced garlic. Then I peeled and diced up a medium sweet potato. Also, a finely minced half of a green Anaheim chili pepper. When everything was almost soft I added small can of tomato sauce and some jarred salsa. If I would have had a can of diced tomatoes I would have used that but....I had to improvise.
One can of red kidney beans, drained. You could use any kind of canned bean you like. This is what was in my pantry. For spices I used cumin, cilantro and chili powder. If you like it hotter you could add some red pepper flakes too.
I let it simmer for about 40 minutes then added some frozen corn. When I served it, I grated some cheddar cheese on top along with chopped green onion. WOW! It was amazing.
It is the simple things in life that make me happy!

In search of "Real Eggs"

I have had concerns over the past few years about supermarket eggs. I did some research about how chickens are raised. It was not pretty.

Since I have had "real eggs" from "real chickens", I certainly know that the color and taste is different. What I did not know is when you look for a tastier healthier egg, you get into all sorts of erroneous labeling on egg cartons.

Hormone free, no antibiotics or cage free does not mean what you might think. Even the idea of "our chickens are fed a vegetarian diet" is not necessarily a good thing.

First off, chickens are NOT vegetarians. They like to scratch around the barnyard into the cow pastures that produce the cowpats containing "goodies", like grubs, various bugs and worms. They thrive on that, along with grain, to make them what they are meant to be...chickens.

In the process they spread manure and eliminate parasites. Joel Salatin, owner of http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ calls his hens "the sanitation crew". This is the reason his grass fed beef has no need for chemical pesticides and keeps the grass growing in the pasture.

I have learned that "access to green pastures" can mean different things. Like, the chickens live in a giant structure with cement floors and they can look out a window at it. They may even have a door and go outside if they like. The only problem with that is, they have no reason to go outside. They are fed and watered on the inside.

I do not believe this is the kind of environment we want for healthy eggs to be laid. If you have your printer paper near by, take a look at the size of it. That is how much space one chicken gets to stand in. They are literally wing to wing and standing in their own excrement......not so pleasant. I will not go into details about the other things they do to the chickens to keep them from pecking each other to death because of the close quarters...I suppose rendering them "beakless" is thought to be humane is some distorted way. This is the ones that are "cage free".
The ones that are not "cage free" are crammed in together, in even more confined space, stepping all over each other and unable to move at all.

The shells are thinner, the yolks pale instead of a dark golden color like they should be. Sometimes they have to fortify the feed with vitamins because of what is lost by this inhumane treatment. When I say "inhumane" I am not speaking from the mind of some who believe there should be no meat or dairy consumed at all. I speak from a healthy point of view. Let a chicken live it's life as it was meant to. Give it food and shelter, access to the outside world and a clean safe place for laying their eggs.

Why should this matter? They are just a dumb animal and do they really care how they are raised. Maybe this is so but here is my feeling on that. We are we ingesting eggs from stressed out chickens that are not allowed to behave like chickens should. Why? Because of monetary reasons. More chickens producing more eggs at a cheaper cost. But there is an added cost to the health of us who are consuming those eggs. I personally will pay a higher price for higher quality eggs. http://www.vitalfarms.com/ I got these at Whole Foods Market. $3.99 for six. They are "hand collected" so I can understand the price. I would not use them for baking but sunny-side- up or scrambled makes them quit appreciated.

If we did not breed chickens for their eggs they would not be thriving in the wild. At least not for very long. They have to many predators and would be picked off quickly. They are here in abundance because of us. Because we want what they produce for us. That is all more the reason to keep our egg supply healthy and of the highest quality.

Our vegetable patch looks really nice. I finished planting and now just have to keep it watered and wait.

I am going to get out my gardening book. I need to combat any little pests who will, sooner or later, try to make my hard work their lunch. We already have one of those leaf hoppers...you know, the kind you rarely see but they take giant half moon bites out of your leaves. Sneeky little buggers and impossible to keep them away. I actually saw one in action once...like a buzz saw on the leaf then they tuck the morsal under their legs and fly away.

Okay, so I am planting a vegetable garden. It is just a small patch but so far I have: Green Beans, Radish, Green Onion, some Red Leaf Lettuce and Hungarian Hot Peppers. I also planted Parsley, lots of Basil, Rosemary and Mint.
Most of it is in containers as we have limited in space. I still have seed packets for Carrots, Eggplant and Red Bell Peppers. I plan on finishing it up in the next few days.
The weather is beautiful and it "feels" like planting time. We also have to clean up the front courtyard and back patio so it will look neat and fresh for spring.
We love to sit outdoors in the early mornings with our coffee when springtime arrives.