Tulips, Cabbage, and Quinoa

So, the tulips bloomed and proved me wrong.  And they were beautiful!

And now I can save the bulbs and plant them and enjoy them again next year!  If you're interested in having some of these beauties, here's their web address:

http://www.bloomaker.com/home

And caring for them is really nothing at all.  You have to make sure water covers the bulbs half-way throughout the life of the tulips.  And keep them out of direct sun light.  That is all!

And here are the after-care instructions:

After flowering, clip the dead flower off the stem, and let the foliage die off while maintaining water level. When the foliage has completed drying out, you may see new little bulbs beginning to form, leave these. Cut the foliage, and store the bulbs dry, and as cool as possible until early November. Then plant them in your garden, using a good mix of soil and compost. Thoroughly water them at planting.

So simple and pretty!

In other news...

I am one of those shoppers that goes into the store and buys whatever is in season in the produce department.  Right now it is cabbage!  Since I am not a huge fan of cabbage, I had to get creative this week. I made an Asian dressing for a variation on coleslaw.

I actually googled "Asian sesame dressing," and my socks were blown off!  Panera shares their Asian sesame salad dressing on their website.  I love them even more now!  Here it is:

• Panera Bread Asian Sesame Dressing
• Makes 1 ¼ cups
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• ¼ cup toasted sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• ¾ cup canola or vegetable oil

I, of course, did not have everything on hand, so, OF COURSE, I had to improvise.  I will be buying sesame oil and rice vinegar, but for now, here's what I did and it produced something surprisingly yummy.

Mix:
1 part soy sauce
2 parts sugar
2 parts white wine vinegar
3 parts veg oil

So, for those of you who are not math majors (like I am not), if you use 1/4 c. soy sauce, you'd use 1/2 c. sugar and vinegar, and 3/4 c. oil.  I'm not giving exact numbers because I don't know how much cabbage you'll be using.  Just toss it together and get your grub on.  I have eaten it for lunch and supper just about every day this week.  Yum!  Just don't add the dressing until you are ready to eat because the cabbage will get soggy.  (I made the dressing in a handy mixing bottle so I could just pour out a little on the portion I was going to eat.  If you want one of these handy bottles (pic below), you can order it from Pampered Chef.



And one last thing...

At our most recent MOPS meeting, one of our mentor mommas brought a yummy quinoa dish that I want to share...

2 cups chicken stock
1 c. quinoa
olive oil
1 diced onion
a couple of garlic cloves
2 chopped tomatoes
2 diced squash (or spinach or veggie of choice)
fresh basil
lime juice
Feta cheese

Bring stock to boil, add quinoa.  Turn to low and cook, covered, for 15 mins.  Stir.  Let sit with lid on for 15 more mins.

Saute onion and garlic in a little olive oil.  Add tomatoes, squash (or spinach or veggie of choice), fresh basil, and lime juice.  Cook just until warmed through and veggies are tender.  Toss with quinoa and top with Feta cheese.

YUM!