Rhubarb and Ginger Smoothie
I know I’ve been a bad blogger this week, I haven’t posted a thing since last Friday! It’s not that I have nothing to talk about or that we haven’t been doing anything, quite the opposite. The weather has been beautiful and we have spent the entire week outside doing various things. We got the vegetable garden finished, planted some beans, tomatoes, spinach, carrots and radishes. I weeded the beds around the edges of the apartment and am in the middle of digging another flower bed and looking for some plants that will deal with the shade on one side of the apartment that gets little to no sun.
We have a lot of bulbs to plant ready for the summer and Mikey has been “helping” by jumping in the beds and getting very dirty. He also has had a lot of fun helping me water the vegetable garden, we’re going to plant some sunflower seeds together this weekend. On a couple of the days we have spent the evening grilling outside with our neighbours.
Mikey and I took a nice long walk (nearly 2 miles) to the farmers market on the other side of the city on Wednesday. We got breakfast from our favourite bakery along the way, I nearly walked past it but Mikey reminded me by saying “Mummy, bread! Uh-Oh mummy, bread!” as we passed the door. He sometimes says “tschüß” now instead of “bye bye” when we leave. We played by the river, in a small playground full of German toddlers and preschoolers, their parents and preschool teachers. Mikey made a little friend and they played together on the slide for about an hour while I talked to the little boy’s mum in a mess of English and broken German.
The farmers market wasn’t very busy early on a Wednesday, Mikey and I bought all sorts of goodies. Some herb plants for the garden, a lavender bush, some tiny little new potatoes, asparagus and rhubarb, some homemade wine and we looked at all of the fancy cheeses they had on display.
On Thursday evening we had a delicious Cobb Salad, modified from a Smitten Kitchen recipe which was in turn from Saveur magazine. I skipped the avocado as only Mikey likes the stuff and switched out blue cheese for mozzarella because I forgot to buy blue cheese. It’s so good, I can’t wait to make it again with my homegrown tomatoes when they’re ready! We ate it with the gorgeous new potatoes I got from the farmers market, boiled and served with garlic butter.
With some of my other goodies from the farmers market I decided to make a recipe from one of my new cookbooks, The River Cottage Family Cookbook (which is wonderful by the way). Rhubarb and Ginger Smoothies.
Rhubarb and Ginger Smoothies
From The River Cottage Family Cookbook. Serves 2.
Ingredients
Rhubarb, 2-3 stems
2 oranges
3-4 teaspoons fine sugar
a small grating of fresh ginger, or 1 piece of stem ginger in syrup
4 ice cubes
Directions
- Wash the rhubarb and trim off any leaves, then cut off the slightly dried up ends. Chop into 1 inch chunks.
- Squeeze the juice from the oranges. Put the rhubarb in a small pan along with the orange juice, sugar, ginger and 2 tablespoons of water. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then cover the pan and stew the rhubarb very gently over a low heat until softened.
- When softened, take off the heat and let cool completely. You can dip the base of the pan in cold water to speed this up if you like.
- Put the ice cubes in a blender and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the rhubarb mixture and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses, add more ice if you like and drink immediately.
Posted at Foodie Friday, Hosted by Designs by Gollum
a British expat living in Chicago with my husband and our 4 year old son. I love to take 
This post makes me so excited! I really miss gardening, and it’s good to know that apartment dwellers in Germany get some space to do it. My husband and I are moving there soon, and I told him my list of apartment demands, and I said gardening space (or even some dirt I can claim) is near the top. Good luck and have fun!
We’re in military housing and we get to use the communal garden, I’m not sure what people living on the economy do… although there are some allotments out the back of our housing that you can rent from the local council to have as a little garden of your own. They’re gorgeous actually, i want one so bad but we’re not going to be here for too much longer so there’s not much point really.
The photographs are stunning! I will definitely be visiting you again.
.-= Miel Abeille´s last blog ..Simply Stacie: Twitter Hop Thursday- April 22nd =-.
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all i can say is. YUM. a cob salad sounds absolutely devine. you aren’t the only “bad blogger” around. I’ve been dropping the ball lately. we’re moving to north carolina soon and packing has overwhelmed me to the point of perpetual naptime. i’m jealous of your broken english and broken german conversations. i miss those.
.-= tristan´s last blog ..Get Your Freak On – Matchbox Twenty =-.
i noticed that you haven’t been around so much! At least, I noticed but didn’t call you out on it because I haven’t been around much either!
Good luck with the packing!
Stopping by from Foodie Friday . . . the rhubarb and ginger smoothie sounds divine!
.-= Wendy´s last blog ..Golden Carrot Bake =-.
Looks like you are in a very beautiful part of the world – you’ve taken some lovely pictures. Rhubarb and ginger are such a fabulous combination but I never thought of using them in a smoothie before. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
The taste is interesting, not what you’d usually expect from a smoothie, but it’s still great! I have a bit of a cold at the moment so it’s good for me!
And yes, we’re very lucky to live in such a beautiful area of the world!
This is absolutely beautiful! I want to live there! Dreaming….
.-= Natalie´s last blog ..Define beautiful: Jen =-.
We are very very lucky to be able to live here!
Gorgeous photos, and rhubarb & ginger is a classic combination. Visiting from SITS to wish you a happy Saturday Sharefest, I totally agree with your comments about ‘real’ followers. I’m a new follower of yours now
.-= Rachel Cotterill´s last blog ..A Beanburger Recipe =-.
Since my office blocks your new blog, I’ve been horrible about keeping up, but I’m reading through your latest tonight and am excited to see you got to have a vegetable garden after all. Yay! Unfortunately, a lot of our seedlings died when we had to run out the door suddenly a few weeks ago and couldn’t get ahold of anyone to break in and water them. Some tomato plants survived, though, so I guess that’s still a victory even though it’s a small one.
Oh, and your hair looks really cute in the photos you posted from your walk on the warm day with Mikey (the one where you talked about the lilac blossoms). Just thought you should know!
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