A soup from our patio vegetable garden

5 to 6 beans

5 to 6 small carrots

1 potato

2 tbsp onion

1 soup cube

1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup water

Put all the ingredients into a pressure cooker and cook for 5 minutes for about 2 whistles. Mash the vegetables a little and serve warm with bread.

I used maggie chicken cube, you can also use vegetable soup cube.

The children helped harvest, clean and get the soup ingredients ready, it was soup they made so they loved it. This simple recipe goes to healing food carrot, simple lives Thursday,

Two for Tuesdays and

no croutons required

events.

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Butterflies bugs

Pictures of these butterflies taken by my husband at the Toronto zoo. One of my daughter's favourite activities during the summer is to run around trying to catch butterflies in the garden, she wouldn't touch them. I should teach her about caterpillars, as a child at school we saw caterpillars in cocoons becoming butterflies.

We usually see white butterflies and sometimes monarch butterflies. Inshallah my daughter and son would be excited to go to the Butterfly garden at Niagara falls and so will we, to capture the moments.

My husband took this picture of the wasp some time after he was stung by one. There was a wasp nest that we didn't see, and while he was watering the plants the wasp was disturbed. We took the thorny stinger of the wasp but it was swollen. We put some ice and antibiotic cream to reduce the swelling.

He sprayed with a wasp remover during the night as it was in the entrance and the nest dissolved.

Beetles and lady bugs are wonderful in drawing and paintings. I didn't know they could fly until last Summer when there were lots of lady bugs all around the front door that started coming inside. Before this happened we took lots of pictures.

Fabric painting

I like doing fabric painting, I painted some pillow cases to match the bed sheets. The idea for the colours were from my daughter; she was using orange and pink to do some painting and she was happy when I borrowed her idea. I had lots of fun and the children enjoyed watching, while my hubby was taking care of them.

Thinking back theses paintings remind me of the marigold we planted as an annual theme the Summer I painted these pillow cases.

Green beans curry

We enjoy this green bean curry as it is simple, spicy and nutritious. In the Summer, my daughter and I, experimented and enjoyed growing a bean plant in a pot. Maashallah we harvested over 60 beans. It was a lot of fun watching this miracle and waiting to cook the beans. Inshallah the coming Summer we are planning to plant some more, this time I have two gardeners Alhamdulillah.

Green beans curry

1 cup green beans

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp onion chopped

1/2 tsp garlic ginger paste

1/2 tsp chillie powder

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp coconut milk, regular milk or cream

Heat 1 tbsp oil cook onion, when it is soft add ginger garlic paste and the beans mixed with spices. Cook till the beans are soft. Add the milk and remove from heat.

My grandmother cuts the beans in half vertically or half way thru after breaking the bean into two horizontally this way it would be more flavourful and cooks faster.

A picture of the bean plant Summer of 2009.

All rights reserved on photographs and written content Torviewtoronto © 2010 unless mentioned. Please Ask First