Spring fever and spring planting

Well, with spring officially a week away, I'm planning on what I can find the time and energy to do in the garden this week. In another day or two the temperatures will be climbing up to the high 70's and even 80's and I still have to finish spring clean up and and do other garden chores - like weeding, feeding and planting.

Winter was milder this year, thank God, and my 2 well mulched artichoke plants and jasmine vines made it through just fine, even though we had many nights in the teens. The winter before I lost them as well as some perennials when temperatures plummeted to well below zero in this 7b-8 zone.

Last month  I planted fava beans, spinach, kale, shallots, peas, arugula, lettuce, sorrel, potatoes, parsley, cilantro, leeks and some new, large, June bearing strawberries. I've been too busy to keep up my garden calendar, so I may have also planted some onions and garlic. I'll have to get out there later today or tomorrow and looks at  what's up in the raised beds and get it all fed, which I should have done at planting time. But, cold weather came in and it may have been good that I didn't fertilize which would have only quickly brought on new, tender growth.

I never got around to planting carrots and beets, and it may be too late to plant the beets because of our hot, dry, summers.

Next month I'll plant the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, pole and bush beans, cucumbers, melons, zucchini, and basil; but it won't be my own seedlings. Last year my office/meditation rooms doubled as a greenhouse with several grow light set up; but I think I'm done with that since we have local growers who do a great job of it and have a huge selection of heirloom, organic veggies and veggie seedlings. Even one of our local garden centers is now selling organic veggies starts and I expect more will soon follow. The one exception I may make is to start my calendula indoors since I want to dry them and use them in soaps and maybe creams in the fall.
  
 One grower will sell you a single plug of a veggie start, so you can pick a variety of  the same veggie  and flowers;  and for us with smaller gardens or smaller needs it's a great service.I'm not into canning any more. The closest I come to that is freezing pesto, some beans, hot pepper and tomato sauce when the tomatoes are in full force. Everything else is used soon after after harvest.

Lobster and pasta and end of season garden review

We wound up going out for Mexican food last night since the lobster tails didn't defrost in time to make the lobster tails diavolo with pasta dinner I had planned. Jim said if they haven't defrosted overnight in the fridge , he' going to put them out near the pool to defrost! LOL Guess he was pretty disappointed he had to eat nachos instead of lobster last night!

I've harvested a lot of beans and other veggies the past two days and gave half the beans, squash, peppers and tomatoes away but I'm going to have to get a lot of these beans processed and in the freezer some time this afternoon.

I don't know why they've taken their  good old time, but the zucchini and summer squash are finally producing. The winter squash growing in the same area of the garden had no trouble producing fruit early, so this is another one of those garden scratch your head moments trying to figure out why it took the pollinating insects so longer to get around to doing their job on those other squash plants

The only late planting I did was another group of yellow bush beans which I started harvesting a few days ago. There's no more space here to plant anything else, unless I can find some things to pull out of my two raised beds. If so, then might see if it's not to late to plant some spinach. I won't be doing any more planting at our son and daughter-in-laws garden since they won't be coming up enough to use them and I'm running out of freezer space for anything more than what's coming in now.

I'm already starting to think about what I'll plant here next year; and it will be less of some veggies and more of others. We definitely don't need 12 tomato plants for two people unless I wanted to start canning again, which I don't. We have some very good organic gardeners selling at the local farmers markets so that is helping me decide what I want to plant in my limited growing space.

One of my neighbors actually planted asparagus in one of those wine barrel planters and they're doing great, and since my artichokes didn't produce one artichoke this year, and I have no idea why, since they did well last year, and the same artichokes I planted at our son's place this year  produced like mad, it's definitely a puzzlement. In any case, next year,  I'm going to use at least one those two big planters for asparagus next year, and maybe use the other one for a single zucchini plant, since zucchinis take up four square in my square foot gardening method.

This was year two of using the square foot gardening method and it's working very well. I even grew a lot of potatoes in my square foot raised beds, even though I had read that you can't. I also learned that 4 fava beans per square did better than 9 which I planted last year, and only on square was needed for each tomato plant if the soil is good, new compost added and with regular feeding with special tomato, pepper and eggplant fertilizer.   And since I'm always ready for a challenge and eager to break rules, (without breaking any laws of course,  that don't seem to make sense to me), I dove right in and planted Red Pontiacs and Yukon golds, and used the organic fertilizer made for root vegetables. The thing that didn't work, was my other experiment of growing potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket, because I over watered them, so if I decide to try that again next year,  I'll put them on the drip system.

Time now to trim and wash those beans!

Time to look up tomato recipes

The big beefsteaks are coming in heavily now, so much so that I'm not minding sharing some with the little furry or feathered thieves who have been helping themselves to some of this abundance.

This morning I picked at least  4 of the Brandywines from one plant,  as well as a few other beefsteak types, and cherry tomatoes. I also harvested a few cucumbers, some beans, serrano chiles and lot of Italian frying peppers, so an Italian sausage hero with fried onions and peppers looks like it will be on the dinner menu again, in a couple of days.

Lunch today will be marinated eggplant bruschetta. The eggplant has been marinating overnight, so all that garlicky, oil and balasamic marinade, herb goodness can really permeate the eggplant. I think dinner is going to be a pasta using those cherry tomatoes with some mushrooms, zucchini, some golden bush beans, and summer squash - in other words, a pasta primavera using some of the days harvest! I'll add a bit of some cream, and spice it  up a bit with some pepperonici pepper flakes, fresh basil and freshly grated parmesan reggiano. A nice Villa Antinori should go well with it, or maybe something a bit lighter. I'll let our in house wine steward, my husband Jim choose.

Tomorrow I might just make a gazpacho for lunch. I love it. Jim tolerates it; but I'm sure he will survive having it once a year, even if it means I may once again hear "cold soups are not a favorite of mine".

Time for me to dig up some price labels. I'm doing a little show/sale with other members of my women's club luncheon tomorrow and I have to price and pack some of my pottery.  I've been a member for two years and have never attended a single event or meeting, so it's time to at least meet some of my neighbor ladies and have a lovely lunch at the Rogue Valley Country club. Jim said since I've been working too hard lately, he wants us to go out for dinner tomorrow. Sounds like a good plan! 

Tomato bruschetta

I have tomatoes coming in in droves, so we've had tomato bruschetta and tomato sandwiches for lunch the past few days, as well pastas made with all the cherry tomatoes. Cucumbers are also coming in faster than we can eat them and that's only from a couple of plants - the same with the beans. With all this abundance, I'm having to adjust my meal planning.

I've already frozen a bunch of beans with more to go, and other than cucumber salads and raw cucumbers for dips, I can't think of anything else to use them for. There aren't enough for pickles and too many for fresh eating, so I'm giving the excess away to friends and neighbors.

This is how I make my tomato brushetta. It's great for lunch or as an appetizers. Cut up a small bowl of ripe tomatoes into about 3/4 to 1 inch pieces Salt and pepper to taste. Add a touch of extra virgin olive oil, and a tiny touch of red wine vinegar, (it should have a slight tart taste like a mild vinaigrette),  a generous amount of fresh basil leaves that have been chopped, and a generous addition of shaved parmesan reggiano cheese pieces. Toss, and let sit to macerate while you prepare the bread. Cut 1/2" slices of some crunchy, loaf bread, like French, Italian or sour dough, which is what I use. Toast them under the broiler (I use my toaster overn for this, so I don't have to turn them), then brush one side with extra virgin olive oil and rub each oiled slice with cut pieces of fresh garlic.

I just put a basket of the bread out and put a spoon with drain slots in the bowl of the tomato mixture so everyone can serve themselves. The first time I made this was for an appetizer and my husband loved it so much that he kept eating more and more and that became dinner that night. After that I just started making these as a summer lunch or as an appetizer with drinks when porch sitting with friends.  It's really delicious. You can add your own little nuances - maybe add some pignoli nuts, or some drained, rinsed capers, or top each serving with a couple of pieces of anchovies,  for a more savory experience,

A little zucchini goes a long way

A little zucchini goes a long way and what do you do with all of it is usually the gardeners dilemma.

We had my take on zucchini fries for lunch the other day which was a nice change from zucchini bread which is one of the go to recipes when you suddenly realize the garden has given you way more zucchini than you know what to do with. These oven fries were so good that my husband declared that they deserved a glass of wine to go with them. All that laudatory rhetoric was a real surprise since he typically, favors high fat, high sugar foods. My dad was like that - if it didn't slide off the plate he didn't want to eat it. So, needless to say, I was thrilled to come up with a recipe that he loved and it was healthy!

Here's what I did: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush a fairly light coating of olive oil on a raised sides cookie sheet. Then  cut enough zucchini  (don't peel), into French fry shapes about 3/8" on each side and 3" long. Beat two eggs in a shallow bowl. Add a little salt and pepper and stir in a couple of light shakes of cayenne pepper to the eggs. Put about a cup of Italian flavored read crumbs in a low wide bowl and add salt and pepper to taste and several shakes of garlic powder and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. Taste the crumbs and adjust seasoning to your taste.

Dip each zucchini fry in the beaten egg and then quickly dip it  in the bread crumb mixture and fill the cookie sheet without the pieces touching each other. (lay the side with the peel face down on the sheet. If there's no peel, no problem. Just set it down as is). Bake about 20 to 25 minutes, checking about half way through and turn if the bottoms are lightly browned. Continue cooking till the tops are also lightly browned.

I served these with the spicy red cocktail sauce you use for shrimp salad. They'd also be good with ranch dressing, or a creamy Caesar dressing as a dip. I just opted for the lower fat choice. The two of us finished the whole tray's worth. Since I still had half of that zucchini left, I made a zucchini and tomato casserole to go with dinner; but that recipe is for another day.

This years gardens

Our first cherry tomatoes are ripening - got the first one about four days ago. The snow pea pods have been overly abundant this year and I will definitely plant less next year. Beans, cucumbers and bell and hot peppers are in flower and I just saw one tiny okra on one of the plants. There's one green bell pepper ready to pick, and I think I'll use that tomorrow in a stir fry.. They love growing in those earth boxes, as do the tomatoes I planted in a second earth box this year.. Last year I had hot peppers in the box and this year I switched to the bell peppers in one and bought a second earth box for two heirloom tomatoes. Between both gardens, I have about two dozen tomato plants.

My garden has two 4X8 foot raised beds that are 2 feet deep for more vegetables, and a bunch of window type boxes on a ledge that have herbs, lettuce, snow peas, kale and a few bush beans. I also have a couple of artichokes in large pots, and a few of the tomatoes in five gallon pots.

This is my second year doing square foot gardening and it's working out well. I'm fertilizing more this year. In addition to the initial fertilizer application, I'm also side dressing each square with a bit organic fertilizer every two weeks, and the plants

I've already dug up a few Red Pontiac and Yukon gold potatoes for immediate use, but am letting the rest continue growing for a while. Most of the early lettuce is on it's way out, so it will be time to plant some more. The spinach is done for now, but I'll plant more later summer.

This year I planted and am maintaining two gardens - ours and our son and daughter-in-laws. Gardening and cooking and other household shopping and chores is using up all my time and energy. There's been almost no time for my pottery studio since March. I did manage to get into the studio this afternoon for a few hours after lunch; but after dinner I was back in the garden putting down snail and ear wig bait and doing some hand watering. It always amazes how much damages these critters can do in a day or two!

There's a really bad fungus/bacteria/blight around that has attacked tomatoes, beans, cucumbers squash, peppers, and even some flowers. I've been spraying both gardens every seven days with a copper solution called Soap Shield that I bought from Gardens Alive, and the tomatoes have responded well. I first removed all affected leaves, then sprayed with a heavy concentration and repeated it 7 days later and will continue this regime as long as there are signs this thing is still around. The cucumbers look like they might make it but some of the pole beans in my son and daughter-in- laws garden got hit really bad and so did all the squash. I'll wait another week and if I don't see any improvement I will probably replant them.

I've been gardening for over 50 years and I've never seen this kind of a fungus/blight or whatever it is, attacking so many vegetables and flowers. When I mentioned it on Facebook, someone from Texas said that he's dealing with the same disease. I hope that this isn't a countrywide problem.

Meatloaf heaven and spring planting update

I'm finally coming to the end of my spring planting. The garden season starts early for me, in February, when I start my first seedlings indoors. This season I'm planting two gardens - my own and my son and daughter-in-laws. Their garden is 99% planted after today. I just have to wait till I can get some okra and melon starts at the nursery. There are a few bush beans to transplant, since some hungry birds have cut/eaten the tops off quite a few of them.

I'm doing the square foot gardening in my two bed and the 6 and at our sons place. My two 4X8' beds are fully planted other than one square which I'm saving for okra. I also planted two earth boxes this year, since the one I planted last year worked so well. One is planted with 6 bell and frying peppers and the other with two tomatoes. My other 8 tomatoes are in one of the raised beds.  I also have two artichokes growing in two larger tubs and some extra lettuce and snow peas in a few larger window boxes on a ledge in the back yard. I'm also experimenting with planting potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket.

This year I took the risk and planted potatoes very early since I knew I had enough heavy duty remay to protect them from a hard freeze. They're now about 18" tall, so I will be getting some early potatoes this year. I had good luck planting them in my raised bed last year. I missed harvesting a couple and have had to dig out the volunteers and replant them.

The other thing taking up my time and energy the past couple of months has been cooking.  Yesterday I took a break from my current love affair with anything Italian, and made meatloaf, a recipe I put together from a few I saw on line and remembering some of the things my mother used in her recipe. It was delicious - no fancy ingredients, just a good, tasty, light, moist, recipe:


JUNE'S MEAT LOAF Serves: 4-5

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (chuck is most flavorful. Or use half ground beef and half ground pork for even more flavor).
2 slices of white or light whole wheat bread crust removed. Run bread under water to wet thoroughly. Squeeze well to remove the excess water and break into tiny bits and add to the meat mixture.

1/8 C. plain, dry bread crumbs.
1 egg beaten
2 cloves garlic put through a press or very finely chopped.
1 medium onion finely diced.
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
4 tablespoons ketchup
2 T finely minced flat leaf parsley
1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves, crushed.
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 C  milk 

 

***NOTE: This will be a pretty moist mixture, but will still hold it's shape when cooked, rested and served.
     -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------          
Sauce to brush on top of meat loaf for baking: (or, you can skip the sauce and just lay some pieces of bacon over the top to keep it moist. Cut the bacon pieces in half horizontally and space evenly over the top of the smoothed meat loaf mixture. Just use enough to lightly coat the loaf, using a brush particularly if you want to roast potatoes in the same pan.

1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed firm, or more or less to taste.
1/2 cup ketchup
pinch of salt 

pinch of chili powder

NOTE: You can double this sauce and some a glaze when roasting the meatloaf and pass the rest around when serving the meat loaf.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEATLOAF INSTRUCTIONS: 

 

 Saute onions in a bit of butter or olive oil over medium heat, till transparent (about 5-7 minutes). Add the minced garlic and stir and cook till the garlic is fragrant (about 10 seconds or so).. Combine the onion and garlic mixture with the rest of the meat loaf ingredients. Make sure you mix all the ingredients lightly for a light, tender, meatloaf. Place in lightly oiled roasting pan and gently form into a loaf, or place into a roasting pan . I prefer to  make a free form loaf and put it in a larger rectangular baking pan and place peeled, halved or quartered depending on size, red potatoes, that have been lightly oiled, and salted around the loaf . Then sprinkle 2 peeled and sliced, large cloves of garlic among the potatoes. If you like you can add a bit of chopped fresh rosemary leaves for extra flavor, as well as a very light sprinkling of cayenne, which is what I do. The potatoes will take on more flavor from the little bit of juices released from the meat load.

If using a tomato sauce topping: Combine sauce ingredients and brush on top and sides of  the meatloaf, or you can lay some strips of uncooked bacon over the top instead, or use nothing at all.

Bake at 350°F about 1 hour or till meat thermometer reads 155F (or 165F if using part pork). Remove from oven when temperature is reached, and place on a warmed serving platter; and tent loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm. Wait 10 minutes before slicing. Meantime,  keep the potatoes warm in the oven . Remove them from the pan they were cooked in and put into another smaller pan and use the pan dripping and some beef broth and some vegetable cooking water if you have, to make a pan gravy.  Or, you can just serve the meatloaf with the extra tomato glazing sauce or ketchup or barbecue sauce of your choice.

Costco wine blog

 http://costcowineblog.com/
Costco fans know that it's a good place to shop for food, office supplies, electronics, etc. etc. but it's also a very good place to fine some great wine treasures at great prices.

Our daughter who lives in Germany mentioned a new inexpensive wine she and our son-in-law recently discovered, and in my search for it I stumbled on this Costco wine blog which I've added to my blog list. I noted some of the recommendations and will see if our local Costco has them. He mentioned a Vila Antonori which we discovered years ago in a restaurant in Tusacany and we were happy to see it at Costco in recent years.

My plan for dinner is my Mexican inspired chicken, onion, tomato, serrano chili saute with margaritas. I don't use a recipe for this, just saute some one or two sliced onion in a bit of olive oil, then add a few sliced serrano chiles and  2 large cloves of garlic chopped. Saute about a minute to release the aroma of the garlic, but don't allow any browning. Then add 3 of the  4-5 or more chopped tomatoes I use, depending on how many I'm cooking for. I cook  on low/medium about 5-10 minutes or till the tomatoes start breaking down.  Then I add about a pound of boneless chicken breasts cut into about 1" pieces (I allow about 1/2 lb of the boneless chick per person), salt, pepper and some oregano. When I add the chicken, I also add the one or two reserved diced tomatoes. Saute till chicken is done which only take another couple of minutes. You can taste for heat before you add the chicken and if not hot enough you can add a bit more of the serrano chiles. This is a delicious dish, but you'll have to make it according to your own taste level with the seasonings and the heat. If I have to err, I err on the side of adding more tomatoes because they just add to the lovely, spicy sauce.

I serve this with re-fried beans topped with melted cheese, and of course margaritas. If I have company, I also serve corn tortillas with it, otherwise we skip the extra calories.

I've already started some of my seedlings and the broccoli, escarole and cauliflower and cabbage (I think) are up. The peas have sprouted on damp hand towel paper so I need to get out and plant them today. It's been raining on and off for days now, so it's going to be tricky to find an opportunity to get those planted in my raised beds. This was a small test batch, so I might just put them in a couple of seedling pots if the weather doesn't cooperate.

I ordered a new Earth Box planter for this season. They work really well and are help extend my vegetable gardening since our back yard is mainly containers and a couple of 4X8 foot, 2 foot deep raised beds I had constructed last year. The first year I had two eggplants in one and last year did  hot pepper plants. Everything did great. I think this year I'll plant bell and frying peppers in one and maybe  Eggplant and serrano chiles in the other.

My summer square foot gardening plan is done and now I just have to wait for some good weather to get out there and prep my beds. I checked them out several days ago and garlic is up, chives are coming up and even potted tulips nearby are up several inches. I'm going to have to do a major cleanup of all my potted plants. With the unusual, below zero temperatures we had over a month ago, I suspect we lost a lot of our perennials. I'll be better able to assess it all in another month.

With all the cancer causing GMO foods on the market we are eating mainly organic and I'm trying to grow as much of our spring, summer and fall veggies at home. Our son and daughter in law have a 9 large raised beds and some in ground garden space at their ranch and I will be able to do some planting there. I'll probably plant most of my potatoes, squash, fava beans, late heirloom beefsteak tomatoes, and whatever extra seedlings of everything else there.

Their ranch is right on the Rogue River, so I never mind driving over there, letting our dog Bodhi visit his furry cousins and get a good run; and if I want I can always cast a few after some garden time. It's a great fishing spot and beautiful on the eyes as well.

The Foods and Wines of Spain

The other day I ordered a couple of Spanish cookbooks after watching an Anthony Bourdain show on Spain; and I'm so glad I did. It probably wasn't a good idea to watch Anthony Bourdain before breakfast, because I wound up ordering 4 cookbooks. The Spanish Table was the other Spanish cookbook I ordered as well as a vegetarian one "Fresh and Fast Vegetarian" and "Provence the Beautiful". 

We've been adding more fish and vegetarian meals and the Provence cookbook looks like it may have some nice vegetable and fish dishes, since that is pretty much the main diet in that part of France due to the very rocky terrain not being great for grazing.

Yesterday afternoon I was browsing the Penelope Casas book "The Foods and Wines of Spain" and I can't wait to try some of these recipes. The tapas section looks wonderful and there are some really nice and easy recipes there. I'm thinking I should plan a night of Tapas for dinner. Jim loves appetizers, so this would work for him.

We have a lovely Spanish Rioja that we found at Costco. It has around a 90 rating is pretty inexpensive, so I think we're set for a Tapas night. Jim wasn't up for Riojas but indulged me, liked it, and went back to Costco to buy a few more bottles.

One of the recipes I would like to try calls for Bacalao (salted cod); so I've been looking on the Internet for a quality source to the make one of the bacalao recipes in this book. So far, no luck; but I'll keep searching.
I checked Amazon.com but the reviews weren't great for most of what is for sale there, so I might have to search out some Italian specialty stores. Unfortunately we don't have an Italian grocery stores in Southern Oregon.

I grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y in an Italian neighborhood and remember seeing this dried, salted cod in the local fish market; but never ate it. My family wasn't Italian so my mothers Italian repertoire consisted of spaghetti and meatballs or meat sauce and lasagna, which our Italian upstairs neighbor Delia, taught her to make. She probably never would have thought of asking for a fish recipe since my dad loved to do deep sea fishing and was always bringing home fish, which he rarely ate. He loved crab and lobster but that was the only thing from the sea that he wanted to see on his plate. So it was my job to give a lot of the fish to the nuns at my school who were always thrilled to get fresh fish.

Tuesday  I decided to try a batter fried chicken recipe. The meat was lovely but I wasn't thrilled with the recipe which called for a buttermilk brine, then double flour dipping before dipping in the batter. I think the double flour thing was what didn't work. In any case, I have plenty of leftovers for tonight, so dinner is going to be just a matter of reheating the chicken and mashed potatoes and corn. I'll try batter fried chicken again, but use a Bobbie Flay or other recipe. After the very messy after dinner cleanup, Colonel Sanders was sounding pretty good for a while! LOL

Pizza success

I used the pizza calculator to come up with this recipe. My aim was to get a New York style pizza with a chewy crust, crispy bottom, yet foldable; and this is as close as I have come. My husband like it so much he even ate the crust which he never does!

Here's ther ecipe if anyone wants to try it. I use a good grams scale since I think it's important with any bread baking to weight out the ingredients.

For on 15 inch pizza

Flour (I used Sir Lancelot) 301.44 grams
Water (use very cold)          192.92
Instant dry yest                         0.6
Sea salt                                     3.01
oil (vegetable)                          3.01
 
Place the water and salt in a mixer like a Kitchen Aid. Stir. Combine the flour and yeast and add it to the water. With the paddle attachment, and using low speed, mix for two minutes. Then add the oil . Mix on low another minute or two .

Now, switch to a doug hook and knead on #3 for 8 minutes, or till smooth and elastic and the dough passes the window pane test. When mixed, cover it and let it rest an hour at room temperature.

After the hour of rise, form a ball with the dough and place it in a very lightly oiled bowl. Turn it over so it's lightly oiled on both sides. Cover it well and refrigerate one to three days.

The day you'll be baking the pizza, remove the doug from the fridge around 1pm. Let it rest for an hour. Then  form a tight ball and cover it and let is rest another couple of hours before forming and baking.  *** 1 hour before actually baking preheat your oven to 550 with a pizza stone on the bottom rack. Another thing I do it place another stone on the shelve above. That helps the top cook at the same speed at the bottom.

When ready to form the pizza have your pizza peel covered lightly with coarse corn meal, and have all your topping ready. Remove the dough and place it on a lightly flour3ed work surface and quickly form the pizza. If you overwork the dough it can get tough. When the dough it formed, put in on the peel and quickly top it with your favorite sauce,  good quality mozzarella and other topping you might be using. I sprinkle the tiniest bit of oil on top and baked till done which takes about 6-8 minutes. Remove pie and let it sit a minute or two before cutting.

PS: there are very good how to videos on you tube showing the proper way to stretch the dough. Learn to do it the proper way. Never use a rolling pin!

Bone Appetit!

New pizza dough and pizza sauce

Today turned into a cooking day after a morning visit with our son and a friend. Once I finished a bunch of morning and early afternoon chores like de-icing the walkway which was resembling an ice skating rink, putting up some Christmas decorations, and email, etc,etc., I finally found my way back to the kitchen after lunch.

 My pizza dough for tomorrow is now made, and in the fridge for an overnight cold rise. It's a new  recipe I created using an on line pizza calculator to come up with what I hope will be a good clone for a New York style dough that I I grew up eating - thin, crispy, yet foldable and chewy. I used a King Arthur Lancelot flour today and I like the consistency of the finished dough. I'll only use half of the dough batch  for one pizza and if the dough works out well, I'll let the rest of it sit in the fridge another day so I can compare the flavor between a one or two day cold rise. 

The longer, cold rise, allows more flavor to develop in the dough. I guess you could say it gives it a little bit of a sourdough flavor after a day or two.

I also made a batch of pizza sauce using Cento certified San Marzano tomatoes in a puree that I bought on line. Every tomato in the can was bright red. I loved that the can has a white liner, so there's no direct metal contact with the contents. I saw these being used in a you tube video on making true Neapolitan pizza, by a chef from Naples. It's a lot pricier than most but one can made enough sauce for eight 14 1/2 -15 inch pizzas. I have other varieties on hand and over the winter will be using them with my new sauce recipe and see if the higher price is worth it.    

Both the new dough and pizza sauce recipes are the result of a lot of research and then using bits of other recipes to create my own. There's lots of flavor in the sauce from the garlic and herbs and my not so secret ingredient - a 1/2 tsp of anchovy paste for a 28 oz can of the San Marzano tomatoes. It is sooooo good!

I also use 1T each of olive oil and butter to saute 2 large cloves of pressed garlic, and half of a peeled, onion, which is removed when the sauce is done. The tomatoes are processed in the food processor until there are some very tiny pieces, and before it turns into a puree; or if you want to remove the seeds, which I sometimes do, you can just run them through a food mill using on of the coarser discs. The tomatoes are added to the garlic onion mixture, once the garlic has released it's aroma (about a minute),  along with one to one and a half tsp of salt or to taste, a pinch of dried red pepper flakes, about 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves, about a tsp of dried basil, the anchovy paste and a teaspoon or more of sugar depending on how sharp the tomatoes or garlic made the sauce. I also give it a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper.

I cook this covered on a very low heat to develop the flavors and until the onion is softened. When done, I remove the onion and press in a sieve or strainer to release the juices into the sauce, stir and package the batch in 8 equal portions in small plastic containers. I have a medium sized ladle that I use to measure one serving size and then freeze all but what I might be using within a few days.

Kitchen is on vacation for most of the day

The town is turning off our electricity any minute and the electrician will be here at least 4-5 hours connecting everything we need in case of long power outages, to the new generator.

I was in the studio at 6am mixing, de-airing,  pugging and bagging clay and afterwards had  a hearty cinnamon oatmeal breakfast which will hopefully hold me a long while. After breakfast  I was back in the studio gathering some tools and my little portable table, a bucket of water and slip  so I could work in bed making some clay impression stamps and rollers and practice slip trailing. I need a lot of practice with this new skill I'm attempting to learn.

It was 18 degrees here this morning and the house is going to get cold pretty fast and the only auxiliary heat we will have is the gas fireplace in the bedroom and living room. So the plan is to retreat to the bedroom, close the doors and hope it will generate enough heat. If not, I'll be donning a lot of layers and getting under the covers!


The last picked plum tomatoes  are ripe enough to make a Puttanesca sauce which I was going to make for friends tonight; but we had to change those dinner plans and will be taking them out to the Mexican restaurant instead - not a bad alternative.

Tuna Noodle casserole aka sixties soul food for easterners

Winter has arrived and it's time to think about all those comforting, maybe not so healthy dinners. On a day like today  I am going to take out my old 60's stand by Better Homes and Garden cookbook and find the tuna noodle casserole recipe. Broccoli will be the healthy addition to tonight's body and soul, warming casserole. Of course, I will also have to make some of those decadent, high fat, Pillsbury crescent rolls to go with it. It's the perfect marriage of two carbohydrates.

The problem with using these old recipes is the every shrinking of canned foods. These days the cream of celery soup that is called for in the recipe, has shrunk a few ounces, so I'm force to buy 2 cans instead of one. For years it was only the candy bars that were shrinking and in recent years Campbell's has joined the ranks of  "give them less and charge them more".

Years ago I purchased a set of very, very old cookbooks and was warned at the time that I had to be careful, because apples, for instance, one or two hundred years ago were much smaller.  So the apples have gotten bigger, but everything else seems to be shrinking. If I live another twenty years, which is highly unlikely, the candy bars might wind up being the size we now give out to trick or treaters.

Time to check my recently sprouted basil. I have it growing under a grow light in my meditation room along with a big pot of lemon grass.

No knead sourdough

Just took this no knead sourdough out of the oven. Now I just have to wait till it cools so I can taste it. It certainly is a pretty loaf! This is my first time making a sourdough version of the no knead bread and if it tastes as good as it looks and smells, I'll be making this a lot more often.

Since it's a cold, rainy day with some light snow in the forecast, it seems like a good soup night, so I'll be making Julia Child's French onion soup. I was going to use gruyere which is my preference, rather than swiss cheese, but neither of my local, large grocery stores had plain gruyere, so I'll be doing Julia's version instead. 

Thanksgiving was great. Since our son was doing two deep fried turkeys, and our daughter-in-law doing most of the veggies, I made coleslaw, pate and a couple of cranberry sauces. There were about twenty of us at dinner and we all went back Friday for the leftovers.

The best cranberry sauce was a cranberry apple that was the winner hands down. I'll be making that to go with other meats as well. It would be great accompaniment to other fowl and pork dishes.

If anyone wants the recipe, you can find it on the Food Network web site; or just google "cranberry apple sauce" and it should have a link to the recipe.

 

Been away from this blog too long

Now that we've gotten our first freeze, and the garden is wearing a mantle of frost, it's time to hunker down for winter and start thinking of winter menus, and winter projects, like planning next years garden.

Tonight will be an easy lamb chop, baked potato and salad dinner and tomorrow night we'll turn on the fireplace and have some cheese fondue and I'll make some kind of dessert to go with that. Monday I'm making a seafood and chicken gumbo and taking it over to our sons place. He's flying in before the family to open up the house and take care of some other things and it will be easier for us to just take dinner over there. Plus, he has a great wine cellar and likes to share even his best wines, so we'll have a good dinner, great wine and some time alone before all the rest of the family and friends arrive for a full house of family and friends for Thanksgiving at their place.

My garden did pretty well this year. This is my second year doing the square food gardening in two 4X8 by 2feet deep beds. The only thing that didn't do well for me in the beds were the bell and frying peppers and beets and I don't know why. The hot peppers in the grow box system did great, so I think I have to check the soil in the square foot beds. Lettuce, arugula, beans, tomatoes, kale, carrots, onions, broccoli, celery, spinach,fava beans etc. did great. But the beets were just leaves with almost no root, and the pepper plants looked stunted. So I need to find their ideal PH and either adjust it or just continue to grow the peppers in the grow boxes where they do very well. I may just get another one of those grow boxes next spring. Last year I did Eggplant in the grow box and it did great. This year I skipped the egg plant altogether since I plated some at our sons place. I didn't grow any squash here for the same reason, but I may try one plant next year. There's an Italian heirloom zucchini that I really like. It will probably take up four squares, but I decided against doing fava beans again only because you really need to grow a lot of get anything worth cooking. I think I got about a cup from 18 plants - just not worth giving up that much space in two raised beds for so little food.

I had major surgery almost 3 months ago to repair a paraesophageal hernia and that took at least two months out of my garden and studio time since surgeons order were no bending or lifting for 8 weeks. Fortunately I had started a lot of seeds indoors and done a lot of my early spring planting before I went in for surgery, so the beds were about half planted and I finished the rest in late May. 

I'm now waiting for this sudden cold spell to leave and when it warms up a bit I'll be out there pulling up tomato and bean cages and cleaning out the rest of the non producing square.We got our first freeze two days ago which is very late, so we got lucky with a lot of late tomatoes and lettuce. My winter lettuce is covered with heavy remay but it went down to 19F the other night, and I doubt if the lettuce survived that even with the heavy remay.

I got a few winter saffron crocus bulbs planted a couple of weeks ago and did some late summer planting of lettuce as well as clean up some of the squares in the beds. There are about ten or twelve yellow tulip bulbs in the fridge which I haven't gotten around to planting, and if the ground freezes too much and I can't plant them, I'll just put them in pots in soil and force them in the spring for the house. I'm also, slowly getting back to some studio time and after the holidays will get into a more regular routine.

There's still some more testing to do with slips and decorating techniques with this new body of earthenware that I'm transitioning to after about 40 years of working in high fire reduction and then soda and salt firing the last twelve years. It's been frustrating at times making such a big shift, and it's been almost a year of testing. You can't get much progress in pottery in six months or even a year especially if you're only working part time and dealing as I was with a medical issue and settling in to a new home; but I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

We have settled in pretty well in a year and a half, done a lot of work to the house, added a new range top and vent which is making my cooking chores a joy. The old range top was woefully inadequate - no power to speak of. My new one isn't perfect for the burners are amazingly powerful. Every burner has the power that a wok burner would have. It took a bit getting used to all that power. The simmer doesn't simmer. It boils, so I just learned to shift the pot off to the side. I have to check out their website and see if they've come up with a fix or a plate that you can put over the burner when you need to simmer something.

Well, that's it for this long overdue blog update. Hope everyone had a great summer and fall and are looking forward to winter pleasures.

Check out my friend Lora's blog today. She takes you on a tour of one of the most amazing food shops you'll ever see in Munich, Germany. Enjoy!

 http://www.diaryofamadhausfrau.com/

A lot has gone on since my last post. Over two months ago I had surgery to repair a really bad paraesophageal hernia and was in the hospital 5 days and am just starting to feel like my old self ten weeks later.  Fortunately my physical activity was only limited to heavy work and bending (it's not easy bending over with an 8 or 9" scar from your solar plexus down to below your navel), so I've been able to get a lot of time doing sitting and standing  chores which meant cooking and computer work. There was no garden time except to harvest veggies and plant some seeds in my raised veggie beds. Doctors orders were strict - no studio work, bending or heavy lifting for 8 weeks.

The past couple of weeks I've been back in my pottery studio a bit, but the heavy lifting of those slip and glaze buckets is not going over well, so I'm spending more time on my computer and in the kitchen.

After breakfast yesterday I made a nutty fruity breakfast bread. I got the recipe on the King Arthur site and it's our favorite breakfast bread . Since I had pottery related chores in the afternoon, I decided to make dinner early. It was a cold, rainy morning and a pot of hearty Tuscan bean, sausage, escarole, potato and carrot soup seemed like a good choice. I only made 1/3 or the recipe and that's enough for two meals for the two of us.

My husband celebrated his 80th birthday Saturday and we went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant  in Talent - Sammy's Cowboy bistro. It's a very upscale establishment, and not like the name implies. and we had a fabulous dinner, as always. The chef sent out an amuse bouche of pate on dark German bread that was delicious and very filling. It wasn't a typical, tiny amuse bouche. We both ordered the house smoked salmon on top of a potato pancake which was also delicious. They made their own bread so I had a small piece of that when we first sat down, so by the time our duck breast entree arrived with the veggies and cheese gnocchi, I was pretty full and wound up taking most of my entree home for the next day, so I could save a bit of room for the cinnamon ice cream dessert. It was an eating day and it was fun; but we don't want to make a habit of that!  We are sure that the good wines helped to cut the cholesterol a bit. :-)

Dealing with seesaw weather again

These are the raised beds we had built last summer and I'm trying the square foot garden method for the first time. So far, most things are doing well. I've never had kale as big as the two growing in two of the squares, and the potato plants (you can see them at the far end of the left planter), are big and lush. I planted two potatoes in each square, which may be too much; but I read different numbers are different sites; and since I put some really great soil in these beds, and am using a special, organic fertilizer for potatoes, I'm hoping for the best.

The beds are 2 feet deep and totally filled with rich, organic soil. The unexpected hot weather equaled failure for my square of radishes, and beets, even though they were planted early enough; but the lettuce, kale, carrots, shallots, garlic and everything else is going great. The fava beans in two squares look healthy. It's my first time growing these, and there wasn't much square foot gardening information on them, so I may have planted too many in one square (I planted 9). There are beans forming, but the pods look pretty small, so 9 may have been too many, unless these pods are going to get bigger.

We've gone from temperatures in the 80's and now looking at a few days of 50's weather with high 30's and low forties overnight. So I've covered my peppers and basil and brought a lot of planting tender veggie seedlings which I'm holding for my daughter-in-laws garden, indoors for a couple of nights.

Yesterday was a day of baking and cooking. I made nutty fruity breakfast bread - my husbands favorite. It's a recipe I got from King Arthur flour a year or so ago and it's become a regular part of our breakfast diet. They have a scone mix which is really delicious. I've made my own from scratch, before but through it would be nice to try these. The mix saves a little bit of time; but not that much. If you've never made scones and would like to try them, I think their mix is a good one to try.

It was also a day with making pizza. I'm still looking for the definitive recipe. I have a good recipe from a friend; but it's not quite the crispy bottom, yet chewy, thin, but fold-able, crust of the New York pizza I ate growing up in Brooklyn, New York. So the search continues.

Spring seed starting and planting

This is the time of year I start getting really excited about the garden. My first seeds of tomatoes, serrano chiles, leek and others are already sprouting under grow lights and with the help of a seed starting heat pad to help them along. 

Today I planted mesclun, basil and padrone pepper seeds. The space under my one and only grow light is filling up pretty fast, so I'll soon be back at Lowes to buy another one. After lunch I headed out to the garden and planted some red potatoes, escarole and fava beans. It will be interesting to see how the potatoes, in particular, do with the square foot gardening method  in my raised beds.

A few days ago I transplanted onion, lettuce, spinach, kale and arugula in those beds, as well as seeding beets and radishes. Tomorrow I'll plant a square of carrots, then only other things I'll have to plant will be tomatoes, beans, peppers and eggplant as well as a second crop of lettuce.which won't happen for another two months. That will be it for those beds. I have an artichokes and garlic growing in a   large pot, and have to get another one that size for the other artichoke yet to plant.

Last summer I had two 4x8 foot, 2 feet deep beds built; and set them up with the square foot gardening grids. Since they were built late in the season, most of what I planted was cold weather crops - like cauliflower, cabbage, kale, broccolini, lettuce, scallions and garlic.

The very cold weather arrived before most of them were ready for harvest, so I covered the beds with heavy grade remay and checked a couple of times during the winter. I harvested lettuce and arugula into January; but it didn't look like the cole crops were going to do anything. So I wrote them off and I figured I'd pull them all out when I started re-planting this spring; but when I went out a several days ago to prep and fertilize some of the squares, lo and behold, there was broccoli ready to pick, and the broccolini was already flowering, and the cabbages were already forming small heads and the brussel sprouts had very tiny fruits already formed.

The few carrots from last year look like they may also be continuing their growth; and there was one lone spinach and some lettuce volunteers from last years plants. I never expected that those plants could suspend ripening all those months, and then  continue to grow the minute the weather started to warm. I don't know if that would have happened without the heavy covering of remay; but I certainly found it to be a very nice surprise.

It's about time

To say that I've been a bit lagging behind on blog posts for this blog is like saying World war 1 was just a little skirmish! My last post was October 2011, so for this blog, I missed all of 2012 without boring or exciting any readers with my latest gardening or culinary efforts.

2012 was a bit of personal life changing time - family illness, selling a home and moving the contents of a home and studio cross country. I won't bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say, it was life changing to the max!

Jim and I and our two furry kids Bonnie kitty and Bodhi our little Jack Russel are now firmly settled into our new home and new life. Bonnie still hides under the bed the second Bodhi's barking may indicate a strange presence. She is now a house cat and adjusting, but not particularly thrilled about it. Like us, her life has changed a lot! Bodhi, on the other hand has found other dog friends at our sons place where he can run free for a time with his much larger golden retriever cousins Tank and Bianca, and a neighbors door who often joins in.

I no longer have 11 acres of fruits trees and flower and vegetable beds. Those have been replaced with a postage stamp lot in a golf community. The back yard is 99% swimming pool and concrete; but I have managed since we arrived last May, to garden in containers and two very deep 4x8 foot planters that I had made late summer. In addition, I've had my son and daughter in laws large garden to play in when they aren't here in Oregon. As for my studio space, it's been halved. My large soda/salt kiln is gone, gifted to a couple of newly married, very talented potters. Other large equipment and large amount of raw materials were either sold for a song or gifted. I had 30 days to pack house and studio, a daunting task even with the help of our son and daughter who flew out and gave me a lot of help in a short period of time.

My current studio space is half of a two car garage - very tight, but doable. Jim insisted I put a heater/air conditioner in there, so I won't be a slave of the weather. Since this is a retirement space, the old, big kiln, gone, I decided to explore earthenware and will be using my old bisque, electric kiln for any new work I make. I brought a small gas test kiln with me so I could finish up some pots that were made for the old kiln; but that will have to wait for spring when we are through the rainy season, since there is no covering over that kiln and I need 3 clear days for loading, then firing and cooling.

Our new, old home in Oregon, a place we left in the late 90's, feels good again. I'm still adjusting to less studio space and definitely, much less storage space. There's no room for a spare fridge or freezer, so my level of cooking and planting has changed drastically but appropriately for this house and garden. Fortunately there is a lot of good, local food and other shopping and many decent and very good restaurant choices.

I'll try to post a bit more often now that we're pretty settled. As for today, there's still the Anthony Bourdain's book "Medium Raw" to finish, on this, my last self proclaimed, vegging out day to catch  up on email and snail mail after a lovely post Christmas wining and dining trip to Napa followed by more of the same with family and friends back here in Southern Oregon.

Pork tenderloin pan roasted

On working days I still try to cook a decent dinner - usually something that takes less than an hour of cooking so I can stay in the studio longer.

Last night I made a pan roasted pork tenderloin - easy, and delicious - definitely a keeper recipe. I served it with corn, and roasted un-skinned red potato chunks (cut about 1" thick) lightly coated with olive oil, sprinkled with salt,a touch of cayenne pepper and fresh slices of garlic, and roasted at 400F for about 30-40 minutes.

Here's the Pork tenderloin recipe:

PAN ROASTED PORK TENDERLOIN

2 lb. pork tenderloin
1 T butter
1 T oil
2 Sprigs of fresh thyme
2 peeled, sliced garlic cloves
1/4 c. chopped shallots
Salt & pepper to taste
1/3 c. red wine
1 -2 tsp butter

1. Wash pork under cold running water; dry with paper towels.

2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil in skillet over medium heat.

3. Turn to medium high and when the butter foams, add the tenderloin and brown on all sides.

4. Lower heat to medium, add the thyme and garlic, and cook till the garlic is a pale tan color (only a minute or so depending on how thin you sliced the garlic. Don't brown it.)

5. Add the chopped shallots, salt and pepper and stir about a minute.

6. Turn heat to high and add 1/3 cup red wine and stir to scrape up any of the browned bits.

7. Lower the heat to low, cover and cook about 40-45 minutes till it registers about 145-150 on a meat thermometer. (You can cook it to a higher temperature if you don't like your pork pink).

8. When done, remove tenderloin to a cutting board and tent it lightly with some silver foil and let it sit 5-10 minutes to let the juices settle in.

9. Meantime, skim any fat from remaining sauce, add a couple of tablespoons of water and cook a bit to thicken it into a light, thin, sauce texture. Then strain it, pressing hard to get all the juice out, and return the sauce to the pan, and swirl in the butter till it melts. Keep the sauce warm on the lowest setting while you slice the meat, then serve the tenderloin slices with a bit of the wine sauce poured over.

Bucatini all' Amatriciana

Yesterday I was going to make a Lidia Bastianich Bucatini recipe, but to make a long story short, I realized quickly that the dish had very little to recommend it other than way too much heat, so I quickly changed gears after doing a lot of the pre prep, and combined parts of that recipe with another bucatini recipe. It turned out great - a definite keeper. Here's my version of the revamped recipe is you want to try it.

Bucatini all' Amatriciana Serves 4

1lb bucatini pasta (or thick spaghetti)
2 cups of canned plum tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of thick sliced bacon, cubed
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (I added some pepperonic paste from the first recipe, so the pepper flakes should approximate the same amount of heat. You can add a bit less or more of the pepper flakes to suit your own heat taste).
1/2 cup fresh grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Salt to taste

3/4 cup of toasted, fresh bread crumbs from day old country bread.

Preheat the oven to 350F and coarsely grate the day old bread. Spread the crumbs thinly on a raised cookie sheet and bake them, stirring a couple of times till they’re toasted (about 8 minutes). Set aside.

Saute the bacon till light brown, (leave the bacon fat in the pan) then add onion and saute till onion is transparent and bacon a bit browner, and add the garlic a saute that with the bacon and onion for about a minute or two. Remove and discard the garlic as soon as it begins to brown, add the hot pepper flakes and the drained, chopped tomatoes.

Add salt to taste and cook over a medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking, and adding some water if it thickens too much.

Cook the bucatini pasta until al dente in boiling salted water, drain and add to the pan with the sauce. Add the toasted bread crumbs and toss. Remove the pan from the heat and put on serving plates and sprinkle some of the grated cheese over and pass the rest.

Muscat de Provence squash

The garden is quieting down but still supplying us with some of the late planted pole and bush beans. I checked the three Muscat de Provence squashes and they're part green, part orange, so I think they'll be ready to harvest right after the first  good frost, which will harden them off and guarantee their longer storage.

This is my first time growing this squash. Our daughter, who lives in Germany, buys these to make her pumpkin cake and squash soup. I'm eager to try those recipes as well as a pumpkin pie as soon as they're ready.

My chile and other peppers and some tomatoes are still producing, although I've been covering some of the peppers with remay, and have moved the potted ones indoors for the night. Fortunately we had a freeze scare, but came out of that without getting touched and now we're in a warm spell and it looks like there's no threat of frost of freezing for the rest of this week.  Guess I'll be picking more beans, tomatoes and peppers for a while.

Pasta Puttanesca

Menu choices on working days have to be pretty simple. And since yesterday was a full studio day in my pottery, last night I made pasta Puttanesca. This delicious savory dish was known as whores pasta because the ladies of the evening could cook up a tasy, quick dish that didn't take too much time away from their business. Here's the recipe I use. The one exception was that I used our own cherry tomatoes which are very abundant right now.

Pasta Puttanesca

• 1 pound dried spaghetti, spaghettini, or linguine fini
• 5 garlic cloves, forced through a garlic press
• 2 teaspoons anchovy paste
• 1/2 teaspoon hot red-pepper flakes
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole plum tomatoes in juice (preferably San Marzanos)that you've pureed in a blender or food processor
• 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives
• 2 tablespoons drained and rinsed capers
• Pinch of sugar (optional)
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped basil

Have all your ingredients measured and ready to use.

Cook spaghetti in a pasta in salted, rapidly boiling water until barely al dente (about 7-8 minutes).

While pasta is cooking s, cook garlic, anchovy paste, red-pepper flakes, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper in oil in a preheated 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and pale golden, about a minute.

Add tomato purée to garlic oil along with olives and capers and simmer, stirring occasionally, until pasta is ready. Add a tiny bit of sugar if needed or desired.

Drain pasta and add to sauce. Simmer, turning pasta with tongs, until pasta is al dente, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with the chopped basil.

Thai cucumber salad and Kosher dill pickle recipes

I was very busy in the garden a couple  days ago - picking a lot of veggies and getting them prepped and stored, in some cases and having some ready to use in recipes. Last night I made nachos using a lot of  the tomatoes and serrano chile peppers and today I'm making a green bean bisque recipe I found on the Internet. It's sounds good - rich, and spicy with a topping of fresh halved cherry tomatoes and shredded Jack cheese.

One of the readers of my Shambhala Pottery blog asked me to post these recipes which I mentioned in that blog a few days ago, so here they are. The Thais cucumber salad is a very refreshing recipe and even people who don't usually like the sour cream, dill cucumber salad, like my husband,for one love this!

Thai cucumber salad Serves 4

2 cucumbers peeled and sliced thinly
4 T sugar
2 T rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
4 T water
Pinch of Red Pepper flakes or to taste
1/4 cup red onion (halve or quarter the onion and slice very thinly)
1/4 cup fresh mint roughly chopped (or to taste. I used only a tiny bit)
Optional: 1/4 cup fresh cilantro roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients except the cucumbers and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Add the sliced cucumbers and lightly toss. (Best made a bit ahead a half hour or more, and refrigerated to develop more flavor .

PS: I omitted the onion and cilantro since all of mine has gonet to seed and it was fine without it.

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Kosher dill pickles (These are delicious and easy to make. They taste just like the pickles I remember from the lower easy side of Manhattan, that the pickle man sold out of huge wooden barrels. They were a nickel for a huge pickle and he wrapped them in white paper. It was almost a lunch for a child!)

4 quarts (scant 4) of water
6 tablespoons coarse Kosher white salt
18-20 pickling cucumbers, scrubbed well
8 cloves garlic, un-peeled and lightly-crushed
2 tablespoons pickling spice 
6 bay leaves
1 large bunch of dill, preferably going to seed, washed (If you can't get it, use fresh dill leaves and add some dill seed which you can find in the spice section of the grocery store).

1. In a large pot, bring 1 qt (1l) water to a boil with the salt, stirring until the salt is dissolved. Remove from heat and add the remaining water.

2. Prepare three 1 quart wide jars by running them through the dishwasher or hand washing and then filling them with boiling water, then dumping it out..(I found that with the jars packed full of cucumbers, I had plenty of the brine leftover for a few more jars. So if you have an abundance of pickling cucumbers you might want to have more jars and spices ready)

3. Pack the cucumbers vertically into the jars, making sure they’re tightly-packed. As you fill the jars, divide the garlic, spices, bay leaves, and dill amongst them.

Morning chores and bruschetta

This morning I picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes for a friend. There's a great abundance of them this year, thanks to a lot of volunteer plants that I just let do their thing.  Since it was cool, and I had some time, I also did some weeding.

I think when we get back from our waffle breakfast with friends, I'll pick enough of those cherry tomatoes for us to use bruschetta for lunch.

Basically, I cut the cherry or other tomatoes into small chunks and mix them with some salt, pepper, a touch of red wine or balsamic vinegar, chopped fresh basil leaves, and thin shavings of parmesan reggiano cheese. If you like you can also put in a tiny bit of crushed garlic. I serve this on top of a good quality Italian, or sourdough bread, cut about 1/2" thick, rubbed with olive oil and toasted on both side under the broiler. You can also rub the bread with a split garlic clove before or after you apply the olive oil, if you want a more subtle addition of garlic to the bruschetta. It's so simple, healthy and delicious!

Stuffed cabbage dinner with friends

I've been doing food prep and cooking most of the day and I'm wiped; but the watermelon is cut and the dressing is made for the arugula salad, and the stuffed cabbage is all made and in the fridge, ready to cook later this afternoon. Dessert, at Jim's request, is just going to be some vanilla ice cream with two liqueur options - banana or caramel, or a non alcoholic Bailey's Irish Cream syrup. I'll suggest that they they choose either the caramel or the Baileys and save the banana for sipping after dessert. Banana liqueur is lovely after dinner and it's a good digestive.

I forgot just how much time stuffed cabbage takes, especially when you mess up the recipe, add double the salt and have to send husband to the store for another pound of ground beef, which means getting more onion grated, more rice measured, another egg beaten, etc, and twice as many cabbage rolls to stuff and wrap.  It was a good thing I had a huge head of Savoy cabbage. So now I have stuffed cabbage for 12 instead of 6. 

After breakfast I got some weeding time in the garden, which I probably should have skipped today; but I find it hard to walk past a weed and not bend down and extricate it from it comfy abode; but the problem is I can never stop at just one.  So about a half hour later, the compost pile had a new addition, and I resumed my food prep.

The kitchen is somewhat tidied, the glasses are washed and now I'm going to see if I can get Bonnie kitty in, feed her and get a bit of rest time before getting the table set and doing the last few kitchen chores and bit of living room tidying. Days like this I wish I were twenty years younger; but I'd gladly settle for ten!

A day to sow

It's a beautiful morning, so I was able to get out before breakfast just to plant a few cauliflower seeds. This Farmer's early cauliflower says it's only 40 days to harvest, so I hope it will work OK in this heat. If not, I can plant some later in the month. I'm busy with other things till later this afternoon, so I may be able to get out again after dinner if the rain stays away, to plant a few more things.

We love Indian food and one of my favorite curries is one with  cauliflower and garbanzo beans. I think I posted the recipe on my Shambhala Pottery blog a while back and there's a search box to use to find old messages if anyone is interested in trying it

I got my dried onions in a basket and now have to figure out the coolest driest place to put them. The basement may be too damp; but it is the coolest place in the house. The garage is another possibility, as long as I'm not firing my big soda kiln.

Friends are coming over for a stuffed cabbage dinner tomorrow, so I got a head start this morning and got the baby potatoes well scrubbed, and the green beans trimmed and washed. And since my dining room looked a lot like a seed store with seeds boxes spread out all over the table, I figured it was time to put most of the boxes away and only keep out those things that I'll be planting.

I checked the moon signs and it's now time (waxing moon), to plant above ground crops, so in the next couple of days I'll be planting more  things like arugula, escarole, etc. All my seedling that I planted a week or so ago are well up. I guess they really loved this heat. The bush beans are already up about 4", so I put down more bloodmeal to discourage the nightly bunnies.

When I was putting more of the bloodmeal near the corn yesterday afternoon, I saw why I'm not getting a lot of zucchinis - some critter is eating the young ones on the vine and just leaving a tiny piece where it's attached! Last year I found a ground hog/gopher (big guy), who had walked up the stone steps and was in one of the my stone terraces where I grow most of our vegetables, helping himself to dinner; and I suspect he is the current offending party. I just hope he leaves me one out of 3 zucchinis, which would be plenty for us.

A DAY OF REST - SORT OF

Since the garden seems to be all consuming at the moment, I decided to create this new blog to report on the garden and kitchen activities this time of the year.

Right now the garden is becoming very abundant with produce that has to be harvested and dealt with on a daily basis. This past week I've been mainly harvesting bush and pole beans, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes,onions, swiss chard, zucchini, yellow summer squash and potatoes for eating, processing and  drying for storage. And of course, there's the never ending weeding and other garden maintenance. After a very long, tiring day in the kitchen and garden yesterday, with computer cleanup up being my only sit down, rest time, my old, aching body is screaming for a day off today, for which I am more than happy to oblige!

One activity I may tear myself away from the sofa for, other than making dinner, may be to get out my deer, bunny repellant spray. Some critters have gotten into my small corn patch, so this is the last year I'm going to try to grow corn in these mountains. There are way too many critters who enjoy helping themselves to this crop, so next year that spot will be devoted to other less delectable veggies that may not have such a great appeal to the deer, ground hog, raccoon, bunny, possum, and other  denizens of the forest.

I've been sprinkling blood meal which is usually a good, temporary repellant for the rabbits and deer, as well as it's usefulness as an organic fertilizer, at least till it rains at which time it has to be re-applied. But either the deer have gotten used to it, or it's a raccoon who isn't deterred by the blood meal, who's the culprit, so I'll try the spray and see if that will do the trick.

I have a compost pile behind my pottery gallery, which is regularly visited by our resident mink, one of the neighbors dogs (both of whom we caught red handed), and I suspect the racoons and possums. I don't cover over the newly dumped kitchen waste on a daily basis, which gives them a chance to munch and maybe leave the garden alone.