Micro-greens!

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Ms. Eggplant Head

Apple seeds part II

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First salad from the garden

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Pot au Feu in progress

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Radicchio salad

1 head radicchio, quartered and dry-roasted in a skillet
1 cup fennel, sauteed
1 cup thompson raisins
1 orange or 3 clementine
1/2 cup roasted walnuts
Splash of balsamic
2 splashes of olive oil
1 teaspoon dijon
Salt & pepper




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Stars and lights, stuffing and ice

Making sesame stars with the boys

I've never liked stuffing...all that soggy bread and dried fruit, i don't get it. So when it came to Christmas, the first chez nous in three years, we decided to skip the big turkey and each picked a dish instead, and i chose stuffing. (Me and it have to do right after all.) The recipe i found had dried ciabatta, sauteed leeks and fennel, artichoke hearts, spicy sausage, chilies, and orange zest.

We had it with spaghetti and drumsticks, and for the first time, it wasn't all that bad.

We finished our Christmas meal with lemon ice, an old food & drink recipe that involved lemon juice, sugar, eggs, whipped cream, and double/triple churning. My favourite way to make ice cream - no need for an ice cream maker...it turns out just as fabulously by hand.

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backyard papermaking

Eily and I made paper today, with scraps from the shredder and onion skins we salvaged from the fruit cellar when we were cleaning it the other day. We have another batch to try from lima bean skins.

eggplant in the summer

i found a recipe, when making a batch of tandoori veggie and lamb skewers this afternoon, that reminded me so much of a summer version of eggplant curry - or bhurta. we put spoonfuls of it on naan bread for dinner. it definitely had more colour than its winter counterpart, but it didn't last for a photo op.

eggplant salad:
roasted eggplant (i still had some left in the freezer), coarsely chopped
2-3 tomatoes
scallions or spring onions (i used purple scallions)
vegetable oil
1 t. ginger
1 clove garlic
1 T. garam masala
1 T. gr. coriander
1 T. gr. cumin
salt and pepper
chopped cilantro

burgers

now that it's bbq season and the meals are easier, we've taken to making smaller burgers. some call them sliders, but the buns really are a bit bigger to accomodate all the accompaniments. in this case, zucchini relish and salad greens.

a mid-winter barbeque

after tearing off the ceiling tiles in another three rooms, wrestling with a curtain (and mistakenly thinking i could make shirring hooks to fit the existing, old hardware from paper clips), and doing another pile of dishes, it was a relief that dinner was planned, and easy, and delicious.

Grilled Tandoori Vegetables
Cut, in large chunks, an assortment of vegetables (we used broccoli, cauliflower, red pepper, onion, fennel, carrots, and one roma tomato that E snuck in) and a lemon if you have one. Since we had tandoori paste (a bottle i couldn't resist buying within a week after getting back from india), we mixed it with yoghurt and a bit of vegetable oil. You can also easily make your own. Marinade veggies and lemon wedges in sauce all day if you have it.
Make a pot of rice. Barbeque the vegetables and toss with rice.

Deja Vu

I made a dinner last night that was a variation on a recipe from a magazine, and it completely reminded me of something my mom used to make. With bacon and some kind of cabbage. I would get hints of it with each bite. Here's last night's version:

Carmelized Onion Linguine

• 2.5 lb. onions (red, walla walla, spanish, whatever)
• veg. oil, salt, oregano, basil, bay leaves, pepper flakes
• prosciutto (cut in strips and baked for 15 min.)
• 1/8 cup white wine
• couple T. cream, 3/4 cup milk, 1 T. flour
• 2 heads bok choy, chopped

Carmelize the onions in olive oil and salt for half hour. Add the herbs. Meanwhile, bake the prosciutto. Add the wine to the onions; heat on medium-high until half of it evaporates. Add the milk, flour, and cream. Turn heat down and simmer a few minutes until thickened. Add the chopped bok choy and cook several more minutes until tender. Serve garnished with prosciutto.

Last night and the night before there was a harvest moon, full and low on the horizon. Looking out into the night from the front porch with our elbows deep in tomato juice, I said to Brett "I guess this is why they call it harvest"

finished jars
ripening pears
jewelry sitting on the counter while i work on the canning dishes
more tomatoes

unlikely duo

raspberries and white beets, both found at Doug's farm on Friday, together at last in sweet muffin filling.

on peas

My farmer friend has been trying to convince people for ages on the merits of sugar snaps. i don't know why i resisted. snowpeas were always my favourite. until today when i began to wonder, while savouring the sweet nuggets inside a sugar snap pod, how peas that are all pod had any chance against the sugar snap.

we put them both in our annual july meal and the sugar snaps came out the sure winner. the meal is thai noodle salad and it's annual because now is the only time when every vegetable is fresh and local and quite possibly picked within 24 hours. in other words, delicious.

it's the kind of meal that after completely satisfying oneself on two hearty bowls, you are still tempted to take the entire pot of leftovers in your lap with a fork and continue eating. i think about this meal often in december when i am staring blankly at our fridge's vegetable drawer.

here's how it goes:

• prepare the vegetables: green onions, cherry tomatoes, summer squash, sweet peppers, mushrooms, green peas. chop the peppers, squash, and mushrooms large enough to bbq and leave the tomatoes, green onions, and peas be. dress them all in olive oil and bbq.
• boil the noodles; either soba or rice work well.
• combine the sauce ingredients: soya sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, fish sauce, lime juice, brown sugar(or fruit juice), garlic, sambal (or sweet chili or hot sauce), and lime zest. [sorry no measurements. i did try to list them in order of most to least quantity. the key is to balance out the sweet versus sour and everyone has a different preference].
• the meat is optional. we often use beef, a relatively small pepper steak which you can slather in a red curry rub if you wish.
• combine all ingredients. you can cut up noodles to get it good and mixed. garnish with basil, thai basil if you have it, but genovese will do.

i am this close....

...to getting back to sewing. (the guilt is clearly affecting me. yesterday, i shortened the strings on the side of a bathing suit bottom with scissors - horrors! and the day before i actually cut a lining out of a skirt instead of properly stitch-riping it and re-sewing it. i fear i am getting out of practice).
but before then, i'd like to take this opportunity to revisit a moment i had with some garlic scapes, green peas. and mini plum tomatoes. here they are in all their glory:


and this is what else i added,
to the garlic scape pesto: olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, cayenne
then, carmelized mushrooms, spinach, a bit of broccoli, bechamel sauce with milk (& cream!), and parmesan. on top of fresh vinnie's pasta, both spinach and goat cheese raviolis. i think that's the best alfredo sauce yet.

half point

ok, so we didn't finish the jar but we made a dent in those pickled turnips with some falafels. i thought to include the recipe since it's been successful for us and since i'm starting to feel like there are people out there listening to me.... (please don't count on it on a regular basis...i'm not nearly that diligent).

1 cup chickpeas (drained if you're using the canned variety)

1 lg. onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

bunch of fresh parsley (ding, ding, ding: KEY ingredient)

1 t. ground coriander

1 t. ground cumin

2 T. flour

(s & p)

Combine ingredients in food processor and blend. (Or, if you're like me, combine first 3 ingredients in blender, begin to blend, then remember that blenders don't actually blend anything remotely tough -- lament for the upteenth time that manufacturers produce food processors and blenders and rarely the two combined -sigh- and proceed with hand blender instead). Form into balls. Fry in a pan that has been moderately coated with vegetable oil, flattening the balls slightly.

We served ours in second rate white greek pitas (to help clean out the freezer) but the toppings were the best: fresh mizuna, chopped tomatoes, homemade pickled turnips, hot sauce, and tzatziki (1 cup yogurt, half a lemon, 3 cloves garlic, touch of olive oil, and 1/2 cup finely shredded cucumber).

these days are longer

summer carries us along in a way very different from the other seasons. we fill up the hours so easily and it's harder to remember which day we're at. i like that. i also really like the shift from summer to fall which makes me think what i like best are those transitions in between. i feel summer close.
here are some projects from the last few days:
a dress which saw more of the stitch ripper than i care to admit:

a replacement for my broken zippered wallet, modeled after a leather Malian one i had in undergrad which was stolen and which i mourned the loss of more than its contents:

and droolingly delicious tomato tarts with fresh mizuna that came up again all by itself in our neglected garden:

Salad dinners again

the sun has finally stayed. the last two days have been glorious and we treated ourselves to a summer-like dinner of salads. not totally fresh but delicious none the less. warm french lentil and chickpea tahini from orangette and the old stand-by, greek.