To Sleep Perchance To Dream

I put the garden to bed early this year. My thought was, give the soil a rest for one season. But truly, it was because of the demands of work projects. Who knew it would be such a mild winter. I've really missed my fresh winter vegetables this season, especially after seeing what others have grown. The photos over at Subsistence Pattern blog are particularly impressive. That bowl of fresh greens in the December 29th post have really whet my appetite for home grown fare. What are you growing this winter?

Trouble in River City

There's trouble my friends. Trouble in River City. With a capital "T," that rhymes with "P" and stands for potatoes.

The storage potatoes have sprouted. It's January 17th and they want to be planted instead of eaten. This winter season has been an unusual one, for sure, and the vegetables know it.

Soup & Apple Galette

Festivities over, an evil flu virus struck. Boom. Down for the count. A restorative garlic soup was in order, so I headed down to the larder for some onion and garlic. Look at that sad little hand. Can't you just tell its been clutching Kleenex for the last few days?

The garlic was tiny but still moist and juicy. Heavenly aroma. 

Happily there were still plenty of carrots and potatoes from the garden, some dried thyme and leek and celery in the fridge. I sauteed the garlic and leeks.

Then tossed everything else in a chicken broth and simmered up a simple soup. 

Salt and pepper. Done. Leeks are magical vegetables, they make everything taste rich and yummy.

Once restored, I realized I needed an apple galette. Back down to the larder to retrieve a jar of apples put up this fall. They came from my brother's tree. (Notice the robust grip, after the restorative soup.)

My doctor has been reading me the riot act again about my cholesterol (let no man say I haven't had my full share of butter in this life) so I decided to try a low-fat phyllo recipe I found on the Internet. 

This recipe uses honey and warm water instead of butter between the phyllo pastry sheets. I was skeptical about the potential for flakiness, but a 50% cholesterol reduction is my single New Year's resolution this year, so I thought I'd give it the old yeoman's try.

You lay a sheet of phyllo in the pie plate and use a pastry brush to smear it with honey steeped in a small amount of warm water. Here's a link to the recipe if you'd like to try it. 

No preparation was needed for these apples, which were seasoned and precooked during the canning process, so this was a really quick dessert to make. Yet another reason to preserve food in advance,

35 minutes later. The final result. Voila.

I did find the crust on the bottom to be a bit gluey instead of flakey, but it wasn't bad considering how little effort went into it.

Take that flu virus!

Year 2012

There's lobster in the pot...

Fresh oysters on the counter...

And caviar on the spoon...

All from sustainable sources.

I believe in splurging occasionally and when you buy at the end of the harvest you can acquire luxuries at bargain basement prices. The lobsters were $6 each. Fresh oysters, $15 for three dozen. And the caviar was... okay, never mind about the caviar... but I really needed it this year.

Happy New Year to all.