Doing What You Love

I love growing food, maybe more than anything. It's simply thrilling to throw together a meal from my own backyard. I never tire of it. 

Beefsteak tomato

The digging, the planting, the tending, the harvest.  I enjoy every aspect of the process. It's perfectly elemental.

Strawberries grown from runners

I've been reading Richard Templar's book, "The Rules of Life" lately. His sixth rule is, "Dedicate your life to something." Templar notes that this rule is a quiet thing, not something you announce to the world. It's a personal mission statement in your heart. A way to measure how you are doing.

I realize, I'm doing just fine. I do what I love, not what others think I should love and frankly, I always have. What I love has changed over the years, however. So I'm always in a place of rediscovery.

Home grown grapes ripening in a pot in my yard.

Embarking on regular personal sabbaticals has helped. There have been some who opposed this route. Merely because a sabbatical means one is diverging from the acceptable current. You enter the land of personal discovery. It threatens others' equilibrium. Shouldn't you be building on your resume? How dare you not fill every day, month, year with quantifiable achievements. 

I pay no heed. I've never let others bully me into a direction that makes them more comfortable. I am the one living my life after all, not them. 

Simply, do what you love, are words I live by. And when I stop loving something, I stop doing it.

Two of the 50!! tomato volunteers in my garden.
Oh yeah, tomato seeds ended up in the compost bin.

New potatoes

Been doing my favorite thing for a few weeks now. Digging up new potatoes and enjoying the early harvest. I'm not sure why growing potatoes makes me so happy, must be the ancestral Irish blood, but I always find myself in a great mood after unearthing a few of these goodies.

Potato gardening should be instituted as therapy. Dig up the purple and chase away the blues.

Garlic Harvest

Can one ever have too much garlic? I don't think so. 

I have garlic coming out of my ears this season. I'm running out of table space... and I haven't even harvested the "official" garlic bed yet.

Who is complaining.  I'll take all I can get. I burned through my harvest last season before January and was forced to resort to the sad, dried up (and sometimes bleached) garlic at the market. Horrors!

Once you've enjoyed garden fresh garlic, with its sticky, juicy texture and pungent, robust aroma you'll never want anything else.

Remember, it's important to get the dirt off the bulbs as quickly as possible. Once dried, it's impossible to clean off the papery husks.

Hello Rhubarb

Welcome back.

The garlic field is in full swing. These are from the bulbils I planted in the fall.

Surprise, a carrot on April 12th. No doubt leftover from last season's harvest.

And so it begins...

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.

Ricotta and Spinach Cannelloni

A side of pasta warms the belly on a ho-hum day.

Cannelloni ready for the oven

I enjoy making my own pasta because it absolutely melts in your mouth, but occasionally I use pre-made pasta tubes to speed the plow. Store-bought (gasp) cannelloni tubes were put to the test today. Not bad. Give them a little boil, drain and cool before stuffing and baking.

FILLING

Homemade Ricotta

Chopped Spinach

Pinch of Salt

TOMATO SAUCE

Crushed Tomatoes

Chopped Garlic

Chopped Onions

Marjoram

Basil

Oregano

Italian Parsley

Salt

Smear baking dish with layer of plain tomato sauce. Lay the cannelloni in, smother with the spiced tomato sauce, sprinkle with a cheese topping of your choice.

TOPPING
I used a mix of Parmesan, Mozzarella and Asiago

BAKING
Bake 25 - 30 minutes in a 325 oven.

END RESULT
Melty, crispy, saucy and warming. A nice side for a meal

My well stained baking stone is seen underneath the baking dish here. You don't need one, but I like them because they help the oven retain its heat if the door is ever opened during baking.

Brussels Sprouts

It's getting dark so early, I was out picking sprouts in the pitch tonight. Hence the slightly blurry photo.

The great thing about having sprouts in the garden is, just like lettuce, you only have to pick what you need for dinner. The plant happily keeps on producing despite repeated "de-sproutings."

I've seen several reports on the web suggesting that this vegetable get tastier after it has experienced a frost or two. Truer words were never spoken! It's like eating candy. De-lish.

Simple Joys

Happiness is a brown paper bag. It's the little things.

Wordless Wednesday

Lentil Soup

Sure feels like a lentil soup/cornbread day.  Carrots, freshly plucked from the garden....

And into the soup they go.

Bay leaf from the garden will season, along with freshly snipped marjoram, thyme and parsley. The herb garden has done well despite cooler nights. I dressed the bed with hay and leaves. This is the first year I've had bay leaf in the garden. Boy have I ever used it.

Finally, canned yellow cherry tomatoes from the pantry. The only thing I haven't grown are the lentils and the sherry finisher.

Life is good.

Thanksgiving

I am grateful for this pie.

Warm Bread

Every week I stir up a batch of dough after dinner and let it rise in a warm corner.

I give it a punch down before I turn in for the night, even though this is totally unnecessary because I am using Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread Recipe, which is by far, the fastest, simplest way to make a loaf of bread that I know of. A child can manage it.

In the morning, I shape the dough, and soon it's ready for a hot 450 degree oven. Into a cast iron pot it goes. Lid on for 30 minutes.

When the timer dings, off comes the lid. Back into the oven for a few more minutes.

Ten minutes later, we have hot crusty bread for breakfast.

The house smells like a home, and all is well.

Cookbook Mania

Every fall I am seized by cookbook mania. One author I am really enjoying this season is Nigel Slater.

Tender, Volume I and II are a great read. With subtitles such as: "A sprout in the garden," and "A Brussels Diary," Slater's managed to make reading recipes a literary experience. He starts in the garden, takes us off to markets, educates us with culinary history and peppers entries with personal memoir. Volume I focuses on vegetables. Volume II on fruit. Two delightful, informative books.

Homemade Ricotta

Fresh warm ricotta is easy to make and worth every second of effort.

Ricotta from 1 Quart of Milk

It's so delicious, sometimes it's difficult to resist eating it all before you make your pasta dish. All you need is milk, salt and citric acid (or lemon juice.)

I used a quart of milk, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp of citric acid for this batch. (Decrease amount of citric acid/salt for creamier texture.)

Heat milk, salt and citric acid in a non-reactive pot (stainless steel is good.) Keep just under a boil, until you see the milk begin to separate into curds. Remove from heat. Cool for around 15 minutes, then drain through a tea towel over a bowl. Let it drip for a while.

Keep the whey for soups or stews. Or, serve to your critters.

post script: I made a second batch using cider vinegar instead of citric acid and found the consistency to be much creamier.