Harvest Dinner

My refrigerator is overrun with produce.

The cucumbers and green beans have taken over the produce drawer and a couple shelves. The broccoli is barely squeezed into a bag. The potatoes are being stored in the office, for lack of anywhere better. I'm out of space.

I admit, this isn't a bad problem to have.

I'm having to be creative to use up produce during dinners, and the other night, I hit on a particularly simple and tasty dish. To put it in perspective, I'm exceedingly critical of my own cooking - most nights, I discuss how the dish is marginal and could have been better- but I got halfway through this meal and said matter-of-factly, "This is really good!"  My husband agreed.

Green Beans, Potatoes, and Bacon

1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
5 small potatoes, cut into fourths or eighths (bite-sized)
4 pieces bacon

Boil water, and add beans and potatoes. Boil until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes, and drain. In the meantime, cook the bacon until crispy. Chop bacon into small bits and toss bacon and 2 Tbsp drippings with the beans and potatoes. Serve warm.

This can be served as a main dish or as a side. The beans and potatoes were our main dish, and I served them with a side of corn on the cob. Although this is an almost-all-vegetable meal, it is surprisingly filling.

My favorite part? The only thing in this dinner not from our yard was the bacon. Garden WIN!

Quick link

Check out my recap of the "garden party" at my church last week, where we heard about and what an urban CSA is doing to support the local food movement, and I got to see all that is being grown for church members and local food pantries at my church.

Fried squash blossoms

WOW. Just, wow.

I had said I was going to try to make these, but didn't have high hopes. A fried flower? Off the plant in my garden that has been the bane of my summer garden, taking over every square inch of surrounding beds? And not really producing much? (Number of squash harvested to date: Zero)

So, I was mad at the squash plant. I was determined I'd cook something it produces, even if I get no squash. Enter Squash Blossom.

While picking tomatoes today, I grabbed 8 blossoms to try frying them up, as I had seen on some other food blogs. I didn't expect to actually stuff them with anything, as I was only going to use what I had on hand, and I don't have much. I went to my handy-dandy Joy of Cooking cookbook to see what it had to say. It suggested a stuffing for the flowers that involved mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and basil, all ingredients I had on hand! So I decided I'd stuff some of them. Here's what I did:

Fried Squash Blossoms

Squash/zucchini/pumpkin blossoms
Flour
1 egg

Filling:
Shredded mozzarella
Parmesan cheese
1 garlic clove
Fresh basil

Cut garlic clove into tiny pieces. ear basil leaves into small pieces as well. Mix filling ingredients together.

Open each flower, check for bugs, and cut out pistil. Stuff filling (about a tablespoon's worth) into each flower and twist petals to seal.
Dip flower in egg, then flour, then fry in a pan with 1/2 inch of oil, until browned on both sides. Serve immediately as an appetizer or snack.

I loved the filling flavor in these, and the flower made a creative, convenient package for it all. Pretty cool use for all those useless male flowers on the VINE TAKING OVER MY GARDEN.

Sigh.

Chive Flowers

This is the time of year when the ever-useful and ever-hardy chives begin to blossom their delicate purple puffs. Who knew that these purple flowers are not only beautiful but edible!

Some people pop them off the plant and use the flowers as garnishes for soups or salads. While I'm sure this would be a both beautiful and tasty way to add color to your plate, I went looking for a recipe to actually incorporate the flowers into a dish. Because how often do you actually get to cook a savory dish with something that's purple?

Chive Flower Butter
- 1 stick butter, room temperature
- a handful of chive flowers, rinsed and chopped.

In a smallish bowl, mix petals with butter. When the petals are evenly incorporated, put butter on plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze for future use.

This made the prettiest stick of butter I've ever seen, with a somewhat strong garlicy onion taste. I used it when making chicken nuggets this week, and the result was a very flavorful coating on the nuggets. I was pleased. And I don't even like onion flavors!

Garden Update

Yes, my Roma tomato plants are still producing flowers and new tomatoes. No complaints.

The cherry tomatoes aren't producing new flowers, but there are still quite a few green tomatoes waiting to turn red. One by one, they're ripening.


The pole beans are still producing, slowly. These didn't turn out that well. I'm kinda bummed.

And the last picture has a story behind it. I planted broccoli in the spring, but it didn't do so hot. I think it probably had something to do with having three plants in one not-very-big pot. No broccoli was produced at all, and I just marked it off as a lesson learned. I didn't need the pot for any reason, so I let the three plants grow and watered then through the summer- no sense killing a living thing needlessly, right? Besides, the plants were kind of pretty. Well, fall began to show his head around here, and you'll imagine my surprise when I saw something growing in the middle of the broccoli plant!

I still don't expect to get any broccoli to eat, but it's exciting that these little plants that I've been faithfully watering, were able to hold on through the summer and grow a little more.

Garden update

I'm still getting both cherry and roma tomatoes. Not in the same volume as earlier this summer, but they're still producing nonetheless.



Some critters have somehow found my third-floor plants- a ladybug with inverted color, and a brown praying mantis.



The beans, I don't have high hopes for, because (I'm pretty sure) a fungus got them a while back, and they've been fighting it ever since. I figure, I'll get what I get, and hope for better next year.
They did grow as tall as absolutely possible. My husband has sworn we're doing bush beans next year- there's no way we're setting up something like this in a garden.

And, yes, they do have a few beans on them! finally!

One Local Summer, week 6: Whole Wheat Pasta & Cherry Tomatoes

This week's local meal:
- Locally-made pasta from the farmers market
- Cherry tomatoes from my balcony garden
- Basil & parsley from my balcony garden
- (non-local) oil

Cooked the pasta, and made sure not to over-cook it this time! Tossed with oil, tomatoes, and herbs. It was a perfect light dinner for the hot summer day!

In other local-food news, this pasta dish was good, but wasn't my favorite local food o' the week. Saturday morning, we took a rushed trip to the farmers market, and bought some sweet corn to pack for camping Saturday night. This corn was the hit of the trip- we had it for dinner Saturday night and everyone raved about it the rest of our time. I've never had corn so fresh and sweet- and it was so easy to cook!

Remove any visible corn silks from the corn, but leave the corn in its husks. Put the corn on the built-in grate over the fire pit at the campsite. Position the fire such that it is heating the corn but not catching the husks on fire. Turn the cobs periodically until the entire husk is dried out (and maybe partially blackened). We quit cooking when a couple of the husks curled back and began to expose the corn.

Without any extra water (soaking or boiling the corn), the cobs were perfect. The corn was soft and really sweet, and even the cob itself was rubbery from being steamed. And the whole thing was so easy- just throw the corn, husks & all, into the car to pack for camping- no extra ingredients or equipment needed! It was great!

One Local Summer, week 5: Roast Chicken & Steamed Green Beans with Tomatoes

I had my first harvest of roma tomatoes this week, and none of the tomatoes I have picked have lasted long on the counter. This week's local meal was chicken from the farmers market, green beans from the farmers market, and my first tomatoes I've ever harvested. All was delicious.

One Local Summer, week 4: Roast Chicken & Potatoes

I didn't drop the ball this week, I made it to not one but TWO farmers markets this weekend, and I tried a new experiment in cooking: roasting a whole chicken. I've never bought a whole chicken before, except for a pre-packaged roasted whole chicken at Aldi, which was much easier to handle, and, well, already cooked. I expect the chicken will be a part of next week's local meal as well, as we have plenty of leftovers. It was quite an adventure figuring out how to cook & carve the thing as well. I kept the cooking as simple as possible, and the carving, well, I tried.

This week's farmers market finds include green beans, tomatoes, and red potatoes, in addition to the chicken.

Our local meal this week consisted of roasted chicken with roasted red potatoes:


In other local-food news, I've mentioned before that I have tomatoes growing in pots on my somewhat-shady balcony. I wasn't sure if I'd get any sort of harvest, and then the plump green balls started appearing on the 2 roma- and 3 cherry-tomato plants. Well today was it! I harvested my first tomato, ever. it was a roma tomato, not terribly big, but I was proud nonetheless. I can't wait until the plants full of cherry tomatoes start to turn red- though I've heard its hard to keep up with them when they do.

And, the newly-harvested tomato was not part of our local meal because I couldn't contain myself and ate it before it could be included in anything.

Still waiting...

More Wordless Wednesday posts

Cilantro for later

I planted cilantro for the first time this year. OK, I'll be honest, everything I planted was for the first time this year... I've never had an entire summer with my own place to grow stuff before. Anyway, I planted cilantro.

I read after it started growing that cilantro and coriander are the same plant- coriander is what the seeds of the cilantro (leaves & stems) are called. Well, I have a spice rack given to me a year ago with the coriander undisturbed- I don't use it! I was determined to use as much cilantro as possible to avoid getting coriander. Well, I did my best and the cilantro still bolted, or started to. I was determined to not lose the cilantro I still had (from my reading, when the cilantro bolts, the plant gets bitter.)

Anyway, I harvested the whole bunch at once. What was I going to do with all of it? I was really hoping to make some more salsa, with the tomatoes that aren't quite ripe yet. Through searching, I found how to freeze cilantro. With any luck, I will have "fresh" cilantro to use in salsa with the anticipated tomatoes. A note: I had read that the stems of cilantro taste the same as the leaves and, for my purposes, they'll be chopped up together and no one will notice... so I froze the stems and leaves.

Before:


After:


In the end, the few ice cubes don't look like much- I hope the effort will be worth it! It's an experiment, anyway.

Fresh salsa

1 lb tomatoes, diced
1 small onion, finely diced
juice of 1 lime
2 serrano chilies (stems, ribs, seeds removed), finely diced
about 1/2 C fresh cilantro, chopped

Dice tomatoes & onions. Be very careful when cutting the chilies- use a fork and a knife, or, if you must touch it, guard your hand with gloves or a paper towel and wash with soap and water afterwards. Don't touch your eyes.

Combine tomatoes, onions, chilies, and cilantro, top with lime juice and toss. Let flavors combine in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving. Makes about three cups. In my case, it was an appetizer for 10 with none left over (It lasted through a bag and a half of tortilla chips).

First Harvest

Wordless Wednesday

My Summer Challenge

I've mentioned the farmer's market a few times so far. This week, we rode our bikes there Saturday morning and I bought tomatoes and onions. Next week I will need to get some more eggs. We also ventured to Joe's Butcher Shop, a local meat market in the trendy part of town that has local meat, dairy, cheese, and pasta. We bought some brats and sausages, and plan on going back for more food in the future.

Why all this talk about local food? I've been reading up on it some, and it's a good idea. The food is fresher- it doesn't have to travel as far, so the harvest-to-dinner-table time is less. Because it's not traveling as far, less energy is being used to transport it, which is good for the environment. Buying locally also supports the local economy, and often the local farmers are also the smaller family farms. There's lots of other good reasons- what have you heard/experienced with local food?

Oh, and I'll be talking about it all summer, and trying to make at least one "local meal" a week, thanks to the challenge put forth by Liz at Pocket Farm. The One Local Summer Challenge is in its second year, and the bloggers participating will post once a week about their local meal, to encourage each other and give each other ideas. I need all the ideas I can get. I haven't figured out yet where to get local grains like flour, bread, and pasta, for example. I'm also not used to basing a meal choice for the week on what's in season- though I know this is better for us. I've got a lot to learn, and I'm willing to try. I also need to learn how to do this local-food shopping within our grocery budget. Any tips anyone has for how to go about this- while in a suburban apartment where I'm unable to stockpile large amounts of anything, or grow much of my own - would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and thanks to El at Fast Grow the Weeds for being the Midwest round-up person. I'll find lots of good ideas from those bloggers in similar areas.

The challenge doesn't start for a week, but I gave local cooking a try this weekend, making salsa from the tomatoes and onions from the farmer's market and cilantro from my balcony garden. I did use a couple chilies and a lime from the grocery store, so I don't totally have this local-food thing down. If I can't even make this snack from local ingredients, will I be able to make an entire meal? We shall wait and see... Keep on the lookout for my attempt next week.

From the Garden: Cilantro for Breakfast

Last night, after some negotiation, we had decided on some sort of breakfast food to have for dinner. I was perusing the internet for a breakfast casserole and came across one that looked delicious, but I had never seen before. It was basically eggs cooked over hashbrowns mixed with cilantro, and since I've been itching to use my cilantro before it goes to seed, I thought it would be perfect.

The blog with the recipe said this is actually an Indian dish, from the Parsi people. I tweaked it a bit because of our preferences and what we had on hand, and was very pleased with the results!

Pateta Par Eeda

3 eggs
2 large potatoes, shredded
small pinch ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp minced cilantro
2 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick skillet and fry the garlic till lightly browned.
2. Season with salt and pepper
3. Press any excess water out of the shredded potatoes and add them to the pan. (I did this with a cotton towel, but not as well as with the crispy hashbrowns)
4. Add the cilantro and toss everything together and pat it down in the pan. (See my results) Cook on medium heat till the potato cake is browned at the bottom.
5. Flip it over (most easily done by flipping first onto a plate, then slide into pan. While I had the potatoes on the plate, I added about a tablespoon of oil to the pan, so the bottom would fry, too). Break the eggs over the potato cake and season them.
6. Cover and cook till the eggs are set the way you like them and the bottom gets browned and crispy.

The results were delicious, in my opinion. The outside of the potatoes were crispy, the inside soft but cooked, and the cilantro and garlic gave the whole thing a pleasing but unexpected taste. The eggs on the top just added to the whole interesting-textures aspect of the dish. We sliced the pan-shaped "casserole" into wedges to serve, and it fed both of us with generous servings.

A bonus: this is possibly the most 'local' meal I've cooked, with the eggs from the farmer's market and the cilantro from my 'garden'. I do have PLENTY of cilantro and parsley left, if anyone in the area wants some. This is also the first Indian cooking I've tried, not that I'd consider it typical Indian fare. An adventure all around.

Real sunflowers

A sneaky friend dropped off REAL homegrown sunflowers for my kitchen earlier this week, and they made my day. I was giddy.

We're like two peas in a pod!

Incidentally, today is our first wedding anniversary.

And my peas have pods. And tomato plants have flowers. And the basil, parsley & chives continue to do well. The balcony garden is growing this season, but not as much as our marriage has this year. Hooray to both.

My free herb garden

This is a cell-phone-camera shot of my mini-herb garden, all for free. Let me tell the story:

I had a few herb seeds started when I started my balcony garden- parsley, chives, basil- when a posting came on the local Freecycle for organic herb seeds. I responded quickly and was lucky enough to get to pick up the seeds AND a green (my favorite color!) pot to plant them in. The types I got were: sage, oregano, dill, and cilantro (coriander).

But where to plant these fine seeds? I decided the sage should go in the sage-colored pot... but, after that, my pots were all full with already-growing things. The solution? I found pseudo-planters that would do well for the herbs-- I used two very large mugs and an old butter container. My next dilemma was where to start the seeds. My apartment has no windows, just two big sliding-glass doors opening to covered balconies (one north- and one south-facing) that, as summer approaches, seem to get less direct light (because the sun is directly overhead, no longer at he same angle in the sky). At work, on the other hand, I have a 'grow light' of sorts- my desk has a shelf with a fluorescent light under it.

So, I had my plan. I brought them to work, then promptly had to leave for a long weekend for a funeral. I hoped the seeds would survive not being doted over in their early life. I returned to the above photo about a month ago. Everything had sprouted! For three weeks, the plants grew under the 'grow light', and just Friday I brought them home and put them outside to see real sunshine. They're growing well. Hopefully, we will have fresh herbs later in the season... now I just have to figure out what to cook with sage and dill...

Freecycle rocks!

Dirty news

The container garden on my balcony is hanging on, even after a three-day trip this weekend where it was neglected. And an even bigger surprise- the mini-herb garden I started on my desk at work in a small pot, 2 mugs, and an old margarine container has sprouted happily. The dill, sage, oregano, and cilantro are now continuing to grow under my fluorescent desk light. It was the closest thing to a 'grow light' I had access to, and seems to be succeeding.

What's the "dirty news," you wonder? Well, the BBC is reporting that dirt is good for your health.

Exposure to dirt may be a way to lift mood as well as boost the immune system, UK scientists say.

Lung cancer patients treated with "friendly" bacteria normally found in the soil have anecdotally reported improvements in their quality of life.

Mice exposed to the same bacteria made more of the brain's "happy" chemical serotonin, the Bristol University authors told the journal Neuroscience.

Common antidepressants work by boosting this brain chemical.

A lack of serotonin is linked with depression in people.

The scientists say more work is now needed to determine if the bacterium Mycobacterium vaccae has antidepressant properties through activation of serotonin neurons.

Lead researcher Dr Chris Lowry said: "These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health.

"They also leave us wondering if we shouldn't all spend more time playing in the dirt."

So, if you garden, not only are you growing healthy food to eat, even the act of getting down and dirty in the backyard could make for a better life! Can't wait till I have a backyard. Until then, I will tend to my pots of dirt and hope for the same effect.

Food Deals This Week

• ICE CREAM! - Baskin Robbins is celebrating 31 Cent Scoop Night tomorrow in honor of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. I never turn down ice cream. Especially practically-free ice cream.


• Barnes and Noble's has coupons this week for a couple food-related things. First, buy a drink at their cafe and get a free cupcake! Also, they have a discount on the cookbook Everyday Pasta, and another book that caught my eye yesterday- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by the popular author Barbra Kingsolver. She and her family uprooted, moved to the Appalachians, and did a life-experiment, eating only locally and out of their own garden. The book is a chronicle of their adventure, and has recipes throughout. I read all about in an NPR story yesterday. Also check out the book's website, which includes some recipes)

There are probably more deals out there, but these are the few that came to my attention in the last few days :)