Cucumber Beverages

If you happen to end up with way more cucumbers than you can consume try some of these recipes

Cucumber Aqua Fresca

1 Cucumber
2 limes
1 tblspoon of agave nectar
sparkling water

Peel, chop and puree cucumber. Strain the liquids using a fine mesh strainer. Add the juice from the two limes and the agave nectar. Add sparking water.

Cucumber and Gin Gimlets
Same as above but add a jigger of Gin to the drink.

Cucumber Mint Water.

Peel and slice cucumber and add to a pitcher. Add a handful of mint leaves. Fill Pitcher with water. Refrigerate. You can refill the pitcher with water a couple of times before you need to refresh the cucumber and mint.

Beet Salad with goat cheese

Beet Salad with goat cheese


2 red beets
2 golden beets ( I used some striped ones)
avocado diced
white balsamic vinegar
olive oil
mixed greens
2 tbsps goat cheese

Boil the Beets for about 30 minutes, cool,peel and cut them into cubes. Keep the different colors separate.

Combine vinegar and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add a half of the vinaigrette to the the beets.
Add the rest to the greens. Place greens on the plate and arrange the beets and avocado and top with the goat cheese.

Caramalized Onion Pie

Caramalized Onion Pie

This is a recipe I adapted. You can make the basic recipe but add any number of variations such as sauteed greens of any kind, sauteed zucchini or sauteed radishes. Sun-dried tomatoes would also work.

2 large onions julienned
puff pastry dough (how much depends on how many people you need to feed)
(one Pepperidge farm is enough for 2 people use 2 for 4 people)
1/2 cup feta cheese
1/2 cup Romano or Parmesan cheese
olive oil ( 2 tbsp)
pinch of sugar
1/2 tsp thyme
1 egg

Caramelize the onions by heat a large saute pan - add the onion and 1/2 boiling water. Cook until water evaporate and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, sugar and thyme. Stir until the onion are nicely browned.

Preheat oven to 425

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the puff pastry sheet on the parchment. Crimp up the edges. Sprinkle the cheeses evenly on the pastry. Then add the onion and and extras you want to add. Brush the pastry edges with egg wash. Bake for 35-40 minutes until edges are golden.

Fall 2011 Garden Pictures

The Fall Aster is in full bloom. Broccoli, zucchini and cucumbers are all growing nicely.

Sauteed Radishes

We learned a new recipe for cooking radishes. this is especially good for the really hot radishes as they tend to lose their heat with cooking.

Sauteed Radishes

1 1/2 cups sliced radishes
1-2 tablespoons butter
Chopped Chives

Heat butter in saute pan over med heat. Add radishes and saute just until soft about 5 minutes. Add chopped chives and salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

One of our favorite fall treats are roasted pumpkins seeds. They are super easy to make so don't throw away those seeds when you carve the pumpkins for Halloween.

Roasted Pumpkins Seeds.

Remove seeds from pumpkin including as much of the pulp as you can. You can wash them but I usually don't as the like the flavor that the pumpkin juice adds to the seeds. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. (This is for about 4 cups of seeds so adjust accordingly. Add popcorn salt to taste. We have tried many types of seasoning over the years and this is our favorite. Spread evenly on a roasting pan.

Roast in a 325 degree oven for about 12 minutes. Using a spatula toss the seeds in the pan and return to the oven for another 12-15 minutes until the seeds are golden brown and crispy.

June 11 update

Well it is very hot already in the 100's so the garden is not doing great. The potato crop was a dismal failure. We may try again next year and get them in earlier. The Corn was a mixed bag, the sweet corn we harvest was really good but the blue corn was mealy. We will only plant the sweet corn again.

The tomatoes plants are the smallest we have had in 15 years. Probably due to lack of rain and heat. We began harvesting about mid June.

The pole beans were ok but we like the bush beans better so probably won't repeat the poles.

The winter squash only produced 2 small squash and then the plants withered and dies.

Cucumber also did not do great again heat and lack of rain.

Eggplant and peppers are doing great. We had a wonderful onion crops as well.

Now we have blackeyd peas and baby limas growing so we shall see how they do with the very hot weather. Hope it rains soon. We also have Okra in now.

June 2011 new recipes

Tomato Watermelon salad

2 cups ripe tomatoes in med sized chunks

2 cups ripe watermelon cut to same size as tomatoes

1/4 cups chopped fresh mint

1/2 cup vinaigrette ( I make my own but you can used purchased)

1/2 cup Feta cheese

Truffle salt

combine all ingredients and serve

Got this one from a Sunset magazine article which was forwarned by my friend.

Swiss Chard Pesto
Adapted slightly from Sunset Magazine
Serves 4 with sauce left over

Note: Don’t feel hemmed in by the amount of chard you use. The original recipe called for two cups, but I didn’t want to be bothered with measuring the leaves, so I just started using the entire bunch. You could also save the stems for a soup or to chop and stew into a taco filling later, with some tomatoes and spinach.

Ingredients

1 bunch swiss chard (around 7 ounces), leaves removed, stems discarded or saved for another use
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 cup grated queso añejo, or grated parmesan
1/2 cup pine nuts or pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup olive oil — possibly a little more if you’re using the pumpkin seeds
Salt
Pepper

Directions

In a food processor, add the garlic and pulse to chop. Then add the chard, cheese and nuts or seeds. Pulse until smooth — feel free to scrape down the sides of the bowl to add in any errant cheese or chard bits. Add olive oil and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with pasta, vegetables, or (as I did with my sister-in-law recently) spread on crusty bread.

Look at how the garden grows

Here is a quick up date on the spring garden progress. We came back from Italy and the garden had exploded.

Zucchini were ready, the cherry tomatoes were starting to ripen,
We have eggplants, cucumber and butternut squash are set and growing.


The potato experiment is coming along nicely.




The Beans are about 8 feet tall and starting to product beans and they have tons of blossoms. The leeks started to bolt show we pulled a few and cooked them with zucchini.















The spring beets are also ready and the corn has about 3 ears per stalks on the older plants.

Easter and Squash blossoms

Fresh from the inspiration of Tuscany I decided to actually using some of the lovely squash blossoms on my zucchini rather than just composting them. I always knew that they were edible I just wasn't too sure what to do with them. So John and Jim Darrah bought some in Italy and were coached on how to prepare them. Since the english in the little town we stayed in wasn't the best I would have loved to have been part of that conversation. Anyway I went to my trusty recipe source - the internet - and found a recipe for stuffed squash blossoms. Basically you make a batter stuff the blossoms with a cheese and vegetable mixture and the fry in oil until golden brown. We had some leftover stir fried zucchini and leeks in the fridge so I used this as my veggies. You could used any stir fried veggie combo though. They were pretty darn tasty!!!


Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Batter
1 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup beer

Mix the dry ingredients and than whisk in the beer. Let the mixture sit in fridge for 30 minutes.

Leek and zucchini stir fry

1 leeks sliced and cleaned ( I usually slice them first and place in a bowl of water to get the dirt all removed - then I used a slotted spoon to remove from the water leaving the dirt residue at the bottom of the bowl.)
1 medium zucchini cutinto strip with a vegetable peeler
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 tables olive oil.
salt and pepper to season.

Heat the oil over med high heat. Add the leek s and cooks a few minutes until tender add the garlic and zucchini and cooks a few minutes more.
This is a great side with a light fish such as sea bass or halibut.

Blossoms
Pick the blossoms fresh if you have them or buy that day at the store as they do not last long.
Rinse and remove the stem.

1/4 cup of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup leek and zucchini stir fry
salt and pepper to taste.

Carefully stuff 1 tables of cheese mixture into the squash blossoms. Heat about 1 inch of oil in a deep pan until a cube of bread turned golden.

Dip the stuffed blossoms into the batter until thickly coated and pop into the hot oil. Brown on all sides until golden and drain on a paper towel to remove excess grease.

This amount of stuffing will make about 6

.

Spring garden 2011 is now planted

We are trying a couple of new things this year. First - we planted corn - two different varieties and about 2 weeks apart. We planted right about the first of March.





Second we decided to grow pole peans instead of bush beans. Well I decided because I am sick of bending over to pick beans and John decided to humor me. So we picked some bamboo from our niece's back yard and created some teepee like structures for the bean to climb up. John nearly slice his arm off while cutting the bamboo so this better be worth it.

Finally we scored some potatoes from Green Corn and even
though we planted way past the recommended time for planting we decided to try anyway. Notice how John dug trenches - the theory is that as the leaves start growing you continue to take dirt and cover as they grow. We will see how it turns out. May not work at all because of the late planting.





We also found a new garden trellis for the cucumbers. Now we have a trellis both both winter squash which you can grow in the spring and fall as well as cucumbers.


The tomatoes are also doing well as you can see some over almost 2 feet tall at the end of march. No tomatoes yet but lots of blossoms.

Super Bowl crudites

We had tons of stuff in the garden so I decided to make snacks out of what we had. This is definetly good for those watching their weight. I sliced daikon radishes and carrots. Then I roasted sliced beets at 325 for about 30 minutes - I sliced them thins and lighted coated with oil oil and salt. They ended up nice and crispy. Then I made a spinach yogurt dip. Healthy and good.

Spinach Yogurt dip

4 cups spinach
1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp corinder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt and pepper to taste
white balsamic vinegar

Put it all in a food processor and puree until smooth.

Cauliflower recipes

I made a great roasted cauliflower dish - that I will now make over and over.

Roasted Cauliflower

5 cups cauliflower pieces
1 can garbanzo beans
20 green olives sliced (I used jalapeno stuffed ones because that is what I had)
1 cup sliced mushrooms
6 cloves of garlic chopped
salt
red pepper flakes
3-6 tablespoons olive oil.

Combine all ingredients in a roasting pan. Just add enough oil until it is lightly coated. Roast at 450 degress for about 22 minutes stirring it halfway through.

January and February 2011 - freeze

Ok - I know it has been a long time since I put in a post. But we just had a VERY hard 3 day in the teens and 20's and I wanted to document how the garden did. We did not cover the garden.

The radishes did not do well - for long freezes pull them or cover them.

Spinach survived very well.
Beets also did well - although the greens dies off but they appear to be regrowing.
Carrots, PArsnips - the same as the beets although the parnips greens did better.
Lettuce and Arugula - not too great, some lettuce survived and the arugula seems to be growing back. we will probably replant it.
Cabbage - the green cabbage didn't like the first freeze so we picked it, the red cabbage survived just fine.
Broccoli - survived just fine.
Cauliflower - jury is still out - it definitely froze but it may be ok for soups - next time we will pick it.
Kolrabi - just fine.
Swiss Chard - one plant of 4 survived.
Kale - it survived but it didn't like it.