Kitchen 55

Squash blossoms are a fast food, kind of… Hear me out. Pick them fast, cook them fast, and eat them fast.

Even the idea of eating them happens pretty fast here. It usually starts with a call from my sister in early summer (and then periodically throughout the season) that goes something like this, “Hey, it’s me. Do you have cream cheese or should I bring some over?” Cryptic? No, I know exactly what she means. She means, “I am coming over now, and we’re going to need to make some fried squash blossoms.” I always agree with that statement.

Squash blossoms are a summer only food. We preserve jar after jar of tomatoes, freeze basil, pickle peppers, and hold on to as many summer flavors as we can, but not this one. This one is get it while you can.

Our favorite way to make them is this:

You need: Squash Blossoms, Cream Cheese, Basil, Egg, Flour, Salt, Pepper and Olive Oil.

1. Pick some male blossoms (the one’s without fruit at the base of the flower)

2. Wash them, and plop a spoonful of cream cheese into the middle of the blossom. Also pack about a teaspoonful of thinly sliced basil.

3. Carefully close up the blossom and twist the petals shut a little.

4. Mix up an egg or 2 with a bit of water or milk, Mix up some flour with a little salt and pepper, warm up a little oil in a pan.

5. Dip the blossoms in the egg mixture, then the flour mixture, then set them in the oiled pan. Fry them until they are golden brown, turn them a bit so they brown on all sides.

6. Eat ‘em up quick. They’re the best when they barely make it to the table!

So, That’s my favorite way so far, but I would love to know how to make it healthier- or in other not so healthy but very tasty ways. Any ideas?

Wow, I just saw how long ago my last post was. I think I may have gotten lost in the garden. It’s a jungle out there, after all. Summer is in full swing and I am wading through a knee deep sea of pumpkin and melon vines. I feel like I am swimming through vegetables! Needless to say, I got a little distracted…  Between watering the garden, weeding, mulching, and then eating and preserving the harvest I have been so wonderfully busy.

I kept taking pictures to share with you, thinking to myself, “I’ll write about this tomorrow…” Then tomorrow was a day later, and another day later. So, I put a stop to it. Last night I sorted through a few thousand photos (most not worth sharing) and I am going to share the month’s highlights with you now.

First, and most awesome – the lime tree is NOT dead. I was sure I had killed it, but it fought back and it’s coming to life. It has a long way to go, but what a fantastic and unexpected discovery!

Speaking of unexpected discoveries… imagine my surprise when i found this monster squash! Usually I would assume a thigh-sized summer squash would be flavorless, but that was not the case here! This thing was delicious. Which is good because I worked up quite an appetite tying to wrestle it into manageable pieces.

Other gigantic vegetables have emerged from the garden also. Here’s the biggest tomato so far. It came in at just over 2lbs. It’s next to my mug for comparison – kind of a mutant.

I was so delighted to discover this squash! I forgot I had planted it, what a fun surprise.

One last small delight to share… my daughter (she’s 4) surprised me with a unique flower arrangement. She called it a “sunset jar” and made this fantastic creation my layering different colors of flower petals in a mason jar. I love the way she sees the world. She charms me.

My dear internet world, I have missed you. I will not stay away so long next time. Fall is coming soon, and it’s my favorite time of year. You can expect to hear a lot from me very soon!

Yes!

It’s finally tomato time!

Celebrate!

I will be canning my way through the summer. Every day I haul in  more tomatoes, and as they start to take over the kitchen counter I just know it’s that time. Time to start pulling the empty jars out of their storage place under my kitchen island, clean ‘em up and start putting up summers bounty for later.

There is nothing better than tasting my own garden’s tomatoes in the dead of winter. I usually can them with this simple recipe, and them pull them off the shelf all winter long to use in various meals. My all time favorite way to use them is this: pour the canned tomatoes in the blender, blend until smooth, heat up and serve with grilled cheese sandwiches. I kid you not- it tastes like summer.

But what about those little cherry tomatoes? If any of those little morsels of goodness escape your summer salads, I suggest roasting them then freezing them. I like to put them in a cast iron dish and roast them in the oven (or  in the lingering heat of the BBQ as it cools down after dinner preparations). Either way, I just cook them until they are very nicely roasted usually with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, let them cool a little and then pack them up in ziplock bags in the freezer. I pull them out months later and add them to pasta dishes, or thaw and smash them with other goodies between some bread as paninis. Sometimes they find themselves in winter salads, other times sautéed with kale or another leafy winter green. The possibilities are endless- with the right basic ingredient: the preserved tomato.

The great thing about the basic recipie is that you can cook up a marinara sauce, tomato soup, enchalada sacue, and so much more when you have the simple canned tomato put up in the pantry.

Last year we ran out of canned tomatoes in December (so sad), and was a long wait until this July. You better believe we are stepping it up this year. With about 15 tomato plants in the ground (that’s a lot for us) we’re stepping up production! We want to make it through the off season with ease- wish us luck!

So…

Let’s review… Tomatoes- good. Tomatoes in the dead of winter… really good. It’s a little extra effort, but worth it!

Is anyone else doing this? I would love to hear about your special recipes, techniques,  and your general dedication to the year round tomato!

Wow! Artichokes are delicious, but it is definitely worth it to let a few of them escape the dinner plate and flower.

All week long I have noticed people stopping in the front yard to admire the electric purple blooms. They exploded earlier this week like early independence day fireworks!

For a breathtaking documentation of the flowering process, head over to my friend Katrina’s blog, About a Boy for a thoughtful post on Photographing Transformation in the Garden.

So, you may be thinking… “Ok, I grew all this garlic… now what?”

Well, the good news is that it’s super easy to clean and store your garlic so that it will last until next year’s harvest- provided you don’t eat it all before then!

Before we get started, if you’re wondering about the growing and harvesting part of the process, check out last year’s post on it here.

I am sorry for the disappointing photos. I did the best I could with dirty hands, my iPhone, and my trusty sidekick/husband. Next year, I’ll secure a photographer for the event and we’ll have a fancy photo shoot to make up for it- maybe.   In any case, I think they get the point across.

Now here are some other details and new techniques beyond last year’s post on the cleaning and storing process.

1. You know it’s ready when the tops start turning brown and some fall over. I water really well before harvesting to soften the soil and then pry the bulbs out with a pitchfork.

2. Shake off the worst of the dirt and lay them out in a place where air can circulate around them a bit. Warm and dry is best. *Take a moment to enjoy how amazing they smell- wow…

I have one of those generic metal patio tables in the back yard that is perfect for this project. Let them rest there for about a day.

3. After they rest for a day, the dirt should brush off easily, I like to trim the roots to about an inch with scissors or garden pruners, and then scrape them on the table to dislodge the dirt chunks. (Funny story- I did this in the kitchen the first year… don’t ever do that… so much mess!)

4. Braid the stalks. For those of you who may not know how to braid something (you know who you are) go here.  Start with three stalks of garlic and add another stalk to the braid as you fold them in. Don’t get intimidated- just keep braiding three handfuls of garlic stalks, and keep adding new stalks to those three handfuls as you go. It’s a lot like French braiding hair.

5. Keep adding more heads and braiding the stalks together until you have the braid you want. I find that 20-25 heads is about the right amount for me. That’s when the braid starts to get a little heavy and harder to manage. After you add the last head keep braiding to the end of the stalks.

6. When I get to the end I finish it off by tucking some of the end back through the braid.  This makes a loop of about a few inches, which is sturdy enough to hold the heavy braid. Weaving the end in and out of the main braid several times makes it pretty strong, and prevents it from slipping out.

7. At this point, I like to leave it outside for another day or two, then I bring it into the house and let it dry in ideally a cool, dry, well ventilated place- or as close to that as you can get.  Stored well it should easily last all year. When I am ready to use them, I snip off one head at a time with scissors. I start at the top and work my way down throughout the year.

Of course you can experiment with different techniques- for example this link with the detailed braiding instructions left the stalks wild and wavy rather than braiding them all the way to the end. It cascaded down beautifully. I would like to try to keep going sometime and make a wreath- perhaps I’ll move up to that with next years harvest!

I would love to hear about other ways to keep garlic! What do you do differently? Let me know!

And one final thought, It wouldn’t feel right if I left this out… Here is my favorite garlic recipe from Smitten Kitchen… 44 Clove Garlic Soup

I love when the sun sets in the summer. I wanted to share this moment- when my daughter and her friend abandoned the digging project to come inside for dinner.

Little curious hands searched for friendly bugs until it the last minute of sunshine.

No bugs were harmed in the playing of this game. : )

Here it is… Better late than never, right? This is my sink, and my obsession over it has not diminished in the slightest. Fellow blogger Cheryl at 33 Barefoot Lane and other friends have asked for a picture, to share in my admiration and obsession of this piece, so here it is! I can hardly describe how much I love it. The depth of it, the weight of it, easily coming in over one hundred pounds, the way it feels cool or warm depending on the weather, the softness of the concrete, the way water smells when it hits the concrete and steams up on sunny days, the oldness and sparkle of the faucet- it all comes together to make this one of my favorite spots in the garden.

The reason why it has taken me so long to share the pictures is that, well, I haven’t been able to take any that are good enough. I struggle with my picture taking skills- I often have a very hard time representing what I want to convey. As a result… there are delays. These photos still don’t do the sink justice, but it’s better than nothing. Right?

My emotional connection to this sink (giggle if you need to- I know it’s weird) makes me wonder: what are your favorite places in the garden? strange or not so strange, I would love to see them. Feel free to link to pictures!

Yep, this week can kiss – my – butt. (Sorry if I offended you, but this is the censored version of how I feel about this week). By the way, it’s only Wednesday. I thought it was Tuesday until someone corrected me this morning. Oh boy… only half way there.

Well, here’s the scoop- I had some mildly disturbing news at work Tuesday. Due to budget issues (yep… I live in California, our state has some problems) my contract won’t be renewed.  I knew it was coming, but the problematic part is that the contract ends this Friday, not the end of the month as originally planned (a whopping thank you to Human Resources for that mixup). So, one of my projects is over in two days, better wrap it up quick I guess.

I later came home from my soon-to-be-ex-work to my beautiful garden, my peace, my sanity, my sacred space to find that someone had helped themselves to my artichokes. The were just cut off, missing- a ragged stalk where the beautiful bud was growing.  Huh, I suppose someone really needed some artichokes, hopefully more than I did. It’s a risk I take putting my veggies in the front yard, and veggie-theft has never happened until now, it’s really not much of a problem. Any other day, I would have more patience and imagined them being eaten up by a fellow artichoke lover. I would have probably been happy to have “shared” them, but like I said, Tuesday was a rough day. I found myself with little tolerance for disrespect and theft. I started imagining the creation of a petty “Please Don’t Eat My Vegetables” sign… That’s SO not me.

Wait, one more thing. I have the flu. Well, had the flu I guess. I thought it was allergies or a common cold Tuesday afternoon, but by about  6pm I had a nasty fever, chills, and couldn’t have gotten off the couch if I wanted to. I think it was a 24 hour bug, and I’m on the mend now, but last night I was down for the count. Bad times.

Ok, one more thing. Today someone literally threw something at me at work.  I work at a college, and I think they may have been aiming for the trash, but some student walking by my office threw trash at me. It hit my desk. If I wasn’t recovering from the flu and had the slightest bit of energy I might have stood up for myself, but not today. Today I barely had the energy to sit in my chair, but with 2 days to wrap up and close down a project, I didn’t want to call out sick. Frankly, I don’t care if I’m contagious either.  Perhaps I’ll “Typhoid Mary” the HR Department… a girl can dream, right?

So, here’s my message to the rest of this week: Bring it on. Give me your worst. If the universe has any other nasty plans for me, why bother spacing it out- let’s get it over with.

I can offer one glimmer of optimism- I suppose next week I will get a lot done in the garden, you know with all the time I’m not at work. Thank you for reading this rant. I promise- next week, I’ll be my lovely self again.

Queen of pessimism, OUT.

This week has been challenging for me in the garden. I am trying hard to plant my seeds and starts, which is exciting. But while the pressure is on to get the garden started for the major growing season, I am plagued by frustrating garden mishaps as well. I am excited, and frustrated.

When I go out into the garden, I see that…

• My peach tree has succumbed to a leaf curl disease.
• Two of my roses have a rusty mildew problem.
• There are weeds sprouting up faster than I can pull them.
• Aphids have taken over the fava beans.
• Slugs got to some of my seedlings.
• I am finding these white grubs in the compost- as big as my entire thumb, they have nasty little bloody looking mouths with “fangs.” (probably legs- they look like fangs to me)
• Dog poop- I don’t think I give my dogs enough food to produce this much poop, how do they do it?

I am seeing all these challenges, to put it nicely, and I am tired already. This is supposed to be the season where I get all pumped up about the garden- not discouraged!

And then….

And then my sweet sister came over with her camera. The pictures she copied onto my computer are something totally different than the version of the garden I have been seeing all week. What an attitude adjustment!

I wanted to share some of her pictures today because there is always more than one side to a story, and there is always more than one impression of a garden. Thank you, Kat for reminding me that I do have a pretty garden. Enjoy her beautiful photos, everyone.