What's on the Menu? Salsa Verde

This is my first year to grow tomatillos and already I'm a fan!  Both plants are HUGE and covered with little yellow flowers.

And since I've never grown tomatillos, I was surprised to find the fruit growing in little casings that remind me of paper lanterns!  So cool!

I never in a million years thought that these things would produce at the level they do.  I have tomatillos coming out of my ears!  Now I have to admit, I don't know much about using tomatillos.  I have one sauce that I make for fish tacos that calls for a few tomatillos, but that's it.  So here I was, faced with a HUGE bowl of them wondering what the hell to do.  Then it hit me, Salsa Verde!  Duh.

First I had to remove the husks.

Then I washed them and put them on a cookie sheet (about a pound or so of them) with some olive oil, 1 onion, about 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, and a couple of de-seeded jalapeños (I wanted it mild enough for the kids) and popped them in the oven on about 400* to roast for 15 minutes, stirring them on occasion to make sure they didn't burn.

Afterwards, I dumped them into the food processor, oil, juices and all, added a couple of teaspoons of cumin and about a teaspoon or so of salt, a good handful of washed cilantro and the juice from 1/2 a lime.

After a good whir, I ended up with a wonderful, flavorful sauce that was perfect for dipping chips!  I also took about half of it to add to my sour cream chicken enchilada recipe, YUM!

So hooray for tomatillos!  You can bet I'm going to be enjoying A LOT of salsa verde this summer!  :)

Plum Tasty!

A friend of mine sent me home with a TON of tiny, little plums on Sunday.  By Tuesday I was well aware that these tiny, little plums were going to start rotting.  Fast.  So I frantically got online to see what some options were.  I found a plum upside cake, which looked MARVELOUS, but I didn't have buttermilk in the house.  I eventually came across a recipe for plum sorbet at Simply Recipes and I immediately heard a little chorus of "Hallelujah" in my head!

First I started peeling and pitting these.

Yes.  I actually hand-peeled and hand-pitted these little plums because the recipe called for a fine mesh sieve to filter out the large pieces of skin and I didn't have one.  Anyway, after peeling and pitting I ran the plums, sugar, lemon juice and pinch of salt through the food processor until the mixture was smooth.  (Sorry about the sucky pic.)

I poured it all into my handy dandy ice cream maker and spun it for about 25 minutes.  At first it was more like a really thick smoothie, but after about 3 hours in the freezer it looked like this...

Sheer perfection!  And can I just say, YUM!  It was just sweet enough with a hint of tartness and the perfect dessert for a warm summer night!  So when life hands you plums, make sorbet!

Adventures in Gardening-Spring 2012

Hi All!!!  I know!  You totally thought I bailed, right?  Well, I didn't.  As usual, my life has been crazy-busy with these kids.  Between homeschooling, field trips, extra-curricular classes, travel, a husband who has been working 60+ hours a week and trying to get a new business off the ground, blogging has had to be on the back-burner.  There have been so many times that I just wanted to sit down and write, but dishes called or dance class was looming and I knew I wouldn't be able to commit a reasonable amount of time to write something intelligible.  So I just left it.  I am hoping to start budgeting my time a little better so I can check in a little more frequently.  I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best.

So amongst all this craziness, I actually did manage to plant a garden this spring!  I didn't plant one in the fall and it killed me.  Every time I looked out into the backyard, empty beds stared back at me and it pissed me off!  I just didn't have time.  I was lucky enough to get several heads of volunteer lettuce sprout up, so that made me a little happier!

I was really hoping to tear out the beds in late winter, rearrange some things and have this wonderful new garden set up by March, but yeah right!  Between basketball practices and games, science fair prep and everything else, I didn't even manage to weed the damn beds!  Hello!

So when the time came I had just a smidge of work to do!  I finally cleaned everything out and was ready to plant.  

I was lucky enough to have the BEST helper in the whole world!  The Monkey Man could care less about gardening these days.  If Mario and Luigi aren't involved it's futile!  :(  But the Piglet (aka Tie-dye Fairy Princess) is still interested and above all, she just likes hanging out with Mama.  She also had some help (such a good little mama already)!

Roddy didn't help at all, but he's just damn cute so he deserved a shout out!

This year we planted 2 types of okra (Clemson and emerald green), Japanese eggplant, 5 varieties of tomato, tomatillos (our first year with these), black-eyed peas, Chinese yard longs and squash.  Might I just say that zucchini and pumpkins were a total experiment.  For the last 3 years I have NEVER been able to grow a Curcubit of any kind, no squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelon or cantaloupe.  Stinkin' squash borers have taken them all out within a month of planting.  I just happened to read an article about this problem in the "Carrots Love Tomatoes" book and they suggested planting 1 squash seed with 3 icicle radish seeds and planting nasturtiums between the rows.  I figured what the hell, a $5 experiment and if they tanked, I'd just plant with a late crop of black-eyed peas.

Within about a month, we had progress!  Tomatoes and tomatillos.

First bed has the pumpkins, squash and yard longs and the back bed has eggplant and okra.

The kids and I went out of town for a 2 week trip to NM (blog post to follow soon, I promise) and I had to leave the garden in the hands of an over-worked spouse.  I was fully expecting the garden to be a bit, taxed, shall we say, when I came back.  But thankfully, central Texas is actually experiencing quite a lovely spring and the temps have been mild and we have actually had RAIN!  Yes, I said it.  R-A-I-N, rain!  Much to my great joy and complete surprise this is what I came home to...

Bed 1:  Clemson okra and Japanese eggplant

Bed 2:  Zucchini, pumpkins, yard longs.

Baby pumpkin!

And I just have to note, the pumpkins?  Well, those crazy things are from the seeds that I harvested from the teeny, tiny pumpkin my daughter fell in love with last fall and cried when it started to mold.  I promised her I would harvest the seeds and try to grow a pumpkin vine with those seeds.  Those pumpkins have grown with a vengeance.  I am sure these pumpkins are likely to take over my entire yard by the fall!

Bed 3:  Tomatoes and tomatillos.

Oh the salsa and green sauces I have in my future!

My first tomatillos!

And last but not least, Bed 4:  Emerald green okra and black-eyed peas!

I am feeling quite optimistic about my summer garden and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for mild weather and lots of rain!  It is so good to be gardening again and even better to be sharing my experiences with you!  Thanks for sticking around and I'll do my best to keep plugging along and trying to get some decent posts up!  Until next time, enjoy life!  It's awesome!

Now THAT'S a bean!

I am so glad someone clued me in on these little beauties!  The vines seem to be doing well, even in the 100* heat.  The flowers are open when it's cool in the morning and I started noticing actual bean pods about a week ago.  They are now about a foot long!  I still have to wait though, 18" is optimal!  I expect to harvest this weekend!  It's about damn time!

Summer garden is shaping up!

I went out to water this morning and what did I find?

 Hehehehehehe!  Actually three of the 6 tomato vines have baby tomatoes and I'm SO excited!  I don't know why I was so surprised and mean look at these big, beautiful things!  The one in the back is almost as tall as me!

So far, eggplant is growing and flowering well, my burgundy okra is flowering (we found 3 little okra this morning), chives are kickin', parsley is out of control (which is good because I wanted there to be enough for me AND the caterpillars!), the regular okra is growing well and the Chinese green beans (aka yard long beans) are already to the top of their tepees, not sure what happens now!

A close up of those gorgeous beans!  Now let's hope they produce as well as they grow!  My goal is to have a freezer full of green beans by the end of summer!

Black-eyed peas are doin' their thing as well.  Have I mentioned lately how much I love my little garden?  I've gotta say though, this drought isn't helping!  First we had a sucky winter that damn near killed off that season's garden, now I'm fighting with this drought.  Note to the gods of weather:  Please send some good drenching rain at least twice a week for the next 4 months.  We would greatly appreciate it if it were just rain.  No hail, heavy wind or tornadoes.  Thanks in advance!

Beet It!

OK, sorry about the dumb reference to a Michael Jackson song, I just couldn't help it!  Anyhoo... the other day I really hit the gardening jackpot!  I was out watering and checking on things as I REALLY need to get the summer garden going but I still have winter garden stuff going strong.  I decided to pull a beet or two, just to see how they were doing and you know what?  They were doing FINE!  So I pulled a big ol' bunch of them!

 

Just look at that beautiful red!  To die for!  I washed them up and trimmed off the greens, which I'll be serving for dinner soon.  Can I just say that I LOVE beets and turnips for this very reason!  You can eat the leaves AND the roots.  Super.  Food.  Awesome.

I popped them into a pot of boiling water for about 30 min. (40 for some of the bigger ones).  Then as I rinsed them in cold water, the skins just came right off and I was left with beautiful burgundy beets!  So I let 'em cool off so I could slice 'em and then EAT 'em!

And oh HELL YEAH, they were awesome!  I have been nibbling on them periodically or serving them on every salad I eat!  They have a nice bite and the texture puts those icky canned ones to shame!  Now I'm on the lookout for the perfect beet salad!

Garden Gone Wild!

I really need to be planting my summer garden this week.  Technically it should have been planted two weeks ago, but what can you do when your beds still look like this?

Who knew that collard greens had such beautiful flowers?  I have the happiest bees right now and THAT makes me happy!

The beets and kohlrabi are thriving!  Although I think the beets may be close to harvest, I saw one beet that had about a 2-3" diameter yesterday!  YUMMY!

Lettuce and spinach?  Why yes, I have just a little bit!

 Luckily my nursery people say I can plant tomatoes amongst the lettuce and spinach and still probably get yield for another month before pulling it!  Hooray!

I give up on this one!  I think I will just keep this bed for herbs this summer.  The onions are going strong, the cilantro is out of control (it's the big bush on the left), parsley is making a comeback (and I have to have lots of it for my parsley worms) and I am finally getting chives!  So I figure I'll work basil in there somehow and life will be good!

You can't complain when your garden looks this good and is producing this much (I swear I could feed four families out of my garden) but I really wish I had a little more space so I could be planting the next season's crops.  What's a girl to do?!?

Greens Gone Wild!!!

I had to do some much needed garden maintenance yesterday.  Everything is really out of control, in a good way!  All but the turnips.  For some reason, aphids went nutso on the turnip greens and they were wilting, and drooping and turning yellow.  Needless to say, turnip greens are not in my future!  And sadly, I had to make the executive decision to pull all of the turnips.  I needed to get them out of there so the aphids wouldn't spread to everything else!  Many of the turnips were not fully mature, BUT, they are young and tender and when mixed with some carrots, sweet potatoes and maybe parsnips they will make an awesome side dish!  This is my puny harvest!

 Aren't they pretty?  I can't wait to see how my beets and kohlrabi turn out!

I keep telling people to PLEASE come to my house and harvest some lettuce, spinach and greens and so far no one has taken me up on it?  WTH?  I mean seriously, FREE, organic greens.  Any of you reading this, the offer still stands!  As you can see, I'm not kidding.  I really do have greens coming out of my ears!

Lettuce and spinach

Beets and kohlrabi

 

In case you're wondering, beet greens are great wilted down with red onions and a splash of vinegar.  They also kick ass fresh in a salad.  Kohlrabi greens are very similar in taste and texture to collard greens.  I don't have a pic of the collards but they too are out of control and beautiful!

Did someone say cilantro?!?  Who knew it would turn into a BUSH!?!

So seriously people, come get some greens!  I will probably start pulling things around the first of April so I can get my summer garden in.  And by then the lettuce will be wilting and full of snails!

The Big Chill-2011

We have SNOW.  In Central Texas.  Really.

The whole city is shut down.  And I'm not kidding.  Over this much snow...

I mean it is so pathetic that the Monkey Man rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever.  We can't even make a snowball with that!  Can I just play Wii?"  I had to practically force him to put on his coat and go outside so I could at least get one picture of him in this monumental meteorological event!

The Piggy was a smidge more excited.  She was, however, pretty bummed to find out that this, like the Ruidoso snow, was NOT snowman snow.  She was able to make little snowballs to pelt at me, but they fell apart mid-air so it was more of a snow shower!  As it turns out, trampolines are fun in the snow!

And although this measly bit of snow was fun for my daughter, it almost made me cry.  For those of you who weren't in Texas, you might not know that this particular storm was preceded by about 2 days of well-below-freezing temps with lots of wind and wind chill.  I did my very best to cover the garden and shield it from the nastiness but when I peeled the frost barriers off this morning to shake off the snow and let the garden get some much needed sun, I found utter desolation.  :(

I'm thinkin' those peas ain't coming back!  The onions, chives and cilantro MIGHT make it, but I'm not holding my breath.  The collards and turnips didn't fare much better.

Some of the lettuce might pull through but anything around the edges looked like this...

So sad.  But what is worst of all, is I was left with a whole bed of "dead beets".  (Pah-dum-pump--PSHHH!)

See, I'm so distraught I'm making tasteless jokes!  So I'm glad everyone got their snow and their day off but I personally think the "Great Blizzard of 2011" can bite my ass!

Operation Sun-Dried Tomato

Too many tomatoes, too many tomatoes!!! And not to sound selfish, because I have been giving away tomatoes to neighbors and friends all summer, but I can tell the cherry tomato vine is on it's last leg and I just somehow wanted to preserve these little beauties so I could enjoy them. I have worked hard this summer and deserve to now hoard the bounty! I froze a bunch last year, but they immediately turned to mush once added to a recipe and no one likes mushy tomatoes. So I thought, hmmmmm. What about sun-dried tomatoes? Is it even possible to do this at home without a dehydrator or a desert? Because even though Austin is hot, it's MUGGY and I'm sure anything left outside would turn into a moldy mess within hours! But sure enough, the clever people that post things on the internet came to my rescue! Sun-dried tomatoes in the oven!!!

First I washed and dried luscious, little jewels of tomatoes!
Then I sliced them all in half and sprinkled them lightly with sea salt.
Next I popped them into the oven on 200*F and forgot about them!
About 4 hours into it, a most intoxicating aroma came wafting from my oven, I decided to check them and stir them around a bit to ensure even drying.
I returned them to the oven and began checking on them periodically and about 2-1/2 hours later I was rewarded with my first sun-dried tomatoes!! Just like tart little tomato raisins with such a burst of flavor! Awesome! I started picking out the ones that were done and returning the others to the oven. All in all, to get the entire batch done, it was about 8-ish hours. But they turned out perfectly dried and insanely yummy! And being that every website I perused stated that setting them in oil at home is a BAD idea due to high possibility of food poisoning, I decided to be satisfied with my little tomato raisins and call it a day! Here is a look at the finished product, ready for use in pasta or pizza and can be stored in the pantry for at least a year (not that they'll even last that long)!