November 21, 2008

greens with potatoes and onions

I made a terrific casserole yesterday. All veggies from my garden or my recent CSA distribution: collard and beet greens, celeriac, potatoes and onions. Next time I’ll make more, as this is really good the next day too. Its a good warm dish for a freezing cold night. Its about 20°F outside now. I’m doing my best to avoid going out at all but the warmest times of the day. Bbbrrrr! The recipe is adapted from my basic vegetable cooking resource: Marion Morash’s Victory Garden Cookbook. Greens with Potatoes and…

October 1, 2008

HOT! habanero chile

I finally got the courage to try one on my garden habanero chiles – described as the hottest chile in the world. I was warned to wear gloves, but I thought I’d try without first. I sliced the orange chile open and touched the cut edge with my finger and then tasted just a little bit, very carefully, only on the tip of my tongue. Well…. after scrubbing my hands several times with soap, drinking lots of water and washing it down with cheese and bread (and wine), I put…

September 16, 2008

cooked beans

I cooked up my shell beans yesterday. They aren’t half as pretty cooked, but they were tasty. RECIPE: To cook them, I the beans the beans in water 1 hour with 2 carrots, an onion and a bay leaf and then refrigerated overnight. The next evening I sauteed a sliced onion, carrot, garlic and piece of bell pepper in olive oil then added the beans and three oven dried tomatoes and cooked a bit. Then I added some fresh basil leaves.

August 29, 2008

making red sauce

With four big bowls full of ripe tomatoes on my counter, last night I made up a quick red sauce. This was the real quick version. Just chop, cook, remove skins, then freeze. Oh, and lick out the pan – it was VERY tasty! I think the mix of so many varieties made it taste so good. tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) Skippy’s vegetable recipes

August 22, 2008

new potato and summer squash casserole

This is a fantastic casserole that I have made a few times now. Its a recipe I made up myself to use the abundant items in my refrigerator. I could eat it every night! Prepare: Freshly dug potatoes, any variety, washed and sliced thin (about 1/8 inch) Summer squash, I like to use mostly yellow varieties, sliced about 1/4-1/2 inch Layer into a baking dish: potato slices squash slices salt and pepper butter slices repeat layers until all vegetables are used (or dish is full…) Top with: Grated mild melting…

August 9, 2008

squash bread

My evening activity is making zucchini/squash bread. (While watching the awesome Chinese Olympics opening!) I grated a pile of overgrown squash – the ones that I didn’t find until too late. My mom said to look for a car with an open window and put them in. But no, I grated them all. I ended up with a pile of baggies full that I froze. I have been reading through Marion Morash’s Victory Garden Cookbook again (I read this every year I think). Lots of squash ideas. I will try…

July 16, 2008

cooking fava beans

My favas continue to produce lots of beans! A prolific crop. I am experimenting with recipes to see what I like best. Here is my favorite so far: ——– Favas, spring onions and corn Prepare favas by shelling larger beans and cutting smaller ones into 1 inch lengths. Sauté favas in butter and olive oil until they start to brown, about 2 minutes on high heat. Add fresh corn cut off the cob and chopped green onions. Sauté another minute or so. Vicia faba Fabaceae

June 28, 2008

spring vegetables with basil gremolade

Recipe (from June 2008 Bon Appetit, with lots of modifications) Vegetables: In olive oil, sautee chopped garlic, baby carrots and sliced squash about 3 minutes. Add sliced beet greens and cook about 1 minute. Add spinach, turn off heat and toss until spinach wilts. Gremolade: Chop 1/4 cup basil and parsley. Add 1 T chopped capers, grated lemon peel, and 2 T olive oil. Mix. Cook linguine. Mix with vegetables and gremolade. (Cook and serve beets separately.) Serve with grilled fresh Alaskan salmon and a nice Cabernet – on the…

June 23, 2008

grilled broccoli

I wanted to try something different with my fresh broccoli harvest. I found this nice post at The Grown Diaries on Spicy Grilled Broccoli. My version is the same idea, but a little different. I used dried chiles from last year’s garden and some chile oil we made by soaking dried chiles in olive oil. I also used a bunch of broccoli leaves. Recipe: Separate broccoli leaves and heads. Chop leaves and slice heads into 1/4 inch slices. Combine broccoli and leaves with 2 cloves chopped garlic and 1 chopped…

January 2, 2008

Capucijner peas for the New Year

I feel like its a BIG day! We ate my Capucijner peas tonight. Our first taste. Absolutely delicious!!! I tasted them every step of the way. I’m not sure why the bacon is needed. Really like gilding a lily. The peas taste like … peas. Almost like fresh summer peas in the middle winter. Aaahhh…. I found a simple recipe (below) for cooking Capucijner peas with bacon. The photo of the cooked peas at this site shows a nice pile of peas on the plate and sounds a lot like…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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