In Season & Fresh from the Garden, the Fields, the Orchards & the Woods
Tired of peach cobbler? Even a large roast is not too large for two. Love left-overs in summer! Actually I love left over any time, but there are particularly appreciated in summer when there is so much to do, and not nearly enough time to …
A quick dash to the garden yields fava beans, eggs, asparagus, new onions, currants. Add a handful of mushrooms and bread – and that’s dinner. Got to love this time of the year (even if the planting and harvesting all come together so fast)
Mais où sont les neiges d’antan? (where are the snows of yesteryear?)
Early daffodils blooming in January, late ones in March – 4 weeks ahead of schedule. Maples blooming in late February. Red buds in full blooms now. Peach and cherry blossoms passed their peak. Morels already and first asparagus picked on March 28 (friends of mine picked some even earlier in their garden). Strawberries blossoming. Buds breaking on the grapes.
..and it’s dry, dry, dry (although the grass sure looks green… but the creek is low and the ground is dry). It is … disturbing.
The garden is exploding and I am not ready for it.
So… for this (and because of other projects, some of which might end-up being discussed on the blog), I am (I have been) taking a blog break! A couple of months maybe… maybe less.
Happy spring. Let’s hope we have a cooler than average summer.
Dada! Indoor seed starting. Some hate it, I love it! 200 pepper seeded in late January, up-potted and looking rather good. Peppers take along time to grow: they need to be well established in the garden before summer heat parks itself over us. When it’s …
This recipe first appeared in the Virginia Wine Gazette. Peppers (aka chiles) and chocolate are products of the Americas – unknown in Europe until the Spanish conquistadors brought them home in the 16th century. Can you imagine Belgium or Switzerland without chocolate? Calabrian or Greek …
This recipe first appears in the Dec 2011-Jan 2012 Seasonal Table column I write for Flavor Magazine.
Rabbit is intimidating for many people. Sure, it’s not as available as chicken but a growing number of farms (who often raise poultry) offer rabbits in our area. You can also find them through custom butcher shops. On a per pound basis, rabbit is more expensive than chicken. But a 3-lb rabbit has more meat than a 3-lb chicken, or rather I should say, that a 3-lb rabbit has denser, more filling meat than a 3 lb-chicken.
Rabbit does not taste like chicken. Not even close. Sure it is a white meat with a lot of flavor, but it is dense and lean. Roast a young animal, braise an older one. Rabbit is both meaty and bony, muscle meat tightly attached to the bones. But if you like eating blue crab, you probably won’t mind all the bones in a rabbit. When served in a restaurant, rabbit is often deboned and served as a pate, rolled, pulled, or in some other way where using a fork and a knife is breezy. In my home, we don’t mind using our fingers (mostly).
In this recipe, based on a classic French country dish, I use gin and juniper berries. But sometime I will use one of our local whiskey or rye. Omit the juniper berries if you can’t find them. The mustard is used both for flavor and to help the meat keep moist.
And a bonus – it’s done in a hour: 5 minutes to prep, 50 to cook, 5 to cut up and plate. Cook the veggies while the rabbit is roasting. Continue reading Roasted Rabbit
It is that time of the year again… the shrouded lower garden with greens still holding on under their protective cover after a cold spell with temperatures down to 11 F (-12C).
Pitting cherries! 2011 was an outstanding cherry year here in Rappahannock, the kind we get every five years or so. Back in June, I made both sweet and sour cherry liqueur. They need to age with the fruit for 6 months or so. At bottling …
Still working through my citrus boxes.
On the Eight Day, the Meyer lemons poached the previous night got squeezed, sliced, briefly simmered with sugar, and rested overnight again. It’s important that the rind softens as much as possible or the marmalade will have an unpleasant texture..
On the Ninth Day, it get boiled, jarred and processed in a water bath for long-term shelf life. Voila, beautiful marmalade fit to rival traditional Seville orange marmalade (which I could not find.) Particularly good with Butter Cookies from Brittany. You know, if we are going to go sweet, we are going to go sweet! (but a little bit goes a long way – this is a potent marmalade)
This recipe illustrates that you may can all year long, and in small quantities too!
Meyer Lemon Marmalade Continue reading The Eighth & Ninth Days of Christmas (Meyer Lemon Marmalade)
On the Sixth Day of Christmas, with still over 7 pounds of Meyer lemons left from my citrus order orgy, I made Réunion Island Lemon and Onion Salad. In winter, I often hunger for bright spicy flavors to liven up the stews and braised dishes …