In Season & Fresh from the Garden, the Fields, the Orchards & the Woods
Back in January when I was browsing seed catalogs for interesting fruit & vegetable seeds, I came across the description ‘Hickory King’ a pre-1875 dent corn cultivar (throughout this post – and throughout my blog – I am using corn in the American sense of …
Friday night’s dinner often requires little thought as it often consists of homemade pizza – not much to think about: make the dough, let rise 45 minutes, flatten, spread some toppings (variations are endless). Bake for 15 minutes. Meanwhile mix a salad, set the table …
I think I love my kitchen garden more in the fall then in the spring: cooler temperatures are accompanied by a lot less bugs and the beds are brimming with salad greens (sorrel, lettuce, frisée, endive, mache, arugula), cooking greens (tatsoi, pakchoi and other mustard, kale, Swiss Chard), peas (the shoots of which are delicious in salad too – besides the pods), carrots, celeriac, beets (the tops of which are also edible) and some cabbages. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash & pumpkins have been harvested and stored. The last of the tomatoes were brought in to ripen and the peppers picked before the first frost will remain good for a few more weeks.
But what I really love in that time of the year when we often have a little spell of Indian Summer with sunny warm days and mild nights is to feast on big bowls of fresh mixed greens salad. Back in August I was urging you to go and plant your fall garden. Remember? I hope you did sow your fall garden seeds then and are now harvesting the leaves of that effort. I am.
The two pictures above explain my planting fervor back in the heat of summer: the first one was taken on September 12 after transplanting various seedlings that had been sown in August. The second one was on October 24. (Click on the picture for a larger – and cleaner- version.)
The result is lots of salad lunches! Continue reading Fall Salad Days
You know there is a problem when the Virginia Department of Agriculture puts out a produce chart that shows that the only fresh produce available from Virginia in December and January are apples, herbs, greens/spinach (in December only says the chart), and sweet potatoes. Come …
Note: Recipe has been updated on February 11, 2009 to clarify some instructions and correct a typo. When we moved to the country, we decided to join the local Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company. It took us a while to actually do it, but both …
Frost last night blackened part of the garden. Bad enough to burn the brillantsia, the sweet potato leaves, and a good part of the basil. Not hard enough for the tomatoes, peppers, dahlias nor strawberries for that matter.
I spent most of yesterday’s afternoon picking up the remaining ripe tomatoes (mostly cherries and ‘Princepe Borghese’), the large green ones that I can fry, greens beans, strawberries and lots of peppers. Which reminds me to talk about one of my favorite pepper sweet pepper: ‘Sweet Banana’.
As you can guess from the name, it’s yellow (a pale yellow maturing orangey/red) and it’s elongated, up to 6 or 7 inches long. According to Burpee, Sweet Banana was an AAS (All American Selection) Bronze Medal winner for 1941. I can certainly understand why it still is popular: in the garden, it’s handsome, easy, vigorous and fruitful, that’s why. It ripens early, remains productive throughout the season – until killed by frost, really. While the plant is fairly small, as peppers go, it is vigorous and erect, holding its fruit well so they don’t trail on the ground.
In the kitchen, its sweet mildness lends itself to a variety of preparations. Slowly fried, roasted or grilled, they are wonderful as side dish to meat, but also on sandwiches or tossed with pasta. They make tasty pickles, either cut into rings (the easier to pack the jar) or even whole. Sautéed they bring a nice taste to turkey cutlets, to fajitas or to a quick vegetable stew. They stir fry well. Of course, you don’t have to do anything to them, and you can just munch on them AS-IS.
If you buy the plant or the fruit, make sure you are buying the sweet pepper ‘Sweet Banana’, not the hot yellow banana also know as Hungarian wax. The surprise would be quite painful!
I love a good baked custard – or flan as we call in France (which is not the same as a Spanish flan – maybe a post for another day). And although the last few days have been warm, the down spiraling leaves are letting …
Gala, Crispin (or Mutsu), Fuji, Honeycrisp, Rhode Island Greening, York, McIntosh, Jonathan & Jonagold, Stayman Winesap, even Golden Delicious (one of MY favorites), Red Delicious & Granny Smith: those are just a few of the cultivars of apples available for pick up at our local …
Continuing our series of Roast Chicken on Sunday means easy tasty meals for the week… This is day 4 and we are using the remaining Day 2’s Chicken Tomatillo Soup of which we made a big batch. With the help of onions, potatoes and corn, we are going to transform it into a robust, flavorful, unusual and mostly meatless chowder that’s perfect for a cool fall night. Yes folks, there is still some late corn out there – if you can’t find it, just use frozen corn.
Continue reading Roast Chicken on Sunday = Tex-Mex Chowder on Day 4
Continuing our series of Roast Chicken on Sunday means easy tasty meals for the week… This is day 3 and we are using one cooked breast from our Roast Chicken. You can still make this stir-fry using an an uncooked chicken breast. You just need …