What's Up Doc?

It's been awhile since I've done a gardening post. The garden went really well this year, everything I planted produced a harvest. Booyah! After the summer garden came the fall garden, which has turnip greens, beets, carrots, cabbage, and broccoli. I'm harvesting turnips and carrots daily now - I'm actually shocked at how good the carrots did. I'm shocked because I'm really just winging this whole garden thing...but maybe all the organic matter {aka chicken sh*t} I've put on the garden is helping too!

I've also been mixing in the beet greens with the turnip greens when cooking those and it makes a huge difference in the flavor - granted I like them either way. Just planted about 30 cloves of garlic too but I've been having a slight squirrel problem with digging in the bed. You may want to say a prayer for that squirrel...he's gonna need it.

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Can You Dig It?

So its been awhile since I've had a garden post. The garden is churning out many delicious beauties like these potatoes and garlic. It was my first time growing both of these and they were so easy. The trick with potatoes is definitely to keep them mounded as they grow and you can harvest new potatoes early or nice big spuds when the plants die back. I'm going with a third option of both! New potatoes have been delicious {roasted in the oven with olive oil and fresh rosemary, dag!} and the large potatoes have been great for fat-free scalloped potatoes {with milk, butter, cheese, breadcrumbs}...did I say fat-free? I lied.

The garlic is quite amazing. The trick is to keep weeds out {weeds bad, very bad} - you can grow garlic and you can grow weeds but you can't grow both, so it's your choice. I've been nursing the garlic since late last fall and it was harvested in June. All of the June rain helped some of the garlic bulbs split right before harvest, thanks alot rain! You really don't want alot of rain before harvest as the bulbs will split and also the skins aren't as dry as you want. However, most survived and I hung them in bundles in the drafty garage to cure for at least 4 weeks. I was so surprised at how crunchy fresh garlic is, not like that faux Chinese garlic you get at the grocery store. This home grown garlic is full of flavor but really mild - I'm definitely down with planting a larger crop this fall.

Of course I've been harvesting the usual suspects as well...corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, peppers. Cantaloupe is taking its own sweet time but I have my fingers crossed that it will turn out well.

I can't believe it's already time to plan the fall garden. It will include the following cast of characters: beets, turnips {tons of turnips actually}, carrots, another crop of cucumbers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, who knows what else.

Anyway, if you haven't tried gardening {and you like vegetables}, you should give it a whirl. For the cost of a pack of seeds, roughly less than 2-bucks, you too can have your fridge overflowing with the good stuff...much less than the supermarket prices and oh so much better. I'll step down from my produce box now. Happy digging!

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Little Miss Muffet...

...knew what she was talking about when eating her curds and whey. The new love of my life is homemade ricotta. I never knew...never dreamed...never imagined the difference in homemade ricotta and that store bought stuff that doubles as spackle. Making ricotta is like a delicious science experiment that results in the creamiest, most delicious concoction imaginable. There are several methods of making ricotta as far as the milks and creams you can use. One word of caution, stay away from the ultra-pasteurized stuff, pasteurized is ok, but not ultra! Ultra...bad!

My favorite way of making ricotta (with store bought ingredients - yet another reason I regret not living on a farm)...is using a whole milk/heavy cream combo with a bit of kosher salt and an acid like white vinegar or lemon juice. The easiest and best recipe I've come across is from the Barefoot Contessa herself and you can find it here...Homemade Ricotta.

I'm telling you, this homemade delight will single-handedly transform lasagna, stuffed shells, parfait, etc. It's so much fun to make and see the curds develop right before your very eyes and there are no crazy weird chemicals or preservatives like that off the shelf stuff. I've died and gone to curd heaven. Make it...and then thank me!

P.S. How about a big shout out to the super cute vintage Pyrex dot bowl. I love you just as much as ricotta, I promise.

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Putting the Fun in Fungi

Nothing says party like fugi.  I think this is so FUN {get it?...ok, I'm making myself sick with my stupid puns}.  Anyway, Williams-Sonoma {heart them} sells these logs that are inoculated {love saying that...inoculated} with shitake mushroom spores.  So you can order this log from them for under $30, soak it in water and you can harvest these delicious mushrooms every two to three months, for two to three YEARS {yes people, YEARS}!  It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Do you think they had this in the 60's and 70's....party!  I'm just sayin...

image courtesy of Williams-Sonoma

My Sweet

What a better way to spend a cold and rainy day then going to get Hot & Now's from Krispy Kreme.  The Hot & Now light is like a shining beacon that possesses some magical force that literally makes you pull into the parking lot and run through their door knocking down anyone that gets in your way {or is it just me?}  Nah, Krispy Kreme has it going on...since 1937.

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Berry Good

So I felt like I was on my death bed the last half of last week with a nasty sinus infection but really started to feel quite a bit better yesterday. On yesterday's agenda was an unexpected assassination of wasps on my deck to which Coco was crouched inside peering out of the bottom of a window to watch the vicious scene. That was really the only excitement on our Sunday, jealous?

A silver lining to our day...what is better on a Sunday evening than having farmer's market strawberries thrown on the top of some Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream? Nothing, nothing I tell you! This dessert made all things right in the world again, at least in my world.

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In-Room Dining

To cap off, what was a very nice long Easter break, I enjoyed some in-room dining last night.

We'll start with Easter Sunday...all of my family got together as usual for a full day of watching the Master's Golf Tournament, playing ball outside {which thankfully didn't result in any injuries like normal - nope, I take that back - my sis-in-law did fall down as we were having sprinting races, brush it off, brush it off}...back to the topic at hand. We also participated in a vicious egg hunt, hey there was money hidden in some of the eggs - duh. Lastly, we filled our bellies with a dinner of good ol' southern bbq and slaw sandwiches, hushpuppies, potato salad, sweet beans {coco's recipe}, and a honey ham. All to be washed down with strawberry cake. It was so darn good!

End scene, cut to Monday...ok, so from the honey ham came what? Yep, a ham bone and what does one do with a ham bone? No, not what you are thinking. You make ham and bean soup out of it which is precisely what I did. Slaving over the stove for three hours produced the best soup I have ever made - even Chloe was lapping it up. The soup literally had 20 different kinds of dried beans in it, yeah fiber! Therefore I thought what better way to enjoy the best soup I have ever made? In room dining {see, this story has come full circle}. Is it weird to enjoy eating dinner on the comfort of your own bed? I think not.

Guess what's for dinner tonight? Beans, beans the musical fruit...

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Channeling Julia Child

Me: "Chloe, would you rather have goulash or boeuf bourguinon for dinner?"
Chloe: "Boeuf bourguinon!"
Me: "That's my girl!"

I thought I would hang out in the kitchen {and in my mind} with Julia Child yesterday while making her infamous Boeuf Bourguinon. This is only the third time, in my lifetime, that I've made her recipe since it takes several hours to make! It's not a difficult recipe, just time consuming but very well worth it. I'm always surprised at how rich and decadent and delicious it is - I must confess that the more wine I drank, the more I enjoyed the dish. I'm sure Julia had that all planned out when writing this recipe as she and Paul loved a good bottle of wine...alot! Now if I could only wrap my mind around making Lobster Thermidor {aka the lobster killer}.

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Eye Love You...

I love potatoes, cooked any and every way. Last night was a perfect night for my good old standby recipe, potato soup. It's the quickest and easiest version you'll find. Plus, I wanted to use my Brunswick Soup Bowls from Crate and Barrel just because they are so darn cute! Enjoy the recipe below and lick that bowl clean.

Potato Soup
1 lg. onion, chopped
4 tsp. cooking oil
3 Tbls. flour
2 cups milk
1 14.5 oz. can of chicken broth
8 oz. peeled potatoes, cubed (about 1.5 cups)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper
Dash of freshly ground nutmeg (this is the secret ingredient)

In a large saucepan cook onion in hot oil until tender. Sprinkle flour over onion to coat. Add milk, potatoes, chicken broth, salt, red pepper and nutmeg. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly, reduce heat and simmer covered for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or you can use an emmersion blender {I like to leave mine a bit chunkier}.

That's it - how easy is that? You can top the soup with grated cheddar, chopped/seeded tomatoes, a dollop of sour cream - basically use what ever you love. You can also add herbs to the soup while it's cooking if you like but I usually want the potato to be the entire flavor but it's equally delicious with fresh thyme or a bundle of rosemary {remove of course before eating}.

You're welcome.

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