Last of the Garden Bounty

It's been quite a year for produce from the garden. I grew potatoes for the first time and was successful with both heirloom Bodega Red and with regular small white potatoes. There were plenty of tomatoes and it was a pretty good year for zucchini, too. Lots of cucumbers were much appreciated for salads and we even had a few golden beets. 

The last thing to be harvested is the broccoli I planted in the late summer. This is another new crop for me and we had the first head last night. It was delicious! So much better than what we get in the store. I still have some to eat tonight and some still in the garden, but they are all ready to harvest at the same time. Next year I'll try to space them out a bit more. The one crop that didn't work was the sugar snap peas that I planted with the broccoli. The deer decided that I planted the peas for them, so they ate all of the small plants before any flowers even could bloom. Next year I'll be sure to protect them with a fence of something.

We like our broccoli cut into florets and steamed briefly until bright green and just tender. Didn't get a photo of that, but we enjoyed them. There are also numerous recipes using broccoli. My favorite is a quiche like this Chicken and Broccoli one. There is also a recipe for a great salad where broccoli is the star HERE. It's similar to a deli version that I quite enjoy. 

Yay for broccoli!

The Garden This Year

 Much as I love fresh from the vine ripe tomatoes and lots of glorious squash, we are in a severe drought here in No. CA and so my veg garden this year is tiny...some beans (which the deer are snacking on, so hard to say if I'll ever get any actual beans to eat), two tomatoes and two planters with zucchini...dark green and yellow. That's it.

I do have some plants that will need water like my rose bushes and perennials, but I'm helping with that by keeping a small bucket by each of my sinks and the shower to catch the water that runs as the wash water heats up. They are small enough that I can easily tote them up and down stairs as needed. I still need a bit of additional watering, but not much.

The berries have started coming into ripeness by the road as you can see from the top photo. These are the berries that come in first and I was planning on turning them, plus some local strawberries and a few non-local blueberries into some pies to take to a birthday party on Sunday, but came down with the stomach flu instead. Will probably bake a pie tomorrow or Wednesday to use up the berries...I'll post a photo when I do, and a recipe. In the meantime, here are a few photos from the garden.

The walnut tree has great looking immature nuts this year.

One of the tomato plants has its first flower.

Finally getting some morning glories, too.

Salmon in South Bay

During my recent visit to the wonderful beach communities south of LAX, I was treated to a lovely salmon dinner by my talented daughter. This might seem like an unremarkable thing to you, but Katherine has rarely been interested in the kitchen arts. She did want to learn to make macarons, which we did together at a Sur la Table class a few years ago.

Baking sweets was something she enjoyed now and then as she grew up, but mostly she was charmed to eat delicious things that others prepared and cooked.

So what has changed? Many things, but the one that is the current motivator is Penzeys.

Never heard of Penzeys? They are purveyors of spices...and these are high quality spices. They have all the usual single spice selections, but they also have their own blends and that has been part of the fun. One that Sweetie also loves to use is the Bicentennial Rub which is "Hand-mixed from: coarse flake salt, Tellicherry black pepper, sugar, turmeric, minced orange peel and coriander."  Penzeys says, "The rich flavor and golden color make this our favorite blend for turkey, duck, goose and pork roast. Perfect for the grill, sprinkle heavily on rotisserie-style chicken or pork roast, also on thick-cut pork chops and beef short ribs. The larger chunks of spices in our Bicentennial Rub also make it perfect for any large cut that takes an hour or longer to cook, and the beautiful golden color can't be beat. Try on roast leg of lamb, baked or roasted whole stuffed chicken, Yankee pot roast and thick-cut pork or veal chops."

This may seem like an odd combination of ingredients, but it really is a great flavor combo for grilled items like chicken and pork, and for the salmon bake that we enjoyed at Katherine's home. Their black pepper is wonderful all by itself and will be an eye opener if you just use grocery store pepper.

Of course I've been home for a handful of days and spent a good amount of time each day in the garden. 

The larkspur, red poppies, golden California poppies, blue love-in-a-mist, red and yellow roses, 

orange and gold nasturtiums, and pink Sweet William flowers really are a pleasure to look at. Soon there will be zucchini, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes, plus lots of morning glories. Hard to tell if any of the sweet peas will bloom...they got a late start and some were eaten by the snails and small lizards. The joys of country gardening.

And now for the perfect and simple salmon recipe:

Baked Salmon
for two

Two center cut salmon filets
Bicentennial Rub or similar spice mixture

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Lay out a large square of heavy duty aluminum foil. Rinse the salmon and place on the foil, slightly apart. Sprinkle with a generous amount of the spice rub and use your clean fingers to lightly rub the spice mixture on all sides of the filets.

Fold in the foil, first one side then the two opposing sides, then the final side, sealing the foil. Cut a small slit in the top to allow a little steam to escape.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes. Turn the packets around 180 degrees, then bake for another 12 minutes.

Unwrap the packets, being careful because they are hot. Fish should flake lightly. Place one filet on each plate. Serve at once. We served ours with corn and black bean salad and some green salad. 

A Garden Update

Harvest time has arrived. We've been getting about 3-4 good sized zucchini every day all summer. That's still going on, but now the grape (teardrop?) tomatoes have really gotten ripe...and there are lots of them...

and the Gravenstein apples are very ripe, too.

Getting nice cucumbers every few days and the second production of green beans is starting to come in, too. One lonely golf ball sized tomato (maybe a black krim...not sure) has ripened, but more are coming.

There is lots of Swiss chard, although not many takers. The basil continues to produce by the front steps.

 At last count we have 22 pumpkins of various sizes turning from green to orange.

The pears and plums were early and sparse this year and are done. Soon there will be walnuts, too. We feel blessed.

Of course I always plant flowers for their loveliness. There is a nice pot of zinnias by the front porch,

along with pots of magenta cosmos, yellow verbena, blue lobelia, orange snapdragons, red poppies (flower at top of post), golden California poppies and more.

The sweet peas astound me as they continue to bloom despite heat spells and the occasional neglect when I forget to water them. As you can probably see, I've also not been good at weeding this year and I usually try to avoid using pesticides, so there are signs of that, too.

 The morning glories keep coming

and so do the roses. I only have four rose shrubs now, which is enough really. The white climber, which is between blooms, the red single,

the aromatic Scentimental, and the yellow floribunda, also between blooms.

One daylily plant is still blooming, too. I planted a pot to sit on the tree stump by the upper entry into our driveway. It has shade tolerant red and white flowers and they are a nice greeting.

I used some of the same plants for a planter on the steps up to the front door, plus, one step up, another planter with a blue convulvus, a member of the morning glory tribe. I love the intense blue color!

Each day is a revelation and an opportunity to appreciate beauty. More recipes soon, I promise.

Garden At The Moment

I confess, I have not been spending much time being creative in the kitchen. I have made the May bread for the Bread Baking Babes, but that won't be posted until May 16th. There has been the usual cooking for dinners for the two of us, but that is almost always something easy, tried, and true...and already posted on this blog.

The reason for less time in the kitchen has been that I've been spending more time in the garden. When the usual time (in this area) for weeding and garden prep came around in February and March I wasn't feeling well and had no energy.

Fortunately for me Mother Nature decided to ignore the calendar and give us rain in April quite a few times. That loosened up the soil enough for me to do April weeding and some planting, too. Sweetie dug some holes for putting gopher baskets and plants into the ground..a rose bush, a Meyer lemon bush and a daphne bush.

Those pesky gophers are not to be trusted, so almost anything that goes into the ground has to be encased in a wire basket to discourage the gophers from munching on the roots or even the whole plant. I lost 10 rose bushes the first year we lived here since I didn't know better and planted the roses right in the ground. I think those creatures are still showing up every year hoping I'll be that foolish again!

With May underway the containers that keep the plants happy and out of the ground are being filled with potting soil and I've gotten a few seedlings planted and a number of seeds, too. Rain is expected sometime during the next three days, so everything will get a welcome soaking.

Last, but not least, I've hauled quite a few bags worth of mulch to spread and keep weeds at bay. Since my strength is still not full force, I usually scoop about a third of the bag into a smaller container, spread that, scoop the next third, spread that, then haul the bag itself to be tipped and spread. It takes longer, but works just as well as trying to tip the whole bag out all at once.

Most years I plant a lot of tomato and squash seeds into little cells in February and start them in our sunspace indoors. Now that I have to restrict my consumption of tomatoes, that seemed like a lot of work for no reason, so I only did some squash plants that way

and purchased two tomato seedlings so that Sweetie would have tomatoes for his salads. These are all planted and doing well. Next I'm going to address the plants (and weeds) closer to the house. Don't expect too many posts, OK? The garden siren song is calling again.

Ways with Chard

The chard I planted earlier in the spring is already producing, so I've made a couple of dishes that benefit from chard's wonderful green, slightly bitter taste. Both use a variety of other veggies, too.

The soup has an Asian flair to it with the use of green onions, soy sauce, ginger and toasted sesame oil. I bought ready-made soba noodles and a slice of already roasted turkey to speed up the preparations. This soup is so colorful and perfect for spring when the evenings are still sometimes chilly.

The quiche is a variation of a crust less one I did about a year ago. It's not much to look at but Sweetie, my meat and potatoes guy, took two helpings.The first little summer squash of the season went into the soup but by the time I was making the veggie pie I had both dark green and yellow zucchini, so they both went into the mix along with the chard, red pepper, garlic, yellow onion, white corn, and mushrooms. Seasonings here included thyme, nutmeg (because it goes so well with mushrooms), dried orange peel to brighten the flavors a bit, and paprika. With and egg-rich custard batter and Parmesan cheese on top it's hard to beat this quiche for a meat-less meal. Guess I'll need to keep going to Cool Fitness to work off some of the calories. I've just reached my one year anniversary of going there and am really glad that I finally have an exercise plan I can live with and, mostly, enjoy.

The garden continues to delight me. I have three colors of California poppies blooming, yellow and white marguerites, blue love-in-a-mist (nigella) in three shades, some sweet wild flowers that I don't know the name of, roses and more roses, johnny-jump-ups, lavendar and geraniums. The veggie plants and herbs are thriving, too. Gardens take some time, but I think it's well worth the trouble and work. When I have fresh from the garden tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, squash and more later in the year I'll have forgotten all the work it took to make it happen. For now, more chard is coming.

Asian Soup with Soba Noodles and Chard
1 tablespoon olive or grapeseed oil
1 green onion, thinly sliced, both white and green parts
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup diced red pepper
1/3 cup chopped mushrooms
1 small zucchini, sliced or julienned
1 speak asparagus, washed and cut on diagonal
1 cup fresh chard, washed and sliced in strips about 1/2 inch wide
1 can chicken broth (1 3/4 cups) or same amount of fresh chicken stock
(to make this vegetarian or vegan, use veggie stock and leave out the turkey)
1/2 cup water
6 oz. soba noodles
3 oz. roasted turkey, thinly sliced into julienne
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon finely chopped cilantro

In a large saucepan, heat the oil and sautee' the green onions for 3 minutes, then add the garlic, red pepper and mushrooms and sautee', stirring often, for 2 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook another 2 minutes, add the asparagus and chard and stir to combine it with the other veggies and to wilt it, about 2 minutes.

Add the chicken broth, water, noodles, turkey, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil to the pot, stir and heat through. Ladle into bowls to serve and garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve at once. Serves 2-3.

Chard Veggie Quiche

1 recipe pie crust for one crust - I use Pillsbury ReadyCrust
1 tablespoon olive or grapeseed oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (a mix of colors if possible)
1 bunch fresh chard, washed and tough stems removed, then sliced into 1/2 inch slices
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup corn kernels (fresh or frozen)
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme OR 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced
1 cup cooked AND COOLED brown rice (you can use cooked white but you lose that wonderful nutty flavor) - I used brown basmati rice
1 3/4 cups milk
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup sour cream or yogurt
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Line a 10 inch pie plate with the pie pastry, rolled so that there is some overlapping the sides of the pan. Fold under the edges and crimp. Set aside.

In a skillet, over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil, then add the chopped onions and bell peppers and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often, to lightly brown the vegetables. Turn down the heat if they start to blacken. To the browned onions and peppers, add the chard and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the mixture is heated through. Stir in the corn, nutmeg and thyme. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the cooled rice and the cooled veggie mixture. Spread in the prepared pie plate. Set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk together the milk, eggs, sour cream or yogurt, salt and pepper to taste. Pour this milk mixture over the veggie-rice mixture in the pie plate. Sprinkle paprika and Parmesan cheese over the top.

When oven is at 350 degrees F, bake the pie for about 35 - 45 minutes, or until top is lightly browned and the middle is almost set. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes on a cooling rack. Serve warm or cooled. Serves 8-10.