Garden Update and Potato Ham Casserole

Nights are finally staying above 50 degrees and the days are warmer, too. That means that I can finally put the seedlings in the ground and expect that they will begin growing soon. The rest of the seedlings, which I grew from seed in my sunspace, are being claimed by neighbors for their gardens, just as I had hoped would happen.

It's not too late to plant seeds yourself. With farmers plowing under their crops because of closed restaurants across the land, come the fall, if not sooner, home grown food will be important to have. You can even put planters on your balcony if you live in an apartment that has one. One year when I lived in a one-bedroom apartment I put a milk crate on the outside stairs to the roof which hardly anyone used. I put a plastic garbage bag inside, used twist ties to secure the top edge and poked a few drainage holes in the bottom, then put in potting soil and grew carrots and a cherry tomato plant. Cherry tomatoes and lettuce are both easy to grow. A friend of mine grew her cherry tomato just outside her window on a wide ledge. Herbs can be grown on an inside window sill...get the idea?

This year I was planning on traveling during the summer and early fall so I was only going to plant one tomato plant and one zucchini and some beans, all where the drip irrigation system would keep them watered while I was gone. Now that I'm going to be staying home I decided to plant a lot more plants, with multiple tomatoes, four kinds of squash, two summer and two winter, cucumbers, three kinds of beans and sunflowers, too. Who knows, I may poke some pumpkin seeds in the ground, too, and see what happens. We don't really get enough heat for peppers or I would grow them, too.

What kinds of veggies do you plan on growing this year? Any?

Life isn't all veggies, sometimes it's flowers and tea. Sweetie and I are celebrating our 40th anniversary today. Time has certainly flown and life has, by and large, been good to us. Here is a photo of the iris blooming right now, surrounding my teacup garden art which is sort of an homage to my Mom and her love of gardens and tea. The photo below is of a similar tea cup stake which I made for a friend for her birthday. She loves to garden, and she says the birds are eating bird seed out of the cup.

Easter this year included a ham. A lot of the leftovers went into the freezer and I made some sandwiches, but I did have an idea one day last week (or was it the week before...it all runs together these days) for using some leftovers for dinner. I have a recipe I enjoy which uses potatoes and onions and chicken broth to make a casserole. I decided to try it with some diced ham added. It was a hit. A nice green salad on the side was all we needed to make this a delicious meal. One of the nice things about this casserole is that it doesn't use milk or cream, so it has a nice clean profile. If you can use a knife to make even, thin potato slices, that makes for easy cleanup, but if not, break out the slicer on the mandolin or food processor since you'll need a lot of slices.

The casserole tastes wonderful the day it's made, but like many things made with onions, it's even better reheated the next day. I used a cast iron skillet, but you can bake it in a shallow casserole dish, too.

Potato Ham Casserole with Broth

3 all-purpose potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled ( I used Idahos)
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons finely minced onion (I used red onion since I was out of yellow and about twice this amount...I love onions)
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste
nutmeg, freshly grated if possible
1/2 cup diced cooked ham - you can use a larger quantity if desired, up to 1 cup
1 cup beef broth or chicken broth (I used a bit more -see note below -and used chicken broth)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Peel potatoes and slice them 1/8-inch thick. (Rinse in cold water, then drain and pat dry with paper towels - this part I skipped and it came out fine, but you can do it if you like).

Combine the butter, onion and garlic. Use on third of the mixture to grease a shallow 1 quart baking dish or cast iron skillet. (A shallow dish is important so that you get plenty of browned topping!)

Make a single layer of potatoes over the initial butter mixture, seasoned it with salt, pepper and nutmeg and sprinkled on about 1/4 of the diced ham, then put in a second single layer and treated it as I did the first layer, repeated that process until there were no more potatoes to layer...about 4 layers. I also mixed 1/4 cup non-dairy ricotta with 1 egg and put dollops between layers. You can also shred a cheese that melts and do the same.

Pour the broth over all and dot with the remaining butter mixture. Note: I made sure that the broth comes up almost to the top of the layered potatoes so that they will cook evenly throughout...you may need to use more broth than the recipe calls for but it is worth it and the broth cooks into the potatoes and cooks off so the potatoes keep their shape and are not soggy, so it's OK, the potatoes become really tender.Bake for 1 1/4 hours, or until the potatoes are tender throughout and golden brown on top. Serves 4 - 6.

Seeds

The time has come for seed catalogs. They arrive in the mail and are so enticing. The morning glory above is blooming this morning, surrounded by seedheads that might germinate for a future set of blooms. It encourages me to think beyond the here and now, into the misty future.

I also received some sweet pea seeds that I ordered last spring. There is a one day event in Sebastopol every May where you can go see the sweet peas in bloom and order seeds for planting yourself. In our area the best time to plant is now (as long as I am watchful and keep the snails and slugs away from the seedlings). Our winters are usually mild enough that the seedlings become strong by January or February and we get early, beautiful, sweet smelling flowers.

The morning glories have already self-seeded by the hundreds. Some will surely live to brighten a spring morning!

Planting seeds is foolhardy in a way because if conditions are not right, they don't sprout or they don't thrive. They can get eaten by various bugs and other predators before they can grow or bloom. The heat can wither them if too hot in the early spring...and all it takes is one day. With veggies there are all kinds of predators to contend with.

Still, I plant them, year after year. To me it is a given that I will plant seeds and have a garden. It is part of my ways of connecting with Mother Earth. It is hopeful. It is a recognition of the ephemeral nature of things and that life has cycles, which are all good in their own ways. A time to plant, a time to tend the plants, a time to harvest, a time to die...and then to plant again.

It is also the nature of plants here in Northern California to be thrown by shifts in temperatures. We had lots of rain in October, a bit earlier than usual. Now it is sunny and warmer than usual. Some plants might experience this as the coming of spring. We'll just have to see.

Happy Sunday!

Dirty Blondes

A good cookie recipe can often be tweaked to yield a different but equally delicious one. So far I've taken Big Blondes (the cookie), changed a few things to get Dumpy Blondes, and now changed some other things to get Dirty Blondes.

I keep thinking that if I figure out a few more variations I can sell them and sketch some blondes to go on the labels...a busty blond for the first, a hefty short blond for the second and maybe a sexy blond with bleached hair and dark roots for this one. Even without compelling labels these should sell...they are packed with all sorts of mix-ins and can become addictive if you're not careful.

These are named Dirty Blondes because of the addition of espresso powder which give them dark flecks here and there, plus a lovely coffee flavor that goes so well with the two kinds of chocolate.

These mix together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon...no mixer needed. You do have to dirty a pot melting the butter and brown sugar together but otherwise its and easy clean up recipe. Since these are on the nutty and super sweet side be sure to make the full batch if there will be kids around when they come out of the oven!

Since I made these last night and only Sweetie and I were around I still have almost the whole recipe's worth in the fridge. Now I get to find out if they freeze well.

In case you've been keeping up with the seedling project, today was a big day. Four types of tomatoes made the jump from tiny cell packs to much larger peat pots so now they will be able to grow a big root system as we wait for warmer nights and soil. I also transplanted some rainbow chard seedlings to peat pots.


Tomorrow I hope to transplant golden chard seedlings and two or three more varieties of tomato to the larger peat pots. The sunspace is getting filled with dozens and dozens of plants. I'm hoping that by this time next week we will start getting warmer weather so that I can put them out during the day to harden off.


The zucchini seedlings have gotten so big that I may have to plant them out even if the weather is still cool. They are hardier than the tomatoes so it will be OK.


Dirty Blondes
A variation of a recipe by Jill O’Connor in Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder

MIX-IN INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups mixed nuts – I used 1/2 cup of pecans plus two cups of a mixture that included salted peanuts, and walnut pieces
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
2 tablespoons espresso powder
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Use cooking spray to lightly coat a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

Melt the butter and sugars together in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter and sugars are blended and completely melted and starting to bubble gently. Remove the pan from heat and let the mixture cool slightly.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and salt. Slowly whisk the cooled butter and sugar mixture into the eggs just until combined. Whisk in the flour and baking powder to form a loose batter. (Make sure the batter is cool before stirring in the remaining ingredients, otherwise the chocolate will start to melt before the bars are baked.)

Stir the nuts, coconut, espresso powder, and white and dark chocolate chips into the cooled batter. (I mixed all of the "mix-in" ingredients together in a very large measuring cup before adding to the batter. That way I knew that there wouldn’t be a clump of nuts here and a clump of white chocolate there, but rather a nice mix of all the goodies.) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake until the top is shiny and slightly crackled and feels firm to the touch, 30 – 35 minutes. A wooden skewer inserting into the batter should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Let cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then cut into bars and serve.

Makes 15 large or 30 small bars.