charting the course for 2012

well here we are again at the beginning at a new year.  the only new year's resolution i ever make is to choose three books that in spite of whatever else i read during the year, i will commit to reading.  this year's choices are 'pale fire' by nabokov, 'the master and margarita' by bulgakov, and 'the windup bird chronicles' by murakami.  not quite sure why i chose 2 russian authors and a japanese one together in the same year.  

looking out in the garden these days it's hard to believe that only a few months ago it looked like a jungle.  my raised beds are barren except for a small patch of parsley that is thriving. i did manage to get my poinsetta from last year to turn red this winter (a process that involved putting it in a dark closet every  night whenever i could remember for 6 weeks. 

lately the only seeds i've been paying attention to is the birdfood that i put in the feeder.  but now that we are into january, it is time to decide what i want to plant for my garden this year.  the seed catalogs have been filling up my mailbox.  you don't realize how many varieties of vegetables are out there until you start flipping through the catalogs.  it's easy to get over ambitious when looking at all the choices.  plus when most seed packs are only about $1.25 a packet, it's easy to end up buying more than you could possibly plant.  the next few weeks i'll be charting out the course for my garden and placing my order.

hoppin john risotto

hoppin john is the traditional new years day food, at least in the south.  go figure that i didn't ever eat it when i lived there. but then i didn't really care for black-eyed peas when i was younger.  now i love them.  i can't say that i've ever really made authentic hoppin john, but i thought it would be interesting to try some kind of derivative of it. i love the combination of rice, beans, and greens so i started with those basic ingredients but chose to use arborio rice and turn it into a risotto.  my only regret is that i didn't have any bacon.  still though, it was a tasty way to start the new year.  

ingredients:
1 cup arborio rice
7-8 cups stock (i used low sodium veggie bouillon cubes)
2/3 cup dried black-eyed peas
1 big bunch of kale coarsly chopped ( i probably had about a pound)
1 large onion, diced
a couple cloves of garlic, diced
1 hot pepper, diced
1 tsp. thyme
lemon juice
parmesan cheese
bacon (for the next time i make it)

since i used dried black-eyed peas, i cooked them in a pressure cooker first, but canned or frozen ones could be used instead.  

heat the stock in a saucepan and keep just below simmering.  melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  add the arborio rice and stir for about a minute.  add a ladle full of the stock and stir into the rice.  the idea is to keep adding the stock a ladle (about 1/2 -3/4 cup) at a time and letting the rice absorb each ladle full until you add the next.  

while the rice is cooking, heat a large pan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil (or some bacon drippings, yum).  add the onion when the pan is heated. cook the onion for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic, hot pepper, and thyme cooking another minute or so.  (cooking tip:  i'm notorious for heating up oil and then getting distracted, thus forgetting when to add the onion or whatever you are sauteing.  what i do is to add a couple pieces of the chopped onion into the oil as it's heating.  when the oil is hot enough, you'll start to hear the onion sizzling, letting you know it's time to add the rest of it).  

add the chopped kale and stir well.  the pan may be overflowing with kale, but it will cook down pretty quickly.  cook the kale until tender, about 10 minutes.

meanwhile, as you are also cooking the rice, add the black eyed peas after about half way through (about 15 minutes).  continue cooking until the rice it fully cooked (about 30 minutes total cooking time).  add the kale and stir to combine.  cook for a few more minutes, adding more broth if necessary to keep it from being too dry.  finish it off with a squeeze of lemon, salt, and pepper (and crumbled bacon if you have it).  i grated a little parmesan cheese on top which was tasty.  

i also roasted some parsnips and sweet potatoes with rosemary to have on the side.

the life and death of a summer garden

over the course of my summer garden i took a series of photos to document the growth and subsequent decline of the garden.  the bed in the foreground has tomatoes and cucumbers.  the one in the background has lettuce, peppers, basil, and eggplant. below is a photo sequence of this season.  

may 1

 may 8 

 may 15

 may 22

 may 30

 jun 7

 jun 12

 jun 19

jul 11

 jul 18

 jul 30

 aug 16

 aug 21

 aug 28

 sep 4

 nov 5

nov 6

cullinary european tour

it's been awhile since my last post.  the main culprit is that i took a month long trip thru europe in september/ october.  to say the trip was much needed is an understatement.  i was fortunate enough to have a number of friends to stay with along the way, which always makes traveling more fun.  my travels took me to paris, berlin, florence, rome, and turkey (istanbul and antalya).  the food was varied and universally delicious.  as you can see from the following pictures i spent a good deal of time eating.  no sense in holding back when faced with so many delicious opportunities.  amazingly my clothes all still fit me on the way home :)

breakfast shortly after arriving in paris - pain au chocolate and cafe au lait

lunch and dessert at the wonderful 'la duree' - perfect for a rainy afternoon

temptations around every corner

a brief rest at the jardin du luxembourg

 might as well skip to the chase - this was actually our lunch at 'sans souci' - the former residence of frederick the great outside of berlin

view of the prinzessinnengarten - it is an urban garden in a vacant plot of land in the middle of berln.  we had an unbelievable four course dinner there consisting mostly of food grown in the garden.  i was so full i couldn't eat until dinner the next day.  it is a really extraordinary place - one of the highlights of my trip!  for more info go to http://prinzessinnengarten.net/about/

my first cappucino - in florence 

the best gelato in florence - 'percho no!' (why not!)

delectable foods at the market in rome 

markets in istanbul

turkish coffee - ready to read my fortune in the grounds

fresh squeezed pomegranate juice in antalya

another delicious dessert in paris to help round out the trip

winding down

the summer veggies are winding down.  by this point i usually am ready for the transition to fall. one of these years i hope to do some fall planting too.  there are lots of greens and other plants that can be planted for the fall.  but usually by this point i feel like i need a break from the garden so i just let the summer garden run its course. i'll be heading out of town soon too, so i've been spending the last week gathering up the remaining veggies and prepping them so that i can still use them in the coming months.

i first made a huge batch of pesto with my basil.  pesto freezes really easily.  amazingly i had enough of everything except the parmesan cheese to make all this pesto.  but i freeze it without the cheese so that worked out.  i think i'll have enough pesto to last until next summer's harvest.

the peppers and eggplants are still producing quite a bit.  after roasting about half a dozen peppers and then stuffing another half dozen i still had about 8 left.  peppers are easy to freeze.  i cut them into large pieces and then spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze.  once they were frozen, i put them in a plastic freezer bag.  freezing them like this keeps the pieces separate and easier to use.  

the eggplant required a little more work. after a little searching online i found out that they needed to be blanched.  i peeled and sliced them, then blanched them in water and a little lemon juice for 4 minutes.  after draining them i plunged them in an ice bath to stop the cooking.  then like the peppers, i froze them on a cookie sheet before putting them in a plastic bag.  they looked like eggplant popsicles, hmmm, not sure that seems too appetizing.  

 

hot hot hot

 

like many areas across the country this summer we've had quite a heat wave, especially the end of july and beginning of august.  while my tomatoes were languishing in the heat, my peppers were loving it.  as you can see i've got quite a crop of hot peppers.  the variety i am growing this year is called 'hungarian hot black pepper.'  they ripen to a typical red color, but before they do, they are a beautiful deep purple color.  they do have quite a kick as well.  these ones seem a little too fleshy to dry easily, but fortunately peppers freeze really well.  i just keep them in a freezer bag to use throughout the year.  

one interesting thing about the peppers is that one of the plants has peppers that are a much different shape than the others, even though they are supposed to be the same kind.  instead of jalepeno shaped, they are much smaller, about a half inch.  i've found that these ones dry easily, so i just let them dry on a ledge in my kitchen.