A Break from the Heat

Finally! The way-too-early-in-the-season heatwave has broke and Dave and I are able to enjoy a nice evening outside on our expanded patio with a fire. Dave put the gazebo cover on over the weekend. I must say, the patio looks totally awesome and inviting now - hence the reason why we're enjoying a little break outside this evening. Too bad my goofy dogs hate to be outside. The pix above are the before-and-after shots of our patio. The before is from 2007 - yuck! But look at it now! We expanded the patio last year and this year added the planters for the hops. Sweet!

Yesterday I did a little work in the garden. I planted some petunias in the garden beds that had the early Spring plantings in order to spice them up a bit. Dave and I worked to cage the Roma tomato plant with some faux bamboo poles and some twine. We'll see how that works. I also trained the pickling cucumbers up faux bamboo poles (today they have blossoms!). Knock on wood, so far so good with the cucumbers this year. I guess they just need to be in a lot of soil. I also planted the regular cukes and I have pumpkin seeds soaking so I can give those a go. I hope I can attract enough pollinators to get some cukes & Jack-o-lanterns this year. Dave has discovered the frustrations of the Japanese beetle. Now that we have hops, we have them all over the place and they are eating the hop leaves. He picks them off and smushes them. I think it's weird that they eat the hops because the leaves are fuzzy and the vines are really "grabby." The vines will grab onto your clothing and stick!

Ahhhh...the Corinthian Bells windchimes are hung...we have a slight breeze...a fire and citronella candles going...now all I need is a Tequila Sunrise or Long Island Iced Tea and I'm set!

In Memoriam: MJ and FF

I know he was a weirdo and stuff, but how odd is it that Michael Jackson is dead? No matter what you thought about him since his Thriller days, you can't deny that Thriller, and MJ himself, had an incredible impact on pop culture. I mean, how many Thriller references do you still see in these days in times, nearly 30 years - yes 30 years! - since its release? Prison inmates in the Philippines recreated the Thriller dance as a form of entertainment and recreation!! When I heard he was going to be touring I thought to myself "I'm buying tickets if he comes to St. Louis because I want to see MJ live." Man, it's really weird that he's dead. I know this is going to sound strange, but this may be one of those events I will always remember where I was when I heard (had just turned the car on for my commute home and NPR announced it at the 1/2 hr news mark). Other events I remember: Challenger disaster, announcement about Kurt Cobain's death, and 9-11.

Another sad note today - Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer. Again, another icon that I grew up with...Charlie's Angels and everyone wanting their hair feathered like Farrah's...I remember wearing giant rollers in my hair while I slept to try to straighten it enough so I could feather it. I was always so jealous of my sisters with their straight hair! :)

Sigh...

Add to all of this we are in our 6th or 7th day of near 100-degree weather with 105+ heat indices. Calgon, take me away!

The Last of the Peas and Carrots

I harvested the last of the peas and carrots today. Sad event but the good news is: I get to make another awesome Indian recipe using fresh veggies from my garden! Tonight's dinner is an angus beef burger, some potatoes and the peas & carrots. Mmmmmmm...

The peas & carrots recipe is another courtesy Madhur Jaffrey. This is from her "An Invitation to Indian Cooking" cookbook.

Carrots & Peas with Ginger and Chinese Parsley

Ingredients

A fresh piece of ginger, 2 inches by 1 inch, peeled and coarsely chopped
1.5 pounds young, slim carrots
6 tablespoons vegetable oil [Missy's note: I use canola and I used about 1/2 that amount]
1/4 teaspoon whole black mustard seeds
5 whole fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 packed cup coarsely chopped Chinese parsley (aka cilantro)
1 fresh hot green chili, washed and finely sliced [Missy's note: I substituted about 1/8 teaspoon red pepper]
1 pound fresh peas, shelled
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon salt [Missy's note: I usually withhold the salt]

Put the ginger in blender with 3 tablespoons of water and blend until smooth (about 1 minute). Peel the carrots and slice them into rounds about 1/8 inch thick. Heat the oil in a 10-12 inch skillet over medium heat. When very hot, add the mustard and fenugreek seeds. When mustard seeds begin to pop (10-20 seconds), put in the ginger paste and turmeric, keeping your face averted [Missy's note: That safety point is VERY important! The ginger paste will sizzle something fierce when you add it to that heat. I use a splatter guard, raising it the end opposite my face to add the ginger paste.] Fry for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add chopped parsley and green chili or cayenne, and cook, stirring, another 2 minutes [Missy's note: I'll add about 1/4 cup water if things seem a bit dry]. Add carrots and peas and cook 5 minutes more, stirring frequently.

Now put in the coriander, cumin, garam masala, salt and 3 tablespoons warm water. Stir for a minute, cover, lower heat, and cook slowly 30 minutes [Missy's note: I have found 15 minutes works just fine]. Stir gently every 10 minutes or so.

Serves 4-6.

Madhur recommends this: "To serve: Lift gently out of skillet and place on serving dish. Serve with hot pooris or parathas. This dish goes well with any sauced meat dish - Lamb with Onions and Mushrooms, Kheema, etc. It is also good with Shrimp with Dill and Ginger, plain Moong Dal, and Rice with Potatoes and Cumin Seed.

Well, At Least I Have Some Onions

The friendly people on the forums of Organic Gardening magazine have informed me that the large, hollow stalks on my onions means that they have bolted. :( That's part of the bad news. The other part is that I won't be able to dry & store these onions as "keepers" (the gardening term for being able to store them for months) because I didn't let the leaves dry on them in the garden. So, I have to eat them all RIGHT AWAY! My friends and family are going to l-o-v-e me! There is no way I'll get through them all in a timely manner so I've already given some away and will give more away over the next few days. I've also been told that I can either dehydrate them or I can slice or chop them up and freeze them (no blanching required - woohoo!) for use later. I haven't tried one yet. I need to get some lettuce so I can make a nice salad. :) Tonight the rest of them are drying on the hood of my car, sans leaves, with a fan blowing on them.

Oh - my Organic Gardening friends also shared with me some tips for next year: 1) buy sets from a catalog, not from a local vegetable stand (like what I've been doing); 2) plant with enough space in between to allow air flow; 3) fold the leaves over at the base of the leaf, where the leaf meets the bulb; 4) the bulb should be partially above ground; 5) wet weather is bad for onions which is why lots of sun and no/minimal mulch is a must. I probably also need to fold the leaves over earlier in the season. Everything says when they first start to droop. I know I waited too long this year.

H-O-T!!

Ugh! Summer has arrived in St. Louis! We have had over 100 degree heat indices the last 2 days. I think it's supposed to stay this way all weekend. We will be attending a wedding tomorrow so I'm going to have to go out early and give everything a good soaking. I didn't get a chance to water tonight but when I walked around the beds, nothing looked wilted and in need of water. I suspect that the good dousing we got earlier in the week means I still have enough water in the beds to make it through tonight - but I'm not going to risk making it through tomorrow! :)

I now have 2 green bean plants growing up a stake! Here I thought I would grow them up my corn stalks but the corn is a much slower grower than the green beans. For the future I will have to plant corn first and then green beans maybe 2-3 weeks later. I'm disappointed with my corn. Only 5 seeds sprouted out of 8. I'm a bit concerned they may not pollinate properly as they are a bit spread out because of the poor sprouting. All of my sunflowers are coming in nicely except some rabbit got into the garden again and ate the top off of one of them! We'll see if that one survives. I'll be surprised if it does. Needless to say, I whipped out the Bobex again tonight and sprayed around the perimeter of each bed.

I harvested the last cabbage head this evening. It's a doozy! Can't wait to cook it up! I should try a different cabbage recipe. As much as I love Madhur Jaffrey's cabbage and fennel seed recipe, they say variety is the spice of life. And, it's not like I won't be without that tasty recipe because I made it with the first head I harvested. I will put the recipe below.

I think my snow peas are done. There are definitely no more flowers and I harvested only a handful of distorted ones this evening. Still tasty but the distortion usually means the end. I'll try to get those plants pulled out of the bed before I leave for the wedding because they are smothering a perennial I had planted but thought died. I think it's a nice Bachelor's Button plant. They get a really pretty eery white formation where the flower will pop out. Very cool!

Tonight I also pulled all of the onions out of the ground. My fear is that they would rot if I left them in the ground even though the leaves are still quite green. I have not had any luck with onions (them and cucumbers will be the death of me!). The first year I got all green and some pretty flowers but no bulbs. I discovered I gave them too much nitrogen. The past 2 years I got nice bulbs but they always rotted near the neck or, when I'd leave them out to dry, they would get sunscald. This year I had several that had big, thick, hollow stalks on them so when I bent the leaves over, these broke. I don't know what that means! When I cut one down, I discovered that the onion part was growing on the inside of the stalk! So, I pulled everything out - I have some really nice bulbs! - and spread them out on the hood of my car. Haha! I have a fan blowing on them now to help dry things out and I've posted for help on the Organic Gardening forum. Hopefully someone will be able to tell me if I can dry these and store them or if I'll have to eat them right away...and, if I can dry them, how to do it properly so the neck doesn't rot before they are completely dry! I know I'll be leaving these in the garage all weekend with the fan blowing on them. I'll either have to hang them in the morning or come up with a quick drying rack.

OK, here's Madhur Jaffrey's Stir Fried Green Cabbage with Fennel Seeds. It's my favorite way to cook cabbage. The recipe comes from her Quick and Easy Indian Cooking cookbook (I highly recommend this for your cookbook collection). I love the taste of all the spices along with the sweet taste of the carmelized onions. Yum!! The comments before the ingredients list are hers. Oh! One hint about cooking Indian - lots of spices are added to the mix in quick succession. What I do is stage my spices. So, I read the recipe instructions and see which spices are being added to the mix together. Then, I pre-measure everything and put in a small bowl. That way when I need to add them, all I have to do is dump them into the mix. If you don't do that, you'll end up burning the spices.


Stir-Fried Green Cabbage with Fennel Seeds (Bhuni bandh gobi)

The cabbage and onions get nicely browned here and taste gloriously of fennel. You could easily serve this with Western-style sausages, ham, pork chops, or any kind of roast pork meat, or with roast lamb or even duck or venison. [Missy's note - I like serving this with grilled tilapia]

Ingredients

1.5 pounds green cabbage (half a large head)
1/4 cup vegetable oil [Missy's note - I usually cut this in half or less; I use canola]
3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 medium-large onion (7 ounces), peeled and cut, lengthwise, into fine half rings
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper [Missy's note - I usually omit. Even 1/8 tsp is too spicy for me]
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon store-bought garam masala [Missy's note - For the St. Louis metro area I have only found this at Dierberg's (expensive!) or at Indian food specialty shops (cheap!). I buy all of my spices at Indian specialty shops because the prices are much more reasonable.]

Remove the course outer leaves of the cabbage. If you have a cabbage half, cut it in half again, lengthwise, and then core the sections. Now cut each section, lengthwise, into very fine, long shreds. A bread knife is ideal for this. (You could also use a food processor.)

Put the oil in a wide, preferably nonstick pan, and set over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, put in the cumin, fennel, and sesame seeds. As soon as the seeds begin to pop, put in the onion. Stir and fry for 3 to 4 minutes or until the onion has browned a bit. Put in the cabbage. Stir and fry for about 6 minutes or until the cabbage too has browned somewhat. Now put in the salt and cayenne. Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring now and then, for another 7 to 8 minutes or until the onions appear carmelized and soft. Add the lemon juice and garam masala. Stir to mix. Serves 4.

Building an Ark

By the time I got home this evening around 6:30pm (yes, too many long days at work!) the rain gauge had recorded 3.25". Downtown a record rainfall of 1.86" was set today. They are talking about more thunderstorms and heavy rains tonight. Many rivers and streams are flooding with flash floods likely this evening. Sigh...I looked at the yard and some of the pea gravel had been washed down the yard with large ruts formed in the soil. A LOT of soil got moved to the lower right portion of the yard next to the storm drain. Looks like I'll be moving dirt this weekend!

Lazy Days

Oh I have been soooo lazy with the garden lately! It rained enough this past week that I didn't need to go out and do any watering. That was kinda nice. I have had 2 nice snow pea harvests. Both I lightly sauteed with a little olive oil some garlic and then a couple of twists of sea salt and ground peppers. Mmmmm....We took 1 of the harvests to Dave's parents' house last night for dinner. Had that with some fresh fried fish that his father caught. Nothing like living off the land! :) The peas are also developing more quickly now. I think I have enough, along with the 4 carrots that I pulled out of the ground today, to make some fresh carrots and peas for dinner this week as a small side. But first we must eat the leftover Indian cabbage I made (did I tell you about that? If not let me know. It was sooo delicious. I'll have to post the recipe).

Other than a little harvesting of peas and snow peas I haven't done much else. Which is a shame because my tomato plants are HUGE and in need of the 2nd tier of their cages. It's going to be harder to get those on now. I might still have enough daylight to get them done tonight. I did pull the broccoli plant out of the garden. Its flowers were spent - not very good to look at any longer. I need to fill in the empty spots with some flowers. I'm thinking begonias and petunias to brighten everything up!

Oh - before I go. Dave confirmed a sighting of a rabbit in my garden with the corn and green bean sprouts. I knew it!! Grrrrrr...wascally wabbits! So, I whipped the Bob-Ex out and sprayed around the base of each raised bed. The stuff is stinky but it's supposed to smell like bobcat pee and keep the bunnies away. So far it seems to be working. :)

What is Eating My Corn?

I got home from work today to find many of the plants in dire need of water. While we had a nice, cool day yesterday, today was an 80-something degree, hot sun "scorcher" for the plants. The Black-Eyed Susans in the pot were the saddest looking with their leaves all curled up and flower stalks drooped over. Hopefully she'll perk up by the time the sun goes down.

I'm disappointed by the sprouting performance of the corn, sunflower and green bean seeds I bought. Granted, the green bean seeds are from last year but I never opened the packet and I've had seeds 3 seasons old sprout. But the corn and sunflowers are new this year. Maybe 1/2 sprouted. Even more maddening is the mystery of what is eating my corn plants! At least 3 have been chewed off to the top of the straw. Can't be cutworms because the plant is gone. I fear that my concern over the height of the last planter has turned out to be valid. One corner of the planter is completely buried in order to bring everything level. That means that the planter in that spot is only 18" off the ground. Methinks I have a bunny getting in there are eating my corn sprouts.

Damn you you wascally wabbits!! You may be all cute and furry and innocent looking but I know that each and every one of you harbors an evil appetite for the things I love best. Like the mums I planted in back. How come you leave them alone in the front yard but you've eaten them all in the backyard? Curse you all! I hope that owl is still hunting around here.

Time to break out the Bob-ex.

Curried Cauliflower & Peas

Today I harvested the cauliflower. The heads were nice except that my lazy gardening habits showed up in the form of deformed side shoots and lots of brown on the one head either from sun scorch or maybe too much moisture. See, to keep your cauliflower heads white you need to tie the leaves from the plant around the head. However, apparently you need to LOOSEN the twine periodically to allow for growth and air circulation (imagine that!). It was still a decent harvest just not as nice as last year - and not as much. Next year I resolve to do better by my cauliflower!

I used my cauliflower to make some yummy curried cauliflower. This recipe is courtesy of a former co-worker, Donna Thouvenin. Donna and I were talking about our love of Indian food one day and she mentioned how she likes to make this recipe because it is quick and easy. Enjoy!

Curried Cauliflower
Serves 4-6
20 minutes

2 Tablespoon oil
1 medium head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds cut into 3/4 inch pieces)
2 medium shallots, minced
1 medium clove garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar (I often omit since I usually don't have brown sugar on hand)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk (I get the "lite")
1 Tablespoon fresh basil or cilantro, minced
Salt
Black pepper

Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium high heat until almost smoking. Add cauliflower and saute until golden brown, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in shallots, garlic and curry. Cook until fragrant about 30 seconds. Stir in brown sugar, peas and coconut milk. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until tender about 2-4 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in basil or cilantro and season with salt and pepper.

I usually use cilantro as I'm a cilantro freak. Can't get enough of that stuff! But I have fresh basil growing in my garden so next time I will have to try that (I forgot for tonight's batch - even forgetting the cilantro!!). I have also made this with frozen cauliflower. Takes longer to cook but still good.

Tonight's batch wasn't as good as I've made in the past. The coconut milk didn't thicken like I expected. And I forgot the cilantro. Still yummy but I've made better. Anyway, enjoy the recipe! I think it's super tasty...and it will make your house smell so yummy (when done with dinner, walk outside and then walk back in - tasty!).

Homegrown Lettuce + Ginger Salad Dressing = YUM!

On Saturday I was able to make a salad out of all 3 kinds of lettuce in my garden - Romaine, Red Leaf and Bibb. This salad was large enough to feed 13 people at a birthday party with PLENTY of harvest remaining to share. I have to say the salad turned out especially tasty because I had Jong's homemade ginger salad dressing to add to the flavor. Jong is the sushi chef at Little Tokyo, our favorite sushi bar that just reopened after a too long hiatus. I love ginger dressing in the summertime because it is so light and refreshing and Jong's is especially tasty. I bought a large container from him on Friday night and have been using it on salad and as a marinade for tonight's salmon. Yum! I'll have to sweet talk him into sharing his recipe so I can make my own.

I gave a head of Romaine to my mom and dad for their dinner table. Mom and Dad love Romaine so they were thrilled. Too bad the first salad Mom made with it Dad dropped it on the floor. Oy! I'm able to share some of the lettuce harvest with our friends Jim and Sarah and tomorrow I take in a salad for my boss. Yeah...I know...sucking up to the boss. Hey, he's on business travel for the next 12 days. I know what it's like to eat out at restaurants for that long. It is not fun. He said he would relish the fresh greenery.

Anyway, all of the lettuce is now harvested, washed and in the fridge. Only a few days worth left and then we'll be out for the season. :( Yesterday I noticed I have corn, sunflower and green bean sprouts. Yippee!! I don't have as many as I planted, not even 1/2 of each crop, so I hope more pop up soon. I've lost more cucumber plants waiting to be planted. I don't know why I'm doomed to not have cukes!

Today was the first scorcher we've had for the season. Hate to see it this early but I'm sure there are more around the corner. It was 91 degrees today and the sun was I-N-T-E-N-S-E. Lugged the watering can around quite a bit tonight. I'll be doing more of the same tomorrow as the weather is forecast to repeat itself. Sounds like we'll get a breather on Wednesday with cooler temps and maybe some rain.