Tag Archives: gardening

It’s Ratatouille Time!

Posted on August 22, 2013 by AnnieRie

Sung to the tune of “It’s Howdy Doody Time!”. This week, the 14th one of our Sandy Spring CSA, we got the makings for some serious ratatouille.

The List:
2 pieces Green Zucchini – Windy Hollow Organics
1 bag Green Beans – Freedom Acres Farm
1 pint Sungold Cherry Tomatoes – Liberty Acres
1 bag Lemon Cucumbers – De Glae Organic Farm
1 bag Red Roma Tomatoes – Healthy Harvest Organics
1 bag Mixed Heirloom Hot Peppers – Outback Farm
1 bag Japanese Eggplants – Maple Lawn Organics
1 bag loose Orange Carrots – Red Fox Organics
1 container Cremini Mushrooms – Mother Earth Organics
1 bag Garlic – Friends Road Organics
1 bag Purple Viking Potatoes – Bellview Organics
2 pieces Delicata Squash – Green Valley Organics

Yes, those are baby bellas in the back. Mother Earth is a member of our cooperative of farms. Nice that some of the best mushrooms come from the same area as our farmers for the CSA. As for those lemon cucumbers, I need to find some interesting recipes for them. We have gotten them in the past. I never got very creative with them.

I found a recipe that uses pesto, cucumbers, and ends up with shaved Parmesan and freshly ground pepper. I think that will work.

As for the ratatouille. Here is last year’s masterpiece, my ratatouille pie made using leftover ratatouille and with a recipe from Diary of a Locavore.

As for making ratatouille, my list of ingredients.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups small diced onion, I use sweet white
1 teaspoon grated garlic
2 cups medium diced eggplant, skin on
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 cups diced green, red, yellow, orange (whatever you have) bell peppers
1 1/2 cup diced zucchini squash
2 cups peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes, preferably all colors
1 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Make it in a cast iron pan if you can. A deep one. Put the veggies in, using the order above. That is, onion and garlic to soften, then the eggplant, then the peppers, then the squash and tomatoes. Add the basil at the very end.

I let it cook low and slow until all the flavors meld.

I will post pictures of this year’s batch, over the weekend when I make it.

As for my cooking of CSA foods, here is today’s goodie. Golumpki. Made with a combination of CSA veggies, my tomatoes, and a cabbage from Catoctin Mountain Orchards market. The sauce base was from my last container in the freezer from last year. Added some Orchard Breeze sausage to it. Not bad, but I wasn’t that happy with the final stuffing. I need to work on this recipe.

Now, I need to figure out what to do with those heirloom hot peppers, and the delicata squash.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Gardening, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

You Say Frittata …

Posted on August 21, 2013 by AnnieRie

… I say crustless quiche. Although technically they are a bit different in composition and preparation.

One of the staples in this house, particularly when there are lots of eggs, is the frittata. An Italian, or Spanish originating one dish meal. Most of the ingredients are the same, just the proportions differ.

Whenever someone asks me how I deal with the large amount of veggies left from the CSA, this is my go to preparation. The picture above is the finished version that I slid out onto a pan to cut. I make my frittata in an oven proof frying pan, with a non stick surface. Not good to cut on.

Tonight we had a bloggers party. I didn’t want large amounts of fried foods, so around 3 this afternoon we had a late lunch of leftover frittata. Left over from Monday night dinner.

Monday I wanted something easy as I was still processing tomatoes from the garden and the CSA. This meal, definitely in the easy category.

Find some greens. Any greens. I used arugula and chard from my garden. Find some onion and garlic. I used scallions, and some of those perfectly roasted garlic cloves I made last week.

Pour some oil in the pan. Add the onion and garlic. Chopped up first. Once they soften, add the greens. Let them wilt. In the meantime whisk 4-6 eggs in a dish. Depends on how many you are feeding. I used 6 for this recipe. Add a splash of milk. Any kind of grated cheese. I used pecorino romano. Italian herbs. Salt. Pepper. Wing it.

Microwave one yellow or white potato until it is slightly soft. Slice it. Pull out some tomatoes (like maybe some sun dried). I used some of my tomatoes that I had oven roasted, but you can substitute sun dried. Like the ones from a salad bar.

Here is the picture before I added the potato, mozzarella, and meat.

If you want to add meat, crumble it and add it. I put a pound of pork sausage in the oven earlier Monday. I wanted some of it for this, and saved half of it for stuffed cabbage later this week. A simple way to multitask. Either bacon or pork, in the oven, crumbled after it is done cooking. Use it for multiple meals. Don’t put the heavy stuff, the meat and potatoes, on the frittata until it starts to set. Just before moving to the oven, add some soft mozzarella.

Put it all in a 400 degree oven for about ten minutes. The bottom will have set on the stove and the top in the oven.

We get two meals out of a frittata. Usually a dinner and a lunch. This is such an easy way to use up greens and tomatoes from the CSA, you really need to make it a regular meal at your house.

Now, I just have to decide what to do with the Thumbalina carrots, the only thing not touched from last week’s CSA. We get more stuff tomorrow, and I am surprised. There is nothing left but the carrots and a few potatoes. Oh, there is half a watermelon, too. But, we are plowing through that on a daily basis.

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The Bug Man Cometh …

Posted on August 18, 2013 by AnnieRie

… and he brought his wife. And, they talked about butterflies, pollinators and so much more. At the Howard County Conservancy last Saturday, we were treated to a “twofer”. Dr. Mike Raupp, and his wife Dr. Paula Shrewsbury, spent a few hours talking to the crowd gathered around them in the picnic area.

Looking at bugs. Talking about bees. Going on a hike through the gardens, looking for pollinators, and identifying butterflies, moths, insects and bees.

Fun for all ages. Mike has this ability to connect with all ages, from the youngest enthusiasts, to the master gardeners, and master naturalists there to learn even more than they might have known about insects.

I always learn something new from his talks. And, from his wife’s, too. This time I learned about solitary bees. And, how to attract them to make a home in our yards and pollinate our vegetables and fruit. Like making bee hotels.

The last part of the program was a hike out into the meadows to see what they could find there, amongst the grasses and the milkweed.

Getting back into the swing of things, most of us volunteers are preparing to take the refresher training, for the fall field trips at the Conservancy. I see there will be new activities for the school children and we will be learning how to present them.

One of my favorite parts of my volunteer “job”. Learning new things, and then seeing them through the eyes of the children. The training schedule is here, for those who want to join our group of volunteer hike leaders. And then, just like me …

… you will then know the name of this plant, and the butterfly. Answer: Joe Pye Weed. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

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Preservation Hall

Posted on August 16, 2013 by AnnieRie

The new name for my kitchen. I spent most of today preserving fruit. Yes, tomatoes count as a fruit. As do the blackberries and the peaches.

First, some oven dried tomatoes.

I got a pint container in the freezer out of this batch. My orange tomatoes, some Amish paste, and the CSA romas, all slow cooked at 200 degrees for two hours in the oven. They had scallions and shallots, salt, pepper, sugar and oregano on them, then drizzled in olive oil. Sometime this winter, the pasta I make with this mix will be a breath of summer in a pan.

Blackberries. Boiled down with some super fine sugar, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of pepper.

Then I ran them through a very fine sieve and made two trays. One the simple syrup for dressings, and the other, the blackberry ice cubes for sangria.

When you cook blackberries low and slow for a long time, the seeds almost disintegrate, so I don’t mind putting them in the freezer and using them. Some people do throw them away, but I like that texture for a few applications.

Now, for those peaches. I did about half of them today. The rest will become peach puree tomorrow. Except for a few we will keep to eat.

I quickly blanch them in simmering water. Sixty seconds or so. Then, peel them.

The nicest ones I freeze as half peaches. The rest get sliced. I got six bags full today.

All in all, a very productive day. Besides the preserving, I made red pepper hummus and potato/green bean salad. The salad for my husband to take to a dinner meeting in northern VA tomorrow night. The hummus. Well, that is one of my favorite snacks.

Time to give the kitchen a rest.

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A Picture Perfect Day …

Posted on August 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

… for picking peaches. Oh, and Blackberries, too. At Larriland.

I dropped my husband off at his monthly Glenwood DX Association radio group’s luncheon at Town Grill in Lisbon, then headed off to pick blackberries.

An hour or so later, and five pounds of berries in the back of the car, I picked him up so he could help me pick peaches. Twenty seven pounds of peaches in less than 20 minutes.

Gorgeous peaches at $1.25 a pound if you pick more than 20 pounds. Tomorrow will be peach blanching, freezing and blending day.

The weather was perfect. There were lots of people at the peach picking sites, but I had most of the blackberry bush area to myself. My own row, as a matter of fact.

After a stop back at the red barn to get some canning supplies, an eggplant and a couple of red peppers to top off the ajvar, and home to process berries.

The best berries go into the freezer whole, are flash frozen, then packed in small bags. I got eight bags with about a cup of berries in each one. The ones on the top left are the less than perfect. I will drop them into boiling water briefly using a strainer, then put them in the blender with a little honey and just a touch of balsamic. They will be strained into syrup then put in an ice cube tray to freeze. The basis for vinaigrettes all winter. The top right are the “Eat Now” berries. For cereal. Yogurt. Salads. Snacks. They will be gone in two or three days probably, they are so good.

As for a few of the ripest peaches, they became part of dinner tonight.

Right on the grill with lemon olive oil and balsamic glaze.

Served with some Breezy Willow kielbasa, a local wine from Big Cork, and some pesto pasta salad.

Head on out to Larriland. The peaches and blackberries are down the road from the farm entrance (stay on Rte. 94 south) and a right turn into the picking areas.

hocofood@@@

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Whackin’ Back the Basil

Posted on August 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Every once in a while you need to go out there and harvest basil. Before it gets completely out of control.

Today I harvested three cups of basil. Mostly African blue basil, with some Genovese and a little Thai basil in the mix. That meant a triple batch of pesto to be made.

First, toasting a cup of pine nuts. Over low heat. Watching them the whole time.

The three cups of basil, cup of pine nuts, cup of cheese (I used Pecorino this time), six cloves of roasted garlic, all went into the food processor.

Then, the olive oil drizzling, addition of salt and pepper, none of this measured, by the way, continued until I had the taste and consistency I wanted.

This meant I ended up with three one cup containers of pesto. Two for the freezer, one in the refrigerator. My husband, of course, then wanted pesto pasta for dinner. Thankfully, there were bay scallops in the freezer, easy to defrost, and some dried artichoke pasta from The Common Market in the pantry.

The final dinner. Pesto pasta with sauteed bay scallops, scallions, and red pepper. A couple of sliced heirloom tomatoes from my garden and some mixed greens with feta. Oh, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

As for the wine match, we decided to test two local Virginia Sauvignon Blancs against one another. Both from 2011. Linden Avenius versus Doukenie. The Doukenie did well, standing up to the Linden but that wonderful Fume Blanc style of the Avenius was just a bit better. Way to go, Doukenie, for making a very nice SB.

Overall, not your typical Tuesday night dinner, but when you get fresh pesto, you take advantage of it.

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Perfectly Roasted Garlic

Posted on August 12, 2013 by AnnieRie

It’s all Rebecca’s fault. She taught me this trick in her ajvar post last year.

For perfectly roasted garlic, turn off the oven. Put garlic cloves, salt, pepper, olive oil in a foil pouch. After cooking whatever it may be that you are cooking in a hot oven, turn off the oven and put the foil packet in it.

You will get lovely soft roasted garlic, you know, the kind that sells at that $7.99 a pound Mediterranean bar at Wegmans.

These are so good on garlic bread, in pasta sauces, on pizzas, in pesto, on lamb.

They are so easy to make, and a jar of them in the refrigerator will get used quite quickly. I did this batch with CSA garlic. For the rest of this fall, my garlic from my garden will be used this way.

So, turn off that oven and roast garlic. And thank Rebecca for the recipe. By the way, I use her preserving pages religiously when I am putting up foods. Thanks, Rebecca!

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A Rainbow of Ribbons

Posted on August 11, 2013 by AnnieRie

All the colors. This year the third and fifth place ribbons rounded out my collection.

It is satisfying as a gardener, to be rewarded that your efforts mean something. That all the weeding, watering (well, not this year), and worrying were worth it.

I went to the fairgrounds this morning to pick up my entries, my ribbons, and my check. It is fun to go and visit with others. While in line at the fair office, or just wandering through the farm and garden building to pick up your veggies.

This year, most of my tomatoes survived the week. The weather was kind to us.

I got to bring home my orange roma tomatoes and oven dry them.

I added a few from the windowsill, then slow cooked them in olive oil, salt, pepper and a touch of sugar. Off to the freezer they went.

As for the Paul Robeson, there was one there. The other one was eaten during the judging.

With a second one from the garden, some mozzarella and basil, they became part of dinner tonight.

Twelve of the fifteen cherry tomatoes survived and we had them with our lunch salad. The herbs, nope, they wilted, and were sent to the trash at the fair.

It is not that hard to grow something for the fair. Herbs are the easiest.

Now, to cash that check for $7.50, and plan for next year.

hocofood@@@

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Food Processing Friday

Posted on August 9, 2013 by AnnieRie

Well, we didn’t make it to the auction tonight. I just finished processing food for the freezer, and it has been a crazy day weather wise. I still need to handle the beets for the fridge, and the eggplant for the ajvar.

Almost another half inch of rain, and we had some outdoor work that needed to be done this morning.

Add to that a power glitch right in the middle of roasting veggies.

The eggplant is destined for a small container of ajvar, that I thought didn’t have the smoky charred eggplant flavor I wanted. After roasting, I am letting them cool and will mix them in the spread. The two red peppers I used for them were a bit more than I should have used. Live and learn.

As for tomatoes, there were three batches done today. Two blanched to be frozen, and one batch for sauce.

After blanching, I peel them. Squeeze out the seeds, and pack them tightly in freezer bags. I do not use the food saver on tomatoes. Too much liquid in them. I do make sure to remove those damaged areas, the ones where you see the stink bug holes.

As for the romas from the CSA, they became a tomato sauce. A chunky tomato sauce with sausage bits (just enough for flavor).

Sweating the veggies first.

Peppers, onions, garlic, carrots in olive oil.

Then, add the peeled squeezed tomatoes. I don’t worry if there are still some seeds in it. I just try to get out the big stuff. Let it simmer on low for at least an hour, until you can completely smash the tomatoes into pulp. I add just salt, pepper, oregano and fresh basil to this sauce.

I got two one quart plastic freezer containers full of sauce out of this batch.

Now, if my paste tomatoes will just get on the ball and start turning red, I should be able to put up at least another six or eight quarts of this type of sauce.

hocofood@@@

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Tomato Sauce Boss

Posted on August 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

Week Twelve. Halfway through the summer CSA. An overload of tomatoes.

Grape tomatoes. Slicing tomatoes. Roma tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes.

Here is the entire list.

1 pint Red Grape Tomatoes – Breezy Morning Farm
6 ears Sweet Corn – Farmdale Organics
1 bag Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes – Freedom Acres Farm
1 container Microgreens – Eastbrook Produce
1 bag Red Slicing Tomatoes – Green Valley Organics
1 bag Garlic – Valley View Farm
1 bag Purple Viking Potatoes – Bellview Organics
1 bag Rainbow Carrots – Cherry Lane Organics
1 bag Sweet Onions – Cherry Lane Organics
1 bag Red Roma Tomatoes – Healthy Harvest Organics
1 bunch Pistou Basil – Kirkwood Herbs

My microgreens were microradishes, which we love. You will notice the missing basil in my picture. I swapped for some eggplant sitting in the swap box. It will be part of a new batch of ajvar. I now make it in small quantities.

But, this is tomato sauce base. Tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, basil. Since I grow four varieties of basil, I decided the swap was worth it.

Besides what the CSA gives us, we have my windowsill full of tomatoes, and my garlic that has cured.

Some of the tomatoes from my garden.

Plus,

cured red and white garlic hanging in the mud room.

I figure the next few days, there will be sauce making. There will be pesto making. There will be blanched, peeled tomatoes to freeze.

I did make it all the way through last winter and this spring with the sauces and oven roasted tomatoes from last summer. Sure beats jarred sauces full of sodium and sugar.

Here’s to my favorite fruit, tomatoes.