So I recently read a recipe online about making Bahn Mi (a Vietnamese sandwich) and was intrigued. I didn't have all the right ingredients so I winged it.
I used - Watermelon Radishes, Carrots, Cucumber, Mixed Greens and Tofu. The best part was the 'sauce'. I mixed together mayo and Sriracha sauce. YUM! I was seriously licking the spoon. I great mixture of creamy spices. I will be using this on every sandwich I make, regardless of what it is made of, it is that good. I used the mandolin on all the hard veggies, threw in the mixed greens and stir fried the tofu with some sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce. Stuffed it all in a bun and dinner was complete. It wasn't as great as I had imagined but it wasn't bad and it was quick and easy.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Garden Plans 2011
So nothing of interest for dinner tonight, just yesterday's leftovers - which by the way taste great reheated too! I am planning out what I want to grow this year and again it is the usual suspects: tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, and edamame for the summer crop and peas, lettuce, kale and radishes for the spring. I am thinking about growing chinese cabbage and greens, like pac choi as well. I am also going to attempt brussell sprouts this year. My swiss chard was all dug up and/or eaten by the squirrels last year so I am going to try that again too. I have done onions and potatoes in the past in the Victory Garden and would like to grow them in my yard now. I am going to use potato grow bags because I just don't have the room to grow them any where else. As for the onions I am thinking I will just plant them within my flower beds, especially around the roses in the hopes off ward off aphids. I need to figure out where all of this is going to go. Originally I wanted to plant the tomatoes among the asparagus rows but not too sure how I will be able to pull them up in the fall without pulling up the asparagus roots as well. 'They' say that those two are companion plants but truly I don't understand how that is even possible. Time to bust out the graph paper and last year's plans to make sure everything has a place and that it is all rotated properly.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Southern Cooking Meets Northern Girl
So on today's menu was pulled BBQ chicken and southern fried cabbage. I was tired of eating 'asian salad' with all the cabbage I was getting so I searched around and found this recipe. I adapted it to my taste which means I added some spice! I deleted the oil, and fried the onions in the bacon grease for a minute before adding the cabbage and while that was cooking I added in some cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes. Mmm... much better. I also only used 1/2 a head of cabbage and doubled the bacon because bacon makes everything better : ) This is the result.
Slow cooked BBQ chicken is pretty self explanatory but I added in some McCormick Grill Mates Chipotle Pepper marinade to the mix to add, of course, spice! The end result - yum!
I have a bunch of frozen beans from last years harvest so I am looking around for some ideas for a casserole. I'm thinking the beans, some rice, cream of mushroom soup and some chicken. I think it may look like throw up but at least taste good. Stay tuned.
Slow cooked BBQ chicken is pretty self explanatory but I added in some McCormick Grill Mates Chipotle Pepper marinade to the mix to add, of course, spice! The end result - yum!
I have a bunch of frozen beans from last years harvest so I am looking around for some ideas for a casserole. I'm thinking the beans, some rice, cream of mushroom soup and some chicken. I think it may look like throw up but at least taste good. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
I'm baackkkk!
Oh dear, I am a terrible blogger. I haven't updated this since July : (
I hope everyone had a great last half of 2010 and that your 2011 is starting off with a bang. So, again this year I am making the resolution to update regularly (I promise).
The two gardens last year were just way to much work and the excessive dry summer we had made it even harder. The Victory Garden house is now officially up for sale. Depending on how you look at this it is either good news or bad news. Good news in that I will have more time to blog; bad news that I won't have enough land to grow everything I want. Two sides to every coin, I guess. They are asking $379k for the house, down from $425k. But it still needs about $200k worth of work and that is if you are doing it yourself. I don't think it is going to sell, but I will play it safe and stay out of the yard. Tom and I were busted by the bank appraiser when we were cleaning up the yard last year. Not that the man was concerned, he totally understood why we did it, but I don't want to take any chances this summer.
So in addition to sharing my gardening trials and tribulations I am also going to start sharing my successes and failures in the kitchen. All of my produce is either home grown or delivered via Boston Organics so it does still fall into the organic category : ) And believe me I have had some colossal failures this year. Can you say Butternut Squash?
So the new year is here and many more posts are coming - organics honor.
And just one last thing
Happy (belated) holidays from Max and Freddie
I hope everyone had a great last half of 2010 and that your 2011 is starting off with a bang. So, again this year I am making the resolution to update regularly (I promise).
The two gardens last year were just way to much work and the excessive dry summer we had made it even harder. The Victory Garden house is now officially up for sale. Depending on how you look at this it is either good news or bad news. Good news in that I will have more time to blog; bad news that I won't have enough land to grow everything I want. Two sides to every coin, I guess. They are asking $379k for the house, down from $425k. But it still needs about $200k worth of work and that is if you are doing it yourself. I don't think it is going to sell, but I will play it safe and stay out of the yard. Tom and I were busted by the bank appraiser when we were cleaning up the yard last year. Not that the man was concerned, he totally understood why we did it, but I don't want to take any chances this summer.
So in addition to sharing my gardening trials and tribulations I am also going to start sharing my successes and failures in the kitchen. All of my produce is either home grown or delivered via Boston Organics so it does still fall into the organic category : ) And believe me I have had some colossal failures this year. Can you say Butternut Squash?
So the new year is here and many more posts are coming - organics honor.
And just one last thing
Happy (belated) holidays from Max and Freddie
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Heat and Humidity
I am truly sick of the heat and humidity. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in about two weeks. I don’t have air conditioning and the ceiling fans can only do so much. It doesn’t help the sleeping situation when Max (now down to a slim 72 pounds) insists on sleeping in bed with me – and I mean right next to me. Some part of him always needs to touch a part of me – even if it is just his paw across my leg. I usually don’t mind but it is so friggin’ hot! Ok, I am now whining….off to the garden.
The heat has been good to get a jump start on all those veggies that normally don’t come out until August. I have corn ears already – and have had them for a few weeks. It was only 49 days after planting them. But the raccoon have already found them! Carl the Coyote has arrived and I do have a picture of him to post – but again I am at work and do not have access to my files here.
The spaghetti squash is looking good. I think there are about 10-11 of them so far – which isn’t too bad for 6 plants! It is climbing all over the corn stalks – so much for the 3-sisters method of having the squash grow along the ground to keep out the weeds!
Both types of melons are growing nicely. Lots of flowers! But they don’t seem to want to climb up the trellis I so diligently built for them. They prefer to ramble along the ground twisting themselves in the hay. They require daily intervention to make sure that they stay the path.
The first sowing of edamame has already started to produce beans. I need to keep an eye on them because the harvest window is so short I don’t want to miss them. The second sowing is just starting to flower.
At last the tomatoes have picked up – the Sungolds are starting to turn. I was able to grab a few as snacks the other day – while I was patiently trying to train the cucumbers up their trellis. Apparently this is the year for all tendril growing veggies to ignore the given growth pattern of up – and just grow anywhere they please! I have only been able to snag two zucchini so far. Which makes me sad – there are so many gardens that I see when out walking that are exploding with zukes. I am just hoping that I am a late bloomer.
The heat has been good to get a jump start on all those veggies that normally don’t come out until August. I have corn ears already – and have had them for a few weeks. It was only 49 days after planting them. But the raccoon have already found them! Carl the Coyote has arrived and I do have a picture of him to post – but again I am at work and do not have access to my files here.
The spaghetti squash is looking good. I think there are about 10-11 of them so far – which isn’t too bad for 6 plants! It is climbing all over the corn stalks – so much for the 3-sisters method of having the squash grow along the ground to keep out the weeds!
Both types of melons are growing nicely. Lots of flowers! But they don’t seem to want to climb up the trellis I so diligently built for them. They prefer to ramble along the ground twisting themselves in the hay. They require daily intervention to make sure that they stay the path.
The first sowing of edamame has already started to produce beans. I need to keep an eye on them because the harvest window is so short I don’t want to miss them. The second sowing is just starting to flower.
At last the tomatoes have picked up – the Sungolds are starting to turn. I was able to grab a few as snacks the other day – while I was patiently trying to train the cucumbers up their trellis. Apparently this is the year for all tendril growing veggies to ignore the given growth pattern of up – and just grow anywhere they please! I have only been able to snag two zucchini so far. Which makes me sad – there are so many gardens that I see when out walking that are exploding with zukes. I am just hoping that I am a late bloomer.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Holy Heat!
All this heat and humidity is really starting to get to me (not to mention everything I am trying to grow)! It hit 100 yesterday and according to the news that has happened in July since 2002. It has been in the high 90's for about 4-5 days already and today the forecast was to be cooler. My thermometer says 82 - and that is in the shade. Ugh.
I did pick my first zucchini over the weekend and there is another one on its way. If this heat keeps up I think it will be ready in about 5 minutes! My rain barrels have been empty for weeks and dragging around that friggin' hose everywhere is just a pain in the butt. But you do what you gotta do to keep things growing.
The random tomatoes that came from my compost are some sort of cherry tomato. They all have flowers in bunches. I can't wait to see what type they are. I am hoping for some yummy heirloom. Just please don't let them be Sweet 100's. Too many of those last year - I want something different.
Here is the one that is growing out of the bin.
Right above it you can see a ventilation hole. That is the size of the hole that this sucker found and decided to grow out of! I took this picture at about 11:00 this morning so you can see that it gets very little light. You can also see that I do not weed anything over there. Dandelions, clover, ridiculously long grass. It is very unsightly over there but I have bigger things to worry about and take care of. Maybe if I didn't work I would have the time to handle every little inch of my yard but then I would be poor and wouldn't be able to afford any of the tools to do so! Ah - the perfect Catch-22.
I did pick my first zucchini over the weekend and there is another one on its way. If this heat keeps up I think it will be ready in about 5 minutes! My rain barrels have been empty for weeks and dragging around that friggin' hose everywhere is just a pain in the butt. But you do what you gotta do to keep things growing.
The random tomatoes that came from my compost are some sort of cherry tomato. They all have flowers in bunches. I can't wait to see what type they are. I am hoping for some yummy heirloom. Just please don't let them be Sweet 100's. Too many of those last year - I want something different.
Here is the one that is growing out of the bin.
Right above it you can see a ventilation hole. That is the size of the hole that this sucker found and decided to grow out of! I took this picture at about 11:00 this morning so you can see that it gets very little light. You can also see that I do not weed anything over there. Dandelions, clover, ridiculously long grass. It is very unsightly over there but I have bigger things to worry about and take care of. Maybe if I didn't work I would have the time to handle every little inch of my yard but then I would be poor and wouldn't be able to afford any of the tools to do so! Ah - the perfect Catch-22.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Bugs, Critters and More Tomatoes
It is now completely out of control! I now have a tomato plant growing out of my compost bin! I guess that kind of makes sense seeing as the random tomatoes that are growing around the yard all came from said bin. The holes along the bin are not that large so this lucky tomato seed found just enough light to sneak out and start spreading. This particular one does not have any blooms yet but all the other wayward ones do. I am thinking about leaving it alone and see what happens.
As far as my aphid invasion - it seems to be under control. I used a bit of the saucy spray and they seemed to have found another place to go (I am hoping over the fence and to my neighbor’s yard).
The corn has already started to tassel which of course means that something found its way into the plot and gnawed down two stalks! I made a make-shift chicken wire fence around the remaining stalks. I made sure that the wire is curled out and then for some added protection I cut some of the wire so if anything tries to get over they will get poked. But you know it will be me that gets poked - not them!
The Fastbreak Melons are starting to flower too! They haven't even reached 5" high yet but there are two tiny yellow flowers already. The weather has been so friggin' hot lately - the melons must be in heaven (while the rest of us feel like we are in hell).
Tomorrow's forecast is 70's, sunny and no humidity - perfect day to get out there and get some overdue chores done.
As far as my aphid invasion - it seems to be under control. I used a bit of the saucy spray and they seemed to have found another place to go (I am hoping over the fence and to my neighbor’s yard).
The corn has already started to tassel which of course means that something found its way into the plot and gnawed down two stalks! I made a make-shift chicken wire fence around the remaining stalks. I made sure that the wire is curled out and then for some added protection I cut some of the wire so if anything tries to get over they will get poked. But you know it will be me that gets poked - not them!
The Fastbreak Melons are starting to flower too! They haven't even reached 5" high yet but there are two tiny yellow flowers already. The weather has been so friggin' hot lately - the melons must be in heaven (while the rest of us feel like we are in hell).
Tomorrow's forecast is 70's, sunny and no humidity - perfect day to get out there and get some overdue chores done.
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