Delishytown

New Potato, Leek and Chard Frittata 

We made this Potato, Leek and Golden Chard Frittata mostly from the garden. It was so fresh, bright and delicious. Both my husband and I couldn't stop saying how good it was with every single bite. There's nothing tastier than freshly picked food. The eggs, bread, bacon and cheese are from the grocery store, but the leeks, new potatoes, Swiss chard and cherry tomatoes have been growing in our garden since winter. The cherry tomato plant is in a pot near a south facing wall. It never died all the way down, and now it's come back to life and is giving us a few tomatoes each day. The blackberries are from our thornless blackberry vine which is three years old and has started producing lots of fruit this year. This is the biggest harvest we've gotten so far and the berries are so delicious. We have several pots of Swiss chard growing. It's delicious and mild, easy to grow and very versatile. And don't get me started on how much fun it is to grow potatoes. Because I won't stop. It's really fun and easy to grow potatoes. And free organic potatoes. Harvesting them is like winning a prize. Congratulations, you win potatoes.

Here's how to make a Garden Chard Frittata:

Heat oven to 400. 

Cook some bacon until crispy and set aside on paper towels. Bacon. 

In a skillet, sauté sliced leeks (or shallots or onions) in a little olive oil or butter. Add diced new potatoes, about 1/4 cup or 1 small potato. Cook together, season with a little salt and pepper. Once the potatoes start to soften, add washed and spun chopped Swiss chard, stems and all. Once the greens cook down, about 4 minutes, add 4 scrambled eggs, a few chopped cherry tomatoes, and your favorite grated cheese. Place in the oven until the eggs firm up and the cheese melts. Serve with crumbled bacon on top and a side of toast and fruit. 

Yum! 

Potato Planting

These organic potatoes sprouted on our counter, there are two varieties here, Russet, and waxy red. Home grown potatoes are delicious, easy to grow, and harvesting them is so much fun. The first thing I do is cut them apart to create more "seeds" so that you get more plants growing. I cut them into big pieces, with one or two sprouts on each piece. Let them dry a bit and callous over, just overnight, so they don't rot in the ground. These will get planted at the bottom of a 5 gallon fabric pot, with the sides rolled most of the way down, in organic potting soil. As the potato plants grow up and get leggy, you need to "hill them up" or add more soil. This is where the soft sided fabric pots come in, because they allow you to keep hilling up the potato plants, unrolling the sides of the pot and adding more soil as the plants grow taller. You hill them up because the stems will turn into roots, and more potatoes will form along those new roots. I usually unroll the sides of the pot and hill the potatoes up 4 or 5 times in the course of a 2 to 3 month growing season. I add a thick layer of straw mulch on top to keep the sunlight from hitting the potatoes on the top layer. Sunlight is what turns potatoes green, and green potatoes are toxic. When the plants start to die back, you just dump the pot over and harvest your potatoes.

The last 2 pictures are potato plants growing in our garden and potatoes we harvested. Yum!

This salad was 99% locally grown within one block of my house. The greens are Radicchio and Spinach Greens from our front yard flower border, along with Speckled Lettuce, Red Leaf Lettuce, Arugula and Nasturtiums from the garden out back.

The Grapefruit is from a tree in the alley that I like to go past each day on dog walks to steal one piece of fruit. This tree is so sweet and delicious! It's perfectly ripe right now. I geek out on such things, can you tell? The Grapefruits hanging over the alley used to be easy to reach, but the low ones have all been picked. The ripe ones are getting pretty high up there, so I either need tall friends to walk with me or I have to break out the fruit picker. 

The dressing was made from leftover pesto. Mix 2 tblsp leftover or jar pesto in a dish with 2 tblsp red wine vinegar, 2 tblsp citrus juice like orange or Meyer lemon, 1 smashed garlic clove that you just let sit in there to flavor the dressing, a sprinkle of sesame seeds if you like, salt and pepper and a drizzle of honey. Stir till the honey dissolves then whisk in about 3 tblsp good quality olive oil. 

Home grown salad is the freshest tasting salad ever. Yum!

Edible Landscape Update December 19, 2013

This is one of the last apples on our tree. I love the flavor of this apple tree. It's called "Pink Lady" and it's crisp and juicy with a perfect sweet/ tart balance. We're enjoying warm sunny days and very cold nights. It's the perfect time of year for growing cool season crops. The front garden border is newly planted with chard, kale, radicchio, pansies and leeks. In the raised bed around the apple tree are a few Fennel plants that volunteered from seeds that dropped over the summer. I also have celery in that area which self sowed as well. I use the celery mostly to flavor soups. The celery plants seem to grow a bit tough when they go through heat and cold, as is our weather pattern now. The fennel is delicious. I've been using it mostly shaved into thin slivers and added to salads. I'll be making lasagna Bolognese soon, and I'll definitely add some of the fresh fennel to the Bolognese.  

We have lots of kale started in trays in the back yard, along with lettuces and arugula. The Artichokes are all up and looking very pretty. In the raised bed garden we have beets, fava beans, more artichokes, kale, strawberries, peas, passionflower, and lettuces growing. It's supposed to rain today or tomorrow, so I'll look forward to seeing more plants spring up from seeds that dropped over the summer. 

Kale and Potato Latkes

These are extra crunchy, delicious and easy to make. I used kale from our back garden and mixed it into the potato mixture. If you've ever made soggy latkes and wondered how to get them crispy, this is how. The Kale gives you lots of health benefits, the crispy potatoes make you happy.

Shred 1 or 2 large organic russet potatoes into a bowl of ice cold water, no ice cubes though. The water will rinse off the starchy stuff that turns color, and the potato starch will sink to the bottom of the bowl. Carefully pull the potato shreds out of the ice water, squeezing the water into the bowl. Place the potatoes in a colander and let them drain for a few minutes, then put them in a clean kitchen towel & squeeze to remove as much water as possible.

Let the water in the bowl settle. Slowly pour off the water to reveal the white potato starch that sunk to the bottom of the bowl. If you add this potato starch to the potato mix, it helps dry out and crisp up the latkes. It works. You could just throw some flour or organic corn starch into the mix. But, I hate wasting, especially if the good ingredients are right there to be used. 

Thinly slice one sweet onion. Add the onions and shredded potatoes to the bowl with the potato starch. Add 2 eggs, 1 cup chopped kale, 1 tblps dried dill, fresh chopped parsley, salt and pepper, and 1 tsp corn starch, optional. Mix thoroughly.

Heat 1 inch of high heat oil in a cast iron skillet.  I used Sunflower Oil.

Form latkes on a tablespoon, fry the latkes in batches adding more oil to the skillet between batches as needed.

Drain on paper towels. Season with salt once they come out of the fryer. Serve with plain yogurt, or sour cream, applesauce or fresh sliced apples.

Edible Landscape Update Aug 23rd, 2013

We have corn! The ears are small, but there's corn growing. I need to fertilize everything. We also have lots of sunflowers.

Foodwise, I harvested 4 butternut squashes yesterday from a massive vine that took over the back part of the yard. The whole plant died back to the ground this week and the shells on the squashes were hard, so I knew it was time to harvest and remove the deceased plant. That's the natural cycle for squash plants and pumpkins, when the vine dies back, it's time to harvest.

Lets' see what else? Kale is still going strong pretty much everywhere I have it planted. Kale is very summer hardy! I always used to think kale was just for cold season growing, but it's not. It can handle even the hottest of days woithout wilting. I have tons of basil, a few cherry tomatoes and these little green pear shaped tomatoes called "Michael Pollan".

I've been planting lots of bean plants lately and we've harvested small amounts of these delicious yellow wax beans. I bought more seeds yesterday and am going to plant more of them, because they're delicious. I'm going to plant a few more tomato plants hoping to get another short season out of some of my warm weather favorites. 

Have a nice weekend everybody!!

This yummy sandwich came partly from our back yard garden. This is a Tarragon Chicken Salad Sandwich with Sun Dried Tomato. This sandwich features some home grown ingredients, including Rocket Arugula,  "Pineapple" tomato, fresh Tarragon and French shallots. It was soooo Yummy! Recipe here:

Chop cooked chicken, white or dark meat whichever you prefer. For each cup of cooked chicken, dress with appx. 2 tblsp organic mayo, 1 to 2 tblsp fresh chopped tarragon or 1 tblsp dry, salt and pepper to taste, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 stalks chopped celery, 1 small chopped shallot. Serve on toasted bread with fresh slices of cucumber, tomato, arugula leaves and sun dried tomatoes, (the kind packed in oil).

Delicious!

Summer Garden Update: July 10, 2013

Pic #1 Organic Corn from heirloom seeds

Pic #2 Beautiful Echinacea (My favorite Summer flower)

Pic #3 Massive Shallot Harvest (grown from Shallot starts planted last fall)

Pic #4 Twenty foot long Butternut squash plant that took over the most of the back garden, and still growing. (This plant volunteered out of a spot  compost area.)

It's my Brother's birthday today. He grows a huge vegetable garden in the midwest. In honor of my Bro on his birthday, I took these photos of my garden this morning and I'm going to send them to him. I think He'll be interested to see what we have growing in our Southwestern garden. For instance, we have heirloom corn growing! Corn in the garden is so cool! The 8' by 4' corn patch looks like a mini farm. I love it. I read today that something crazy like 90% of the corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified. How did this happen? It's spliced with a bacteria that kills the corn worms when they eat it. Can we talk about some basic health logic?

Health Logic Rule #1: Your Food Should Not Kill Anything, Ever. Anybody with digestive issues would be wise to cut GMO's from their diet.

 I'm going to save seeds from my first corn crop, and as many seeds as possible from this year's garden, and share them with everybody I know. Saving and sharing seeds is the antithesis of why GMO's were invented in the first place, namely corporate greed and the devious plan to patent and monopolize the World food supply. Think about the kind of ginormous asshole you'd have to be to devise such a business plan. Really? Make everybody buy your seeds or starve because you're going to be rich? Assheads.

The good news is, I can grow organic food and I can show everyone i know how to grow food. It's fun. The best part is that home grown food is amazingly delicious. I hope Monsanto doesn't get so mad when they read this that they cry out of frustration, and have to wipe their tears with thousand dollar bills. 

Happy Gardening Tumblrs! 

Edible landscape update:

We Have Grapes! Yummm, I took these photos this morning in the back yard. I must wait until this bunch is mostly rosy pink before I cut it off the vine and devour them. Waiting is hard work.... are they pink yet?

The first pic in this series shows a massive squash vine that volunteered and is taking over a large portion of the back yard. It's got these little squashes on it that look like a cross between two other squashes from last year. It also has tons of flowers. I might be making stuffed squash blossoms later today. The other plants in that pic include strawberries, lemongrass, tomatoes, kale, oregano and blueberry shrubs. The second picture is a blooming artichoke. Last picture, Grapes!

Plum Tart

My neighbor rang my doorbell the other day and handed me a big bag of organic plums from trees that grow in her friend's garden. These little plums are sweet, tangy, delicious and perfect. When I get an unexpected ingredient, I'll sometimes do a google search for inspiration. I knew I had puff pastry squares in the freezer, so I googled "plum tart". I found a beautiful Plum Tart image from the Weight Watchers web site and I was all, "Perfect, that's exactly what I want to make". I clicked through to read the recipe and it was only missing two important things, butter and sugar. So I added those to the recipe and it came out amazingly delicious. If you're watching calories, you can omit the butter and sugar, because the apricot jelly does add a certain amount of sweetness. But life is short, and tangy summer plums bake up so nicely with a little butter and sugar. 

Heat oven to 400. Thaw 2 small squares of puff pastry. Slice 7 to 10 small or medium sized fresh plums, removing the stones. Roll the puff pastry on a floured surface. Butter a tart pan. Add the rolled pastry to the pan, cover with the sliced plums, sprinkle with 2 - 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, dot with little bits of butter, about 1 to 2 tsp, and dots of apricot jelly, about 1 to 2 tsp. Bake for 15 minutes until the edges puff up and become crispy and the sugary plums are bubbling hot. Dust with powdered sugar. Yum! 

This was the harvest this morning from our back yard. Yum! I went away for the weekend and this is what was growing when I got back yesterday. I picked all these berries, squash and shallots, along with a salad spinner full of baby kale, red lettuce and arugula. I like to use mini kiddy crafting scissors to cut the berries off the plant so I don't tear at the stems and stress the plant. I'm going to use the baby squash and shallots in empanadas for dinner because I have lots of potatoes on the counter. 

The strawberries and blueberries in this photo were so sweet and delicious!  I didn't make anything out of them, I just ate 'em. It was pretty amazing to come home from a weekend trip and not have to go to the store for fresh food. Yum!

Strawberries like full sun, plenty of rich well drained soil and regular water and weekly or bi weekly organic fertilizer.

 Stay tuned for a delicious Empanada recipe. 

Growing Organic Zucchini

Here's a healthy zucchini plant growing in my friends garden. Zucchini is easy to grow. It likes warm weather and full sun. The large yellow flowers are edible, as well as the zucchini squash that form from the fertilized flowers.

Conventionally grown zucchini is one of the foods most likely to be GMO in the grocery store, so it's a good idea to grow your own organic zucchini this summer.

I've grown this plant for many years. My main gardening tip for success is that the large leaves tend to be susceptible to fungal diseases. Water them early in the day so that the leaves can dry off. Try to not wet the leaves each time you water, just water the soil if possible. If you do see an outbreak of (usually powdery type) fungus on the leaves, just spray the plant with a milk + water solution, about 1/3 milk to 2/3 water. I planted these with organic compost and organic vegetable fertilizer. 

The best thing about zucchini is that it can be harvested at any stage, from very very small with the flower still attached, to XL used for grating into zucchini breads and muffins.

An easy recipe for zucchini are these crispy zucchini rounds. Just coat sliced zucchini with scrambled egg wash, then dip it into bread crumbs mixed with grated parmesan cheese, seasoned with salt pepper and a little garlic powder and paprika. Spray with olive oil spray and bake at 400 for 20 minutes until crispy. Serve with your favorite creamy dressing or organic ketchup. Yum!

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins 

We made these Delicious Lemon Poppy Seed muffins for breakfast. Yum they're so good, I can't stop!

I harvested the poppy seeds this a.m. from the breadseed poppies growing in the front yard. I woke up thinking about food, and about my garden. I was wondering if it's ok to eat the poppy seeds from the poppies in the garden, because the front garden is full of ripe poppy seed heads. they are beautiful! When you turn them over and shake them into your hand, the seeds look just like the poppy seeds in the spice jars aisle at the store. I had to know! So I did a search and found out that, yes, you can eat them. The ones I have are culinary poppies. They are the big breadseed  type of poppies, not the California poppies. I'm not sure about the Icelandic type of poppies, but I'll find out. Bread Seed poppy seeds are edible, all other parts of the plant are not edible. 

I think the organic spice companies who sell Poppy Seeds for 8-12 dollars a jar will be very sad that I'm telling you this. I hope they don't cry so hard that they have to wipe their tears with thousand dollar bills.

The lemons were from the tree on the corner. If you live in an area where lemons grow, you're lucky like me! Free lemons!

Mix 2 cups whole wheat flour, 3/4 cup turbinado sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, lemon zest, 1 tsp salt, 3 tblsp poppy seeds, (lightly toasted)

In another bowl mix 2 eggs, 1/4 cup melted butter or coconut oil, 1 tblsp olive oil, 1 cup plain yogurt, 1 tsp vanilla, the juice of 1 lemon

Heat oven to 400. Line a muffin tin with paper iiners. 

Mix the wet, sift together the dry, combine them just until combined. Spoon into the muffin cups. Top each one with a few frozen raspberries and a little more turbinado sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes or so

Mix 3 tblsp organic powdered sugar with a little lemon juice and drizzle it on as a glaze. Yummmm! 

Home made veggie stock for carrot soup. This sauce pot contains water, onions including the peels, garlic and garlic peels, garden shallots, carrots, celery from the front garden, chard stems also from the front yard garden, parsley and cilantro, salt and pepper. Simmer for 45 minutes to an an hour, then strain and use for sauces and soups. Yum this is going to be delicious! 

Here is an Organic gardening tip: Use the spent veggies for spot composting; Dig a semi deep hole where ever the soil needs improving, and bury the spent vegetables. (No meat scraps or cooking oils should be used in this gardening technique.) Cover them with about 7 inches of soil and straw mulch. The worms and bugs will come and work on this area and help improve the soil. 

Seed saving is very important, especially since the Big Ag / Big Food creeps are trying to own patents on all the seeds in the world by genetically modifying them. Diabolical! 

These are seeds I saved from a Broccoli Raab plant that bolted in my garden last month. Bolting means sending up a flower stalk. For cold loving plants like Broccoli Raab, warmer temps signal them to bolt and set seeds for the next generation. It's a Darwinian thing.

It's easy to save seeds. You simply let your plants complete their life cycle when they're done producing food. Instead of yanking the spent plants out of your garden, let a few of your favorite ones set flowers, and then set seed pods. These small flowers will attract beneficial insects to your garden, which is a bonus of this process. Allow the seed pods to dry on the plant and then crunch them open. Inside are the seeds for next years crop. I put mine through a mesh strainer to strain away the bigger parts of the chaff. 

Package them up, save some for your next years garden and share the rest. We win!!

Harvested a gazillion lemons from my friends tree. These will be sent to friends and family who are sick of winter, and I might have to make some ginger lemonade. Yum!

Here's a picture of Carrots from our garden! And a couple of peas too! My sister and I had so much fun harvesting these. Pulling carrots out of the garden is like finding gold. I might make some carrot soup, or maybe just chop them up into a big salad. Yum! Can't wait.

Carrots are so much easier to grow than I previously thought. We grew these in big pots filled with organic potting soil. If you plant in the ground, they like loose, loamy soil, so dig deep, and add organic compost. They don't like being transplanted. Sow the seeds directly where they will grow, on top of the soil and gently pat down. Surprisingly, they do well when crowded, don't feel like you have to thin them out meticulously. They love cool temps, so all you Northern gardeners can get your carrots started soon! 

Happy gardening! :)