Holiday Party

For the seated dinner party I did recently, I composed a menu I thought would appeal to the host and be suitable for the occasion of his holiday party. I did a couple of back up menu options and he ended up blending two menu choices. He stressed how important the timing was going to be. Last year he did a very nice, very expensive dinner, but the dishes were so slow in coming out of the kitchen it was after 11:30pm before they got their entrees. There was an average wait of around 50 minutes between courses! He was very clear that he wanted to start around 7:30pm and for dessert to hit the table at 9:30pm. I told him that would be no problem, that the only thing we would be waiting on would be the diners, we would be doing things on their schedule, set and ready.

When guests arrived they noshed on some appetizers and sparkling prosecco to begin with. The apps were chef’s choice, and I created a trio of tasty amuse bouches:


• Roasted Apple with Caramel Sauce and Bleu Cheese Crumbles in a Phyllo Tart Shell
• Pulled Pork with Manchego Cheese and Spicy BBQ Sauce on Roasted Tortilla Chip Crisp
• Duck Confit with Fresh Thyme, Roasted Garlic and Quince Jelly
The Apple was the favorite with the ladies, and the guys liked the BBQ the best. Everyone ate the duck and all said it was good, but no one ate the quince jelly. I don’t know why.

When the apps had been devoured, the official welcome had been offered by the host, and everyone was seated (around 7:45pm), we got right to the first course:




Roasted Butternut Squash with Root Vegetable Timbale, Topped with Seared Scallops

I did such a good job on this dish at Thanksgiving I decided to add it to this menu. I smartened up and used only one scallop per bowl, since two sea scallops was really too much. Almost all butternut squash and only a splash of cream, with a mix of sweet potato, celery root, turnip and red onion in the timbale. Tasting it in the kitchen as we reheated it for service, even I had to stop and say: “Wow”. Lots of compliments on the flavor and what we did not serve I packed up for the hostess to have the next day. My only reservation was that the soup was too thick, almost like a pudding. But it went over well.







Mixed Greens with Dried Cranberries, Golden Raisins, Burgundy-Poached Seckle Pears, Candied Pecans and Pomegranate Vinaigrette


Trying to get a nice blend of sweet and sharp, and to cleanse the palate of the soup, the salad went very well with the chardonnay the host had chosen for this course.














Grilled Salmon Filet with Blood Orange Beurre Blanc, Pink Peppercorn-Crusted Beef Filet with Bourbon-Vanilla Sauce, Kabocha Squash and Porcini Mushroom Ravioli Tossed with Browned Butter and Sage, and Roasted Baby Vegetables

A complicated dish to assemble because of the number of people who wanted different temps on their meats. We pulled it off by laying out the plates on every available surface and running around with pots and spoons. I cooked all the salmon the same degree of doneness, and it remained very moist. I chose a sashimi grade of salmon, which has more fat and flavor. The beef was teres major, which was convienient because it enabled me to cook whole pieces to the desired degree of doneness. The homemade ravioli came out the best I had ever made it, and I only lost one piece to breakage while reheating, and that was the extra piece. All my portions were exactly on the money, with no extras. Once the dishes hit the table the guests switched to a pinot noir which I had recommended for the meal. Plates came back to the kitchen clean, except for a few who didn’t eat their vegetables. Because of the meat temps, we should have made a seating chart so we would know who got what temp. That would have made our plate-out faster and more efficient.

We cleaned up and got reorganized and laid out the dessert plates.

Cayenne-Spiked Chocolate Truffles with Cinnamon-Ginger Dust, Almond Toffee Crunch, French Chocolate Mousse and Raspberry-Port Drizzle

So quick and easy to make that I rushed and piped the mousse too soon and it deflated a little. The dessert plates went down at exactly 9:30pm, just as the host had requested. We hit all our times perfectly and I was very pleased. They enjoyed a Graham’s 20 year old tawny port with the dessert and those plates came back scraped clean, too. We made coffee for those who requested it and proceeded to clean up and load the van. The guests stayed at the dining table, and several people came into the kitchen to compliment me and the staff. The host said everything was terrific. We were gone and out their hair around 10:30pm. In my later analysis I discovered that my actual costs were only 2% higher than I had estimated they would be, and the discrepancy came from some paper products I forgot to account for and needed, adding coffee, and overbuying on ice. My food costs fell in exactly where I wanted them to. From both a learning experience and a practical exercise, I was very pleased with how everything went and how all the food turned out.

I had to reshoot all the pictures of the food after the event. We took a camera but got so busy that we forgot to snap any photos.

Non Traditional Thanksgiving

Without a big family to feed this year, or very many guests to entertain, I decided it would be a good opportunity to make a Thanksgiving Day dinner that wouldn't be found just anywhere. It could contain a few traditional holiday elements, but also be a little unorthodox. I don't know of too many fish-based Thanksgiving dinners, so that's what I set out to do. I went to my friendly neighborhood Buford Farmer's Market and bought everything for just under $50 on Wednesday afternoon. I was expecting the store to be packed with last minute shoppers, but it was actually very easy to get around.

Thursday morning I made a little quesadilla of crumbled queso and Honey-Baked Ham (the one must have on my wife's dinner list) and we enjoyed that with some picante sauce and back-to-back "Fringe" episodes on Netflix. I made my way into the kitchen in the afternoon and put together our meal, just the two of us.

First up I made an escolar ceviche salad with wakami seaweed, pineapple and samsutra oranges. That was really awesome and cleansed out palates for the next course.

I whipped up a very simple but very delicious butternut squash soup with two spice-crusted seared scallops. I used turmeric in the spice and I don't think I will do that again because it gave the scallops a yellow coloring I didn't care for. But they tasted great.

Next course was coriander and ginger seared tuna, sliced and served with an heirloom tomato and heart of palm salad with a little crumble of Bulgarian feta. Really nice but I overcooked the tuna a little bit.

For the entree, I kept it simple and made it a crowd-pleaser (that is, what S. likes best). Smoked salmon filet, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. The potatoes were some fingerlings I was just trying to use up, and they were good, but not fluffy. I played around with the idea of a sauce, but opted to just go with the salmon as is.

We finished up with pumpkin pie (store-bought) and some fresh whipped cream (homemade). And later, more ham. Not your everyday Thanksgiving, but we were thankful, anyway.

BCSE

^{Photo lifted from the web, since I am too busy to stop and snap a shot of my own…}
A wise man once said: “If at first you don’t suceed – Oh, just give it to me, for crying out loud!”

Among the daily battles I’ve been fighting in order to get the food quality up from where it was has been the Battle of the Chicken Salad and the Battle of the Tuna Salad.

These are two pretty straightforward products but I was appalled at how awful they were. My first day I had every one of the prep staff take a spoon and taste the concoction one of them had just made. They all dipped their spoons in and tasted and all nodded in ageement that it was good. I looked around with unabashed amazement and told them that I simply did not believe them. There was no way they were telling the truth if they said that mess was actually edible. More lessons on seasoning, flavor, balance, yada-yada-yada.

The prep person assigned to make all the cold salads, including chicken and tuna salads, asked me to taste two big bowls she’d made and was preparing to send out. I tasted, but reserved my comment. I asked her what she thought. She said she thought it was good. I looked at her steadily without saying anything and she added that she didn’t actually taste any of the salads because she didn’t like the flavor of chicken salad or tuna salad. I raised my eyebrows and asked (because I wanted to be sure I understood): “Are you telling me you don’t taste your food before you send it out?”

“No, I make it the same way all the time so I really don’t need to, and I just can’t stand the taste of this stuff anyway.”

“Well,” I said. “That stops today. Right now. From this moment on you have to taste every dish you make and you have to get at least two other people to taste it also.” This isn’t punitive, it’s sensible. I pointed out to her that was the reason Chef and BD and I were always calling on each other to taste one another’s soups, sauces, marinades, salads, dressings… It wasn’t ego or “taste this, dude, it’s awesome’. It was because we needed to know if it tasted the best it could. Handing her a spoon, I made her taste each salad in turn. She put the smallest samples on her spoons and slipped them over her lips. She made a couple of little gagging motions that made me want to clock her right in her jaw (metaphoricallly… metaphorically). She shrugged and said it was okay. I asked her how much would she pay for sandwich made with these salads and she said she wouldn’t order chicken or tuna, she’d have a hamburger. I gave her a scalding look, trying to decide if she was being a smart-ass or an ignoramous.

Slowly, deliberately, I took the bowls of sloppy, amatuerishly chopped and mayonnaise smothered salads and scraped them into the trash. Extreme, I know, but sometimes the best way to get across the point that people are producing garbage is to actually shovel it into the garbage right in front of them. I trashed 2 1/2 hour’s worth of labor on her part (which, btw, should only have taken her about 30 minutes – but one crisis at a time, please) while she and the rest of the staff watched in silent shock. Across the tables BD grinned and said: “Niiiiiiice!”

I turned back to T and said: “Let’s begin again. I’m going to teach you step by step how to make these dishes and how to do it more quickly. I’m going to treat you as if it is your first day and as if you don’t know anything about cooking or food whatsoever. Based on the dishes of your’s I’ve seen, that is the only conclusion I can come to. If that’s wrong, then I apologize, but I can only go on what I have seen.” I made her follow me with a notepad as we went into the cooler and collected all the ingredients. I demonstrated how to clean and cut the chicken, mark it on the grill and bake it in the oven. How to drain the canned tuna and prepare all the mis en place. I showed her how to lightly sautee the finely diced onions to take the sting out of the flavor and allow more sweetness to come through. I taught her how to balance sweetness from the onions and some smoked chili powder with sour from lemon juice and sharpness from mustard, melding it with the right amount of mayonnaise and seasonings. I demonstrated how to shred the chicken instead of hacking it into huge chunks, how to fold in the tuna and not reduce it to a cat food paste. Most importantly, how to taste and season, taste and season. In 30 minutes we had two new bowls of salads and the vote from all the tasters was “Wow, very good”. “Now this,” I told T, “is a salad I would pay for.” We sent it over to the bistro and rolled out more prep for the day.

The next day J makes chicken salad. He pretty much follows the recipe I showed T, but makes a few changes, showing some initiative and thoughtfulness. He calls me over to taste. Okay, it’s not fabulous, but it is miles away from the crap they were making. I make a couple of very small adjustments and tell him it is a go, it is a salad I’d pay for. A little later I get a call from the manager of the bistro. He tells me the chicken and tuna salad we sent over the day before got rave reviews, and they saw a 25% increase in the sale of chicken salads and a 15% increase in tuna. The one he got earlier this day was pretty good, but could we just make more like the kind they had the day before? Could that just become the house salad recipe? One customer had bought 4 chicken salad sandwiches to take home for the family for dinner. Chicken salad… for dinner! She proclaimed it the Best Chicken Salad Ever. I wouldn’t go that far, but it was pretty good. I hung up the phone and told T when I saw her the next day what the response had been, and explained that right there was an example of why we always do the best we can, always prepare our food like we are feeding our own families, and how making food that people will buy is the difference between having a job and looking for a job.

She said she understood, but I’m not convinced she does. Not really, down in her gut. There’s a place for everyone but if you are not going to engage your brain or your heart then maybe you should find a job where those things aren’t required. I promise you will be unhappy trying to skate by in this kitchen.

Chef told me I have to create some kind of recipe for my Best Chicken Salad Ever. I hate recipes, by the way.

Sesame Ahi Tuna

When I come across a photo or a description of a dish I think I would like to have, I often think also of how I would change it or improve it. I came across a photo of a tuna dish from a restaurant in Hawaii, I believe. There was little information, but the image was striking and caught my eye. It was a dish of seared ahi tuna with wakami salad and daikon. It has a ponzu sauce of some kind, and what looks like a fruit relish or salad in the background.

Tuna, especially raw tuna, is always a hit in our household, so went to the market and got a few ingredients to try and copy this dish, with a few original touches of my own. I cooked some sushi rice with a little salt, sugar and rice vinegar, made a glaze of honey, red pepper paste and ponzu sauce which I brushed over a slab of sushi-grade ahi tuna, then packed two sides with roasted sesame seeds. I heated a skillet with a little sesame oil and seared two sides for twenty seconds each. I made a sugar plum/mango salsa and spooned it into a half an avocado, shredded some daikon root and pickled it in a coriander/star anise brine and mixed it with some seaweed salad. Lastly I sauteed some enoki mushrooms and some pea sprouts and made a sauce of reising vinegar and ponzu sauce, which I let reduce to a near syrup.

I spooned the rice into the center of the plate, thinly sliced the tuna and wrapped it around the rice, topped with the seaweed/daikon salad, added the fruit salsa and the mushroom mix and drizzled it all with sauce.

My in-house critic and consumer of all things tuna devoured the dish and proclaimed it delicious, and except for the sauce being a little saltier than I wanted, I was very happy too. I could have arranged the tuna in a different manner, closer to the original image. Overall I thought it came out very well.

This is the image I based my own version on:

Can It, Already!

I've wanted to get into canning and preserving, but I've been putting it off for a while. During the height of summer I didn’t see the point in canning stuff via the boiling method since that won’t keep low acid foods for more than a few weeks. I’d rather just eat my peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables and fruits fresh instead of canning them and putting them in the fridge for a week or two. There’s plenty of fresh food stuff available now to enjoy.

The other reason is because I lacked a pressure cooker for proper cannning. When canning low acid foods, the best way is to use a pressure cooker to get the internal temps up around 250 degrees. This is far higher than can be achieved with the boiling method (212 degrees max), and is guaranteed to kill off all little nasties that might cause spoilage, enabling me to keep summer food stores for a year or more. Sweet, fresh, Georgia peaches in January, blueberry jam at Christmas, garden-fresh tomato chutney and salsa during the winter… this is my real goal. Plus the ability to use my own recipes and ingredients, and to know what all went into it.

I’d been putting off getting a pressure cooker because it seemed an extraneous purchase while I've been so busy. But I saved some cash here and there, got a $10 gift card to Walmart, and seized the chance when a Presto pressure cooker went on sale. I bought the cooker, a basket for jars, and a dozen pint canning jars. I’ll go back and get some wide mouth jars as well. Added the supplies I already had for boiling/canning, I think I’m ready to start processing the summer’s harvest for storage. This kind of canning will also allow me to ship jars of goodies to family and friends.

Tomato Aubergine Salad

I was going to do this as a hot side for my salmon, roasting the tomatoes, but the heirlooms were so gorgeous when freshly cut I decided to do it as a salad.

I peeled and sliced some eggplant from the garden, brushed the slices with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and grilled both sides. I cut them up and mixed them with diced garden tomatoes, chopped kalamata olives, minced red onion, minced garlic, basil chiffonade and a teaspoon of olive oil to distrubute the flavors. A little sprinkle of sea salt and a drizzle of lemon-thyme vinaigrette that I had in the fridge in a nest of bibb lettuce. Tasted great.

Figs

Summer is the season for figs here. Greenish orbs that soften into purplish fruits called “turkey figs” are most common where I live. I don’t know if that is a reference to Turkey, since figs are of Middle Eastern origin, or if it is some farmer’s reference to poultry preferring the prolific fruits. I do know that figs are among man’s oldest cultivated trees and have played a significant role in mythology through the centuries.

Figs are also delicious, whether fresh or dried or jammed. They are full of natural sweetness, a good source of fiber, iron, calcium and potassium. They have been shown to help control diabetes and lower triglycerides, helping to lower the risk of heart disease.

I once needed to finish off a plate with something eye catching and there were some fresh figs in the cooler. I cut several in halves, soaked them for 30 minutes in a mix of balsamic vinegar and honey, and seared them cut side down on a hot skillet. I left them without moving them until the balsamic mixture had reduced to a syrup, and carefully lifted the figs out and arranged them on the plates. The sugars had caramelized on the cut sides and the figs and softened without going mushy from the heat. I poured the remaining balsamic syrup over figs. It was the hit of the plate, and even though some dishes came back with other components still on the plate, there was not a fig in sight. I used balsamic figs all the time on entree plates, salad dishes, as sides to cakes and ice creams and other desserts, and as stand alone appetizers.

Decatur Farmer's Market

This market is small but nicely placed across the street from the courthouse, in the government triangle that also houses all the county courts and offices. It is set in a tiny green space with a huge magnolia tree with wide-spread branches and tons of shade. The vendors get to set up their tables on the nice soft grass and benefit from a steady cross wind that comes from the unique angle of passing traffic on the streets. In one corner there is a twisted apple tree covered in tiny little fruits that may or may not make it to maturity. I think the tree just grew there, one of the many wild apple trees that pops up in unusual places.

There aren’t many vendors, but it is almost all food. One woman was selling soaps and lotions, another home-made pottery. One table was covered with colorful and misshapen heirloom tomatoes, two people were selling goat cheese made from local goats. The peach guy was there and I bought another week’s supply of peaches. He confirmed that next week would be the last week he would be at the markets. The peach harvest is moving north now. There were bread and salsas and pickles and a two-man band playing blues and oldies rock songs. It took about 10 minutes to circle the few vendors and see everything, which was a little disappointing because I thought Decatur, which is a much more green and bohemian-type town, would have a bigger and more vibrant market. I stretched out the time by chatting with a few vendors and standing in line for several minutes for peaches.

My friend Jenya was going to be doing a raw food demo at the market. I wanted to attend but my schedule prevented it. I did see her pull up and start unloading and went to say hello. I haven’t seen her since she left for Arizona but now she is back and looks great. I was sorry I couldn’t stay, but promised to contact her and catch up.

A quiet and shady and southern with some unique elements. I may go back later in the early fall and try again.

Chamblee Tucker Farmer's Market

^{Freshly picked local blackberries available at reasonable prices}
This Saturday market is set up in the parking lot of the Northeast Baptist Church from 9-12. The day I went I arrived at about 9:15 and there were about 10-15 people there, with about 10 or 12 vendor tents. Despite being small, they were especially friendly and offering a few unique choices in their stalls. There was a woman who had soaps, jewelery, and personalized dog tags (not soldier’s, dogs). Another, Miss Betty, sold jams and preserves and pickles made in her kitchen, from produce out of her garden. I bought some scuppernong jelly from her. I also bought a bunch of dandelion leaves from a farm just because it was unique to see someone with dandelion leaves. I’ll make a salad with some, and smoothies with the rest. I thought $3 a bunch was a bit pricy. She tried to sell me a bunch of parsely at $3 a bunch, which is about 3X what it costs at the Buford Farmer’s Market. This is not unusual, either. Herbs are one thing that are hard to get local-grown at a decent price. Parsley, and most herbs, are grown in either hot houses or under conditions that require little or no pesticide treatment, so even the market brand is healthy, and often certified USDA organic without special effort. I read there is practically no fresh-herb supply founded in the US, at least at the hot house level. Transportation networks are such that nurseries and farms in Mexico and Central/South America can ship fresh herbs in a timely manner anywhere in the States. It is a shame for local suppliers; fresh herbs is about a 200 million dollar business. All of it going to brokers and foreign farms and markets.

Even though I was there early, I bought the last 8 peaches from a woman who was musing that she should have brought more. She was selling them 3/$1 so I’m not surprised they were going quickly. They came from Byron, GA, making me think that the crops are moving north now and with a couple of weeks we will be seeing peaches from S. Carolina. Last year and the year before we got excellent peaches from S. Carolina.

From another vendor I bought some healthy looking pepper plants to replace my withering squash and stunted collards. $2 per plant. A lady at the next stall was selling bags of fresh figs for $1. There was a woman selling home-baked bread but I didn’t buy any. Everyone was friendly and willing to indulge my questions and picture taking.

The market runs from late April until the end of August. It is small, but quaint and well stocked. Just ITP and on a well-known road, it sees lots of traffic from people out on a Saturday morning.

What's Up, Doc?

I harvested all my carrots this week. There were not a lot, about twenty or so. They were a mix of traditional orange and Cosmic purple. They had grown very well despite not having been thinned properly. I would guess from the hundreds of tiny carrot seeds I planted, only a small portion of them came up. Never the less, they suffered no blight or parasites or pests. I don’t know what the rabbits are eating in the garden, if anything. They are not eating carrots. But I am.

The carrots grew quickly through the 10-12 inches of soil in the raised bed and began to burrow into the earth below. When I tried to pull them out, the first few snapped off in the hard clay. So I got a spade and carefully dug them out and washed them off. My fridge is becoming quite a larder now for the vegetables I’m collecting. From the chef’s garden at the farm I collected three ears of still-a-bit-young corn which was free of bugs or mold and sweet and delicious, more okra than I can fill a gumbo with, bunches of tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, ground cherries, some basil, and a final few squash.

What the squash bugs didn’t get the vine borers have. My towering and mighty squash plants have been decimated, tell-tale sawdust blisters on the stems. The plant have withered and mostly died. I cut into a few stems and found fat wiggling larve throughout. Such a shame. No one I have yet spoken with has had any idea how to naturally defeat these pests. Seven Dust is everyone’s answer but I want to avoid that. Most farmers say they just plant large amounts of squash with the idea that the bugs can’t kill all the plants. My little garden is not so lucky. Upon coming home and inspecting my own squash plants I saw they were victims of the borers as well. I cut open several vines and killed the larve, but I didn’t have much hope. Today I noticed that a couple of the plants seemed to have sprung back with new growth, but no flowers. If I can find some sturdy-looking pepper plants I may just pull the squash out and replant both gardens.

Watermelons are not plentiful, but I have two here and two at the farm. Naturally the ones at the farm are growing faster. One of mine here appears to have blossom rot, which I have not seen in my melons before. Terri’s sweet potato vines have almost taken over one bed of the garden.

It is not too soon to turn my thoughts toward fall and winter crops, but it is so blasted hot, with little rain and high humidity that I don’t know exactly how to proceed. I haven’t set up a nursery in the garage like I planned, but that would be the best way to grow plants until they are strong enough to go into the garden. I will look into crops like cabbage, kale, beets, and pumpkins.

Lawrenceville Farmer's Market

On Saturday S. and I met our friend Ellen for a tour of the Lawrenceville Farmer’s Market. Ellen lives in Lawrenceville and loves to eat vegetarian and organic. We arranged to meet under the gazebo in the town square where the market is usually held. She called us and said that she was at the gazebo, but there was no market set up. She thought maybe they were not doing it that day because it was 4th of July weekend and maybe there were some other functions.

I had turned up a side street to drive back through the center of town and suddenly came upon the market set up between the police station and City Hall. I told Ellen where we were and she said she would be there in a few minutes.

This market is a bit larger than most, and apparently this is their new location. A vendor told me they had been there since the first week of June. S. busied herself in conversation with a soap and lotion manufacturer while I had a breakfast bread made up for me. The woman at the stall took some leavened dough and rolled it out onto a breadboard until it was flat like a pizza crust. Then she sprinkled it with my choice of ingredients: tomatoes, basil, feta cheese and onions. She then folded it up into a package and rolled it flat again, so that all the ingredients were now equally distributed through the dough. She gave it a liberal brushing with olive oil and put it on a gas grill and closed the lid. After 4 minutes she flipped it over and let it go another 4 minutes. While this was going on Ellen joined us and ordered her own version of the grilled bread. I took a couple of pictures. She asked if I was going to “steal” her idea. I told her I wasn’t and that it was for my blog (I sooooo am going to steal it!). She cut the browned and grilled bread into quarters and folded them in a napkin. The bread was cooked completely through and very soft and tasty, and all the inner ingredients were at that perfectly just-cooked stage.

We did a long looping tour of the market, full of the usual suspects: a honey vendor, several vegetable vendors, pastries, bread, cosmetics, boiled peanuts… The main difference here was that everyone was exceptionally friendly and willing to converse. I don’t mean that folks at other markets are unpleasant and unwilling, just that we spent much more time with various vendors talking about beekeeping, fighting squash bugs, damned weather, and what is happening on the raw milk scene. I bought some various vegetables, but no squash or greens or tomatoes or cucumbers. I have plenty of my own between the gardens. I even rounded up a sack of squash, carrots, tomatoes and okra to give to Ellen. We also bought some blueberries for $4 a quart, which is about 1/2 what we pay in the store.

After about an hour, which is longer than we usually spend at the markets, Ellen had to go and get ready for work. S. and I packed up our purchases and drove out to the farm, so S. could see the chef’s garden. From there we went up Dahlonega to a winery where we took a tour and had a wine tasting. This past week we have been enjoying the fresh vegetables out of my garden and from the market. It really tastes like old-fashioned summer now.

Is That A Cucumber In Your Garden, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

Still getting four or five tomatoes a day out of the garden. The carrots are ready to harvest, I’ve picked a few okra pods and have a few more developing. The sunflowers are probably never going to develop into any seed producing heads, and if they do I think the stems will be too weak to support them. But this morning they were open and full of tiny little bees. The marigolds, sunflowers and nasturnum have all been good pollenator draws, and I’ve seen lots of bees and butterflies and bugs digging around the blossoms, and also going to the vegetable blossoms.

The squash bugs seem to be gone, but the vine borers are here in their place. They have just about killed the zucchini plant without me getting a single zuch off of it. It still has blooms, so I’m going to let it continue to struggle, but there isn’t much I can do with it. I don’t see evidence that they have hit the yellow squash yet, and I have a second crop of squash growing on them. Keeping an eye on them.

The collards have never prospered and I think it is just too hot. Collards tend to grow better in cooler weather, the explosive collard growth at the farm not withstanding. The basil has finally strengthened and flourished. I have been religiously pinching the buds off and the bushes are getting quite full. Not enough for a pint of pesto yet, but I expect to be able to start trimming them and keeping them active and producing well into the fall. I have two watermelons on the vines, each about the size of an orange. Now is the time to make sure they get plenty of water, and do it consistantly to allow for good, even growth without splitting or getting mushy inside. For this, the rain barrel is ideal.

I put up teepee shaped trelisses for the cucumber vines and tried to curtail their wandering through the garden. They don’t seem to like the bamboo and won’t curl their tendrils around it, opting to weave around each other or other plants. It takes some daily rearranging to try and train them to go up the treliss. I’ve gotten a couple of large cucs of the vines so far, and the promising little buds of many more, but like with everything in my garden it seems to be slow growing. My garden next year is going to pay more attention to the placement and set up of trelisses. Trelisses block sunlight to other plants, so I keep them in the back. But I’ve learned that companion plants that don’t like it too hot or sunny can use the shade from a treliss to prosper.

I won’t be getting enough out of the garden to fill a pantry this year, but I’m learning quite a bit and think things will be much improved for next season.

Brining a Chicken Demo

There is a wide variety of brining techniques, but the fundamentals are very simple:

1 4-5lb whole chicken
1 gallon of water
10 oz Kosher salt
6 oz white sugar
2 oz cracked black pepper
1 large red onion, sliced
4 stalks of celery, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
½ cup white wine or chicken broth
A clean, food-safe container large enough to completely submerge the chicken in the brine

Watch a demonstration video!

In a pan, bring about 1 quart of water to a boil. Add the salt and sugar and stir to dissolve (This is easier than trying to dissolve it into a gallon of cool water). Pour the liquid back into the remaining gallon of water. The water may be too warm to brine the chicken right away, so put it in the fridge until it cools (it needs to be around 40°F).

After it cools, stir in the pepper. Wash the chicken inside and out under cold running water. Place the chicken in the container and pour in the brine liquid in, making sure to fill the body cavity. Pour in enough brine liquid to completely cover the chicken. The brine is going to need 4 to 6 hours to season and soften the chicken. Cover it with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse it again under cold water. Pat the skin as dry as you can with paper towels and place in a pan or on a plate and put in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 12-18 hours. This will allow the skin to dry out and result in a crispy exterior when roasting.

Preheat an oven to 325°F. Prepare a bed of shredded vegetables in a roasting pan, including onions, carrots, celery, and any other herbs or vegetables you want to give flavor to the roasting chicken. These vegetables are not for eating, so select ones that will hold up to hours of cooking. Place the air-dried chicken atop the vegetables and place in the oven, uncovered, for 2 – 2 ½ hours, or until the meat is cooked through. If using a thermometer, take a reading from the thigh close to the body.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to rest at least 20 minutes on the counter. Don’t worry, it will stay plenty hot. The resting allows the juices to settle in the meat. After 20 minutes, carve that chicken up and enjoy!

Lovely Red Globes

Right now I’m unable to keep a year-round supply of homegrown tomatoes (got to work on that greenhouse). But the first yeild out of the garden is coming in and they are big, red and delicious. So far no losses to blossom rot or bugs, and the way they are growing I should have at least 4 weeks of tomatoes. The flavor is unbeatable, right off the vine and onto the plate. For a while there will also be local ripe tomatoes available as well.

If I can restrain myself from eating them as soon as they come off the vine, I have a recipe I want to try:






Smoked Tomato Chutney
2# Tomatoes (I think cherry tomatoes would be best, but I guess plum or romas would be okay too. Nothing as juicy as a beefsteak)
1 tablespoon chili-infused grapeseed oil (another recipe down the line)
1 cup red onions, diced
1/2 cup red peppers, diced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, cilantro and oregano, minced and mixed
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup orange juice
1/8 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fresh garlic, minced
2 tablespoon ground ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon roughly ground cumin (mortar and pestle if possible)
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Using a stovetop smoker, smoke tomatoes over low heat for 20-30 minutes (For my own smoker, I’m going to use a blend of applewood and hickory woods)

In a pot over medium high heat, add the chili oil and sautee the onions, red peppers, garlic and cumin powder until softened. Stir in sugar, orange juice, lime juice, vinegar, chili powder, and black pepper. Let the mixture simmer and reduce by half, until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

Remove the skins and seeds from the tomatoes once they have smoked and cooled. In a bowl combine the tomatoes, the liquid mixture, and the fresh herbs and stir to completely combine. Salt to taste, but it should be a balance of sweet, spicy, sour and smokey.

Serve alongside BBQ chicken, or polenta or braised lamb shanks or grilled steaks or roasted corn or whatever you damned well please…

Lilburn Farmer's Market Season Opener

I am kicking off a new season of entries with a visit to my own hometown market in Lilburn. It is set up on a vacant parking lot in the middle of downtown, which was very quaint forty years ago but just looks behind the times now in comparison to downtowns like Marietta or Roswell. But the market is in a new place now, and is the only one within 5 minutes of driving. Previously, although I had not been there, the market was on a stretch of street which allowed people to basically walk up and down, then leave. The new layout on the parking lot is basically a square of vendors within a square of vendors, giving people plenty of room to walk around. The only disadvantage is they moved out from under the trees onto a blacktop. It was 95 degrees this afternoon and it was pretty grueling after an hour. I kinda pity the vendors, even under their tents. I cannot imagine it in July.

There was a diversity of value-added products, from jelly and breads to soaps, teas, cakes, and pickles. There was a guy selling grass fed beef, someone brewing boiled peanuts, and three vendors selling shaved ice. There was a kid about 10 years old with a lemonade stand. There was not a lot of fresh produce, maybe six vendors. I talked broccoli with a woman who had harvested out the last of her farm’s broccoli. Her table was stacked with all things green; onions, kale, broccoli and lettuce. Next to her was a vendor selling tomatoes, watermelons, sweet potatoes and blueberries. She wondered outloud how a “local and organic” farm managed to get watermelons and sweet potatoes this time of the year. This is not the first time I’ve seen this kind of quietly vicious competativeness amongst farmers. Most of the other “local” vendors had tables stacked with zucchinis and squash, although all the yellow squash was very pale, except for the “questionable” vendor who had squash the color of lemons.

After stopping and talking with a few farmers and bakers and a woman who blends tea and a guy who blends spices, I ended up buying a smoked Tuscan herb blend packet of spice, a blend of organic tea called “Summer Sweet”, a pecan-butter bundt with tequila-sugar glaze, some local Snellville honey, and half a dozen South Georgia peaches that were absolutely delicious. Keep those California baseballs you find in the grocery store, whose only relation to real peaches is that they are fuzzy. These market peaches were sweet, rich with flavor, picked at ripeness, soft without being mushy, and running down your chin with juice. Wherever this guy goes with peaches, I will be there!

Squash Blossoms

Fat, orange, delicate squash blossoms herald the arrival of yellow squash! I also picked a squash bug off one of the leaves and scraed and destroyed the eggs she was depositing. My plants are still small compared to the ones on the farm, only the tomato plants seem to be thriving. They are full of tomatoes and are dragging over the tomato cages so that I have to keep setting them upright again.

The broccoli and lettuce is almost done and I will be pulling it soon, probably replacing it with kale and some other summer fruit. It might not be too soon to start thinking about fall squashs and gourds, too. The cucumber plants are getting stonger and soon I will need to trelliss them as well. I scraped back some dirt and saw some fat, if still small, carrots. Another few weeks and I hope to see the roots pushing up from the soil. The okra plants are budding too. The collards don’t seem to be getting any bigger, and something is nibbling a lattice of holes in the leaves. Because of the heat (I presume) the spinach never developed beyond a row of sprouts.

After this season I’m tearing down this garden and rebuilding it and I’m going to take a better look at the kind of soil, the pH, the composition, the balance… to see what is causing plants that I put in the ground in my yard to grow slowly and remain stunted compared to the farm garden plants, which are crowding each other out, trying to grow. The principle difference is that I used a blend of organic compost and topsoil in mine, while we turned the soil at the farm and added in a few hundred pounds of horse manure compost. We chose compost from a pile that was well broken down, probably been there for a year or so. They both get plenty of water, and equal amounts of sun. The farm garden ran wild with weeds, but weeds and grass have not been that much of a problem in my garden, and I think that is telling me something.

As to water, after Thursday’s rains my rainbarrel would have been full, except there was a leak around a metal handle on the outside of the barrel. I siliconed it and sealed the leak, but the barrel is only about 1/3 the way full now. I hooked up a hose with a soaker hose and ran it to the garden, but got no water. Seems gravity is working against me. The garden is uphill from the barrel. I thought the weight of the water in the barrel might compensate and push it up and through the hose, but at less than 1/2 full, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I will try it again when I have a full barrel. Failing that, I’m going to look into finding a small motor to drive the water up the hill.

Catch a Falling Raindrop

I ordered a rain barrel kit online, and converted our old 60 gallon garbage can into a receptacle. A funnel-type device diverts water from the gutter spout into the can, with a faucet attatchment near the bottom to attatch a hose to. I have to fiddle with the elevation a little more, putting the can up on some cinder blocks.

With this I was able to accomplish 3 things: I made use of the old garbage can that the company never came and picked up when the county switched services (they snooze, they lose!), I’m able to collect free rainwater for my garden, up to 55-60 gallons, and I’ve made our house just a little more green and environmentally friendly.

My only slight concern is whether the can will hold that much water without bursting. That's almost 500 pounds of water when it is full, and will probably get quite warm in the sun, being a black plastic container. I’m considering strapping it with some metal bands, but I’m going to wait to see what happens once it gets some water in it.

Now, we just need some rain. Naturally, there is non predicted for the entire coming week.

Of Goats and Collards

The last thing you see before a baby goat takes you down!

I visited the farm on Saturday and pulled a few more weeds, put down some seeds, and harvested some radishes. They are going great, practically pushing each other out of the ground. Everything is growing well there so I’m feeling that the 500 pounds of horse manure/compost we mixed in with the dirt was well worth the sweaty, stinky effort. The squash have doubled in size since one week ago, and long green blossom hulls are forming all over the vines. I put some tomato baskets around them to help direct them upward, vs. invading the other beds, but I don’t think the baskets are going to contain them. The collards are 18” tall and have a great collard taste. The sunflower sprouts have thickened and are climbing upward as well.

In my own garden things are progressing more slowly. Maybe it has to do with my garden not getting as many hours of direct sun everyday as the farm garden. Or it might be the mix of dirt and compost I used. Both gardens have plenty of earthworms in them, and neither appear to be beset by pests. Both get plenty of water. Of course the older crops in my garden are doing the best, the lettuce, the tomatoes, the broccoli, even the carrots are sprouting up healthy, bushy tops. Everything else feels like it has paused in the unseasonably cool weather, waiting for some hot days to grow. The nasturnums have bloomed, and I see bees, wasps, and butterflies around the flowers. The tomatoes have swollen on the vines and there are still many blooms. I know I should probably cut some of the fruit-clusters down to only one or two fruits, but I just can’t right now. I’m going to let them grow and see who develops and how fully.

After I visited the farm garden I wandered around the farm, checking out the bee-hives they had placed earlier in the week, and visiting the goats, mules and chickens. The baby goats have tripled in size and at least one is sporting horns. I took some photos of the mules and felt something tugging at my shorts. I looked down and saw a baby goat trying to eat the hem of my pants. When I walked away he gave me the butt routine… that is, he butted me in the butt. Everywhere I stopped he tried to eat my pants, and everytime I walked away he reared up on his hind legs and thrust his head at me. Too cute.

Ravishing Radishes

I’ve decided that if there is one vegetable to keep in my garden year-round and never buy from the store again, it is radishes. They are hugely prolific, sprout and mature in a matter of weeks, and probably grow as effectively in containers and terrariums as they do outdoors. With proper lighting and temp, I’m going to try and grow them indoors and out all year.

This handful came out of the farm garden, barely a month after we put seeds down. The first batch I pulled a couple of weeks ago was to thin the radishes because they were piled together and not forming properly. I still have 3X this amount left in the ground, now with more room to expand.

Radishes are known for being great in salads, but people overlook the greens, which can be eaten the same as their kale and cabbage cousins. Plus the greens are high in Vitamin C, as are the roots. The radish roots also have folic acid and other trace minerals. They have a sharp peppery taste and when they come from the store they are usually dry and a bit woody. Nothing like a radish fresh out of the ground. I was amazed at the sweet-pepper flavor and the moisture. They’ve been used for centuries as an herbal medicine, too.

The Garden Diaries - Steps Towards Sustainable

I laid down several rows of spinach seeds, and we’ve been blessed with moderate rain, so I hope to see sprouts soon. They are planted in rows next to the bibb lettuce, of which I harvested two more overdue heads. The bibb sprouted from seed is growing much slower than the transplanted heads I bought. In fact, the heads that I have already harvested have almost regrown to their original size, and are ready for cutting again.

I also cut all the heads of broccoli, careful to leave the new heads budding below. Of the eight broccoli plants, seven have produced crowns, one remains stunted and has not gotten a crown. While washing the broccoli I cut I encounted some tiny caterpillar-like worms in the crowns. I think they are also munching on the leaves, but not ravenously. They are very small, but I bet they grow bigger on a diet of greens. So, what to do? I’m determined to stay as natural as possible, even if I loose a little product to pests. When the worms get bigger, they will eat more, but mayhap they will draw the attention of birds and other predators. I know I have a colony of ladybugs becaue I see them on the lettuce quite often, and in the past I have seen wasps, mantis and other carnivores in my other gardens. I’m doing squash again this year and a couple of years ago my squash was devestated by boring weevils and squash bugs. If I encounter a pest that really takes a toll on the plants, I have to consider steps to protect the garden. I know there are several reputed ways to do this naturally and without pesticide, so I will research those methods and give them a try.

The sunflowers and corn stalks have been transplanted and placed outside to strenghten before going into the garden. I still down’t see any signs of those sunflower stems toughing up. I wonder if I have to bury the sprouting stem when they go in the garden to provide greater support.

I have not been able to find herbs anywhere for less than $3.50 per plant, and that seems rudely expensive. I’m trying to sprout rosemary, mint and cilantro from seeds, and get them going to transplant as well. Cilantro should take pretty easy, it’s virtually a weed. Try and stop it from sprouting. I have always propogated mint from cuttings, but I haven’t really run across much mint that doesn’t taste more grassy than minty, except at S.’s mom’s house. But I didn’t take care of the cuttings I took from there and they all died. Imagine, being able to kill mint. Rosemary is so slow growing I probably won’t even see anything from these plants (if they take off at all) until next year. That’s okay, I have two rosemary plants growing out front now that supply my household culinary needs.

Time to trelliss the tomatoes, too. I observed the first fruits on the vines yesterday. They are tiny and green and low to the ground. These are the tomatoes in the garden, not the ones in the tomato planter. Those plants seem healthy but are not growing, so I’m going to get something to help the dirt and maybe give them a boost. They have had a couple of blooms, but no indication yet of fruit.

The lettuce made for more great salad, and the broccoli blanced up nicely.

Curried Creme Sesame Chicken

Diced chicken dredged in flour and cornstarch, fried and drizzled with a sauce made from red curry paste, creme fraiche, soy sauce, lemon juice, honey and cilantro. All piled atop sauteed squash, zucchini, oyster mushrooms, red onions and broccoli (fresh-cut from the garden), and whole wheat couscous.

The Garden Diaries - Eating Like Cows

First bunches of bibb lettuce coming in, and they are delicious. I generally go out, knife in hand, to the garden and cut a head at the base, just above the lowest level of leaves. A rich, milky juice bleeds from the stump and I wash and spin the leaves free of all dirt, flecks of wood and hitchhiking bugs. I cut up tomatoes, and cucumbers, if we have them, and toss them with the shredded leaves. Drizzle with a simple vinaigrette and we have delicous, home-grown salads as fresh as if we had grazed in the fields.

The bibb has a sweet flavor with just a touch of bitterness that I don’t find in store-bought versions. I like it. The heads where I have harvested are sprouting new leaves, so I will be able to go back in a couple of weeks and collect more leaves. I don’ know how many times I can get this to happen. I am thinking three or four before the plants exhaust themelves. We will see. Also, it might get too hot during the summer for them to produce. For right now, live, fresh from the garden lettuces are awesome.

The Garden Diaries - Off With Their Heads!

Of eight broccoli plants, five have some kind of crowns popping out. One is getting quite big and I’m wondering when the best time to harvest a broccoli crown is. Once I figure out the best time, there will be a brutal decapitation of cruciferous vegetables!

The first few blossoms have shown up on the tomatoes, the basil is still struggling, the carrots don’t seem to have grown any more, and the nasturnums have yet to produce flowers.

Recently sewn collards and squash have sprouted, nothing yet from the peppers or okra. This weekend I’m going to sow some spinach. Everyone tells me it will be too hot and the spinach will bolt to early, but my plan is to harvest it as baby spinach before such things become a concern. I’m also going to plant the sunflower sprouts and hope they will take off. The sprouts seem very thin and weak and I have a hard time seeing how they will become a sturdy stalk 6-8’ feet tall. A half dozen shoots of corn have come up and will need transplanting soon. I’ve never been able to successfully grow corn before either the bugs or the mold got to it, but I keep trying.

Cafe Sunflower

Did a meet-and-greet this evening with some new friends at Cafe Sunflower, a vegetarian restaurant in Buckhead. They are kind of an institution, doing fun and fresh things with foods, making the vegetarian dishes look great as well as taste great. Because it is in the heart of town, we don’t get down there to eat often.

Sonseeray had a very tasty Sesame Chicken, made up of golden crispy soy chicken with broccoli, mushrooms, snow peas, zucchini, onion and bell pepper in a sweet and spicy sauce with brown rice. She even got to eat it with chopsticks. Hard to tell it was meat-free.

I had Handmade Ravioli that were filled with kaboacha squash, spinach, grilled vegetable and tofu ricotta. Served with roasted shallot marinara, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and green beans. The raviolis were huge, about two inches across, and very good. The sauce was composed of actual chunks of tomatoes, and the green beans were perfectly blanced and arranged on top.

We both had soup; Sonseeray tried the cream of mushroom soup and I had the lentil soup. She said her’s was very good, my soup was so-so. I’ve had a hard time finding anyone’s lentil soup that is better than mine. That’s not bragging, because I’m not all that crazy about mine! I want to find or develop a recipe for a really great lentil soup. For now I am still searching.

As for dinner, we talked, we laughed, we shared food stories (one person told of her adventures eating bugs in Thailand), we played trivia. We had a fun time at a nice place that focuses on good food that is good for the body.