Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Monday, December 29, 2014
Harvest Monday, 29 December 2014
I sort of have a harvest this week. Not that I've picked anything outside for quite some time. But I harvested them and they weren't quite ripe.
So I let them sit on my counter for a couple of months. And they seemed to ripen up. They are smaller than the normal butternut squash - about half the size. They didn't get quite as fluorescent orange as they usually do, but the taste and sweetness were there, so it worked. I almost cut the little squashes off to ripen up the earlier ones faster. But I was lazy and never got around to it. So because of my laziness I have 6.8 pounds to add to the tally this week. Now I'm at 746.7 pounds for the year which is 11 pounds over my last record year. 2015 has been a good gardening year.The squash were made into pumpkin pie for Christmas and some squash casserole for dinner. I was going to make squash soup, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I froze the last couple of cups for later.
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
Monday, December 22, 2014
Harvest Monday, 22 December 2014
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
Holiday Gifts
Monday, December 15, 2014
Harvest Monday, 15 November 2014
I'm going through them at a fast rate. I'm sure they won't last the winter. Normally they would, but I've been eating more than usual. In the past I would really cut back on my vegetable intake over the winter, but I'm trying not to this winter. I'm trying to keep up the healthy eating all through winter even without the fresh veggies inundating me from the garden. I hope I succeed.
And I always have a second vegetable for dinner besides the greens. These are the colorful ones. The oranges and purples. For dinner it is usually sweet potatoes or squash. Last year I would add the carrots into that mix. But so far I've been eating them every day for lunch in some form. I might make some squash soup for lunch soon and then maybe carrots will hit the dinner menu more often.
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Harvest Monday, 8 December 2014
I've got nothing. No harvests this week. Since what you do with your harvests is fair game for Harvest Monday, today I'd like to write about two items that I cook on a regular basis that I learned from blogs that I follow. One I know where it came from, but the other I don't remember. I wish I did since I love it so much. But I'll start with the first.
Some of the best recipes come from all over the world. I grew up with Mexican food as I lived in Colorado. There Mexican restaurants are on every corner. When I came here to Boston I fell in love with Chinese food. Sadly without being able to eat tomatoes, chilies, or soy, those cuisines are largely not available to me anymore. I can do some of them with heavy modifications, but my cooking repertoire is now sadly limited. In addition my husband doesn't eat red meat anymore. So I'm stuck with poultry and fish. One of our favorite comfort foods was meatloaf. I tried to make a turkeyloaf substitute, but I just didn't like any of the variations I tried (at least without mushrooms which I'm not eating right now either). But then Mark posted one of his dishes - Kofte or Turkish Meatballs.
These we love. I make it with an onion turkey gravy and use ground turkey instead of lamb. Though it certainly isn't a meatloaf it does fill sort of the same niche. When my onions were available I used them. Now it is just the mint and carrots from the garden. And when I made them the other week it was the last of the mint. I should have dried some mint for the winter. I guess that will have to come from the store too. The carrots are cooked in the gravy and they are so delicious that way. And here I paired it with the last of the fresh picked spinach. I'm so sad that is all used up now.My other well loved recipe is Okonomiyaki. Sometimes it is called Japanese pizza. But it is a vegetable pancake. I don't make it traditionally as I'm gluten free. So mine has a mix of gluten free flours and more eggs than usual. I also use more American toppings. The traditional toppings are bonito flakes (which I don't have and don't use), mayo, and some sauce that can be sort of replicated by equal parts ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Neither of the later two I can have. And mayos are very problematic. So I use a homemade vegan mayo (which tastes better than the mayos I can eat from the supermarkets) mixed up into a horseradish sauce and plum sauce. It really takes it out of the Asian flavors, but I still like it. It has become comfort food for me over the last several months. And it is a great way to use up any of the cabbage family crops. For a while it was Chinese cabbage. Then it switched to European cabbage. And this last week it was bok choy. Sadly all of my cabbage type greens are now gone. Though I do have some frozen and this coming week I might try to use that.
The main vegetable the pancake uses is 2 cups of cabbage and just about any other vegetable you want. I always use 1/2-1 cup of onions (depending upon whether they are green onions or bulbing onions) and about 1/2c of matchsticked carrots. Sometimes zucchini gets added. It really depends upon what is in the fridge. Like soup you can use up little odds and ends. This last week it was just choy, carrots, and bunching onions. All from the garden.
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Harvest Monday 1 December 2014
- Alliums: 0.64 lbs
- Greens: 1.24 lbs
- Greens, Asian: 3.95 lbs
- Roots: 0.09 lbs
- Greens: 4.00 lbs
- Weekly Total: 9.92 lbs
- Yearly Total: 739.90 lbs
- Yearly Tally: $1396.30
The tally is special this week. I succeeded in going over my previous record of 735lbs. That record was set in the year with no winter (2012) so I was able to plant peas and spinach in February (unheard of here). I certainly couldn't do that this year. This year the peas were planted April 4th and the spinach April 14th. Also that record had the use of my asparagus bed which hasn't given my anything at all since it was planted in 2013, and might never as most of the plants have already died. So it has been a pretty amazing year. I'm not sure why it was so good. I'll probably go over the tally in a detailed comparison later in the year.
And just because I love numbers. If you look in my sidebar you will see that I have 565 sqft of raised bed. If I use that number I get 1.3 pounds per square foot (even with the non-asparagus counted in). My goal every year is to reach a pound per square foot. So I'm way over that. Whoohoo! Of course the more important part is that it feeds me. And it has done a good job of that.
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.