Growing (and eating!) Our Own Food: Beets!

My Mom gave me these beets for my birthday (Thanks!!) As you might have read, the beet crop from my own garden was a little disappointing.  None the less I cooked, ate and wrote about my beets with pride.  Anyway, Mom's beets were bigger and growing more frequently than mine so she had some to spare.

Inspired by a delicious raw golden beet salad a friend shared with me recently, I veered from my usual path of roasting the beets to have on my own raw beet salad adventure.  Not surprisingly, I found a Bittman recipe online for raw beet salad that included a nice variation on the raw slaw like salad that paired beets with with carrots and ginger.  YUM!

I made a few changes. Here's what I did:

Raw Beet Salad

4 medium sized beets (about .75 pound), washed and trimmed
equal amount of carrots about 5 to 6 carrots (about .75 pound), washed and trimmed
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
a handful of cilantro, chopped

Grate the beets, carrots and ginger -- I used the food processor grating attachment.  Place in large bowl.
Mix the mustard, oil, and vinegar, pour into beet mixture.
Sprinkle with cilantro.

The dressing was subtle, allowing the beet flavor to shine.  I wonder what this would be like with mint in place of the cilantro... 

Growing (and eating!) Our Own Food: basil

I mentioned the other day, that I used my garden basil to make pesto using the Mark Bittman basil pesto recipe.  With garden basil, it needs to be tended and used regularly so that it doesn't flower.  I spent about 5 minutes cutting basil yesterday that yielded about 2 cups of leaves.  Until our tomatoes start appearing in droves, I can't use that much basil raw.  So I started making pesto!  I managed to keep a little in the fridge and some to freeze.   I'm hoping I can do a couple more rounds of this before the tomatoes start because it's so handy to have it on hand to put on, well, everything.... sandwiches, pasta, soup, etc.

Here's a link again to the recipe.  It's super easy and more than delicious.

Growing (and eating!) Our Own Food: Summer Squash

Slowly but surely more food is coming out of the garden.  The latest: summer squash.  Several of these delicious yellow or green veggies have found their way into my current staple, the veggie quinoa bowl. However, for a recent dinner party with friends, I wanted to make a starter rather than a main dish.  I based it on a summer food memory of breaded, fried zucchini, that I used to help my mom make years ago (Thanks MOM!).

summer squash/zucchini "fries"

ingredients:
1 large summer squash, cut into rounds
1-2 Cups bread crumbs*
1-2 Tablespoons grated parmesan
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 eggs,beaten
splash of milk
salt and pepper
neutral oil for frying

wash, then cut the squash into rounds (I prefer rounds based on the way my mom made them, while I found pictures on the internet of thick cut french fry shapes... )

*DIY bread crumbs in three steps: 
     1. save bread ends in the freezer
     2. toast bread as needed 
     3. grind the toast to thin powdery crumbs in the food processor

Mix the  parmesan and seasonings with the breadcrumbs on a plate.
Beat two eggs with a splash of milk.

Dunk each piece of squash in the egg and milk mixture, then coat it with bread crumbs.  Set aside until all are covered.

Add oil and heat it in a shallow pan, so there is a small pool covering the bottom, (I don't know the measurement on this, you need enough to make the breading sizzle, but you aren't "deep frying" here.)

Starting with the thickest slices of squash since they'll need longer to cook, place squash in pan, fry until brown on both sides (approximately 3-4 minutes on each side).

Sprinkle with extra parmesan! 

We ate ours with some pesto I made from basil that is also plentifully growing in our garden.  You won't be surprised that I turned to Mark Bittman's recipe pesto.  So simple, so delicious!!
Someone was kind enough to write up the recipe here!

Gardening!!

My husband is really into gardening and I am really into cooking, so we are both really looking forward to our second year growing some of our own food. We have plans to can some of the produce and eat it as long as we can (tomato sauce, salsa!!)   Last spring, Ryan transferred our side yard into a beautiful garden. We had a successful run with green onions, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. For some reason we could not keep a basil plant alive. We experimented with many different vegetables and fruits such as potatoes, beets, carrots, corn, and watermelon.  It was so much fun and I learned a lot about what fruit and vegetables actually go through before they reach the plate. For instance, I had no idea potatoes produced such a large plant above ground! Squash blossoms are so pretty!  What an amazing opportunity for education... for adults and children alike.  We were able to eat fresh out of the garden a lot last summer!   It was so satisfying to go pick something, wash it, prepare it, then eat it!

Our garden, mid-July!

green onions, tiny beets and arugula

one bowl of the many many tomatoes we harvested last year.  fresh tomatoes are one of the best foods in the world. fresh tomato, basil, mozzarella, and olive oil on good toasted bread may be my "desert island food".

This year, we've been planning a lot more vegetables and some new experiments.

We bought our seeds over the weekend.  We got as many organics as possible and many of them were from the  Seed Savers Exchange!  We didn't get everything on our list yesterday, but made a large dent in it. We still need tomato plants, though we are going to experiment with growing from seed too, a jalapeno plant, and brussel sprouts. I'm so excited!!

The garden is ready for Spring!

Our seed haul includes... garlic, shallots and onion starters. flowers to encourage pollination. peas: shell and snap.  green beans. fennel. carrots. zucchini. mixed lettuce. butternut squash! broccoli.  rhubarb.  herbs (including catnip for Jack!)


If you want some inspiration for growing your own food I recommend reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.