Cheese 'n Pickles » garden

Back to Reality

Mike — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:12:25 +0000

The morning update: Heather is doing laundry and dealing with Quinn; Mike is dealing with a work emergency to be followed by a full day in the garden.

Welcome home!

Asparagus!

Mike — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:07:46 +0000

What says spring more than freshly emerging asparagus in the garden?

Sunday Night Dinner

Mike — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:00:58 +0000

It’s always uniquely satisfying to construct the majority of a meal from items you have grown yourself. This is what we did on Sunday night. I made some fresh orecchiette to pair with a sauce made primarily from eggplant. Heather suggested mixing in some hot peppers, mint (I used apple mint) and ricotta salata cheese. It came together pretty quickly and we enjoyed it out in the yard.

After the jump, a picture of the fresh orecchiette before cooking and an anecdote about the hot pepper.

We used the first couple of ‘Lemon Drop’ hot peppers that this season has yielded. They are a very pretty yellow chili pepper from Peru. I had an impossible time starting this plant (from seed), but I just kept popping more seeds into pots. About a month and a half ago the humble little plants turned a corner and really started to grow. Now I have several dozen peppers ripening. That’s certainly more than I can handle, esp. since these are pretty damn hot. Anyone want some hot peppers?

Heather’s Latest Kitchen Work

Mike — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:00:56 +0000

Earlier in the week Heather crafted a Foccacia-style pizza based on a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. It was delicious, although Heather already noted some portions of the recipe that she would handle differently.

Later in the week we had a Caprese salad crafted from a variety of tomatoes and basil from our garden. It was as good as it looks.

What we ate tonight (which would include ‘Baby O’)

Mike — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:31:30 +0000

A salad of farro, feta, chick peas, and tomatoes & cucumbers from the garden.

The best tomato so far

Mike — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:20:26 +0000

This is the first ‘German Striped’ tomato from our garden. Heather has declared it the best tomato she has ever had, and I might just agree. It had the perfect balance of tartness, acidity, and sweetness; and a very fruity flavor. The taste lingered (in a good way) in my mouth for about a half hour.

Saturday night (non-stop posting)

Mike — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 01:11:00 +0000

We went to Frankie’s 457 for dinner and sat at a table next to Sandra Oh of Grey’s Anatomy fame, which made Heather very happy. The night was polished off with some beers (root beer for Heather) in the garden.

Saturday brunch

Mike — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:46:15 +0000

Here is where I show off some of the tomatoes from our garden. We’ve got Blondkopfchen, Green Sausage, Riesentraube, and some standard grape tomatoes in the salad. Scrambled eggs and rosemary-lavender potatoes complete the meal.

July 27 Harvest

Mike — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:18:07 +0000

We came back to several obscene cucumbers (3, weighing about 5 lbs.) and other ripe veggies. Heather will turn these into dinner. That’s 3 cucumbers, 2 Marglobe tomatoes, 1 green sausage tomato, 3 Asian eggplants, and a Bulgarian Carrot hot pepper.

A garnet jewel discovered in the garden

Mike — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:28:37 +0000

The season’s first tomato. It was delicious.