Ode to the Chive Blossom

  Do you remember that old verse 'ode to a pelican'?  Ode to the pelican: It's beak holds more than it's belly can. :)  Well right now in the garden my chives are bursting with flowers. They are so pretty in the garden, I just hated to pick them--when  typically I'm a seed saver.  But with all this rain we've been seeing here lately, I decided instead to pick half of my chive blossoms and make this vibrantly colored vinegar..that's so tasty added to  a fresh garden salad.


This lovely vinegar didn't start out this way. It was a clear white vinegar infused with heaps of fresh blossoms that gave it this lovely dark rose shade.  So if you still have chive blossoms lingering out in your garden, go out and pluck as many as you can get and make some of this fragrant and beautiful vinegar today. 

Just fill a mason jar with as many blossoms as you can snip.  I filled my jar 3/4 full and covered with white vinegar and capped.  Store your infusing blossoms in a cool dark cupboard for a couple of weeks--then simply strain through a micro sieve or coffee filter to remove any sediment. Then just fill a pretty bottle or jar and enjoy--or nice Spring gift. Thanks Spring blossoms--see you again next year!

Root Children

    Finally it’s March.  I’m saying this with fingers crossed because all of us New Englanders know so well, we can ‘march’ our way right into Spring or take an about face into Winter for another storm or two..  (or more!)
As I sit looking out of the window I can clearly see the first signs of the season.  Only spotty patches of snow remain and patches of grass.. though muddy,  peeked through, while last Autumn’s leaves blow aimlessly down the road. Are you as excited about Spring's arrival as I am?

 One of my favorite books from childhood is still one of my favorites as an adult – The Story of the Root Children. This story is about the wonderful, magical transformation from Winter into Spring. This story has been retold several times, but my favorite version  is called When the Root Children Wake Up. My mother read it to me when I was 5 or 6 years old and every year, just about this time of year.  I think of the story which begins like this:

“All winter long the trees are bare, the wind is cold and the fields are empty. But very early in the Spring the Sun begins to grow warmer, the air softer and the sky bluer. And the boys and girls grow happier though they cannot tell just why. Down underground something is happening. Something secret and wonderful. The root children who have been sleeping soundly all winter are awakened by the  Mother Earth. She comes with her candle and her little firefly helpers to tell them they must be up and at work for it will soon be Spring. They are very sleepy at first but soon begin to stretch and open their eyes and be glad that it is time to wake. Wide awake at last, in their root house, the root children work busily on their new Spring dresses. Each chooses the color she loves best – violet, yellow, blue, white, orange, red  and green– and with needle, thread and thimble, sews happily till her work is done.”

I’ll admit that even as an adult this story is exciting for me and I can still feel the wonderful anticipation of Spring and envision it through a child’s eyes.

The seeds that were sown in flats under lights a few weeks ago have germinated! The tomatoes were first, followed by the peppers. We are growing two new varieties of peppers this season--Aji Colorado and Corno Di Toro that I hope to harvest and dry to make my own chili powder this year. I'm also planning to use these moderately hot peppers in my Hot Pepper Jelly I make every year. There is something about watching pepper seedlings grow that makes me deeply happy.

        This season I'm even more inspired than other years to try new varieties as over the winter months I applied and received my state kitchen license--so at farmers market this season we'll be offering not only our herbal soaps,  herbal dips and seasoning blends we've added a line of  herbal and wine jellies, pickles, my Nonna's giardiniera, hot bruschetta in a jar  and salsa's too!

 Along with the usual Roma, grape and of course brandywine tomatoes, I'm planning to grow the Rose tomato, another heirloom variety that proved to be delicious when we grew them last year. The culinary herb garden will also be revamped this year and expanded. Now that I'm more familiar with the growing season and challenges of growing in this salty air, I can hardly wait!

Yesterday I started my scented geranium cuttings. I needed something to warm up my day and as I went about snipping my mother  rose geranium for cuttings I  spotted this little lady..that just warmed my heart-- hope she warms up your day too! Til next thyme--think Spring!

Savory Harvest Galette

 Piled all over my counter, they just drew me into the kitchen thinking of delicious recipes they'll all be used in. Besides-- a combo of root vegetables slow roasting in the oven for an hour lends warmth, and great smells to my kitchen as well as go into a very satisfying dish. Perfect, for the chilly day that it was.

 Combined with some carmelized onions, herbs and seasonings and fresh goat cheese. The outcome? Well it was both, very colorful and so tasty! I can't wait now to try another. :) You can't go wrong, no matter what assortment of veggies you might decide to use. Enjoy!





Savory Harvest Galette

 The Pastry:

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup chilled and cubed butter
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold water

2 TBLS milk - to wash top of dough before baking

In a food processor, combine the flour, salt and 1 tsp sugar until well mixed. Add the butter using pulses until you no longer see chunks of butter in the dough. Use pulses to get everything to mix together correctly,and does a better job of breaking up the butter rather than letting the machine just run.

Slowly add the ice water a tablespoon at a time while pulsing the dough until it is evenly distributed and it begins to look like play-dough. If you need to add a bit more water--add it only a teaspoon at a time. You don't want your dough to be too wet-- but it should hold together nicely.

Remove the dough from the food processor and knead for a few minutes until it begins to smooth out. Don't overwork the dough, you just want it to come together and smooth out a little bit, it should really only take a couple of minutes. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Roasting veggies:

6 medium beets, rinsed, unpeeled & quartered
4 purple top turnips, quartered
4 new red potatoes, quartered
6 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 delicata squash - unpeeled,quartered and cubed
1/2 butternut squash- peeled & cube
1/2 medium size kabocha squash, peeled & seeded
1 tsp fresh summer savory
1 TBLS fresh thyme
1 TBLS fresh oregano
1/4 cup olive oil
sea salt & ground pepper

In a large bowl toss all the vegetables with fresh herbs in olive oil. Be sure to coat them all well and turn out onto a large parchment paper lined baking sheet. Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for an hour, until the veggies have just become tender. Remove from the oven, set aside to cool.
 
Carmelizing the Onions
:
3 medium sized yellow onions, peeled & thinly sliced
2 TBLS olive oil
2 TBLS unsalted butter
titch of sugar

In a large skillet stir oil and sliced onions together over a medium heat. Cover and cook slowly until very soft, about 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover, and add the butter and continue to cook until the onions are golden brown. I like to add a pinch of sugar at this point. Remove from heat and reserve.

Other Ingredients:

Add to the roasted vegetables and toss well:
**1/2 lb fresh chard leaves,chopped; stems removed (save for another day)
** 2 apples, peeled, cored & cubed
**********************
8 oz fresh goat cheese
4 oz grated fontina cheese
:) A mug of warm apple cider to sip as your savory galette bakes in the oven.

Assembling the tart:

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll out into a circle to about a twelve inch round. Don't worry if your edges aren't smooth or perfect--galettes aren't meant to be perfect, but rather rustic looking. Take a pastry scraper and transfer the dough round to a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Mix the cheeses together and spread onto center of pastry. Next, evenly distribute the roasted vegetables over the cheese, leaving a two inch border of pastry uncovered. Now top with the carmelized onions. Drizzle with just a bit of olive oil and season with sea salt & ground pepper. Free fanfold the edges of pastry over the mixture, pinching the dough as you go along to seal. Brush the crust with milk and bake until golden brown, about 35-40 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool. May be served warm or at room temperature. * Note.. I ended up with about 1 1/2 cups vegetable filling left over in this galette, so we used the leftovers in a breakfast omelet the next day. Enjoy!

Yesterdays Roots

In they came with an armful of pumpkins and Autumn mums in hand. Our children surprised us with a visit yesterday. Typically,  they only get up here to New England from their home state of Florida during mid-winter, so this made the visit even nicer for us. I had just come in from the garden with a basket of root crops with plans of making a savory harvest galette-- turnips, beets, butternut squash, acorn squash, and carrots.. an because I've become so impatient waiting 110 days for my sweet potatoes--I pulled a few of  those too! The deer had already beat me to my patch and clearly had nibbled on many of the sweet potato vines.. Some, were smaller than others--but extremely tasty. I will definitely plant more of these next year.

An odd meal for me to be thinking of preparing on an eighty degree day out there. It felt more like the forth of July---but it turned out just yummy! Til next thyme.. happy gardening.

Lubee Alaham - Green Beans with Lamb

Green Beans with Lamb--Lubee Alaham

1 lb.seasoned ground lamb
2 TBLS olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. crushed dried basil
1 tsp. crushed dried oregano
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 lb. fresh green beans or Italian pole beans--washed and trimmed
2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced
1 cup roma tomatoes, or half a can tomato paste

In a skillet, brown meat for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Drain any excess fat. Place meat in a bowl & set aside. Using the same skillet, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft and slightly brown.. Return the meat to the skillet with the onions. Add salt, ground pepper, allspice, basil, and oregano.. Cover & cook 10 more minutes.

In a large pot, add the green beans. Stir in the tomatoes, and the tomato paste over the green beans and stir. Add the meat mixture to the green beans and bring to a gentle boil, then cover and simmer for 1 hour, or more until beans are fork tender. Serve over rice pilaf, steamed bulgur or creamy polenta. Enjoy!

Winding down in the garden

   Jack Frost might soon be just around the corner, but I say, bring it on. Early Autumn is an amazingly abundant time of year, and we have no less variety in this season than we had at the height of summer. In the Fall, a whole new cast of characters take the stage. Leeks, celeriac, turnips and radishes, cabbages, potatoes, carrots and beets, sweet potatoes and squashes. Oh the marvelous winter squash!  There will be so many inspiring things to cook, most of which would be unpalatable during the warmer times just weeks ago. Soups, stews, roasts, gratins, purées....roasted vegetables and pies! Once you embrace the cool season, you don't even miss the tomatoes. Well, maybe just a little.



Our tomato yield this season has been just wonderful and if these warmer days continue like this week we will be harvesting up to the last blush of tomato can be picked. What will remain of the green tomatoes will go into piccalilli that I make annually.  This morning I picked 30 more pounds of roma tomatoes to roast and prepare sauce with.  We've put up forty quart jars of whole plums and roasted the rest.

The herbs are nearly all harvested and drying for winter dishes and tea, and as I was finishing up today in the garden I decided to sow some last minute bloomsdale spinach and more greens.  The hoop house is now cleared out from the seasons peppers and eggplant, so it was a good spot to plant my garlic for next Spring.
I hope your garden has been as bountiful as ours. Til next thyme...happy gardening.

Stuffed Pattypan Squash

Stuffed Pattypan Squash

2 medium eggplants cut into chunks
2 summer squash, halved lengthwise and cut
2 pattypan squash, halved and quartered
2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut
2 cousa squash, halved lengthwise and cut
2 sweet red peppers,halved, deseeded and chopped
1 bulb of fennel, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 medium red onion, peeled and cut into wedges
2 shallots finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground lamb *optional
1 cup cooked jasmine rice
2 TBLS lemon rosemary olive oil
2 TBLS minced fresh parsley
½ tsp summer savory, minced
1/4 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
sea salt & ground pepper to taste
2 oz crumbed feta cheese
3 oz shredded fontina cheese
6 additional pattypan squash-washed & scooped out

Wash, pat dry and cut all the vegetables. No need to be fussy, as you will cut them all again once they've been roasted. Toss them all into a large bowl and drizzle olive oil over and toss very well, so that they all been coated in the olive. Place them onto your parchment lined sheet pans, sprinkle fresh herbs, seasonings and one last drizzle of olive oil. Try not to overlap the vegetables on your cooking sheet though, so that they will roast better this way. Roast in a 400 degree oven for approximately 30 - 40 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked through and just crisping around the edges. Sprinkle a little white vinegar over the vegetables as soon as they come out of the oven and set aside to cool. Once the vegetables have cooled, dice them up into smaller, bite sized pieces.

As your vegetables are roasting, trim tops and with a spoon, scoop out pattypan pulp. Chop and reserve.

In a skillet saute the shallots, and ground lamb in a bit of olive oil. Add the chopped pattypan pulp last and cook for just a few minutes.

Add cheese mixture to the roasted vegetables, the jasmine rice and blend this with the lamb mixture and toss gently. Spoon mixture into reserved pattypan shells. Sprinkle with paprika. Place in an ungreased baking dish and pour water or vegetable stock into bottom of pan about 1/4 way up the side of the squash.
Cover and bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until heated through. Uncover and bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is lightly browned. I like to spritz fresh lemon juice over these pattypans before serving. Enjoy!