So.....

"What do you want to have with your green beans for dinner, dear?"

California BACT

So the husband comes home for lunch the other day and I wasn't really prepared....or WAS I????

So I whipped out the bacon from my handy Clip It bacon holder and microwaved a couple strips (the only way I make bacon anymore: less grease and less mess); pulled out some local chevre; sliced up an avocado, a garden fresh tomato and two slices of local Lorraine Bakery sprouted wheat bread and toasted it and voila!  My new favorite sandwich and now his, too.  I didn't have any lettuce, so the avocado was the green substitute.  I love bacon with avocado and goat cheese with everything.  And tomato brings int the acidity it needs and you already have salt from the bacon.  Yummy.  Ok, so the bacon is not that great for you, but I was using all natural bacon that's free of nitrites/nitrates. And when you cook it between layered paper towels on a paper plate, you don't have as much grease because it all goes into the paper towels and still stays crispy.  Avocados of course, have monounsaturated fat and the goat cheese, well... I have no explanation for that. The whole grain bread isn't that bad for you even though everyone seems to think that bread is evil and a diet buster. If it's good quality, free of preservatives, whole grain, and unprocessed flour, well then it's good for you!  Tomatoes are full of vitamin C and Lycopene, but I didn't have to tell you that, did I?  Even Heinz ketchup brags about Lycopene on their bottles now.

So enjoy this easy, breezy and yummy sandwich while the tomatoes are in season!

Happy growing and happy cooking!

Duck Fat Fries

Duck fat French fries! Wonder how bad they are for you? I don't eat French fries very often, even though they're one of my favorite foods, but these are worth it!

Thank you for your Support!

Thanks to my friends who cam out to support me on Green Market Wednesday while I was wearing my bird nerd hat!

Thanks to Beverly for perking me up with her bubbly self!  I was a tad wilted from teaching the previous night.

Thanks to Sue for coming out and bringing me recipes, some product recommendations and lovely fresh tarragon.

Thanks to Pegeen for bringing her sparkling personality by and making me laugh like she always does.  I also want to thank her for lunch!  What a nice thing to do.

Thanks to Steve at Lorraine Bakery for helping me schlep all of my stuff out to the car and saving me a trip.

And as always, thanks to Audrey for providing me the opportunity to share my photography and love of nature with the community.

I will be revisiting the market on the 17th of July.  Hope to see you out there!

JESS

Cool Salad for Hot Days and Nights

Hello, blog readers!  I have received a request for some salad recipes for these hot days and nights.  This is one of my all time favorite recipes for summer.  It's from the Moosewood cookbook by Mollie Katzen.  I once had to provide lunch for a group of people and one of them was vegan, so I made this.  I really didn't expect the rest of the people to even try this salad.  They were delighted with their meal of fried chicken, mac and cheese and the rest. One of them tried it, then the rest followed and soon, they were all loving it!  I wasn't sure I would have enough for the vegan to be satiated!  It's a little prep-intensive, but worth every chop!  Enjoy.

Sri Wasano's Infamous Indonesian Rice Salad 

Serves 4 to 6

2 cups cooked, cooled brown rice*

½ cup raisins
2 chopped scallions
¼ cup toasted sesame seeds
½ cup thinly sliced water chestnuts
1 cup fresh mung bean sprouts
¼ cup toasted cashews
1 large, chopped green pepper
1 stalk chopped celery (it looks nice if you slice it on the diagonal)
fresh parsley

dressing:
¾ cup orange juice
½ cup safflower oil
1 Tbs. sesame oil
3-4 Tbs. Tamari sauce
2 Tbs. dry sherry
juice of one lemon
1-2 cloves minced garlic
½-1 tsp. freshly grated ginger root
salt + pepper

Combine all ingredients; serve chilled on greens. Optional to top with Duck Sauce, which, along with bean sprouts, sesame oil and ginger root, is available in most oriental food supply stores.

Variations to this recipe:

½ cup thinly sliced bamboo shoots
fresh, raw snow peas
fresh pineapple chunks
toasted coconut (unsweetened)

*1 cup raw rice cooked in 1¾ cups boiling, salted water

HAPPY COOKING AND HAPPY EATING!

If what goes around, comes around, then I'm in trouble! I must have squished 50 bean beetle larvae this morning!

Tropical Black Bean Salsa: (if it's not Tropical Enough for you yet)

Here's something to go with that giant bag o' chips you picked up for the upcoming week-end.  I prefer blue chips or multi-grain chips with my salsas, but this is a nice alternative to the Pace.  Of course, with all of the tomatoes and peppers starting to come in (I picked 3 or 4 tomatoes and an armful of peppers this morning), you should really break out some pico de gallo, too.  you can get hot pepper jelly at Culina (of course).  Stonewall Kitchen and Lollipop Tree both make good ones.  I'm telling you, the pepper jelly is key.

Fair warning, this stuff is addictive and there will be spoiled dinners, so don't yell at your guests if they don't eat their main course and please don't yell at me.  I warned you....

TROPICAL BLACK BEAN SALSA

1 Cup canned black beans, rinsed  and drained

1  mango, peeled , seeded and chopped

1/2 c. finely chopped fresh pineapple or one 8oz. can crushed pineapple in juice, drained

1 medium orange (optional) peeled, sectioned and finely chopped

3 small kiwis, peeled and finely chopped (2/3 cup)

1/4 c. green onions, white and light green parts, thinly sliced

1/4 c. chopped sweet red bell pepper (may also add an orange one for extra color)

2 TBL or more  chopped fresh cilantro

1TBL fresh lime juice (may subst. lemon if that’s all you have)

1-2 TBL. regular or hot pepper jelly (to taste)

1 tsp. cumin 

cayenne or hot sauce to taste

Mix everything together except kiwi.  Cover and chill for 4 to 24 hours and stir in kiwi just before serving. Makes 3 1/2 cups.

Happy Cooking and Happy Eating!

Jess

Palauan Sunset...Coconut Shell Bikini and Plane Ticket Optional

My new drink that I created for my Asian Fusion class.  What can I say, but YUM!  sorry, channeling a little Rachel Ray there.  Please forgive me.  Along with my key celebrity chef phrases (Blammo! In yo'face!) I like creating refreshing summer libations.  I always think I want something "frou frou" and girlie, until I order one at a bar and it ends up being too sweet, too strong or leaves the corners of my mouth raw from salt or sour.  Does that happen to anyone else or is it just me?  I'd love to be hard core and sophisticated like the bond chicks and drink martinis or scotch on the rocks, but I'm a wimp.

So since we can only serve wine in our cooking classes at Culina and I was bored to tears with my peach white wine sangria, I decided to make something new.  I searched to the ends of the internet and came up empty.  Then I stopped into Culina on a sloooooooow Monday and lo and behold, we had gotten in an order of Stonewall Kitchen goodies including some drink mixers.  I grabbed a bottle of Kir Royale Mixer (not exactly Asian, but the French have occupied some parts of Asia, so I reached a little), and went home to get creative.  You can thank me later for the time I put into creating this.  Such grueling work! The things I do.....

Since a Kir Royale is made with champagne, I saw promise in this and Kir Royales aren't too sweet unless you overdo the Kir and use a sweet sparkler.  I had a bottle of sparkling wine open from my failed experimentation of the previous evening ("Tastes like a watered-down wine cooler", said my teetotaling husband when he tasted it for me) and fresh mint from the garden.  A promising start, indeed!  I stirred in some of the mango nectar I opened the night before to give it the tropical fruit flavor, added in some prepared ginger and some plain coconut water and voila!  A squirt of lime rounded it out and made me very happy.  The coconut water has the added bonus of being really hydrating, so it's like hangover prevention right there in your adult beverage:  how convenient!

Here is the recipe that figured up.  I am patting myself on the back for actually measuring! Of course, you can adjust to your taste and also change up the nectar for guava or pineapple or whatever.

Enjoy and be warned: it's hard to drink just one, especially on these hot nights!

Palauan Sunset

•  3 TBL Stonewall Kitchen Kir Royale Mixer
•  3 TBL mango nectar
•  1/2 tsp. prepared ginger (Gourmet Garden brand is best in the refrig. part of produce aisle)
•  1/4 tsp. lime juice 
•  1 TBL coconut water
•  Several torn mint leaves (muddle these for more flavor release)
•  1/4 sparkling wine or champagne
•  crushed ice

Mix everything except champagne in a glass and stir or shake.  Pour in champagne and give a subtle stir.  Garnish with mint leaves and a slice of lime.  

You can find coconut water in the organic section of the grocery store.  The two brands I like are Vita Coco and O.N.E.  I used plain in the recipe, but there are some yummy flavored varieties.  My favorite to drink by itself is the Vita Coco with Pineapple.

Follow my blog! It's Fun and Fat Free!

Too Hot for Gardening for the rest of Today!!

Too Much Planted? A Checklist

So how do you know when you have too much planted, too much crammed in or too much work ahead of yourself?  There are some telltale signs, so I prepared a little checklist to help out you guys!

1. When you can't use your garden bench, because your plants are too crammed together, resulting in sore legs and a sore back rivaling any ditch-digging endeavor.
2. When you lose your footing and fall, crushing not just one, but several tomato plants and you're relieved instead of upset.
3. Number two also applies to accidentally pulling off an entire stem or even pulling an entire plant out of the ground when picking beans.
4. When you let the bugs have it, and by have it, I mean the plant they're munching.
5. When you've run out of people to give produce to, filled your freezer and still find yourself eating the same thing for lunch and dinner everyday.
6. When stuff goes bad in the refrigerator and you shrug it off  instead of shaking your fist.
7. When you give stuff to people you don't like.
8. When you'd rather clean out your closet than pick veggies.
9. When you get heat stroke because it takes so long to pick everything.

And the number 10 (ok, it's backwards, but blogger won't do it David Letterman style) way you know you've planted too much?

When you skip one day and still get this much:

Garden Tour

Today I had the pleasure of hosting two of the town's finest and most gracious women at my humble garden of chaos.  They came for a tour of the madness that is my mess of a garden, and came prepared for bugs, mud and pickin'!  Only, I'd already doled out some beans for them in ziplock baggies as a door prize for braving the hot, hot, hot almost July sun.  The first day of summer and it was a doozie.  

Forest was happy to get lots of attention and he sat with us at the table on the deck while the Tree Swallows practiced their aerobatics and the Mockingbirds defended their territory from some interlopers and the Bluebirds, Goldfinches and Little Brown Jobs visited the feeders below us in the Crepe Myrtle.  It was a wonderful way to start what promises to be a busy week, with my Asian Fusion class tomorrow night (sold out!) and a stint at Green Market Wednesday wearing my bird nerd hat.  

For the ladies who toured my garden today: thank you and please come again.  There's always a door prize when you come visit.  And a bonus, a picture of Forest, the friendliest and chattiest little garden buddy I know.  You, too, Paloma.

PS: Thank you Market Buddies

My thanks to James from Brickhouse Farm at Lilac Hill.  He really helped me a lot with all of my produce needs.    He even delivered some forgotten eggs to me! What a doll!  And a shout out to Lorraine Bakery.  Petra is the best and nicest bread baker I've ever found. And Steve....well, what a trooper.  Everything they make is fantastic!  And also, Amos and Susie Schrock for eggs and chickens.

Thanks also to Audrey for keeping that market running like a champ!

Locavore, Locavore, all the Way!

Today at Culina, we had our first (?) Market to Table Class and I think it went pretty well.  The concept is to take what you can pick up at the market, as in farmer's market and use it at home.  Pretty simple, although eating seasonally can be challenging and sometimes you can't get everything you need locally.  For instance, the garlic I picked up at the market was actually from California, but you do what you can. 

I picked up a chicken, eggs, squash, eggplant, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, blackberries, bread and cheese all from the market.  The only thing I had to supplement from the supermarket was my chicken broth, the lemons, butter, whipping cream and phyllo cups.  I had a few condiments, like sweet chili sauce, but larger markets might have Asian ingredients and I could have always made my own, but I digress.  

So, I prepared a minted cucumber salad (mint from my garden); goat cheese, leek and bacon tartlets (ok, so there's another thing, but I could have gotten local bacon had the street not been closed in front of the local meat guy); roast young chicken with rosemary and lemon (rosemary from my garden), ratatouille and a buttermilk biscuit blackberry shortcake type of thing with a cabernet chocolate sauce from the store where I was teaching the class. (supporting a local business woman).  I even picked up some local wine from the market.  So seasonal eating and local eating kind of overlap, and I felt pretty good about the choices I made today.  

As a special treat, I sauteed up some of my own green beans for them to try and also taught them how to roast beets.  That's right, beets!  From the market, since mine were so grotesquely huge and misshapen.  Most people dislike beets, but they've never had them like this!  Roasted beets are sweet like candy and everyone seemed to enjoy them greatly.  

I'm off to bed because I have to get up early to beat the heat so I can pick yet more beans. It looks like I haven't even been out there to pick beans (only YESTERDAY!!!!!!!)  It's pure bean madness is what it is!  Pretty soon I'm going to feel like the guy on Forrest Gump with the shrimp dishes, only mine will be beans! 

Bean salad, grilled beans, bean casserole, fried beans, bean pizza, pickled beans, beans and rice, bean soup, bean... Oh you get the idea!!

Happy gardening and happy cooking! Recipes to follow very soon!

Spillin' the Beans!

The beans are coming in like gangbusters!  So far, since Saturday, I've picked 7lbs. of beans and if it hadn't rained so hard yesterday and if it weren't like a bog out there, I would have probably picked another 3-4lbs. today.  Hopefully, I can get out there in the morning.

If you can get to a farmer's market and get some nice slender beans, they are a great simple side dish.  BUT, they have to be haricots vert, the sweet, tender beans that you see in nice restaurants.  These are not the ones they served you in school or even the ones you get in the store.  These are skinny and not super long, maybe 2-4 inches.  The best way to fix them is to lightly saute them in a nonstick skillet with nothing!  That's right, I said NOTHING!  I guess that's not sautéing, is it, if you don't use any oil or fat?  It's more like charring them ever so slightly.  Heat your pan on medium to medium high heat, toss in your washed and dried green beans and shake 'em around until they have little slight char marks on the, but are still bright green.  If you're cooking yellow ones, they will turn a little green on the ends.

This makes an addictive snack.  Put a bowl on the table instead of chips, bread, crackers, any of that stuff that fills you up (and out!) and go to town.  Your family, will ask you "What the what?"  But they will  like it.  If you want to give them a teeny shake or grind of sea salt, ok, but please make sure it's good quality salt.  don't mess them up with cheap table salt.  Thank you.

Remember when picking any bean, you want to pick them while they're still smooth, before they start to bulge from the seeds inside.  They will usually be no bigger than an 1/8 of an inch.

They are also good sautéed with a little butter (French of course, in keeping with our theme) or olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, slivered almonds,  onion or any of the above.  Remember not to overcook them, so if you're adding onions, cook those first.  Really, I think they are good plain.  I haven't had any complaints yet!  I will make some in class this Saturday and let you know how it goes and I promise some pictures of my own beans soon.

Last Night's Dinner: Lamb Medallions

One of my favorite dishes is lamb. Many people have only ever had their Aunt Freida's Lamb Roast with Mint Jelly, so their opinion off lamb is tainted. anyone who has ever had a really good rack of lamb, knows what lamb can be: luscious, tender and decadent. My favorite is a thyme-crusted rack that I do that is ingrained in my mind now and I don't even need the recipe. It's what a rack should be in my opinion. I've converted lots of lamb haters or skeptics with this recipe.

Last night I pulled out a package of lamb medallions I picked up the last time I was in a Fresh Market. They looked like the start of an easy and delicious meal and they proved to be just that. Originally I was going to simmer them in my clay Emile Henry flame-pot in an Indian-style sauce, but then realized I wanted the lamb unmasked, sauteed and crusted and prominent. I thought it would be nice to try the recipe they were featuring at the FM when I bought them. I remember how wonderful it smelled and the ingredients were right up my alley.

So I did a little searching and uncovered the recipe: Irish Lamb Medallions with Creamy Cabbage.

Ok, so the creamy cabbage part sounded weird, and you could leave out the cream, but I used a scant amount and it was pretty darn good.

The bonus was that I knew I had at least two heads of ready to pick Savoy cabbage in the garden! How perfect. The culinary stars were aligning!

So here is the recipe and I wish I had taken a picture, but I simply forgot. Don't pay any mind to the brand names used in this recipe. Obviously FM is pitching their stuff, since they were doing a cooking demo and trying to reel in shoppers.

Also, my tip is not to coat the medallions in pepper so that there is a "crust" unless you like all of that pepper spice. If I did it again, I would lightly coat the and I would salt them FIRST, then crushed pepper. Also, PLEASE use fresh cracked pepper, not ground pepper in a bottle. I use a Tellicherry blend. And I used a high quality sea salt from a grinder. I also sprinkled a little ground thyme in the cabbage and two cloves of garlic. I used spring onions from the garden, but would probably pick a punchier onion next time. I also used 3 strips of low sodium bacon because that's what I had on hand and I cut it into maybe one by one inch pieces. I used just a splash of half and half instead of heavy whipping cream and I used unsalted Plugra butter. I seared the meat in my flame pot and then used it for the rest of the dish. Perfect vessel for this although you might get a better SEAR with a stainless. I just love how easy clean-up is in the flame-pot and how even the cooking is. I kept the lamb covered with foil in my warming drawer, but an oven on 200 would be just fine. Be sure not to cook the meat too long in the pan, because it will continue to cook once it's covered and kept in a warm oven. I sauteed them on one side until the up side started turning slightly opaque flipped them and kept them there briefly. I would say it was about 3 minutes on each side on medium to medium high.

I served it with steamed broccoli since I had the last stalk from the garden. This is not a first date meal, but better for a couple that's been together a while ;) But any bright green veggie on the side would be great. Be sure not to cook the cabbage so long, that you don't still have some green in there. I had some whole wheat sour dough from the European bakery with it and drank a Spanish blended red wine with it. Any dry red will work with the recipe, I had a chianti reserve which I think probably punched up the sauce a bit more. ENJOY!!!

Irish Lamb Medallions with Creamy Cabbage

	3 tablespoons Antara Extra Virgin Olive Oil, divided
	4 (4 ounce) lamb tenderloin filets
	1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
	1/2 cup Pinot Noir, Robert Mondavi Private Selection
	2 tablespoons Kerrygold Unsalted Pure Irish Butter
	4 thick slices pancetta, chopped
	1 large sweet onion, peeled and chopped
	1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
	1 carrot, peeled and chopped
	1/2 head of Savoy Cabbage, shredded
	1/2 cup TFM Chicken Stock
	1/2 cup TFM Whipping Cream
	season to taste with salt and pepper

Preparation:
Heat a skillet over medium high heat for 2 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and swirl to coat. While skillet heats, press cracked pepper into the lamb, creating a thick pepper crust, then season with salt. Place lamb in the pan and sear for 2 minutes on each side. Reduce heat and continue cooking until meat is done to the desired level. Transfer lamb to a plate and cover to keep warm.
Remove pan from open flame and add wine, scraping up any browned bits. Allow wine to reduce slightly, and then swirl in the butter creating a velvety sauce. Pour sauce over the resting lamb.
Add remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and cook pancetta until golden brown. Add onion, garlic and carrot; continue cooking for 2-3 minutes, until onions are translucent and carrot is softened slightly. Add cabbage and cook over high heat for about a minute. Add stock and stir thoroughly, scraping the bottom of the pan. Add cream, heat briefly and season to taste with salt and pepper. To serve, place the lamb on top of a bed of cabbage, with the pan sauce on the side.

**** Note: you could also use pork tenderloin for this, beef or veal medallions.  Chicken might be too wimpy.

Organic Control of Hornworms

So what to do when you walk out in your garden and it resembles something from an old Japanese horror flick? Maybe your tomato plants look like they've been pruned by an overzealous garden gnome who has gone over to the dark side? When there are congregations on the leaves of your potatoes, squash and beans that look like aliens on a foliage binge? Or how about little bug orgies happening on your plants? Just yesterday I caught two squash beetles hooked together at the back end in blissful reproductive fervor. They just scampered off, still attached when I got near them. Ewww!

If you want to maintain your organic claims or at least keep your own peace of mind, there is the tried and true hand picking method. This method is the best because you know it works because you see, feel and in some cases hear the squish. Dead is dead. You should scrape off any clusters of eggs you see on the target plants as well as larvae. Below I will have photos of various pests in their different forms.

The second method is to introduce predatory or beneficial insects. Your state extension office is a good source for the bugs that are worst in your area. Beneficial insects are great because you can smile inside knowing that you are helping the circle of life. But you may not be helping your garden with this method before the damage is done. You can lead a horse to water, but you... well you know the rest of that one. For i

nstance, the hornworms (usually the tobacco hornworm on tomatoes over the tomato hornworm, contrary to popular belief as they look very similar) have natural predators such as the parasitic Braconid wasp. This wasp lays it's eggs on the back of a hornworm and they slowly suck the life out of the hos

t. Slowly is the key word here, folks. Very slowly and your plants will likely be nubs if you wait for nature to take it's course. I've let them go before and it takes a month or so before they die. Meanwhile.....

So I choose to pluck these guys off and feed em to the birds. If they're really big, like 3", your birds will probably turn up their beaks, and it would be great to be able to feed them to skunks a they love soft bodied larvae, so you might have to just.....ew.....squish them. Gross, but again, effective and final. Now, the bummer about whacking these guys is that they turn into a rea

lly cool giant moth with a pronounced proboscis they use for feeding on the same types of plants hummingbirds do, lending the nickname "hummingbird moth". They are also sometimes called a sphinx or hawk moth.

If you find one with eggs on it's back, put it in a jar to allow the eggs to hatch and then you'll have more parasitic wasps to kill future legions of hornworms. These worms are really hard to see, their white lines create an optical illusion and you can be looking right at one and not see it. The best thing to do is look for jutting stems stripped of leaves and then look down for their poo. Gross, I know, but their piles of cylindrical poo are quite impressive and noticeable. Their cover will be blown by their excrement! It's dark brown if they are just eating leaves and can tend to be greener if they are munching on your green tomatoes. You'll know when you see it. Once you locate and remove the worm, take off that stem, so it will be easier to spot damage from any others.

I'm working with Spinosad right now which is an organic controller. It is best to only use this in the dusk hours, right before dark and when there is no breeze. This can be detrimental to bees, so you don't want to use it when they are feeding or on blooms. I am currently using Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew and will let you know how it works. So far it is working on Colorado Potato Beetle larvae.

Happy Digging and Happy Eating!

I've Bean Gardening Today!

Well, I'm trying to figure out which beans are which in my garden. I have yet to find some specific and lasting garden signs so that I can keep it all straight, but.....So I made a chart and put it....somewhere! So it's guessing time with a little help from the internet and some good ol' fashioned detective work!

I know for sure that I planted these wonderful haricots vert varieties:

• Emerite Filet
• Vernandon filet
• Soleil Filet
• Nickel filet

I also planted:

• Roc d'Or
• Blue Lake
• Jade

I have had smashing success in the past with Roc d'Or, Jade and Soleil filet, but not sure if I have planted the others last year. so I am going to start blogging about my garden so I have a record.