Spring Seedlings

It really is ridiculous how happy I am having fresh herbs to cook with again. And I am days away from a first salad harvest from the garden. What's that, you'd like a tour? I'd be delighted. It's still all babies and I need to mulch it as soon as Jeeps can give me grass clippings. But anyway, come along and look.

Spinach and radishes on the left. Carrots on the right, which need thinning, which is an OCD job I loathe, but it's the nature of the beast.  

Next bed over, I'm growing fennel. Fennel fennel fennel, I planted like 24 bulbs of it. LOVE fennel. Last night I sauteed chicken sausage with red onions, yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes and zucchini. And right at the end I ran out, clipped off a bunch of feathery fennel tops, clipped another bunch of fresh parsley, chopped it all up and stirred it in. There wasn't a scrap left.

On the right are broccoli seedlings surrounded by radishes. I companion-plant whenever possible, and I read that these two go well together. So I made a grid of radish seeds and planted the broccoli inside the boxes. On the other hand, the same source said, rather vehemently, not to companion-plant fennel with ANYTHING. So if the whole garden should fail, we all know why.

Pea plants are starting to climb. Nearly a third of this crop, which was planted near the tulips, was wiped out by a vicious pack of voles. We've declared war with bait and snap traps. Killed five of them in one day. And I enjoyed it.

For dinner tonight we were having burgers on the grill, but on the side I sauteed red onion and garlic in olive oil, then added a can of drained, rinsed cannelini beans and let it cook on low about ten minutes. Then I added half a bag of baby spinach and some chopped parsley. I'm kind of a parsley whore.

Bouquet by Panda. I love handing her scissors and a mason jar and saying, "Pick something for the table." Usually she just has at it, but tonight I did give specific direction because my columbines are in bloom, and these purple ones look pretty with the chartreuse leaves of a golden bleeding heart. She arranged it beautifully though.

(Sigh)...I love spring.

Mother's Day Pinwheels

Breakfast was big on Mother's Day, but dinner was about using the leftovers. I had leftover beef stew, and one (1) sheet of puff pastry from the ham and pea tart. I also had tons of fresh herbs because that afternoon we'd gone to Claire's Nursery & Garden Center in Patterson, NY, which is a Mother's Day ritual. They don't have a website so I can't link, but truly they are the greatest nursery on the planet. If you're in the area, I highly recommend stopping by.

Anyway, with a fistful of parsley, thyme, basil and oregano I decided to use the puff pastry to make some parmesan-herb pinwheels to go along with the stew and orzo.

Parmesan-Herb Pinwheels

• Fistful of any kind of fresh herbs, chopped fine
• 2-3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
• 1 egg or egg white

Preheat oven to 425. Spray a baking sheet with Pam.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry. Brush with beaten egg or egg white.

Sprinkle with herbs and parmesan.

Starting at one end, roll up pastry like a jelly roll. Press the seam down.

With a sharp knife, cut 1/2" slices and place on baking sheet.

Bake 10-11 minutes until golden brown. Immediately reserve 3 or 4 for yourself because you are the Mommy and you must get yours.

Serve.  Stand back.  Be adored.

Instead of pinwheels, you can put the herbs and cheese on 1/2 the puff pastry rectangle, then fold the plain half over and roll it out a little again. Trim the ends to make a neat rectangle, then cut into 1/2" strips. Twist each strip to make a cheese straw. Bake 10-11 minutes. A little more labor intensive but very attractive served at a cocktail party.

Thrush Green: The Seinfeld of its Time

“You are now collecting your People delightfully, getting them exactly into such a spot as is the delight of my life; 3 or 4 Families in a Country Village is the very thing to work on.”

— Jane Austen

The very thing to work on, and for me, the very thing to read.  I tripped over Thrush Green about 5 years ago at the Katonah Library.  I have rather Anglophile tastes in books and this looked appealing.  Besides, the author's name was "Miss Read."  Obviously a pseudonym, but how could you go wrong?  I took it home and was immediately smitten.  I needed to read all of it.  Engaging the beautiful inter-library loan system of Westchester County, I was soon getting automated phone messages twice a week telling me my books were ready for pickup.  I stacked them all up in order on my dresser, ready to read from start to finish.

"What's it about?" Jeeps asked.

I thought about it a minute, then answered "Nothing."

Really.  It's about nothing.  Just this place called Thrush Green and the people who live there in the 1950s.  No major plot, no Peyton Place drama, no cliffhangers between books.  You get to know the characters and follow them about their very ordinary lives.  Each book spans roughly a year.  The characters come and go:  newcomers arrive; babies are born; lifetime residents pass away.  Through it all is this charming village green around which life revolves.

I am a sucker for this kind of thing.  I ripped through Thrush Green and then went on to read the entire Fairacre series.  That was five years ago and I recently got a hankering to go back to the world of Miss Read.  At Christmas I thought about buying myself the entire set as a present, but then decided to go the library route again.  I'm on the third book of Thrush Green and it's just as delightful as I remember.  There is tea galore but no food worth mentioning so this is a pure "Reads" post.

By the way, a bit of trivia if you are familiar with Enya's music:  she has a track on her Watermark album called "Miss Clare Remembers," and one on her Shepherd Moons album titled "No Holly for Miss Quinn."  Both are books in the Fairacre series.

Wondering if there were other fans out there, I found this post from the blog Eclectic Books which beautifully expresses exactly how I feel about the series:

I’ve tried to explain why these books work so well as mood enhancers for me and what I like about them with varying degrees of success.  Usually someone who has read some of them understands, but from those who haven’t I frequently get puzzled looks and polite nods...I’ve given this a lot of thought and decided that I have to give it one more try.

For me, reading these novels is akin to visiting old friends from back home and it’s the back home part that’s important.  It’s back home the way you remember it, the way you always want it to stay.  I turn to Miss Read for the same reason that I might call my sister or nephew or an old friend–just to immerse myself, for a little while, in the details of ordinary life so I can escape whatever ugliness has imposed itself.  I don’t need to dwell on what’s wrong;  I need to be reminded that life goes on in all of its ordinary, sometimes wacky details and that it will continue to go on in spite of what seems to be overwhelming me at the moment.

"The Comfort of Miss Read" by Becky, the "Cerebral Rat", Eclectic Books, 2009

Conference Crock

Conference Crock (n): Assembling a dish in the slow cooker while on a conference call.
Mutation (n):  Repeatedly checking the mute button on your phone while you assemble a conference crock.

This is a mongrel recipe of my own devices, and a few ideas off the internet. I had half an hour to throw it together and as a result, I took no pictures during the prep. You just get the money shot.

Mongrel Beef Stew

• 2 lbs boneless chuck steak, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1 packet Lipton onion soup mix
• 4-5 carrots, diced
• 10-12 mushrooms, stemmed and quartered
• 1/2 bag of frozen pearl onions
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup red wine
• 1/2 bag frozen peas

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Put flour in ziplock bag. Add half the meat pieces, shake to coat, and put into skillet. Cook until browned on all sides then put meat in slow cooker. Brown other half of meat the same way. Deglaze the pan with the red wine, scraping the bits up, then pour wine into slow cooker.

Put carrots, mushrooms, onions and tomato paste into slow cooker. If you have time you can give the mushrooms a quick saute but it's not necessary. Pour the onion soup mix over all. Add water and cover.

I didn't start this until 1 in the afternoon so I put David on high for 3 hours, then turned it to low. If you are starting earlier, just put it on low for 6-8 hours. I stirred every now and then and added another cup of red wine when I felt it was too thick. You could also just add plain water, the onion soup mix has enough flavor of its own and in fact, I wouldn't use beef broth because the soup mix is on the salty side. I didn't season the meat with salt and pepper for this reason.

Before serving, stir in the frozen peas and cover cooker again until heated through.

Serve with pasta, egg noodles or mashed potatoes.

A Creative Use of Leftovers

Redman loves rice, all kinds. Yellow rice and peas especially. But what can you do with the rest of it two days later? Or any kind of leftover rice/pea or rice/bean dish?

You can mix 2 or 3 eggs into it, form into patties and fry them up. They go well on top of a salad, or on the side of soup. Served with steamed broccoli and fennel-celery slaw, it all makes for a very nice vegetarian meal.

Speaking of which, some of you have asked if I am striving towards more vegetarian fare. I'm not, although it is a healthier way of eating and I get a lot of good ideas from the Moosewood Cookbook, and also from Stacey Snacks, who has her Meatless Mondays. We're not shy about eating meat around here, but Jeeps and I are pretty in sync about when we need to pull back and go with the plant life. When my vegetable garden is in full swing, we definitely eat less meat.

By the way, the rice-and-pea patties were the perfect vehicle for pickled red onions. Even Pandagirl tried them in combination and liked them.

Twig and Wheat Berries

Oh behave. My torrid affair with the Moosewood Cookbook continues, and I have unusual grains like Wheat Berries tucked in a corner of my mind. So when I see a bag of Red Mill White Wheat Berries on the shelf at DeCicco's, I think, Ah-hah, yes, I should buy these.

Wheat berries refers to the entire wheat kernel, except for the hull:

They resemble barley, and take about an hour and change to prepare. They smell really good while cooking—toasty, nutty, with a little bit of vanilla in there as well. The Red Mill bag had a salad recipe on the back which I tweaked to suit my own purposes, and served with some grilled apple sausage.

Tweaked Red Mill Wheat Berry Salad

• 1 cup cooked wheat berries (1/2 cup grains to 1 3/4 cup water, simmered for at least an hour)
• 1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2-3 stalks celery, sliced
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 2-3 scallions, sliced, or 1 tbsp dried, minced onion
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• Vinaigrette of olive oil, white wine vinegar and honey mustard (or equal parts honey and dijon mustard but the mustard really is the star that pulls the salad together, don't skip it)

Combine all ingredients, toss well. Serve.

Die.

The greens are a sauteed kale, red onion and toasted corn salad which my friend Cyd told me about only in terms of ingredients. I kind of just fudge it all together and it's awesome (plus it addresses some of my anemia issues).

In a Pickle, Epilogue

The chick pea salad is gone and what's left of the pickled red onions is fetchingly in a mason jar, evoking the days when our ancestors "put up."

I combined both dishes in my Saturday lunch, having made falafel for Pandagirl and me. Falafel is a ball or patty made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans. Falafel is usually served in a pita pocket, or wrapped in a flatbread, and served with salads, pickled vegetables (!) and drizzled with hot or tahini-based sauce.

The Moosewood Cookbook has a recipe for making your own, but I just buy the boxed mix, to which you add water, let sit, and then shape into patties and fry. I put two on a bun for Panda with ranch dressing, lettuce and tomato, but for myself, I constructed a salad with the ginger chickpeas on the bottom, the falafel next and then topped with the red onions.

I did the same for today's lunch but instead of falafel, I piled the pickled onions on the leftover half of skirt steak I took home from Croton Creek last night. Perfection.  

Dare I say, happily-ever-after perfection.

Goose Egg

I've never had anything but chicken eggs.  I hear duck eggs are something special.  Food shopping yesterday at DeCicco's, I saw both quail eggs and goose eggs.  I don't (yet) know what to do with a quail egg but the goose eggs looked delightful so I bought two.  Here's one, with a quarter for scale:

Ain't that something?  Pandagirl was fascinated and suggested we hard-boil one for breakfast this morning.  So I did, not sure about how long to boil but I googled around and decided on 12 minutes.  This left the bright orange yolk still a little runny which is the way I like it.  The shell of a goose egg is harder, and the white is really firm.

I had it halved, salted and peppered on a plate, and was buttering some toast to attractively add to the composition when I turned around to find Panda Piglet had eaten her half already and was starting to nibble on mine.  Assassin!!  So here's the sloppy money shot, believe me it tasted better than it looks here:

I can't say it tasted any different than a chicken egg.  It was super fresh and you couldn't beat that bright orange color.  It was just...a bigger egg taste overall.  It was a big egg.  Big.  HUGE!  The best I've ever seen!

In a Pickle, Part II

These looked (and were) ridiculous easy to make and the Moose said they would keep "practically indefinitely." Love that. I can see these on top of a burger, or in fish tacos, or with bean salad, or on crostini, or with tuna salad, or... (Did I mention practically indefinitely?)

Pickled Red Onions

• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 3 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp whole peppercorns (OR 1 tsp of pickling spice which I had in the house, don't ask me why)
• 4 medium red onions, sliced very thin (and apologies to Redman who was wept at the kitchen computer as I sliced.)

Fill a teakettle with water and put it up to boil

Combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper (or pickling spice) in a bowl and stir until the sugar is dissolved

Put onion slices in colander in the sink and pour boiling water over them. They will wilt slightly. Drain well and transfer to the bowl with the marinade.

Cover and allow those babies to get drunk for several hours. Store in the refrigerator and use as needed. Practically indefinitely.

In a Pickle, Part I

I took The New Moosewood Cookbook to bed the other night and—... Yes, may I help you? It was sensational, all right? We are in love.

But anyway, I read through the MC like it was a novel and got really jazzed about a lot of different recipes. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I start getting into yummy slaws, cold salads and pickled things, to be eaten outside with yummy grilled things. Two particular recipes I felt I needed to try right away: Ginger Chick Peas and Pickled Red Onions.

Gingery Marinaded Chick Peas

This calls for dried chick peas, presoaked for 1 1/2 hours. But the Moose does acknowledge that some of us live in the real world, and blessed the use of canned chick peas, drained and rinsed well. I also added my own twist of grated carrot because I tend to think of carrots when ginger is mentioned. Some people think of Mary Ann. Whatever.

Apparently this also tastes best when made a few days ahead, so my batch is chilling out in the fridge and I will have to get back to you over the weekend.

• 2 cans chick peas, rinsed and drained well
• (Optional) 4 carrots, peeled and grated
• 5 to 6 tbsp olive oil
• 3 to 4 tbs lemon juice (I squeezed two lemons)
• 1 to 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 to 2 tbsp finely minced ginger (fresh or from a jar)
• 2 to 3 tbsp red wine vinegar (I confess this seemed like too much acid with the lemon juice; I left it out.
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup finely minced red onion
• freshly ground black pepper

Combine everything, mix well, cover tightly and let marinade "practically indefinitely" (I love that!!). Stir from the bottom periodically during marination.