Pesto

In an attempt to make more room for my tomatoes I decided to harvest the basil.  It was ready. Or ready enough, who knows. Fresh pesto is spicy and flavorful a completely different food from what is packaged and sold as pesto in stores.  I loosely followed my mom's recipe although I relied mostly on taste.  2 basil plants gave me 3 muffin tin sized pats of pesto (my mom used to freeze her pesto in ice cube trays but I think a muffin tin is a better size.)  Crazy how a ginormous pile of basil leaves processes down to almost nothing. 

 My favorite way to eat fresh pesto is tossed with spaghetti.  Simple and delicious.  How do you enjoy pesto?

Tomato Trauma

Help! What is going on with my tomatoes?  I've found at least 5 tomatoes like this on my Dona tomato plant.  Any ideas?  I haven't seen any bugs in or around the hole-y tomatoes.  Luckily the majority of the fruit are just fine.  Have you seen something like similar in your plants?  Let me know.

August Garden

 Here are a few pictures of our August garden.  The veggies in my raised bed are doing so well.  My neighbor teases me about secretly spraying Miracle Grow on them at night.  The bed looks like a green jungle (again!)  I hope the cucumbers and tomatoes are able to get enough sun to ripen. 

 How does your garden grow? 

Tomatoes

I was so focused on deciding on what variety of tomato I wanted to grow I completely forgot all I've learned about tomatoes.  It wasn't until they were in the ground that I remembered about determinate and indeterminate varieties.  Remember when I posted about this?  I also completely forgot to put my plants in at an angle to encourage a stronger stalk.  It has been a long time since I've planted a tomato.  4 years? 

This year I planted 3 tomatoes.  It was so hard to decide.  Here are the details:

Dona Salad Tomato - I really wanted to try growing a tomato that was a non-cherry variety.  However, I didn't want a beef stake.  Seems to me with our typical Pacific NW weather beefstakes have a hard time ripening.  The Dona sounded perfect - this French market hybrid is not to be missed.  Red juicy and medium sized.  Great for sandwiches and salads.  Semi-indeterminate.  So excited!


Sugar Lump - I'll admit it, the name of this one pretty much sold me over.  It is a red heirloom cherry tomato; indeterminate.  Very sweet with productive vines.

Sungold - At the last minute I decided I must have one of these reliable producers.  Remember my monster plant that took over the raised bed?  I planted this one in a giant pot and put it at our front door.  This summer you'll be greeted with a sungold with you come to visit.

Did you plant tomatoes this year?  Which ones?

Growing a Rainbow

We didn't do much planting this spring. Attempted sunflowers but the birds ate the seeds right out of the ground -we found the evidence sprinkled over the garden. The currents we planted last year are doing great, though. This year we got lots of black and red ones too. However, the girls and I have pretty much written currents off as inedible. They are sour, bitter and full of seeds. We do think they're beautiful. That counts for something, no?

On a whim I bought a big plastic planter and threw the rainbow chard seeds in it, the seeds I bought last year but never got too. My mom told me chard was easy to grow and she is definitely right. Early on I realized the plants were too crowded. I didn't thin them out, just let 'em go. I recently picked about half the plants and left the others to grow. The ones I picked are smaller and the stalks are paler than normal due to the crowding. The plants left are looking much better thanks to the extra space.

Does anyone know if I can freeze chard? I saw this post about freezing kale, but it looks like more effort than I'm willing to give. Please do leave a comment if you have a tip.

I sniffed out a handful of delicious sounding chard recipes. Yes, I could make more quiche, but my real man doesn't eat it. These recipes, though, look fit for a king. And a queen.

Orzo soup - love the addition of the egg whites, something a bit different.

Sauteed chard with garlic and lemon - um, did someone say garlic and lemon? yum.

Mushroom, chard and Gruyere lasagna - spells comfort food, doesn't it?

Tuscan bean and chard soup - sounds hearty and substantial.

Rainbow chard, pine nuts and feta - these are a few of my favorite things . . .

Rainbow chard with lemon, capers and Parmesan - it is the addition of the egg that seals the deal on this recipe for me. And the capers.

Swiss chard and red pepper gratin - Anything with the word gratin in it is fine by me.

Now for the real work. Actually making one of these recipes. I'll keep you posted on that.

Potatoes and Germany

Today we visited Trier, Germany. We just had to get one more day trip in before saying good bye. Tomorrow morning Em and Jeff head to Amsterdam on the train. There, they will toodle around, taking in the sights before returning home to Hawaii. It was a wonderful visit. I'll fill you in on all the details. Promise.
For now, though, I thought I'd share our haul of potatoes, unearthed yesterday. It was quite amusing to watch Eva, with her pink Dora shovel, try to dig up potatoes without ever touching the dirt. Do you have one of these? One of these kids who doesn't like to get her hands dirty? As a teacher I could count on having at least 1-2 kids a year in my class. Anyhoo, she still loved it. It really is like a treasure hunt. I think I may have left these in the ground too long. There are green patches on some of them. Anyone know anything about this? No green last year.

I totally recommend potatoes as an easy and kid friendly item to plant. All I did was quarter up a few potatoes that had gone to seed and the kids dropped them in the dirt. I didn't even mound them this year. The girls want to turn the whole lot into pommes frites. Not a bad idea.

Off with their heads!

We returned to Lux to find most of our sunflowers face down on the lawn. Right then the girls and I made plans to cut them down so they could have at the seeds. Our biggest sunflower was still standing. We let it live a few more days until the girls could wait no longer. It's stem was incredibly thick. I wasn't sure whether to grab an ax or my pruners to cut it down. I half expected a giant to fall from the sky when it fell over.

This year the majority of our sunflowers had black seeds. Last year ours had white seeds.

The girls loved picking at all the seeds. They got their beach buckets and piled seeds in them. Eva rummaged through our recycling for plastic bottles and made numerous shakers. There were lots of lady bugs on the flowers too which was an added bonus. We also had numerous small sunflowers that made great cut flowers.

The flowers are still sitting there in the back garden. They continue to get played with a little each day.

How are your sunflowers growing?

I couldn't help myself

It started with some frantic, spur of the moment weeding. It ended 60.00 euros later at the local nursery. Now we have a little garden spot. Just enough to satisfy our (my) need to watch something grow. We have 2 little lavender plants, 2 strawberry plants and 2 currant plants; one red and one black. I'm most excited about the currants. These plants are new to me but seem to be very common around here. Both of our neighbors have gorgeous currant plants. I hope ours do well. Maybe I'll even make some cassis. Ha. Just for fun I threw some seed potatoes in too. We had so much fun harvesting them last year - thought I may as well give it a go this year.
Also hit the seed aisle - sunflowers, pumpkins and rainbow chard.

Happy sigh. I'm excited!

Summer Tomato Recipes #2 & #3

Our monster sungold plant is continuing to produce lots of tomatoes! The Fresh Pasta Toss recipe I'm going to share with you is perfect for using up *lots* of cherry tomatoes at one time. It also doesn't require cooking. What?! Yeah, that's right. Probably explains why I've made it so often this month.

Fresh Pasta Toss

4 cups cherry tomatoes, rinsed and halved
1/4 - 1/3 cup olive oil
2-3 T balsamic vinegar
2-3 minced garlic cloves
2 t dried oregano (you can omit and add 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil)
pinch of red pepper flakes (more or less depending on preference)
generous pinch of sea or kosher salt

Put everything in a bowl, toss together, put a dish towel over the top and let it sit on the counter. The flavors will meld together and the tomatoes will soften. It can sit anywhere from 1-3 hours . . . probably more, who knows? All ingredient amounts are guesses - cater it to your liking.

Toss with spaghetti (or whatever pasta you have on hand) top with parmesano reggiano cheese. You'll want to eat this with a thick slice of crusty bread as well to mop up all the oily, garlicky goodness at the bottom of your pasta dish.

This recipe doesn't seem like much, but once you try it you'll be a believer.

My final Summer Tomato Recipe is this:

Place your tomatoes in a disposable container and GIVE THEM AWAY!! You can have too much of a good thing. I've picked 3 of these 2lb containers from my plant this month. It's totally nutso.

Digging for Gold

Michele and I, with the help of our little assistants, harvested our potatoes last weekend. It was so thrilling! We split the harvest and both ended up with a very generous amount. While digging, we listed all the potato yummies we could make - home fries, hash browns, soup, salad, bread . . . In my mind though, there was only one thing that I *had* to make. My mom's potato salad. Simply the best. The only one I eat. It's chunky, savory and not very mustardy. Potato salad is a funny thing. Everyone likes it a certain way. Some not at all, like Bryce. Managed to whip up a batch last week. For the first time ever, it actually tasted like my mom's. Emily, I wish you were here to share it with me.

Here's the recipe. No amounts, of course. I'll even tell you the secret ingredient - my mom learned this recipe from my Aunt (her sister-in-law.)

My Mom's Potato Salad

Boiled Potatoes (I used white)
Mayo
Plain old yellow mustard
Dill Pickles
Celery
Green Onions
Boiled
Eggs
S&P
The Secret: Bernstein's Italian Salad Dressing

Cut potatoes into medium to large chunks in a large bowl. While potatoes are still hot, pour on a generous amount of Bernstein's Italian Dressing. Let it soak in for a while. Add a teaspoon of mustard and a dollop of mayo, stir together. Taste. Add more mustard if needed. Add diced pickles, celery, green onions and eggs. Mix again. Salt and pepper to taste.

Twisted Carrot Soup

What to do with all those crazy carrots? Mash them all up into soup, of course! Found a recipe for curried carrot soup here. Other than peeling and chopping all those awkward sized carrots, this recipe was easy and delicious.

It turned out noticeably sweet and had just the right amount of spice. 2 teaspoons of curry powder is perfect. I wish I had the dollop of plain yogurt for the top. I also thought a squeeze of fresh lime would have been tasty. It would have provided a nice contrast to the sweetness of the soup. I had a bowl and froze the rest. It will be a summery treat in the fall.

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Don't forget Lisa will be hosting MTM. Leave her a comment when your post is up. She'll add you to the list of Muffin Tin Mamas. Lisa will also be announcing the NEXT challenge. Thanks for your suggestions.

We're off to the ocean with the in-laws (all of them!) I have a few posts prepared during my absence. I'll probably be live again next weekend. Have a wonderful week!
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Tomato Jungle and Other Garden News

It's a jungle out there. Technically, it's a tomato, potato and nasturtium jungle. See for yourself.

Can you find the tomato plant? Look for the silver tomato cage. Got it? Okay, now look at all the tomato branches reaching to either end of the bed. Sheesh! I relish reminding these plants that I knew them when they were just babies.

May Babies

If you were confused by the difference between a determinate and an indeterminate tomato plant, look no further. My tomato plant is living out it's destiny as an indeterminate variety - huge and unruly. Got to figure out some sort of staking system. I'm thinking of a stake with a V on top so I can just plop a branch in the V. Does this exist?

First 2 ripe tomatoes. Yum and yum. Sun gold variety.

Plant is LOADed with green tomatoes. It will be raining tomatoes here very soon. Beware, tomatoes may become my new strawberry.

Ghost pumpkin vine. What a beautiful pattern it's making.

Ghost pumpkin blossom.

Nasturtium. These beauties are taking over too. Lucky they can get by on their good looks.

This sweet bouquet was made by my 4 year old. Darling, right? She insisted it was put on her bedside table.

How does your garden grow? Send links!

Photo Friday

The first carrot from our garden. Can't wait to see the rest.

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Don't forget our RAINBOW challenge for Muffin Tin Monday. Send me your posts next week. I'll post your pictures as well as links to your blog. Yipeee!!!
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Broccoli Surprise

Ah, my first broccoli harvest. Couldn't wait to pop it into the steamer and savor a taste.

And that's exactly what I did.
I opened the steamer,eager with anticipation, and saw these - 2 steamed CUT WORMS!

Apparently they missed the rinsing and chopping. Yeah, I know they're just worms. Yeah, I know they were just subjected to a boiling hot steam bath. But I was totally grossed out. Utterly and completely. It may have been different if it was a friendly pink earthworm that I had discovered. But these white, puffy, seemingly gooey grub-like creatures just repulse me.

Feeling disappointed, I did some serious self-talk, reminding myself the worms were NOT in the broccoli anymore. That there was absolutely nothing wrong with the broccoli. I sampled a piece and was amazed with the flavor. Who knew broccoli was sweet? This home grown broccoli tasted nothing like the broccoli from the grocery store. Tender, sweet and the most beautiful shade of green.

After my brave nibble I went to tell Bryce about my worm fiasco. When I returned to the kitchen I found 2 of these crawling out of the sink. Washed them down the drain. Tossed the broccoli in the trash. I swear I'll eat the next harvest.

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Hello Muffin Tin Peeps! Yes, I'm talking to you. Join our flickr group. Post your pics and show your Muffin Tin Pride (okay, that's a bit much.)

www.flickr.com/groups/muffintinmeals
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