Some shots of the garden today

The neighbor's watermelon is encroaching on my late season Arugula! No matter, that watermelon plant is sooooo pretty. In a few weeks I'll be planting garlic where the arugula is.



Have you ever grown tomatillos? This one plant is over 5 feet tall and just as wide - it's a new veggie for me to grow, and I only got about 6 fruit so I'll give it lots more room next year.








And here we have the tansy fading. It's been blooming since early July. I have moved this plant with me from Chicago, to Richmond Heights, to the Shaw neighborhood and now here to Affton. It is also huge, over 5 feet tall. I only this year found out it was Tansy - when Kent gave it to me he said it was a Yarrow. Well, it's Tansy impersonating Yarrow!






This stink lily (amorphallus) was given to me by a neighbor in Chicago. His father was a missionary in India and brought it back to the states in the 60s. Dies back in the fall and I bring them in (must have a couple dozen of them now) to winter over. They grow from potato looking things. Once, and only once, it shot up a bloom in February. One huge, calla lily shaped flower - maroon - and it had that crazy spotted stem. Was really exciting for a few days, but the dog kept peeing around the house, then the flower started stinking - like rotting flesh! I don't mind it hasn't bloomed again.



The California poppies are hanging on and always blooming, hope they come back next year.



Silly Judy lost her sunglasses somewhere.



And finally, one of the Swiss Chards - been eating them all summer and looks like I'll be eating it into the fall!

How’d They Do That?

Now here’s something you have probably never seen before - Rainbow Roses! They’re alive!

They are so festive and no one walks by them without stopping and inspecting.



A really unusual bouquet in any quantity!

I think they’ll sell like gangbusters for Gay Pride week next year!



Question is, How'd They Do That?

Barb's Made-It-Herself Wedding Cake!

My friend Barb Eastman, up in LaPort, IN made this beautiful wedding cake at home! It called for 72 eggs and 9 lbs of butter and it is filled with lemon curd and raspberries. You rock, Babs!



Here are Barb’s notes on the cake:
“The recipe came from Epicurous.com. It’s by Melissa Murphy of Sweet Melissa Patisseries in Brooklyn. It was published in Gourmet in April, 2007. There is a video you can watch on the website. (When you get to the Epicurious site they just put in wedding cake in the “search recipes” - it’s called Lemon Raspberry wedding cake. OR there is a link below at the end of this blog)



I used about 7 half pints of raspberries (at 4.99 each!), and juiced about 20 lemons. The cake serves 125 and it was delicious. The meringue buttercream was fabulous! Much softer than the icky, greasy Wilton-type frosting that they use in grocery stores and lots of bakery cakes. The butter cream was too soft to make flowers, so the roses are real.



It gave me a healthy respect for cake professionals who charge hundreds of dollars for cakes like these. In addition to the cost of the ingredients (as I mentioned, 72 eggs (mostly just the whites, except for the 18 that went into the lemon curd)), and just under 9 pounds of butter, this took days to make. I just have a standard Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I made the cake batter recipe 3 times (as suggested in the recipe), and the frosting had to be made in three batches, also.



The most daunting part was moving the cake. I live on a hill. It is about a 30-35 degree incline (or should I say DEcline, as we had to take it downhill! My brother, Chas, and I took the back seat out of the van and he sat in the back, on the floor, holding onto the cake for dear life.



I started the cake on Monday and froze the layers as I made them. They were almost completely thawed when we split the layers, but having them just under-thawed made them easier to split. We crumb-coated and filled the cakes the day before and did the final frosting and decorating on the day of the party.



It was a great achievement and many said it was the most delicious wedding cake any of them had ever had. Thank you Melissa Murphy!!”
click here to go to recipe

Got a Vampire Problem?

I know of two types of garlic - soft neck and hard neck. Toward the end of summer last year and on a whim with an abundance of garlic bulbs I planted both soft and hard neck garlic. I separated the cloves from the bulbs and planted each "toe" root end down about two inches deep. I can't remember if we had a lotta rain or if I was just diligent about watering, but within a week or so they had sprouted leaves and by the time we had our first cold snap they were probably a foot tall.



They quickly died back only to pop out of the dirt in the spring along with the daffodils, arugula and chard.



By mid April the hard neck variety was already beginning to flower - not really a flower per se but "scapes" began to appear on the central stalk of the hard neck plants.



Well it turns out that the scapes when young and tender can be snapped off as far down the central stalk as is tender and then cooked up like asparagus. They had a wonderful mild garlic flavor with just a slight crunch to them when I used them in a stir fry.



As the scapes develop on the plant they make a couple loop-d-loops and then straighten back out - this process took about 2 weeks, once they straighted back out the stalks lose their tenderness and I read it is either time to cut them off or let them go to "seed". Each scape becomes a mini clove of garlic. I cut about half of mine off and put them in a vase where they continued to develop into mini cloves - after about a month they have formed cloves and are beginning to develop the characteristic purple skin.

I have now harvestest about a third of the plants - and this is done when about half of the leaves have turned brown - some of the bulbs are pretty small still and these are the hard necks that I did not remove the scapes from. My home grown garlic is very mildly flavored right now - I used an entire large fresh creamy white head in a batch of humus over the weekend and needed to add a store bought clove to bring it up to the garlicyness I like in humus! I imagine as they continue to dry they will develop a stronger garlic flavor.



The soft neck variety does not produce scapes. And I am finding it is more strongly flavored than the hard neck. This year I will plant even more garlic - and both kinds - the soft neck is what is used for the braided garlic you see around and I want to have enough to make a braid next year. This weekend on PBS's Diary of a Foodie, the Gourmet Magazine show, they featured garlic and I learned that the soft neck variety will store for 6 months and the hard neck for 4.

THE MOST DECADENT CHOCOLATE CAKE EVER!

Got a friend who’s a choco-holic! This cake will send them over the edge!

The espresso powder adds a nice kick (if you know what I mean).



Cocoa Chiffon Cake

2/3 cup cocoa

1 tsp instant espresso powder (optional)

3/4 cup boiling water

7 eggs-separated

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 cups un-sifted cake flour

1-1/2 cups sugar

1-1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp pure vanilla extract


Stir together cocoa and optional espresso and boiling water until smooth and set aside. Beat egg whites and cream of tarter until foamy, Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. In separate bowl combine flour, 1-1/2 cups sugar, baking soda and salt. Blend in oil, egg yolks, vanilla and reserved cocoa mixture until thoroughly blended. Gently fold in remaining egg whites. Pour batter into an un-greased 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Invert until cool.


Place cake right side up on serving plate and spread with glaze while glaze is still warm.


Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze

4 oz best quality bittersweet chocolate

4 tbl unsalted butter

2 tbl corn syrup

1 tsp pure vanilla extract


Melt chocolate with butter and whisk until smooth. Add corn syrup and vanilla and mix until smooth and shiny. Glaze cake with warm glaze, reheat if necessary to prolong fluidity.



If you like, you can double the glaze recipe and split the cake in 3 and add the chocolate glaze to the top of the bottom and middle layer and then glaze over the top after re-stacking.

I’M BAAAACK! With a recipe you’ll love!

I’M BAAAACK! With a recipe you’ll love!Posted in May 14th, 2008 | Editby Di in Food, UncategorizedCrispy Deviled Eggs Salad

This is a variation on a recipe from NPR’s Splendid Table newsletter. Fresh young herbs and fresh arugula from my garden made a wonderful deviled egg. I had never fried a deviled egg before, but I sure will again! The eggs could be stuffed a day ahead and refrigerated until you are ready to saute them.



Eggs:

8 large eggs, hard-cooked and peeled

1 tsps Dijon mustard

2 tsps finely minced chives

2 tsps finely minced arugula

2 tsps finely minced roasted red peppers

2 tsps finely minced capers

2 to 3 tbls milk

2-1/2 tsps mayonnaise

1-1/2 tsps caper brine

Salt and fresh-ground black pepper

2 to 3 tbls olive oil


Dressing for Salad:

The leftover egg stuffing

3 tbl olive oil

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2-1/2 tbls milk

2-1/2 tsps white wine vinegar

Salt and fresh-ground black pepper


3 to 4 cups of your favorite spring salad mix, the one with arugula in it was very good.



1. Cut the hard-cooked eggs in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks and place them in a medium bowl. Reserve the whites.

2. Add the mustard, chives, arugula, capers, roasted peppers, milk, mayonnaise, and carper brine to the yolks. With a fork, crush everything together into a thick paste. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Pack the mixture back into the hollows of the egg whites, so the filling is even with the surface of the egg, not mounded. You will have leftover stuffing (this becomes the salad dressing).

4. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Gently place the eggs in the pan, stuffed side down. Cook until the eggs are browned and crisped, 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper as they cook.

5. As the eggs saute, combine in a large bowl the leftover egg stuffing with all the dressing ingredients. Add the salad greens to the bowl, and toss. Heap them on a serving platter.

6. Gently lift the eggs from the pan, turn them filling side up, set them on the greens, and serve.



These were delicious deviled eggs before they were cooked, and fried without making them into a salad.

Rosemary, Garlic, Lemony Chicken on the Grill

You should have been here last night!



I marinated 5 chicken breasts for a few hours with tons of fresh minced rosemary, 5 garlic cloves sliced thinly, the juice and zest of 2 lemons and some olive oil



I have soooo much rosemary in the garden it was no big deal to use some for smoking the chicken while it cooked. The whole neighborhood smelled great.


Does this look like great chicken, or what! It was delicious.



Served it with roasted cauliflower and poblano peppers tossed with bits of bacon and dates and crushed red pepper flakes and olive oil - 425F for about 30 minutes. Mixed chopped capers, a bit of caper brine and olive oil into mayonnaise to dip the veggies in. mmmmmmmm





Now are you tempted to start an herb garden of your own? The Walter Knoll Florist Garden Center at California and LaSalle can help you get started!