Barefoot Gardens Harvest

Tonight I harvested Kale, parsley, celery, carrots, purple, green beans, mesclun with arrugula and other greens, broccoli, okra, bell peppers, yellow squash, cilantro, a jalapeno, and onions. And 3 giant purple and gold zinnias.

stuffed tomatoes

Joel gave me some "stuffing tomatoes," so I processed some whole wheat bread with garlic, basil and Parmesan, stuffed the tomatoes, and baked for 30 min. YUM.

Butternut squash

Glad it's butternut squash season--I cut it up, sauteed it with leeks and a red bell pepper, some cumin, and chicken broth. Nice.

No more lettuce slime

There's a recent phenomenon in Macomb restaurants that would appear to be the kind of place one would go for a decent (if not exactly elegant) meal: lettuce slime. The "chefs" at both the Red Ox and Il Spazio have served me salads that have clumps of black slime in them. It's gotton so bad that before I get a salad at those places I have to request them to examine the lettuce piece by piece for slime before serving it to me. Actually, the safest bet is to order a romaine lettuce salad, since romaine doesn't turn into slime as quickly as the delicate mesclun greens that many restaurants, in an effort to appear more sophisticated, serve.

Why is lettuce slime now acceptable?

A Schizophrenic Diet

One day after work in December, after eating the last of the stored lettuce from Barefoot Gardens, I had to face the reality that, except for butternut squash, a braid of garlic and a bunch of carrots still under the frozen ground in the yard, we were out of local produce. We went to Hy-vee.

These are the fresh things I bought that I had managed to avoid for 6 months:

-Avocados from Mexico
-Blueberries from Argentina (I justified this by reasoning that my kids need color in their diet)
-"Organic," but not-so-firm Broccoli (California?)
-Slimy "organic" Spinach, which I will not buy again (California)
-"Organic" (if not really environmentally friendly or humane) bananas from I don't know where
-"Organic" potatoes that are actually in pretty decent shape for having travelled form CA.

We're eating a schizophrenic diet--local, fresh, firm, and full or flavor for the 6 warmer months and then travel weary, wilted, wrinkled, and bland for the 6 colder months.

One nice exception to this schizophrenic diet is the carrot salad that brighted our Christmas dinner. The ground thawed one day in December and we harvested several pounds of gnarly, but delicious, carrots. Well, there are more exceptions. Tom made a spectacular stuffing with BFG butternut squash and Scott Worl's dried corn that I had ground in the Nutrimill. I made cookies with Allison Farm wheat. We ordered a Ham from Grassrun Farm in Iowa.

Still, I'm not looking forward to the next 4 months of grocery store food.

Creativity from boredom

The best dishes I cook are on days when I'm uninspired and bored with the idea of making dinner. Somewhere out of that boredom, I look around and find a vegetable that needs to be eaten and I cook something good up. This week it was diced butternut squashed sauteed and cooked in short-grain brown rice and garnished with salsa and avocado. Mmm Mmm Mmmmmm I'm almost want to turn around and again right away.

Recipe: Easier and Better than a box Brownies

BROWNIES

Time: 40 minutes

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped into several pieces
8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted or unsalted butter, more for greasing pan
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
Pinch salt if you use unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional.

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Alternatively, microwave on 1% power one or two minutes at a time until melted. When chocolate is just about melted, remove from heat, and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Meanwhile, grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. If you like, also line it with waxed or parchment paper and grease that.

2. Stir in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add flour (and salt and vanilla if you are using them), and stir to incorporate. Stop stirring when no traces of flour remain.

3. Pour into pan, and bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until set and barely firm in the middle. Cool on a rack before cutting.

Yield: About 1 dozen brownies.