Garden Update and Our First Harvest

Well the weather has been positively wonderful for the garden lately. It literally seems to sprout up overnight and every morning when I come out with the dog, it's completely different than the night before.

This is our first year doing the Square Foot Gardening method, and I admit I was a little worried that it wouldn't work out. I had read horror stories on the Internet about how if you don't mix the soil exactly so, the entire garden would be ruined and nothing would grow. We were a little haphazard with our soil mixing, but we figured we'd give it a try and see what happened. Surprisingly, everything has taken off and is looking phenomenal! Next year, I just may have to add another bed somewhere. (I have no idea where though - we've pretty much planted the entire yard except for a small patch of grass)

We were even able to make our first harvests yesterday! Broccoli Raab was our first vegetable that we harvested, and you'll have to check back tomorrow to see how we used it. But suffice it to say - we were quite pleased with it!

We also harvested some of our buttercrunch and romaine lettuce last night. Man, there is nothing like lettuce fresh from the garden. It was so tender and flavorful and so far from that organic romaine that we've been getting from Costco. It's going to be hard to go back to that when winter comes around again.

So far, our garden harvest tally is just a little over a pound! I can't wait to see what the final tally will be by summer's end.

Our peas have totally taken off. The tomato cage trellis has worked quite well. I was worried that some of the plants in the corners of the boxes wouldn't reach, but they certainly did and the plants are now almost as tall as I am! We planted golden snow peas and the plants have the neatest little purple flowers.

And just to show you how quickly the peas have grown, I took that picture last night and this morning, I came out and there were about 20 peas that had popped out overnight! Check out how cute they are!

The rest of the garden is also taking off. I'd show you our broccoli/cauliflower beds, and the turnip/kohlrabi/cabbage beds, but they're pretty boring. How about a picture of one of the flower beds??

And here's the rest of the large garden area. We finally planted our eggplant, pepper, zucchini, and squash seedlings, as well as more mesclun lettuce mix, but you can see that our kale and other lettuces are doing just fine. And if you squint your eyes, you can see the new herb garden at the top left of the picture.

Well that's it for today, folks! Be sure to check back tomorrow to find out what we did with our broccoli raab.

Quinoa Broccoli Salad with Mango, Red Onion, and Indian Vinaigrette

So you know how it happens, right? A friend invites you to their BBQ/Cookout that they are having at their house and you ask, "what can I bring?" Your friend replies, "oh, I don't know. Maybe some sort of side?" And then you're stuck, trying to think what you should bring. I mean, don't get me wrong - I love the old standby potato or macaroni salad, but sometimes, you want to bring something to really "wow" people. You want people to taste it and say "this is amazing! Can you bring this to my house too?"

But secretly, you want it to be an easy recipe. Something you can just throw together and can make ahead of time but will still deliver on some serious flavor. Well here you go! This recipe is delicious. And yes, I know I say that about most of my creations, but this is really really good. And easy. And you can make it ahead of time and keep it in the fridge until you need it. And seriously - just describing it gets the tastebuds going.

You know we love quinoa, right? So we threw some cooked quinoa in the bowl and added some cooked broccoli to it. You can steam, boil, roast, bake, or grill it however you want. (We simply grilled ours with olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper) Then you add some diced up mango, red onion, fresh cilantro, and then some olive oil and spices. That's it. It couldn't be easier, right?

But seriously, the flavor?? Amazing. The mango adds just a nice little pop of sweetness that is the perfect companion for the Indian flavors. This is definitely one of those salads that will be the star of any upcoming summer get-together!

 

 

Quinoa Broccoli Salad with Mango, Red Onion, and Indian Vinaigrette

Serves 4-6

 

1 cup quinoa

1 tbsp cumin seed

1 tbsp coriander seed

4 cups cooked broccoli

1 cup diced red onion

2 cups diced mango (this was about 2 whole mangos)

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 tbsp garam masala

1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

 

Add quinoa, cumin seed, and coriander seed to pot or rice cooker and cook as directed on the package instructions. Place in a large bowl and allow to cool for a few minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir well. Allow to chill for an hour or so to give flavors a chance to get all friendly like. Serve and enjoy!!

White Truffle Caper Vinaigrette

I didn't really discover capers until my early 20's. Some friends and I had driven up to Boston to visit another friend and decided to do lox and bagels on a lazy Sunday morning for breakfast. Capers were purchased and from that very first bite, I was hooked. There is something so delicious about the brininess and sharp flavor that I just love.

I wanted to grill up some potatoes to go along with our dinner, but thought it might be fun to make some sort of dipping sauce. I looked through the pantry and fridge, but nothing really spoke to me until I spied a dusty little jar of capers in the pantry. I started kicking around some ideas and finally decided to make a viniagrette. As I was grabbing ingredients to throw together, I also found a little jar of white truffle oil that we really should be using more often. After a few minutes of throwing things in the mini food processor and tasting, I realized that this was quite a tasty little dressing.

Not only is it tasty and has a nice combination of flavors, but it's dead easy to make. Seriously. You just throw all the ingredients in a mini food processor and let it go for about a minute. It whips up into this creamy delicious concoction.

It was absolutely perfect over some grilled potatoes and added the perfect little kick of flavor. But this sauce isn't just a one-trick pony. I also tried it on some grilled asparagus (Amazing!) as well as a quick romaine salad (Delicious!) so I'm sure there are several other ways to use it.

White Truffle Caper Vinaigrette

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp capers
2 tsp stone ground mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp tamari or soy sauce
2 tsp white truffle oil
pinch of salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a mini food processor. Blend for about a minute, until creamy.

Oh, and just because I love them so much - we grilled up some of the vegetarian ribz to accompany these potatoes. Man, sometimes I forget how tasty and delicious they are. Seriously - make them.

Grilled Philly Mushroom Sandwich

Listen, I promise this won't just be a "Grilling Only" blog. But I have to share this recipe with you and then I promise I'll get back to other recipes that don't require a grill. (Although seriously, grills are pretty awesome)

After the success of the mushroom gyro (and that was a very tasty success!), my husband came up with the idea for a grilled mushroom sub, sorta like a vegetarian cheesesteak. And since we live so close to Philadelphia and home of the Cheesesteak, I knew we had to do it right. (Technically, this is a "One Provolone With.")

We chopped up some lovely Baby Bella mushrooms, which are probably my favorite for just everyday tastiness. I love onions in my cheezesteaks, so we roughly chopped a gorgeous red onion to add into the mix.

The mushroom and onion mixture are drizzled with olive oil and then generously seasoned with Italian seasoning and fresh garlic, before they go straight onto a grill rack/pan. (If you don't have a grill, go ahead and saute them in a pan).

After those are all nice and cooked, we assembled the sandwich on a nice crusty hard roll with a healthy schmear (yes, that's a technical term) of marinara sauce and a few thin slices of smoked provolone. Add a generous amount of the cooked mushrooms and onions, and you've got yourself a sandwich that is guaranteed to satisfy any vegetarian. (or even omnivore!)

Seriously, this couldn't be easier and is the perfect meal for those summer nights where you don't want to spend more than 30 minutes making something hearty.

Grilled Philly Mushroom Sandwich

4 cups quartered Baby Bella mushrooms
1 cup roughly chopped red onion
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning blend
2 cloves garlic, minced

Rolls, cheese, and your favorite marinara sauce

Preheat grill to medium high. Combine mushrooms, onions, oil, salt, seasoning, and garlic. Stir well. Cook on grill pan for about 4-5 minutes, until tender but not too mushy. Assemble sandwich and ENJOY!

Our Garden - Update

Whew! We're back. And what a wonderful weekend it was. I'll do a post with some pictures of our weekend vacation, but suffice it to say it was everything we'd hoped it would be. We spent hours reading on the screened-in porch at the cottage, slept in, did some exploring - it was all amazing. We also got permission from the landowner to revisit the waterfall right by the cottage, so we spent a good portion of time taking pictures and just enjoying the beauty of it all.
Tell me this isn't a gorgeous waterfall....

In our absence, our garden exploded in growth! It was so exciting to come home and see that our garden was HUGE! I think we're going to start harvesting some things this week, which we can't wait to do. We thought we'd take a page from One Hundred Dollars A Month, which is one of my favorite daily reads, and weigh everything we harvest to get a tally for how many pounds of food we grew this summer.

I warn you - this post will be picture heavy.

Our peas have done really well. We have them trellised on tomato cages strung with netting that we got at the hardware store. I was worried that some of the plants in the corners of the squares might not reach far enough, but they certainly did and everything is looking good. Just saw a flower on a few this morning, so we're not far from a harvest.

Our onions are popping up as well...

This is that cute little napa cabbage I posted a few weeks ago. It got huge!

Here is our broccoli and cauliflower beds - we planted 2 varieties of broccoli (Calabrese and Romanesco) as well as 2 varieties of cauliflower (Snowball and Cheddar). We can't wait to see how they all turn out.

And our Broccoli Rabe is doing wonderfully. We are actually going to harvest our first batch tonight and cook it up. You know I'm going to have to try and grill some, right?? I'll let you know how that turns out.

Our Pak Choi is looking quite wonderful and I think we can start harvesting some of these pretty soon too.

And finally, our potato baskets. These absolutely exploded with growth almost overnight! They are so healthy and full. I think we're almost ready to add our second layer of dirt to the baskets. Potato plants love to have dirt mounded around them, so we'll continue to mound it up until it reaches the top. Don't they look good??

And finally, the flowers. We had some extra space so I decided to add some color to the garden. I potted some flowers and made a nice little flower bed.

 I'm going to add another flower bed this weekend, as well as another small raised bed strictly for herbs (if my darling husband will kindly build me another box).

Aren't these petunias gorgeous?

This weekend will be busy in the garden. I've got tomato seedlings I need to do something with, herbs to plant, flowers to put in, and things to harvest.

Happy Friday, y'all!

And we're off!

I can't believe how fast time has flown! This weekend, my husband and I are going to be celebrating our first anniversary. We are going to stay at his family's cottage, which is actually where we got engaged. There is a gorgeous waterfall right by the cottage, which is not only beautiful but holds a ton of memories for his family, all the way back to his grandfather who played there as a kid. And now it holds special memories for us as that's where he popped the question. I'll have to take some pictures and share them when I get back.

And I can't wait to show you pictures of our back yard! The garden has grown so big and all of our plants are doing so well. Those little seedlings I showed you two weeks ago are now huge, full-grown plants. I planted more flowers and created another flower bed. But the most exciting part is that we strung old Christmas lights across the backyard and it turned out absolutely amazing.

Well, that's it for now folks! I'll be back next week!

Drunken Cow Cheese

So last week, I showed you all of our cheesemaking equipment. I was seriously surprised at how easy cheesemaking was. I thought it'd be much harder, but using the book "Home Cheese Making" has seriously been such a huge help. It's very easy to understand and it walks you through step-by-step. You can also learn a lot from the Internet. (Seriously, what did I do before the Google machine? Or my new favorite "google," which is Pinterest. Here's my Cheese Making board if you're interested.)

I'd also purchase the cheesemaking kit to get started - it'll give you all of the ingredients and supplies that you'll need. You can also purchase them separately on Amazon or New England Cheesemaking, which is pretty much the authority on cheese making. Oh, and if I can say one important thing - cheesemaking does take a block of time. Most of it is non-active time, but you do have to make sure you are paying attention and setting a timer. It takes me about 3 1/2 to 4 hours from start to finish, and then there is the pressing time. Make sure you plan accordingly, as there is nothing worse than having to set an alarm for 2:30 in the morning so that you can take the cheese out of the press. Not that I know what that's about.

Today, I'm going to show you a quick little step-by-step of how I made my most recent cheese - a Drunken Cow Cheese. I've had a Drunken Goat cheese before, and I'm very  much looking forward to this one. It's a washed curd cheese, which means literally that - the cheese curds are washed with fresh water, as opposed to just staying in their own natural whey. This will lower the overall acidity of the cheese. (Don't worry - I know I'm throwing around a lot of terms, but it'll all make sense if you read through the book.) This is not necessarily a tough recipe, but it might be easier to start with a recipe where you don't have to wash the curds. I'll be honest though - I've done both now and I find them both about the same in difficulty. You just have to make sure you're following the directions.

Did you know you can make cheese with milk from the grocery store? You can use any form of cow's milk, as long as it isn't Ultra-pasteurized. Or you can use raw milk, provided you let it age at least 60 days.

One of the most important parts of cheesemaking is maintaining a certain temperature for a certain period of time. This is probably one of the most important parts, as certain cultures react differently at certain temperatures. This is the thermometer that was included in my cheesemaking kit, and it actually works pretty well. (although I've since upgraded to a digital one.)

Another important thing is the pot. I have a heavy Calphalon stock pot that holds the same temperature for at least 60 minutes, so it's worked perfectly for me.

So once you get the temperature to where it needs to be, you let it sit for awhile, until it has a "clean break." To me, that just means it's gets sort of jello-like and you can cut it with a knife and it holds it's shape nicely. When that happens, you can then move onto the next step, which is probably one of my favorites. Cutting the curd is when you take a sharp knife and actually cut the gelled cheese mixture into squares. The book explains it extremely well and I found it so easy to do. Look at how pretty the little squares are!

Then you slowly heat the curds, which allows them to release some of the whey, which is the clear liquid on top that you see here.

For a washed curd cheese, you scoop out this whey and replace it with clean hot water a few times, hence "washing the curds!"

It'll then go into the press and will come out looking nice and compact.

After a few hours of some air drying, it'll take a lovely little wine bath for a total of 48 hours. Ours took on the most delicious dark red color, although it still looks very light here.

And then it goes into the cellar for about 3 months. If you don't have a cheese cave like ours, here's a great post for other options. The Drunken Cow cheese is on the top right. And don't worry - that's not mold - it's salt residue from the brine.

And there you go! I can't wait to crack into this cheese! I'll have to update the post once we do! And if you've tried your hand at cheesemaking, I'd love to hear how it turned out!

Drunken Cow Cheese

 

2 gallons whole milk

1/8 tsp Mesophilic direct set culture

1/8 tsp Calcium Chloride, diluted in 1/4 cup unchlorinated water

1 tsp liquid rennet, diluted in 1/4 cup unchlorinated water

1 tablespoon cheese salt (or good quality sea salt)

6 cups water, heated to 175 degrees F

1 bottle dark red wine (i used a Merlot)

 

Pour milk into large pot. Add the diluted Calcium Chloride and stir well. Heat the milk to 90 degrees F and stir in the mesophilic culture. Cover and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Add the diluted rennet and stir for one minute. Cover and let set for 60 minutes, maintaining the temperature. If your pot does not hold heat as well as mine, you can immerse the pot in a sink of 90 degree water. You will probably have to periodically add hot water to the sink to maintain the temperature.

 

Insert a knife and see if you have a clean break. If so, you can cut the curds into 1/2" cubes. Stir gently for about a minute and then cover and let them rest.

With a sterilized measuring cup, take out about 1/3 of the whey. (this was about 2.5 cups total for me). Gradually add the heated water and stire to bring the temperature of the curds up to 92 degrees. (Again, this was about 2.5 cups for me). Stir continuously so that curds don't clump together. Once they reach 92 degrees, let them rest for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain off whey to the top of the curds using the measuring cup again. Continue to add heated water until the curd temperature is 100 degrees. Rest for 15 minutes, keeping at the target temperature and stirring occasionally to prevent clumping. Let the curds sit for 30 minutes at 100 degrees.

 

Pour curds into a cheesecloth-lined colander. Pour the curds back into the pot and break into 1/4" pieces with your fingers. Blend in the salt.

 

Pack the curds into a cheesecloth lined mold. Cover the curds with the cloth and press at 20lbs for 20 minutes. Remove the cheese from the press, unwrap and flip over. Rewrap cheese and place back into mold. Press again at 20lbs for 20 minutes. Remove, flip, rewrap, and place cheese back into press and press again for 20lbs for 12 hours.

Remove cheese from the mold and cheesecloth. Skewer 10 holes in each side of the cheese, going about halfway down each time. Bathe the cheese in wine for 24 hours, making sure the cheese is completely covered in wine and flipping halfway through. Remove, lay on a sushi mat for 6 hours, until dry to the touch. Repeat the wine bath again for 24 hours. Remove and allow to air dry until dry to the touch. (This took about 8 hours for me)

 

Store the cheese in your cheese cave (or wherever you age your cheese) at around 50 degrees F at about 85% humidity for three months. (For our cave, we just have a container of water in the bottom of the fridge and it keeps it nice and moist. Or check out this post for other DIY cheese cave ideas)

Turn cheese daily for about 2 weeks. Wipe down with a brine solution (a nice heavy salt water) if mold starts to form on the surface. (which is perfectly  normal and okay - I had to keep telling myself this)