- Coordinates:61801
- Feelin'?:
excited
We spent a bit of Sunday afternoon cleaning up our community garden plot for the season.
I decided to leave the greens for another week before we had to officially be out of the plot for tilling. I am totally burned out on greens; the harvest at home is more than enough, so all the stuff at the plot gets donated.
We're happy with our 12x24 double plot, and you can see the local drainage problems in the grandstand infield just miss us, so we're keeping the plots for next year and on I hope. $20 rental for the season, you can't beat that!
This was the first year for the comm garden, and while there were a few snags early on, it's been a great experience.
We need to edit the planting list, as we (as usual) have grandiose plans for next year. I kinda think you need about three to six 12x12' plots if you want to cover all the bases.
Recaps from last year:
pictures from me
from ChambanaCranksgiving
from Smile Politely
I used a mishmash of the following three recipes:
http://italianfood.about.com/od/gno
http://www.deliciousdays.com/archives/2
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyle
Baked a couple pounds of potatoes and peeled* them. Mashed the flesh and divided it into quarters (~1/2 lb each portion)
( Read more... )
*Re: leftover potato peels: Not wanting to waste the peels, I chopped them up and fried them in bacon grease along with rough slivered onions and chopped mushrooms. Topped with shredded cheese and a couple poached eggs for a potato skin hobo skillet type thing. A junky treat to myself for raking leaves. ;)
- Feelin'?:
satisfied
Store-bought extract on the left, homemade on the right. 2 weeks to go, so it looks like it's on the right track. Didn't have two white or two clear spoons and I wasn't sure the metal spoons would show enough, but I think you can see the difference.
Wish I had thought of putting a few drops of extract on a piece of paper each week to get a better record of it, but I think this will do just fine this time around.
Previously:
vanilla extract: six weeks
vanilla extract: two weeks
vanilla extract: one week elapsed
week 0, day 0
- Feelin'?:
sore
(P.S. Last week, I got my greedy little hands on a Pris Moon Bun. ♥)
2 cups water
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup instant coffee
1 pt. vodka or brandy
1 vanilla bean
boil sugar and water; add coffee and mix well; let cool, then add vodka; pour into a jar and
add vanilla bean, age at least 2 months.
when ready add ice to a glass, pour over a shot of the mixture and top with cream
I would add that you should split the vanilla bean open, leaving the ends intact so it doesn't completely split apart.
What can I say? Bento + WtWTA = awesome. more info at Anna's blog post.
Slow and low, with apple and hickory wood, about 3 1/2-4 hours. Had to finish the potatoes in the oven to free up the grill for other stuff; they needed to cook a little more, so braised them with a little oktoberfest and water. The eggplant was an experiment, I think I like it, probably about as much as regular grilled eggplant slices.
These are not really that good together, because once you start, the smoke flavor becomes overpowering. Good to use one smoked competent in a dish. For example, finely diced smoked potatoes make an awesome addition to enchilada or omelet fillings.
This morning I finely diced just one of these potato halves and added it to the egg mixture for these egg muffins. It was so good! The potato bits tasted like smoked ham!
Inspired by this, I'm starting a big cloth napkin project so we can stop using paper napkins. Thought I'd start easy, with some precut fabric quarters. Kinda like how the colors worked on this one, will probably get more to make a set (2 or 4?).
Lots of scraps and reclaimed clothing material will be going into future pieces for this project...
I made a huge batch of this today using some of our latest haul of Green Zebra tomatoes. Initially I thought it'd be a "slimy" mary mix, but the bright green flesh color dulled a bit and the carrot bits darkened it too, so now I'm calling it a zombie marie mix.
It is so good! I can't believe we never considered making this with our tomato hauls. Definitely won't make that mistake again. Yummuy!
update: Here's a picture of the stuff. About 45-55 green zebra tomatoes, plus the amount of vegetables in the recipe, yielded about a gallon of mix. I kept this batch on the thick and chunky side, thinking that the addition of vodka and ice would give it a perfect consistency. But it could also be stretched a little to have more mix. I'm calling it Zombie Mary Mix. ;)
( 2nd update: virgin zombie mary as served )
day 0, Originally uploaded by kidmissile.
making vanilla extract:
-3 beans, split down the middle, but left intact at the ends
-1 cup vodka
-put in a sterilized jar, swirl around, and store in a cool dark place for 8 weeks!
Could someone please remind me to post a weekly picture to track the color changes? :)
It rained all day, which was sad for the art fair (though our friend said that Saturday is always her busy sales day), but good for our gardens. We spent the day lazing around, cooking (pasta sauce, leek confit, this vanilla extract, and cheddar biscuits), watching TV, and I worked on our new butcher block cart/kitchen island, which we scored at a garage sale last weekend for $30!
( +3 pics of my next wood refinishing project )
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