Tag Archives: vegetables

Garden Update- Planting Begins

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Well, spring is really here!  It might have made a jump in to summer (93 today) but I’m not going to complain, it feels amazing!  I didn’t make it in last week to say hello because The Hubs and I were finally able to get in the yard and start prepping and planting.  This is what most of our nights after work looked like.

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Oh yeah, and we built a shed!  It’s a snap together, kit we picked up, took a solid afternoon.  It’s going to come in handy storing garden supplies this summer.  It kind of makes me want to paint our house to match.  This picture would be even better if the lilacs were in bloom and I’d moved the pooper scooper…

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As far as the actual garden goes, we got the main plot cleared, tilled, composted, and planted.  We’re trying onions, lettuce and chard in a few little rows.

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Next to that, we’ll have 6 squash; zucchini and butternut.  We used our mini flower pots to remember where the seeds are. We’ll take them off once things start to sprout.

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Last we’ll have cucumbers for pickling.

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Oh, and those tomato seeds we started a couple of weeks ago, well look at them now!

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These babies will go in the ground pretty soon.  We’ve been placing them out in the sun during the day now that it’s warm.  There are 9 plants of each type of tomato so we’ll be able to pick out the best of the best when they’re ready to plant.  We still have to plant the smaller plant on the other side of the yard, plus all the pots on the patio.  Hopefully we’ll finish it all up this weekend.

Oh yea!  I’m also going to volunteer at the farmer’s market this weekend!  I’m really excited to help but even more excited for it to be starting back up again.  I’ll be picking up some goodies for sure!

Black Bean Soup

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!  I hope you got in some green beer or corned beef hash to celebrate!  I’ve been spending my day drinking a lot of green juices.  Not sure why, but I decided this weekend was the best one to try a juice cleanse.  I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow, in the meantime, back to the soup.

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In an effort to expand the staples we have on hand, we added dry beans to our pantry list.  We have always used canned in the past so this soup (and burritos we had for lunch this last week) were the first time we had to start completely from scratch.  We measured out enough beans for both the soup recipe and our lunch and let it soak overnight.

black beans 2When I woke up in the morning, The beans had expanded and only half of them were still in the water.  I quickly moved them to a larger bowl and topped them with more water to soak for the rest of the day.  When we got home from work we split the bowl in half and started one pan cooking for lunch and held the other half back for our soup.

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I started heating oil in a stock pot and added in 1 onion, 1 leek, a couple of cloves of garlic and some cumin.

black beans 3Once the veggies started to soften up and the onions became slightly translucent, we added in a few strips of chopped up bacon.

black beans 5When the bacon had browned a bit, in went the beans…

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…followed quickly by some chicken stock and a bit of water.

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The soup was brought to a boil and then left to simmer for about an hour on the stove (not exactly a quick weeknight dinner).

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When the time was up, I ladled about half of the soup into the blender.

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Boom. liquified.

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I added the blended portion back into the pot and mixed it in, as well as seasoned it with salt and pepper.

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From there, we added a dollop of sour cream and dug in.  It was very filling and satisfying for as few ingredients as it called for.  I may have added too much soup to the blender though as it was a little watery.  The sour cream had some trouble staying on the surface.  We finished all our leftovers so I’d call it a success.  I’m also glad we utilized our dried beans instead of reaching for the canned beans again.  We have a better idea of how to time things out and how much water you really need to rehydrate.  I’m going to look into ways to prep dried beans for our crock pot chili and maybe making our own chili beans with our own seasonings.  However, with the thought of spring around the corner, I’d rather start thinking of black bean salsa on the back patio.

Garden Ideas

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With Daylight Savings Time this week, we’ve had sunsets at 7p.m. all week!  It’s so amazing to leave work in the sun!  That being said, it’s also got me hankering to work in the garden despite the fact it’s still covered by about a foot of snow.  Since that’s not an option, I’ve started gathering ideas of thing to try.

First, I want to try growing potatoes in a garbage can another shot.  We had pretty decent results last time and I’m hoping that with a little more rain this year it will be even better.

On the new project list, what I’m most excited about is trying to do some gutter gardens.  I think this would be an easier way to manage herbs and grow some lettuces as well as maybe keep squirrels at bay.

With the space potentially freed up by moving the herbs, I want to take another stab at growing some beans and peas.  I thought this bicycle wheel idea was pretty cool for a climbing line.  This might also work if we end using some extra garbage cans for beans.

With all these exciting ideas, what we’ll really have to do first is prune up our raspberry bushes.  It’s a pretty tangled mess right now and harvesting the berries was a little challenging.  This video from The University of Maine’s is what we’re going to use as a guide.  I’d like to get out there and start cleaning it all up as soon as the snow melts enough to clear a path.

I’m going to have to psych myself up to go out there with the cold temps but, we’ll need to do it before things start warming up too much.  I’ll just have to keep telling myself it’ll be worth it come July!

Parka, Minneapolis

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I’m more than willing to admit that Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays.  As an adult, it’s gotten to be less about exchanging cards and conversation hearts and more about where we’re going for dinner.  This year we tried a new place in Minneapolis, Parka.  I’d heard a bit about it as a coffee shop/home store but not much on what their sit down dinner was like.  Still I was very curious.  I tried calling to make reservations thinking, it’s Valentine’s Day, it’ll be dicey, only to find out they don’t take them.  So the Hubs and I decided to chance it and booked it over there as quick as we could after work hoping to beat a rush.  Not a problem, there was no wait and we were seated right away.  I think it was due to the fact that they’re better known for their coffee right now.  However, once word starts to spread about their food, I think things will start changing.

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First things first, we ordered a couple of beers, both from Indeed Brewing Company here in Minneapolis.  I had their Stir Crazy (a dark, winter seasonal, right) and the Hubs ordered the Day Tripper (Pale Ale, nice and hoppy, left), both were really good.  I’m going to keep an eye out for them at the liquor store.  Bonus points for the cute glasses, yup, I’m a sucker.

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We ordered a couple of apps before the meal; roasted brussels sprouts and the ham and pickle tots.  The brussels were alright; roasted with bacon, candied walnuts and smoked quail eggs.  I’m not a huge fan of hardboiled eggs so I picked around those and The Hubs thought they were a little, over done.  Not sure if I’d order them again.  I would however, order the Ham and Pickle Tots again, over and over, and not share.  They were served with an onion foam, dill pickle gel and a smear of truffle on the plate.  The inside of these jumbo tots was full of cheesy, ham and pickle goodness.  Perfect comfort food, highly recommend!

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For entrees, The Hubs got the meatloaf sandwich and I ordered the pot roast.  The meatloaf sandwich came with a side of fries sprinkled with duck fat (yum) and the sandwich looked like a cheeseburger made with a slab of meatloaf with a fluffy bun.  I had a split second of order envy but The Hubs shared a couple fries with me so it worked out.  When asked for his opinion on the sandwich, The Hubs said “Good”.  He cleaned his plate with no problem though, if that’s any indication.

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My pot roast came with carrots, both roasted whole and sliced, and potato puree.  It also had candied horseradish listed out on the menu, which I was a little nervous about.  I’m not a big fan of lots of horseradish and I was expecting it to be in larger pieces mixed in with the veggies.  Instead it came in a gel form that was dotted around the plate.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It had just enough of the horseradish kick for me and was easy for me to control how much I wanted per bite.  The pot roast itself was tender and juicy.  This dish as a whole reminded me of something you would find in your Mom or Grandma’s kitchen, but better.  Sorry Mom.

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At this point, we had both cleaned our plates and were talking about how full we were, but I had seen the dessert menu online earlier that day and didn’t want to leave without trying the apple cobbler.  It came with cheddar ice cream….what?  It was amazing!  Not only didn’t come with a scoop of white cheddar ice cream.  It also came with a piece of apple fruit leather, mini apple dumplings, apple butter and a crispy cheddar wafer.  It was apple, cinnamon overload served in a warm crock and I loved it!  It pained me that I wasn’t able to eat more than half of it before I felt like I was going to explode.  I brought what I couldn’t eat home and plan on finishing that up once I’m done with this post.

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The Hubs ordered the Cookies and Bars for his dessert.  It came with a flight of local milks but I couldn’t tell you what they are because both of our jaws dropped when we saw the plate.  The menu says ‘share if you want’ and they’re being nice, its a dessert for two, no question about it.  The Hubs had about a bite of each cookie and bar before we asked them to pack that up too.  He liked the brownie and chocolate chip cookies the best of the group but there wasn’t anything in the mix that he didn’t like.  We’re almost done with those leftovers too…

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If you’re in the area you should definitely make the trip over to Parka to try the dinner menu.  I’m going back for the tots for sure and maybe another stab at finishing a dessert.  Or maybe I’ll try the Beer Can Chicken or Spare Ribs….hmmm

 

Container Gardening- The Good, The Bad and The Squishy

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Earlier this week The Hubs and I dug in (literally) to our garbage tubs to see what we had for potatoes and onions.  Since I last shared photos, the onion greens had really shriveled up and our potato leaves had started to brown too.  Both signs that they were finished and ready to dig up.

The Good: The potatoes.  I was a little nervous about how many we would get.  We didn’t ever add the third load of dirt we were supposed to according to the directions we’d found online, and with our extra hot summer, I was afraid the browning we took for ‘finished potatoes’ was actually ‘I’m thirsty, why aren’t you watering me?’.  Thank goodness the former was true.  We didn’t quite make the 100 pounds of potatoes I was hoping for, but we have a pretty full bowl and a range of sizes.  It turned into a bit of a treasure hunt to sift through the dirt, plans and rocks at the bottom, I thought it was fun.  I’d give it another shot next year with the third load of dirt and see how much of an increase we get.

The Bad:  The onions.  More disappointing than bad really.  Almost all of them grew but I think they put more effort into the greens than the bulbs.  The entire two bins worth of onions fit nicely into a strawberry pint basket.

For your reference, this is the largest onion of the bunch.

The Squishy:  One unnerving thing we ran into a couple of times where damp, slimy, empty potato skins.  It only happened a couple of times, but still, eww.  I’m thinking about how we would change things up for the onions next year.  I’ve got some research to do but I’m not ready to give up on it yet.  I’ll just treat them as cocktail onions in the meantime!

Grandpa and Sweet Corn Ice Cream

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Hi All.  So as you may have noticed I’ve been MIA for awhile again.  Unfortunately my quick trip home for a weekend high school reunion turned into an extended stay.  My Grandpa passed away last week and I was home to be with family until about halfway through the week last week.  I spent many weekends and afternoons after school at Grandma and Grandpa’s farm house.  Without a doubt that’s where I (along with other family members) got a taste of real gardening.  They had not only one but two large vegetable gardens, the smaller of the two wouldn’t even fit in my backyard.  On top of that, they had a few berry bushes scattered throughout the back yard and always had a sweet corn patch in the field to make sure we had more than enough corn to freeze and last us through the winter.  I’m talking a 10 seater dining room table stacked with pots and pans of corn cut from the ears and ready to store.  Because of that, I’m sure Grandpa would have gobbled up what I made this weekend.

For my birthday, long time friend bought me the cookbook,The Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook: Fresh, Healthy Cooking from the Garden.  I don’t think I even had it all the way out of the bag and tissue paper before she said, “They have a recipe in there for Sweet Corn Ice Cream! you have to make that!” So, seeing as I had a grocery sack full of fresh from the field corn on the cob from Iowa, I went for it.

We tripled the recipe to make use of more of the corn we had.  The original recipe called for just 2 ears and with the various sizes I had, I ended up using 7. After the corn had been cut from the ears, I popped it in the food processor until it was really smooth.

I combined the milk, cream, and corn per their instructions and let it get to a simmer on the stove.

While that was warming up I separated 12 egg yolks and whipped that up with sugar.  When the cream mixture was simmering, I added in the egg mixture after tempering it first so we didn’t end up with scrambled eggs.

After that had time to thicken on the stove , I poured it into a large bowl and covered with cling wrap.  For anyone new to making ice cream don’t wait for it to reach a real thick consistency, it really just needs to be thick enough you could run your finger down the middle of a spoon and the cream doesn’t run back together.

I let the mix chill in the fridge overnight to make sure it was chilled all the way through.  The next morning I took the cling wrap off the top and stirred in some vanilla extract.

From there it got ladled into our ice cream maker.

I packed the surround of the bucket with layers of ice and rock salt and turned it on.  I checked the ice every 15 minutes or so to make sure the ice cream tin was covered.  We used to have a smaller machine that didn’t have as much space for ice around the outside.  I think that makes a big difference in how long it takes for the ice cream finish up.

After about an hour this is what my ice cream looked like.  Sort of like soft serve.  From there it went into the freezer to ripen for the rest of the day.

We didn’t try it until really late Saturday night but, OH MAN!  So good!  It was like taking the best creamy corn you’ve ever had in your life and then freezing it and adding a pinch of sweet.  I had more on Sunday night and tried it with just a bit of sea salt.  I thought since I like my corn on the cob with butter and salt, it would make it even better.  It was still good but I don’t think it really added anything to it.  We still have the better part of a gallon to eat, and I’m more than ok with that.

What’s in Season?

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For the past couple of weeks I’ve been a little MIA, sorry about that.  I’ve had a couple of work trips back to back but things should get back to normal around here soon.

In place of sharing a recipe or project, I thought I’d share a little more about what’s in season for the Minneapolis area for the month of June.  This is based off of what I’ve been picking up at my local farmer’s market and some personal preference.  Hate to say it but I’m just not a fan of rhubarb…  It changes week to week, and we’ve also seen a few things early this year because it warmed up so quickly.  Here’s the link to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s produce guide.  You can reach out to your state’s Ag department for information on your area too.

Plenty of salad greens

Radishes

Strawberries, with bonus adorable containers

Peas

And always check for other goodies like canned goods, meats and cheese:)

Recipe- Swiss Chard Side

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As you may remember, the weekend before last I picked up some swiss chard from the farmer’s market.  I knew I wanted to cook it as a side so I went with my old standby way of preparing cooked spinach to see if we’d like it.  I used a little over half a bunch of chard.  We waited until toward the end of the week so I ended up pulling out a few of the leaves. First up, I cleaned the leaves and trimmed down the ends of the stems.  You can eat the stem but you want to cut them down so you get rid of the more woody pieces. Next, I cut the leaves and stems down to more manageable pieces.  I rolled the leaves like I would to do a chiffonade cut and cut them down to pieces about an inch or so wide. When they were all cut up, I heated up some olive oil in the pan at medium heat (about 2 tablespoons, just eyeballing) and added a chopped up clove of garlic. After it had cooked long enough to be fragrant, I added in my leaves and put the lid on. I left it alone for around 3 minutes before using tongs to move the leaves around and flip them to make sure it was cooking evenly, then put the lid back on for another 3 minutes and removed it from the heat. We ate the chard with steak and potatoes from the grill.  On the whole it was really similar to cooked spinach with a slightly different flavor, just a little bit sweeter.  I’m thinking about loading up on some this week and trying to freeze some cooked like you would find frozen cooked spinach in the grocery store.  I’m going to do some more research on it to see if there are any good tips out there.  I’ll keep you posted on what I find out. I’ll be back this weekend with some boozy dessert!

Busy Weekend

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After my post last week about cabinets you’d think I’d hop right on that project and get to work.  Nope.  Didn’t even touch ‘em.

I was up before 8 am on Saturday morning to get a good selection at the Fulton Farmers Market.  It was opening weekend and by the open at 8:30 the place was packed.  We did a quick walk through to see what we were working with, then went back and made our selections.

We picked up spring salad mix, breakfast radishes and swiss chard from Uproot Farm.  We dug into the salad mix right away this weekend.  Still have the chard and radishes to eat yet.  You can learn more about the farm here.  They have a handy tab for recipes by vegetable they grow.  I’ll probably be browsing that for some ideas over the summer.

We also picked up some plants from Gardens of Egan, a farm based out of Farmington, MN.  From the looks of it they’ll have fresh produce later this year but also a great place to pick up organic flowers and veggies for your yard.  Our herbs and tomato seedling just haven’t gotten started this year.  I think we may have started to late this year, we’ll know better next time around.  We picked up 9 tomato plants, basil, parsley, cilantro, and thyme.

Finally, we treated ourselves to some breakfast to go by way of Patisserie 46.  They had one of the busiest stands due to their spread of irresistible pastries.  We picked up a couple of croissants and called it a day.  It’s still a little early to find a wide range of fruits and veggies, but I’m interested in checking out some of the pickles and jams some of the other vendors were offering as well as some of the other croissants varieties…

When we got home we really got to work.  We planted all of the herbs and tomatoes and also put up a canopy of patio lights.  It doesn’t sound like much written out, but we were in the back yard from about 10:30-7 or so.  We got inside about 5 minutes before we got hit by a thunderstorm that started with hail:(  UGH  We lost about 5 lights to the hail but the plants looked pretty good.

The lights aren’t too shabby either.  I think we’ll have some fun nights chilling out on the patio with a beer or wine.