Pea'd out

I am all pea'd out. I've been picking and eating a lot of peas lately. I have been picking peas almost every other day and thank goodness I think they are almost done. You see, in the previous years I almost never planted enough peas, not even enough to make it out of the garden. So this year I went crazy and planted the entire package of seeds. Now, I have

endless peas. I've given some away and I've freeze some.

This are garlic scapes. Scapes are immature flower stalks from garlics. They should be removed in order to focus all the garlic's energy into bulb growth, that way you get bigger bulbs. But don't throw the scapes away! The scapes are delicious when cooked(or you can eat it raw). They taste just like garlic. You can stir-fry them, steam them, or saute them.

Below are pictures of my garden.

In the far end are peas, some NG Impatiens, 3 types of peppers(Jalapenos, Sweet Banana & Italian Pepperoncini), Marigold and Eggplants. In the front are various tomatoes(Opalka, Yellow Pear, Black Cherry, Betterboy, Beefmaster, Cherokee Purple) with basil and marigold in between.

My Three-Sisters planting: Corn(Sugar Buns), Beans(Chinese Red Noodle) and Squash(Pumpkin & Sweet Dumpling)

Three-sisters planting in the back left. Front left: cukes, zukes and sweet potatoes.

On the right: 4 varieties of Garlics and next to them are my row of herbs and onions.

Another look at the garlics. Behind the garlics are carrots, which you can't see from the picture.

My potatoes: Yukon Gold, Dark Red Norland, Laratte fingerlings and All Blue. In the far right end are some strawberries.

Weekly Menu

Sorry about the lack of posting last week. To make it up to you, I am going to share with you a delicious, make-your-mouth-watery dessert recipe. If you make it, your mouth will thank you and your family will thank you but your hips probably won't thank you(but who cares?).

This week's menu:

Sunday - Hot dogs

Monday - Grilled Chicken and Green bean Casserole

Tuesday - Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Wednesday - Steak and Roasted Potatoes

Thursday - Nachos, my version

Friday - Mac and Cheese

Saturday - ???

Roasted Potatoes - My version

Ingredients:

• 1 pounds potatoes, unpeeled, quartered into 1-inch chunks
• coarsly chopped garlic, quantity depends on how much you love garlic
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• a pinch or two of cajun seasonings
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Mix everything in a large bowl and pour it on a baking sheet.
• Bake for about 40 minutes or until the inside is cooked and the outside is golden brown, stir once after 20 mins.
• Remove from oven, re-season if nessassary and serve.

And now to the wonderful world of dessert. I ♥ chocolate! When I saw this Chocolate Cobbler recipe, I think I drooled all over my desk! I printed the recipe right away and made it that evening. Goodness, it was so delicious and so sinful! Sorry, I think I sinned by eating it...

Weekly Menu

I started posting my weekly menu here last Monday. I am going to try to make this a weekly Monday post, as a way to:

• Keep track of the different dishes I made
• Share recipes with my blog friends
• Provide dinner ideas for my blog friends

I will try to post at least one recipe of what I will be cooking each week. If I'm trying a new recipe, I will note that it's a new recipe and then the following week, I will follow up on the "result/outcome" of the new recipe. If there is a dish that you are interested in making but I didn't post a recipe, please let me know and I will try to give you the link(if it's a recipe I tried) or write a recipe(if it's something I made up). How's that sound?

Sunday - Smoked Sirloin Roast & Grilled potatoes

Monday - Hamburgers. As I was typing this post, I have a sudden craving for big juicy hamburger, so hamburger it is.

Tuesday - Parmesan-Crusted Chicken with wild rice

Wednesday - Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo

Thursday - Crispy Pan-Fried Pork Chops with Nutty Cheese Tortellini(recipe below)

Friday - Chicken Parm Pizza (was on last week's menu but didn't make it)

Saturday - Maybe smoked ribs

Nutty Cheese Tortellini (new)

Ingredients:

• 1 pakage (9oz) refrigerated cheese tortellini
• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Cook tortellini according to package directions; drain.
• In the same pan, melt butter. Stir in tortellini, parsley and walnuts. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and season with salt & pepper. Serve.

Hopkins Inn Rosti Potatoes (made this last week for the first time)

Ingredients:

• 4 large red potatoes
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 1/4 cup diced bacon slices
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Wash and boil the red potatoes until tender but not soft; cool in refrigerator. Peel off skins and shred potatoes using a large grater.
• Saute the onions and bacon until golden brown. Drain off bacon fat.
• Mix the onions and bacon with the shredded potatoes and season to taste.
• Spread this mixture in a non-stick frying pan and saute at moderately high heat in melted buttter. Do not stir or mix the rosti. The rosti should be turned over when you can see the steam rising through the mixture. If you cannot flip the potatoes, cover the pan with a plate, turn the potatoes onto the plate and slide them, suteed side up, back into the pan. The potatoes should be throughly cooked when the steam can be seen again. Both sides should have a nice, golden brown color.

My Notes:

1. I guess I don't really understand the "cook potatoes until tender" part. I cooked the potatoes to what I thought was tender(inside still slightly crunchy/uncooked) but outside is slightly soft. So when I shredded the potatoes, it all seemed to be a big mush(like mashed potatoes). I'm pretty sure I cooked it too long.
2. The overall taste is pretty good with the bacon and onions. I just didn't like the texture, it's kinda like mashed potato pancakes. Hubby didn't like it either, he said the potatoes tasted "waterlogged". Maybe next time I will try it with uncooked potatoes.
3. If you do give this a try, will you please come back and let me know what you think of it?

Garden Update

One word to describe this years garden: Dissapointing. :(

This year is not a good year at all for me. My tomatoes have all be ravaged by blight. I'm not the only one. This is the problem this year for most farmers in the northeast.
Fortunately, I still have something in the garden for me to harvest. We have decided that due to the blight problem we should pull our potatoes, that way we at least get the ones that are good. I planted about 2 pounds of potatoes(Yukon Gold and Dark Red Norland) and the picture below shows what I got from it. Not many but at least I got something.

The garlic I planted last Fall did great! I planted German Extra Hardy. They were pulled about 4 weeks ago. We have used a few heads already and they are delicious! Note to self: plant more garlic this Fall.


My cukes and zukes are doing good this year. I had initially started the seeds I purchased but those didn't grow, so I went to the local nursery and bought 1 plant each. These are the zukes and cukes I picked over the weekend. I have picked a few times before this and made an awesome Zucchini Apple Bread this past weekend. Don't worry, I will post the recipe sometime this week or next week.


Also from the garden: cabbages are looking good as well. I haven't harvest any of them yet but should be soon. My purple haze carrots are/were excellent! Sorry no pictures. I really should have taken some pictures of the carrots because they are really cool looking. The outer edge of the carrots are purple but the inside is orange! I gave some to my co-worker and her daughter's first reaction was:"Eeewww...I don't want those moldy carrots". A few days later, she asked her mom to ask me for more "moldy" carrots because they tasted really sweet!
I have also planted some cool weather veggies for the fall: radishes, fennels, napa cabbage and peas.

Since I have no tomato this year, I had to buy them. This weekend we went to a local farmer and bought 1 bushel(roughly 50lbs) of tomatoes for canning. We made mostly tomato sauce and some hot salsa. Out of the tomatoes we got, we made 5 jars (pint size) of salsa and 20 jars (quart size) of tomatoe sauce. I am heading to pick up some more tomatoes for sauce as soon as I finish posting this post.

And lastly, I will leave you with a picture of some sunflowers. Have a great day!

Schedule

How many more days to Spring? How many more days before I can start planting outside? Every day I look at the calander and count the days til I can go outside and do some gardening. Now that most of the snow had melted, I could see my straw-covered garden(certain areas - strawberries section and garlic section). I wanted, so so so badly, to uncover the straw and peek but I know better. So it's back to counting days...

Below is what I have planned for my planting schedule. I hope I'm not too early or not too late.

3/1 - Start indoors: Opalka(Paste Tomato), Jalapeno, Italian Pepperoncini, Eggplant, Shamrock

3/21 - Start indoors: All other tomatoes, Chinese Cabbage, Basil, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Sunflowers

4/18 - Start outdoors: Broccoli, Bok Choy, Carrots, Lettuce, Radish, Onion

5/23 - Start outdoors: Corn - Transplant outdoors: all tomatoes, Chinese Cabbage, Basil, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Sunflowers, Shamrock

6/6 - Start outdoors: Potatoes, Winter Squash - Transplant outdoors: Japaleno, Pepperoncini, Eggplant

I will do a different post about the varieties of vegetable I am planting this year. Please stay tune....

I will leave you with a picture of my snow covered garden and my girls. Have a great weekend!