Almost Ratatouille-Sooo Delicious!

Today's finds from the garden: eggplants, Speedy Silver Zucchini, Yukon Gold potatoes, small onions, fresh garlic and fresh basil. Using the veggies from the garden and a few ingredients on hand, I made this delicious ratatouille.

Here's how: (Note: I replace the peppers with potatoes, as my peppers have not yet arrived;)
Slice the eggplant, zucchinis lengthwise to 1/4 slices;
Slice potatoes in thin slices;
Finely chop the onions and garlic cloves;
Cut basil leaves in thin shreds;
Heat a large skillet with olive oil on the bottom, pan fry eggplant, zucchini and potato slices until they take on some brown coloring. Remove vegetable slices from the skillet. Heat a little olive oil in the skillet, saute onion and garlic until they turn translucent. Add the basil and homemade tomato sauce (from last year, will explain how in future blog). Add the veggies previous removed from the skillet. Cook until sauce thickens a little. Add salt and pepper to taste, Stir. Garnish with freshly shredded Parmesan cheese.... enjoy!

My First Egg-A Perfect 10!

Went to check my chickens this morning, a brown egg was in the box on top of the straw...It was perfect, about a size medium. I picked it up and here comes Red. I am so proud of her!

Pepper Jelly

I took the Master Gardeners Food Preserving class a few days ago and learned how to make pepper jelly, wow it's good! Here's how: 2-3/4 C. chopped peppers (use a mixture of hot pepper and bell pepper, make it as hot or mild as you please) 1-1/2 C. cider vinegar 6-1/2 C. sugar 1 pouch of liquid pectin. Make pepper jelly same way as jam. Serve with cream cheese and crackers, YUM! (Tip: I bought the "Onion Chopper" after the class. It is a rectangular box with a steel grid, it worked really well for chopping peppers.)

Fresh veggies arriving in a steady pace

Now it is early summer, my garden is going into its maturing stage. The early Xupar No-string bush beans are in full production, shelling peas planted along side of it is also maturing. I decided to plant the two together in April under the Minihooper, it certainly paid off. They appear to be crowded together by normal standards, but they really don't mind, and surely I don't mind it if they don't!
Cucumbers and pole beans were trellised us last month. I had my first Stallion White Cucumber yesterday, I got so eager to bite into it I forgot to take a picture first! It was DELICIOUS!
I used the re-bars to train up the tomatoes this year. The result is very good. I am getting some Sun Gold tomatoes, they are sweet!
Other things coming out of the garden include: a few eggplant, a few peppers, beats, swish chard, peas, baby bok choy, Chinese cabbage thinning that are good stir-fry material, new potatoes and onions.
Oh, let me not forget mentioning the fruits, we've got a BIG cherry year. The Lambert were the first to mature, then came the Rainier, we still have the Queen Anne arriving as of now. Blueberries are turning, raspberries are ripening, and a few varieties of blackberry, including Marion berries. They are sooooo delicious! I love summer! Others might think its a good time to go on vacation, for me staying here and enjoying all the fresh goodness right from my backyard is the best vacation! Ciao!

Zucchini Pancake elevated to a new level

Zucchini season is undoubtedly here. I have been making zucchini pancakes for breakfast every morning. Today I added other fresh veggies from the garden, elevated the zucchini pancake to a whole new level. I grated the zucchini, new potatoes, fresh onionlets (small onions just big enough to eat) and fresh snap peas, mixed in with an egg, salt and pepper and just enough flour to form the batter, and a touch of freshly grated nutmeg. The result is this delicious zucchini pancakes with a new twist.

Summer Good Eats: Savory Zucchini Pancakes

To me savory zucchini pancake represents the true beginning of summer vegetable season. This morning I made it again with my Speedy Silver Zucchini. I absolutely LOVE this variety. The plant is small and compact and produces zucchinis just 40 days from sowing, unlike the traditional varieties that will almost get too big for your garden before producing anything.
Recipe: combined the shredded zucchini with new potatoes and fresh onion from the garden, added salt to draw the moisture out of the vegetables and added one egg and just enough flour to bind everything together. Cook it like you would pancakes on a flat non-stick pan with a small amount of oil on the bottom. Yummmmmmm! You can make your own versions of zucchini pancake, adding parsley, Parmesan cheese or what ever you like. Here's to summer good eats!

Making Soy Milk

Soy Milk is easy to make and everyone who could should make it. I made soy milk and took some pictures to demonstrate how it is done. Here are the steps:
1. Soak 1 C. dried soybeans (preferable organic soybeans) with ample amount of water overnight.
2. Place soaked soybeans in a food processor, blend until soybeans are pulverized.
3. Scape the soybean paste into a large bowl, add 2 quarts of water.
4. Run liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a cooking pot.
5. Bring the liquid to a boil
6. Add 1 t. pure vanilla and 1/2 C. of coffee creamer of your choice, let cool.
Now I hope you will make your own soy milk soon :)

Another Year of Radish

I harvested 5 lbs of Crimson Ladyfiner Radish (New Dimension Seed) this morning. Made a radish pickle that will go with the sushi I will have for lunch. All I did was to slice the cleaned radishes, added flavored sushi vinegar, let it set for a while. It is making my mouth watering right now.... I trimmed and cleaned the rest and bagged them up for later...Radish season is short, yet it's so goood!

Drip irrigation up! Time to sit back and relax?

My drip irrigation system done! The garden is about 50'X50' and it took us about 4 hours to set up and is well worth the efforts. I have cucumbers, corns, peppers, eggplants, beets, Chinese cabbage, watermelon, sweet musk melons, squashes in this garden. I sowed Asparagus beans and more cucumbers after the drip irrigation is up.

2009 Melon Trial, beans...

My melon trial this year consists of: Green and Yellow Ice Box watermelon, Oriental Petite Watermelon (New Dimension Seed), Sweet Secret (Oblong musk), Money Box (musk), Beauty Jade (sweet melon) and Mike's heirloom (sweet melon). I transplanted them today.

Also planted are the beans. They all peeked out of the soil. This year I have Xupar Snap Beans and Ruby Crest Broad Asian Beans from New Dimension Seeds, French Fillet Beans (skinny pencil sized beans) from Cooks Garden, Romano Beans and Selma beans, a green pole bean with purple striations, should be nice.... Xupar was planted in April under minihooper, it already has blossoms on, should be ready in a couple of weeks.

Chickens: An intergral part of the home Eco cycle

Chickens are great. Since we got chickens this year, our compost pile has almost no food wastes. Chickens loves table scarps, vegetable waste from the garden and even the dandelions growing in my lawn. My daily routine now includes making nutritious and delicious chicken food every morning. I chop up some greens like radish tops, dandelions, bolted spinach and mix it up with the leftover food from the day before and mix in some chicken feeds. The chickens LOVE it. They come running every morning when they hear me coming. I change the straws in the chicken coop every week, and put them in my compost pile. I am expecting some super rich compost with all the nice chicken manures that will enrich my garden. So having chickens makes my mini home Eco system more complete.

Spinach and Radishe Salad

If you time it correctly, you should have spinach and radishes come out of your garden now. Both radish and spinach are cold tolerant vegetables, meaning they can be planted before the "end of the last spring frost" whenever that happen to be. I made a perfect salad for lunch today with the spinach and radishes I harvested from my garden. Dressing is 1/4 C. ranch, 1 T. pesto and 1 T. butter milk. Yummm, it was a very edible salad!