Wednesday Garden Shots

Look at those turnips. Would that the beets were as spunky.

I've felt a bit guilty harvesting the soft outer Romaine leaves thinking I was creating smaller heads. I couldn't figure out how they were ever going to get as crisp as Romaine usually is.

Surprise! Romaine creates a "fruit" in the middle like a cabbage does. We never see the outer leaves at the grocery store so they're all mine.

This is three tomatillo plants holding in a pot until I find space. I have another in another pot. If even half of those buds are fertile I'll have my hands full this summer.

Repair of the sinkhole at the street is finished now which opens up my driveway rosebed. I originally planned okra there since I know my neighbors will never steal okra. Tomatillos are another story but I may may not miss any of them.

Speaking of the sinkhole repair... I've been taking photos all along but yesterday I took photos of the hole where the new pipe was going as the trench had 5' of water in it.

I don't think they liked that because a half hour later the big tractor was swinging this large metal plate to cover it up. All the city crews I've dealt with during this mess for the last 8 months have been industrious and always working. Not a slacker in the bunch.

Glad he missed my palm... and look how that raintree I just had pruned away has come back. Guess I'll be clipping a bunch of green compost tomorrow morning.

Peas and Beans

This year's first sweet pea and green bean

Look at that cellulose! (click on photos for larger sizes)

Time Magazine has a fascinating food photo gallery from the book HUNGRY PLANET What the World Eats. Photos of families around the world posed with all the food they eat in one week and how much they pay for it in their own currency and converted to US dollars. Surprising to see how many purchase boxes of prepared food!

Turnips and Greens

Free food tonight: turnips and greens and Spring salad with croutons. Balance had to be purchased: feta, Kalamata olives, balsamic, olive oil, and a big fat grilled hamburger steak from ground sirloin tip. This puts me in a bind as this is the last of the ground meat and tomorrow is Alison's Hamburger Friday. I'll have to go to the grocery store before duplicating whatever she presents.
Preview of Friday Garden Shots. I've finally moved all the extra dirt from Bed 1 - one shovel at a time. I'm not real efficient but have a roaring metabolism by now. It will be tidier tomorrow but I'm beat. Should be driving to Home Depot for another trellis and misc needs but not. Far back are green beans (soon to have a trellis) and sweet peas next to them. Irises will be moved because I have 5 more tomatoes to transplant. At sunrise Bed 1 will be filled with eggplants, pintos, bush green beans, (maybe) cucumber transplants and seeds for canteloupe, zucchinni, yellow squash, and a bunch of carrots.
Well, I just noticed another trellis as part of my courtyard incubator. Seeds don't need protection now and I really don't have to go to HD tonight. Can take it down while the turnips are cooking.

Friday Garden Shots

Bed 1 Apr 12
Too much dirt - being shoveled to beds along fences. Russet potatoes growing in the birdseed containers.
That's a wisteria sprout in the middle. I've cut its roots back every other month for 4 years so I've decided to let it be a small tree.
Dionisio left it intact when he churned the bed for me last week and that was the decider. If the god-of-the-garden let it be it is meant to be.


Bed 2 Apr 18

Bed 3 Apr 18

Courtyard incubator space Apr 12
okra, pintos, black beans, eggplant, green beans, canteloupe, bell peppers, poblanos
...and salad bowls for the tribe only.

Green bin on the right side is my favorite composter, the EnviroCycle rotating bin. Footsteps from the kitchen, easy to rotate, and when it's ready, just roll it out to the garden. Has slits on the bottom that allow drainage into its stand. Add water and it's compost tea!

MY Hamburger Friday

Hamburger Friday is an homage to Alison Cook, the Chronicle's dining reviewer who has begun covering a different hamburger each Friday. Cook's Tour

Briskets are .97 lb this week so I'm trying sirloin to see if there's a difference in the taste worth tossing so much fat from the packer cut briskets. Sirloin tip roast is 2.77; ground sirloin is 2.99 so this better be better.

This one already looks better and no fat to toss.


This is my standard tartar sauce but I guess I could call it remoulade: mayo, sriracha, sweet pickle relish, capers.

Onions are for my Dad, Rusty. Lettuce is live Romaine, arugula, and endive. Tomatoes are surprisingly good grocery store stock. Belgian fries look scary... but Asta loved 'em.

Mmmmmm. Not going back to packer cut brisket but will see if I can get a better deal on sirloin tip at Costco.

Emeril's Olive Bread

...is my signature loaf. I watched him make it on Good Morning America years ago and was baking my own by lunchtime.

I use a bread machine for all dough so some minor adjustments were necessary for it to work (plus I add feta) but it's got to be as good as his. It's perfect for dipping in herbs and olive oil.

I make at least two loaves a month simply because a single person has to have a plan for using up Costco-size Kalamata olives and feta.
One time the bread was baked to perfection but most of the soft feta was whole, not melted into the bread as usual. Don't know if it was humidity, or the age of the wheat or bread flour, or yeast, or what but have never been able to duplicate it. It's still excellent.

How I Accidentally Became a Vegetarian

... last summer. Nothing deliberate or permanent but I realized my favorite meals included no meat. Also we all realized no one's checking our food sources and veggies seemed safer. Ha!

Tomato, bell pepper, and feta pizza, rice and peas, asparagus, sesame seeds, garlic toast


Eggplant, asparagus, red bell pepper, and pineapple








Zucchini, bell peppers, sweet potatoes, onion, tomatoes

Biggest influence was probably the small Pakistani market next to my doctor's office and Himalaya restaurant a few doors down from there where Kaiser rules and will tell you what you must order that day. Not that it's sitting there; he cooks it all to order but I've seen people try to argue with him and I just won't. Pakistani food is spicy and hot, usually contains beef and is North Indian and Middle Eastern influenced. Kaiser also bakes the #1 best naan in town and he'll sell you a few if you pop in and ask. The market down the way sells a Pakistani brand of pre-packaged entrees which are really just the spices and instructions. I use 1/3 the amount of spices and double the coconut milk because of the heat. Even then, Kaiser's naan helps. Above is Pakistani vegetable curry mix with a side of sauteed brussels sprouts splashed with vermouth. Notice the gold logo inside the bowl on the left. Part of my Warwick Hotel collection bought when they went out of business.

Another influence was Three Guys from Miami black beans. They don't photograph well but I crockpot a batch at least 3 times a month. Not sure if it's the 2 tsp sugar or the red Spanish wine that makes this so delicious.

Rusty Mimosa Apr 4

Our suburban homestead had the most beautiful mimosa tree in the front yard. Its flowers were an unusual bright coral color and for years people stopped to ask what we fed it that caused the vibrant color. The answer was nothing at all. I came across an internet site with a photo and Latin name of the exact strain of this Chinese tree. The name is lost in some corner of my harddrive so I may have to start all over. Rusty, my inimitable father, eventually cut it down when an oak sapling proved it was going to survive in that general area but every three years it came back.

I gathered a lot of seeds a few years ago. They need to spend 5 months in the refrigerator so they think it's Winter and then an edge is chipped with a sharp knife and they're planted. Most usually sprouted but I'd get busy and forget them and none got taller than a foot before withering and dying. Last Fall I found I had a dozen seeds left. I put 4 or 5 in a baggie in the fridge and planted them in March. One came up and here it is a month later. Let's hope I'm neither too busy to watch or overwater this guy.

Friday Night Fishfry

Best reason to plant turnips close.
Instead of snipping extras when they're 1" high, wait til they're 1" diameter.

So many raves about deep-fried panko-coated salmon that I defrosted a filet. Used only the skinny end in case it's a disaster. Gap in the center is because it wouldn't fit in the vacuum pack so I folded it. Lesson learned.

Fritos, steak fries, panko salmon, turnips and greens with turkey bacon. Pretty starch heavy but I'm pleased.

The Good... The Bad... The Ugly...

The Good...
Irises and geraniums are in full bloom. Those lovely, tiny yellow flowers in the white bowl to the left are my bok choy bolting!

The Bad...
What are the odds I'd have the virus that ate Chicago two Aprils in a row? Last time was failing to renew. This time meticulously updated Norton saw no viruses but advised me comcast was rejecting my emails because I was sending too many at a time... and they were all sexually explicit. I was Accounting and didn't even have my mail prg open! Norton could only popup hourly to call me scum of the earth. Feh.


The Ugly...
$499 Dell box with a silver front and white sides. Ack. Can't complain when it's 2g RAM and a 230g harddrive. Love the nifty new silver-rimmed keyboard but frowned when I saw he'd bought a new mouse.
"I have one!"
"You'll need this."

True. Below is my setup for the past 2.5 days. First I fished out 5-yr old software boxes then went online to get megs and megs of updates over the last 5 yrs. Next transfer current master files, critical 40% of emails in-and-out plus misc files for current customers. People complain about BillGates but boy was that easy once you fish out all locations and folder names. Staying focused is not my strong suit.


The virus appears to have taken out the old pc's dvd writer so I have to focus on: 2 pcs, 2 keyboards, 2 mouses, and ONE MONITOR to transfer billions and billions of bytes via cd.

Plug monitor into old pc to copy, plug into new pc to upload. Truly the hardest part was remembering which mouse was active.

Today I found my two memory sticks which hold gigs but take minutes to fill and an hour to delete. But all is up and running.

I'm installing a second monitor tomorrow and we'll add the old harddrive on the new pc to viruscheck all and move the other 20gigs of files. Hmm, I'll have almost 200gigs of free space.

All in all, it's been a long time since I've run on all cylinders for days so it's all good. And the new McAfee on the Dell is fabulous! All the niggly things I used to do myself it does by default!


My favorite ad of the last 20 years
or We are the people our parents warned us about.
Click photo for a larger size. This will surely sell a lot of the $3M 2-BR condos they're promoting here. Screw them kids.

Friday Garden Shots

First two photos are Bed 2. Next two photos are Bed 3
left: March 28, right: April 4






First iris bloomed today. These are from a patch planted in the French Quarter over 95 years ago.

Great Caesar's Ghost!

Two salad bowls full of Romaine. Time to plant more because I hate for all this stuff to leave. Tomato seedlings to the left, dill to fight potato bugs to the right.

Actually have 3 bowls of it including this one. I didn't realize until planting this packet included Romaine, iceberg, arugula, and a couple of soft lettuces. I was horrified at first but it's pretty with onions interplanted and I plan a whole bed of it for the Fall plantings.