Planning the Garden

I know it's cold. I know the wind may be blowing. I know it may be snowing. I know it's hot chocolate season. But if I want pumpkins and squash (and carrots and zucchini and onions, for that matter) for next year's Mayan hot chocolate, I have to plan now.

So it's time to plan the vegetable garden and buy the seeds. I start with a piece of graph paper, but you can find garden planning apps or programs on the internet. I draw each bed to scale so that I know how many rows or plants I need in that bed. That way I know how many seeds to buy.

This year, we need to rotate the potatoes into another bed and plant some legumes in the old potato bed. And we're going to build another raised bed for experimental crops (there is NEVER enough space if you garden). And we're going to add an asparagus bed. So all of that needs to be figured into the final plan.

First, I go to my seed box in the basement. Most seeds will last two years - the year I buy them, and the following year. I throw out anything older than that. That way I see what I have before I order.

I get out the seed catalogs or go online to my usual sources. Some of them are up there on the right. I pick absolutely  everything I want to grow. Then I start the process of weeding things out - get it? Anyway, I look for how long it will take to be ready to pick, I look for cold/heat tolerance, I look for organic seeds, I look for heirloom varieties, I look at planting guidelines. I look for old favorites and new things that I want to try and gradually eliminate the things that won't work, and keep the things that will.

Then I make my list and the company I want to get that particular variety from. For example, tomatoes - I like cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, paste tomatoes and a few heirloom varieties. This year I ordered from Johnny's Seeds, Burpee Seeds, Seeds of Change and Vesey's Seeds. Each one is abbreviated on my master list.

Tomatoes
Cherry
B – super sweet 100
J – sun gold
Roma
J – plum regal
Slicing
B – brandy boy
B – black truffle hybrid
B – early girl
J – dafel
J – moskvich
Heirloom
SoC – paul Robeson
SoC – costaluto Genovese

Now I know who I ordered from and what I ordered. And I don't have any duplications by having a master plan. I order now so that I can start my tomato and pepper plants inside in February or March.

I order some flower seeds - marigolds to edge each bed, pansies and nasturtiums for the edible gardens, and sunflowers for the birds.

I order herbs - mostly a few basil varieties and cilantro. I already have thyme and parsley growing in the garden.

I ordered onion sets from Dixondale Farms.

I also ordered planting supplies - little row or plant markers, peat or coir pots, gardening gloves.

I share seeds with my daughters - even by ordering little packets, there are still too many seeds for our garden. It's much cheaper to share seeds with someone and trade with your friends.This is especially true if you are limited on space and can only do a container garden, for example.

So, grow some veggies, even if you have a tomato plant and some basil. There is no comparison between store-bought and fresh veggies. Or visit your local farmer's market and support these organic gardeners.

Happy planting!

RED CHILE-HONEY GLAZED SALMON WITH BLACK BEAN SAUCE AND JALAPENO CREMA

I’m always looking for new recipes, so I borrowed a cookbook from my daughter, Beth. It’s Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill Cookbook – Explosive Flavors from the Southwestern Kitchen. Whoa! I cannot wait to try the recipes in this book. And you get to go along for the ride – you just have to cook the food for yourself. But that’s not a bad thing! We can all learn together. So here goes:

We’ve heard over and over that fish is good for us. Well, we live in the landlocked west and it’s hard to get fresh fish, especially any kind of variety. But we can get salmon. And salmon is Good For You. Now we also know that salmon can be pricey so we want to make the most of any meal with salmon. And this recipe fits that description perfectly.

I even happened to have most of the ingredients for this, either on a shelf (dried black beans) or in the freezer (roasted jalapeños, and chiles in adobo sauce). The only thing I didn’t have was the ancho chile powder, which is relatively mild. So I improvised with some chipotle powder, just used a lot less, because it’s relatively spicy. But I love the smoky flavor to the chipotle powder – it’s smoked and dried jalapeño chiles. The salmon can take it.

RED CHILE-HONEY GLAZED SALMON WITH BLACK BEAN SAUCE AND JALAPENO CREMA

These titles to the recipes are a mouthful in themselves. Anyway, this is what Bobby Flay says about this recipe: This dish is a Mesa Grill classic. The rich salmon holds its own beautifully against the big spicy and sweet flavor of the glaze as well as that of the savory black bean sauce. Crema spiked with jalapeños provides the perfect cool finishing touch. 

Black Bean Sauce: Just this alone made the kitchen smell heavenly! In fact, if you used chicken broth, it would be a great soup or black bean burritos!
1 ½ c. dried black beans
1 small red onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped (since these were frozen in a baggie, I just mashed what was in the baggie all to pieces – no sense getting your fingers all messy)
1 tsp. ground cumin (if you don’t have any cumin – get some; this is one of the best smells ever)
Kosher salt

The night before – pick over the beans and discard any stones. Put in a bowl, cover with water, and let soak overnight.

Drain the beans and combine with the onion,

garlic, chipotles, and cumin in a medium saucepan and add just enough cold water to cover by an inch.

Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, adding more water if the beans appear dry, until the beans are tender – 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender (in batches if necessary, or use a hand held blender) with a slotted spoon.

Add 1 cup of the cooking liquid and process until almost smooth; the sauce should be a little chunky.

Season with salt. If the sauce is too thick, thin with more of the cooking liquid or water. This can be made up to 4 hours in advance and refrigerated. Reheat before serving.

While the beans are cooking, make:
Jalapeño Crema
½ c. crema, crème fraiche, or sour cream
1 large, or 2 small, jalapeño chiles, roasted, peeled , seeded and chopped (now, I would never disagree with a famous chef’s instructions, but I’m going to now. I never peel a roasted chile. The peel has all sorts of wonderful flavor after being roasted – why throw it away?)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Note: it’s easy to roast a jalapeño or any fresh chile. You can put it on your grill and roast until the skin starts to blacken. Turn occasionally. You can put the chile in a frying pan over high heat, no oil though. It will sizzle and pop and is done when the skin starts to blacken. Turn occasionally. Or you can use tongs and hold the chile over an open gas flame till the skin starts to blacken. Let it cool a bit, then cut in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and proceed.

Combine the crema, sour cream, whatever, and jalapeños in a food processor

and process until smooth. Or you can chop the jalapeños and just stir them into the crema. Season with salt and pepper and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. This can be made and refrigerated up to 1 day in advance.

When you’re ready, make:
Red Chile-Honey Glazed Salmon
1/3 c. honey
1 tbs. ancho chile powder
1 tbs. Dijon mustard
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 (8 oz.) salmon fillets, skin on
2 tbs. canola oil
Thinly sliced green onions for garnish

For glaze: whisk together honey, ancho powder and mustard in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat a grill pan or large nonstick sauté pan over high heat. Brush the salmon with oil on both sides and season with salt and pepper. Place the salmon in the pan, skin side down (but mine didn’t have skin on and it was fine) and cook until golden brown and a crust has formed, 3-4 minutes. Brush the top of the salmon with some of the glaze, flip over, and continue cooking until a crust has formed and the salmon is cooked to medium, about 2 minutes more. The salmon will be pink in the center.

Finally: spoon some of the black bean sauce onto 4 plates and drizzle with some of the jalapeño crema. Set the salmon in the center, glazed side up, brush with more of the glaze, and garnish with green onion. And cilantro if you have it, but I didn’t.

Oh, this was good. It's all gone; that's why I say was. I know there are lots of ingredients in this and lots of steps, but it goes together easily. It is WAY delicious. Was way delicious.

Basic Stew

A friend asked me if I had a good, basic stew recipe. I do! This is from Pioneer Woman's (Ree Drummond) blog. This really is my favorite stew recipe. You can use any kind of meat - beef, antelope, deer, elk - and it's delicious.

BEEF STEW
3 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. butter
2 lbs. stew meat, cut in bite size pieces
1 onion, chopped
3 minced cloves garlic
4 c. beef stock
Additional water if needed
2 tbs. tomato paste
1 tbs. Worcestershire
½ tsp. paprika
½ tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ tsp. sugar
4 whole carrots, washed unpeeled, roughly sliced
4 potatoes, washed and quartered
Frozen green beans - optional
Minced parsley – optional

Heat oil and melt butter in large saucepot. Brown meat in two batches. Set aside.

Add onions to the pot.

Stir and cook about 3 minutes, add garlic for another minute.

Add paprika, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, tomato paste, and sugar. Stir, add beef stock and the meat. Stir to combine. Cover and simmer 1 ½ to 2 hours. If it gets too thick, add additional water. Add carrots and potatoes, and green beans if desired. Cook an additional 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings. Sprinkle with parsley if desired.

Another comfort food deluxe. Enjoy!

Millionaire Shortbread

I saw a picture of these in the AARP magazine and decided I wanted one immediately. Now. However, they are loaded with carbohydrates and fats. Not good. What to do, what to do. So I made them and cut them into little bitty squares, put them in a container and put them in the freezer. Now I can get a cookie out when the carb cravings are upon me, and only eat one little square. Really, I can do this....

MILLIONAIRE SHORTBREAD
2 c. flour
1 ½ c. packed brown sugar, divided
1 tsp. salt
2 c. cold, unsalted butter, divided
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
¼ c. light corn syrup
1 - 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
¾ lb. milk or dark chocolate (about 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips) (or you could use a ganache - we'll talk about that in a future blog. A ganache would actually cut better when these are cooled)

Oven 325 degrees. Butter bottom and sides of a 9x13” pan, or spray with cooking spray.

Shortbread: Measure the flour, ½ c. of brown sugar, and ½ tsp. salt in bowl of food processor. Pulse till mixed.

Add 1 c. butter in chunks, pulse till roughly mixed.

Sprinkle in ½ tsp. vanilla; continue to process until dough forms a ball.

Press dough evenly over the bottom of the pan. Prick with a fork. Bake 35-40 minutes.

Caramel: Wait until the shortbread is nearly baked. Melt remaining 1 c. butter over low heat.

Stir in remaining 1 c. brown sugar, corn syrup, and condensed milk.

Raise heat to medium-low; bring to a boil, stirring constantly, for 4 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in ½ tsp. vanilla. Pour evenly over baked crust.

Let cool for 15 minutes, then sprinkle on chocolate.

When they turn shiny, spread with a spatula or the back of a spoon.

Let cool till chocolate is set.

Or
Chocolate: Melt chocolate, then pour it evenly over the caramel layer. Cool completely in the pan. Cut into squares. Little squares or big if you're feeding teenagers - whatever size works for you.

Aren't these luscious? Enjoy!

Garlic Stuffed Beef with Chipotle

I love my slow cooker when I remember to use it. It makes my day wonderful. I make dinner in the morning, the house smells delicious all day, and dinner is ready when we’re ready to eat. You can make anything from appetizers to desserts in a slow cooker.

This recipe is from a great cookbook – Southwest Slow Cooking. Also, I use slow-cooker liners. I'd rather be eating the food than scrubbing the slow-cooker.

Make sure to have lots of tortillas on hand – fresh, flour, corn – whatever floats your boat.

Note: chipotles in adobo sauce. They add fantastic flavor to so many southwest style recipes. But they are HOT. Admittedly, they come in a little can, but you can only use about 1/4 of the can on any one recipe; unless you have no feeling on your tongue and a cast-iron stomach. But they taste wonderful - smokey, rich and spicy. So I use what I need from the can, then freeze the rest in serving sizes in little baggies.

GARLIC STUFFED BEEF WITH CHIPOTLE
1 (3-5 lb) round roast, or any deer, elk or antelope roast
5-7 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in halves
2 (10 oz.) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 sliced onion
2 chipotles in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped
2 tbs. adobo sauce
Fresh cilantro

Make several deep cuts in the roast (this is an antelope roast - I think a sirloin tip) and scatter them over the top of the roast. Insert half a garlic clove in each slit, making sure the garlic is pushed into the roast as far as it will go.

Place the roast in the slow cooker. Add tomatoes,

These are from last summer's garden. I froze them in quart-size bags.

chipotles, onion, and adobo sauce to the slow cooker. I layered everything - tomatoes, onions, chipotles, tomatoes, onion, then finished with tomatoes.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Remove the roast from the slow cooker and slice carefully across the grain. Or you can shred the meat and stir everything back together.

Place on a serving platter, if you slice it, and drizzle some of the tomato-chipotle sauce over the top. Garnish with cilantro. Makes 4-6 servings. Serve with tortillas or rosemary potatoes, and a fresh salad.

It is not too spicy hot and makes a lovely, tasty burrito. Enjoy!