Monday, October 12, 2009

Giving Thanks


Hey, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but thanks, dear reader. I'm greatful to have this forum to put out my ideas about cooking and gardening, and food is always better within a community.

One thing I do really love about holidays is the tendency for them to bring families together. We had a Thanksgiving dinner here at my parents' house this year, and though the ever-extending family was spread out over a few different cities, it was really excellent to see the members of my family that could make it. We had an enjoyable evening, with everyone lingering around the table after dinner, satisfied from a wonderful meal, to talk and talk and talk.

Above, you see my mother and I hard at work preparing the stuffing for the turkey. This year we used LOTS of mushrooms (button and shitake), lots of onions, celery that I grew in my garden, some locally baked bread and just about every herb that we have in the garden.

I can take no credit at all for these scrumptious looking pies, which my parents made the day previous. But let me assure you, they taste even better than they look!

Hope that you all had a delicious long weekend as well!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Eggs Flamenco


Behold! Eggs Flamenco! My favourite thing to eat for breakfast. Bar none. (Yes, that does indeed include bacon). It's basically a fresh tomato sauce, with bell peppers, onions and/or garlic, some chili sauce for heat, and the eggs poached right in the sauce. mmmmmmmmmm


It's pretty nice to have access to all this gorgeous homegrown garlic. It's time RIGHT NOW for garlic planting, so if you can, get out there and get it done. It's on my to-do list for tomorrow, I swear. Cook up your onion, get the garlic chopped and ready.

Add some sliced tomatoes. These babies are from the garden, one of mom's and half of one of my dixie golden cultivars, saved from blight and ripened in the nick of time. These don't take long to cook, since you want to keep it fresh. Add the peppers, garlic and chili (we use sambal oelek). Then make little pockets in the sauce, put the eggs in, turn to a lower heat and put a lid on it for about 3-4 minutes.

Which all comes together in a very short amount of time to give you the finished product, all rich and saucey and delicious. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Belated birthday supper


So what became of that fabulous ripe Dixie Golden tomato I grew this year? You'll no doubt be thrilled to hear that I supped on it as a part of my birthday celebrations with my parents this year.


At my request, the menu was steak, and my mom wanted to try the tomato jus I posted about a little while back. I don't think the steaks came out quite as well this time, I may have been crowding the pan a bit, and also the tomatoes were a bit cut-up, so they released a bit more liquid into the pan during cooking than the ones I used last time, which had never even seen a knife.


We also put some green onions into the sauce, which was a nice addition.

Served with stir-fried vegetables. The broccoli was cooked with a bit of chopped tarragon, which lends an interesting effect. Probably better the more you like tarragon...


But without a doubt, my beautiful tomato was the tastiest thing on my plate. Well-grown. Happy birthday to meee.