Pizza!

Yum!  Pizza!

Our daughter-in-law recently made a pizza dinner for us - and it was delicious.  I have made pizza in the past but usually bought the crust and used purchased sauce as well.  She inspired me to make it from scratch and with as many home-grown ingredients as possible.  With that in mind, I asked her for her dough recipe:

2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp instant yeast
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp oil

Mix, knead for 8 minutes.  Let rise 3 - 4 hours.

Armed with my DIL's recipe, I prepared for a pizza dinner tonight.  For toppings, in addition to purchased chicken and mushrooms, the sauce, tomatoes, onions and peppers would all come from our garden.

Prepared toppings

I used my mandolin to slice the onions, Anaheim pepper and tomatoes thinly.  Mushrooms were sliced by hand.

Frozen pasta sauce from last year

The sauce was made and frozen last year.  To make it, I roasted tomatoes, onions, carrots herbs and spices together and then pureed them, freezing in usable batches.  Find the recipe here.

Chicken thigh meat sautéing

I sautéed the thinly sliced chicken, seasoning it with salt and pepper, then set it aside until needed.

I made the dough in a double batch.  Once it had risen and been punched down, I cut it in half and froze one portion for another time.  I will thaw it in the fridge overnight and rise it again before using.

The oven was set to 450F with our pizza stone in it.  When it was nearly up to heat, I rolled out the dough.

Pizza on the stone and ready for the oven

When the buzzer went off, I pulled out the stone and put the pizza shell on top, then quickly smeared on about 3 dessert spoons of sauce, then topped it with grated Mozzarella cheese.  Toppings were arranged and a small amount of Mozzarella added as a finish.

The resulting pizza was definitely a good one, but there is always room for improvement.

Next time, I'll bake it at the 450F temperature.  When I went to put the pizza in the oven, I noticed that it was no longer at full temperature.  When heating up, the broiler element goes on in my oven and I didn't want to risk burning the top of the pizza so knocked the oven back to 425F.  I'll watch for that next time!

I will also roll it thinner at the edges.  The outside crust was a little too thick for my taste.  I'll also bake it a little longer.

Nevertheless, the pizza was a success and a dish we will certainly make again.

Crash Hot Potatoes

Recently on Facebook, my brother shared a post on Crash Hot Potatoes, a dish originating in Australia.  The picture looked so amazing that we decided to try it.

We started with some of our own Seiglinde potatoes.  I chose 6 smallish ones for the experiment and boiled them until fork tender.

While they were cooking, I covered a small cookie sheet with foil, drizzled oil on it and preheated the oven to 425F.

I got the seasoning ready - finely chopped thyme, freshly ground pepper and coarse Kosher salt.

When the potatoes were cooked, they were placed on the cookie sheet and flattened with a potato masher.  More oil was brushed on the smashed potatoes and the herbs and spices sprinkled on.  Then they baked in the oven until golden brown - about 20 minutes.

Added to a meal of pork cutlet, swiss chard and carrots, we pronounced the Crash Hot Potatoes delicious.  Another time I'll try adding pressed garlic and/or a little cheese.  Definitely something we're going to have again!

El Nino in the Garden 2015

This is turning out to be the driest year we have experienced in the garden and many of the crops are showing stress in spite of all the water that I'm giving them.

Butternut Squash

Many crops are very early.  Strawberries were weeks ahead of time and the crops were pretty good.  The corn is loving the heat, as are the beans.  Other heat-loving plants like peppers and squash are quite happy so far, but they all need water.

Fruit trusses on Health Kick Tomatoes

The tomato plants are huge and early on set a bumper crop of fruit, but now the flower trusses are not setting.  I've had to really keep an eye on this bed because it's one of the beds that cedar roots have managed to creep into.  I hadn't realized what was happening and almost lost one Principe Borghese plant before I discovered how dry the soil was. (Update 5 hours later:  with a temperature of 28C and a strong wind, the tomato plants were losing moisture so quickly that they were starting to wilt and a second deep watering was required.)

Principe Borghese Tomatoes

In checking back, I can see that most years at this time the fruit is just starting to turn on early tomatoes.  We've been snacking on Gold Nugget and Sweet Millions for a couple of weeks now!

Corn is a heavy feeder, too, but this bed is maintaining a good quality of moisture and I think it's the tallest corn we've ever had.  I'd say we're only a couple of weeks off harvest for the corn and the Italian heritage beans haven't even started to flower yet!

Signs of aphids on the kale

Kale is a cool weather lover and it's really struggling in the heat.  I've noticed leaves are starting to curl up and there are signs of aphids starting to make their homes in the leaves.  I'm picking those off, and the kale is getting lots of water, but the heat is telling on their general health.

Harvested garlic sorted into varieties

I just finished harvesting the garlic and am quite disappointed with the size of the bulbs.  This might be because of the heat.  They reached maturity a couple of weeks early and this means that time that might have been spent growing was lost.

Copra Onions starting to fall over

This was also true for the onions.  The yellow onions have already been harvested and I'm seeing signs that the Copra plants are approaching maturity.

And this makes things difficult for the young Brussels Sprouts plants which were just transplanted.  I will probably have to rig up some sort of shade for them to carry them through to fall.

Everything else seems to be coming along well, but each day I'm out there giving the veggies a good drink.  The perennial beds have been ignored.  Water is so precious that only the vegetables and plants in pots are being catered to.  A newsletter from West Coast Seeds addressed this issue and also finished with the sobering thought that the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting that there's a 95% chance that these conditions will continue through fall - and an 85% chance that they'll go through the coming winter.  Now that's scary!

Mis-labeled Peppers - Again!

Last year a friend gave me 2 jalapeño and 2 cayenne pepper plants.  As the plants grew, I could see that a couple of them were mis-labeled.  One jalapeño was clearly cayenne, and a cayenne obviously jalapeño.

This year I started my own seeds.  And of course, now I can't find any record of my purchases!  I was under the impression that I'd bought Jalapeño, Hungarian Wax, Ancho, Anaheim and sweet Gypsy peppers.  I also purchased 2 Garden Salsa plants.  When I gave plants away to friends, I thought I'd given away all of my Anaheim by accident and only wound up with 2 Ancho.

Now all the peppers are growing by leaps and bounds and all have peppers popping out like mad.  I can see that there is mis-labeling again - but this time by me!

Jalapeno

The plants labeled Anaheim are clearly Jalapeño and there are 2 of them.

Hungarian Wax

I got the Hungarian Wax right

Gypsy

The Gypsy plants (4) are also correctly labeled.  They will be anything from yellow to red and are sweet peppers which are growing in pots.

Garden Salsa

The Garden Salsa are right, too, but then I bought them!  They will be red at maturity.

Unknown Pepper 1

Unknown Pepper 2

The plants labeled Jalapeño are obviously 2 different peppers.  It looks like I kept an Ancho after all, but I'm not sure which is which.  One plant is taller and the foliage is darker green.  The peppers on this plant are just starting.  The other plant has a well-developed pepper.  After looking online, I can see that the Anaheim will be a lighter green than the Ancho.  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  And maybe next year take more care when labelling!

Confetti Cole Slaw and Garden Update

I make a mean cole slaw - even if I do say so myself!  I apply the "kitchen sink" method - I put in whatever I have on hand, and the more ingredients the better.  Tonight my husband is grilling a steak and baking a couple of our Pacific Russet Potatoes.  A cole slaw is a great addition to the menu.

Ingredients for Confetti Cole Slaw

Tonight's batch will have purchased red and green cabbage, Cripps Pink apple, kohl rabi from jollityFarms and from our garden onion, 3 kinds of kale and carrot.

Veggies prepared

All of the vegetable ingredients  are chopped into pieces except the carrots, which I grate.

Confetti Cole Slaw

The dressing is simple and the amounts vary with the size of the coleslaw.  To salad dressing I add a squirt of liquid honey and drizzle apple cider vinegar to thin the dressing down.  It's all tossed together and put in the fridge until dinner time.  A great addition would be toasted sunflower seeds, but today I didn't have any on hand.

While out in the garden gathering the ingredients, I snapped some pictures to show progress.

Corn, bean arbour, 2 pots of basil and leeks behind them

The corn is growing by leaps and bounds.  In hot weather, you can practically see it grow.  It's now taller than the bean arbor, which has vines snaking all over its top.

Corn silks

The tassels crown the plants now and silks are bursting from the stems where the cobs are forming.  It's hard to believe that the corn was just planted out 7 weeks ago!

Health Kick Tomatoes

We've already had a couple of Gold Nugget and the Health Kick tomatoes are just about big enough to start colouring up.

Yellow onions curing in the sun

Today I pulled up the yellow onions and left them on the surface of the bed to start the curing process.

Butternut squash

In the compost bin, Butternut Squash vines are spilling over the edge.  I placed planks to help them to the ground, but they're ignoring them, choosing instead their own path.

Garlic and Onions - When to Stop Watering

Each year I stew over this subject.  Onions are simpler, but when to stop watering the garlic always makes me think.

GARLIC

Garlic plants at the beginning of July

My situation is outside the norm since I'm vegetable gardening in what amounts to a giant container garden.  Not only that, but this year's extreme early heat and lack of rain makes the situation more complicated.  I've been keeping watering longer than I normally would because things are drying out so quickly.  If you stop watering too soon, the garlic won't fully develop.  If you water too long, you run the risk of the garlic splitting the skins - which I've definitely had happen in the past!  The drying foliage is only one indicator.  I've also been keeping watch by digging up a couple of bulbs.

Test bulb

Two days ago, the bulb I dug up looks to be ready.  The cloves are clearly defined under their paper wrappers.  I've therefore stopped watering the garlic which will sit in the ground for a couple of weeks before I dig it up.

I recently learned another tip in garlic harvesting.  I've always pulled up the garlic, but a recent West Coast Seeds newsletter talked about carefully digging it up so that the bulb is not harmed in any way. After the garlic is out of the ground, I always tie and hang it out of the sun to cure.  When good and dry I cut off the stems and roots, then store the bulbs in open paper bags which I put in a cupboard on an outside wall.  And of course I always save the best bulbs for planting come October!

ONIONS

This year I grew 2 varieties.  I always grow Copra which is such a good onion and keeps so well, but thinking that not enough seed germinated, I bought a bag of yellow onion sets which were planted in the same bed.

2 varieties of onions growing in the same bed

Naturally, the sets have matured much more quickly than the plants grown from seed and a week or two ago, the yellow onions started to fall over which is a sign that they're maturing.  The Copra onions are still stiffly upright and have some time yet to go so they're receiving a good watering every day.  I have now stopped watering the yellow onions and will pull them up in a day or two.  Unlike garlic, onions can be dried in the sun.

Yellow onions

I'll just leave them on the surface of the bed for a few days.  Then, I'll brush off any clinging dirt and put them on racks to finish curing in the potting shed.  When the necks are completely dry, I'll cut off the stems about 1" above the bulb and trim the roots.  Then they'll go down into our heated crawl space for storage.  I'm anticipating that the yellow onions won't keep as well as the Copra do, and we'll definitely use up these ones first.  Since the bulbs are so much smaller than Copra, it probably won't take long to use them up.

Onions and Garlic are two crops that I would always grow.  They don't require a lot of care and the yield is wonderful.  And garlic is the easiest - the major growth time occurs during the winter and spring when it doesn't even need to be watered!  There's nothing like home-grown garlic and onions!