Dinner from the Garden

Tomorrow is the first day of summer - and today is the first day that most of the fixings came from the garden.  Not the chicken, of course, but the coating contains our own garlic and the herbs were picked from the pots on the deck.

Our first picking of snow peas, cooked tender crisp, and Seiglinde potatoes with just a smear of butter.  Absolutely delicious!

The coating for the chicken is really simple:  Panko crumbs, grated parmesan cheese, finely minced garlic and chopped fresh thyme, rosemary and parsley, all moistened with a little melted butter.  Smear the chicken pieces with Dijon mustard and then press into the coating.  Since the chicken pieces were thigh/leg combinations, I baked them for 45 minutes at 375F.

And to top it all off, Totem strawberries from the garden and vanilla ice cream!  What could be better?

Quinoa Salad

Two years ago I grew quinoa (see September 2012) - a wonderful and versatile ancient grain.  It's easy to grow and beautiful as well, but treating it for consumption is another matter!  I discovered that it's extremely time-consuming to winnow out the grain and then process it in water to remove the soapy coating.  It was a great experiment, but one that won't be repeated in my garden.  I'll buy it instead!

Today we had a mountain of ham in the fridge and thought a cold supper would hit the spot on this lovely, warm day.  The potatoes aren't ready to dig up yet so potato salad was off the menu.  A quinoa salad,  however, would be just right.  Tomorrow is shopping day, so there wasn't a lot of stuff in the fridge and the garden is just starting to produce, so I made it with what I had on hand.

I cooked the quinoa up with chicken stock and chopped the vegetables fine.  It was tossed with an Asian dressing.

Easy Quinoa Salad for Two

1/2 cup of quinoa
1 cup water
1 chicken sachet

Bring the liquid to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Then turn off the heat and allow to steam for another 15 minutes.  Cool to room temperature, then add vegetables.  I had on hand:

Carrot, red pepper, spring onions, tomato, parsley - all diced.  Cilantro would be great, but I'm one of those people who don't like cilantro!

Dressing:  1 part each sesame oil, honey, soy sauce, 4 parts rice wine vinegar and a dash of hot sauce.  Shake up in a small jar then pour over salad and mix well.  Cool in the fridge for at least an hour.

Okay - only the parsley and onions came from my garden, but soon I'll be able to go there for everything!  And as for potato salad, I have a great one I'll share when the potatoes are ready to dig.

PS - my husband loved the salad!

It's Spring in January

Today my mind is finally turning to the garden.  I've been studiously ignoring it all winter even though I know there are so many unfinished projects out there waiting for me.  We have had a little winter cold this year, but all in all, it's been pretty mild.  Only one snowfall which quickly disappeared.  There will be more - it's only January!  But this is what we come to expect on the West Coast - and in particular in the Gulf Islands.

Today I ordered my seeds from West Coast Seeds and T & T Seeds.  The latter was on my list because it was where I finally located Health Kick Tomato seeds.  My plea to West Coast Seeds went unrewarded!  That done, it was time to hit the garden.

I finally got the raspberries pruned and in shape.  They look very vigorous and this year I cut them about 5' tall.  Hopefully this will help to keep them in bounds.  As I headed up to the garden to dispose of the old canes I noticed that Abraham Darby (rose) is looking very fine!  He obviously is flourishing in his new home.  This rose has lost no leaves during the winter and there are even a few buds in evidence.  Then I saw how the King Edward Currant is breaking bud.  It was time to take a "spring signs tour"!

King Edward Currant buds getting ready to open

There are some plants I expect flowers from during the winter, so I grabbed my camera to take the census.

Viburnum flowers for the Anna's Hummingbirds we see in winter.

One of our viburnums (we have several varieties) starts blooming in November.  By January, it's starting to really show off its pink blossoms.

Purple Helebore

Then there's the purple hellebore that a neighbour gave me many years ago.  I planted it down below the house at the edge of the woods where it often gets forgotten.  It certainly never gets watered - or even weeded - but it seems to thrive down there and thrusts up its blossoms every year.  At this time of January, it's just getting going.

Hazelnut Catkins

We have 4 hazelnut bushes and the 2 older ones are dripping with catkins.  The 2 small ones are too young to have catkins yet, but they have a delicious secret hidden in their roots.  They've been inoculated with perigord truffle spores!  We can expect truffles in a couple of years.  When I edited the picture of the catkins (above) I notice you could make out the tiny dark pink flowers.  Look really hard - they're not easy to see!  Click on the picture to make it bigger, look where the catkin joins the branch and you'll see the flower.

Oriental Poppy

Oriental poppies are also sending up leaves at this time of the year.  This particular poppy is a pale pink one - name unknown.

Flat-leafed Italian Parsley Seedling

I've been picking herbs throughout the winter and the Italian parsley I planted a number of years ago freely sends its seeds out to create new plants.  It casts so many that I'm always pulling up plants but there are always more to help out the kitchen.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Tour finished, I picked a bouquet of Bright Lights Swiss Chard for tonight's dinner and headed in for a cup of tea.

Volunteers

In any sane, organized person's garden, volunteers are called weeds.  I certainly pull out my share of weeds and use mulches where I can to control them.  There is a definite place, however, in my garden for volunteers.

Foxgloves immediately come to mind when I think of weeds which are welcome to make my garden their home.  Unless they actually show up in a raised bed or the middle of a path, I leave foxgloves alone.  Their stately spires are a good food source for bees and I just think they look lovely.

Currant bush against the potting shed

The currant bush which has grown up against the potting shed is another volunteer.  It looks like a cross between the enormous King Edward bush below the potting shed and the currant bushes I gave up on in the garden as the birds nearly always got most of the crop.  My volunteer has blooms which are a darker pink than the King Edward, but produces berries which I leave for the chickadees and their fluttery babies.  Right now this bush is looking pretty motley because it was pruned back severely so we could install the UV light for the pond, but it won't take long to grow back again and its location means that it must be kept small.

Parsley gone to seed

The flat Italian parsley is another welcome plant in my garden.  I seeded this variety a number of years ago and it turns up regularly in a flowerbed above the pond.  I can nearly always find some parsley thanks to the freely-cast seeds of this useful plant.  Similarly, oregano appears all over the garden - mostly where I don't want it!  There's even a clump of it growing in a grassy area which sends up a delicious, spicy scent whenever it's mowed.

Bright Lights swiss chard growing in the snow pea bed

A couple of years ago, my neighbour Beth gave me some Bright Lights swiss chard plants.  My garden is pretty warm and this variety goes to seed quite easily which is why I generally don't grow it.  A recent weeding in the snow pea bed turned up a lot of little swiss chard plants, easily recognized by their colorful stems.  Some I transplanted to more open areas and others I left where they were growing.  Now that we're heading to fall, Bright Lights swiss chard will be a very useful addition to the winter garden.

Bright Lights in the strawberry bed

I even discovered a well-grown plant in the new strawberry bed!  Of course, I left it.

Beth's Big Fat Tomato

And naturally Beth's Big Fat Tomato was originally a volunteer.  I don't think my plant is producing tomatoes as big as the parent plant, but with a volunteer, you never know what you're going to get.  I do know, however, that this plant is very productive and the tomatoes are just starting to ripen.

Arugula going to seed

Several years ago, a friend gave me several small arugula plants from volunteers in her garden.  This is the wild arugula and of all the varieties of arugula, I like this one best.  It's everywhere in my garden, but quite easy to pull out.

A young arugula seedling popping up beside the snow peas

The bed that is now growing the fall crop of snow peas had the original arugula plants in it and any time the soil is turned over, thousands of little arugula plants appear!   And in my turn, I've passed along lots of little wild arugula plants as well.

I certainly have my share of weeds - chickweed, herb robert, snapweed, wild geranium and many others whose names I don't know - but many other so-called weeds, judiciously transplanted, are more than welcome to take up a spot in my garden.

Kale - The Superfood!

I'm growing quite a few kale plants this year but haven't used it in very many ways other than in coleslaw, in soups and stews, etc.  I've resolved to branch out and use this valuable plant a lot more in the future.  To this end, my daughter-in-law has lent me her copy of "The Book of Kale" which gives lots of information on just how terrific kale is as well as growing instructions and how to use kale.  I'm truly amazed at how jam-packed kale is with goodness!

The other day I served a simple salad of young kale leaves chopped up, apple chunks and a dressing of 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 Tbsp honey and salt and pepper.  My husband loved it! Now that's truly amazing because I've always had a problem getting him to eat cruciferous vegetables!

Fresh ingredients for a tabouli salad

My daughter-in-law's book has some wonderful-looking recipes, and today I tried out Tabouli with Quinoa and Kale.  Everything was ready to be picked in the garden except, of course, the tomatoes.  Last year's garlic is starting to deteriorate, but is still better than most of the garlic found in the stores right now.  Likewise, the flat-leaf Italian parsley is starting to go to seed, but there are still good leaves to be found. I picked a variety of young kale leaves - Siberian, Red Russian, Lacinato - and pulled up some of my Apache scallions.  The lovely purple of the base adds colour to the salad.  And even the quinoa was grown in my garden!  The cup required for the salad used about a quarter of my harvest from last year.  No wonder I'm not planning on planting it again!

Tabouli with Quinoa and Kale

2 cups of water (plus stems from kale and parsley)
1 cup quinoa
1 cup minced kale leaves
1 cup minced parsley
2 large cloves garlic, finely minced
1 cup scallions, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped

Dressing

1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh mint leaves, chopped
salt and pepper

Boil the stems of the kale and parsley with the water for a couple of minutes, then strain out the solids.

Add the quinoa to the vegetable stock, bring to a boil and simmer gently for 15 minutes.  Cool and then add to remaining ingredients except the tomatoes.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and add the tomatoes just before serving.  Keeps well (without the tomatoes) for several days.

Leek and Potato Soup

Now that I'm planning a Three Sisters Garden, I have to get the leeks out of one of the beds.  The easiest way to use leeks is to make leek and potato soup, which also happens to be one of my favorites.  My recipe is pretty simple:  equal weights of leeks and potatoes, soup stock and some seasoning.

I read somewhere on the Internet about adding a bouquet garni and using a couple of blades from the leeks as the container, so I decided to give it a try.  I made my bouquet garni with a couple of sprigs of thyme, a bay leaf, some peppercorns and 2 leek leaves.  (Note to self:  get a bay tree!)

Ingredients for a bouquet garni

It was a bit fiddly putting the bouquet garni together, but with a little help from my husband, I finally mastered it.  Next was preparing the leeks.  Since leeks are grown in a trench which is gradually filled up to get long white portions, they tend to get soil trapped in the layers.  I slice my leeks down their length and rinse them out, then chop them into sections.  A proper leek and potato soup uses only the white portions of the leek, but I'm not a purist so I cheat a bit.

Cleaned leeks and the bouquet garni

The chopped leeks are now sauteed for about 5 minutes in butter until they are wilted.

Sautee the leeks until wilted

Then place the leeks, peeled and quartered potatoes and the bouquet garni in the pot of soup stock.  I use enough soup stock to cover the ingredients.  You can always add more to a soup that's too thick.  It's harder to make a thin soup thicker!

Simmering soup

Bring the soup to a boil and then simmer until the potatoes are cooked through.  Remove the bouquet garni and puree until smooth.  A couple of the peppercorns escaped, but since they floated, it was an easy matter to remove them.  Finally, reheat the soup, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

The finished product

I served the finished soup with a dollop of sour cream and chopped chives.  Sometimes I add plain yogurt instead of the sour cream.  It's also fine without the dairy addition.  You can garnish with fresh chopped parsley as well.  A delicious soup that's easy and inexpensive to make!

Aconite, Snowdrop - and Chicken!

I was out in the garden this morning (February 10th) picking parsley for my latest favorite recipe (to follow!) and couldn't help noticing the signs of spring popping up everywhere.  The earliest in my garden are always winter aconites and snowdrops.  I don't count the viburnum which blooms all winter long!

Galanthus nivalis - the common snowdrop

My favorite snowdrops are the little Galanthus nivalis - the common snowdrop.  There are showier ones, but none in my estimation can beat plain, old common snowdrops.  The best way to get them established in your garden, I've discovered, is to get a friend to give you a clump when they're in bloom.  I've tried many times to get them to grow from bulb without much success.

Eranthis - winter aconite

Another favorite spring flower is the winter aconite.  Like the snowdrop, it's usually in bloom in February.  In my garden, it pushes up through the dead foliage of a Japanese iris (I'm not called The Messy Gardener for nothing!)  The flowers in the picture aren't open because there's no sun today, but the hint of warmth will make them burst into full glory.

A third sign of spring is that the buds on my King Edward flowering currant are starting to open.  These are even earlier than the native currants and always bring the Rufous Hummingbirds.  This year, I won't know if I'm seeing Rufous or Anna's Hummingbirds as the females look so alike.  Today I saw my first male Anna's.  He's unmistakable with his scarlet head, very unlike the Rufous male.

But today I went out to pick parsley.  The flat Italian parsley grows all year long in my garden, so off I went to get some for Chicken with Gremolata Crust.  I count it as a recipe from my garden because it contains the parsley and garlic that I grow.  And it's absolutely delicious!

Chicken with Gremolata Crust

4 whole chicken legs with thigh attached (or any chicken pieces)
2/3 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 to 2 large garlic cloves minced
1/2 tsp paprika
pinch cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the breadcrumbs, cheese, parsley, lemon zest, garlic, paprika and cayenne in a wide, shallow dish.

Combine the mayonnaise and mustard in a bowl large enough to hold the chicken.  Add the chicken and toss to coat. (I usually just smear the mayonnaise/mustard on with my hands!)

Then coat in breadcrumb mixture.  Season with salt and pepper.  Bake 50 minutes or until cooked through.

Tonight I'm serving this with rice cooked in chicken broth and cole slaw with chunks of apple and grated carrot.  Yum!