i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
After the abysmal hatch rate last time, I decided to do dry incubating and dry hatching this time around. It will likely be my last hatch of the season as I had sold my white male, and my blue juvenile male is not of age …
Goosefoot, lambsquarter, and fat-hen all refer to the edible weeds of the genus Chenopodium. This is one weed I don’t pull, as it is an edible and mild flavored dark green, used anywhere you would use spinach (and, like spinach, is high in oxalic acid …
For those who grow their own onions, shiso, chives, etc., and collect their own eggs (duck or otherwise) this is a great recipe for those days you’re craving something a bit more savory and substantial. Gyudon is a Japanese beef bowl meal–the suffix “-don” (short for donburi) added to anything means it’s in a bowl over rice. Thus you’ll see at Japanese restaurants, things like tempura-don, unagi-don, gyudon, chicken katsudon, or (pork) katsudon.
I don’t like mixing the egg in with the beef, so I usually crack it at the end to semi-poach it in the juices, but some people will mix the egg and pour it over the top at the end. This is for the semi-poached version.
This recipe serves 4
Sauce:
Garnish:
Rice:
Optional:
1. Cook rice ahead of time, scoop into a large bowl, and set aside. Mix the sauce base and set aside.
2. In a well oiled pan over medium high heat, saute the onions until fragrant. Add the thinly sliced beef and quickly saute until color has changed but is not fully cooked yet. Add half the sauce base, reserve the rest if someone wants to pour it over their rice themselves after.
3. Make 4 small holes in the beef and onion mixture, one in each quarter of the pan, and crack an egg into each. Cover and steam until egg white is cooked but the yolk is still runny.
4. Place one quarter with an egg (careful not to break it) over the rice, and garnish with parsley (mitsuba or regular), cilantro, onion chives, shiso, scallions, grated radish, and pickled ginger, or any combination thereof. Different garnishes will give the dish a different flavor profile. Mix and match depending on what you like better. Dust with Japanese hot pepper flakes and serve while hot with sauce base on the side.
A friend of mine came over the other day and gave me cucumbers and carrots they grew, two things I did not have the chance to plant this year (nor do I have the space, currently, as the annual bed is full.) I can understand …
Celery is something I don’t usually touch, having been traumatized by too much celery dumplings as a kid. However, occasionally recipes call for it, and because I don’t like it, I never have it in my fridge even when I need it. In comes Lovage, …
We’re getting into the swing of tomato season and these plump, juicy fruits (which are actually classified as berries) are great during the summer months when the heat has robbed us of our appetite. Coupled with that, basil plants should be full and bushy right now, not having gone to seed yet so their leaves are large and flat. A lot of people would make a caprese salad now with tomato, basil, and mozzarella, but I’m here to tell you guys of a different take–with salty, savory, and aromatic gorgonzola in place of the traditional fresh mozz. I had it once at a steakhouse on vacation with the hubby-unit, and never forgot how amazing it was.
I made it last night for my dinner, while my husband ate his “rabbit food” but he, being Italian, couldn’t help but ask for some (which turned out to be half the plate!)
Recipe
Flavorful tomatoes make a world of difference, as do good olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
1. Cut tomatoes into 1/2 inch slices (I find thicker slices more enjoyable, to be eaten with a fork and a knife like cutting into fine steak.) Arrange on plate.
2. Shake crumbled gorgonzola and diced onions over the tomatoes, and garnish with shredded basil. Or, alternatively, place wedges of gorgonzola on tomato slices, garnish the same way.
3. Crack black pepper over the plate, and serve immediately with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Whenever anyone asks me what to do with shiso, my first instinctive reaction is tataki. Or any form of carpaccio or chilled dish because of the refreshingly minty, citrus-y bite it gives, but a lot of people turn to the wall and despair when it …
Hamburger steak is a western inspired Japanese meal in which a hamburger patty is cooked, swimming in gravy, with a side of rice and sometimes salad… and it is delicious. I suppose people might think it’s weird–like a poor man’s version of a steak dinner, …
One of the plants I grow every year is the tomato (solanum lycopersicum). My husband is part Italian, and although when I was younger, I didn’t like tomatoes at all, it has grown on me, especially when sliced thick and paired with a nice wedge of Gorgonzola, or made into a caprese salad (I guess you can tell I love cheese.)
It’s part of the nightshade family.
Yep. Super poisonous plants, and therefore every part of the tomato except the fruit shouldn’t be eaten, and at least one death has been reported (but you’d need to eat quite a bit of the greens for that.)
Although it originated in the Americas, it has become intensely popular, especially in the Mediterranean such as Greece and Italy.
Most years I plant only one or two varieties of large tomatoes, and the rest, due to higher yield, are usually cherries. I love the sweet cherries and the ones that have interesting colors. Wine dark purples, and sunburst yellows really make your plate more lively, and the subtle differences in texture and sweetness makes it not boring.
Last year I had a terrible time with them due to their placement–they need a lot of sun and water, and protection from deer, so this year, I moved my perennial herb garden which was in a 4 x 8 flower bed at my front door, and turned it into my annual vegetable bed instead, since it gets a lot of sun and has a sprinkler right next to it. They do best in full sun, not too cold and not too hot, with lots of moisture and water. People usually start them indoors and get them into the ground in June here on LI.
I also took a risk this year in that I planted them in the beginning of May, when there was still a slight chance of frost–but due to their location next to my house, they seemed well protected and actually thrived, growing huge with their fruits ripening around now.
I like to companion plant, so I have bush beans interplanted for their nitrogen fixing properties, and basil, which supposedly both makes tomatoes taste better and have a stronger aroma itself. I use tomato cages to hold them up (as tomatoes are actually considered a vine.)
Recipes that include Tomatoes
Shiso Buratta Salad
Easy Comfort Rice Bowl
Gorgonzola and Tomato Salad
Panzanella
Sundried Tomato, Garlic, and Rosemary In Olive Oil
Sundried Tomato and Mozzarella Salad
Hearty Garden Bean Soup
Spicy Chilled Noodles (Hiyashi Chuka)
Antipasto Salad Supreme
Spicy Miso Hummus Platter
Taco Rice
Ethiopian Style Breakfast
Dandelion Pesto With Tomato And Bread
Egg Tomato Alfalfa Sandwich
Easy Peanut Chicken
Breakfast Grits
Fire Roasted Pepper Caponata
Fire Roasted Tomato Jam
Week 1 (7/7/2017 – 7/13/2017) Chippy officially hatched on Friday, the 7th of July. She was given water supplemented with electrolytes and niacin, and provided unmedicated organic (no special reason, was the only feed the store had) chick starter/grower. On day 3, I let Chippy …