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22 Dec

Happy Yule!

Posted by wooddogs3 in Uncategorized. 2 comments

Happy Solstice, joyous Yule for those who celebrate, happy Day 1 of the new solar year. Looking back through my archives I notice that I have nearly always posted a picture of the Dec. 22nd sunrise, so here is this year’s.

To the extent that I make resolutions at all, they tend to come up in synchronicity with the new solar year. This is hardly surprising, since all gardeners and foragers sooner or later find themselves adapting to the ancient rhythms of the agricultural year. This winter I decided to learn to fish, and I’m thoroughly enjoying learning the very beginnings of my new skill. Our freezer is overstuffed with vegetables from our own garden, our own chickens, and meat and fish from friends. Nonetheless, a few fresh trout don’t come amiss.

Take advantage of the long nights, build fires, stay warm, and decide in repose where you want to put your energies in the future. All best wishes for a joyous and peaceful new solar year.

19 Oct

The greens of fall: Nasturtium

Posted by wooddogs3 in cooking, edible landscaping, front yard gardening, greens, herbs, Ketogenic diet, Uncategorized, vegetable gardening. Tagged: greens, herbs, leafy hand rolls, Nasturtium. 3 comments

With the first frost behind us, there are parts of the garden that are just getting into full swing. This is the second great greens season. During the summer I enjoy the beauty of nasturtiums and put the flowers in salads frequently, as well as using the leaves here and there. After a frost, flower production slows way down but leaf production increases, and this is the time to use these wonderful tender leaves with the flavor of watercress. I use them fairly simply. The largest ones always become hand rolls, and my favorite things to put in them are cream cheese with capers and some of their own blossoms, slivered sushi salmon with pickled ginger and other accompaniments, and smoked salmon. I use two leaves stacked to make up each role so that you get a good watercressy flavor in each bite.

The smaller leaves go into quickly sautéed mixtures of greens and herbs that flavor omelettes. Green garlic is available again this time of year after the summer hiatus, and I like to chop up a small stalk of it leaves and all, chop up a packed pint of the smaller nasturtium leaves and a celery leaf or two chopped fine, and sauté them together quickly in butter and put them in an omelette of eggs from my own hens. Delicious. If you care to gild the lily by adding slivered smoked salmon and bits of cream cheese to the filling, it only gets better. If you can eat outside in the clear October sunlight, that’s best of all.

10 Aug

A Hot Treat

Posted by wooddogs3 in Cook's treat, cooking, front yard gardening, Uncategorized, urban homesteading. Tagged: cook's treat, Jalapeño pepper, ketogenic snack, Low-carb snack, snack, vegetable appetizer, vegetable dish. 1 comment

I love hot food, and one of my favorite snacks when other heat-lovers are around is stuffed jalapeños. Couldn’t be easier: slice 2 or 3 jalapeño chiles in half lengthwise, pull out the seeds and veins, salt liberally ( helps keep the heat in check,) put a piece of good cheddar about 1/2 inch square and two inches long in each half, and bake at 425 until done or cook on a part of the grill that you’re not cooking something else on, being careful not to burn the jalapeños. Eat with fingers. This amount of cheese will overflow a bit, causing crisp cheese crust to form on the baking pan. Yum. It’s low-carb and suitable for ketogenic eaters.
One split pepper makes a good cook’s treat when you have things in the oven anyway, and if you have a willing sous-chef don’t forget to roast a second one.
Jalapeños are good for growing in the front yard because they are sturdy and attractive. They may need a little judicious staking to keep them upright. They can get hot as blazes. The longer they’re left on the plant, the hotter they get. 1 or 2 plants per person are plenty.

1 Aug

The Eggplant Chronicles III: an Eggplant Appetizer

Posted by wooddogs3 in cooking, edible landscaping, front yard gardening, herbs, Ketogenic diet, recipe, Uncategorized, Vegetable dinners. Leave a comment

One evening recently I found myself with four expected for dinner and two Japanese eggplants. I decided to use the eggplants as an hors d’oeuvre and sliced them diagonally (to increase the size of the slices) about 1/3 inch thick, sprinkled the slices heavily with salt, and set them aside to disgorge while I rummaged in the pantry and refrigerator. I came across my tub of salt-cured capers and set a large handful of them aside to soak. I found some leftover marinara sauce, about a cup’s worth, and put it in a little saucepan and reduced it to half a cup to thicken the sauce and intensify the flavors. I added a small handful of chopped fresh Greek oregano, and since the flavor was going to lean more Greek I threw in a few chopped fennel fronds too, a tablespoonful or so. I pulled a slice of feta out of the tub in my refrigerator and crumbled it. The oven was turned to 425 to preheat.
By this time the eggplant slices looked quite watery and were ready to be dried with a clean dish towel. They need to be pressed hard to get as much water out as possible. Then they were fried in olive oil in a nonstick skillet until nicely browned on both sides. I do this over fairly high heat, which requires constant unwavering attention so that they don’t burn but gets the job done quickly.
Once the eggplant slices are fried, they can be laid out on parchment paper on a baking sheet and the squeezed-dry capers fried quickly in olive oil in the same pan, not to crispness and not browned but just enough to turn them a shade darker and bring out their flavor. Then mix them into the tomato sauce and spread the mixture on the eggplant slices. Top with crumbled feta. Pop in the hot oven for 15-20 minutes, until the slices are bubbling-hot and the feta looks a little soft, and serve.
These can be made hours ahead, even a day ahead, and then the final baking done just before eating. They are suitable for low carbohydrate diets. They are suitable for vegetarians as long as the tomato sauce didn’t contain any meat. If cooking for vegans, you could leave off the cheese, fry the capers to the point of a bit of browning and crispness, and use them combined with toasted pine nuts for the top garnish.

Thanks to my grafted Japanese eggplant I always have a couple of lovely fruit hanging around the kitchen waiting for inspiration to strike. If you don’t have a big vegetable garden, eggplant is attractive enough (in my eyes anyway) to be grown along a walkway in place of flowers.