Seductive Behavior

Ah the recipe.  It beckons from the pages of a magazine or the folds of a newspaper.  It sits idly in a cookbook, marked but long forgotten.

Beguiling, seductive behavior is common with a recipe.  You can't trust them.  They look good on the surface, but then you get involved with them and BAM!  there it is, something that just doesn't make sense.  something that throws the whole relationship off.  You should have seen it, but you were seduced by the sound of the title--the beautiful picture.  That is the editor doing their job.  seducing you, letting you think you can make this, you should make this, or you will miss out on the best thing you could have ever had. 

You know it in the back of your mind--this incompatibility-but you pursue it anyway.  but it always rears it's ugly head. Oh yes I forgot which topic I was discussing. Back to recipes.

Recipes are more of a suggestion than an obligation for me.  I see them, like the sounds of them, then start to make them and think "this won't taste good--I need to change it".  And so the process begins.  Or more to the point,  "the Project".  Each recipe becomes a project in enhancement.  I just can't leave well enough alone.  Of course well enough is usually, well, not well enough.

Different people approach recipes in different ways and i think they are an indication of how they approach everything in life.  Some people are afraid to try, others must follow things to the exact teaspoon, others have  no regard for the concept and act irreverently thinking they have a better idea than the recipe's originator.  Others accept that the recipe is the way it is--OK, but not great.  But some can see the potential of a good recipe that with just a few tweaks could be perfect....yes, that's me.  And everything I do is like that.  Think about your behavior towards the seductive recipe.  What type are you? Here's to betting it's just like everything else you do.  Amusing isn't it?  this little bit of psychology from the lowly recipe.

Today's new recipes:
Quinoa Salad.   added a tablespoon of peanut butter.  Made the whole thing much more complex and exciting.

Farro salad: added a little honey, a little garlic and fresh chopped Cilantro.  Smoothed out the rough edges

See what I mean?   You too can make a difference in the life of a recipes.  Just try. :)

Go ahead, make a change.  You'll be glad you did.

BTW, I know I should be posting gardening items, but it has been dreadful this last week with rain and cold.  So as soon as the weather clears I'll be talking dirty- from the yard work of course.. 

Lett uce peas not have a hard frost in April!

I have succumbed. It's official. all the seed is in the ground. Zinnia's, cosmos', cleome's, snap peas, hollyhock, larkspur and catmint. Today: lettuce. I tried to resist, but this weather is too much of a tease and they tell me that it doesn't look like any sort of hard freeze is on the way. Lettuce and Peas both like it cold anyway. As a matter of fact, my arugula continued to grow through the whole winter! I took a picture of it while tearing down the chicken wire over the tulips. Then, thinking I would be throwing it all away, I tore half of it up. Just for yucks I tasted some of it. This was not last years lettuce! The seed I had thrown in the ground last fall had grown through the winter and grew a whole new bed of lettuce. This arugula is soft, peppery and delicious! Totally amazing that it grew through the winter with no protection. New seeds are going in today though for red leaf and butter, and of course more arugula. The pile of arugula just waiting to be washed looked so inviting with that beautiful sun coming in the window. How often do we get a picture like that in the middle of March in New England? That Chicken wire is a whole other story. Never let a man squirrel proof your tulips. They hate squirrels. It took two hours of cutting chicken wire and pulling out industrial size staples to free my emerging tulips form the grips of this nasty chicken wire. I think he thought the squirrels were directly related to Godzilla! Next year I set up the chicken wire. Although it did have the intended effect. The squirrels were unable to get to the tulip bulbs for late evening snacks. It looks like all of the bulbs are still there and coming up.

Do we Dare?????

Who can believe this weather??? 70's and 80's in March for most of the month. insanity! But do we dare plant the seeds of summer and hope that mother nature does not return the act with mocking gestures of sustained freeze and early spring blizzards?

Hardened New Englander's have learned not to trust the tease of an early warm spell. But even we are being suckered in by this ridiculous weather. Well at least I am being suckered.

Today I planted 40 perennials. Now those of you who have seen my garden will say:

"where the heck is she going to put 40 more plants!". but the fact of the matter is, I will probably plant over 100 new perennials this year as well as lots of annual seed in the ground for all year annual color and filler.

How can this be? Well think of your garden as changing over every three to four weeks and you quickly see why 100 plants can disappear into the landscape in a flash. You really need 5 gardens a year to have a spectacular display from April 15th to Nov 15th. After eight years I am still planting and still working on this.

Of course the other issue is that perennial does not mean forever. Many perennials only live two or three years. Others, like peonies, roses and wisteria, can live for 100 years. But sadly, most do not. So in addition to planting for each garden interval, you also need to replace short lived perennials.

The most economical way to do this is to mail order bare root or small plants. They will be small for a couple of years but then just when you need them to start taking over they are large enough to make a difference in the garden.

If you don't preplan, you will find yourself running to the local nursery or big box store to fill holes and bare spots. This will lead to spending 10 x's what you would have spent if you had just thought ahead a little.

Seeds are another wonderful money saver, and so easy! I don't bother with all that indoor sowing nonsense. Takes way too much time and effort for not much different results. An alternative is to sow seed in early April. Seed will be fine even if there is frost and snow. Your plants will emerge about a month later than if you planted them indoors, however they will be stronger and grow faster because they were not transplanted. I have done this successfully for several years now.

Annual seeds that respond well to early sowing and fast growth are: Zinnias, Cosmos and Cleome.

Last year my zinnias and cosmos carried the garden into December and were just stunning. Those zinnias are just such complicated little beings. I have attached a photo from last years seeds. The Zinnias are the bright little flowers on the wall. The Cosmos and the Zinnias were the last blooming flowers in the garden.

Just buy some seed at your local hardware store or mail order it if you want (I mail order because i like to pick unique varieties. there must be 500 types of zinnias), lightly brush some soil away where you want them to grow, throw in a few seeds per square foot area and brush the dirt back on top. Water and you're done. How simple was that???!!!

Power of the Pantry

Yes, it has been way too long since I have posted to this blog. but I am coming out of my self induced hiatus and hope to post continuously again. It's not that I haven't been cooking....I have! but it has been too much with the schedule to actually get to the site and post. With spring around the corner and all of us coming out of our winter hibernation I say "VIVA LA POST!"

So as my first post I will share something very humorous that may make my Diva followers gasp. But it is a good example of ingenuity when you're in a pickle.

A few weeks ago I was in Killington Vermont staying with a very good friend at her ski house. By 8pm everyone but me was smashed and they all poured into the ski house looking for dinner. What ensued was quite amusing. a bunch of drunk people trying to make dinner for a party of about 30. SO I shooed everyone out of the kitchen and went to work.

resources were limited. One of the key pieces of the meal was pasta with red sauce. But as anyone who follows the blog knows, red sauce does NOT come out of a jar! Fortunately I had brought some home made pesto for what i thought was going to be breakfast--but hey, why not dinner instead.

Susan had onions, fresh basil and garlic and canned diced tomatoes. I put in the homemade pesto and cooked bacon. IT was good-but lacked zing. It needed to be "bound" together. First I searched for half and half or cream or cream cheese. Nothing. then I searched the pantry for evaporated milk. nothing. UGH-what is a girl to do???

then, I spotted it-a can of creamy french onion dip! I poured the whole can in the tomato sauce and Viola! it turned it into a lovely pink sauce immediately. it was delicious. Everyone wanted to know what the secret ingredient was. How amusing is that. French onion dip. Now you know...never under estimate the power of the pantry.
Did I tell you they were drunk :).

Mano-a- Mano with Edward Scissorhands

OK-me and this little guy are going to come to terms. I haven't bought a shotgun or anything like that-but he is seriously testing my Cambridge "all creatures have a place on this earth" mentality.

I was fine when the local bunny ate all my strawberries--a minor inconvenience. and I have been OK with the squirrels lifting my expensive tuberous begonia bulbs to toss around the yard.

But Edward scissorhands and I are doing serious battle. I feel him mocking me from the bushes every morning as he sees me cursing him as I replace all the divots one by one. slowly watching the grass die as he does his thing every night.

I was unsure what type of creature was taking a can opener to my lawn every night. However my friend Ellen informed me that it is a skunk. So one must approach with caution.

I have tried killing the grubs so his food supply is cut out-but he just waits it out till they come back and then he starts again.

Every morning I go out to get the paper and there it is-massive destruction-grass clumps thrown eveyrwhere-but with intense precision at the root line.

I feel his eyes on me as I scream in the air "EDWARD!". I assume he has gotten used to his name. Maybe I should have little t-shirts made for he and all his little skunk friends

"You Grow it and Mow it, We throw it ".

I am planning my revenge as we speak.

What a meat market!

OK OK-so it's not the type of meat market I am used to where scantily clad women and leering men provide the visual entertainment. It was however a real visual experience.

Fish heads, Tongue, Chickens and rabbits oh my!

As promised, these are the meat pictures from the Paris market. They are gross to us-but really, what a tribute to the animal. I remember my grandmother slaughtering her own chickens and using every bit of that chicken. Here we throw out 1/2 of the usable animal because we don't like thinking about the reality of eating an animal.

I say if you slaughter it-use it! I try to use as much of an animal as possible-being one of those "gross" people that likes to cook the neck and innards and has been known to eat tongue, pickled pigs feet and any other number of things that gross out the masses of American consumers. How sad. Not only are these cuts delicious and nutritious--but they are also a better way to respect the animal. Oh well-I doubt I will ever win that battle-but hopefully I have given you something to think about and one day you may try to use more of the animal than just those parts nicely cellophaned in the grocery store.

Enjoy the pictures. I took some of them through the glass cases so I notice there are some reflections....but you get the idea.

Bouffe tout c'il vous plait!

Miscommunication

Before the Paris meat market post- I would like to relay a small food funny that happened this weekend with my girlfriends on the cape.

Being the dutiful Diva that I am , I made some really nice healthy vegetable salads for us to all enjoy over the weekend.

Joanne had us all at her house: Charlene, Allyson, Sarah and me.

So we are sitting around and Allyson is half listening to the conversation as she was not feeling that well. Charlene is asking me about the salads and what is in them.

At one point I keep saying "Kohlrabi". Everyone was kind of looking at me like I was strange and kept asking the same question. And I kept answering "Kohlrabi".

Finally Allyson says-"why do you want me to call Rob and why do you keep calling him Robby???"

After a good laugh I spelled out Kohlrabi and explained it is an Asian vegetable used much like a daikon radish-but milder.

Then later that day we were all at job lot and low and behold-they had Kohlrabi seeds. Everyone was relived to know I had not lost my mind (well at least not pertaining to that!).

So sometimes what seems so obvious to one person is clearly sounding like something else to someone else. Sort of make you wonder how often we think we know what people are saying-but really have no idea. :).

By the way, the salad was fabulous.

peeled grated Kohlrabi

peeled grated carrots

one lemon-juiced and zested

Chinese black vinegar

grated ginger

grape seed or canola oil (about twice the amount of vinegar you use)

minced garlic

toasted sesame seeds toasted

Cashews chopped

hint of hot pepper(Cayenne)

salt to taste

mix lemon juice, zest,oil, vinegar, ginger and garlic together. Pour over grated veggies. toss with cashews sesame seeds and salt.

Let sit for about an hour.

Awesome!!