So the Fedco Seed order is in.  I still have to finalize the potato choice and get more legume innoculent and germinating mix but the hardest decisions are done.   There will also be a small order from Seed Savers Exchange, but the bulk of the work is over.  It’s like a weight has been lifted from me, strange right?  Seed choices are a daunting task, one that takes a lot of thought.  I got the first seed catalogs in December and have been critically perusing them since.  Over the years I have gotten much more frugal, I don’t buy everything that looks fun.  I’ve learned to restrain myself and plan realistically…kind of.  I don’t have 45 acres to plant, I don’t need 14 kinds of tomatoes.  Heck, I don’t even have 1 acre.  I’ve got a 4′ x 10′ community garden plot and a 16′ x 1′ raised bed, a 3′ x 8′ ish herb garden and various tubs and pots to fill.  I utilize my space to it’s fullest however.  Sooo here’s the choices from Fedco this year:

Multicolored Pole Bean mix – I had this mix last year as well.  It really has a good variety of green, purple and wax beans.  Plus I had no problems with bean beetles which I was very thankful for as they decimated many other gardeners plots.

de Bourbonne Pickling Cuke – supposed to be for cornichons, we’ll see if I get that many.  Last year was such a crappy year for cukes (too much rain) I got a lot of pickles done but they sure were not from my cukes.

National Pickling Cuke – for snacking or pickling

Over the Rainbow Carrot mix – satisfies my need for growing 40,000 different kinds.

Nantes Fancy – Currently backordered….I hope I get them!

3 root grex beet – a potentially multicolored beet.  ooh lala.

French Breakfast Radish – I love radishes only because you can plant them so damn early.

Bright Lights Chard – a staple in my garden.

Cascade Glaze Collard Greens – I will grow these with the leftover Champion Collards from last year.  I think I could have my own collard green only farmers market at work.  haha.  I already have orders in for this year.  People that normally wouldn’t buy from a farmers market are completely won over by my fresh grown collards.  Plus I loooove them.

Rainbow Lacinato – these are backordered and god help me I hope I get them.  Rainbow dino kale?!?!?!  How excited am I?  This is why I should have ordered on Jan. 8th when Fedco started accepting orders.  The thought of red, blue and green lacinato simply makes me ridiculously happy.

Kale mix – Because I cannot decide on other dark greens I got the mix.

Thai Hot hot pepper – again a staple in my garden.  Profuse producer and super hot.  I use them in my pickles and then dry the rest and use them in place of red pepper flake for the rest of the year.

Some like it Hot Pepper mix – Who knows what I’ll get out of this.  Hopefully a fish pepper or two and some jalapeno.

Tomatoes – I’m in a big tomato mood for this year, last year it was primarily cherry sized.  I think I’ll keep all the tomatoes at home and leave the community garden plot for everything else.  I tend to neglect the tomatoes at the community garden, they need to much nurturing and are too valuable to me to leave across town.  So here’s what I chose:

Cherokee Purple Tomato – I’m sure you’re familiar.

Paul Robeson – a dark maroon-y tomato supposedly much like a black krim.

Pineapple – a striped variety, not quite yellow not quite red.  However Fedco is subbing these with Old German BiColor so we’ll see what that brings me.

Peacevine – I like that it’s described as a ‘rampant indeterminate’.  1″ fruits good time.

So that’s it…..for now.  There will also be plant starts bought come May.  I will be buying another Mexican Sour Gherkin start however I need but one of those as there are quite prolific.  I also get two tomatillo starts which historically keep me in salsa for the rest of the year.  Plus there’s all my annual herb buying.  I just don’t have the room to start the 30 basil plants and 15 parsley plants I need on top of all the other crap.

I have a crap load of pictures stored away in my camera, tons of food we’ve made and I don’t know why I can’t bring myself to just sit down and throw it on here.  It’s not as if I don’t really have time.  I mean instead of watching 45 thousand hours of food network I could have been productive this weekend and cared for my neglected blog.  Now however, I must attend to the brisket that has been in the crock pot for 8 hours.  It’s spicy and hopefully super tender and delicious.

Tomorrow.

I think.

Start

guacamole.  chips.

Sandwich

smoked chicken pesto

-mesquite smoked chicken breast, bear pond farm basil pesto, cream havarti on olga’s baguette-

Pizza

pizza margherita

-tomato, basil, narragansett creamery fresh mozzarella-

sausage and greens

-casey farm hot italian sausage, simmons farm sautéed kale, narragansett creamery atwell’s gold-

salty and sweet

-caramelized onions, capri goat cheese, prosciutto, backyard parsley-

the veganza

-roasted garlic, red peppers, eggplant, toasted pignoli-

Sweet

chocolate espresso crinkles

double peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

stout cupcakes

Long story short, I became the proud recipient of 20lbs. of green tomatoes.  I mean who am I to refuse free produce?  This last weekend became the weekend of the green tomato.

I began with my trusty Ball canning and preserving book and perused the handful of green tomato recipes.  I settled on a salsa verde, dill pickled tomatoes and a green tomato sweet hot dog relish (per Ray’s request).  Day one was salsa and pickled.  Apparently the relish must be salted over night to draw out a lot of the liquid.

Pre-brining the green tomatoes were really pretty.  I haven’t tried them yet and am not sure what I’m going to do with all of this stuff, but I have all winter to figure something out.

At the end of it all I came out with 6 jars of Dill Pickled Tomatoes, 3 1/2 Pints of Salsa Verde and 12 half pints of relish.  I don’t even like relish.

We have grilled matunuck oysters with chive butter, and a giant burger…..

Meet the spicy pork burger made with local ground pork, chiles and red onion. Accompanied by locally made queso fresco and our own homemade pickles! Delicious.

This was actually the final meal for the latest edition of the local eating challenge we take part in. Everything has to be local except for things like oils and vinegars. Oddly enough we’re burgering again tonight as it’s beautiful and we have got to take advantage of this weather while we still have it!!

Dumpling night is by all means a joint effort. Nathan steams the cabbage leaves to line the steamer so it’s easier to fit the 8,000,000 little purses that will soon fill it. I’m in charge of mixing the meat, which consists of beating one egg white with some soy sauce, sesame oil, and cornstarch. Nate shreds the carrot and cabbage, minces the garlic and ginger and I get to get my hands all sticky with ground chicken goo. Once the prep is taken care of the assembly ensues. I lay out the wonton wrappers, Nate quickly wets the outer edges to ensure a good seal, I get to spoon the meat mix teaspoon by teaspoon onto all the wrappers. Nathan purses them all up and pops them in the bamboo basket.
To cook them, it takes about 7-9 minutes per steamer layer. We usually have two stories to our dumpling fiasco. Normally we steam off some baby bok choy on the side, make a spicy thai chile soy dipping sauce and plop some hot chinese mustard on a plate and then proceed to eat the 8,000,000 dumplings in front of the T.V. most likely watching Cops (if nathan has anything to do with it).

And this is what he got himself for his birthday. Bike #5938477239949. And he rode it in the kitchen. Notice the dog running away in fear.

And this my friends is the coconut cake that I made for him. I’ve been promising this cake for what he says is 10 years. I beg to differ. We’ve only been cooking well for 4 or 5 years. It was good. Probably could have used cake flour to make it a bit more tender. It had a pretty big crumb to it, but with enough frosting it was better. I’m also very critical of myself, at least when it comes to cooking. I will say not bad for my first “from scratch” cake.

For the weekly eating experience I tried to recreate an eggplant dish that Last Night’s Dinner
inspired me to try. The eggplant and cheese did me in and I had to have it for myself. So my version took eggplant sliced lengthwise, roasted for a few minutes to get soft. I also tossed some more chicken sausage in the oven (it was on sale at Whole Foods) because Nathan really likes his protein. Once the eggplant was softened sufficiently I topped it with slice fresh mozzarella, again Narragansett Creamery, and some grated pecorino romano and popped those babies in the broiler to get super toasty. Nothing is complete in this house without some kind of sauce. To satisfy that I chopped up a whole mess of garlic, softly sauteed it in olive oil and right as the eggplant was done threw in some chopped fresh tomato. To give it all a bed to lie on until being devoured I cooked a bunch of swiss chard, because I could eat greens with everything.