...because you didn't get to eat any of the homemade pizza I made last Saturday night and because you won't get any of the watermelon that we grew in our garden.
Both the pizza and the watermelon tasted great and kicked ass. And the best part is both items were organic. Boo ya!
I got all of this except the cucumbers out of our garden today. We've still got butternut squash, zucchini, watermelons, tomatoes, peppers, fingerling potatoes, broccoli, and various herbs growing robustly in all the rain we've had over the past week.
For those keeping score at home, there's hot chilies, butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, jalapenos, egg plant, and cucumbers.
It's chock full of basil, oregano, thyme, sage, mint, lemon grass, chives, cilantro, lavender, and some other stuff.
From left to right that's potatoes, tomatoes, egg plant, and watermelon.
Red onions.
White sweet potatoes and onions from seed. The sweet potatoes look scrawny because I just planted them yesterday.
More sweet potatoes, shallots, and a couple different varieties of peppers.
Peppers and green beans.
Several more varieties of tomato plants, which have many green tomatoes on them now, which means I'll have ripe fresh tomatoes in a few weeks. Yay me!
Broccoli and lettuce bordered with marigolds.
Peas, butternut squash, zucchini, yellow squash, cantaloupes, strawberries, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, green beans, and cucumbers.
We've also got some sweet peppers and giant red bell pepper planted in a plot in that garden space but they haven't come up yet.
In garden space #2, which used to be a rose and daffodil bed until I pulled out the rose bushes (sorry Tengrain) and the daffodils, we've got:
There's still a smidgen or two of space left so I may put in some Brussels sprouts and some other stuff. I'm hoping we have a bumper crop of tomatoes so we can can some and make some salsa to can as well. I'm also hoping we get a bunch of butternut squash and potatoes that we can set aside for the fall and winter.
If it was up to me, I'd turn the whole backyard into an urban homestead and grow as much food as we could. I rather have food than grass growing back there because I don't trust that produce that's sold in grocery stores, even some of the organic stuff. I'm sure there some right winger out there who is horrified that we're growing this much stuff, they'll complain that I'm taking the profit out of the corporate farms pockets. And they're right, for every piece of produce that we produce in our back yard, that's money that is not going into the coffers of irresponsible corporations who don't farm organically and who treat their employees like shit. Every tomato we grow, every herb, every potato and pepper, each and every piece of produce in our back yard is pesticide free and fertilizer free. Monsanto and Dow and the rest of the chemical and petro chemical companies can kiss my ass, they're not getting in our garden.
Hopefully, by the end of June we should be eating bunches of stuff out of our garden. Yay!
hate me for rubbing it in on you folks who have not even planted anything yet. In addition to radishes, we've also got lettuce coming up that we can start eating. Boo ya!(The * denotes seeds that are organic.)
I'll be starting most of the seeds in containers this week and hopefully in about a month/month and a half I'll be able to plant the seedlings outside. I'm digging having a back yard big enough for a garden. Now if only spring would get here and stay here I'd be tickled pink.
I'm not kidding when I tell you that the next crisis we face is going to be in our food supply. I'd adivse you to watch a short film called The Power of Community (How Cuba Survived Peak Oil). This short film has much to teach us about how to farm and live when the oil runs out, and yes, despite what FOX Noise and Rush tell you, the oil is going to run out someday soon. This film about our supposed enemy has more information and hope in it than in anythign I've seen in the past few years. There is a way out and we'll all find it just as soon as we stop letting big business tell us how to live.
I started out by slicing three leeks and sauteing them in half a cup of this white wine:
I also added a table spoon of cracked black pepper, a dash of sea salt, and three sliced garlic cloves. 
Next I chopped up some Chilean sea bass into bite sized chunks and then I added it to the leeks. You can use any white fish you like and you can use a combination of different fish if you like as well. When I make this at the beach I use fresh scallops, shrimp, and something like cod or grouper. This is what it all looked like before I added two cans of organic chicken broth:
When I added the broth I also added slices of fresh orange peel, be careful not to get too much of the pith on the peel, a smattering of spinach (about a cup) I had in a bag in the fridge, and two finely sliced celery stalks, along with the leaves from the center of the celery. I also added about half a cup of fresh cut and finely sliced herbs which included tarragon, lemon basil, and oregano. I then let all that simmer in my pot while I made my roux.
The key is leaving them in the oven long enough to get the skin off easily. This is what they looked like when I took them out:
I scraped the skin off the peppers with a steak knife and I put the pepper slices in my food processor. I added a ladle full of broth from my simmering soup, a couple of finely diced cloves of garlic, and about two cups of fresh bread crumbs. I used Habenero Surprise bread, which I bought from Scratch Foodworks here in Johnson City, to make my crumbs with because I wanted a little extra "oomph" to my roux. You can use store bought French bread or any kind of bread to make your crumbs with if you decide to make this dish. After I pulsed the pepper and broth together I added the crumbs and this is what the finished roux looked like:
As my soup finished simmering I cut some bread into semi bite sized slices and I toasted it.
When my soup was done I ladled it into the bowls and I topped it with four peices of the cut up bread and I topped it with some roux.
I served it up with some carrot sticks and it was mighty tasty. Oh yeah, don't serve the orange peel when you serve up the soup, it's only there to impart citrus flavor to the broth.
Or spicy stir fry vegetable tofu over jasmine rice.
We were due for a meatless meal here at Monkey Central so I decided to make veggie stir fry with rice but for some reason I decided to add tofu to the meal. My history with tofu is mixed at best. I've never been able to cook it where it didn't end up mushy, but not being one to shrink from a culinary challenge I decided to give it one more try. I started out by slicing off five thin pieces of tofu and I patted them dry between two paper towels. 
Next I sliced them into thin strips.
Then I put them all in a bowl and I seasoned them with some Thai Spice Rub mix that we've got. I made sure all the pieces were covered evenly and then I let them sit while I sliced up my vegetables.
I cut up one half a small zucchini, one small onion, one third of a red bell pepper, four large baby portabella mushrooms, three small celery stalks, and three large cloves of garlic.
I then put my rice on and I began heating up the wok. Into the wok I put about a quarter of a cup of canola oil and I let it get good and hot. After the oil got hot I gingerly put my spicy tofu pieces in. I let them cook for a good four minutes on each side before I put the peppers, onions, and garlic in. Then I added about a tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce.
After letting my tofu and aromatic veggies cook for a moment of two I tossed in the mushrooms and zucchini and I stirred it all around and let it simmer for a bit. Then while I toasted some Birdseed bread we got from Scratch Bakery, I also tossed in the celery and I let it cook in with everything else for about two minutes. I hate over cooked celery in my Asian dishes so I always put it in at the last minute and I serve everything while the celery is still crunchy.
I served the vegetable tofu over some jasmine rice. Along with the bread I put out a couple small dishes of spicy peanut with the main dish. I'm happy to report that I finally got my tofu right. It was crispy and not at all mushy. The secret must be in pressing out as much water as possible and then cooking it in the oil for a good long time, three or four minutes anyway, on each side. The whole meal was quite tasty and I'm looking forward to cooking the rest of that package of tofu soon.The moral of this episode is don't be afraid to keep trying something in kitchen, after all if millions of Asian people cook and love tofu I knew sooner or later I figure out how to cook it properly.
Actually today's episode is spicy chicken legs with potatoes a la Monkey.
I started off by mixing up all my spices for the spice mixture, which consists of the following:I crushed and mixed all that together in my motar and pestle and then I set it aside and I cut off all the skin on chicken legs.
Next I laid the legs in an 8x8 pyrex cooking pan and I coated them with my spice mixture and I added a tablespoon of Brummel and Brown butter substitute. I set my oven on 375 and after it heated up I covered the chicken legs with some foil so as to seal in the juices and steam and I baked the legs for about an hour and fifteen minutes.
While the legs baked I peeled a few potatoes and I then cubed them. I sauteed some onion and some garlic and when the potatoes were done I mixed it all together. In a bowl I put 1/4 cup of olive oil and about three, maybe four, tablespoons of spicy brown mustard. I mixed the mustard and olive oil together and I added some fresh cut chives and some fresh cracked black pepper. Then I put the potatoe mixture in the bowl with the mustardy olive oil and I mixed it all up.
That's what the legs looked like after an hour and fifteen minutes in the oven. Mmmmmm, tatsy.
I served the chicken and potatoes with a small green salad and some toasted French bread that we got at Scratch bakery. It was all quite tasty and I don't feel a bit guilty about not saving you any.
I love to roast things in this clay pot roaster that Sparky's sister got us a few years ago, especially whole chickens. In order to use it though I have to soak it in cold water for ten minutes. Also I don't pre-heat the oven when using the roaster because it needs to warm up gradually as the oven heats up.
As my clay roaster soaked up the cold water I cut up about 7 cloves of garlic, a third of an onion, and one third of a red pepper. 
Next I ground about a tablespoon and a half of fresh black pepper. To that I added a tea spoon of sweet Spanish paprika and a tea spoon and a half of sea salt. I then tossed in my garlic and I poured in a glug of extra virgin olive oil. I mixed it all around and then I set it aside.
My pot was ready so I took it out of the sink and I drained the water. I then opened my chicken. I like using organic chicken because organic food is best for your body in most every case. If I can't find a reasonably priced organic bird, I try to use ones that have been fed a vegetarian diet and have been raised without growth hormones.
I took most of the skin off the chicken because that's where most of the fat is on a chicken and then I laid the chicken in the bottom of the roasting pan.
Next I slapped the spice and oil mixture all over the chicken and then I added the onion and red pepper. I put the lid on it and I stuck it in a cold oven I then turned the oven on to 375 degrees and I left the chicken in for one hour and forty five minutes. At about halfway though the cooking time I opened the pot to check on the chicken and I turned it over in the pan. And yes, at all times when I was handling the hot roasting pan I did indeed use my keen new potholders.
When my timer went off I pulled the pan out and I checked my chicken. It was indeed done. I took the chicken out of the pan and I poured all that nice liquid that also contained the cooked garlic, the spices, the onion, and the red pepper into a little sauce pan. 
Or Spicy Butternut Squash Soup with Mushroom Green Pepper Quesadilla.
I chopped a medium sized butternut squash, scooped out the seeds and strings, and I put it in a big pot to boil. I added a half teaspoon of sea salt and I let it boil away until it was all cooked through, i.e. soft and pliant.
After it was done I drained off the water and I scooped out the squash and I threw away the skin. I then put the squash in my food processor with a cup of chicken broth and I pulsed it all together until it was nice and soupy looking.
Next I poured it into a smaller pan and I added another cup of chicken broth and a cup and cup of water. 
Then I peeled three cloves of garlic, chopped them up, and I tossed them in with a heaping table spoon of some Thai spice rub, a table spoon of crushed black pepper, half a tea spoon of cumin, and a dash of sea salt. I ground all that up with my mortar and pestle and then I put it in with my simmering squash soup.
Next I sauteed half a green pepper, four or five medium baby portabella mushrooms, and half an onion. After that was cooked through I set it aside in a small dish.
I rinsed out the pan and reheated it with a dash of canola oil and as soon as it was hot I added a flour tortilla. As it heated up I spread the green pepper mixture around on it and I added four tablespoons of Newman's Own Salsa. Then I topped that with about half a cup of low fat mozzarella and I slapped another flour tortilla on top of that. As it all melted and heated up I flipped it over when the bottom started getting a bit brown and I let the other side brown a bit. After it got browned on both sides I took it off the heat and I made some carrot and celery sticks.
Then I plated it all. The quesadilla was excellent by the way but the soup was a shade too spicy for both our tastes, next time I won't add any of the Thai spice rub and it should be perfect.
