BLT, G (not gangsta) Style

Let's talk gourmet...
Thick slices of Applewood smoked bacon, Romaine lettuce, Garden fresh tomatoes on Artisan bread with a side salad topped with homemade balsamic vinaigrette and Honeycrisp apple slices.
Yummy!

Mueller State Park..Aspens revisited

The roomie and I headed back to Mueller State Park with two other friends in tow, one excited and one reluctant, a week after our first visit. The yellowed leaves, just in one week, were significantly more in both number and beauty.

On the way up, the skys forebode of bad weather, but looked like it might pass without doing much damage or getting too cold...

Don't let the sunshine fool ya... it was cooollld! Next time I'll remember my limitations on predicting both the weather and the comfort of the outdoors. It took about a half hour, some damp firewood, and finally some cooking gas for the more skilled firestarters of the small group to light the fire and get us some heat. I stood around and watched most of the time and occasionally stuck my head into what was like a circle of whispering schoolgirls, as they tried to shield the wind and rain, to tell them they were doing an excellent job, and ask if they thought it might be much longer before "we" got the fire going.

Take the good with the bad; the silver lining is a rainbow!

Roses

I didn't deadhead the roses...at all. So I was very suprised at the sudden massive blooming of them all so late in the season. I can only imagine what they will look like when I actually take care of them next year.

Falafel - My new favorite food!

I had falafel for the first time only a few months ago and absolutley loved it!

Here is a very tasty recipe from The Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian


Falafel Adapted from the Joy of Cooking
4 servings
1 1/2 cups dried garbanzo beans
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup packed fresh parsley leaves
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed or ground
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour vegetable oil (for frying)

1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 pinch salt
4 pita breads
2 cups thinly sliced crisp lettuce, washed and dried
4 slices tomatoes, thin
hot red pepper sauce

Pick over, rinse, and soak the chickpeas over night or until doubled in size. Drain thoroughly. Place in a food processor and finely chop. Then add onions, parsley, garlic, cumin, salt, coriander seeds, baking soda, ground red pepper to the food processor and pulse until mixture is coarsely pureed. Empty into a bowl and stir in the flour. With wet hands, form the chickpea mixture into 4 patties, each about 3 inches in diameter. Let stand for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Pour into deep skillet the oil until about 1/2 inch covers the bottom of the skillet. Fry the chickpea patties until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes each side. Drain on paper towels.

Stir together tahini, cold water, lemon juice and salt. Wrap the pita bread in foil. Heat in the oven until warmed, about 10 minutes. Open one edge of each pita bread and distribute among pockets the lettuce and tomatoes. Add a falafel to each pita and drizzle with tahini sauce. Add the hot pepper sauce if desired.

Instead of the Tahini dressing, I made Tzatziki sauce.

September Aspens, September 21

My roommate and I headed to Mueller State park to see the aspens. We found that the following weeekend would be the hieght of the season, but it was still beautiful. We did decide to drag some other friend and go camping the next weekend.

Farmer's Market Spread & Moroccan

This is the spread from the farmer's market for the weekend of Sept 20, 2008.

And, I got 'almost' 2 carrots for the price of one... OR another take on Food Porn

This recipe is a favorite. Fresh vegies melded with all the spices of Middle Eastern fare are delicious. The olives give it the final kick. It's vegetarian but very filling and satisfying on it's own. You can always add some roasted chicken, though.

MOROCCAN-STYLE VEGETABLE STEW (Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian (Hardcover))
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon cumin
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated or ground nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
1 small (1 1/2 pounds) butternut squash, peeled, halved, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large (10-ounce) baking potato, peeled, halved and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
3 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/4 cup raisins
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/3-inch slices
1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup halved, pitted Kalamata or Nicoise olives
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley or cilantro
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Several drops hot pepper sauce

You won’t find this meatless dish in the final version of the cookbook. Serve it over a bed of warm couscous.
Heat butter in large Dutch oven. Add onions and cook over medium heat 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in broth and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring often, until onions are very tender, about 20 minutes.
Combine cumin, chili powder, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in large bowl. Stir in squash and potato.
Add squash mixture to onions along with carrots, raisins and garlic. Bring to simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover with sheet of foil placed directly on surface of vegetables, then with lid to pan. Simmer gently until vegetables are completely tender, about 25 minutes.
Stir in zucchini, garbanzo beans, olives, salt and pepper. Simmer, covered, until zucchini is tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in parsley, lemon juice and hot pepper sauce.
6 servings. Each serving:
447 calories; 319 mg sodium; 11 mg cholesterol; 10 grams fat; 77 grams carbohydrates; 18 grams protein; 5.41 grams fiber.

Reprinted from: LA Times Food. A Measure of ‘Joy’ By Russ Parsons

Minty Fresh

To catch up from September....
I thought the frosts would be much earlier than then were. I read the first chance of frost would be Sept 15. I don't think we had one until well into October. Then it was back in the 60s and 70s until November.

None the less, I decided to harvest and dry the mint that grows by the front door.

I read, you can dry the mint stacked between paper towels and put in the oven with the light on overnight. I think it actually took a few days until I felt safe they were completely dry. So, I still haven't used any but I had been wanting to make Moroccan mint tea. You can also use mint in tzatziki. Maybe next year we will celebrate the Kentucky Derby with Mint Juleps.

Roses & Aphids

So pruning actually works. After deadheading last week, I got a lot more healthy bloomws this week. The few days of rain last week also helped.

Artisan Bread

Surfing the food blogs, I found a great new cookbook: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

The bread is very good and takes very little work. Granted, you will have to wait for rise, chill, second rise and bake times, but once you know what to do and the impatience has worn off a little, it is actually pretty cool to make a couple of these. (If they only knew how easy it was!)

Early September Blooms

Finally, I have come across a garden blog, The Art Garden, which is in Colorado. So, many of the plant written about there, are plants I also have in my yard. Therefore, I am finding names for many of the plants in my yard. I have made some updates below. However, there are still a few I have to figure out.

??

Marigolds between the onions and scrawny tomato plants. I was surprised to see these, since I didn't plant them.

Russian Sage

Butterfly Bush

Not Sure

Penstemon pinifolius 'Mersea Yellow'

Zauschneria

Dianthus

Vine on the west fence.


Pretty sure these are Brown Eyed Susans


Again, not sure.


Lupin??

I keep thinking that most of the blooms are done for the year, but then a whole new batch blooms.