Is it eggplant or is it aubergine?

No matter your preference...I apparently can grow it.  It's a good thing because not much of anything else is knocking my socks off!
But!  I am going to have a lot of eggplant.  I guess the bunnies don't care for it and maybe the birds can't find them because they are up under those giant leaves.  I bet you'd like to see a picture of these guys, wouldn't you? 
They really are pretty and I am impressed with them and the quantity.  The flowerbuds are even nice...a kind of white and lavender.  Imagine that, a purple veggie with a lavender flower!  OK, here goes.  This is one side of the plant but let's get a different view...

Here's the other side...

Plant a radish...

Plant a radish.
Get a radish.
Never any doubt.
That's why I love vegetables;
You know what you're about!  The Fantastiks

I think that is one of the reasons I love vegetable gardens, especially when the harvesting begins.  You just know what you're about!
Starting with radishes...they're kind of harbingers of things to come.  These little beauties came out today and there are still lots more in the ground (makes me happy!).  But the importance of today's post is to suggest...no, implore you to hold onto the greens after you have plucked off the radishes.  I know, I know, when you buy them at the grocery, who knows how long they've been sitting there so I'll give you a pass on those BUT if they come out of your garden and they are fresh and beautiful like these....

Yes...those are radish greens, believe it or not.  That is what they are supposed to look like.  So swish them in a cold water bath, dry and wrap them in paper towels.  Then put them in the hydrator and use them for salads or as a sauteed side...very similar in use to beet greens.  Radish greens are quite tender and not at all bitter.  I think they have more of a grassy taste when they're raw so they do make a nice salad.  I would combine them some other baby greens, fresh strawberries and an Asian vinaigrette, maybe with sesame oil then you could also add in some sesame seeds.  Now, I know you're dying for a recipe...right? This is so simple, it'll make you cry. And, so delicious, it'll make you cry for more.   I also have been known to make this recipe with baby beets and beet greens so feel free to improvise.  If you're feeling adventurous slice some radishes and toss them in too!

Sauteed Radish Greens with Pasta

Serves 4

One large bunch of radish greens

Extra virgin olive oil

1 -2  slices applewood smoked bacon

½ medium onion, sliced

1 lb penne or other short pasta

4 oz. goat cheese

Kosher salt and black pepper

Wash radish greens well and shake to dry.  Remove any tough ribs and cut crosswise across large leaves but leave small leaves intact.  Cut bacon into lardons and fry in a large sauté pan until fat is rendered then add sliced onion and sweat onions until tender and translucent.  Add radish greens and sauté until tender.

Boil a large pot of water with salt and cook penne until al dente.  Drain but reserve pasta water.

Add penne to the sauté pan with the radish greens and toss to combine. Crumble goat cheese over the top and combine until cheese is melted.  If needed, add a ladle of pasta water to bring the ingredients together and thicken the sauce.  Salt and pepper to taste.

* This was one of my favorite posts from last year and I thought since my radish crop was so sad this year that I would reminisce.  Plus, I had to add a picture of the finished dish.  I do saute some sliced radishes and add them before serving.  The recipe appears in my cookbook.*

As always...

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The Pink Flamingo Invasion

So, I'm willing to try anything.  Why not, pink flamingos?

We had a thing for pink flamingos when I was in high school.  The group I ran with, affectionately referred to as The Family, revered all things kitschy.  Bette Midler was our goddess, the laundromat (Ranch Acres Laundromat, specifically) our second home, exotic dancers (aka strippers in the 70's) our namesakes and then, yes, of course, Pink Flamingos.  We even had t-shirts printed with pink flamingos emblazoned across the front (thank you, Mat).  I think we were all devastated to hear the news that the company producing our rare birds was closing its doors.  Citing rising costs of plastic resin as well as lack of interest (what?!), Union Products in Leominster, Massachusetts stopped production on November 1, 2006 just two months shy of our beloved lawn art's 50th birthday!
So now I'm sure you're wondering why I'm talking about plastic birds that you can't buy anymore...well, leave it to one of our Family members, Bert, to buy most of the pink inventory that remained when the company closed.  Fast forward to earlier this year when Bert is moving to smaller digs and can no longer house our mascots.  Rather than just dispose of them, he creates an inheritance program where the rest of the Family members can have his/her very own pair of flamingos.  You know, of course, that flamingos must be in pairs, they mate for life and cannot be parted until death.
So there you have it!  I have inherited my pair of flamingos. And, they are being put to very good use in my vegetable garden.  Here's hoping that they will terrorize the other birds, rabbits, squirrels and any other critter that comes along.  With a little help from Sevin dust (I'm sorry Bobby Lee but I was desperate!  The bugs were eating up my tomatoes, escarole, eggplant and brussels sprouts!!) and a sprinkling of a product called Critter Ridder (it is organic and has pepper oil, etc in it), the flamingos will do a better job of keeping the unwanted visitors at bay.  Just for fun, because I am getting into the whole video,YouTube thing, I thought I would offer up a garden video for this blog post, featuring, yes, my new pink flamingo friends.  I bought this cool video app for my iPhone so I had to try it out.

I promise I will work on my camera skills but cut me some slack!  This is my first real effort!!
Now that you've been properly introduced, I think the flamingos need names.  So COMMENT with your suggestions after this post with your favorite names.  It has to be two names, they are a couple you know.  And, let's be creative people!
As always...

If you liked this post, SHARE it on Facebook, Twitter or with someone you think needs to see it!

Come join the fun and take a class with us!  Visit my website at Urban Kitchen on Cherry Street and check out the Class Calendar.

And, I'd love to hear from you so leave me a comment...let's have a conversation!

Garden Update - Things are growing!

I'm really glad I made the decision to do my garden updates every other week.  Changes and growth are so much more noticeable!
If you follow my Facebook page, you already know that the arugula has been harvested for the first time, in the name of a delicious B-A-T sandwich (bacon, arugula and tomato).  I cannot take credit for the Beefsteak lovely that we enjoyed with the greens but it did come from a farmstand close to Fort Gibson.  I pass it on the way to my boyfriend's house in the country and it is almost impossible to keep my car from making the little detour off the road to see what there is each week.  The stand is actually a very small red frame house, no more than 10 x 15. It has an old screen door posted with a sign that says "No dogs inside".  The farmer, Mr. Harrison, built it for his wife so she could sell vegetables from their garden after she became ill and couldn't work any longer.  The farmstand gave her something to do and all the visitors kept her company during the day.  She has since passed but Mr. Harrison keeps the stand open during the summer growing season.  And, although he does grow a lot of what is in the stand, I believe these tomatoes were from near the Arkansas border since we haven't had enough tomato growing weather yet but still, local enough.
Here is another charmer...many times when you stop in at the stand, no one is there.  It runs on the honor system so there is a small, spiral notebook where visitors write down what they bought and how much money they left in the little lock box on the card table.  Luckily, I had a ten so I was able to buy 5 lbs of tomatoes...because there was no one there when I stopped in.  Hard to believe that the honor system still works but isn't it nice to know that sometimes it does?
There is much to be said for buying local or growing your own.  As we were building the B-A-T (we added avocado too so I guess it was really a B-A-A-T), we couldn't help but remark on the difference between buying arugula in the grocery and pulling it out of your backyard garden.  Just think of all the people and machinery that touched the store bought arugula as it made its way to the grocery (and how dependent we are on that!).  It was harvested just like mine but that's where the similarity ends.  How long does it take to get it from the field to the store?  It must be harvested, picked over, packaged, distributed, transported and probably more that I can even think of.  And, then, on the other hand, there is walking outside to the backyard with a pair of scissors, clipping what you need, bringing it in, rinsing it, drying it and eating it.  Crazy, isn't it?  That's as close to philosophical as I'm going to get so...on to the pictures!  I know that's what you really came here for anyway, not to hear me wax poetic!
So...here is yesterday's arugula harvest.  Barely touched what was there but it was more than enough for two sandwiches.  So the rest of the crew in those boxes are from left to right starting at the bottom...two rows of Italian parsley (I don't know why one row is doing better than the other), then the other two rows are the arugula.  If you are a novice gardener, you should really try growing arugula to start out.  It's like a weed.  Easy to grow and just keeps coming back.  Then in the top box, there are radishes (why I only planted one row, I have no idea) then chioggia (candy cane) beets, bok choy and escarole.  The escarole is gorgeous!  And, what can I say, I just love those peppery, bitter greens.  Also, escarole is one of those amazing greens that stays intact even when wilted.  I put it in soup for the first time, many years ago, and couldn't believe how well it behaved.  I thought it was going to act like spinach and just melt away.  It did not!  I have been a fan ever since.

The sugar snap peas are doing quite well and are running up the trellises.  I don't know if you can tell in this picture but there are lots of white flowers so I am anticipating pea pods by the next update!  You can kind of see the pumpkins peeking out at the lower left hand side of the picture but that clearly does not do those beauties justice so take a look at this...nice, huh?!  These plants should bring us some pie pumpkins so we can have real pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving this year.  Fingers crossed! 

Next photograph, eggplants!  OMG!  I think I'm going to have so much eggplant, I'm going to be paying people to take them.  These two plants are lovely and with just those, not too out of control, right?  But...I planted a bunch of seeds in Jiffy Pots and I had them identified by variety then I put them outside to harden off, a storm blew in (imagine that!?) and all of my markers with it.  I had no idea what I was planting and I think I planted a BUNCH of eggplants.  YIKES!  We're going to find out shortly but I think there are at least three or four more plants. 

Some of the pepper plants are doing very well but not all of them and, once more, I don't know which is which.  I also think I've got a tomatillo or two in there but all of the markers washed away or something so I feel like the biggest ditz.  Ummm, yeah, I have this really nice garden but I just planted all these seeds and plants and I don't know what they are!  Holy smokes!!








In the bottom of the pepper photo are onion starts.  My boyfriend put them in and he says they'll grow into big round onions but we don't know what variety they are either!  Oh well, you spins the wheel, you  takes your chance!




Then, there are the tomatoes.  If I get one fruit off these plants it's going to be a miracle.  I was so stoked to have all these great heirloom varieties.  Between the critters and cutworms, I guess, they haven't done squat.  And, it hasn't helped that the weather has been cool and rainy.  They are starting to perk up a bit but I still think I'm going to lose two more of them,  Just in case, I planted a couple of other things next to them...I don't know what they are but they looked healthy so....
not knowing what it is hasn't stopped me up to this point, why should I start identifying things now or worrying about it?
I was looking at pictures from last year's garden and at how amazing the tomato plants were at this point.  But also remember that the squirrels, birds, tomato worms and heat did most of them in.  So, I haven't given up!  I sprayed everyone with Miracle Gro this morning and I have great looking compost that will go on at the end of next week so all is not lost! 

I LOVE my garden!

It's been sooo many years since I have been able to have a vegetable garden.  But I bought a house last Spring and moved in on Memorial Day weekend.  Really too late to start a garden and luckily, I didn't since last summer was one of the hottest on record and everyone's gardens burnt up.  It was such a sad sight to see.  This year, though, promises a wonderful growing season.  You can tell how excited people are to put vegetables in to make up for last year's dismal showing.  I, for one, am especially happy!  My first garden in years!  I eagerly bought tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, butternut squash, and herb plants.I bought seeds for beets, Italian parsley, arugula, radishes and carrots.  I was intent that I would do raised beds and put down weed control fabric underneath so that I wouldn't have to battle the Bermuda grass (because it will win!) but only the airborne weeds.  So as the story unfolds...I found the coolest raised bed kits at Sam's.  They looked great but then when we got them out of the box...we found that they were like Lincoln Logs so just fit together with fasteners...no nails, screws, hammering, etc.  It was amazing.  We did have to put in A LOT of soil but all told...my sweet boyfriend (couldn't have done it without him) and I spent no more than 2 and a half hours from start to finish.  And, that was with two stops when it was pouring rain.  Frankly, I couldn't have picked a better weekend to plant.  Since then, temperatures have been cool and it has been rainy.  My little garden is super happy and my cooking class students and catering clients will soon be reaping the benefits of our labors! 
Yes, that is basil that you see in those containers...best to grow it and other herbs in pots...you can also see rosemary, oregano and sage coming up. 
Here's a recipe for pesto to keep you interested. 
Fresh Basil Pesto
Makes about 2 cups

3 large garlic cloves
½ cup nuts (pecans, walnuts or pinenuts)
2/3 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
3 cups loosely packed fresh basil leaves
2/3 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

In the bowl of a food processor, add all ingredients except the Parm and olive oil and process until finely chopped. With motor running, add oil, blending until incorporated.

Pour mixture into a bowl and blend in grated Parm until well combined.
Pesto can be frozen in ice cube trays for use at a late time, like winter.
Also...mess with the ingredients to find your favorite combinations. 

And, of course, I will keep you posted on the garden's progress...it does photograph well, don't you think?