It’s Broccoli Time!

This Broccoli plant is MUCH more gigantic in REAL life, if you can imagine that

Do you remember that POST from the Before TImes™ where I said that I usually get enough broccoli to be totally SICK OF IT? And then six months later I can’t believe I was ever sick of broccoli and I really wish I could get some more? Because one of the THINGS ABOUT GARDENING is: once you get used to fresh, seasonal broccoli (especially picked ONE SECOND ago in your own backyard), you just can’t see any POINT in buying trucked-in broccoli from thousands of miles away.

You look at it in the store and you say to yourself: Nah. I’ll just wait until next spring.

BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN RUINED FOR STORE BROCCOLI.

Well, now it’s that time: Broccoli Time! I could pick a gallon size Hefty freezer bag of broccoli every other day, and temperatures are staying so beautifully temperate that I will probably get another week (or two) out of the harvest. The Broccoli Harvest.

I have nine gigantic broccoli plants and they all look like this:

So, I made Pasta and Broccoli, and Chopped Broccoli, and I used the leftover Chopped Broccoli to make myself a Broccoli and Parmesan Omelette. Then I made a Broccoli, Cheese and Rice Casserole, but it wasn’t all that good (I think casseroles are a great option for families with children who are stretching the food budget, but for families of two, ONE OF WHOM DOES NOT CARE FOR LEFTOVERS (and I am not talking about myself, I rather like leftovers because you can usually make an omelette out of any leftover) (except CABBAGE)), casseroles aren’t practical.

Giant bowl of broccoli, ready for the Olive Oil

Then I had to throw a gallon of broccoli away because it had started to smell. Because I wasn’t using it UP fast enough.

Then I picked another gallon of broccoli, and I thought: I need Some New Recipes! So I googled this phrase: BEST BROCCOLI RECIPE, hoping that I would get everybody’s best broccoli recipe. (Clever, huh?)

What I got was this: The Best Broccoli of Your Life. It is a recipe that originated with The Barefoot Contessa, then made it onto this guys website, and now I am going to write about it. THIS GUY says, and I quote: “After trying this, you’ll never want to eat anything else for breakfast, lunch or dinner ever again.”

Now, you may think that that praise is a Leetle Bit Over the Top. Let me tell you, it isn’t! THIS IS THE BEST BROCCOLI OF YOUR LIFE!!! I made it the night I tried the recipe, and I made it the NEXT night, and that night I had some leftover steak on my plate, and I gave the steak to the dogs so I could fit MORE of this broccoli dish on my plate. Because I liked it better than steak.

I KNOW! (And YES this is ME!)

Here you see the garlic, the broccoli and the olive oil

You will need:

A Lot of Broccoli, like two big heads, or the equivalent amount of side heads

3-7 cloves of garlic

5 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

a lemon

some Parmesan Reggiano

Some Pine Nuts (optional)

Some fresh basil (optional)

A cookie sheet and an oven.

Ready for the Oven, with the garlic on top (there is a miniature cauliflower head in there too)

Here is what you do:  1) make the broccoli into florets by cutting or tearing them apart; don’t cut off the stems. 2) put the broccoli florets into a big bowl 3) Turn the oven on to 425˚ 4) drizzle the olive oil over the broccoli and toss it around until it appears to be well-coated 5) remove the broccoli to the cookie sheet with a utensil 6) peel and slice the garlic cloves, and coat them in the remaining olive oil that is still in the bowl 7) dot the garlic slices over the broccoli shove it in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

When it is done the broccoli will be darkish green, the stems will be cooked and the buds will be a tiny bit crispy.

9) take the lemon and, using a microplane zester, grate lemon zest onto the broccoli. You don’t have to zest all of the peel, just do as much as you think you would like. I used about 3/4 of the zest for an enormous pan of broccoli. 10) Then, squeeze a little lemon juice on; I used about a quarter of a lemon but suit yourself. 11) Using the same microplane zester, grate Parmesan over the broccoli.

NOW IT IS DONE! When I made this the second time, I sprinkled some raw pistachios over the dish before baking, because I didn’t have any pine nuts and the addition of nuts sounded awesome. It was awesome. This is, seriously, the Best Broccoli of Your Life. Its partially the texture: soft, yet dried-out and crispy, with wonderfully concentrated flavor; but then also the ecstatic blend of flavors, garlic and broccoli and lemon zest and Parmesan, all turned up to ELEVEN.

THE BEST BROCCOLI OF YOUR LIFE

Cooking with Incredibly Famous Chef Tal Ronnen

Here is a picture of Tal Ronnen's Cookbook

Except I didn’t actually cook with him. I watched him give a cooking demonstration, and, well, he showed me how to make tortellini, and I did it SO G*R*E*A*T that he called me “TORTELLINI LADY”.

He is the most famous Vegan chef in the world. He is very…he seemed to me like a very gentle guy, who would never ever want to hurt an animal or be mean.

Its past my bedtime, so I will expound upon this experience later!

Here Chef Tal is making a tortellini. I think he would like this picture, because he is not entirely in it.

My Breakfast: PANCAKES

THIS IS WHAT A GRIDDLE CAKE SHOULD LOOK LIKE, PEOPLE !

Here you see a whole-wheat wild blueberry pancake frying in the cast-iron skillet. I use freshly ground whole wheat from Richardson Farms in this recipe; also, we like our pancakes thin and somewhat crepe-like, so I don’t use any baking powder or other chemical leavening. Here’s the recipe (Makes enough for two people):

GRIDDLE CAKES

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup white flour

3 Tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3 T butter

MILK: can be cow milk, buttermilk, soy milk, almond milk, half and half, or any other milk you have around. How much? Enough to make a batter that is as thick as you like it to be, which you will learn from experience. At the most a cup, but probably less.

Some blueberries, fresh or frozen. Lately I have been using frozen wild blueberries from WHOLE FOODS. If you use frozen, defrost them in the microwave before using them. This makes a little blueberry juice happen, but that’s OK, just pour it into your batter and it makes the batter blue, which is KEWL.

Step One: Mix the flours and other dry ingredients together.

Step Two: Crack the eggs into the bowl and, using a whisk, stir it up. It will make a gummy ball. A gummy ball that is stuck in the middle of your whisk.

Step Three: Turn the heat on under the cast-iron skillet, and melt the butter in it. When it starts to fizzle, turn the gas off. Don’t let it brown if you can help it. (If it DOES brown, you can still use it though, as long as you don’t BURN it.)

Step Four: splash some milk into the gummy ball of gunk in your pancake bowl. Whisk. Keep adding and whisking until the gummy ball frees itself from it’s whisk prison. Add more splashes of milk until the consistency looks right. Add the melted butter and whisk some more.

Step Five: Add the blueberries and juice. LOOK ITS BLUE

Step Six: Turn the flame on under the cast iron skillet sort of medium high. Pour about half a cup of batter into the pan and tilt it around so that the batter is rather evenly swirled in a biggish circle on the bottom of the pan, but not all the way out to the sides, because that would be TOO BIG. After a bit (but BEFORE you smell burning!) flip it over.

As the pancakes are done, immediately place them on the plates of the waiting people so they can be eaten while HOT AND CRISP. EAT IMMEDIATELY OR YOU ARE MISSING OUT!! NO WAITING!!!  NO BEING POLITE !!  The cook eats their pancakes standing at the stove.

Never put more than one pancake on your plate at a time if you can help it, because they get slightly soggier and it is an affront.

If you don’t have or don’t want blueberries, just leave them out and you will have PLAIN griddlecakes.

Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit

Basket of FREE G*R*A*P*E*F*RU*I*T !!

I am a GIGANTIC fan of many things Texan, but nothing more so than our own Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit. One of my very first oil painting masterpieces was a painting called “Grapefruit Tree“, and every winter I eat about my weight in Ruby Red Grapefruit, and I also make Grapefruit Marmalade ( I am due to make some more soon, too! Because I am OUT!)

So it was Totally Awesome that I got this SWAG BOX of Ruby Red Grapefruit, because, I ALREADY am a GIGANTIC FAN! But I am ALL ABOUT letting the FREE EATS pour abundantly into my reality. With heartfelt gratitude I accepted this HANDSOME BASKET of 9 grapefruits, plus a bonus paring knife and a kitchen towel, AND a DVD about Grapefruit that I haven’t watched yet, but actually DO look forward to watching because I am VERY INTERESTED!!

I have read, heard or somehow absorbed the information (which may or may not be true, as you can tell by my vague ideas about how I ran into it in the first place) that MANY of our Texas Delicacies, such as Pure Luck Goat Cheese and Fredericksburg peaches, never make it out of state because we eat them all HERE. So in the rest of the country we aren’t famous for them, because we are always hogging them all to ourselves. (Which I really have no problem with.)

I had thought that Rio Star Ruby Reds were in that category too; that there just aren’t enough for the Texans, so the rest of the country can go hang…but apparently, they are being publicized, so maybe there are enough to go around?

In any case, I L*O*V*E them SO! So I am going to spend a little more time writing about them. I mean, in addition to this post, which is essentially just to rejoice that I got free grapefruits.

Have I mentioned that they are the Best Grapefruits Ever? And that they are sweet, so sweet that you can just peel them and eat them, like an orange, except they taste like grapefruits, not oranges? Did you know that Fresca was a grapefruit soda?

THE CAKE SHOW

Every part of every cake must be edible; everything you see on this cake tower is cake and frosting

I have been a JUDGE at FOOD EVENTS a few times; today I was a judge at THE CAKE SHOW. Actually, it wasn’t called THE CAKE SHOW, it was called “That Takes the Cake!” and it was this HUGE and very well-attended event at the Crockett Event Center.

(The fact of the matter is, FOODIE SEASON is beginning again. I have 4 events this week! I mean to go to, to write about.)

Naturally I liked the DOG cake!

Anyway, my friend Christine has 3 nieces, and they are really into cake decorating, to the extent that they have an actual business where they make these amazing cakes. They were inspired by this TV show called THE ACE OF CAKES. APPARENTLY, they aren’t the only ones! This Cake Expo that I was a judge at is growing larger every year, and it was just delightful!

(Although I must say, though many would say “That’s a job I think I could handle- being a judge at a cake contest!”, it SOUNDS a lot better than it is. For starters, you don’t actually GET PAID, it is more of an honorary thing, that one is considered expert enough to be a judge; and then there is the gastric distress. I have learnt to eat about a teaspoon of each entry, and it still is enough sugar to cause……GASTRIC DISTRESS.)

Fun Sushi Cake

This is one of the CHILDREN'S entries

I took too many pictures of cakes to post them ALL at once, but here are a FEW of the pictures. Luckily for me, I was a judge of FLAVOR, not decorating, and the entries for flavor were far fewer, and much easier to rate.

a sample of some of the SIMPLE two-tiered cakes

My Breakfast

Scrambled farm eggs, and two small slices of home-made flaxseed bread with lox and cream cheese

Gladiolas

This hybrid for some reason reminds me of my Grandmother; it hybridized in my garden, I planted solid colors and over the years they have bred. This one, obviously a hybrid of pink and yellow

A pure yellow

Here are some photos of my miraculous Gladiolas. I planted 50 more gladiola bulbs last week, too. MOST bulbs can’t take the Texas summer here (exceptions being German Iris, Rain-Lilys, and Amaryllis) but I have had luck with Gladiolas even though they generally DON’T do well here.

Here is a white and red and a yellow that you can barely see, behind

I think my “luck” is that I planted them in the only deep soil in my yard (there is one little pocket- I imagine maybe it is where are outhouse was a hundred years ago, that would explain the DEPTH of the soil there when everywhere else it is one inch deep.)

So if you plant these, plant them in deep, good soil, if you have any. I should mention, these aren’t blooming NOW, these bloom in the early summer. I just planted the BULBS now.

This insanely showy one is another hybrid, this time between yellow and purple

S*N*O*W !!!!

My Dog Skip in the S*N*O*W !!!

This is it! This is the FIRST SNOWFALL that actually accumulated on the ground in Austin, Texas, since I moved here as a small child in 1970. It may be the first accumulative snowfall in SOUTH Austin since 1920 or so.

By accumulative I mean, it took about 4 hours to melt as opposed to melting the instant it touched the ground; in NORTH Austin, the news says that they still have snow on the ground up there, and north of Austin, in Leander and other small towns, they were building Snowmen!

Like last time this year, it snowed but they don’t predict a FREEZE, so I didn’t cover the garden (I have heard snow is “poor man’s fertilizer” because it traps nitrogen in the soil, so I didn’t want  my soil to miss out on that, either.)

Kale, Cabbage, and Lettuce IN THE SNOW

We shall see in the morning if the lettuce made it through all right. Everything else is frost tolerant and ought not to mind.

Global Climate Change sure is making things EXCITING around here! Drought, Flood, Being Broiled Alive and Snow, so far, THIS YEAR.

Artichokes IN THE SNOW

Baked Oatmeal: This is THE way to make Oatmeal.

Baked Oatmeal, seen here with brown sugar and heavy cream.

My friend Christine and I went to Bouldin Creek Coffee House a while back, and she ordered their Baked Oatmeal with Apples. I was really taken with its great texture, flavor and appearance, and decided on the spot to check out recipes for baked oatmeal and give it a try. I am always looking for ways to get more oatmeal into our diets, because it is so good for cholesterol levels and health generally, plus, have I mentioned, I LOVE BREAKFAST?

Also, I like to use McCann’s Steel-cut Irish Oatmeal (Big Surprise, right?) and since it takes 45 minutes to cook, I am always looking for ways to make it that don’t require stirring oatmeal on the stove for that long. I have worked out a few ways, but they never get quite as dry as I would like.

I found a couple of recipes on the internet, and after fooling around with them a little I came up with this recipe:

BAKED OATMEAL WITH DRIED APPLES

1 1/2 Cups of McCann’s Oats

1/2 Cup walnuts

big handful dried apples

1/2 cup or so other dried fruits (I used dried apricots and cherries)

1 cup of milk (any kind including soy)

2 eggs

T coconut oil

t cinnamon

salt

STEP 1: The night before, put the oats and walnuts in a bowl or pot and cover with filtered water with a little salt. They will soak up most of the water. Set on the counter or on the stove.

STEP 2: In the morning, turn the oven on to 350˚. Grease a shallow baking pan with butter.

STEP 3: Mix together the milk, eggs, coconut oil, and cinnamon. Beat them together with a whisk, or put in a mason jar and shake them up. The coconut oil will be solid, don’t let that worry you.

STEP 4:  Drain the oatmeal mixture in a sieve. Dump into a biggish bowl and add the egg and milk mixture and stir it up nicely. Add the dried apples and other dried fruits. Pour into the buttered baking dish.

Step 5: Bake for around 45 minutes. This makes enough for four adults; it reheats beautifully though, so you can just throw the remainder in the fridge if you don’t eat it all, and reheat it quickly another day for an awesome repeat.

The baked oatmeal in the baking dish. This is a rather small dish, only a little larger than the stove burner

It smells just HEAVENLY, and the texture is Perfect! Dry, yet creamy. I like my oatmeal with butter and brown sugar on top, but you don’t need to add much because the dried fruits add plenty of sweetness. I was hesitant at first to put a whole teaspoon of cinnamon, but when I used a half teaspoon, it wasn’t enough. I imagine that over time I will refine this recipe more and more (I have only made it once, after all), so I will post updates as they occur.

Tomorrow is supposed to be freezing and rainy, with a high of THIRTY-SIX (after yesterdays EIGHTY-TWO!) (Now THAT is a Blue Norther), so it sounded to me like a perfect day for Baked Oatmeal. Plus, in my Victorian house, heating up the cast iron cookstove goes a long way towards getting the house warmed up, too!

My Second Course at the CARILLON

Hamichi Crudo and Crisp Pork Belly