GREEN ZINNIAS

THis is the REAL COLOR! THey are beautifully green!

Claudia, Iris: I HEAR YA!!! Actually, it is a comfort, a GREAT COMFORT to me to know that other gardeners that I respect had a crummy yield this year. You would THINK with all the rain!! That it would have been the B*E*S*T Y*E*A*R E*V*E*R! Ya know??

But I feel like I have been overlooky; the one thing that I have got in spades this year is FLOWERS. In fact, this year I had the first TRIUMPH ever at growing GREEN ZINNIAS. I have planted many of the new, green flowers many times (particularly the green gladiolas) and every time, because of our limestone alkaline soil or the hot temperatures or something, they always bloomed YELLOW. I have planted green zinnias for three years without ever seeing one.

See how the GREEN really offsets the OTHER colors?

But THIS year, I again planted the green zinnias, and at least three and maybe as many as five perfectly green zinnia plants have thrived!! (Plus lots of other colors, naturally!) It makes my fingers ITCH to cut them and use them in vases (because they are GREEN!) but mostly I restrain myself, because there aren’t that many.

The package the FUNCTIONAL green zinnias came in was the Renee’s Garden Green-and-Orange zinnia package, and the orange ones are magnificent also, a pale orange like orange sherbet.

And ALSO in my OVERLOOK-Y-NESS, I didn’t mention that I planted OKRA really late (because I suck, not for any horticultural reason) in like MID-JULY, and they are doing very well, and I MIGHT get a freezer full of okra out of them YET! (I also planted seven pepper plants and five fall tomatoes, but they are all stunted and miserable from the heat, even though I water. I mean, I will PROBABLY get some fall tomatoes, but it isn’t going to be spectacular and it might be a bust.) So far, I have only gotten three pods, but they are looking strong and healthy!

One of seven Okra plants

Artichokes 2010

The artichoke plants are doing SO GREAT THIS YEAR that I have already given away 6 artichokes and eaten 4. Look!

Every plant is covered, and SO FAR, no stinkbugs!

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

My Breakfast

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

My Second Course at the CARILLON

Hamichi Crudo and Crisp Pork Belly

Winter Sunset

Winter Sunset over Central Market

Snow and Thai Green Eggplants and Purple Basil and Thai Chiles and Snow

Mostly Green Thai Eggplants, called Brinjals

IT IS SUPPOSED TO SNOW TONIGHT.

For the Non-Texan among you, this is REALLY UNHEARD OF. Texas is very, very large and it DOES regularly snow in North Texas, but I am in Central Texas where you plant citrus trees in the GROUND. Of course the snow will melt when it hits the ground, because it was 70˚ here 2 days ago; but STILL:  SNOW!

Strangely  (in my limited SNOW! experience anyway), there is not supposed to be a Freeze tonight. The low is supposed to be 35˚. So I don’t have to cover the garden tonight. Tomorrow night though: they are predicting 22˚, meaning, I will be spending hours covering the garden TOMORROW and putting a heater into the $25 greenhouse.

I did, however, run around and pick the few remaining nightshades. In this really lovely photo you see: Purple Basil, Green Thai Eggplants, Poblanos, Thai Chiles, 3 Tangerines, and a Meyer lemon. I didn’t realize I had so MANY Green eggplants! They have huge seeds and I won’t be planting them again, I have found them too hard to cook with compared to the Japanese ones. But now I have to try to cook SOMETHING out of them, because, look, they are so pretty and I have so MANY!

The Swine Flu will…Well, Not Kick Your Ass, but Give You An Unpleasant Spanking

NOT a Picture of Food

So, I got the SWINE FLU, which after all the hype and NEWS REPORTS and everything, sounds SO DRAMATIC! But the real truth is, it isn’t very dangerous or intense for 99.9% of people. I came a LOT closer to needing to go to the hospital when I had the REGULAR Flu last spring. In fact, I feel embarrassed to even SAY I had the Swine Flu, because it makes me sound like a drama queen.

But I really did have it, and I know it, because I caught it from someone who had their blood tested, and it was H1N1. The Swine Flu is raging through the schoolchildren of Austin, so much so that last week they had to set up tents at the emergency room because everyone was bringing their kids to the emergency room because they had been told how dangerous it is. But doctors aren’t really giving Tamiflu to hardly anyone, because you don’t really need it. It isn’t any more dangerous than the regular flu, it is just much much more CONTAGIOUS.

Another Photograph of NOT FOOD

So you wake up feeling nauseous. And tired. And then you feel like you are going to barf for 5-10 days, and have terrible indigestion, and heartburn, and the runs. And a headache and body-ache. And it goes on and on and on, and the one thing you cannot stand thinking about is FOOD.

So, that is why there has been no posting!!

But I am fine and terrific now! I had to throw everything is the fridge away, because it all just went bad while I was watching Star Trek on the couch and avoiding the very THOUGHT of Food.

But I am BACK!! Posting resumes tomorrow!!

More Not Food

Beach Plum Flowers

SEEDLINGS!

Perky young lettuce with sinister frond of Bermuda grass sneaking up on it

I actually had to WRITE actual COPY for publication this weekend, causing me to be a useless space case for three days while I attempted to FOCUS my MIND (which still doesn’t tend to happen naturally until the 8 hours before deadline.) During the time that I was sweating on the creative throne to give birth to my brain-children, I grew oblivious to the outer world, causing me to rush outside on Sunday afternoon and realize that not only had my seeds SPROUTED, but they had started to DIE of thirst and neglect as well.

Snow Peas sprout in the back, and arugula sprouts in the front

I frantically watered all my beds (Sunday was HOT) and all is well, no one died and all the wee seedlings recovered. Phew!

REMEMBER TO KEEP THOSE SEED BEDS DAMP!

SEE how the evil carrot seedlings group together?

Don’t You Have Anymore Weeding Photos, You Elitist Chowhound?

The Trans-Atlantic Cables

Why Yes, YES I DO! First, I will treat you to a photograph of what I will call “The Chard Bed”, a small bed that lies near the driveway. I actually weeded these beds BEFORE (as in TEN MINUTES BEFORE) the rain, but I didn’t want to post them until I had the “AFTER” photos, which required Red Chrysanthemums. The Nurseries did not have Red Chrysanthemums IN STOCK before the Rain, an oversight that they have since rectified.

The Chard Bed: "BEFORE"

The Chard Bed: "AFTER"

Next, The Pomegranate Tree:

The Pomegranate Tree: BEFORE! (Note the many suckers)

The Pomegranate Tree: AFTER! (Note Red Chrysanthemums)

Let's See Those Red Chrysanthemums Some More!! (From the base of the Pomegranate Tree)