Things that go sprout in the night...

you can plant that....


thats what this was, except it was garlic.

Green Garlic is what you get when you plant garlic but instead of letting it mature over a long period of time so it can form a bulb you grow it for the green stuff above the soil line. You can use it like an herb. It tastes like garlic except more delicate and less intense. And you can't buy it at the grocery store. So plant it yourself whenever that garlic bulb that has been sitting for a while begins to sprout. Plant it with the pointy or sprouting end up and cover with about and inch of dirt. you can plant the cloves fairly close together since they won't be forming bulbs.

Menu

We are hosting dinner on Saturday (for my P's) and on Sunday (for friends). We don't host dinner very often and 2 in one weekend is kind of a lot. I would like to host more dinners for friends. Here are our menus for the weekend.

Saturday Early Bird Special:

Steak with homemade horseradish sauce
Roasted carrots with balsamic
Chard
Bourbon Chocolate cake
Caramel Sauce


Sunday Dinner:

Cauliflower Curry
Saag Paneer (that'd be homemade paneer)
Lamb with Lemon
Basmati rice
I was originally just thinking fruit for dessert but our fruit wasn't actually delivered this week. oops. So maybe leftover bourbon chocolate cake or I might make some biscotti. neither really compliments indian food but it'll be what we got!

Neither menu was really planned for a theme we just thought about what vegetable were in the CSA box this week and what we like to make and what else was in the fridge. The only things we have never made are the Saag paneer (i have made paneer before. it is super easy.) and the carmel sauce (which I think I can handle.)

vicars and tarts...

These are the tarts made from the leftover ganache. I kept eating the berries while we were making dinner so we had just enough left for the tarts. There were 4 tarts. The crust is store bought graham cracker mini crusts that were left over from the summer. The tarts came out well, it is hard to go wrong with putting fruit on some chocolate. B thought it would be better if the chocolate was semisweet instead bittersweet because it would match the sweetness of the berries better. I think I agree but i like chocolate and berries in pretty much any combination. The crust was a little flavorless, maybe a little stale. i think it would be better with a homemade crust. i also wish that i would have been able to just pick it up and eat it without a fork (the crust just crumbled). Either way it was a good way to use up some leftovers and by no means a failure in my book. it also makes you feel a little fancy to eat a special dessert once in a while. And since this is so easy it is perfect for when you need a little extra fancy!

Eggs that aren't white...

Mint Creek Farm Eggs

We bought these at the market. Yes that egg is green! and the other is pink! Aren't they gorgeous? The different colors just come from different chickens. This is the same farm that produces the ground lamb that B and I absolutely love. The eggs were mostly brown with a few white ones too. Why dye Easter eggs when the chickens will do it for you?

B and I also had a discussion about eggs. His mom always told him to crack eggs into a separate bowl when baking. She cracked eggs directly into a cake she was making only to find out the egg had been fertilized. Most commercial eggs come from industrial operations where the chickens don't have access to a rooster so that shouldn't be a problem these days for most people. My mom always told me to crack eggs into another bowl first just in case the egg is bad or if you get shell in it it is easier to get out.

She also tried to convince me not to eat raw cake or brownie batter. i always countered that with "Did you eat raw batter as a kid?" The answer was always yes followed by a lame attempt to convince me that things are different now. In reality she has a point. Commercial eggs are exposed and susceptible to many more dangerous afflictions than they were when most eggs were raised by farmers. That's why we buy eggs at the market.
Julia Child says whatever is left on the spoon or in the bowl is for the cook. Why shouldn't you have a special treat after all that work?

I agree with Julia.

Macarons!

Almond Macaron with Bittersweet Ganache Filing

I am obsessed with these tiny french cookies! They are supposed to be very persnickety to make since they are meringue based. I didn't find the actual recipe all that difficult. You just have to pay attention to what you are doing. They took awhile to make since I only have one jelly roll pan. The really fussy part is making them look good and getting even feet on them (that is the part under the smooth shell) and making sure your filing to cookie ratio is right. These came out practically perfect for a first try. I made these about 3 weeks ago. Everyone loved them and they look like little hamburgers.

The next week I made another batch. I thought it would be boring to make another plain almond batch but I wasn't ready to try anything too adventurous. So I decided on Chocolate chocolate. They were an example of Murphy's Law: everything went wrong! I was reusing the plastic baggie pastry bag I had used for the first batch and somehow it didn't zip closed all the way and burst open after squeezing out about 3 cookies. it was very messy and the bag wouldn't really re-close since all the batter was stuck in the zippers. I also had decided not to sift the flour and sugar since I had blitzed it in the food processor so they were a little more chunky. I borrowed B's jelly roll pan so I could cook 2 sheets at a time. This took a lot of juggling in my ridiculous kitchen and caused me to get a bit frustrated. toward the end of the batch they started to not cook well and wouldn't set properly in the center. I am not sure why but I think that they coked better with only one sheet in the oven at a time. The heat was more even since they were centered, even though i did rotate the 2 sheets and also because my oven door does not close evenly. They also didn't foot well and were the ugliest macarons ever. Laudree has rejected my application...

Chocolate Macaron with Bittersweet Ganache Filing

Even though they were ugly as all hell they were edible and very good. The consensus is that the almond chocolate ones are better than the chocolate chocolate ones and are also more fun because they look like hamburgers. Maybe the chocolate macaron would be better with say a raspberry jam filing instead?

And i still have leftover ganache... It is going to become a blackberry tart for dessert tonight. I have little graham cracker pie crusts left over form the summer and we have blackberries in the fridge.

I have taken some time off from the macarons but I have 2 more adventurous flavors waiting for an attempt. Saffron Macarons with Pumpkin Buttercream filling and Chestnut Macarons with possibly a Black Raspberry filing. I bought chestnut flour at the market yesterday and I think it is a wonderful flavor for macarons but I am still figuring out the filing part... Let me know if you have any suggestions.

SEEDS!

I ordered seeds today for my very first garden! I ordered from Seed Savers Exchange. I like what they do and they are probably the closest seed company to me. Double bonus. The girl on the phone was super nice. We chatted for a minute or two while her computer was loading.

This is what B and I put on the docket:

Tomatoes- Nyagous
Peppers- Wisconsin Lakes
Beans-Pencil Pod Golden Wax
Carrots- Purple Dragon
Cucumber- Snows Fancy ( I can attempt to make pickles with them too!)
Kale-Red Russian
Peas-Green Arrow ( I was also really bad and ordered some Tom Thumb too. They are real small plants and I thought they might make nice gifts and look pretty on a table or something.)
Basil-Genovese
Cilantro
Spearmint
Chamomile
Rosemary
Oregano-Greek
Lavender

and for September delivery Garlic-Siberian (I am most excited about this one. I don't know what it is but Garlic just does it for me.)

I will be able to make my own Chamomile Mint tea. This excites me to no end, even more than fresh pesto and lazy days reading pulling the basil leaves off the plant and chewing as i read.

I don't even really know where all these plants are gonna go, maybe on the roof. I know that most of them won't make it on the porch, not enough sun and we have a crack squirrel problem.

Another reason to eat local...

This is an article that has a primary concern of addressing how our country responds to crisis and natural disaster. (Click the post title to read the article) It discusses the drought situation in California and what needs to be done by the government to better address natural disaster situations so they don't all wind up like katrina. This is a valid argument but what really caught my eye and made me worry was the following statement:

"Although few have yet noticed, this is a national crisis because California produces 50% of the nation’s fruits, nuts and vegetables, and a majority of the nation’s salad, strawberries, and premium winegrapes."

50%! That HALF of the nations fruit and vegetables that will not be available if the drought situation is not handled, lets say, well enough but that is HALF of the nation's fruit and vegetables are being shipped long distances, like to the other side of the country. Here in Chicago that is only half a country away but i can buy all those things at the farmers market and they don't come more than say 5 hours away. And they don't come from big companies that need to be bailed out by the government when the ways of the world are cruel to them. they come form small farmers, some of whom i know by name and i even know where they live in the city, who are used to the government not exactly working i their favor and when disaster hits, it hits and the only thing they can count on are their customers who know them and will keep buying from them even if this season is bad because next season will be better.

Know your farmer. Buy Local.

We should all stop relying on the government and the big corporations to baby feed us- that goes for everything, most emphatically food- because when it all goes south we can no longer support ourselves, we have lost all our survival instincts. all we can do is scream and cry for something that isn't coming.

Sorry if that is a little preachy. Its how I really feel. The emphasis has come down to quantity and how cheap you can get it not to quality and respect for the work that goes into making something or the special skill it takes to do it well. the average person doesn't have any of these skills and they are too blinded by convenience to even recognize and appreciate them when its right in front of them.

Its my blog dammit, i can say what i want. you don't like it. don't read it.

Bag Tax...

If you click on the post title you can read an article in fashionista about NY's new plastic bag tax. The tax is imposed anywhere you can receive a plastic bag for your stuff-grocery store, boutique, Macy's, a restaurant for your left overs. The tax is $.05 a bag. Not a huge deal i think. The article sort of gripes about having to carry around a bag, especially for those who don't have a car. I live in Chicago, i don't have a car and sometimes I forget to take a bag with me but carrying it isn't a big deal. i have a canvas tote that i got when i bought apples at the market and it scrunches up pretty well i think. i also have a nylon bag that folds up into a little pouch that i can attach to my key chain if i want. how hard is it to take a bag with you? I don' think the point is that a nickel isn't really a lot of money (but it will add up depending on how much shopping you do). The point is don't use plastic bags if you don't have to.

I think there should be a bag tax everywhere...

Today, you can enter and win a prize...

Hello there.

An update on some changes. The Currently... column has been updated and it is all links so you can click on each one for more info. I wanted add cooking to it but i think that will be too many things and become unwieldly. Let me know if you are interested. maybe I will post more major cooking experiments, like the French Macarons i am working on...
I have updated the Places to Go and Things to See... links with the most current places I am hanging out.
I think I am also going to add labels. i like organizing. Yes Mom! I do! I also make my bed or Bryson's every morning and I like to do the dishes right after I am done with them so they aren't sitting around for 3 days...

I have also started working at my yoga studio, Yoga Now Edgewater, in their work-study program. I have been doing a lot of yoga and it is a good way to do even more! In honor of this I have 2 pay what you can passes ($9-$15) So you can come check out a class for less than the drop in rate($160. The first 2 people to contact me win them. You can get more info on the studio and see the class descriptions and schedule in the link at the right-be sure to look at Edgewater classes as the pass is only good at that location. Let me know if you have any questions. I really enjoy Patricia Hyland as a teacher. I have taken class with her on and off for maybe a bit over a year. Julia rae Antonick's Basics classes are good for those of you who may not have done any yoga before or who need a less intensive class. Class opens with laying in the most comfortable position EVER! Swear. And the Forrest class with Ceci Morales is good for those of you wanting a good core work out. It almost killed me last week. There are also Intro to yoga series and classes and special workshops. There is also a Community class that is free every Sunday at 6pm that is followed but a Sutra Study on the 2nd week of hte month, a meditation on the 3rd week and Community Acupuncture from Thrive on the 4th Sunday. Acupuncture is $15 and the others are free. Thereis also a Community Potluck after class that is usually on the 1st week of the month.

Ok. On your mark, get set, go!