I think that the scar tissue will fill in the split in the lower margin so that he won't need surgery. Whew! It still looks awful but he is good about letting me treat him. The bad thing is that he is still trying to go out the front door! Thank you for asking about him.
Edibles '08 -Part 4
My pleasure. I think animals KNOW that we are trying to help.
Glad to hear your kitty is doing well after his injury, Yankee!!
Yes, happy for kitty.
We started making our grape jelly, but got interrupted by a tight schedule here. Can't get back to it until Sunday.
Still harvesting yellow & green squash! Are there any crisp, pie, or dumpling recipes for them?
I like yellow squash raw in a salad.
I just picked a bunch of snap peas, and some cilantro. Forgot the grape tomatoes, have to go back out.
At this point I am too lazy to pick anymore. I'll be ripping the tomato plants out very soon.
Went out to harvest some grapes, today, only to discover the neighbor has helped themselves to all but a few stragglers.
They just moved in recently, so maybe they don't know how to be neighborly, just yet ......
It is my fence and my grape vines, maybe I am just being selfish ..... HaHa.
No wine or jellies this year, I guess. :-(
OHHH, so sorry, Willie. You would think they would have asked about it first. GEESH!
Well, the way I was raised you would!
:-)
Bigger things to cry over these days ..... though, next year, if things are tougher (buddha forbid) I might have to break out the Daisy II and the tree stand to protect my claim!
Ha Ha!
Oh - bummer. I would talk them nicely about it. A shotgun in plain view could be helpful as well.
Bummer, Willie!
I know!! Thanks for the pity, Folks! .... The one vine is a champagne grape which I usually pass on to an italian friend and business acquaintance and he makes wine. The others are concord grapes from a grower who used to grow for Welch's.
I made Garlic Potato and Leek soup to have at dinner for comfort!
The leeks looked too good to pass up!
Now that sounds yummy!
And E-A-S-Y!! to make.
Certainly quicker than my chicken soup!
Mmmmmmmm......I'll bet your kitchen smells great from all those great soups you make!
It's the perfect Fall Comfort Food, for sure.
I love it when the house smells like grandmom's!
I think making soup is good for my sinuses, and around fall & spring mine are in full swing, so I try to make soup all the time.
I need to get better about freezing things.
Before it is all scoffed up, that is!!
I find it's hard to resist requests for seconds, ya know.
Hope I can jump right in. I realize that there is no way I can ever catch up on all these threads after being away for a while. I did do the Reader's Digest version of thread scanning, but know I missed a lot.
Louise, the grapes look fantastic! In the apple dept....I got a call from DD who was very pleased with herself for going on line and getting directions for pressing cider. She used a table leg and got a gallon! She and BF went hiking in VA and found abandoned apple trees. They loaded their packs.
Here's what's happening in Maypop's kitchen garden this week...Lot's of several kinds of eggplant.
Kale is enjoying a break from the heat.
Peppers are popping.
A very strange (and slow to mature) tomato called Sherrill's Watermelon.
Tobascos. The reds had been harvested earlier in the day.
Congrats to DD, Louise, on the apple haul. What ingenuity.
Never saw a mater like that one before. How's the taste?
Hi again Jan (lol). It's the slowest growing thing I've ever seen. We have yet to harvest the first fruit. They are just blushing. Should be ready to pick when we come back. The seed was sent by a NEster and did not come until mid May. Still, she sent a wide variety of seed and we have harvested the other varieties for several months.
Here's one of the smaller Sherrill's
On a lark I tried one of the two tiny watermelons I picked a couple of weeks ago. It was only the size of a soft ball. The flesh was pink, not red, but it wasn't too bad. It was sweet - just not very sweet. Who would have guessed?
Willie, shame about the grapes. Can you post that leek/potato recipe? I made some last year and it didn't come out tasty enough.
No real recipe. This is a thin version, not thick like porridge ... Here's the gist of it:
My Garlic Potato and Leek Soup
I heat up some of my home-made chicken broth to just about a simmer in the cast iron dutch oven. Maybe 3-4 cups worth or so. Just enough to barely cover the potatoes as they simmer.
In a cast iron skillet, over VERY low heat, melt some unsalted butter. About 3 or 4 marks depending on how much soup you want to make. Add crushed / chopped garlic to taste, at least 2 or 3 cloves worth, I use more like 4-6.
While that warms, I slice 2 large leeks up the middle once, and then slice across thinly (maybe 1/8 or 1/4 inch). Continue slicing about half way up into where it starts to get light green. Toss into butter, grind a TON of black peppercorn over it and sauté until the leeks are tender, soft and clear, but do not brown.
Very low flame, as we don't want to scorch the butter.
While the leeks sauté, I start to slice about half of the potatoes (russets) to add into the simmering chicken broth. I chop this 1/2 of the potatoes into very small pieces, and add each potato as it has been cut, so they cook down.
As soon as the leeks are tender (10-15 minutes, maybe), add them to the soup stock to simmer with the small cut potatoes.
I usually cut about 1/2 the potatoes small, and let them simmer about 20 minutes. I want them to break apart and disappear to thicken the stock. Then, I add the rest of the potatoes, evenly sliced (thicker slices) to simmer until just tender.
Grind on more peppercorn to taste ( I like a LOT of pepper ) Add a pinch or two of Mediterranean Sea Salt. 1 teaspoon Coriander. Fresh Parsley. Do not forget the Coriander. Yum.
At the end of simmering, some recipes add cream. or heavy cream. or milk. I believe they call for about 1 cup.
I usually don't add anything but shredded cheese and a garnish to the top when serving.
(or water, if I accidentally added too much salt)
If you add the cream/milk, do it at the VERY end and cook it no more, it's done.
Some recipes call for puréeing 1/2 of the soup soup in the blender. I usually simmer a bunch more small potato pieces in the beginning, if I want a "thicker" soup.
If you are salt sensitive, you can easily do without any salt, but I love salted potatoes.
This recipe is geared toward 4-6 servings (depending on the size of your servings and how much broth you add, that is)
One of my well-guarded cooking secrets: Whenever I boil sliced potatoes, I always boil them in weak, peppery chicken broth.
I should have snapped a picture of it, dagnabbit!
Another winner of a soup recipe, Willie! I make soup once a week at least--cold in summer, hot now, but my DH complains---he is not much of a souper! I've made the leek soup both cold & hot--good both ways. Laurel, it's so nice to see veggies still ripening--my garden is empty except for root crops which will be picked & stored this week. I have a lot of beets left, so borcht will be on the menu!
Thanks Willie. I was going to ask too. Thanks Jen! When I used to work at Columbia, there was a great place that made the most fantastic soups and potato and leek was one of them. They would usually have two great choices of soup and it was so hard to choose. I would always get a chuckle when I said, 'I'll take a leek.'
Most happy to share! I have a ton of "Secret Recipes" I have created / collected / corrupted over the years .....
You can bet you will see one or two more of them.
While, for the most part anyway, I try to make everything "healthy versions," I stick to using good, old-fashioned ingredients. No corner cutting, processed, or fake things substituted.
I was taught that to live healthily — a variety of foods in moderation, and physical activity in a well-balanced proportion were key. So, if I want to eat more, I just garden more! So far, I have been able to keep the body fat percentage under 10%. Which means I have about 5 pounds I need to lose.
My bet is that it is the Pepsi. And the ice cream sandwiches ..... certainly not the cakes, pies and cookies I make.
Since it is fall, and Apple Time, and apples are o' plenty in these here parts, I have a pie I have to make, today.
How's about my World Famous Caramel Almond Apple Pie next!
(yes, all my recipes are world famous!!)
Willie thanks for reminding me about the soup - there are 100 leeks in the garden right now and that's one of my favorites. Our recipe is similar - although we go pretty heavy on the leeks and garlic.
Thanks Willie, no problem Victor.
If I wanted it thicker how would I go about doing that??
Laurel - Maypop is poppin' with some good-looking veggies! Is this the beginning or end of your season? Weren't you just starting your planting not too long ago? Is it end of season for the peppers?
Willie - that sounds yummy, and I'm waiting for that caramel almond apple pie recipe, please!! 'Tis the season, you know!
Victor.....love your leek "Victorism".....LOL
take a leek....still giggling....
Bill: I add tons more chunky into my soup, too. I didn't really specify how much leek or potato .... well, I see I said (2) leeks, but only because that was how many I had purchased, this time.
Leeks are on the veggie garden list for next spring!! I vaguely recall something about winter leeks?
Jen: If you want a thicker soup base, use less chicken stock and more potatoes in the first boil-down. You can also purée more cooked potatoes to add into the soup.
Another alternative could be to mix in a few Tbsp (2-4, or about 1 Tbsp per cup of liquid stock) of cornstarch into COLD milk/cream before you add it to the soup. This makes the soup not only thicker, but creamier, of course!
If you add a LOT of potato and the soup is too bland, add a little powdered chicken bouillon to it.
Louise: I will get that recipe posted today! (In a separate post, gotta boost those numbers!!) I want to make one today, so I'll take a picture of it, too.
I'd post it now, but I have to "take a leek" ......
Out of the fridge to chop for the Omelette, of course!!!!!!
Louise, many FL folks are planting Summer-type gardens now. We have three season gardens (if we have the energy). Hardy veggies will winter through, like collards, kale, and brussels sprouts. So we'll be eating those in February and March while we are seeding in new greens in March and April. The less hardy things, like lettuces, go quickly when it heats up or freezes. We plant an early and late crop. Peas only grow in Spring and rutabagas only grow in Fall because they need such a long period of cool weather. Turning over space for timely planting is often a problem. Our peppers will continue until heave frost which would be sometime after the first week in Nov..
William, the soup looks delicious no matter how many leeks you take. We plant leeks in Fall and take leeks all Winter long (though it's cold taking leeks in the garden come Winter). Ya gotta hurry. :) These are our newly planted and ditched leeks.
Laurel
Too funny with all the leek-taking! LOL
I showed you our grapes a few posts back. From grapes to this..........Whew...so glad we got it done just in time to head south!!
Mmmm grape fixin's ..... They look perfect, Louise!
I will have to wait for spring to start my leeks. :-( Yours look like a fine future crop, Laurel.
In the mean time, I'll have a slice of:
Caramel Almond Apple Pie
Oven: 425ºF
Time: 25-30 Minutes
Although I don't use the crust below, this one was part of the original recipe.
Crust:
1 c flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup salad oil
1 Tbsp milk
In small bowl, stir together flour, sugar and salt. With fork, beat together salad oil and milk. Stir oil-milk mixture into flour mixture to make a soft dough.
Press dough into 9-inch pie pan or 10-inch shallow oval gratin dish. Press edges to make sides about 1-inch high in gratin dish; make sides come to top of pie pan.
Bake at 425ºF for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.
Filling:
5 medium-sized tart apples (I used Cortland this time)
4 Tbsp sugar (brown or white)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp lemon juice
While crust bakes, peel, core and slice apples. Mix with white or brown sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Turn into baked pie shell.
Caramel-Almond Topping:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar (white or brown)
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp milk (or heavy cream)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 pkg. (3 oz.) sliced Almonds
Melt butter in skillet. Add sugar, flour, milk, cinnamon and almonds. Boil 1 min., stirring. Pour over apples in pie pan to coat evenly.
Bake at 425ºF for 25-30 minutes, or until the topping is golden and bubbly.
Cool before serving with French Vanilla Ice Cream (cheese optional).
I think I forgot and doubled the topping for this pie .... oops!
Oh, I forgot to mention, I only had 4 cortland apples left over. They are pictured center with HoneyCrisp apples around them so they don't look so lonely.