We might just skip the dinner and head straight for the leftovers

Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago and I’m already missing the turkey. Well, not so much the turkey itself, or the carcass or the turkey soup that hangs around for days and days. And I guess I’m not really missing the stuffing and mashed potatoes and the creamed onions. So, I guess I’m not really missing anything about Thanksgiving except for the amazing strata I made a few days after Thanksgiving. I “created” the dish after we had already had two meals of leftovers and the thought of another plate of Thanksgiving fare wasn’t too appetizing. Besides, the gravy was gone and all that was left was stuffing and turkey. I can’t really say this dish is original since we all made something similar back in the 90’s. Remember when stratas were on every buffet table? My family made a breakfast strata every chance they could. So, with going retro as the “in” thing to do, putting my last few leftovers to good use with a “back –in-the-day” strata seemed cutting edge.

The stuffing got brown and crunchy on top and pudding like in the middle with the cheese and turkey making a happy pair. With a dollop of cranberry sauce and a tossed green salad, it was fabulous. Here’s the problem: to make this dish again, I’d have to make stuffing and that’s just not going to happen until next November. Guess this will be just one more thing to look forward to that makes the holidays special.

Cynthia’s Post-Thanksgiving Retro Turkey Stuffing Strata

3 to 4 cups of stuffing

1 to 2 cups cooked turkey, cut into small pieces

1 cup broccoli florets, steamed until barely tender

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

3 eggs

1 ½ cups milk

In a small casserole, layer half of the stuffing, all of the turkey, all of the broccoli, half of the cheese and then the rest of the stuffing. Mix together the eggs and milk and pour over the casserole. Top with the remaining cheese. Let sit for half hour in the refrigerator. Bake in 350° for 30 minutes or until egg is set and top is crunchy.

Blah, blah, blah...me complaining





A chimp in a chef's hat
can always make me
feel happy

So, I guess I’ve been in a bit of a slump. What started out as a fun adventure has turned into a lot of hard work.  Trying to think of something creative and interesting around a little tiny bit of meat or using up every little bit of vegetable floating in the veggie bin is draining. I’m still buying organic (it’s not like I’m horking down Big Macs at McD) and for the most part, doing so successfully. Thing is, every trip to the market is a laborious task: do I buy this dozen eggs that are organic but I don’t know where they came from or do I get back in the car and drive to another store where I know the eggs are from Northern California AND organic but they cost too much or do I drive to another store where I know they are local AND organic AND a decent price but they are always out of stock? I wander aimlessly through the produce section with a glassy, vacant stare as I mentally try to create a meal with what is on sale, organic, and fresh. It was a very proud moment for me when once, I left Whole Foods with only spending $9.62.

I think the slump started a couple of months ago when I interviewed for a job. Interview went well; I was stoked. Thing is 25 other folks also applied for the job. It wasn’t the best fit for me so it was no surprise I didn’t get the job. I’m not ready yet to apply at JC Penney or Kohls (both are hiring but I break into dry heaves just walking in those stores so working there might be a challenge). I know things will change and the right job will come along. I just need to get enthused again about this grand adventure. Try to get enthused about taking ownership of what we eat.

My garden? I don’t have a burning desire to tend to my vegetables. It’s cold and wet and slugs abound. I guess that’s why people plant gardens in the spring. Even with my inattentiveness, the veggies are giving their all…bok choy and kale are looking good…or at least they were the last time I was out there.

Blah, blah, blah. Ok. So, I’ll snap out of it. Quit my complaining. Hey, maybe I’ll make some bread…kneading is a great way to realign thought and purpose. Plus, eating the loaf tastes good. And I’ve got some huge squashes to cook…that’s always exciting, isn’t it? Maybe a pot of beans will do the trick and provide inspiration. Hey, I know what! I’ll write something scathing about factory farmed beef. That’s always a sure way to get my blood boiling. Yeah. I can do this.

Cole Canyon Farm

Sometimes the news in the paper isn’t all bad. Last week I read an article about Cole Canyon Farm in Aromas. They were having an open house where the public (that would be me) could come and buy directly from their greenhouses. Their seedlings are all organic and are “available for transplant during the appropriate season.” Rebecca was visiting so Steve, Rebecca and I headed over to Aromas to see what goodies we could find. And find we did! First of all, they were selling their seedlings for $1 and some for 50¢. This was the right time to try out veggies I had never planted before and even take a chance on one I had never heard of before. Here’s what I got: lovage, basil (snails keep decimating my current plant), broccoli, spinach, romaine, cilantro (my last plant just up and died), rainbow chard, a winter tomato (if my current Stupice ever stops producing!), arugula, purple mizuna, and epazote. Yep, that’s the one I had never heard of before. Rebecca waxed poetic on the deliciousness of the herb. She said in a quesadilla it is amazing.  (Actually her comment was a little more colorful than mine.) This is another herb that is poisonous in large quantities. But on the good side, adding it to beans will reduce gas!

My garden acquisitions are happy in their new home. So far nothing has wilted or been eaten. I did put out some beer for the snails this evening since they’ve been attacking my bok choy. I hope those pesky gastropods stay the hell away from my new seedlings…it would break my heart if they gotten eaten up even before my first harvest. I’m the one who’s supposed to be doing the eating here! The sun is lower in the zenith so it may take awhile for the seedlings to get big enough to start picking. I'll try to be patient. In the meantime, I'll read the best part of the local paper: the funnies.





What's so bad about a little poison anyway?

Sorrel is one of those greens that I’ve always known about but couldn’t tell you what it looked like or how it tasted. I probably read about it in a book. (I thought maybe it was the irresistible veg that Rapunzel’s father stole from the witch’s garden in the middle of the night for Rapunzel’s mum.  But no, it was lamb’s lettuce that sent him over the wall…heaven only knows where I’d pick up some of that!)

I wanted to broaden my horizons and become more familiar with different greens; partly because it’s good to know and partly because I wanted something interesting to plant in my winter garden. I have no idea if sorrel even grows in a winter garden but when I saw it at the farmer’s market I thought I’d give it a try. I bought some Italian chard at the same time and thought I would cook them together for a lovely dark green stir fry. The Italian chard cooked up beautifully: bright green, held its shape, very delicious. The sorrel, however, went gray-green, turned to mush and was so intense in its lemony flavor that we couldn’t eat it. This clearly is a green that needs to be eaten in small doses. And maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t eat it all: apparently it has high levels of oxalic acid (a posion) and if eaten in large quantities is lethal! Hmmmm.  (Found out there are a lot of veggies high in oxalic acid, spinach being one.) Should I give up on sorrel or give it another try? Sure, I’ll give it another try! Why not?

I searched my collection of cookbooks for a recipe. Found a winner. Fields of Greens by Annie Somerville is the cookbook from the Greens Restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant serves organic vegetarian fare. I’d wanted to eat there forever and finally got the chance last June. The meal was absolutely delicious. Also expensive. I won’t be able to go back any time soon but the cookbook provides a lot of great inspiration. The recipe I found: Tomato, White Bean, and Sorrel Soup. The broth is made from fresh tomatoes that are peeled, seeded and pureed. Added to the broth: onions, garlic, carrots, sherry, thyme, white beans and, of course, chopped sorrel leaves that add the perfect piquant lemony flavor. With a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese, it was sublime. 

As wonderful as the soup was, I don't think I'm going to plant sorrel in my yard. It has limited uses and let's face it: I need a lot of bang for my gardening buck. I've got some kale and bok choy planted and they're doing well. Let's just hope they aren't poisonous.

So, it sounded like a good idea in my head

Here was the plan: take my bike and catch the bus into Monterey (departure time 8:27 AM). Hang out in town for a bit, get cash at the bank, and bike over to the Friday morning farmer’s market (starts at 10:00). Get produce. Bike the 15 miles home with produce in back pack.

I arrived at the bus stop in high spirits. I had watched a video on youtube of how to put my bike on the bike rack. Bus arrived and I did just as instructed and took my seat on the bus feeling REALLY proud of myself. (I realize it’s not that complicated to master the rack but still it felt like a mighty fine accomplishment!) After I got into town I thought I might get a cup of coffee at Peet’s and read for a bit before heading over to the farmer’s market. First mistake! (Actually, my first mistake was bringing a book along…a hard back copy no less.) How can I say this nicely? The coffee at Peet’s sucks. Their poor excuse for French roast coffee is pathetic. I took two sips (first one to recoil, second to make sure it just wasn’t a fluke) and then threw away the rest of the cup.

Now feeling a little headachy, I got my cash, then on to the market. Found some great buys on peppers (bought 5), eggplants (bought 3), kale (1 bunch), sorrel (2 bunches), apples (bought 6). Then I tried to shove all of this produce into my backpack (along with my book). Yeah. I realize at this point that maybe this idea wasn’t the greatest. I hoist the pack onto my back (the hard back book resting on my spine) and feeling rather like Quasimodo, proceeded to head home.

Did I mention the weather? None of the lovely Central Coast fog…oh, no. It was the first day of a heat wave and it was well into the 80’s as I navigated onto the road to get me onto the highway I’d be travelling on for home. I was sweating profusely, the gargantuan backpack not helping one little bit. It’s at this point I notice that a brush fire is happening close by and smoke is clouding the sky and drifting across the road. Really? Today? Feeling a slight burn in my lungs, I pressed on through the haze. Fortunately it cleared and the road beckoned ahead.

You know how much fun it looks when you cross the Golden Gate Bridge in your car and you see everyone walking across and you think you’d like to do that someday? And then that day comes and you realize it’s nicer driving across in your car? Well, this felt the same way. Trucks and cars went speeding by, exhaust and fumes spewing into my face. If I was going fast it might be ok. But I’m in the lowest gear, sucking air, my arms straining from the weight of my pack and all the traffic just wasn’t any fun.



A rather sad sight



Heat. Book. Heavy pack. Smoke. Bad coffee. Fumes. I decided to call it quits. I called Steve. He put the bike in his truck and took me home. I want to try the whole trip again but leave the book at home, drink only water, buy nothing at the market (not even bring a pack) and wait for a foggy day. Not that I want to do this regularly but just so that I can say I did it. I may even post a video on youtube.

Small but still pretty tasty

I thought my carrots would grow bigger.  I figured if I left them awhile longer they would eventually get nice and long like the picture on the seed packet. But it didn’t happen. So before Laura left for school, we picked them all. The orange ones were knobby and stunted. The purple ones were the right shape but only 3” long. We kept them in a bowl in the fridge to snack on and they made for good eating alongside lunch.  

After Laura and Tim left for school and lands far away, the rest of the carrots remaining in the bowl looked rather sad. I figured if I wasn’t a little more proactive, they would get all rubbery and end up in the compost. Not a very honorable end to a noble effort. Carrot bread sounded like the right way to finish off the darling runts in all their glory. Found a great recipe in this little cookbook I have called Quick Breads by Beatrice Ojakangas. It’s out of print but you can find used copies on Amazon or you might find a volume at a used bookstore. It’s got some really great recipes: Mincemeat Apricot Bread, Orange Pecan Bread, Cinnamon Pear Tea Bread, Colonial Brown Bread. At any rate, the recipe for Carrot Walnut Bread sounded like just the right thing. Took all the little carrots and whazzed* them up in the food processor till they were “grated”.  (*Jamie Oliver’s technical term.) Made three small loaves in foil loaf pans…two to keep and one to send to Laura at school. Toasted with some sharp cheddar cheese…deelish!

Laura had some stuff that didn’t fit in her suitcase that she wanted me to send. I boxed them up and so carefully and thoughtfully as a mother does, tucked the loaf into the package.  When I got to the post office shop I was told by Ramon that it would cost $25 by UPS and the box would arrive a week later. “Hmmmm…not so good for the bread,” I thought.” Can you get it there faster?”  I ask.  “Sure,”  says Ramon. “You could Fed Ex it and the package would arrive three days earlier…and it would cost $50.” Now I know the carrots are dear, and the loaf was lovingly packed but was it really worth an additional $25 for a little loaf of carrot bread? Not so much.

I’ll try planting carrots again next year but I’ll give them more room and do a better job of thinning. Hopefully that’ll do the trick. And I think I’ll just stick with orange ones. Millions of rabbits can’t be wrong.

Carrot Walnut Bread

2 cups all purpose flour                                    ½ teaspoon salt
                                  

1 cup chopped walnuts                                    2 cups finely shredded fresh carrots

½ cup granulated sugar                                    ½ cup milk

½ cup brown sugar, packed                             1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 teaspoons baking powder                              1 egg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour one 9 ½ x 5 ½  inch loaf pan or three 5 ¾ x 3 ½ inch loaf pans. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, nuts, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt until well blended. Stir in the remaining ingredients just until moistened. Spoon into pan or pans. Bake 50 to 60 minutes for a large loaf, 35 to 45 minutes for small loaves, or until they test done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.

I'd call this one a winner

We’ve never had much success growing tomatoes. More than likely due to the fact that the spot we had for our veggie garden a few years back got a ton of shade from the neighbor’s trees.  A few tomatoes would set and then they’d mold…go figure! So with our big new raised bed for our garden along the back side of the house that gets a ton ‘o sun we thought it would be good to try tomatoes again. Friend Lorrie told me that there are varieties for cool weather. Good to know! So I headed out to my favorite nursery and inquired, list in hand with several varieties I thought sounded good. Alas, all they had in stock was Stupice (say it this way stew-peach). Wasn’t on my list but I was eager to plant. I wanted a 4” pot but they only had pony packs of 6 so I got them. Steve had this great idea: since we don’t have any luck with tomatoes, why don’t we plant 3 in one tomato cage and 3 in another and then if one or two don’t thrive, we can just pull them out. Sounds good!

Now here it is 4 months later. Note to self: Stupice do well in our garden and will grow like weeds. The plants are spilling over the side of the bed, climbing up the trellis we strung for the sugar snap peas. They sent out long, tall stalks and then fell over with the weight of the green tomatoes. After the cooler summer, they’re now starting to ripen. It’s quite a challenge to spot the flash of red in the jungle of overgrown greenery but I’m happy to get close and personal with the plants, the pungent scent of tomato all up in my face. I was hoping to start roasting and freezing the tomatoes. But they’re ripening at just the right pace to keep us supplied with a large bowlful for salads and cooking.

Dinner the other night:  browned some beef in the pan (grass fed…why? That’s a post for another day) then put it in a bowl. Sautéed patty pan squash and those round yellow ones, onion, leek, garlic (of course), some roasted red and yellow peppers I had stored in the freezer, and a huge handful of fresh basil in olive oil. I poured boiling water over a large bowl of tomatoes and when the skins started peeling, I took the peel off and diced the tomatoes into the pan. The tomato juices bubbled up making this incredibly awesome veggie broth. I added the beef back in then served it over pasta (with a little parm cheese on top).  

The heirloom tomatoes at The Farm (veggie stand down the street) are starting to ripen. I think I’ll start roasting those to “put up” in the freezer. My own Stupice? I’ll keep eating those babies one bowlful at a time.