In Giardino

I just harvested from the garden.  My favorite part of gardening, to be sure.  Some lovely leaf lettuce, some basil, and nasturtium.  Nasturtium in salads is just wonderful.   it has a peppery taste and every part of the plant is edible, leaves, flowers and buds.  Some folks pickle the buds and use them like capers.

As a lot of things are ripening, we are eating a lot of salads with our meals.  

Seems that we aren't the only ones enjoying our garden.  Methinks some birdies have been helping themselves to my tomatoes.  Sneaky birdies.

Until next time,

Ciao!

Birdie in Cucina

In Giardino

So much for a serene and restful Sunday!  We worked hard today in the garden and the rest of the yard.

When we installed the patio earlier this year, it left us with this mound of dirt that we refer to as Puppy Mountain.  The dogs like to run up and down it and dig it up.  But it is ugly and hard to mow, so down it comes!  With the help of my hubby and a rental tiller, soon it looked like this:

Now we can get grass seed and have a nicer lawn along with the awesome patio.

While hubby worked on excavating Puppy Mountain, I worked on the new garden bed and fencing.

I planted my fall crops of kale, cabbage, arugala and lettuce.  Then mulched with straw to hopefully keep the weeds out.

Fencing is important when you have a puppy.   If there is no fencing, there if more excavation of those lovely veggies!

After a morning of hard work, lunch time!  Remember thise burgers I talked about last time?

Here they are all ready to be grilled, along with the sweet potato chips waiting to be baked and the lettuce greens drying.  A yummy salad and crunchy chips are the perfect burger accompaniment.

We still have more work in the garden to do this week.  Hubby has the week off, so we are trying to get as much done as we can.  Along with some fun stuff too.

Now to relax a bit:

A rose in bloom

Our sunny sunflowers.  The birds love them.  I wish I had my camera when the gold finch was visiting.

Until next time,

Ciao!

Birdie in Cucina

In Giardino

While we are enjoying this wonderful summer here in PA, it is time to think about fall garden planting.  I stopped at the garden center the other day and picked up some yummy things to harvest this fall.  Cabbage, kale, lettuce and a sad little arugala plant I am hoping to coax back to life.

Before they can go in the ground, however, we need to make space for them.  We are having such success this year that I am getting cocky and extending the garden bed.

So we took some time today to do just that.  After taking some time to mulch the original sections, we cleared the sod under the shade of the crab apple tree.  The idea being that next year the shade will help the cold weather veggies do better when it gets warm.  We had spinach fail, I think, because it was in direct sunlight during the warmer months.

So, here we are with compost and top soil, after a good tilling of that clay underneath.  The weed blocker will be a walking path.  More work on the fencing, gates and walkway tomorrow.  Then we can plant the fall veggies and begin working on other areas in the yard that need attention.

In cucina, I have chicken breasts marinading in an orange molasses marinade.  I am looking forward to grilling  that tomorrow.  For today, we have grilled Italian hamburgers and fresh salad.  What are Italian, or what I call Dago, burgers?  I use my meatball mix to make burgers.  Now that I am avoiding gluten, I use planko crumbs, oregano, garlic powder, rosemary, pepper, minced onion.  All mixed up and ready for grilling.  Don't forget to dimple the burger patties so the burgers don't shrink as they cook.

Not a very exciting dinner, but fresh and delicious and very summer.  We eat al fresco as often as the weather allows.  Cooking outside is fun and helps to keep the house cool.

The day before yesterday, I made some pretty exciting salmon, if I do say so myself.  Pan seared salmon, with a peach, blueberry and bourbon chutney accompanied by sauteed kale fresh from the garden.  Peaches are in season and I just had to use them.  This turned out fantastic!  I sauteed the peaches in butter with coconut palm sugar and bourbon, then added the blueberries at the end.  A little corn starch thickened the juices.  Yummy!!!!

Until next time,

Birdie in cucina

In Giardino and Menu Planning

There has been a lot of progress in the garden this week.  I am so excited to see a tiny white eggplant forming.   I chose this variety, along with a small dark variety, because of their size.  I am hoping that small doses of eggplant will be more paletable to my husband, who is a bit anti-eggplant.   

I used ro be anti-eggplant myself.  When I was a child, my father would cure quantities of eggplant in olive oil and strong spices like oregano.  This is a very Italian thing to do.  We had a special pottery crock specifically for this purpose.  He would fill the crock with eggplant, oil, salt and spices.  He would then put the lid on the crock and weigh the lid down with a couple of bricks.  And this would sit for quite a while.  The results were how I was introduced to eggplant.  Yuck, in my opinion.

Since my childhood, I have revisited many vegetables I thought I had not liked.  It turns out that I just didn't like the way they were prepared.  Give me eggplant parm anyday!  Grilled eggplant!  Just not that cured stuff.  I have a love hate relationship with zucchini as well.

You see, we were an incredibly poor family and my parents had a difficult time getting food on our table.  My mother's friend had a farm and would give us rabbit meat and veggies from the farm.  One summer there was this proliferation of zucchini.   I mean there was zucchini in everything we ate.  If that wasn't bad enough, my mother had the habit of overcooking it until it was mush.  I find many of her generation did this with veggies.  It's like that had to kill them.  Anyway, I swore I would never even look at another zucchini when I grew up.

I like the darned things now.  In reasonable quanities and cooked correctly or raw.  You will notice that I do not have zucchini in my garden, however.  I am not that brave.  I would end up being one of those people who sneak zucchini on neighbor's porches and running, I think.

Here a tiny purple eggplant is forming.

The beans are growing fast!   I cannot wait until we have some to pick.

Right now the garden guides my menu planning.  We have an abundance of lettuce and quite a bit of kale to eat.  So we are eating a lot of salads.  And in this summer heat, what is better than a fresh, cool salad?  I sure don't want to heat up my kitchen if I do not have to.  We grill a lot and also use the crock pot to avoid turning on the oven.   But you would be surprised how even a crock pot can put off heat.

I usually menu plan around what I find in the garden and what is on sale at the grocery store.  I am trying to be more purposeful about purchasing what is in season as well.  The duck I made a couple of weeks ago was a splurge, but it was in season, so it was cheaper than it could have been otherwise.

I have never been a circular peruser, but I think that I am going to become one.  I think this will help me make better planning choices and help us to save more money.   It will take a lot of torture for me to be a coupon clipper, however.  Let's not get crazy.

Until next time,

Ciao!

Birdie in cuchina

In Giardino

I have been wanting to share my herb garden.  I decided it would be easier to over winter my herbs in pots, so I decided to do a container herb garden.  Plus, the new patio needed some softness and a water feature.  Buddha overlooks my herbs and provides serenity.

The other reason for pots was I wanted to have a couple of mint varieties.  Mint is extremely invasive, so better in pots than my garden.  However, these aren't thriving the way I would like.  I think they need bigger pots and not so much serenity.  The big container has a couple of thyme varieties, creeping rosemary, chives and sage.  A big pot of garlic chives at 11 o'clock, lemonbalm at 7, chocolate mint at 5, basil and lavender at 3, rosemary at 2, and a hot and spicy oregano variety at 1 o'clock.  I had cilantro in there, but it didn't like our hot summer.  

I like being able to enjoy all of these visually, they also deter bugs, and I can use them in my cooking!

I learned from my cilantro mistake and put my parsley in the shade.

Today's tomato harvest, ready for washing and more ripening.

And, here is my garden guardian, our puppy, Chai.  She isn't so much a guardian as she is a helper in the garden, so a nice fence was erected to curb her digging enthusiasm.  This was one of her more serine moments.  She loves laying under our few trees.

On the menu today, an Asian Chicken and Rice Noodle Salad inspired by Buddha and to use some leftover roast chicken.

Until next time,

Ciao!

Birdie in Cucina

In Giardino

What a difference a couple of days makes.  We also had a doozy of a thunderstorm last night.  Watered the garden nicely.   But in just a couple of days I see great changes in the garden.

A pepper has finally appeared!  I was getting worried that I had planted too late.

An eggplant is forming as well.   I love new beginnings!

Look how much the beans have grown!

Tomatoes are ripening at a nice pace.  One year they seemed to ripen all at once and we couldn't keep up.  I am sure that will eventually happen here too, as there is quite a bit of fruit on the plants.  But for now we can enjoy them.

Good thing too.  We have an abundance of lettuce to eat.  Some has bolted, so we had better get to it.  There will be salad with home grown ingredients tonight to go with our grilled London broil and fresh corn on the cob.  It is a very good corn year and, as it is difficult to grow, I am happy with what has been at the store.

The marigolds were planted for color and pest deterrance.  A particular pest I had in mind was our new puppy.  I had read that marigolds keep dogs away.  They did not have determined puppies listed, so I guess I overestimated the power of these flowers.  So rabbit wire and a crooked but effective gate was put up around our treasures.

The dogs and I are enjoying an afternoon al fresco.  Enjoying the cool breezes and happy that another storm has blown over.  We are grateful that it has been what I would call a normal summer.  We have had our hot days, but they have been interspersed with days like today, sunny, breezy and warm.  A godsend when housebreaking and entertaining a puppy.

Our new patio has allowed us to enjoy these days even more.  We have never spent much time in our yard.  Our property sits at the bottom of the bowl that is our block.  We have clay soil and a high watertable, so our yard would flood and become marshy and useable.  Some drainage our neighbors have done and the addtion of the large patio have made outdoor living possible.  The gazebo for shade - since we have no trees except those that hang over from next door - and comfy furnature make afternoon siestas wonderful.  A firepit and awesome benches constructed by my husband make evenings just lovely.  S'mores anyone?

I will talk about my other features another day.  For now, we are just relaxing and catching the breeze.  I hope you have someplace like this to enjoy.

Ciao!

Birdie in Cucina, al fresco

In Giardino

We are doing very well in the garden this year.  We haven't had one in a few years.  When I was working I just couldn't keep up with it.  Although,  I admit we went too large with those gardens also.  Just bit off more than we could chew, so to speak.

White Japanese Eggplant

Now that I am a domestic engineer, I can keep a proper garden.  We started about half of the size and I thought that would be manageable.  I did my homework and put in the garden at the same time we were installing the new patio in our yard.  This was the first time I did cold weather veggies - kale, spinach, lettuce, and a nice leafy cabbage.  Everything did well except for the spinach.

Now we are into the warm summer months, the tomato plants are monsters.  I need to get bigger tomato cages next year.  The yellow cherry variety is heavy with fruit, the roma are ripening as well, and the purple heirlooms are a bit slower.  All are very tasty and I am pleased with my choices.

Look at them beans!!

After the cold weather veggies vacated their space, I planted some peppers, and two variety of small eggplants, as well as bush beans, and scallions from seed.  The beans are sprouting quickly, there are pretty purple flowers on the eggplants, but the scallions are a no show so far.

Tomatoes and nasturtiums, with some late kale making an appearance.

We also planted nasturtiums.  If you have never tried them, they are easy to grow and taste wonderful in salads.  The whole plant is edible and it has a peppery taste.  Some folks pickle the flower pods and treat them like capers.

Just for fun, I thought you might like to see a visiter to the feeder.

I just love being able to use produce and herbs I have grown myself.  They somehow just taste better knowing that your effort was rewarded.  I can wait for the beans to come.  I have never done beans before.

We are so pleased with our efforts, we feel good about extending the garden by another third.  This bed will be under the one tree in our property and get some shade.  I think the cold weather veggies will like it even better under there and I hope we can have a nice fall crop.  I am also going to put in a potato barrel and give those a go.

Until then, all there is to do is eat a lot of salads.  We have a bunch of lettuce close to bolting, so we had better eat like bunnies.  Another entry will highlight my herbs and maybe the new patio space.

Ciao!

Birdie in Cucina