Cool as a cucumber

Due in no small part to the near-record amount if rainfall we experienced in Connecticut at the beginning of the summer, I have ended up with a garden full of freakishly large cucumbers. The cucumber plants have literally overrun the entire space, choking out everything but my squash plant, which struggles valiantly to gain ground. Not only do I have an abundance of the crisp green fruit, but they are gigantic. To quote Noe the first time he looked at my garden: "What is that, a watermelon?"

You understand what I'm dealing with here.

Now, I love cucumbers. I like to slice them and eat them as snacks. They are cool and refreshing on a hot summer day. However, I can not eat an entire garden worth of radioactive-looking fruit. And honestly, after an entire week of sliced cucumbers, I was so sick of them I didn't even want to pick any more.

I knew I needed to figure out something to do, and quickly. There had to be some recipes other than gross cucumber salad involving cucumbers. I should have realized right off the bat this was a job for Julia Child. Luckily I ended up there after a few misplaced search efforts.

The first Julia cucumber recipe I attempted was baked cucumbers. This shows you how truly desperate I was to do something with these plants because I thought the idea sounded disgusting even as I was already counting out the ingredients from my cupboards. I mean, who cooks cucumbers?

Julia does, that's who. I read My Life in France. I know she's crazy. I just went with it.

The first thing I was advised by Mastering the Art of French Cooking to do was to soak the cut-up cucumbers in a mixture of wine vinegar, salt, and a bit of sugar. According to Les Tres Gourmands, this would draw the excess water out of the fruit and the cukes would not become much in the oven. I'm not a fan of mush. I followed the instruction.

After a while (hours?) I drained the cucumbers. Sure enough, there was a pool of liquid in the bowl. I tossed the drained cucumbers with some chopped green onions, some herbs, and - of course - melted butter. I cooked them for an hour, taking them out every twenty minutes to toss/stir them.

Noe and I were a bit apprehensive, but we dug in anyway. Surprisingly, the cucumbers were really quite good. The salt/vinegar/sugar marinade had not only drawn out the excess water but given them a very slight pickle-y flavor. It's hard to imagine something roasted for an hour in melted butter tasting cool and fresh, but these almost did. They also retained a bit of their crispness, which I thought was great since limp cucumbers sounded pretty gross.

The second Julia cucumber recipe was not from MTAOFC. It was from a later book and not quite as out there as the idea of baking the fruit. Recipe number two was a sort of cucumber salad. The two recipes began similarly, only recipe number two added water to the marinade of sugar, salt, and vinegar. After the cucumbers chilled out in the marinade in the refrigerator for a couple hours, I drained them, tossed them with olive oil and some fresh basil and parsley, salt and peppered them to taste, and served them up at Amanda's house. This cucumber recipe truly was cool, crisp, and delicious.

These two recipes have given me confidence that I will not grow to hate one of my favorite garden items. So if you, like me, find yourself with an abundance of cucumbers, I highly suggest letting Julia guide you on your path to cucumber enlightenment. You won't be disappointed.

Photo courtesy of readersdigest.com

Squash-ed Hopes and Dreams

I'm not sure how or why people started eating squash blossoms. (I'm sure there is research available on the topic; to be quite honest, I haven't really looked for any.) I had never really given the squash blossom much consideration; however, I rarely give squash much consideration as a full-grown veggie. I vastly prefer the zucchini.

I don't hate squash, though, so I wanted to plant some in my garden this year (I needed something to replace that obnoxious bean plant I ripped up). The problem is that I intended to plant a couple squash plants and a couple zucchini plants. However, I was not paying attention at the garden center and picked up some squash that had been mislabeled as zucchini - resulting in a squash takeover of my garden space.

At this point, I have only harvested two whole squash, but the vines and blossoms are flourishing. A couple days ago I started getting panicky - what was I going to do with all this squash?

Someone somewhere heard my thoughts, because suddenly everyone around me was talking about squash blossoms.

First it was my friend, describing her parents' anniversary dinner at a restaurant in Providence. Then I ran across them in a couple food newsletters and food blogs I follow. When my west coast colleague Nick posted a Facebook status update about sauteing squash blossoms, the light finally clicked on in my head and I asked him for his recipe.

People eat these?

Nick's method called for stuffing the blossoms with a cheese and herb blend, dipping them in beaten egg, dredging them lightly in cornstarch, and sauteing them in olive oil (well, he didn't specify that part; I just assumed it was olive oil) for a minute or two per side.

(I had seen some references to battered, deep-fried squash blossoms when doing my preliminary research, but a couple blogs mentioned that this completely destroys the flavor of the blossom itself. Nick had seen recipes for both deep frying and sauteing, and he chose to saute, so I followed suit.)

I headed outside to pick the blossoms, not entirely sure what I was looking for (I should have researched this better). I finally decided to pick the ones that were slightly open at the ends so I wouldn't have to force them open to stuff them, but not the ones that were wilted to the point of just dangling off the vine (foodies, if anyone has any tips on selecting squash blossoms, please post in the comments!)

Back in the house, I removed the stems and very carefully removed the pistils. This was pretty difficult. Nick said he skipped this step, but I wanted to try it.

At one point I was attacked by a giant bee that had been hiding inside a blossom and apparently objected to being smothered with cheese and thrown into hot oil.

For the stuffing, I used a blend of grated mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheeses - partly because that's what Nick used and partly because those cheeses are almost always in my refrigerator. I mixed the cheese up with some basil - dried rather than fresh because my basil plants have unfortunately succumbed to whatever bug has been plaguing them since the beginning of summer.

I stuffed the bulbous part of the blossoms, continuing up to where the ends started to taper, then - at Nick's recommendation - twisted the tops a little to keep the stuffing inside.

I beat an egg in a bowl and dipped the blossoms in, letting the excess egg drip off before dredging them lightly in a plate of cornstarch. While I was dipping and dredging, I heated a small pan with enough olive oil to coat the bottom over medium-high heat.

Blossoms in the pan

After all the blossoms were dredged, I threw them in the oil and listened to the quiet sizzle. After about a minute and a half, I turned them over with tongs to saute the other side.

I removed them with the tongs and set them on a plate of paper towels to drain the excess oil. These are meant to be consumed immediately (otherwise the coating becomes less crispy and more stale and soggy, plus the cheese stuffing re-solidifies). Luckily, Noe was walking in the door from his softball game as I was removing the blossoms from the pan. He gave me a look indicating he thought this was an odd post-game snack, but he took one anyway.

Fried deliciousness

These turned out pretty tasty. Noe thought his could have used more cheese (I probably did err on the skimpy side - I was trying not to burst the blossoms) or even some crumbled bacon in the stuffing. The cornstarch provided a light and crispy coating - just enough for a crunchy texture but not so much that you couldn't see/taste the blossom. The blossoms themselves don't have a strong flavor, but they have a tiny bit of an herb-y, earthy thing going on that I could taste (though maybe only because I really wanted it to be there).

As long as I have squash blossoms, I'll continue to try to perfect the art of cooking them. I suggest you try it, too - it's a fun twist on fried snacks, and way more interesting than just another squash from the garden.

Green Acres

The garden is well on its way! So far, we've got (from right to left): basil, red bell peppers, cucumbers, orange bell peppers, green bell peppers, and squash. I also have herbs in containers along the side of the house as well as a tomato plant in a pot (I learned my lesson with tomatoes last year - this year it's staying contained).

I try really hard during the summer to limit my vegetable and herb consumption to what I can grow (supplemented by stuff from farmer's markets, which is way easier in the summer). I wish I was better at this year round, but summer is at least a start, right?

I can honestly say that last summer I did not buy a single bell pepper, cucumber, or tomato (although I couldn't give away all those damn tomatoes). The squash is really the only new addition, replacing the beans I ripped out because we never ate them.

Hopefully all goes well. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

A week or so in review

As you may or may not know, I recently accepted a new job. The good news is I am loving it so far. It feels great to be creative again, and to be appreciated by my coworkers - who seem to be a great group of people. The bad news is that I don't get as many blog posts up because I am not on the internet during work hours! However, I'm starting to adjust to the new routine, so maybe I'll be better about it from here on out (the laptop and/or iPhone I plan to buy with my tax refund may help the situation as well..)

Anyway, here's what I've been up to this week:

Gardening


The seedlings have sprouted, and the cucumber half of the greenhouse is out of control! The pepper half was slow to sprout, but now everything is pretty much ready to be transplanted. Now I just have to talk Noe into going to Home Depot or Lowe's and buying some of those little pots and some soil...

Whale-Watching (well, playing)


I just had my second session on the Whale Enrichment Team at the aquarium. I think if I were retired or unemployed I would be at the aquarium every day. I still can't believe that I get to be this close to beluga whales and sea lions.

Hangin' Out at the Coffee House

Up until now I've been more partial to Muddy Waters than I have to the Bean & Leaf here in New London, but I haven't been frequenting coffee houses like I used to in Michigan, either. And while I still prefer Muddy's for a cup of morning joe, the Bean is a fantastic evening spot. For one thing, they're open (Muddy closes in the afternoon); two, they have an amazing selection of loose-leaf tea (I don't like coffee after 11:30 AM) and three, they have a jazz quintet on Wednesday nights. It's like the best elements of the Food Co-op and the Firefly Club in Ann Arbor combined - you can even BYOB to jazz night at the Bean. There aren't many places where you can enjoy a cup of tangerine-ginger followed by a finger of Lagavulin. (The crowd reminds me of Ann Arbor, too - thanks, Loree!)

Snake-Wrangling


You may remember a November post about a snake in my house. Well, we had another. Only this time we didn't find it in the house; Noe found it outside and chose to bring it in. I let the Bun chronicle this one on her blog, The Buns-Eye View.

Being a Local Celebrity

Just kidding. Sort of. Read the New London Main Street newsletter if you want more details about that.

In addition to all this, I've been working on my mysterious writing project, which I hope to make some real progress on in the near future (once again, the laptop/iPhone will probably help). There's some good stuff going on over the next few weeks, though, and we're supposed to be getting a new bar and a new restaurant here in New London pretty soon, so check back - I promise I'll post more regularly!

Planting the Seed(s)

After reading the This Young House post on seed-starting, I decided to be brave this year and try it myself. Last year was the first year I had a real garden (growing more than just container herbs) but I started with plants - well, except for the out-of-control tomatoes - those technically started with seeds of tomatoes I had let rot there the previous summer.

The seed starter greenhouse kit

Watering the starter and sowing the seeds

Anyway, I figure if the seed thing doesn't work out I can just buy some plants later. For $10 ($6.99 for the greenhouse; $1.50 per packet for the seeds) I don't think it is too painful an experiment. And hopefully this will be the result:

Last year's cucs and peppers;
started from plants.

Things I like that I used to dislike

Over the course of the past few years, I have changed my position from not favorable to favorable on a number of things, most notably:

Tomatoes
I used to hate tomatoes. Not tomato-based products - I have always loved marinara, salsa and ketchup - but a slice of tomato on a burger was enough to make me gag. I think much of this has to with the fact that 1) I was very unadventurous when it came to food until I began working in restaurants (not that tomatoes are adventurous, but I wasn't eating any place that was serving fresh tomatoes) and 2) the few tomatoes I had been exposed to were disgusting, thick, light pink, not-in-season slices of nastiness.

My feelings toward tomatoes began to change when I quit eating Pace salsa (which I now think is gross, to be honest) and started eating chunkier salsas where you could actually see the vegetables. But it was my summer in the Upper Peninsula living with Aunt Missy (to whom I owe a great, GREAT deal of my food appreciation and current passion for cooking) that really changed my mind about tomatoes. Aunt Missy made the best BLTs. She made them with really good, thick-cut bacon, crisp iceberg lettuce (iceberg lettuce DOES have a place in the food community, and that place is on a sandwich), and deliciously fresh, juicy, in-season tomatoes. Because of Aunt Missy, the BLT is now my favorite sandwich, and I like tomatoes enough to grow them in my backyard (see the next thing I used to dislike, gardening, below). FYI - Aunt Missy is also the reason I started making my own pesto.

Gardening
I thought gardening was a lame, old lady hobby. My gardening consisted of growing one pot of mint and that was only so I could make mojitos.

Once I got together with Noe, however, I started getting slightly more into it. Noe's mom was really into flowers and plants and Noe definitely picked that up from her. He had really cool houseplants, and he and I worked on the front flower beds and the big deck flower pots at the old house.

Then we moved to Connecticut and not only did I inherit an awesome front flower bed (complete with a Japanese Maple) but I inherited a back garden patch as well. Since I am in to food and fresh, local food has slowly but surely been becoming the "in" thing, I decided to give it a try.

Well, those of you who have read the blog know that this experiment ranks as a success. I have in the past week alone eaten cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, beans and countless herbs that I have grown myself. They are not as pretty as the vegetables in the store (some of my cucumbers look downright alien) but I think they taste better. The garden is here to stay.

Knitting
Another thing that I thought was strictly for old ladies and people with too much time on their hands. Really, I thought pretty much all "crafty" hobbies were hopelessly lame. Even pictures of celebrities knitting on movie sets couldn't sway me.

When my mom starting knitting I was sort of horrified. Except that she turned out to be really good at it. Seriously, she graduated from fun-fur scarves to sweaters within like, months.

Mom tried to teach me several times, but I did not have the patience or the temperament for it. Plus, it took too long to make any noticeable progress.

One day though, I got really bored and started looking through Mom's copy of Stitch & Bitch (the cool knitter's bible) and found a pattern for a simple scarf knit on huge needles with chunky yarn. Apparently you could make this scarf in a time frame that could be measured in hours rather than days. My interest piqued, I bought some yarn and taught myself (from the pictures in the book) how to cast on and knit a basic garter stitch. Two hours later, I had my black and white scarf.

This scarf is by no means pretty, and if you look closely, the squares of black and white are totally different sizes because I was too lazy to really count rows. But it was a stepping stone on the way to much better scarves. As for other projects, well, I am still trying to build up enough patience for those. We'll see this winter.

Gwyneth Paltrow
For some inexplicable reason, I used to hate Gwyneth. The mere sight of her on a poster was enough to make me not want to see a movie. I didn't want to buy magazines with her on the cover. I have no idea why I was so anti-Gwyneth; perhaps because - even though I loved Shakespeare in Love - I thought she stole an Oscar that belonged to Cate Blanchett?

However, I have begun to warm to Gwyneth over the past two years or so. First of all, the woman can actually act. Second of all, she has AMAZING style. (Seriously, if I were tall and skinny and had legs that were 10 feet long, I would dress just like her.) Third, once I started watching all those Gwyneth movies I had been ignoring, I found that she has been in some great flicks - most notably Emma and Sliding Doors. (Honestly, I don't know why I waited so long to watch Sliding Doors. If you haven't seen it, rent it.) Now instead of studiously ignoring Gwyneth projects, I am counting down days to the premiere of her PBS series with Mario Batali where they eat their way through Spain. Yum.

John Steinbeck
I don't know what Steinbeck book you had to read in middle/high school, but if it was The Pearl then maybe you hated Steinbeck, too. My distaste for The Pearl was pretty much enough to convince me I wanted nothing to do with the rest of Steinbeck's literary repertoire (plus, I read the last few pages of Of Mice and Men and it sounded really sad).

Later on in high school and college, when forced to read Mice and The Grapes of Wrath, I started to grow lukewarm towards Steinbeck. He wasn't so bad. I'm not sure what convinced me to buy East of Eden. It could have been that I had just taken that bible as literature class (which was incredibly cool, by the way) and Eden is more or less a modern-ish retelling of the book of Genesis. Or...it could have been that I just liked the name. (Anyone ever notice how these guys - Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc - wrote the best titles?)

Anyway, Eden was a literary life-changing book for me. It immediately earned a place among my all-time favorites. I have re-read it twice and can pretty much open it to any page and start from there. I am not sure why I like it so much; it is certainly not a happy book, and it contains one of the most truly evil women ever to grace the pages of fiction. But it is storytelling at it's best and most epic. Plus, it made me like Steinbeck which in turn made me read Cannery Row, which is a delightful little book itself.

Food for Thought

I know I have blogged about my garden way more than anyone cares. But gardening has become more and more of an interest of mine since moving to Connecticut and I am just thrilled with how well my first attempt is working out.

My peppers are really coming in nicely

Had I known the peppers and cucumbers would grow so well, I would have definitely ripped out the surprise beans and planted more peppers and cucumbers. Even my dying basil has made an end-of-summer rally. I will have more tomatoes than I know what to do with, but the upside is I will VERY carefully clear out any rotting tomatoes from the ground this year so they do not seed themselves the way my current crop did.

I am absolutely thrilled that my cucumbers blossomed after all!

Noe and I recently began actually eating things from the garden. So far we have eaten lots of herbs, a hot pepper and a bunch of tomatoes (the caprese salad I made with my own tomatoes and basil is the best caprese I have ever made in my life). If I am guessing correctly, we could be eating home-grown peppers within the next week or two and I don't think the cucs are far behind. (I was late planting my cucumbers which is why they are just now getting to mid-size).

I have grape, cherry, and big tomatoes. Want any? Take your pick!

My only regret about gardening? I just wish I had planted more stuff!

This basil helped make a delicious Caprese salad.
I can't wait to make pesto!

Favorite Things for Today

5. 2007 Chateau La Rame Bordeaux Blanc. Too bad I just drank the last glass of it and the wine store has no more. At least that last glass was delicious.

4. Greg Iles Mystery Novels. Well, not all of them - just the Penn Cage ones (The Quiet Game and Turning Angel). Good legal thrillers are literary crack for me, and these are particularly suspenseful and juicy - like John Grisham before he got lame (which was after The Rainmaker, in case anyone was wondering).

3. Sour Cherries. The best fruit on earth. Want to make a cherry even better? Make it sour. I could eat a pound of these things. I've now bought them twice at Stop & Shop and I dread the day they disappear.

2. Rescued Seal Pups. We have three of them at the aquarium in the rehab pool. If you've never seen baby seals, well, they are cuter than puppies. These little guys are getting re-released on Friday morning and I hope to go watch before work. I'll try and get some pics.

1. Gardening. There is nothing as satisfying as eating something you've grown yourself. Even when it's just fresh herbs you use to season your chicken (and trust me, store bought thyme and rosemary have nothing on home-grown) or mint you use to make your mojitos, there is a definite sense of accomplishment. Tonight I picked our first tomatoes, and the peppers will be ready to go soon, too. The basil plants have exploded and I can't wait for some homemade pesto. Bonus: weeding is a great way to get rid of excess aggression - take it out on the crabgrass!

Garden Party...apparently I wasn't invited.

For those who have been keeping up with the blog, you know that gardening is an activity that I intended to make a hobby of here in Connecticut. A few weeks ago, I put some plants in the ground, watered them diligently, and then...neglected them for about a week/week and a half while I went out and did other fun things. I figured since it was so freakin' humid and rainy, they would be fine.

Well, today I went out to check the garden before I went to work. It has gotten slightly out of control.

The peppers, parsley, mint, and cucumbers that I put in seem to have taken well to their new environment...however, several rogue bean plants - which apparently seeded themselves from the previous owner's garden - have completely taken over a third of my alloted garden space. Also, there was no need to have Amanda start tomatoes for me, as apparently I already have six or seven thriving tomato plants, including one that completely uprooted and overtook my rosemary.

Hmm. Maybe I am not so good at gardening after all.

Oh, mint. I like you better when you're a mojito.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
There WAS rosemary here at one point...

Well. This wasn't here last week.
At least it had the courtesy to grow where I already had stakes.

How does my garden grow? Pretty well so far.

My first attempt at legitimate gardening seems to be going OK. I have basil, oregano, thyme, and catnip (can't help it!) in containers and rosemary, mint, peppers, cucumbers, parsley, and beans in the ground. The beans are leftovers from the house's previous owners, but they are more than welcome. (We also have some rhubarb sprouting up that might prove useful.) I am waiting on tomatoes and broccoli from Amanda and then my garden should be complete.

I hope everything keeps growing well and I can expand my selection next year!

Basil in the container

Beans - a pleasant surprise

My favorite: bell peppers

Wine Safari

This past Saturday brought the return of Amanda Lester from South Africa and with her a variety of South African wines. We headed over there on Saturday night to welcome her back and have a mini-wine tasting.

I haven't had a lot of experience with South African wines - we didn't have very many on the Earle wine list, and other than a couple interesting and very cheaply priced Trader Joe's experimental purchases (none good or bad enough to stand out) I had never purchased any.

Amanda really enjoyed the Zevenwacht winery on the Stellenbosch Wine Route. We started with the Zevenwacht 2006 Chenin Blanc. This was light, citrusy, and refreshing with a hint of something more - maybe pineapple. (I'm sure that John, otherwise known as CTWineGuy, will review these wines and provide a much more thorough description - check him out.)

After we all agreed that the Chenin Blanc was indeed delicious, we moved on to the Zevenwacht 2004 Syrah. It smelled fruity and slightly smoky - and that smokiness multiplied by ten when I actually tasted it. It was a little spicy, too. I enjoyed it.

Properly impressed by the Zevenwacht wines (and Doyle's cocktail party attire, which included a skull and crossbones bow tie) we moved on to the 2005 Auret, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Pinotage blend from Clos Malverne, also on the Stellenbosch route.

Clos Malverne considers the Auret to be their flagship wine. It's worthy of the title - dry, spicy, and just kind of nice all around. It didn't stand out to me the way the Zevenwacht Syrah did (seriously, that smokiness has to be tasted to be believed) but I enjoyed it just the same. The winery recommends aging this wine 5-7 years, an experiment I'd like to try if given the chance.

Overall, a great evening - good wine and good company.

In other weekend news, Noe and I checked out Iron Man and both loved it. I have been a Robert Downey Jr. fan since seeing Heart and Souls in eighth grade (yes, Heart and Souls is a stupid movie, and yes, I still love it). I am glad to report that he is the perfect Tony Stark.

Sunday was mostly spent reading vampire novels (sigh - more about that later) and working in the garden. Although I've had herb gardens for a couple years now, this is my first attempt at actually growing vegetables (other than tomatoes). I picked up some bell pepper and cucumber plants and Amanda has some tomatoes started for me at her house. So far all I've really done is prepare the soil and get my herbs in pots (I like to be able to move them around), but (weather permitting) planting should commence this week. I'm a little bit obsessed with the idea of growing my own produce, so it will be interested in to see how this experiment turns out. I'll keep you posted!

April Showers...

...bring surprise May flowers. At least, they are surprises to us because we didn't plant them. When things started sprouting up in the flower bed, we had to wait a few weeks to figure out if they were flowers or weeds. Once we determined they were flowers, we had no idea what was going to actually blossom. (OK, I had no idea - Noe, Mr. "good at everything including identifying random green sprouts" knew what kind of plants they were, but he's not psychic so he had no way of knowing the colors.)

Luckily, Matt & Kendra (the former house owners) have as good taste in plants as they do interior paint colors. This is a sampling of what we ended up with: