About the blog, the happy hens, the author and you!

Check out the new About section!  When I first created this blog in the springtime I wanted to create a webpage that was more than just a chronological story of eating seasonally.  My goal was (and still is) for this blog to be used as a tool.  I'm looking forward to making that happen throughout the course of the summer and this new About page is just the start.  In the meantime, don't forget to Eat and Enjoy!

The waiting game is over...

...which means the harvest begins!!!

Note: I am writing this post retroactively.  The event being discussed here occurred the week after Memorial day (around May 27th 2013). 

For those of you that garden or frequent the farmers' markets you know that June signifies a substantial increase in available produce.  March and April have always kept me busy with sowing seeds, pulling weeds and tending beds not to mention doing lawn and other landscape maintenance.  Then May comes along and although the slightly slower pace is much appreciated, the month seems to drag on forever.  It might be because my birthday is at the end of the month...but more likely its because May is a waiting game in the garden.  Lucky for me this year I had the opportunity to go on a four day vacation to the San Juan Islands.  While the weather was decent there (check out the pretty beach and harbor scenes below), back home it rained substantially the first two and half days I was gone and was nice and sunny for the final bit.  That meant no one had to water the garden in my absence and upon my return everything seemed to be bursting at the seams. 

A stop in Port Townsend before heading to the islands.

This is Deception Pass.  Great place to stretch your legs before waiting in line for a ferry.

When I arrived home late that Monday night I did a quick check to make sure none of the animals had done any damage and I locked up the chicken coop which had been left open in my absence (luckily the racoons hadn't noticed!).  It wasn't until the following day after work that I actually got to tour the jungle in my backyard.  Now, in all reality it hadn't grown that much.  However, when you are closely examining a garden two or three times a day everyday its hard to notice much of anything in the way of dramatic change.  Sure I see a new stem of parsley unfurling and the mustard greens beginning to bolt, but it all happens in slow motion.  After four days though, its like a whole new sight!  I got so overwhelmed with my harvest that afternoon that I forgot all I went out there for was a few greens for dinner, but more on that story later!  For now, enjoy the pleasure of harvesting daily (or weekly if you're a farmers' market type) and be grateful that the waiting game is over.

From the back, left to right: celery, leafy lettuce, chive flowers, johnny jump ups, Russian red kale, curly blue kale, all sorts of peas and maybe more, but that's all I can see and recall!

What to do with all those greens?

Yummy greens wilting over a bed a of diced onions and potatoes.

About this time of year in my garden (or at the local farmers' market) there seems to be an influx of greens.  No matter how fast I harvest them they keep on coming.  Not to mention, if you don't harvest them quick these tender little plants will interpret the slightest neglect, coupled with a minor increase in temperature, as abandonment.  I'm certain they fear you, the gardener or cook or buyer, have moved on to bigger and better things like tomatoes and basil.  I like to remind my greens that they are still much loved and appreciated, particularly as the weather the increasing temperatures, by picking their young leaves often.  But alas, a girl can only eat so many salads (do you remember me posting how much I missed salad just two months ago in this post?)  So, what does one do with all those greens???  Well, my solution is to put them in everything I can.  Macaroni, stir fry, rice; anything really.  When sauteed they add such great flavor and color to an otherwise bland dish.  My favorite way to use up a surplus of greens, however, is by mixing them with eggs and potatoes and bacon in a break fast burrito!

Bacon, wilted greens, breakfast potatoes and scrambled eggs ready to be wrapped up!

Breakfast is my favorite  meal of the day, but generally speaking I eat it on the go Monday through Friday.  Eggs are a great way to get in a good amount of protein and other food energies for the day and the best part is I can wrap it up in a tortilla with whatever yummy things I have on hand and away I go! 

Cooking tip: Bacon can be a bit labor intensive to cook.  It requires that you stand over the stove watching a sizzling pan of grease and fatty pork ready to pop at any moment.  While pan fried bacon tastes super yummy, you can get the same effect by cooking it in the oven.  In fact, I find it easier to achieve various degrees of doneness using the oven (soft and flimsy or crsipy and hard and everything in between).  Here's how its done:

1. Take the bacon out of the fridge and turn the oven to 450*.
2. Cover a baking sheet with parchement paper (make sure the paper is bigger than the sheet on all four sides- it makes for easy peeasy clean up later!)
3. Place your bacon slices on the parchment paper.  If the sheet is too narrow for them to lay flat, pinch the pieces slightly in the middle to create a small hill or two.
4. Place in the oven, which should still be preheating.  Don't wait for it to warm up all the way.
5. Keep an casual eye on your bacon the first few times and record the time it takes for the bacon to reach the desired doneness. In my oven 18-20 minutes is good for thin sliced and about 25 minutes for thick sliced, but every oven is different so watch yours.  That's it.  Very little hands on effort, amazingly delicious reward!

Six pieces of yummy bacon straight out of the oven, with little effort on my behalf.

Outstanding Omeletes

Asparagus and spinach with pepper jack cheese.

Omelets are outstanding! Often times folks steer clear of them at home thinking it is difficult to get a beautifully cooked omelet without breaking or burning it.  I'm hear to tell you that it is not only doable, but its actually quite simple with a bit of knowledge.  And if something goes wrong, my belief is that you can just say you were making a scramble and mix it all up!

Now is a great time to be making omelets because of the surplus of backyard eggs my ladies are laying and because there are so many yummy spring veggies to fill them with: lettuce greens, spinach, asparagus, leeks, spring onions and garlic, spicy mustard greens.  The possibilities are endless really.  Then when you consider the different cheeses you can add....oh the ooey gooey goodness!  There are two key components to making a good omelet: 1) temperature and 2) pan size/ or number of eggs.  The temperature of the pan must be just right.  Hot so that when you pour the eggs in they begin cooking immediately, but not so hot that they are going to burn (I'll be honest and admit that the omelet pictured above left is slightly overcooked for my taste because I let the pan get too hot).  A good way to judge the temperature is from the reaction of the oil you add just before the eggs.  It should NOT sizzle.  IF it does it is too hot, but the pan should feel hot when you place your hand about an inch above it.  With regards to number of eggs or pan size, you need to use a pan that is large enough to have 1 thin layer of egg so that the mixture will cook evenly.  Traditionally in a restaurant, an omelet will have three eggs.  I find that not only does this make for too heavy of a breakfast for me, but my pan is too small for it. So I prefer to use two eggs with my pan (which I think is 8" in diameter).  Now for the how to:

Chop, saute and prep by any means necessary the stuff you will add to the omelet. Then drizzle about a tablespoon of oil (I use light olive oil which works great when you want to be slightly healthier but not add the pungent flavor of olive oil) and swirl around the pan.  Then pour in your eggs that have been whipped with a splash of water (not milk!).  For those of you who are wondering why, milk is used for scrambled eggs to make them extra creamy.  Water is used in an omelet to get a nice whipped consistency but then essentially evaporates as the egg cooks in the hot pan leaving a light airy omelet.  Immediately swirl the eggs around the pan to coat the entire bottom.  Remember they should have started cooking immediately if your temp was correct so the center won't move but the outer edges will expand as the top layer of eggs spreads out.  Once you've given the bottom a minute or two to cook add the fixings you prepared previously including any cheese.  If you are using the correct number of eggs for your pan size (or correct pan for the number of eggs you prefer) there will be no need for flipping! The omelet should cook through without burning the underside. Lastly, if you oiled the pan well the omelet will slip right out with the help of a spatula*.  Slide out half onto a plate and then tip the pan as you slip the rest out folding over the top for a half circle omelet.  That's it!  Add a sprinkle of extra cheese and a garnish if you wish then enjoy!

*I use a fish spatula.  If you don't own one of these I highly recommend you get one.  I know some people are kitchen gadget people (me!) and some people aren't, but seriously this is one of those tools that should be one of your top ten.  I honestly use it everyday!....In fact, I think I'll post about my love of the fish spatula another day...

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

I haven't posted in 12 days, and I am ashamed. Like the absence of a vegetable in the off season, my hope is that I've left you wanting more.  But first, my apologies.  I've got one excuse, which is quite literally just a reason: work. Enough said, don't want to talk about it! Sadly though this has led to less cooking, not no cooking, just less.  So hear is a brief recap:

This evening is the third farmers' market and hopefully I will finally remember to take pictures. I've been picking up asparagus and leeks.  I love leeks!  They are just like onions and garlic and chives, but subtle and sweet. And somehow the ones in my garden are never as big and beautiful as the ones at the farmers' market.  My sister has been requesting baked potato soup for weeks and I had just come across a potato leek soup recipe that I hadn't tried yet, so that was the first thing I made despite the fact that we were already into 80 degree weather (prematurely I should note)-recipe coming soon.  So there it is LEEKS are in season!

This little piggy went to MARKET!

After much anticipation, opening day of the Farmers' Market finally arrived.  I was so excited for the opportunity to see what the local professionals were growing that I managed to convince four of my friends to come along with me.  The farmers' market always seems like the place to be in town on Thursday evenings.  There was a lot of socializing going on!  I however was on a mission.  I wanted to pick up some spinach, leeks and asparagus.  The first thing I saw when I walked in were the familiar faces of my favorite farming family with a table full of asparagus.  I promptly introduced my friends to their lovely crop and the grower to my lovely friends.  I briefly asked how their winter was and then moved on to locate the best deal on spinach,

Spinach at the farmers' market appears to be quite expensive: $5/lb.  But spinach doesn't weigh that much.  My friend and I did a little experiment.  I bought from a friend's farm that sell their spinach for $2.50 a bunch while my friend purchased hers at another farm by the pound.  She asked for half a pound (equal in price to my purchase). Sure enough, when we compared the quantity of spinach was pretty much equal.  On another note, I broke down and bough 'NW grown' spinach from the grocery store yesterday.  I almost never by produce from the major chain grocery and I feel a tad guilty.  But my boyfriend keeps requesting a spinach pie recipe he heard about on NPR and it call for a lot of spinach.  The grocery store spinach was a little under half as expensive (in this case) but I have to say, it looked like sh*t compared to the stuff that comes out of my garden or from the farmers' market.

My last purchase of the day were three decent sized leeks.  I grabbed the last three fatty-ies, which 1- I felt lucky about and 2- made me realize that even they grow green onion sized leeks like i do!  So that's my market finds.  Today is the Saturday market where I was hoping to get rhubarb and fresh flowers, but I have a commitment this morning so things might be sold out by the time I get down there.  Hopefully not!  I am looking forward to some great recipes to share this week!

P.S. Sorry there are no pictures.  I was so excited about the farmers' market and so determined to score great produce that even though I brought my camera I forgot to take any pictures!

A New Read & Q's to Consider

I am just starting a new book called How to Pick a Peach.  Although I'm only on page 15, I can tell I am going to like this book very much.  Sadly I've been too tired to read before bed at night, but I enjoyed those first 15 pages in true spring fashion: in the sunshine with grass beneath my back and my wanna be farm dog resting beside me.  If you're wondering how I could possible know if a book is right for me after a measly twenty minutes of reading (followed by an additional twenty of napping) just listen to this:

• "At its heart, cooking is a primitive act and remarkably simple.  You choose what seems tastiest, and then you try to make it better."
• "The first thing you have to understand is that whole idea of eating locally and seasonally is not based merely on some philosophical framework.  It may indeed be good for the planet, but that is for greater minds to decide - I [the author] am mainly interested in fixing a good dinner."

It got me thinking.  Why am I so interested in eating seasonally and mostly locally?  I mentioned that this all began as a resolution to be more aware of where my food came from; this urge burgeoned from deep seated roots in growing food and a desire to make use of what was around me. Not to mention I love good food.  But still, why seasonal?  Why mostly local?  You tell me.  Why do you eat seasonal and local?  Or, why are you so interested in learning about eating seasonal and local????