Sunday, August 28, 2011

Peasant Food—eating fresh

Not gourmet fare, perhaps, but tasty. That's ratatouille, a mix of just about everything that's being harvested now, plus Golden Jubilee sweet corn and grilled hot Italian Taylor's sausage. Simple, tasty peasant food. 
Late August and all of September is high season for peasant food, when the garden leaps into the kitchen and lands on the plate every night. It's like the veggies are at this moment (it's around 9 p.m. as I write) putting on measurable growth. I'm sure someone, somewhere, has documented the fact that a zucchini can grow several inches a day. Well, they're all going nuts out there. I'm almost afraid to go out at night. The green beans, the peppers, the corn, the tomatoes, the zukes, of course, and the cukes, which appear to be even more excited about August heat. All this makes for some colorful plates. No recipes here, except for a look-back at zucchini-based lasagna, but here's what dinners look like in August when a huge garden is just outside the back door. And also part of today's harvest.


Last night was a quick fix using the usual suspects: cukes and onion salad, fresh tomatoes, zukes, onions, and chard, fried with a little rice, and sweet corn.

Fancier fare that includes grilled salmon, grilled/smoked onions and peppers, and the usual August veggie medley.
 And tomatoes, of course. 
These are the zukes, cukes, and eggplants I picked today. What to do? Give some away!

In the bag, veggies to share. On the right, those to eat fresh or process. 


Saturday, August 27, 2011

A Night and a Day Away - Crater Lake


From the top of Garfield Peak in Crater Lake National Park. 
It's been scorching hot in the Rogue Valley, and PK and I have been working too hard too much on our big garden/little farm. Let's go up by Crater Lake and camp for a night then go for a hike in the Park? I suggested. He was on it, and the next day we were in our Four Wheel camper headed for our favorite camp spot just 90 minutes from home and a half hour from Crater Lake National Park. 

This says it all. Sweet respite and a brew beside the river.
We arrived at the best little campground ever (it shall remain unnamed) around 4 p.m, and scored the last remaining river site—only 10 sites in the campground. That would be the Rogue River a few miles from where it emerges from the earth in a magical place called Boundary Springs just outside Crater Lake National Park. Here the river is a sprinting creek, leaping through the flower-filled meadows and the old growth forest and making freshet music that we were longing to hear. No cell phone service here, and no wireless, of course. It was just us, the river, the trees, the star-filled night, and the wonderful forest fragrance.
Old growth Douglas Fir trees around the picnic table at campsite number six. 
The next morning we drove to Crater Lake, marveled once again at its utter blueness, and got a good workout on a couple of hikes. 
Is there a paint color called Crater Lake Blue? It is so intense and beautiful.


Still a bit of snow on the trail to Garfield Peak. It felt great to be tourists for a day.
We were home in time to throw together a quick feast from the garden, which didn't know we were trying to escape its demands and pumped out a bunch of ripe melons and tomatoes during our brief but much-needed break. 

Monday, August 22, 2011

Spectacular onion harvest


Just-harvested onions drying in the sun. 
Big daddy Texas onion, 16-inches circumference!
You never know what will happen when, in the spring, you go forth into the garden with implausible seeds or puny starts or sets and sow them into the soil. This year we have been rewarded by numerous crops, but perhaps none so amazing as the onions. A note about onion harvest. It is a sensory  experience because onions create a fragrance that is released from the warm soil in an intoxicating burst, When I started this post, I wasn't thinking about the olfactory benefits of onion harvest. But when reviewing the experience, I couldn't help but focus on the eye-rolling, head- tossing perfume released during harvest. It is a huge part of the pleasure. Along with the size and vigor of the 2011 onion crop, the harvest fragrance about had me rolling in the garden trenches.
Onions drying on the shaded front porch. 
We almost have enough onions to make/freeze caramelized onions. Almost. It's disheartening, really, to see exactly how much is required to make a handful of caramelized onions. But I cooked down enough onions (about 3 large ones) for one amazing pesto, sausage, peppers and caramelized onion pizza. Here's a recipe, followed by onion cultivation photos from start to finish.

BEST PIZZA EVER!
Yes, drool. This pizza is heaped with caramelized onions. And plenty of cheese, peppers, etc. 
INGREDIENTS
  • Dough - I use a bread machine recipe using whole wheat flour. I divide the dough into three parts and freeze two. This makes for a super-thin crust when used with a 12-inch pizza pan. 
  • 1/4 to 1/3 cup pesto. I use homemade, and it doesn't have cheese in it yet. Spread this evenly over the crust. Commercial pesto is good also.
  • 1.2 - 3/4 cup marinara sauce. Relax, use a bottled marina if you don't have from-scratch marinara. Spread evenly and sparingly over the pesto.
  • 1/2 pound Italian sausage, cooked, drained, and crumbled. Distribute evenly.
  • 1 to 1.5 cups caramelized onions, spread over the sausage
  • 1 large sweet or mild pepper, chopped, spread on top.

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450. Pop prepared pizza into oven and bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven when edges brown. Add grated Parmesan or other cheese and return to oven a few minutes until cheese melts. I wish I could eat this right now!

How to caramelize onions
Thinly slice 3-4 onions, dump into a large skillet and add a couple T of olive oil. Cook uncovered over medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Stir as necessary as onions release moisture and begin to brown. They're done when they're uniformly browned and sticking to the pan.

Get used to the idea that what you see before you in the pan will reduce by at least half.
At the beginning of the caramelizing process
Near the end.

Onions from start to finish. Photos



Thursday, August 18, 2011

Wild fire - nothing new in the West



One of several helicopters dipping their buckets into the Rogue River collecting water to dump on the fire.
Wild fires are part of living in the West. Every 10 years or so, we watch one from our backyard. It is usually on a southwest-facing hillside called Tin Pan Peak just outside of Rogue River and a mile or so from us. Late this afternoon, several small fires erupted along the Rogue River and also on the Tin Pan Peak crest. Maybe arson? They blew up and converged and by early evening were thought to have burned at least 200 acres. That's small, as wild fires go. Just a few minutes ago, I took this photo as the fire had "laid down" for the night.
The fire tonight, as seen from the back porch.
The fire crews will no doubt subdue it tomorrow. But still. Even though this was probably a human-caused blaze (most are lightening-caused) and won't likely result in loss of homes of lives, it is humbling to watch a fire blow up.  We've never worried about fire at our house, except, of course, for that one time shortly after we relocated to Grants Pass for four years for Chris to attend high school and we had renters at our home, and the wood stove caused a fire that almost burned the place down. Local fire fighters saved the day and the house, and the fire just caused $30,000 damage  and displaced our renters for three months.
Well, maybe we do worry about fire.
More fire pics.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Ridiculous luck

Devouring dinner tonight, I was reminded of life's inequities. Life has NOT been unfair to me. Not at all. On the contrary. I am so fortunate it's sickening. I'm not sure how and why some people, like me, slip into golden favor while others are born in Somalia or countries where women are victimized by genital mutilation and children suffer and die because they lack clean water or adequate food and they suffer, suffer, suffer before dying too young. Or why women in my own community endure domestic abuse or puzzling but disabling hormone imbalances or ungrateful children or homelessness or worse.
As I digest my excellent meal, I'm grateful. I try not to guilt trip too much. It's not my fault that so many people in so many places are deprived while I enjoy life's favors, including excessive calories with bonzo nutrients. Tomorrow I'll undoubtedly have another such meal because I can. It's the great good fortune of my current situation and PK and I working our butts off in the garden. From the beginning, I've been lucky:

  • Two years ago I won a cruise for two to the Caribbean!
  • A few months ago I won a great camera!
  • Sixty-six years ago I was born to working class parents who never doubted that I was the most magnificent person on earth. (Except for, of course, my sister, who was also Golden.) My parents didn't have much money, but it was always understood my sister and I were absolutely brilliant and would go to college. And we did. (Sister may be brilliant, and I managed to eke through.)
  • On rebound from an unfaithful lout, I met and married PK.
  • We had two amazing sons who continue to astound and fulfill us. Children can be a great gift.
  • Our grandson, Noah, 14 months, is beautiful and brilliant and has the best parents, a fact that adds immensely to my contentment.
  • I almost died once, but have had great good health most of my life.
  • Friends are plentiful and precious. 
  • Our current cat, Koko, is amusing, and as I compose, he's digging into bookshelf drawers in my office. He is now trapped, but I shall soon liberate him.
  •  My mother, LaVone, 95.8, has become a part of my daily life. I sometimes chafe at the restrictions she presents to my comings and goings, but mostly I marvel at her resilience and spirit and the great good fortune I have to be with her now.
  • Which brings me back to being lucky, And here's tonight's dinner. Thank you, whoever presides over the universe. Great meal!

Corn on the cob, smoked grilled chicken, cuke/onion salad, the season's first fresh tomatoes, smoked grilled peppers, garden medley including zukes, eggplant, peppers, onions, basil, and garlic.