Celebrating Dr. Seuss' Birthday

March 2, 1904 is a celebrated day at our house.  It is the birth date of one of our favorite authors, Theodore Geisel, also know as Dr. Seuss.  We make food that is outrageous or surprising, and have a reading of some of our favorite passages.  This year, we joined up with our friends the Carters, because, hey, the more the merrier!  Toni made crazy colored pasta.  In order to get these vibrant colors,first cook the pasta to al dente then drain and rinse with cold water.  Separate the pasta into 6 ziploc baggies in which you have put some water and enough food coloring to brightly color the water.  Allow the pasta to sit for a minute to soak up the color, then rinse and put back into the boiling pot to reheat.  Serve with butter and parmesan cheese.  The kids loved it!

Canning Wild Plums

Every 10 years or so we will have enough cold in our winter to get wild plums.  They are fairly sour but delicious and not to be wasted since they are a rare treat.  This year we had a cold winter, and enough cold hours to yield plums!  My mother-in-law has a tree, and harvested a nice batch for me.  I made plum preserves out of some of them, but the pits don't like to come loose, so it makes for a messy job.  I found this great spiced plum recipe for canning whole plums, which is great because you don't have to chop and pit them.  And they smelled divine, and will be a wonderful accompaniment to roast pork or turkey right around Christmas time.  This recipe makes about 4 quarts.  

Pack your quart jars with the plums, really cram them in there.  Next, remove the plums from the jars, wash both the jars and wash your plums and put the plums in a crock or glass bowl.  In a saucepan heat 6 cups sugar and 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup water.  Boil for 5 minutes, then pour the mixture over the plums and let sit for 24 hours.  The next day reheat the syrup.  In the meantime boil your quart jars for 10 minutes (make sure the water is over the jars, and don't forget your lids).  Fill the jars with the plums, a cinnamon stick, a couple cloves, a star anise, and a slice of ginger.  Cover the plums with the hot syrup leaving a little space at the top.  Clean off any syrup from the rim of the jar before placing the lids on.  Process the jars in boiling water for 15 minutes before pulling out and cooling.  Don't they look gorgeous?

Back to School... 5 Fresh Ways with Peanut Butter

Sweet Potato and Sugar Snap head back to school.

Three weeks into the new school year, and if you are like me, you are already struggling to figure out what to pack in the kid's school lunchbox.  My kids like the standard pb&j, but it does get monotonous.  Here are five sandwich offerings you may not have tried:

FLUFFERNUTTER
Spread one piece of bread generously with peanut butter, and the other piece with marshmallow cream.  Mash 'em together. Voila.

PB&JB  PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLYBEAN
This is a really fun variation of PB&J.  Use jellybeans instead of jelly. Spread both pieces of bread with a thin schmere of peanut butter, and liberally sprinkle jellybeans on one of the  peanut buttered bread slices before mashing together.

PB&CC  PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE CHIP
Same concept as above, using semi sweet chocolate chips instead of jellybeans.

PB & B:  PEANUT BUTTER AND BACON
Peanut butter really lends itself to savory as well as sweet dishes.   Fry up some crispy bacon and place in between two pieces of toasted, peanut buttered bread.  Add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup for a hot, smoky, savory, sweet, crispy treat.

PB&C  PEANUT BUTTER AND CHICKEN
This one may be for mom and dad as opposed to the kiddos, depending on how adventurous your family is with food.  Take 2 flour tortillas and place a schmere of peanut butter on each one, top with cilantro, and a chicken salad made with 1 can drained chicken breast, a sprinkle of raisins, 1 tbsp mayo, 1tsp turmeric, 1tsp cumin, salt and pepper to taste all mixed together.  Hubby adds a squirt of Srirachi sauce for some heat.

Feel free to share your peanut butter creations in the comments!

Fun and Free Evening....a Shout Out to Miller Outdoor Theater

If you are in the Houston area, you are undoubtedly familiar with Miller Outdoor Theater, the open air theater on the hill in Hermann Park.  Year round there are events, shows and concerts and they are FREE.  I remember going to see many musicals with my beloved grandmother there.  There is a seating area under a pavilion with wooden seats, where you can get closer to the action.  But we usually bring a picnic (with beer and wine!) and sit on the wonderfully grassy hill where you can spread out a picnic blanket or lawn chairs. The kids love it.  If they get bored with the show, they can run around and roll down the other side of the hill.  This summer we have enjoyed the Texas Folklife Accordion Festival, High School Musical, and this week we took the kids and met some of our favorite WT friends for the Grease Sing Along.  The movie Grease (you remember the one...with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John) was shown with lyrics posted, and the crowd was invited to sing along.  And sing along they did!  The event started at 8:30, well after dinner time for us, so our crew brought cheap champagne and a dessert picnic.  We had almond cupcakes, brownies, and chocolate covered strawberries.  Best of all, attendees were invited to dress up, and of course, we rose to the challenge.  We even made it to the final 5 in the costume contest!  It was a well attended and delightful event that everyone enjoyed - adults and kids alike.  Hopefully your town has a similar space where free concerts are held.  I, for one, am grateful for the gift that Miller Outdoor Theater has been all these years to so many generations of Houstonians, and here's hoping it is around for many more.

A family of greasers.

WT Food Review: Denny's Maple Bacon Sundae

We don't often find ourselves at Denny's, but the Monday after our van broke down in Lufkin, Texas (there is no better place to have your car break down, btw.  Four different cars stopped to see if they could help.  They couldn't.)  we found ourselves there.  We were there because we had to call Nana and Papa to pick us up, and tow the dead van back to Houston.  And, on the way home Papa got hungry, so we stopped for a snack at Denny's.  It has been maybe 20 years since I have eaten at a Denny's and not a whole lot has changed, including the waitstaff, but they did have a few interesting new menu items.  One of the more intriguing being the Maple Bacon Sundae, and it is just as it sounds, vanilla ice cream topped with maple flavored syrup, chocolate syrup and crumbled bacon.  Personally, I think the chocolate interfered with the experience.  Chocolate is a very strong flavor, as are maple and bacon, and it was a lot competing on the plate.  The bacon was not as crisp or as hot as would have been desired, but overall, Denny's gets an A- for me for concept.  I can certainly see what they are trying to achieve with it - the creaminess, smokiness, sweetness, spiciness and the coldness versus the hot crisp bacon sounds like a winning combination.  I think, however, this one would be better if made at home with real maple syrup and crispy hot bacon.  I don't know what occasion one might have to make this at home, Canada Day, maybe after a plate of poutine.  Needless to say, Sugar Snap loved it and the entire thing was devoured.  Well done, Denny's!

Papa and Sugar Snap "share" a sundae.

Staycation...JAPAN w/ recipe

Every summer my family takes a 3 month staycation to a different country.  We learn some of the language, learn about the culture, watch films and read books from the country, and I make almost all of the meals from recipes from that country.  We are knee deep into Japan right now, and we have tried eating everything from raw tuna to grilled eel, to squid with edamame.  The Japanese are wacky-fun and if you don't believe me go Google images for "harajuku".  At the same time steeped in tradition and a rich culture of their own, the Japanese are fascinated by the West, particularly America, and have their own take on everything from soda pop, fashion, pop culture,technology and food. Take for example, pizza.  The Japanese put lots of things Americans would never consider on pizza - shrimp, corn, squid ink, seaweed, tuna, maple syrup, fried eggs.  They even have several booming pizza chains, one of which is called Strawberry Cone, which has nothing whatsoever to do with ice cream.  I just had to share this great recipe we tried for Japanese pizza -open your mind here, it's different, but different good.  I realize that it's not "White Trash",  but I have to admit a certain kinship with the Japanese with their wacky creativity and their love of kitsch.

 So, I present to you, Japanese Pizza:

Start with 1 pizza crust - buy one pre made, or make your own.  Partially bake it, since you will only be heating up the toppings.

Top with Aurora sauce:  1/2 c. ketchup, 1/2 c. mayonnaise, 2 Tbsp. mango chutney, 2 Tbsp. tomato paste.  Whisk together and spread over the crust.  This makes a spicy, fruity, creamy, tomatoey base for your pizza.

Add cooked shrimp, crumbled crispy bacon, green onions, diced tomatoes, 2 cloves chopped garlic, and 1 c. canned corn, drained.  Cook at 400 degrees until crispy and hot.  Remove from oven and drizzle with a squirt of mayonnaise, Japanese Kewpie brand if you can find it at an Asian market.
There is no cheese.

Adding the corn

Really, it's delicious.
Well played, Japan!

Yum!

We Be Jammin'

Sunny chopping peaches and cherries for her jam

Here's a great end of summer thing to do with your friends:  a canning party!  My friend and fellow white trash Sunny had never canned anything before and wanted a tutorial.  We met up at Toni's kitchen (hers is the largest):  Sunny, Toni, Stacey, and me.  We all brought cans enough for us and to share, plenty of produce to pickle and can.  We spent about 4 hours and came away with quarts, pints and half pints of peach/cherry jam, drunken cherries, drunken peaches, pickled jalapenos, sriracha pickles, dilly beans, lemon curd, and pickled onions.  The sriracha pickles were an experiment.  I added sriracha sauce (hubby's favorite all time condiment.  It finds its way onto everything from huevos rancheros to chili) to pickle brine.  The brine came out pink, and smelled nice, but they need to set a while before I open them.  All the other recipes we found on the web and they all turned out great, as far as we can tell!

Stirring the lemon curd

The end result!

Floating Down the Guadalupe River: White Trash Vacay

We decided to grab one more get away before school starts and chose to head to the Texas Hill Country to go tubing down the river.  Tubing down the Guadalupe in an inner tube with a beer is a Texas tradition, and one, believe it or not, I have never participated in. We loaded up a cooler, packed some cut-offs, put the kids in the mini van and headed to our cabin rental at The Lazy R & R Cove in Canyon Lake.  We pulled in and Sugar Snap immediately voiced her disapproval.  She has not yet come to terms with her WT roots.  She firmly believes a grievous mistake has been made somewhere along the way and the Royal family will be showing up at our doorstep any day now to reclaim her.  In her defense, I did not expect the cabins to be quite so rustic.  First of all, you have to ring a bell attached to a chain and the manager descends from his trailer nearby to check you in.  The cabins are tiny.  They sleep 4 - there is one double bed and a fold out couch, and when the couch bed is open you cannot walk between the two.  There is a separate bathroom and a kitchenette which includes a small fridge, a microwave, and a coffee maker.  And, blessedly, there is an air conditioner.  To call it a cabin is slightly  misleading.  They are tiny shacks.  But, we didn't expect much for the price - it was $70/ night during a weeknight.  It was quiet, and we got to see a few deer, which was nice, and a few scorpions, which was not.    They will rent you inner tubes, if you can get someone to answer when you ring the little bell.  They are a little inconsistent with the prices, however.  The website says inner tubes rent for $1/day, one manager told us she thought it was $10/day, and the other manager said no, rentals were $5/day.  They wound up charging us $2/day per inner tube.  There was a place to enter the river that's about a 10 minute walk from the cabins.  The river was moving, albeit slowly, and it was deep enough that we could not touch the muddy grody bottom.  Overall, the website is pretty difficult to navigate, but is fairly honest about what to expect.  The only real surprise was there was NO hot water in the shower.  It was a hot day, so it was livable, but really???  In this day and age no hot water?  I guess I should just be grateful the toilet flushed.

A Tightwad Granola Recipe

4-6 ingredients:  Easy homemade granola!

Cereal is crazy expensive.  We are talking around $3.00 a box on average and they have a dozen ingredients that you can't even pronounce.  Almost all of them have high fructose corn syrup, which is a no-no, and what the hell is  tripotassium phosphate?  When you get into the organics section things may get healthier, but they also get pricier.  My kids eat homemade granola.  The cheap version.  You can add wheat germ (which I have done), flax seed (which I have not done) and a whole host of sticks and twigs to make this granola as healthy as you want.  I am posting the scaled down tightwad recipe.  Play with it as you like:

Set oven to 375 degrees
In a roasting pan or baking sheet with sides pour 5 c. regular (not quick) oats,  a pinch of salt, and 1/2 c. nuts (optional)  if you are using wheat germ add 1/4 c.
In a saucepan combine 2/3 c. brown sugar, 2/3 c. canola or vegetable oil, and 1/3 c. honey (here's a tip - use a 1/3 measuring cup and measure out the sugar first, then the oil and then the honey.  The oil will prevent the honey from sticking to the cup.)  Cook until the sugar is dissolved.  Pour honey mixture over the oats and mix to coat the oats.  Bake for 10 minutes, stir, and bake another 10 minutes.  Once the granola is cool add 1/2 c. raisins (cheap) or other dried fruit (not so cheap).

Here are some other options:

Fruit - Nut:  Dried cranberries/pecans, dried apricots/pistachios, dried cherries/hazelnuts, dried blueberries/almonds
Banana-Nut:  Add 1/2 c.  dried banana chips and 1/2 c. chopped walnuts and 1 tsp. cinnamon before baking
Almond Joy:  Add 1/2 c. chopped almonds and 1/2 c. sweetened coconut before baking, add 1/2 c. chocolate chips after granola has cooled.
Tropical:  Add 1/2 c. sweetened coconut and 1/2 c dried mango, pineapple and papaya
Rocky Road:  After granola has cooled add 1/2 c. mini marshmallows and 1/2 c. chocolate chips

Use your creativity and create a granola to suit your taste.  You can also put this in a quart size mason jar and tie it with raffia to make a nice hostess gift!

Blueberry Posting #2: The Recipes!

Organic Texas Blueberries

On a recent trip to Moorehead Blueberry Farm in Conroe, Texas, we picked 10 pounds of blueberries at $2/lb.  We should have doubled that.  Berries freeze very well (spread them on a cookie sheet until they are frozen hard, then put them into gallon freezer bags).  Here are a few recipes:

Blueberry sorbet
In a saucepan combine 3 c. blueberries and 1 c. sugar and 1/2 c. water.  Cook until berries are soft and sugar is dissolved.  Cool and put in a blender on high until smooth.  If you want super smooth sorbet, strain the mixture through a fine sieve.  If you don't mind the tiny seeds don't worry about it.  Pour into a shallow lidded plastic container and put in the freezer for about 4 hours.  Remove from freezer.  It should be slushy.  Put back into the blender and blend with 1 Tbsp. creme de cassis (that's booze) until smooth.  Put back into the freezer.  You can put it through the blender again after another 4 hours for a smoother sorbet, or you can eat it when it is frozen.  I serve this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a crushed graham cracker on top as a sort of mock blueberry cobbler.

Blueberry bars
These are delicious and healthy - I cut them big and give them to the kids for breakfast or an afternoon snack:  Heat oven to 350.  In a bowl combine 1 1/2 c. oats, 1/2 c. whole wheat flour, 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 tsp. baking soda, 1/8 tsp salt, and 6 Tbsp melted butter.  Combine until oats are coated.  Reserve 1/2 c. of the mixture.  Coat an 8 inch square pan with spray oil and pour the mixture into it, gently pressing it down to form a crust.  Bake for 12 minutes.  While that is baking, in a saucepan combine 1 1/2 c. blueberries (frozen are fine) 3 Tbsp sugar, 2tsp cornstarch, and 1 tsp lemon juice.  Simmer for 2 minutes and pour over the crust mixture.  Top with the remaining crumb mixture and bake an additional 30 minutes.

Blueberry/banana smoothie
 In a blender combine 1 frozen banana, a handful of frozen blueberries, 1 c. plain yogurt, and 1/2 c. milk, and 1/4 c. honey (or to taste).  Add a little more milk if necessary to get it to the preferred consistency.  Serves 2.

Blueberry muffin

WT Day Trip...Moorehead Blueberry Farm

Sweet Potato picking blueberries.

Seriously.  What a deal.

June is blueberry season on the Texas Gulf Coast, and if you are anywhere near the area you must drive out to Moorehead Blueberry Farm and pick your own blueberries.  We arrived early on a Sunday morning (yes, we skipped church to pick blueberries.  Don't judge me.)  At about 9am the heat was just beginning to creep in.  We found the place, thanks to good signage, at the end of a bumpy dirt road, parked the car and headed toward the gate.  We were greeted by two young men who handed us buckets and directed us to the best picking area.  Upon entering the orchard I marveled at the acre upon acre of tall bushy blueberry shrubs loaded with berries.  We staked out a spot and started picking.  Sugar Snap gathered the berries closer to the ground, while Sweet Potato and I held our own in the middle, and hubby snagged the upermost berries.  We were soon joined by a family with a small (I'd say three year old) boy, and enjoyed some casual conversation.  It wasn't long, however, before Sweet Potato became indignant.  Her sister was picking the berries, and popping more of them in her mouth than in her bucket.  In her defense, the berries were big and juicy and sweet.  I was doing my best to fill my bucket, but I, too, was giving in to temptation.  We decided that we would 'fess up when it came time to pay that we had probably eaten a pound or so berries in the field and would be happy to pay for them (at $2 a pound!)  Satisfied with that, we continued to pick berries.  Our goal was 10 pounds, and judging by the size of the bucket, we could tell we were getting close to that amount.  Let me tell you, it was soooo hard to walk away from the berries that were still on those bushes.  It must be some sort of latent hunter/gatherer thing because we all felt it.  There's always one more perfect berry just begging to be picked.  We  managed to tear ourselves away and walked back to the covered area where they have the cash registers and scales.  Sure enough, we had picked 10 pounds.  $20.  What a bargain!  Sweet Potato proceeded to explain that we figured we had eaten about a pound or so in the field and would like to pay for them.  The man behind the register wouldn't hear of it.  He explained that it was part of the deal - they fully expect and hope that their customers will sample the berries, and are happy about that.  That eased Sweet Potato's conscience.  He turned out to be Sid Moorehead, the son of  Albert, the gentleman who started the Blueberry Farm.  It's a rather quaint story:  some time in the 1970's Mr. Moorehead attended a presentation hosted by Texas A&M Agriculture Dept. in Overton, Texas.  The purpose was to introduce blueberry farming to Texas farmers.  Apparently, the idea appealed to Mr. Moorehead, who planted 20 plants the first year and expanded with his success every year into what is now the 20 acre farm with 20 different varieties of blueberries.  His son Sid now runs the business.  We chatted briefly before shopping the little jam and pickle booth that was set up right outside the gate.  We bought the kids a sno cone to cool off, also for sale right near the front gate (genius!).  We continued to nibble on blueberries all the way home to Pearland.

When we got home I froze most of the berries for future use, I turned some into blueberry sorbet, dried some for granola, and turned some into blueberry cobbler.  Our only regret - we should have picked 20 pounds.

Berry pickers!

WT Get Away... The TX Lavender Festival

If you have just one opportunity to visit Texas, you should go to the Hill Country.  Skip Houston, and by all means skip Dallas - go straight to one of the small towns in the Hill Country like Boerne,  Fredericksburg, Wimberley, San Marcos, Gruene, even San Antonio or Austin,  - but for God's sake, don't go in July or August.  The heat will make you think you've gone to hell.  Texans are slowly realizing that crops which grow in Provence also do well in the Texas Hill country.  As a result, we get to enjoy Texas grown almonds, olives, wine, and lavender!  This year Hubby and I found ourselves at the annual Texas Lavender Festival in Blanco.  We arrived at lunchtime and rather than eating at one of the many food vendors set up on the courthouse square, we opted to eat at a local restaurant:  The Uptown Blanco Restaurant.  Given how busy the square was I was surprised to be seated within 10 minutes.  The cafe is the cutest place - charm out the wazoo with quilt wall hangings and high ceilings.  There were several lavender inspired items on the menu in honor of the festival.  We ordered the lavender lemonade, which was good, it was delicately flavored with lemon and lavender, and not too sweet.  I ordered the fried goat cheese salad with an orange/lavender vinaigrette.  The lavender was subtle, and the salad was a nice mix of greens topped with mango slices and pecans.  Hubby had the lavender smoked chicken plate, and the lavender was so subtle as to not be detected.  Still, a good meal, and we could say we had lavender for lunch.

Lavender lemonade.

What I love the best is the dedication to the Lavender that this small town has.  First of all, Blanco is totally quaint, and very small, and every single business and local person was gung-ho for all things lavender.  We took our time and looked at the craft booths set up on the square, even made a few purchases before heading to the park to listen to some great live music.  We walked the square a while before getting in the car and heading to one of the lavender farms about 15 minutes away - The Wimberley Lavender Farm.  Sadly, the lavender plants took a hit during last year's brutal drought and are still recovering, so there was not lavender to cut, as there has been in years past.  We did buy a couple of lavender plants and there were many other items in the gift shop:  soaps, sachets, even books.  Several other lavender farms were open for visits, but we only went to the one.  Then we continued on to Wimberley, another charming Texas town, where we were staying for the night.  It was a great way to spend the day.  Next year when June rolls around go check out the Lavender Festival in Blanco - it was worth the trip!

Yes, the officer directing traffic is wearing a lavender cowboy hat.

Even the port-o-john is lavender!

Making Pickles: My New Obsession

I have a whole bookcase full of cookbooks, and I will read a cookbook from cover to cover.  People who know me know that a great or interesting cookbook is a great gift for me.  I especially enjoy vintage cookbooks because they can give us a real insight as to the foodways of the past.  I recently had an abundance of green tomatoes that had developed on a rapidly dying vine.  In search of some green tomato recipes I pulled out a couple of my favorite oldies - one is a Menonite Cookbook published in 1950.  The other is the Little House Cookbook, which is a newer book that features recipes for many of the dishes mentioned in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House book series.  I found my tomato recipes - one for green tomato pickles, (meh)  the other for green tomato preserves (fantastic).  Here's the other thing I discovered:  at some point along the way in our change from a primarily agricultural/  rural society to urban, one where our food is grown and sold to us by a handful of corporations, a decision was made that "pickles" means pickled cucumbers.  There are rows and rows of pickled cucumbers at my local grocery and little else.  There are a couple of jars of pickled beets, one brand of pickled okra, and one brand of pickled green beans ($7 for a small jar!)  Going through the books I was astonished at not only all the different pickle recipes - some with dill, some with mustard, some with curry, etc. - but the variety of fruits and vegetables that were pickled or preserved was amazing.  Yes, cucumbers, okra, and beets, but also squash, tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, peaches, plums, beans, peppers, onions, even watermelon rind.  I compost watermelon rind.  I consider it to be garbage.  They were pickling it!  One of my favorite recipes was for "End of Garden" pickles.  Basically, you take whatever's left over from a harvest - a few okra, some green beans, one gangly squash, etc. and you bung it in a jar and pickle it together.  Brilliant.  I recently bought a big bag of green beans on sale for $1 a pound.  I haven't done the math yet, but with vinegar costing mere pennies and if I use garden herbs a quart of pickled green beans are bound to come in for less than $7!   Here's how to do it:

Green tomato pickles. Meh.

Pick your veggie and pick your recipe.  Do you want sweet pickles, dill, or spicy?  There are loads of pickle recipes all over the Web.  Here's the recipe I used for sweet and sour sugar snap pea pickles. They were addictive. I only had enough sugar snap peas to make one jar of pickles since the kids go out and munch on them while they are outside playing.  Sterilize your jar(s) and lids.  Remember jars and rims can be reused, but you need to purchase new lids each time you do any canning.  Once jars are sterilized stuff them with the sugar snap peas that have had their strings removed, add some red pepper flakes, and 1 clove garlic per jar.  In a saucepan combine 1 1/4 c. white wine vinegar, 1 1/4 c. water, 1 Tbsp salt, and 1 Tbsp sugar and bring to a boil.  Pour hot vinegar into the jars, seal with lids and rims and place in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes to seal.  Make sure the water fully covers the jars.  Remove and let cool.  Check the lid for a proper seal.  If the lid pops it didn't seal.  Put any that don't seal in the fridge.  You are supposed to let them sit for 10 days to let the flavors meld.  Good luck with that.  I broke into mine the next day and they were gone within the hour.

Dilly beans.  Oh.Yeah.

For dilly beans, follow the same procedure, only omit the sugar and add 1 sprig of dill to the jars before putting in the liquid.  Truly addictive.  Great with martinis!  Happy pickling!
For more on canning click here.

Garden Emergency! The Tomato Plants are Dying: Two Recipes for Green Tomatoes

My tomato plants are absolutely loaded down with green tomatoes of all sizes.  The Better Boys are big with attractive ridges, the Yellow Pears and Sweet 100s each have multiple fruits on each branch.  Alas, they won't make it to the ripening stage.  For some reason I have yet to identify (most likely a creeping fungus) every single tomato plant is dying.  The leaves and branches are turning brown from the bottom heading up.  Gardening is like that sometimes.  You win some, you lose some.  I am grieving the fact that I won't be able to indulge in my favorite summer lunch, the tomato sandwich.  I'll have to cry into my pillow later, though, because I have to save the green tomatoes, and time is of the essence.  I looked up two green tomato recipes in an old Mennonite Cookbook published in 1950, and tweaked them to suit our modern taste.  One is for green tomato pickles and one is for green tomato jam.  Remember to follow good canning practices .  Here are the recipes:

Green tomato pickles in a brine of vinegar, salt, sugar, and tears.

Green Tomato Pickles:  Wash and slice 1 gallon green tomatoes.  In a large bowl layer these with 10 thinly sliced onions, cover with 2 pints vinegar, 1/4 c. salt, 1 c. sugar and 1 tbsp mustard seeds.  Let stand overnight.  The next morning, pack mixture into sterilized jars and boil to seal for 10 minutes.  We used yellow pear tomatoes for this project, and I didn't like the texture, although the flavor was good.  Hubby liked them.   I also used this recipe for sugar snap peas, which I loved.

Green Tomato Jam: Wash 8 c. green tomatoes and cover with boiling water for 5 minutes.  Drain and slice, or use whole if they are cherry types.  In a bowl layer tomatoes and  2 sliced lemons, top with 1/4 c. vinegar and 4 c. sugar.  Let stand over night.  In the morning, cook over medium heat in a saucepan with 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp ground cumin and 1/2 tsp. ground cloves.  Cook for about 2 hours, or until a fork dipped in the mix becomes coated.  Pour into sterilized jars and seal in boiling water for 10 minutes. This turned out great.  I served it over goat cheese with crusty bread.

Garden Fashion: The Bonnet

I am in my early 40's and my skin still looks great (if I do say so myself).  For one thing, I live on the Gulf Coast and although I complain bitterly about the heat and humidity it does have its benefits.  The humidity means that our skin is continuously moisturized, so we Southern gals age slower.  The other reason:  I wear a hat whenever I plan to be outside.  At the beach, I have a huge cute bright blue hat.  I have lots of wide brim straw hats to wear to any outside event, picnics, farmer's market, sporting events (just kidding - I don't go to sporting events).  And when I garden I always wear a bonnet.  An old fashioned, Little House on the Prairie - type bonnet.  My cousin Val makes my bonnets, my great grandmother wore one, and I have yet to find a garden hat that I prefer.  They really work to keep the sun off your face and easily dangle down my back when I am going inside and outside.  I think I look adorable in it, but I am willing to concede that I may  be the only one thinking that.  At any rate, whenever you see me out in the garden you will see me in my bonnet.  It isn't uncommon for me to be outside and catch stares or honks and waves and laughs and I know it's the bonnet that is garnering so much attention.  It's irritating, but what can you do?  It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, seeing as how a face lift is not in our budget.  We live on an acre in a suburban/rural area due south of Houston.  We are on the corner of a fairly well traveled street, and because we live in a small community where we are quite active, and Hubby has run for public office, we know a lot of people.  Hubby is well know as the neighborhood lawyer and it's not unexpected to have a knock at the door after dinner and there will be a neighbor, sometimes bringing a bag of sweet potatoes or fresh caught trout, in need of some legal advice.  Inevitably, when we go out to dinner in our small town we run into friends and neighbors.  That is what happened when Hubby took me out for a date night to one of the nicer restaurants recently.  As we were leaving we saw one of Hubby's business clients sitting with his wife.  As usual, we stopped at their table to say hello.  After a bit of idle chit chat the client looks at me and says:
"I was driving by your house the other day and you were out in your garden.  You were wearing your bonnet.  I honked and waved."
"Oh," I replied, "did I wave back?"
"No,"  he got a small smirk on his face "you flipped me off."
I almost choked but managed to say "Sorry.  I thought you were bonnet honking."

So, after a brief and well deserved lecture from Hubby I have decided to get a better attitude about my bonnet.  I love it, it suits me, and I will wear it with pride.  Grab your bonnets, girls!  Who's with me?

Me in my bonnet.  "Come at me, Bro!"

When to Plant What...A TX Gulf Coast Planting Guide for Vegetables

One of the biggest mistakes new gardeners make is not knowing when to plant what.  A lot of rookies assume that early Spring is the best time to plant anything, so they plop in their seeds and plants and expect them to thrive when the truth is, precious little survives our summer heat.  If, like me, you live in the Greater Houston area your best gardening days are in the fall.  You can't trust the big box stores to sell you plants that are appropriate for our seasons, either.  They will sell you the same kinds of plants that they will sell my cousin in Seattle and my girl friend in New Mexico.  Just because they stock Brussel sprouts seedlings in March doesn't mean you should plant them then.  Here's a guide for Gulf Coast planting month by month.  I have put in the ideal date for planting each item, but you can nudge a bit in either direction.  Note that some plants, such as tomatoes, have two planting dates.  The tomatoes I plant in July usually produce better for me than the ones I plant in March.  Happy planting!

January     1:  Sugar snap peas, leeks
               15:  beets, broccoli raab, arugula (although you can plant this year round successfully),                                                      
                      potatoes, radishes, green onion, lemon balm, fruit trees

February 15:  chicory, Swiss chard, mustard greens, kale, fennel, parsley, radishes

March      1: tomatoes, radishes
              15: cucumbers, green beans, eggplant, pole beans, peppers, summer squash/zucchini, watermelon,
                 cantaloupe, sage, corn, thyme, rosemary, beans for drying - limas, black, pintos, etc.

April      15:  basil

May        1: okra
             15:  sweet potatoes



June     Have a beer and harvest your tomatoes!

July       15:  tomatoes

August    1: Brussels sprouts, green beans/bush beans, summer squash, winter squash, sweet potatoes
             15: broccoli, cabbage

September 1: parsnips
                  15: cauliflower, beets, dill, carrots

October     15: chicory, garlic, lettuces, nasturtium, onions, fennel, spinach, cilantro, mint, radishes, arugula

November   1: sweet peas, sweet potatoes, radishes
                   15: strawberries, radishes

If I missed your favorite veggie it either doesn't grow well here, or I don't like it.  Do a little research to find out which is the case.  Oh, and by the way, the best time to plant any kind of roses is Valentine's Day, February 14!

For more on gardening in the Texas Gulf Coast check out this post:   Gardening 101

Glorious Greens: 3 Great Recipes to Use Greens

Sugar Snap peeking through the greens.

I came to appreciate the glory of greens late in life.  Neither of my parents, apparently, liked any sort of leafy green - kale, mustard, chard, spinach, collard, turnip, arugula or broccoli raab.  And I can understand.  My grandfather did the cooking in my father's house, and while he was a fantastic gardener, he wasn't the world's best cook.  I seem to remember him cooking collard greens in a saucepan on the stove for hours with lumps of greasy fatback floating in it.  The aroma was less than appetizing, and filled the house entirely.  So, I get it.  If your only experience with greens is stinky, greasy and overcooked, it would be enough to turn you off forever.  As a result, it wasn't until I was an adult that I discovered delicious garlicky greens at a chi chi Houston restaurant called  Catalan.  Hubby knows the chef, Chis Shepherd, who we see at the Urban Harvest Farmer's Market on Saturdays buying local produce.  We went there for my birthday several years ago, and Hubby ordered the Gulf shrimp with grits and garlicky local greens.  I don't remember what I ordered.  It doesn't matter, because once I tried the shrimp, grits and greens I wasn't going back.  Hubby generously swapped plates with me (it was my birthday after all) and I will never forget cleaning my plate  - just short of picking it up to lick it.  I asked the waiter what, exactly, the greens were.  They were mustard.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.  My only other experience with greens is from when we first moved to Memphis.  At the local farmer's market there was a table loaded down with all kinds of greens - mustard, turnip, and collard.  I bought one of each, took them home and made a salad with a nice light vinaigrette.  One bite in and it was clear I had done something wrong. We sat there, Hubby and I, looking at each other and chewing and chewing and chewing.  Clearly clueless as to how to handle greens, I abandoned them altogether.  I never tried to cook them, never ordered them at restaurants, and never even tried them when we were in someone's home for dinner, which is a shame, because I'm sure they would have been very good.  Then, BAM, on my 37th birthday I get introduced to garlicky mustard greens and I went berserk.  I started buying them, growing them and really experimenting with them.  My favorite is broccoli raab.  It tastes nothing like broccoli, it is one of the more bitter greens, and I bought some on a whim at the farmer's market.  I now grow it every year.  My favorite lunch is a soft boiled egg with a side of gently sauteed greens with garlic.  Greens are really good for you  - they are high in iron, calcium and potassium as well as vitamins K, C, E and many B vitamins as well as small amounts of Omega 3.  Make sure when you use them they are clean, soak them in a bowl of water to get the sand and dirt off.  Here are just a few ideas for serving greens:

Kale chips  (Sugar Snap loves these)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Clean and dry a bunch of kale - use a salad spinner or pat dry with towels.  Remove the tough stems, using only the leaves.  Spray on both sides with Olive Oil Pam and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Bake on a baking sheet in a single layer until edges are just brown - 10 minutes or so.

Sauteed greens w/ garlic and lemon
Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet, add 2 cloves chopped garlic.  Cook until garlic is hot, but not brown.  Add a couple of big handfuls of clean greens - kale, spinach, broccoli raab, etc.  Toss until covered with oil.  If you are using Chard, spinach or arugula you can remove from heat when the greens are just wilted and eat them.  For the tougher greens like kale or mustard you will want to add a 1/4 c - 1/2 c water and cover.  Cook the greens down until tender, adding more water if necessary.  Right before serving squeeze the juice of one lemon over the top and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Serves 2.

Cream of Swiss Chard Soup
In a saucepan put a couple handfuls of washed Swiss Chard, 1/2 chopped onion and just enough chicken stock to cover.  Cook until chard is tender.  Allow to cool just a bit.  Put mixture in a blender and blend until smooth. Add 1/3 c. sour cream and whisk until blended.  Season with a sprinkle of nutmeg and salt and pepper.  For hot soup put back into the saucepan and heat gently.  For chilled soup after adding sour cream and spices do not return to the heat, put in a bowl and chill in the fridge until ready.  Serves 4.

Update:  Chef Chris Shepherd is no longer at Catalan, he is now the Executive Chef at Underbelly on Westheimer.

Sweet Potato picking arugula for lunch after church.

Repurposing: Vintage Apron Curtains

Here's another decorating idea.  I am a collector...(just this side of a hoarder).  I collect vintage papers, vintage clothes/hats/purses/shoes/sunglasses, vintage clocks, old teapots, colored glass bottles, maps, vintage salt and pepper shakers, and Fiestaware, among other things.  We also unwittingly collect snow globes.  My sister travels all over the world for her job, and when Sweet Potato was about two (and a very verbal two-year-old she was), my sister took a trip to London and sent us a snow globe from there.  "Cute," I thought.  Then my sister took a trip to India and sent us another snow globe from India (is it snowing often, at the Taj Mahal?)  I laughed aloud when we opened it.  "What is it?" asked Sweet Potato.  "Well," I answered her, "apparently your Aunt Julia thinks we collect snow globes."  The very next time my sister flew to Houston for a visit we picked her up at the airport.  The first thing out of Sweet Potato's mouth was "We do not collect snow globes!"  My sister took that as some sort of challenge.  "You wanna bet?" she said.  Hence, the snow globe collection on the bar just beneath the Velvet Elvis.  Of course when you have lovely, or in this case, interesting collections the challenge becomes how to use and display these items.  For a long time my  vintage apron collection sat in a drawer and I would pull one out now and again to wear.  When we moved to a new (old) house in 2003 a clear opportunity arose to display a few of the aprons - as curtains in our dining room.  I used the clip-on rings and hung them from a tension rod, so no sewing was required, and no aprons were harmed in any way.  I can change them out if I like, but the ones in the photos are my favorites.

How to: Recover a Dining Chair

None of my dining chairs match.  They have all been salvaged from (usually) a trash heap in front of someone else's yard.  I took four very different chairs and using vivid paint colors and some oilcloth turned them into a bright and fun dining set.  Here's what I did:
Pick your chairs.  They need to be sturdy, but other than that you can work with almost anything.
For wooden chairs, sand them lightly,
 Next, wipe all of them down with a wet cloth and allow to dry completely.
 For metal chairs I use spray paint, and for wooden ones I used acrylic craft paint.  It's super cheap at any craft supply store, and comes in a huge variety of colors. I chose four different colors, but obviously you can have a more matched look by using the same color.
Next apply a couple of coats of polyurethane to protect them.
For the seats, I removed them and covered them in oilcloth which I found by the yard at Casa Ramirez on 19th in the Houston Heights.  I did not remove the original covering except in one case, where it was badly torn and would not have laid smooth under the oilcloth.  It's pretty easy to recover the seats if you take a look at them.  Some of them require a screwdriver, some a hammer, and some just pop out.  Fiddle with it long enough and you'll get it.  Fold the oilcloth tightly over the seat and secure with tacks on the bottom of the seat, and replace it.

Voila!

New life to old chairs.  

Grab a Bucket! The Blackberries are Ripe!

Sugar Snap with a basket for of blackberries, also known as dewberries here in the South.

Sweet Potato and Hubby in the brambles.

It's that time of year here on the Texas Gulf Coast that is anticipated by those of us who pride ourselves on being tightwads.  Blackberry season.  The old timers call them dewberries, and if you grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Free wild berries are in abundance in ditches, culverts and open fields all over our area.  In the evenings you will see folks walking along the ditches wearing long sleeves, gloves, carrying a bucket and big stick (to scare away the snakes).  Yes, the berries grow underneath a tangle of spiky vines that will try to attach themselves to you with their prickles, and the berry juice will absolutely stain forever whatever you wear to pick in, but it's all worth it!  The thrill of the hunt somehow overcomes the fear of the snakes in that moment where you pull back the vines and see the ripe berries shining like jewels, free for the taking.  The berries themselves are plump and a glossy deep purple.  We live on an acre of land just due south of Houston.  We have fenced off part of the acre and outside of the fence more or less sits dormant.  We mow it every now and again, although in the past year we have been in an extreme drought and there has been no need to mow, so we didn't.  Finally, a year goes by, we get a little rain (thank God) and it's time to start getting ready for Easter, which we host outside at our place.  Hubby decided the outside acre (or back 40 as we call it) needed a good mow.  Papa came over with his tractor, and started up and then stopped.  He realized that a huge area in the center of the back 40 was covered in flowering blackberry vines.  We let the vines be, and now the berries are ripe.  We went out last night when it was cool and filled a couple of baskets in under an hour.  The kids were classic: "One for me (pops berry in mouth), one for the basket (puts berry in basket)."  After filling our baskets but by no means picking all the berries that were out there, we came inside, mouths purple.  There will be more for days so the girls can run out there after school for a snack.  Once inside I whipped up a blackberry pie in no time with Sweet Potato's help and guess who's having blackberry pie for breakfast?  Don't judge me.

Breakfast.