Books, Cooks, Gadgets and Gardening

This is a day to honor our Veterans. Take a moment to reflect on all they have done for our country.

BRRRR. It’s cold. The past few nights the temps have dropped below freezing and much of my garden is pretty much finished. The hardy herbs are still fine, it takes more than a little chill to knock them off but the tomato plants are looking rather forlorn. I picked all the tomatoes that were a fairly decent size, left some on the vines and have them hanging in my spare bathroom. There were hundreds of cherry tomatoes almost ready to ripen so I did the same for them.
I also picked all the peppers except from two plants in smaller pots that I brought inside and they too are in the bathroom under a grow light.
Meanwhile I made a double batch of the green tomato marmalade/pie filling for later consumption. Quite tasty, thanks Aunt Hattie Anne!

One of my neighbors gave me a basket of zucchini and I sliced and put them in pickling lime last night and when I finish here will make up some pickling brine and make bread and butter pickles.
The lime is not really necessary but it does keep them nice and crisp.
Another neighbor gave me a couple of unusual squashes. One is a “cushaw” and the other is a “fairy-tale pumpkin” that has a more interesting shape and appearance than the regular sugar pumpkin. It really does look like the pumpkin in Cinderella! Pie on the horizon and maybe soup!

While digging into cupboards, closets and boxes so I can clean and photograph the various things in my “collections,” I have discovered many things that I had totally forgotten. This includes a couple of things purchased as Christmas gifts for others and which I had put away so well that I “lost” them. Well, Christmas will soon be here and they are still new, so I will have less shopping this year. Probably wise, the economy being what it is.

I’m surprised that Social Security COLAs are not going to be increased again in 2011. How they can say that there has been NO inflation is beyond my comprehension. Food prices have increased and will continue to increase (according to Walmart’s own published figures) and that is what is crucial to older Americans who rely on Social Security.
I don’t know what factors the government considered in this determination but it is not the day-to-day expenses of the elderly and poor. This means that more people will fall below the poverty line, far below. And yet they will find the money to extend tax cuts to millionaires. Doesn’t seem fair to me. For the past decade the old saying, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” has really taken effect in our society. Are we living back in the age of the “robber barons,” or what?
After sixty years of the working class gaining ground and moving into the middle class, everything has hit the skids and we are sliding back into the bad old days. Something is wrong with this picture and I don’t like it.
I’m not a particularly political person but after the things I have been hearing during the past few months, I am becoming more so. I think a lot of people have been bamboozled by fast-talking, snake-oil salesmen who will say anything to get elected and then will, without an apology, turn around and spit on the folks who put them there. Too many people are way too gullible.

Another week has rolled around and the weather has changed yet again. After a few days of storms and clouds, it warmed up a little but the the winds came and the temps dropped again. Last night’s low was 35° F., getting close to freezing and my garden is taking notice. I left the irrigation system on all night, at barely a trickle, just in case it did get below freezing as I don’t want to lose all that tubing. It is supposed to be warmer the next several nights so I can put off detaching and draining the systems for a few days, until I have some help. Last year we did have some early rain but the nighttime temps did not go quite so low but it always changes from year to year.

I have started some of my holiday baking prep, candying citrus peel for fruitcake and infusing some dried fruits with wine and spirits to get them nicely plump. I steam most of them first so they more readily absorb the liquids.
I would like to candy some citron as the commercial stuff is practically tasteless but my local market has been unable to get it this year. Very disappointing. I’ve tried several online vendors but have not been pleased with any of the candied citron they offer.
I’ve laid in all the supplies I will need for the baking I’m planning. I’ve ordered some specialty items from online vendors. Hickory nuts are not available anywhere local to me so my only source is via the internet.
I also order chestnuts online from a reliable vendor who supplies extra large ones that never have any that are unusable. When purchased in stores I’ve often gotten chestnuts with worms, with mold and otherwise less than acceptable quality. I also order pecans from an online vendor. Fortunately almonds are available locally as they are grown in this area. I also buy local honey that is very good and reasonably priced.

BOOM!
Awakened at 5:20 a.m. yesterday morning by huge crash of thunder as a T-storm rolled through. It happened again a bit over an hour later and continued on and off all day and well into the evening and night with lots and lots of rain, more than I can ever remember this early in the “rainy” season. By 6:00 p.m. yesterday Lancaster had accumulated .75 inch of rain and with the cloudburst we had last night, it must have been over an inch in a 24-hour period. That’s a lot of rain for an area on this side of the mountains.
Poor Aston was beside himself with all the thunder. He leaped like a startled deer every time there was even a rumble and when it was right overhead, we had a few that shook the house, he was shaking like a leaf and kept burrowing behind me in my chair to “hide” from the imagined threat.
We were lucky that our power stayed on, except for a few flickers. Other folks in our city were not so fortunate as lightning struck at least one power pole, knocking out the power to that area. Where I am the utilities are all underground so we had no local problems.
A few Joshua trees were struck and a neighbor told me that one near the road on which he was driving was blasted to bits. Some kids who live near here will be out looking for “lightning glass” when it is safe to go out there.

I’m baking today. I have some new baking mixes to try, ordered from The Prepared Pantry. I have been ordering baking supplies from this vendor for a long time and when one of their emails arrived with a tempting offer on some of their prepared mixes, I decided to try some and was very pleased with the results.
While I do love baking from “scratch,” I also like to try some things that require ingredients that I don’t usually have on hand. Buying a prepared mix that already contains these is actually more economical for me because if I don’t like the results, I’m not stuck with having to use up a supply of an unusual ingredient.
I don’t have any connection with this vendor, other than as a customer.

My garden is pretty soggy. Not going out there today as I have no idea where my wellies are and I’m not going to ruin my regular shoes. The birds can have the cherry tomatoes that I can see are ripe. Maybe tomorrow I will go out and clean up some of the plants that are beginning to die back. The cucumber vines are finished and the zucchini and crookneck squash.

A little while ago it looked like it was going to clear up, There was a strip of blue sky to the east and some thin sunlight but now the clouds have thickened again and it’s possible more rain is coming. I haven’t watched the news or listened to the radio yet this morning. The online weather channel says “Today: Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 46F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.” Current temp is 57° F. Brrrrr.

Time to get busy and prepare for baking. I also have a pumpkin to cook so I will have puree for a pie and pumpkin soup I’m planning to make this weekend.

More later…

Yet another week has rolled by and the weather has changed yet again. Several days of heat, occasionally reaching the low 90s and now it is cloudy and cool. We do have seasons here in the high desert and it certainly looks like fall has settled in.
Two hours ago we had a bit of lightening and thunder but no rain, a bit of drizzle but that was mostly it. Heavy clouds though.
I have been adding to the Collecting pages. There are several new photos on the existing pages and two more pages, one with toasters and one with electric mixers have been uploaded and more photos are in the works.

I’ve added a few more recipes to the list. A pumpkin chili, a pumpkin soup (hey, it’s pumpkin season) and a chestnut soup, all of which are perfect for this cooler weather. The chili recipe will feed a crowd and it freezes and keeps well. It’s perfect for tailgate parties!

I will also be adding a page about my Basenji dog, Aston. Aston is a character and very entertaining. He has been battling a pair of ground squirrels that keep invading the garden. He hasn’t come near catching one but keeps trying. He did get one cornered in some stacks of plant pots but I distracted him enough to allow the little critter to escape. I put out stuff for them to eat so they don’t do much damage in the garden and they do give Aston a lot of exercise.

The garden is still producing tomatoes, eggplants and lots and lots of peppers. In fact, I’m trying to think of new recipes in which to use them. I only planted a couple of plants that produce hot peppers and am leaving them on the plants to ripen fully. A new pepper plant this year is Big Bertha, a bell pepper that is very large and quite long. The plants are over six feet tall and still growing. I’ve never had a pepper plant grow that tall and I’ve never grown a bell pepper as large as these. Another pepper is a Sweet Banana that, unlike other banana peppers, is not hot and has thicker flesh. They are excellent for frying.

I think the Yacon plants will soon be ready to harvest. The growth and production of new leaves has slowed and some of the lower leaves are drying and falling off. As this is the first year I have grown these, I will have to wait and see how they progress. I have dug up a couple of the roots to try them and they are delicious raw. I will definitely plant more next spring. They are somewhat like a Jerusalem artichoke but the tubers are smoother and bigger. I’ll take photos when I harvest them. The flavor is similar to a cross between jicama and Asian pear with a hint of celery. Very pleasant flavor raw and I am sure it will be just as good cooked, especially with butter. Isn’t everything better with butter?

I picked a basket full of tomatillos today so a batch of the chile verde sauce is on the horizon. Tomorrow I will pick some peppers, although the poblano are still pretty small. I may have to buy a couple to fill in.
I pulled the last of the carrots, “little Fingers” is the variety that did best. They don’t grow much longer than 4 inches and the biggest are less than an inch in diameter. They are quite sweet.
The ground squirrels got most of the other type I planted, they were the multi-color selection, white, red, purple and yellow. They are bigger, took longer to mature and are not as sweet as the little ones.

More later…

Today is Thursday and it was even colder last night, 43° and right now, (10:00 a.m.) it is 57° with a predicted high of 71. Brrrrr. Time to have the furnace serviced.
It rained enough yesterday that I don’t need to water anything in the garden today. I can’t remember the last time we had this much rain so early in the year. Perhaps the “El Niño” year in the late ’90s.

I visited the produce market yesterday and purchased a bunch of “winter” vegetables (don’t grow these) and today will be slow-roasting them. I will package and vacuum seal them in portions so I will have them ready for “instant” stews and similar dishes in the future.
The vegetables develop much more flavor when prepared this way and are a good base for using small amounts of meat or poultry. Very economical too.

This is what the veggies look like prior to roasting. (Batch from last year.)
The brown things are large roasted garlic cloves since I had a large supply. I used 1 cup as the roasting process (in oil) makes the garlic sweeter and less assertive.
If using raw garlic I would use less, a generous half cup or so.

And here is a photo of the finished product.

I don’t have a recipe per se, I just use equal amounts of root vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes (white), red bliss potatoes (or any “wax” type potato), parsnips, celery root, celery, onions (usually more onions, to equal 1/4 of the total vegetable mass), garlic, sweet bell peppers (ripe red, yellow or gold), sometimes various types of winter squash, rutabaga, kohlrabi, and mild turnips. (If too strong, the turnip flavor tends to overwhelm the other vegetables)
I use olive oil or another vegetable oil, there is no need to use EVOO and indeed, some of the “greener” extra-virgin olive oils add too much of a grassy flavor.
Season with salt and pepper, add the herbs and spices that you like. Thyme, especially if fresh, is very good. Add rosemary sparingly. A modest grating of nutmeg is very good if parsnips, sweet potatoes and squash predominate in your blend.
I use a large roasting pan, 12 x 16 inches, 3 1/2 inches deep. If your batch is smaller, use a pan that allows the vegetables about the same amount of room as you see in the photos.
Roast at 275° F., for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Stir a couple of times during the roasting time.

Cool completely before transferring to storage containers and refrigerating or freezing.
I freeze it in several smaller containers, for individual size servings and try to use it within a month or so.
This makes a great base for a stew, soup, etc.