Harvesting, Cooking, Freezing

I've done a lot of the following 3 things lately:

1. harvesting green peppers, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, basil, and oregano
2. preparing them in various meals
3. storing and freezing them in mason jars

I made a big batch of plain (no meat) tomato sauce with about 10 tomatoes, and I have at least another dozen or two tomatoes ready to go. It made over 4 pints of sauce, most of which I froze in mason jars.

4 frozen pints of tomato sauce

The other day on a whim I thought I would try to throw together a pizza on a tortilla because I had the fresh sauce I had just made plus fresh basil and green peppers and a chunk of mozzarella in the fridge. So I made 1 pizza with the sauce,  cheese, and green peppers and the other with sliced tomatoes and basil instead of sauce. I think they would have turned out a lot better on a pizza crust, but the thin wheat tortilla worked adequately :-) I froze two of those as well.

I've had frozen pierogies from the Italian store for a couple of weeks and I finally got around to makeingthem into mason jar meals to freeze. I used carrots, broccoli, green peppers and herbs from the garden. I boiled the sliced carrots in broth and fresh dill and steamed the broccoli over top of it. I sliced and stir fried a couple green peppers with onions and then added the pierogies after I boiled them. I also heated up two cans of blacks beans with a couple of chopped tomatoes from the garden with butter and Old Bay seasoning. I layered them in 32 oz. mason jars as follows: veggies on the bottom; then the beans, which filled half the jar; 4 pierogies each with the peppers and onions; and a small pat of butter on top to keep it moist when reheated. It made 6 jars, which I let cool and then put in the freezer.

pierogi, beans, and veggies mason jar meals

I've also made dozens of salads in the mason jars. You layer them appropriately, with the dressing on the bottom, then heartier veggies, lighter veggies, cheese, other stuff, and greens on top. I made my own balsamic vinaigrette (1 part olive olive, 3 parts balsamic vinegar, plus brown sugar and garlic) and used as many veggies from the garden as possible. The mason jars have amazing preservation powers! The salads can stay in the fridge for a week without the green wilting. Some of the veggies soak in the dressing and the flavor really pops.

mason jar salads stay fresh for at least a week

I thought all the cilantro going around this time of year might taste good in hummus so I've experimented a few times with that: chick peas, olive oil, lots of cilantro, garlic, lime juice & sea salt.

cilantro hummus

JoeSoGarden 2014 Bloomfield Edition, Part 1

Spring has arrived! Between April 20th and May 1st I got the yard all cleaned up and put several seedlings, seeds, bulbs, and even rocks into the ground. First take a look at the yard before I got to work. It didn't look too bad, but I had plenty to do.

I needed to clean out all the vegetation and debris from the back sidewalk/corner; dig out (and replace) all the rocks in the small rock bed along the fence to the right; till a few spots and plant grass seed; and rejuvenate both planter bed areas with fresh soil and compost. The one on the left also needed some minor reinforcement around the corners.

Redoing the rock bed took several hours over several days. Someone must have put these rocks in a few years ago, but without any plastic tarp or fabric underneath. So the weeds and soil had reclaimed most of it, and would have overtaken the remaining rocks by year's end. I had to do something!

So I got down there and dug out all those rocks, put down a few layers of plastic, and left the rocks out on the sidewalk for the rain to clean them. If the sun ever comes back out, I'll take a picture of the finished rock bed. (...Ok, a week later the sun did return!)

In my old apartment on Penn Ave we had a second floor deck that opened off the kitchen out back. In those close living quarters, though, we had no privacy from all the houses behind us, so I bought these 3' by 10' faux bamboo screens to run along the deck railing. I tried it here above the rock bed, but ended up moving it down further to cover the other neighbor's dilapidated wooden fence.




I also tried putting some of the planters in the rock bed, but I didn't like that either. I think I'll just leave the rocks to rock out on their own in their little spot along the fence. I mean, who really gives a fuck at this point, I just need to fill up a bit more text on the left side of this post to balance out the pics on the right. Alright, that'll do, pig, that'll do.

With the rock digging underway I focused on restocking those garden beds and eventually getting some grass seed down and this year's seedlings in the ground.

I went to Phipps Conservatory's used bulb sale a couple weeks ago also, and got some tulips, hyacinths, and something else I can't remember. Those will return in all their glory next year. I don't know whether to keep them in planters or put them in the ground.

I also planted broccoli (from seeds and seedlings), carrot seeds, cilantro seeds, a basil plant, and a stevia plant. Last year's oregano and mint plant have also returned. I'll get those pics up soon... 

Yesterday I picked up some more decorative shrubs and flowers. Dude at Home Depot cut me a sweet deal, too, because he couldn't get it to ring up at the advertised price of 3 for $10. And then when I thanked him, he said, "any time." Now, maybe he just says that all the time, but I wonder if he actually meant he would hook me up with a deal "any time." I'll have to go back and see. I wonder what I could hook him up with in return...

JoeSoGarden 2014 Edition Part 2 coming soon

Joe Burger 2

I don't think I've actually posted my burger recipe on JoeSoCookbook yet. I started developing it about 2 years when I first got the grill. Generally speaking I love a very simple cheeseburger, made with high quality ground beef and maybe just a pinch of salt and pepper, maybe cumin or the classic onion soup mix burgers -- you know, easy, simple, delicious, and it makes everyone happy (well, except non-carnivores).

But then I also like to have a "different" kind of burger recipe in rotation -- something "interesting"  or  "exotic," something a little bit out there.  Something with weird ingredients stuffed in the middle. Something gooey or cheesy or spicy or strangely colorful. The original Joe Burger uses hot sauce, turmeric, and several other ingredients, and Joe Burger 2 kind of spins off of that basic approach. But the Joe Burger 2 gets a lot of its flavor from the garden, which I like. I have several fresh herbs that I don't know exactly what to do with, so adding them to burgers seemed like one obvious idea. I've only tried this once, so consider it a recipe in progress. Next time I may cut out the curry and rely more on the fresh herbs for flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef (3-4 burgers)
• 1/2 Tablespoon cumin
• 1/2 T. curry powder
• 1 T. hot sauce
• 1 T. worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 - 1/2 Cup fresh cilantro
• 1 T. fresh oregano
• 2-4 leaves fresh basil
• goat cheese (or other cheese, optional)

Mix ingredients and form into burgers. Grill to your liking and top with cheese. Enjoy burgers with your favorite toppings, such as avocado, banana peppers, siracha, whole grain mustard, etc.

fresh herbs and spices: cumin, curry, basil, cilantro, oregano

plus hot sauce and worcestershire sauce

mix ingredients

mix into the ground beef 

make into burgers

add fresh veggies to make a wholesome meal

broccoli, spinach, carrots, and green beans with sesame oil, salt, and pepper

steam the veggies for a 10 minutes or so

grill the burgers to your desired liking

topped with goat cheese

yeah buddy

Joe Burger 2 with goat cheese and banana peppers with steamed veggies

Yard to Table

I've had the great fortune of harvesting a lot of herbs already, and now several heads of broccoli have reached their flowering point. Although the tiny little yellow broccoli flowers do look nice, you should eat it before they bloom! I harvested my first head last week and made the grilled broccoli that I've posted about on here. Then I harvested a monster head, bigger than mine, and steamed that over the last few days. Yesterday I harvested another big one and gave it to JJ, along with some fresh mint. I still have a stalk or 2 from the monster head, and a couple of the other plants already look ready. Some friends proposed a raspberry / broccoli swap, since they have a ton of raspberries. Awesome.

To prevent my herbs from flowering I need to constantly harvest some of the leaves and stems. If they start flowering it will end the growth cycle. I think that may have already happened with my basil. Oops. So I figure I should keep cutting and drying some of the leaves/stems. I have oregano, mint, cilantro, and oh so much mint. What they hell can you do with mint besides make mojitos? 

mint in the middle

cilantro on the right

First harvested head of broccoli

looking great

and from the other side

about to bloom, harvested just in time

marinated, grilled, and topped with goat cheese

love it

that's a big boy

yeah buddy

great looking tray of green stuff

maybe a good facebook cover photo

aaaand one more from the backside, baby

JoeSoGarden Update -- Poppin' Off

The garden has really exploded over the last month. I need to reign in the tomatoes before they destroy the onions. The broccoli has sprouted nice, large, dense heads. The carrot row looks like a little forest, and the triangle plot got some transplants and a row of yellow and pink flowers. I've made mojitos twice with the mint. The cilantro has turned into coriander and the basil looks fantastic. Take a look!

broccoli head

broccoli plants

carrots

onions, crushed by tomato plants! 

cilantro, grown from seeds, very easy and fast

basil

cilantro from seedling that flowered into coriander (I guess?)

need to figure out how to handle those tomato plants in the middle/right...

the other little plot with some flowering plants

broccoli transplants from the other side ... need a splash of water

this will have yellow and orange flowers in the fall

mint for mojitos