Church Potluck Picnic Dish from the Garden

Potato Salad for Church Picnic

Most of the ingredients for the above came from my garden.  Let's deconstruct:

Garlic Scapes

Garlic scapes.  The flower stalk from hardneck garlic varieties.

Peas coming in.

Picking some sweet onions a little early.

Lettuce

I got the lettuce seeds from fellow MG Gary Ankney back in 2010.  Let a few plants go to seed after they bolt, and then save them for the following year and be sustainable.



Asparagus








Last of the asparagus for garnish.  I'll let the rest of the spears leaf out to provide energy for the roots for next year.

Herbs - Lovage, Cilantro, Parsley, and Thyme

Lovage is a perennial herb with a strong celery-like flavor.  Nice to have around to always be able to get that celery flavor, even if your refrigerator drawer comes up empty on the crunchy vegetable.  Here's a NY Times article with some recipes using lovage.

Chopped Herbs and Scapes



Dried Chilis from the Pantry










Let's kick it up a notch with some dried Thai Chilis from the pantry.

And some dried Penn State developed Zavory peppers and dried tomatoes from the 2011 season.

These were reconstituted in some boiling water, and added to the salad.

Reconstructed Final Salad

And voila, with the last of the radishes on top as a garnish.  Hope my fellow congregants enjoy the result tomorrow.

Garden Inspired Spring Meal

I harvested radishes, asparagus, lettuce, spring onions, and herbs dill, cilantro, parsley, and oregano for a weekend meal.

Garlic, Oregano,Chopped Spring Onion Leaves, and Container Citrus for a Vinaigrette

Vinaigrette (Lemon Juice, Garlic, Herbs, Salt and Pepper, Mustard and Olive Oil)

Blanched Asparagus

I blanched the asparagus in boiling water, moved to iced water to stop cooking, and set aside to dry.

Disappointing to learn that the purple color dissolves in water.

Same thing happens with the purple string beans and the purple color of scarlet runner beans.  It's because the anthocyanins that give them the purple/red color are water soluable, so disappear when boiled.

Reheated in olive oil, seasoned and served when the chicken was ready.

Chicken Thighs Sauteed in Butter, with Preserved Tomatoes



2011 Preserved Tomatoes




Seared the chicken in butter, covered in a quart of preserved tomatoes from the 2011 harvest, and finished in the oven for a 1/2 hour or so.

 

Salad











Salad from the garden.



Pre-Dinner Cocktail



Ready to Serve

Yum

Garden Grown Chili

Simmering Away

The cold, snowy weather today inspired me to make up a batch of chili.  Simple enough recipe from an old crockpot cookbook, but adapted using stuff I grew this summer:

2 pounds Ground Beef
2 Cups Chopped Onions
4 Cloves Garlic
3 Tablespoons Chili Powder
1 Teaspoon Salt and Pepper, or more to Taste
1 Teaspoon Paprika
1 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
2 Quarts Canned Tomatoes
1 Pound Dried Beans (about 2 cups)

Onions and Garlic, Dried Hot Peppers (Cayenne, Hinkel Hatz, Fish), Paprika made from dried Zavory Peppers, (A Penn State-developed variety) Greek Oregano (had to push aside the snow to get to it), some of the dried beans (German Red Lima, Lazy Housewife, and Spelt, and some store bought red kidney beans) and of course, Tomatoes all were grown in my 2011 garden and preserved for just this kind of use.

Onions, Garlic, Spice Mixture and Tomatoes

Prep the beans (soak over night, or boil for 2 minutes - allow to soak in the hot water, covered, for 2 hours, drain and rinse, cook for 1 hour in 6 cups fresh water), Brown the ground beef, saute the onions and garlic, add the spice mixture, and add the prepared beans to a crock pot, or dutch oven.  Cook, covered, for another couple of hours.

Chopped Parsley and Greek Oregano

Red Zeppelin Onion, and Last of my Yummy Sweet Bell Peppers for Topping



Final Serving

One of these years, I'm going to be organized enough to enter the Chili Cookoff at the Chambersburg Ice Fest.

A Holiday Weekend Meal From the Garden

Nothing better than making a meal around your own garden produce. It's a little early for most of the stuff I planted, but there was enough to make a decent meal.
 
After picking and washing, there's a sweet green bell pepper that became available after a weeding mishap.  Some of that garlic.  Some leaves from the Napa cabbage, and a Savoy cabbage, the last of the radishes that had started to bolt, one of the sweet onions (variety 'Candy'), and the first of the aubergine kind of eggplant from the containers, a variety called 'Fairy Tale'.
 
 

Prepped and ready to go.  And it's always good to know about substitutes - pickles can be used in a pinch, instead of olives.

Seasoned the pork chops with the garlic, salt and pepper, and fresh rosemary sprigs, a variety called 'barbeque', picked also from the container garden.  Seared on both sides for few minutes, and finished in the oven for 30 minutes or so.
 
 
 
 
 

A quick saute of the onion, eggplant, and pepper in olive oil, seasoned as the pork chops, and flavored at the end with a spritz of lemon.  Lemon from the lemon tree, if you attended the Christmas party, you may recall the entrance foyer - they've been moved outside for the season.
 
 
 

  
 

Holiday Weekend Dinner for Two

Looking forward to the tomatoes coming in.  In a day, or two, I think for the first ones.