Category: Cooking

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05/16/2022 south of the river

An update from the Texas home garden this past week!

Pink brandywine tomato flowering in Mom and Dad’s container planter garden last week.
White currant tomato flower buds.
The red rubin basil has appreciated an increased watering regime.
First marigold bloom! The ones up here in Norman in my garden are just getting their first and second sets of true leaves.
Last Wednesday, note the size of mustard greens.
They sure grew over just a few days!
In fact, they grew enough that Mom harvested some.
Mom sauteed them in butter, oil, and white vinegar with salt, pepper, and a lemon juice top off at the end. Sources say it was good.
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05/06/2022 emergency strawberry eating party

Fruit processing is a social endeavor among vaccinated friends.
The Chef’s magic strawberry sauce recipe… Strawberries and powdered sugar!
The angel food cake meringue.
Angel food cake must be cooled upside down for fluffiness.
Since they’re tiny angel food cakes I call them cherub cakes.
The Chef made everything look pretty.
Dog awaits her guests. She likes guests.
Paula had the excellent idea to use our garden cart stools as more seating. Farm to table eating!
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Turkey soup with garden flavors

Turkey bone and foot broth soup, with assorted vegetables. Spices from the garden are rosemary and culinary sage. Bread is made with crabapple “lees“, the yeast residue that accumulates during the cider fermentation. To me, it smells like cider pleasantly and tastes soft and chewy in the best way. Thanks, Paula, for a tasty meal!
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Crabapple pastilas

I got the idea to make this fluffy pastry from an Atlas Obscura article.

Before the 10 minutes of whisking.
Just started.
Getting fluffy.
Sure glad we have a machine!
Essentially applesauce meringue!!
Paula smoothed them out with a pastry cutter (see top pan) and then we put them in the oven.
We did 6+ hours at 180°F. The two in deeper pans took longer even though I tried to make them about the same depth.
All baked!
Cut up. One had its crust flake off.
I forgot to keep some aside to paste together layers, so we get single layers.
It’s very nice! Like sweet tart astronaut food!
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Generous neighbors

Our neighbors have a crabapple tree that is loaded with fruit, and offered us as many as we can pick.
Yesterday, with the Chef and Paula and me, that was about 50 pounds.
Paula and the Chef cut off the blossom ends and boiled them. More updates as they occur!
The Chef made tiny adorable ham croissants with lemon garlic aioli for dinner. Swiss chard (Fordham giant variety) from the garden is the green.