Because of our kayak trip, we recently missed a weekend in the garden, and when we came back, things had really popped! Some of the veggies that were starting to look ready when we left were for sure ready to harvest (and in a couple instances maybe even a little overdue!). So, this past weekend I got out and made our first true harvest of the season. We’ve been picking lettuce and herbs here and there for a couple months, but this is the first real haul.

See those little florets peeking through? This is our first success with broccoli, so its exciting! We tried some last summer but they never really took off. It was exciting to see these turn into “real” broccoli.

Mmm buttercrunch lettuce. Great to grow in the spring, but not hardy enough for warm weather. We have 6 heads to eat, eep! Lotsa salad around these parts.

Purple kale. I don’t remember which variety we got and I can’t find the tag. This probably should have been picked a couple weeks ago, because you can see its getting a little brown around the edges. Oh well! I plan to make some Kaleslaw with this.

 Here’s what I harvested this weekend, but there are 3 more brocolli plants and five more (!!!) heads of lettuce plus lots more kale to pull off the plant. Its great to finally feel like we have enough to make full meals from the yard, though! Last night I whipped up a batch of blasted broccoli to bring for lunch today. YUM.

The sugar snap peas are also ready, we’ve been snacking away. Gotta love this time of year!

Happy Almost Weekend!

Today I’m sharing a little cake D and I whipped up for Easter a couple weeks back to a dinner party where we were asked to bring dessert.

Over Christmas, I’d had had my eye on the Nordic Ware Stump du Noel pan; I thought it was such a whimsical interpretation of the yule log tradition. I happened upon one at an after Christmas sale at the Williams Sonoma in Manhattan, and totally scored one for $11! Since the holidays were past I came up with the idea to create a springtime forest stump and had been saving the idea for easter.

We waffled between doing a true chocolate recipe like a devils food cake, or doing some lighter like a nutella bundt cake, but in the end we settled on this recipe which was a great decision.

It was easy since the base was cake mix, which on a busy weekend was a relief. The combination of sour cream and pudding made it super moist and I think the cake part was a hit.

I took Paola and Jeanne’s suggestions by buttering the HECK out of the pan, but instead of flour I used cocoa powder. After the cake was done we let it cool completely (overnight actually), and it came out of the pan just fine. I was worried because of all the fine detailing of the tree rings, but it was no biggie with a little elbow grease.

After releasing from the pan, slice off the “top” so you have a level laying surface, and tada! A wonderful cakey stump.

I wandered down to our neighborhood cake shop, Home Cake, where they make homemade buttercream at a great price. While there I also picked up the Wilton Basic Decorating Set which has 5 tips perfect for creating a variety of textures. I whipped up some green and frosted grass growing up the sides and around a birds nest in the center.

I also bought some sugar flowers from Home Cake because they were too beautiful to pass up. They really made the decorations look presentable, haha, drawing the eye away from my beginner leaf piping.

Finished off with some Robins Eggs on a coconut nest in the center and a dusting of pink sprinkle, we were off to celebrate!

Now I can’t wait to try out a summer, fall, and winter stump cake. Its a weird thing, but ended up fitting the day perfectly.

Last year, at the end of the gardening season, we decided to try over-wintering our leeks.

So, as we have begun planting… we realized that one of the locations for an early spring veggie was ideally located where the leeks were.  (more on our garden plan, crop rotation, and all that jazz soon!)

I dug all the leeks up and brought them indoors.  Washed, scrubbed all the dirt off them and cut off the roots and top green parts.

What to do with all these leeks?

We have had a bit of leek in most things lately, but today we also had a large bunch of carrots that needed to be eaten.

Carrot Leek Ginger Soup:

(adapted from several recipes based on what we had!)

a lot of Leeks – approximately equal parts leek and carrot though

2 lbs carrots

4 tbsp fresh ginger

1 tsp oregano (dried)

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 cups chicken stock

1 cup water

1/2  cup orange juice

1 tbsp olive oil

Clean the leeks and chop the white and light green parts.  Discard the deep green pieces.   Peel and chop the carrots.   Peel and roughly chop ginger.

Heat the oil in a large pot and sauté ginger  and leeks gently for 5 minutes, until the leeks are soft and transparent. Add oregano, black pepper, red pepper and carrots, sauté for 3 minutes. Stir in the stock and water.

Bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes -the vegetables will be tender. Remove from heat and cool completely.  Puree the cooked veggies in a food processor – leaving the soup slightly chunky. Pour the mixture back in the pot, stir in orange juice  and cook on low heat for few minutes.

Eat, with crusty bread.

YUM

With all this snow, I have been cooking up a storm.

I have been making batches of soup in especially large quantities.  Some are old favorites that make my tastebuds sing with joy in the memory.  Some, like this one, are merely a result of food we have on hand.  I routinely begin a soup day in strong consulation with my favorite soup book:

I bought this as a gift for B… a really long time ago.  Even she said the other week, geez, I think that might be the most use we have ever gotten out of a cookbook.  So true, this thing was worth every penny!  (and note to self, who can I buy this for??)

Chicken + Potato x 2

(adapted from the Big Book fo Soups and Stews)

serves 6

6 cups chicken/turkey stock

4 medium sweet potatoes peeeled and chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 medium potatoes (I used russet, but I bet red would be great too!)

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, minces

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken

salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot over high heat, combine all ingredients except the chicken.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to medium-low heat and simmer while covered until veggies are crisp, approx 15-20 min.  Add chicken and simmer, uncovered for an additional 10 minutes.

Ladle into bowls with salt and pepper to taste.

There’s nothing better than a ripe peach, apricot, plum, or nectarine. Nothing says summer more than the sweetness of these fruits, the juice running down your arms. I think they’re especially great because their availability really is limited to the last days of summer. You can’t just buy a peach anytime of year like you can an apple or an orange.

Since I finally bought myself a full canning kit this year, I wanted to look up a few recipes to keep this decadent sweetness in our cupboards year-round.

I wandered down to Barnes and Noble with a gift card I’ve been hanging onto, and after hemming and hawing over several wonderful looking books, I ended up with the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I figure, if you’re going to start somewhere, that’s the book to have. Plus, 400 recipes, come on! Talk about bang for your buck. Nothing in the book is particularly groundbreaking in terms of crazy flavors, but I figure get the hang of proportions and timing, then add in some creativity.

I snagged a bunch of uber ripe apricots and Italian prunes as well as some deliciously fuzzy peaches from a couple neighborhood farm stands and went to town. It was a couple long nights of blanching, peeling, chopping, and reducing, but hopefully it will all be delicious. Out of the book I chose to make Traditional Pectin Free Apricot Jam and Peach  butter with a couple modifications as follows:

Old-Fashioned Apricot Jam

8 cups chopped pitted peeled apricots

2 cups chopped pitted peeled italian prunes

4 tbsp lemon juice

6 cups granulated sugar

* Prepare canner, jars, and lids

* In a large saucepan, combine apricots, lemon juice, and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to dissolve sugar. Boil, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and test gel [For a link on testing gel click here. I had some problems with mine setting up, mainly due to overripeness discussed before]. If gel stage has been reached, skim off foam.

* Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 in headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace. Wipe rim, center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip-tight.

* Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 10 minutes.

Peach & Lavender Butter

** Modifications from recipe at Washington’s Green Grocer which is previously adapted from Canning & Preserving **

4-5 pounds peaches

1/2 cup water

3 Tbsp fresh or dried lavender buds

3 Tbsp bottled lemon juice

4 cups granulated sugar

* Put the 2 tablespoons of the lavender buds in a small bowl. Take 1/3 cup of your boiling water and pour it over the buds. Cover, and let them steep for 15 minutes.

* Blanch peaches and when they are cool enough to handle peel, pit and chop roughly.

* Strain the lavender buds from the water. Set aside the buds…you’ll add them in later.  Combine the lavender water, peaches, and 3 tablespoons bottled lemon juice in a heavy stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, until the peach mixture thickens and clings to a spoon. Remove from the heat. Once the peach mixture has cooled slightly, puree using a food processor.

* Return the puree to the pan, add the sugar and lavender buds [I can see how some people would leave out the lavender buds for texture, but I think it adds a nice visual and they soften up a lot during the cooking process], and bring it up to a gentle boil over medium heat.

* Stir continuously until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes. Place the sterilized jars on top of a kitchen cloth on the counter. With the help of a canning funnel, pack peach butter into the jars, reserving 1/2 inch of headspace. Use a nonmetallic spatula to remove any trapped air bubbles, and wipe the rims clean with a damp cloth. Place on the lids and screw bands, tightening only until fingertip-tight.

* Using a jar lifter, place the jars in the canner. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

My hands were to sticky to capture the whole process, so you get photos of the finished product. I already took a sneak taste at the apricot jam this past week (apricot is Erik’s favorite so I took him a half pint when I was in Virginia last week).

Lessons learned: I had read a couple places that if you are trying to make pectin free jam, don’t use fruits that are too ripe because their natural pectin deteriorates as they ripen. Well, the apricots I bought were REALLY ripe. Like falling apart ripe. The man at the farm stand suggested the Italian prunes as a way to firm up the apricots in the jam, but it still ended up pretty soft. The flavor is great, but its not quite all the way to jam. I’m thinking it might make it a bit more versatile, though, because I think we can use it as a meat glaze or ice cream topping in addition to just on toast and muffins.