Grow Your Own Round-up #14

Why hello, Grow Your Own'rs!

Look right at me hosting the round up this week. And without any direct supervision! SKETCHY!

I assume Andrea, the proud creator and mama of Grow Your Own, was familiar with my particular style before letting me in on this showdown, so let's proceed as planned and hope that I don't return her baby singing any new swears or anything.

A recipe for: Overabundance

Kristin of Going Country did not make garlic soup as promised, but I forgave her because she made a delicious stream of consciousness that included 2 recipes and 8, count 'em 8, ingredients from her upstate NY garden that she Grew all on her Own: garlic, shallots, tomatoes, collard greens, basil, cucumbers, dill.

Random detail: Kristin has 34 tomato plants and is my hero.

A recipe for: Tomatoes, peppers, herbs

Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies is taking full advantage of the early heat this year in Ontario, Canada by plucking tomatoes and hot peppers from the garden two full weeks early and putting them into an Easy Peasy Summer Pasta. When you're over there ripping this great recipe, also look at the porny food shot of tomatoes and peppers which, wow, nicely done. She's growing this all in pots, y'all. That's really something.

A recipe for: Lemons

Anna at Life's Too Short for Mediocre Chocolate made up some Lemon Ricotta muffins that have a reported incredible crumb and AND two different mixing methods. Um, fancy. I do believe I still have access to my friend's overburdened lemon tree so will, perhaps, have to make these up myself - just to try out both mixing methods, you know.

A recipe for: White peaches

As though a magnificent trip to Yosemite weren't enough, Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple posted a recipe for all their oh lawdie what WILL we do incredible white peaches that involves grilling AND homemade creme fraiche. And I'm sorry but I can't make blogger do those fancy marks over the e and i, so please forgive me. Feel free to look at this recipe and be jealous of their white peach tree because, wow. If this photo isn't enough to make you want to plant one of your own, I'm pretty sure you're not human. Oh that California, she is a nice place.

A recipe for: Squash

Arika, of Raw for a Month in Biloxi, Missisippi, must be answering someone's Grow Your Own prayers here with her very delicious sounding recipe for Squash Rollatini with Ricotta, Mozzarella, and Chevre. Now, I know I've been whining about what do I do with all this chard but the original summer vegetable of doom is squash and so I'm grateful that she's put together a recipe for squash that is new (for instance, it's not mock anything) and includes chevre, which, YUM. You are wise in the ways of the squash, Ms. Arika.

A recipe for: Green tomatoes

If you're loosing sleep waiting for your tomatoes to ripen (I can't be the only one that does this) then you'll be glad that Irene at Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice defied her Italian-American and New York roots and forged ahead with a southern-type recipe for fried green tomatoes. From the YUMMY sounds I could hear in the background of her post (so they were in my head? Does that matter?) it seems like she's nailed it with, as she calls it, Fried Green Tomato And Swiss Cheese Bake. I do believe she might have also said something about how she now prefers green tomatoes to fully ripe red tomatoes, but I must be mistaken. That's just crazy talk.

A recipe for: Cilantro and lemongrass

I am pretty sure that this recipe from Ning, of Heart and Hearth, made the longest trip to Grow Your Own this week - all the way from the Philippines! Manila, to be exact. WOW. And even after all that travel, everything in this dish looks so fresh. How DO you do it, Ning? All joking aside, she's come up with a great recipe for Pinoy Tom Yum Prawns (Pinoy meaning Filipino) that's a little lighter on the spice than its Thai alter ego and uses lemongrass and cilantro from her own balcony garden. For anyone out there trying to stay ahead of their bolting cilantro - this could be a great recipe to try. If only Bubba weren't wildly allergic to shellfish, I'd try this myself.

A recipe for: Peaches, pineapple sage

Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi have searched the world over for a pie/tart crust that doesn't leave a greasy feel in the mouth and, at the same time, crafted a sweet recipe for an abundance of peaches and pineapple sage from their yard and their friend's orchard in the Pacific northwest. Now, I personally have never met a pie crust I didn't like, but for the more discerning tastes out there, their recipe for Vegan Peach tartlets with pineapple sage might do it for you. You big picky pie eaters, you. Not that I'm judging. I'm just saying is all.

A recipe for: Tomatoes and parsley

The Andrea, of Andrea's Recipes, likes to admit that she's not superwoman (whatever) and, as such, has been trying to simplify her family's menu without calling in for reinforcements from the local pizza joint. Um, yeah, me too, ahem. This time she picked a huge bowl of grape tomatoes from her Virginia/D.C. garden and tossed them up with some orzo and fresh parsley (and other things, check the recipe, I'm not exact here) for a very lovely Mediterranean Orzo Salad. Yes, please! (But I'm still not giving up pizza night.)

A recipe for: Lot of ripe tomatoes

Kim of Live Love Laugh Eat! offers up a great pasta recipe and her preferred vehicle for taking in as much pesto (use your favorite recipe here) as possible in each bite. Her Virginia garden is overflowing with tomatoes right now and this is a quick way to get through a handful. Nice and simple, this could be a good recipe for those of you like Andrea who, while trying to maintain the whole "I'm not superwoman/man" facade, still want to make fabulous meals from local homegrown foods. You know who you are, Pizza Man Shunners. Plus, this is a great excuse to wander out to the garden after work and hunt around the tomato plants in your heels. Because, obviously, we all like to look sexy while we pick fruit. What? You don't?

A recipe for: Tomatoes and basil

I have half a brain and almost didn't include my own contribution to Grow Your Own #14. Wow, that'd been just like me, wouldn't it? *Sigh* Anyway, I stepped away from the oven for five minutes to make something other than my favorite sauce recipe and instead made gazpacho - another summer Northern California tomato favorite. As usual, I shunned the perfectly decent (and published, which is more than I can say for moi) recipe details and changed it to suit my own whims. This soup has gotten better by the day, so don't worry if you have left overs. I've also heard rumors that it freezes beautifully. You decide.

And that will do it for this Grow Your Own Round-Up. Check out Andrea's blog for future post dates and hosts. Plus, it'd be good if you kept making things from your gardens (and neighbor's gardens - go on, I won't tell them you're stealing lemons from their tree) and posting recipes because some of us need help figuring out what to do with all this chard. Or whatever.

Something other than sauce

It is possible for me to make something from my tomatoes other than The Best Sauce Ever. Yep. and I thought it might be high time that I provide proof of that fact.

And, frankly, I need to post something for the Grow Your Own round-up I'm hosting (send me your entries by tomorrow midnight please: finnyknits AT gmail DOT com) because I don't get out of contributing just because I'm *phew* totally slaving away over here on the big sweaty post.

Just kidding, I'm barely sweating at all (wuv you, free work A/C!).

So, to prove that I can imagine tomato-based foods other than sauce and SAUCE and more sauce, I made gazpacho. Which I realize doesn't really go too far toward proving how dynamic I can be with a bunch of homegrown tomatoes, but still - it's not technically sauce, so I'm counting it. Argue with me if you want, but I promise it will be totally fruitless.

I also fight dirty, so watch your groin.

Anyhoo, I also got to try out a new recipe from a cookbook I had yet to crack, You Say Tomato by Joanne Weir, which was a gift from my all-knowing MIL who is nothing short of a gift giving genius.

To go off-track for just one minute, let me tell you that this woman has a secret spy living in my brain and reporting back to her on gift ideas. Do you know how I know? Because it's alarming to open gifts from this woman due to their dead-on-ness.

An orange wallet?
Worms Eat My Garbage?
3 tomato-specific cookbooks?
A book on foraging in Northern California?

Seriously. Yikes.

Thankfully, I like her very much and haven't seen even a glimmer of "I will murder you in your sleep and wear your skin" in her gentle eyes, so I feel safe. But still. Weird. I might have to start imagining bizarre gifts to see if they show up on my birthday - just to see if she really does have a spy in my brain.

Sue...what am I thinking about right now? Why yes, you're right, it IS something made of cashmere...

ANYWAY.

Gazpacho

You Say Tomato, Joanne Weir
My changes in bold

Ingredients

6 large tomatoes from your garden, peeled/seeded/chopped (I didn't seed them, this is too much work - the straining gets them out later)
1 red bell pepper, cored/seeded/chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled/halved/seeded/chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
Some extra virgins, about 4+ tablespoons
1 slice of french bread
Salt, pepper and pepperoncino to taste

To make
Mix the tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, cucumber, garlic, vinegar and olive oil in a bowl. In batches, puree the mixture in the blender until super smooth - which is a purported 3 minutes. I just go until I can't stand the noise anymore. Have I told you I'm a sissy?

Pour each batch through a course strainer into a large bowl until you've pureed your whole mixture. Season the whole mess with salt, pepper and pepperoncino. Refrige it for an hour or more. And not more than eight hours because something mysterious and terrible happens after that. I would imagine.

Once you've crossed the important 1 hour - 8 hour threshold, feel free to serve up with some fresh basil even though the recipe doesn't call for it, but HELLO what tomato-type recipe isn't awesome with basil? Um, none.

Something to note here is that the original recipe, which I unabashedly ignored, also includes some super time intensive recipe for a "garnish" which I like to also call "croutons" and there was no way in hell I was making their "garnish croutons" with this crazy ass recipe, so I made them the way I always make them which involved cutting crusty bread into cubes and tossing with olive oil and garlic salt - bake at 400 until brown and DONE.

The recipe in the book is a little more ridiculous and involves melting things in a saucepan which was so not happening.

Also, here's the tomatoes after I peeled them properly:

I want to show you this for two reasons.

1. I finally learned that blanching includes a cold water bath BEFORE peeling, which has changed my life immensely and helped me to retain my fingerprints and,
   
2. I took this photo and felt the need to share it. I mean, look how SHINY they are? That's fun.

Ok, so SEE, I can make things other than sauce with my homegrown tomatoes. I don't really LIKE to, but I suppose I should be seeking some sort of balance in my life and this is how I'm going at it.

I'm not going to stop eating tomato sauce out of the food processor with my big tablespoon, but I will try to make other things from the tomatoes. Things that I can eat with my big tablespoon also.

Do you see my balance? I am amazing.

Do you Grow Your Own?

My friends, my people, you big freaks who are getting all WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THIS SQUASH THAT I GREW WHEN I THOUGHT MY YARD WAS 10X AS BIG, I want you to tell me (and the Internets) what you're doing with all that stuff you're growing.

Or getting from friends who are growing.

Or picking off your neighbor's tree when they're not looking.

Or whatever as long as you or someone close to you is growing or raising it and you're making it into something fantastic (or, something bad, as the case may be - it's OK when things go awry, we all learn and then make fun of you when you're not around).

Come be a part of Grow Your Own, the "blogging event that celebrates the foods we grow or raise ourselves and the dishes we make using our homegrown products. "

I'll be hosting the 8/15 rendition of the event, as Andrea has sought out guest hosts to handle the load of entries (it's wildly popular, dontyouknow), and I want to sit here and fawn over the crazy awesome stuff you're making from the fruits, vegetables, herbs, sprouts, edible flowers, nuts, grains, legumes, dairy products, eggs, livestock, etc that you're bringing into the culinary world.

Why?

Because then maybe I'll figure out what to do with all this fucking chard. Not that you have to submit chard recipes or anything, but I'm hoping a little bit that someone does. I'm considering making clothes from it. Or seeing if I can run the Prius off chard power. Or maybe sewing a quilt from it.

OR SOMETHING.

Really though, here's what you do:

• Make a dish that uses at least one item from your very own garden or farm or neighbor's tree and post about it. Container gardens are welcome! If you hunted or foraged, those items are also eligible. You can also use something that was given to you, but the giver must have personally grown or raised the item. If you paid for it, then it doesn’t count.
• Anything edible that you have grown or raised qualifies, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, sprouts, edible flowers, nuts, grains, legumes, dairy products, eggs, livestock, and anything else I might have forgotten. Produce from both indoor and outdoor gardens are welcome! Different regions will have different things available, so feel free to feature things unique to your area. (Rambutan trees, anyone?) We are all about celebrating variety!
• Please make sure your dish is posted during the month of the event because we like to celebrate seasonal items. One post per blog, please.
• As a courtesy, please include a link to this announcement in your blog post, and then update later with a link to the round-up.
• If you want to include one of the Grow Your Own badges in your post, feel free to grab one here. (Please upload to your own server/image repository.) Logos professionally designed by Jeff Meyers.

And if you want to see what others have done in the past, here's a few of the most recent round-ups:

July
June
May

You may notice that my entries have been mostly about chard, but don't let that sway you.

To include your post in the round-up, send an email to me (finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom) by 8/14/08 with:

• Subject line: Grow Your Own #
• Your name and location (country, state if applicable)
• Your blog URL
• Permalink to your post
• A photo of your dish

On 8/15 I'll post the round up and you can all sit back and relish all the new ways to make chard, I mean, the variety of edibles that folks the world over are Growing on Their Own. Or something close to that.

It'll be fun. You'll like it.

Remember: Send Finny your posts about how you're making that stuff you're growing. Chard or otherwise. finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Wuv you.