Fig Tree Three Weeks On

From Garden

From Garden

From Garden

And now the backyard, right after the rain:

From Garden

Teeny tomatoes:

From Garden

Clematis:

From Garden

Problems with too-short stakes - sorry, Tomato!

From Garden

Artemisinin

From Garden

And hops:

From Garden

Kima ate my lemongrass.

From Garden

Free Poster

We found this for free at a yard sale and put it up in the bathroom. Mom, can you tell us what it says? Something about books and maybe knowledge for everyone?  

Update: Mom says it's a poster for the "Leningrad State Publishing House (Lengiz). It says "Books in all branches of knowledge."" A little Google search discovers that it's designed by Alexander Rodchenko.

Thai Satay Grilled Pork Chops

 

 

 

These were amazingly delicious. The recipe is on Epicurious, from the June 2008 Gourmet. I think the key was preheating the grill for what I thought was far too long (about 20 minutes) while the rice cooked. We did the pilaf recipe that they recommend at the end of the recipe to go with it, plus beet greens. Super delicioso!

Potatoes from Fomato

Click through to the inside of the card for cute "Pear" computers too.

Recent Spate of Blogging Continues Unabated

(precursor question: what exactly is a spate?)



From Yee-Haw Industries.

Basket or no Basket?

From Bike

From Bike

From Bike

From Bike

Riz Petit Pois

Back in Gabon, in the Peace Corps, my postmate Mike and I would go from time to time to eat lunch at the 'cafette', or cafeteria. Inevitably the menu would be much reduced from the long list of chicken and fish dishes with varied starches ("accompagnements"), like manioc, spaghetti, rice, and peas. Peas are a starch in Gabon.

Mike was (still is) a vegan, which in most Peace Corps experiences is practically impossible, since you're living with a host family who wants to feed you the good stuff, even when they have only a little bit, and that means meat, or at least meat-flavored sauce. In Gabon we lived independently in our own houses, and were able to buy our own groceries (canned sardines, veggies, tinned meat, lots of beans) at the small shops in town. Thus was Mike able to maintain a vegan lifestyle, eating rice and beans, or rice and lentils, or, when we went to the cafette, rice and peas.

At the beginning this was ludicrous to Seydou, the Senegalese immigrant who ran the cafet we preferred at the carrefour (main intersection in town - where all the action happened). Peas were the same as rice. Both were an accompagnement! Who would possibly want to eat them a) together and b) without some sort of fried chicken or fried fish? But of course, like any person who becomes a regular, Mike's idiosyncrasies were soon accepted, and even anticipated.

Tonight, since climbing was canceled and my Dizzy's hamburger postponed yet again, I had riz petit pois, only this time fancy-western-Thai-Kitchen style. In an attempt to use up the leftover coconut milk, rice, and my snap peas and spring onions, I made Thai red curry (from the recipe on the paste jar), with some onion (that quickly dissolved into the background) and the nice peas. The sauce was lacking something at the end so in a flash of inspiration, I made it sort of Panang by adding a teaspoon of peanut butter. But basically, it was rice and peas. And delicious!

Composting

Pretty. Also, the two most recent dads I know built something like this prior to arrival of their daughters. Coincidence? Desire to create and produce something while their partner/wife was incubating? Hmmmm.

Looking forward to seeing what my third dad-to-be friend produces during his wife's pregnancy - since he already has a composting system!

Bongo dead! No he's not!

But now he is. For reals. BCC story last night quoted sources in Barcelona saying he had died; the Gabonese PM "didn't know anything about it" and his family insisted he was still alive in a report this morning. But now, phew, the whole saga is over. Except that everyone is freaking out and stockpiling food and the borders are closed and the internet is shut off...

Will the Fang elite go nuts over the elections that are supposed to come in 45 days?
Will Pierre Mamboundou, former opposition leader turned pragmatist, use any of the 21 million dollars Bongo gave him for Ndende (my peace corps town) to make a final run for the presidency?
How many bodies will turn up even IF elections are fairly quiet?

Oh dear oh dear oh dear...

Mixed Grill

Instead of roasting, I parboiled some itty bitty new potatoes I got at Hubers, a farmstand on Belair Road up by Jerusalem Mills, where I took Kima hiking today, and grilled the potatoes, a bunch of asparagus, and some spring onions, just with some olive oil and salt. Delicious. Huber's also had rhubarb so I made Jamie Oliver's ginger rhubarb crumble, but overcooked the rhubarb and the crumble topping didn't have cold enough butter, so it turned out a little sad looking, but probably it tastes delicious (will find out in about half an hour). The veggies with some soppresatta from Di Bruno Bros in Italian Market were a great supper.

Asparagus/Potato Salad

might make this tonight.

Roasted Asparagus Potato Salad

Copyright 2001 by Lynne Rossetto Kasper

Serves 4 and doubles easily

You could cook the asparagus a day ahead, and make the salad hours before serving.

* 10 to 12 slender asparagus spears, tough ends trimmed away
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 2 pounds (about 15 to 20) small, buttery, waxy potatoes, like Yellow Finn, red skins, the red-skinned San Luis Valley or Desiree potatoes, or Yukon Gold
* Water
* 1/2 medium red onion, cut into thin slivers
* 1/4 cup wine vinegar, plus more as needed
* 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* About 3-1/2 tablespoons vinegar
* 2 tightly-packed tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
* Small cluster of chives, snipped into little pieces

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Trim, wash, and dry the asparagus. Spread them on a piece of heavy-duty foil, or a shallow baking pan. Drizzle with the one tablespoon oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roll around to coat. Roast about 10 minutes, or until barely tender when pierced with a knife. They should be quite firm. Remove from oven and cool; then cut into 1-1/2-inch lengths.

2. Simmer the potatoes in water to cover in a 6-quart pot for 15 minutes, or until tender with a little firmness at the center. Peel and cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Turn into a large bowl.

3. Gently fold in the onion, 1/4 cup vinegar, salt, pepper, and 3 tablespoons oil. Let stand 30 minutes.

4. Just before serving, gently fold in the asparagus. Taste for tartness (potatoes mute vinegar very quickly), and salt and pepper. Add more vinegar and seasonings if necessary. Fold in the herbs. Serve at room temperature.

Baltimore Green Map

Launching today:

Baltimore Green Map highlighting sustainable stuff, public transport, green spaces, kid friendly spaces, museums and parks, bike trails, and lots more. More background at their website, www.baltogreenmap.org, plus at the Urbanite Green Guide.

Lots of little farm-gardens that I need to visit!

Fig Tree!

Edith and Joshua, because they are awesome, got me a fig tree (Brown Turkey Fig) for my birthday! J and I planted it that Friday because I got the day off (for having worked long hours on a proposal the previous weekend/weeks).

From Design

It already has little figs busting out.

From Design

Also, my folks got me a great monitor for the new desk we've put together in my bay window/porch door area, and now we have a nice setup for working/tv/movies.

From Design

I figured out how to stick my Macbook on the keyboard tray underneath, closed, and still have it talk to the monitor (fairly easy). The desk is just some stained wood from Home Depot on two Ikea shelf-legs, height adjusted with old French PAL videos from 1996. The clever red wristpad is actually a pair of Joshua's old socks.

Thai thing

Tonight I made a version of the shrimp thai coconut thing a couple posts ago, with chicken and broccoli and spinach instead of shrimp and snap peas. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Really easy. I didn't have any lemongrass (though my seeds are sprouting!), or habanero chili, so I just used several shakes of red pepper flake in the marinade and a little extra ginger. Super yum, especially with some garden cilantro at the end, and served with coconut rice (this could be overkill, but hey, you gotta use up your can of coconut milk somehow).

Greens n Eggs

I confirm they are delicious. Milk works instead of cream if your cream has been sitting in the fridge for three too many weeks.

Shrimp bowl coconut milk

Something else to make...got roped into softball last night (super fun, much better than four years ago in Dakar where I made no hits and fielded no balls) and then burgers at Dizzy's, so my plans for turnip greens with egg en coquotte were postponed until tonight. But this looks yum, from the Boston Globe food section via the chef/"food stylist", La Tartine Gourmande. She has nice french food idiom lessons periodically as well.

Most varieties of shrimp are available year-round, but when the weather turns warm, the curvy seafood is quite good in a light coconut-milk-based broth, with green vegetables such as crunchy snap peas. First, toss the shrimp in a marinade of ginger, lemongrass, chili, and garlic, mirin (rice wine for cooking), Asian fish sauce, peanut oil, and lime rind and juice. Refrigerate this while you prepare the remaining ingredients. Then saute the shrimp in a wok and add chicken stock and coconut milk to make the broth. Complete the dish with a large handful of sugar snap peas and scallions. Ladle the mixture over jasmine rice and sprinkle it with fresh cilantro. Vary the greens - add asparagus, fresh sweet peas, or tiny florets of broccoli - to change the dish each time.


2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, white part only, finely chopped
1 piece (1 inch) fresh ginger root, finely chopped
Grated rind and juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce, or to taste
1 tablespoon mirin
1 small habanero, seeded and finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds shrimp, deveined
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 pound sugar snap peas
3 scallions, sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro


1. In a large bowl, combine the garlic, lemongrass, ginger, lime rind and juice, 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil, the fish sauce, and habanero. Add the shrimp and toss gently. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. In a wok or large skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons peanut oil over medium heat. When it is hot, add the shrimp and cook, stirring often, for 4 minutes.

3. Add the stock and coconut milk. Simmer for 3 minutes. Add the peas and cook 2 minutes more. Taste for seasoning and add more lime juice or fish sauce, if you like.

4. Add the spring onions. Ladle over jasmine rice and sprinkle with fresh cilantro.

Greens tonight!

Ah yes, dearies - unable to eat all of my leftover turnip greens last night, tonight they will be transformed into TNS-recommended eggs en coquotte, thusly:

For the eggs: Leftover greens in a ramekin. A little heavy cream, because cream and greens are total BFFs. Crack an egg on top. A little salt and pepper. Some little shavings of butter. Into the oven for longer than you think is necessary but it totally is.

[N.B. at 375 for 15-20 minutes].

I'd like to think I had this subconsciously all planned out but it seems unlikely. Turnips and eggs are of course contingent on the climbing wall being still closed, for if it is not, there'll be no way to resist the siren song of the post-climb Dizzy's bacon cheeseburger.