Twitter + Facebook = No Blogging?
Between ramped up running training, increased responsibilities at work, and my discovery of Twitter, it seems I have forgotten my blog. I'm sorry. I will try to do better.
Judson and I finally bought Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (both volumes!) after seeing Julie & Julia and have been testing some of the recipes.
The ratatouille recipe is excellent. To be honest, I'm not sure whether I had even eaten ratatouille before picking up the book, but it is a revelation. Aside from baba ganouj and things that are definitely bad for you (moussaka, eggplant parm), I think this is the first eggplant dish that I've actually liked (and it's definitely the first time I didn't hate parsley). The whole process is very time consuming. You salt eggplant and zucchini and wait. You concasse a bunch of tomatoes. You slice peppers and onions. And then you cook the ingredients in small groups (eggplant + zucchini, in batches; then peppers and onions and garlic, then add tomatoes). And then finally everything goes together. But in the end, all the vegetables have retained a lot of their original texture and flavor while still having merged into this delightful, beautiful stew. Plus Judson and I had a revelation: we could double the squash and leave out the eggplant, and suddenly we had an extremely freezer-friendly application that would use our bazillion squashes.
This brings me to our garden. It is thriving! We actually have tomatoes, a rarity in NY, which was heavily stricken by [early] late blight. It took them a very long time, but they now seem to be ripening in droves. We also have a ton of summer squash (as you may have surmised) and tomatillos. Our tomatillo plants are some sort of freakishly large, overly productive tomatillos. If you are making a tomatillo-themed B-movie, please contact us for man-eating plants. We have many delicata squash that appear to be ripe or nearly ripe. Incidentally, a delicata squash is a winter squash with all the great qualities of butternut and none of the failings (it's sweet and delicious, but oblong and easy to slice and peel). We have kohlrabi, which tastes like broccoli. We had a great run with our beans. We have beets (second round!) and swiss chard and other greens. We have a flourishing herb garden. I should really figure out how much money we've saved on herbs. I think our cilantro is succeeding in bolting, but we just planted a new crop, and I believe it has plenty of time to develop. We also have basil (many types!), thyme (many types!), tarragon, chives, parsley, rosemary, sage, oregano, mint, and other things I'm forgetting. One sad point is that our summer was so mild that it looks as though our little charentais melons won't have enough time to mature before the fall. I'm not sure whether we'll pull our garlic, leave it, or pull it in order to replant it in the Fall. Even our border flowers, nasturtiums and marigolds, are doing well. This is definitely a project we'll continue next year.
We made bacon ice cream. It's heavenly.
Krista is doing well.
My marathon training is coming along pretty well. I'm in the homestretch (of the difficult part) now. This week and the week after next will be the hardest in all my training. Then it's tapering for a while and the big race on October 4. I hope it cools off (a lot!) by then.
Judson and I finally bought Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (both volumes!) after seeing Julie & Julia and have been testing some of the recipes.
The ratatouille recipe is excellent. To be honest, I'm not sure whether I had even eaten ratatouille before picking up the book, but it is a revelation. Aside from baba ganouj and things that are definitely bad for you (moussaka, eggplant parm), I think this is the first eggplant dish that I've actually liked (and it's definitely the first time I didn't hate parsley). The whole process is very time consuming. You salt eggplant and zucchini and wait. You concasse a bunch of tomatoes. You slice peppers and onions. And then you cook the ingredients in small groups (eggplant + zucchini, in batches; then peppers and onions and garlic, then add tomatoes). And then finally everything goes together. But in the end, all the vegetables have retained a lot of their original texture and flavor while still having merged into this delightful, beautiful stew. Plus Judson and I had a revelation: we could double the squash and leave out the eggplant, and suddenly we had an extremely freezer-friendly application that would use our bazillion squashes.
This brings me to our garden. It is thriving! We actually have tomatoes, a rarity in NY, which was heavily stricken by [early] late blight. It took them a very long time, but they now seem to be ripening in droves. We also have a ton of summer squash (as you may have surmised) and tomatillos. Our tomatillo plants are some sort of freakishly large, overly productive tomatillos. If you are making a tomatillo-themed B-movie, please contact us for man-eating plants. We have many delicata squash that appear to be ripe or nearly ripe. Incidentally, a delicata squash is a winter squash with all the great qualities of butternut and none of the failings (it's sweet and delicious, but oblong and easy to slice and peel). We have kohlrabi, which tastes like broccoli. We had a great run with our beans. We have beets (second round!) and swiss chard and other greens. We have a flourishing herb garden. I should really figure out how much money we've saved on herbs. I think our cilantro is succeeding in bolting, but we just planted a new crop, and I believe it has plenty of time to develop. We also have basil (many types!), thyme (many types!), tarragon, chives, parsley, rosemary, sage, oregano, mint, and other things I'm forgetting. One sad point is that our summer was so mild that it looks as though our little charentais melons won't have enough time to mature before the fall. I'm not sure whether we'll pull our garlic, leave it, or pull it in order to replant it in the Fall. Even our border flowers, nasturtiums and marigolds, are doing well. This is definitely a project we'll continue next year.
We made bacon ice cream. It's heavenly.
Krista is doing well.
My marathon training is coming along pretty well. I'm in the homestretch (of the difficult part) now. This week and the week after next will be the hardest in all my training. Then it's tapering for a while and the big race on October 4. I hope it cools off (a lot!) by then.
posted by megan at
9:52 PM
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