Our 2013 Garden

So, I'm playing some catch-up.  It appears that I haven't blogged in far too long, and there were some projects last year that I'm quite proud of and wanted to share and archive, so the next few posts will be catch-up posts. :)

Last year's garden experience was a success.  We ended up sharing quite a bit of our bounty to neighbors and co-workers.  And we've learned quite a bit, and have waged war on various bugs in the process.

Here are some pictures from last summer's garden.

We had a rat problem during the summer that ate our tomatoes, and our edamame.  Also, I think we over crowded our tomatoes too much, so they didn't really produce.  Otherwise, we count this last year as a success.  We did quite a bit of preserving, from blanching and freezing what we could (green beans, beets, carrots, spinach, broccoli), making zucchini lasagnas, zucchini turkey burgers, zucchini muffins and freezing all of those.  Making dried zucchini chips by dehydrating zucchini slices. Making zucchini kim chi. Pickling and canning jalapenos, freezing jalapeno halves.  Making jalapeno jelly.

For thanksgiving, we got to use our frozen green beans for green bean casserole, and fresh carrots from the garden.  We also used kale leaves for dressing up the plate that the turkey was going on.  It was wonderful to be able to use items from the garden for thanksgiving.

We only hope that this coming garden season will also be a success.

Our DIY Wedding, Part 2: The Food

Food!  Yup, we love the stuff.  :)  Here's an overview of the food we had for the wedding, and then some.  Except for the cake, the food was made by us, friends, and family.  We could not have done it with out them.  Okay, so let's start.

First, we had a rehearsal dinner on the night before.  For dessert, we set up a s'mores bar.  :)  We used the flame gel cans that are used for chafing dishes for the fire.  We had skewers, marshmallows, graham crackers, and a random assortment of chocolates ranging from hershey chocolate, reeses peanut butter cups, and a variety of ghiradelli squares.  Best S'mores Ever!

On the morning of the wedding, I made these cinnamon rolls.  I used the allrecipes cinnabon clone, made the cinnamon rolls several days before, but froze them before baking them.  On the night before the wedding, I moved the cinnamon rolls to the fridge, and on the morning of, I baked them up.  Delish, and super simple.  I made the frosting the morning of too, and done!

Okay, so now the wedding food.  

First are the appetizers.

- 2 cheese platters (brie, jarlsberg, gouda, babybels, and dubinger, with apples and grapes)

- assorted crackers

- quiche lorraine

- veggie shooters (spinach dip with veggie sticks in a shot glass)

- gravlax (cold cured salmon) with cream cheese

- swedish meatballs

- hot artichoke dip

- french bread slices

Here's a closer look of the meatballs and artichoke dip.

Now for the main dinner. Everything was delicious.  The BBQ Chicken was marinated 2 days before and cooked the night before.  The Beef Brisket was also made a few days before and frozen then defrosted and heated in the oven on the day of.  The mashed potatoes, rice, and veggies were done on the day of (by awesome friends). 

- Roasted Mixed Veggies

- Mascarpone Mashed Potatoes

- BBQ Chicken

- Beef Brisket

- Jasmine Rice

- Mixed Greens Salad with homemade dressing

- bread rolls

- wine (toasted head chardonnay, and section 29 zinfandel)

- beer, water and sodas. :)

Okay, now let's go for the sweets!!!
Dessert

- chocolate fountain
- chocolate fountain stuff:  strawberries, bananas, other mixed berries, and pound cake.
- heart shaped sugar cookies (super awesome design  -- look below for a better picture)
- chocolate crinkle cookies
- oatmeal cookies
- peppermint and vanilla meringues
- coffee

Here's the closeup on the sugar cookies.  (Thanks Emily, I still get compliments on them.  And thanks for all the other cookies and meringues too.)

Lastly, we had cake.  We bought the cake from a local Safeway in the area, and it was perfect, and not nearly as expensive as others we saw when we were shopping for cake.  Along with this, champagne, and sparkling apple cider. Mmm!!!  We froze a small piece of the left over cake and plan to have it for our first month anniversary, cuz the thought of eating year-old cake doesn't sound all too appealing to me.

Well, that's about it.  :)  There was a topper that I was working on for quite some time that turned out pretty good, but because of the daylight, it was a bit difficult to see.  Here's a picture of it when it's lit up at a place where you can actually see it.  Pretty cool, right?  It's just too bad we couldn't get it to show up. Oh well.

I totally forgot this last picture.  We finished off the night with shots of patron and pickle juice. :)  If you like pickle juice, you should totally try it.  The pickle juice has an awesome neutralizing effect. 

Okay, so that's our food post. :)  I intend to prepare one more wedding post on the the stationary. Yup, those were all DIY too. :D  Stay tuned for those.

Summer Harvest: Freezing Green Beans

Hopefully, your summer harvest is going well, and you're loaded with so many green beans and tomatoes that you don't know what to do with them.  :)  If that's not the case, it's okay because this preservation technique will work with store bought (or farmers market bought) beans as well.

What you need:

Green beans
Salt
Sauce pan
Water
Ice
Freezer bags

Here's what you do:

1.  Boil water and season with salt.  This increases the boiling point of the water so the temps can get just a bit hotter.

2.  While water is coming to a boil, prepare the green beans.  I generally cut of the ends, and then cut them into sizes that will fit in the bags and wash them.

3.  Prepare ice water in a bowl.

4.  Now we'll do what's called blanching.  I generally do this in small batches because I never think to use a large pan.  You just want to make sure you don't over crowd the beans in the pan, as that will change the temp of the water, and make it not as efficient in blanching.  I also do things in small batches because it's much easier to not over-blanch them when you only deal with small batches.

4a.  So, to blanch the beans, put the beans (in small batches) into the boiling water.  I stir a bit to make sure the beans have evenly spread in the water.

4b.  Keep the beans in for  3 minutes.

4c.  After 3 minutes, take the beans out of the boiling water, and quickly submerge them into the ice water.  Keep them there for several minutes til they are no longer warm.  This basically shocks the bean and stops the cooking.  It's how you get the nice bright green color in frozen beans.

5.  Remove the beans from the ice water, and dry them.  You can now stick them in freezer bags and put them in the freezer ready for use at a future date.

Plugged Watermelon

It definitely feels like summer out there.  We tried this a few weekends ago when it started getting warm outside. A plugged watermelon is basically a spiked watermelon.  Choose an alcohol, and marinate the watermelon with it.  I found this idea perusing thru my copy of "The Joys of Cooking."

Here's what you need:

- watermelon
- liquor (we used bacardi white rum)

It's pretty simple to do, and quite tasty, but it does take some patience.

Here's how to do it:

1.  Cut a small hole on the top of the watermelon.  You'll want your melon to stand on it's own, so how ever it's doing so when it's on the table, cut on the top of that. It's also easiest to cut a triangle, angling the inserted knife into the triangle, so you can take the "plug" off the melon.

2.  Take the plug off the melon, and put it aside.

3.  *Pour liquor into the hole made by the plug. Add enough liquor to go to the top of the hole.  Wait for it to seep in.  * Repeat between the *s as often as it takes til the liquor just doesn't seep in anymore.  It also helps to use a skewer to make a few holes thru the melon, but don't go overboard... a couple of well selected stabs and you will see the liquor seep in just a bit more.

4.  Between pours, let the watermelon stay in the fridge for at least 8 hours... 24 hours is best (and you can add more booze if you want). You can add the plug back when you no longer can put any liquor in.

5.  To serve, you can cut up the watermelon into slices, cubes, or use a melon baller, and enjoy.  You can also use this in mixed drinks and the likes.

:)  This is great for summer bbq's, but you might want to bring something else out for the kids. :)

Easy Lemon Bars

These have to be the best lemon bars I've ever tried.  These have a nice cookie like crust and aren't overly sweet. 

1 pkg. white cake mix
1/2 c. softened butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
4 eggs
1/2 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. flour

powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven 350.  

2. Mix cake mix and butter like pie crust, pat onto a cookie sheet.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or til crust is light brown.

4. While crust is baking, prepare filling. Mix the rest of the ingredients (not the powdered sugar) with the mixer and spread over baked crust. Return to oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

5. Cool, then dust with powdered sugar) and cut into bars.

Enjoy!!!

New Cookbook: It's all About the Rooster

I just recently bought a cookbook.  The Sriracha Cookboook by Randy Clemens. I'm So Excited!!!

 I'm a fan of Sriracha sauce, AKA: Rooster sauce. Rooster sauce is a Thai hot sauce that is a common condiment in Asian restaurants.  It's really good, and mixes well with other ingredients, such as ketchup and mayo.  Try it with ketchup next time you eat some fries.

I haven't had the chance to try anything in here yet, but a sample of stuff that I want to try:

Homemade Sriracha

Kicked Up Party Nuts

Honey Sriracha Glazed Buffalo Wings

Sriracha Cream Cheese

Sriracha Cheese Log

Sriracha and SPAM Fried Rice

Bacon-Sriracha Cornbread

Turned Up Tuna Tartare

Camarones A La Diabla

Sriracha Ceviche

Thai Chicken Coconut Soup

Okay, so I've almost named the whole cookbook.  A few things about the cookbook.  It only has 50 recipes, but they all sound really delicious and have a good amount of variety.  The pictures look really good and the instructions are clear and informative.  Here are some shots of the book.

 The Sriracha Cookbook: 50 "Rooster Sauce" Recipes that Pack a Punch

I promise a more interesting and craft related post next week.