C is for... Community Gardens and Cambodian Crab Shacks

Welcome! Today is a double feature.  VanillaBean here first on Community Gardens:

Having lived in city apartments for several years now, garden space has been more an imaginary luxury than a practical possibility.  Add in allergies...and I've been living vicariously through friends and family, trying my hand at window sill herbs (which never seem to make it more than a few months), and getting tasty meals of veggies from my sister Madame Blueberry/tinbugs (brussel sprouts, broccoli,tomatoes,..) or my mom Quiltpeaces (sweet corn, kale, potatoes, garlic, lazy beans....) when I head home to visit them.  Until this year!

This year the allergies have been much improved, and I had heard about a local Community Garden.  My friend Copper Penne and I headed down a few weeks ago to take a look and do a bit of garden dreaming. Could we? Should we? The garden turned out to be quite lovely, set back from the road in rolling green lawns as part of a 35 acre Fransciscan Ministries/Convent property.  After that the question became--were there any plots left?  We were very lucky! and were able to rent a 10'x20' foot garden plot.  It was the very last one they had available for this year, and we were feeling quite thrilled to get it.  Oh the things that we can grow in our new garden.  We have been making lists, drawing layouts, and scouting out seed packets for the past two weeks while we waited for our official garden plot number.

A first view of our garden plot.

We headed to see our plot first thing Saturday morning, to take a look and get started.  Looks like our plot grew potatoes last year.  The straw last year's gardener left spread over the garden kept the weeds to a minimum. Mostly just a few dandelions and clumps of mint to dig out!  Copper Penne's son Polvo made short work of getting it mostly cleared, and CP and I spent another hour finishing up and just enjoying being outside on a windy Saturday. Next up, to see if we can use their tiller to work up the ground.  It was a bit too wet to do much yesteray.  By the way if you are looking for seeds of the budget friendly variety, I'd recommend checking out your local dollar stores. We found quite a nice selection of non-GMO, heirloom seeds for $0.25 cents a pack at Dollar Saver and Family Dollar.  I'd recommend going soon though, the selection was dwindling fast!

A Collection of Seeds

Ready for tilling.  Thanks, Polvo!

A note from Madame Blueberry on Cambodian Crab Shacks:

The letter "C" makes me think of the crab shacks in Kep, Cambodia along the coast of the Gulf of Thailand.  When I looked out the window at the snow Sunday morning, I would have preferred to be walking along the beach in search of a good crab dinner.  If you ever get to Kep, enjoy some crabs for me...and if you have a hankering for stingray, it seems they serve that too --- though it is not listed on the menu, I guess you just have to be in the know.

Cooking the crabs.

Kep is known for its crabs.

Dinner with a view.

B is for Blueberry Donuts

B is for blueberry donuts....or, in the case of Madame Blueberry, just about anything blueberry will do.  Do you remember what you would ask for on your birthday when you were a kid?  My mom always let us pick what kind of cake we wanted.....and I always picked blueberry cheesecake.  I liked cheesecake, but I loved blueberries....still do as a matter of fact.

Blueberry Donuts

So I was reading a book this evening, a favorite of mine actually - The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson, and one of the main characters, Janner, was enjoying his 13th birthday dinner, which included: "spiced roasted shadhaunch, butterfire biscuits, hogpig gravy, pumpkin soup, soakbeans, and herder's meatpie", as well as thirteen honeymuffins.  I am sure all of that is good, I for one love pumpkin soup...or at least butternut squash soup is one of my favorites, it says it was all of Janner's favorites, but if it was me...I would have included blueberries, lots of wonderful blueberries.

Sorry, to disappoint any of you with this knowledge, but I am not a skilled donut maker....I leave that to Lerch's, and it just so happened last weekend was one of those rare times they make their delicious blueberry donuts.  And yes, for any who are curious, I did partake.

For any, who happened to miss out, may I suggest some good reading -- The Wingfeather Saga, and if you any interest in supporting a fun project, if you are reading this soon after if it was posted you may want to check out this kickstarter project.

Note: Despite what blogger thinks - Tinbugs posted this not Vanilla Bean - we apologize for the user error....

A is for.....Apples

I know, I know....apples....yeah, not very original, but too bad....because I have a thing for apples.  One year, I collected 25 different varieties of apples from various orchards and farms markets, and I could tell them apart just by looking at them.  It probably sounds kind of strange, but it was for my fall party trivia game and I had fun with it.  Several of the varieties I had that year I had never heard of before and I haven't managed to get my hands on one of them again.  One of those varieties was a Sheepnose, a variety which according to my mother grew in the cow pasture on the farm she grew up on.

That strange madness that led me on that wild exploration to collect all those apples, has left me with an appreciation of different kinds of apples and their different uses.  As far as eating apples goes, it all seems to depend on my mood what apple I am looking to chomp into...but usually it is a fuji, however I also like Jazz and Gala.  However, hands down my favorite for applesauce is Cortland, something about its beautiful pink color just makes it look so fresh when pulled out of the freezer on a mid winter day.

So, when I offered to make dessert for Easter, it just so happened I had a bag of apples sitting around.  This particular time, it was a bag full of Jonagolds, typically not my first pick, but at my local bulk foods store it was one of two choices the day I was shopping - Golden Delicious or Jonagolds...so Jonagolds it was.  What did I make?

An apple thyme tart/pie.  A rather different combination, but I was looking for something a little lighter - it always seems we have little room for dessert till it arrives...and my mom happened to have a thyme plant that was sprouting out green leaves for the new spring season.
Not saying it was a "to die for pie" or that I would be excited to drive 3000 miles for a piece, but it was good, and I would make it again in the right setting, definitely unique...of course, maybe if I had used Kanzi apples like it asked for instead of Jonagolds, maybe it would have been a "to die for pie", but I had never heard of a Kanzi apple before and had no idea where to go to get my hands on one.... but then again according to wikipedia, the first limited group of Kanzi's only reached the US in 2014 and I don't exactly live in a booming metropolis that would be on the frontline of that, so I settled for I had, and it turned out just fine, but if I ever happen upon a Kanzi (you know that is Swahili for hidden treasure) I will have to test it out.

One last dish of Cortland applesauce before I have to wait for next fall.

Z....K....J....V...M...C........

It's been a long time without a post....and now I am just throwing out letters....  How does this work?

Actually, there is something to look forward to and what is that you ask.  Well, we have decide to participate in the A to Z Blog Challenge during the month of April, so now you can look forward to these sisters and our brother talking about food for the whole month of April.

To start us off and get us inspired....and to warm up our blog page from its hiatus, I spent a little time in the kitchen this evening.  Inspired by the A to Z challenge, I decided to cook some alphabet pasta, but since I already had soup in the fridge, I found a recipe for "Cheesy Letters", don't worry I won't mail you any, you will have to come over to partake.

     

It turned out quite tasty...unfortunately, I invited friends over for supper....to eat bean soup I had leftover from yesterday's supper meeting.  If it wasn't that my one friend doesn't tolerate gluten, I would have gladly served it as a side, instead I will enjoy it for lunch tomorrow.

          

 

The small bowl I did allow myself to eat before my guests arrived.

                          

WITH

                      

The Strawberry Moon

The moon over Kendall Lake.

It was a full moon on Tuesday and the local national park had a full moon walk.  I have been wanting to go and would always forget or have a conflict, but being June, sunsets are late and the hike wasn't till 9 o'clock.  However, I opted to go anyway and was rewarded with the sounds of a great horned owl hooting, the sight of the space station speeding across the night sky, my first spottings of this years lightning bugs, choruses of peepers and try frogs, and a bright moon on the horizon lighting up the night.

June's full moon is known as the Strawberry Moon or the Rose Moon and I left the hike anxious to find some strawberries to make a pie.  So Saturday morning after running a 5K, I watched the roadside for signs of strawberries for sale.  I spotted a couple of Amish boys sitting at the end of a drive with strawberries in their buggy.  I was going to buy two quarts but he didn't have enough change, so I bought 4 quarts and called my mother, who was glad to take some fresh strawberries.  I already had plans to make rhubarb compote with the Colonel Mustard, so I opted to make the strawberry pie while the compote cooked down.

As I waited for the pie crust to cool, I tantalized my family with talk of the coming pie and left everyone eagerly waiting.  Unfortunately, for everyone, I opted to take a picture of the pie on the porch before putting it in the fridge to cool, when the swinging of the screen door hit my arm and sent the pie flying.  All that was left in the pan was a jumble of strawberries and broken crust that may have consisted of about a fourth of the pie.....  Needless, to say the family was disappointed.  Mom helped me dish it into bowls and top it with ice cream, but as the Colonel said, "In this case, more is better," ..... and there were no seconds.  Don't worry, mom made a fresh strawberry pie on Sunday evening.

What was left of the pie.

Slaughtered Strawberry Pie in a Bowl

The Rhubarb Compote