Crock Pot Deliciousness

A lot of you have heard me recount the fun Anson and I have been having with Crock Pot cooking since last fall. It was a cold winter and the spring has been cool as well so I've had a lot of opportunities to make hearty, slow-cooked dishes for many months now. I think we reached a high point at Christmas with a jerk turkey breast. That one was added to the permanent recipe collection! Anson's mom and Billie were nice enough to get me Crock Pot cookbooks for Christmas and I've been slowly trying new recipes from them.

One of our favorite recipes I found on CDKitchen.com and I've been making it at least once a month. It's Black Bean, Corn and Barley Burritos. It sounds unimpressive and the name really doesn't do it justice. A cup of corn, a can of tomatoes, a can of beans, a cup of barley, onion, chiles, garlic and some seasonings. Throw it in the crock pot and wait. You won't believe what comes out. Add some sour cream, cheese, avocados and wrap it up in a tortilla. One burrito is really so filling, but you will want to eat more.

Last Sunday I made it and happened to have a sweet potato in the fridge so I threw it in too. We've had it for dinner for three nights now and it's still not gone. I think all the ingredients cost about $5 total, and then probably $5 more for toppings and tortillas. How many meals can you make for a family of 6 for only $10? Healthy, affordable, and delicious.

Here's a link to the recipe.

Propagating Friends

We are pretty lucky to have moved into a great apartment complex close to the beach.  I guess complex makes it sound big.  It's really more like pairs of multi-family houses with a common yard between each building.  As you walk down our street, you see how the tenants of each of the houses have customized their shared yards with chairs, flowers, planters, decks, whatever the spirit of industry has moved them to do.  In the spirit of making our yard our own, we started our garden.

Gardens bring people together as I'm sure many of you have found.  We've had that experience with our neighbor, Chris.  Though we've always been friendly, it was last year's garden that got us working together each week.  He offered the big, sunny patch of ivy in front of his door and together he and Anson ripped it out and replanted.  It was fun enjoying the 'fruits of our labor' with someone and especially someone so close.  We take turns watering, weeding, poking at things or just looking at it (see accompanying picture).  It's fun and together we like watching our little ones grow up ("Awww, remember when those squash were just sprouts?").

As you've read, this year they doubled it in size and our harvest goals have doubled as well. Last year, we ended up with dozens of cucumbers that I turned into pickles.  This year I said "Don't get more cucumbers!" as they went off to the garden store, only to find out later that Chris like them.  Me and my loud opinions!  So I found this cool Lemon Cucumber that we squeezed into the end of a row.  I can't wait to see how they grow, and most of all how they taste.

The tomatoes are flowering now, and I am already planning the tomato dishes I am going to make in a couple months...good thing I planted basil too.

Pizza Mastery

We like to make pizza at home with the dough from Trader Joe's.  Our old neighbor, Leo, inspired a pizza that has become my standard: pesto sauce, thin zucchini rounds, sun dried tomatoes, red onions, mushrooms and sometimes bacon.  It's delicious, but I could never get a crispy crust.  I knew it was because I was baking it on a cookie sheet, but never got around to getting a screen or a stone.   I had decided not to make these inferior pizzas anymore until last weekend when I picked up a ceramic pizza stone at Orchard Supply Hardware meant to go on the grill.  It came with a metal bracket to lift it and a thin wooden peel.  Best of all, it was only $13.  Would this be my pizza salvation?

We got more dough on our last TJs excursion, threw the stone in the oven to heat, made the pizza up, and (with a technique that still needs to be perfected) got it on the hot stone.

We waited, sipped our margaritas, and dreamed of the cheesy goodness we hoped was yet to come.  Our eyes lit up when we took it out of the oven.  After the bubbling stopped, we heard the crunch of the crust as the knife went through.  This was it-- we've arrived at homemade pizza perfection.

Fritatta or Art?

This fritatta was so pretty I had to take a picture of it before I let Anson cut into it.  Eggs, cream, fresh spinach, red onions and feta. I topped it with some diced tomatoes after I took it out of the oven. A great way to start the day.

Anson and the Beanstalk

Anson did such a great job planting the garden.  This year, he doubled it in size and that meant digging out thick ivy and tons of roots, adding more soil, paving stones and planting the crops. He was so sore for days.

He also took a bunch of extra bricks and made a nice herb garden for me.  I picked out Italian parsley, French thyme and basil.  There's nothing like fresh basil and I can't seem to keep it alive inside the house.  I'm crossing my fingers this basil will prosper. On the right side of the herb garden we planted seeds for beets.  I've recently ventured into cooking the beet greens (the most nutritious part of the plant!), so I'm looking forward to watching those grow as well.

Our stringless bean seeds popped up this week and they are growing by the day.  We've lost one pepper plant to a snail so far, we're going to have to be watchful of those creepers.

Easter at The Don's

Amy and Kevin Don always have the best parties, and they do it while juggling 6-year-old Taro and 10-month-old twins, Elijah and Elliot.  I have no idea how they pull it off, except that they are super-human (and really nice people too).  At this party, the kids all got Easter baskets and the adults got to do the Easter Egg Hunt.  Then we could trade our unopened eggs if we wanted for cash, gift bags, other people's eggs, etc.  Some of the prizes were good, some were clunkers, but that's the chance you take!  Anson and I brought home some yummy candy and---ooops! I forgot my cans of sardines!  :)

The other fun part of the day was that everyone brought food.  Amy and Kevin's friends are no slouches in the kitchen.  We had rosemary pork loin, lemon basil chicken, deviled eggs, greek salad, potato salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing, tasty rice pilaf...so much food.  Amy made this freakishly delicious Earthquake Cake which didn't look like much, but turned out to have frosting in the middle of it, instead of on top.  Genius!  Amy's friend, Liza, brought creme puffs from Beard Papa's and those were devoured as well.

My contribution was the Greek salad (no big culinary leap there) and something I'm calling California Roll Cups.  I was super impressed with my creativity and I actually scared Anson when I gasped when I thought of it.  I hollowed out some 1/2 inch cucumber slices, filled them with California roll mix (imitation crab and mayo), topped them with a chunk of avocado, and drizzled a soy/ginger/garlic reduction on top.  Very pretty presentation and easy to make.

I had a bunch of leftover ingredients, so the next night I thought I'd make some traditional California rolls for dinner.  I started the sushi rice and then discovered I didn't have the wrappers.  I thought of just putting it in a bowl (California Roll Bowl?) and then the romaine in the bottom drawer jumped out at me.  I layered the rice and crab mix into the romaine spears, topped with long sticks of cucumber and avocado and drizzled with the soy reduction again.  So I guess this one is a California Roll Wrap?

Summer

It's summer again and Sarah and I are excited to have planted our vegetable garden for the season. These pictures are from our '08 garden. This year the garden is nearly twice the size of last year's garden. I dug out thick ivy and roots as thick as my wrists, added new soil then dug irrigation trenches. So you can see that last year was a test and this year we have high expectations that our lessons learned will pay off with great food. We were disappointed in the yield from our Heirloom tomatoes last year so this year we planted Super Steak and other large varietals that produce lots of tomatoes. In addition to tomatoes we planted exotic bell peppers like Chocolate Beauty and Lilac Pepper as well as peas, zucchini, beets and herbs.