Supper

Oh semantics!

In case you haven't heard, in Lancaster County it's called Supper - the evening meal. And to clear things up, Dinner comes in the afternoon. If you wander outside of this area, please keep in mind that Supper has little meaning and that if you are invited to Dinner, plan on the evening!

Straight from the garden: eggplant, green pepper, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, jalepeno peppers, onion, kale, basil, marjoram, and rosemary!

While the Brussels sprouts were boiling (for just a few minutes), I chopped up the rest of the vegetables

and threw into a skillet: olive oil, garlic, onion, the peppers and the herbs

lastly, I added the eggplant, tomatoes, kale, and Brussels sprouts

To half of the cooked vegetables, I added kecap manis, a popular Indonesian sauce that is a type of soy sauce. It is not salty, but thick and sweet with the flavors of anise and garlic.

Carrot Cake

We planted way too many carrots to consume at Scott's house, so last night we harvested a bunch and then made delicious carrot cake! We found a great recipe online.

Scott picking a carrot from his garden

Nate and I with bunches of the very sweet variety - Chantenay

Scott washing the carrots

The recipe, from allrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into greased and floured 9 x 13" pan.
2. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
3. Frost the cooled cake.
   
   

Mini carrot muffins!

Finally... a golden carrot cake, ready to be iced!

Because of time, we opted for buying cream cheese icing instead of making it from scratch.

Also, we decided to make some into a cake pan and some into little and big muffin tins.

TIPS:

~the oil can be substituted with applesauce with little consequence, except a more healthier cake

~the cap on a bottle of vanilla is exactly a teaspoon, and most recipes call for 1 (or increments of) teaspoon

~grow carrots near onions, leeks, rosemary, or sage to keep the carrot fly away. And as the book title suggests, carrots grow well next to tomatoes (Carrots Love Tomatoes, Louise Riotte).

lunch with no name

The most wonderful thing about having a garden is that I can walk outside and take only a few steps and within minutes have a delicious meal! It is especially convenient considering my last paycheck was exactly $7.

So when I got home from work today, I turned on my skillet and added 3 store bought ingredients: olive oil, garlic, and onion. Then I headed out to the garden and from it added:

purple jalepeno pepper

basil

majoram

red bell pepper

kale

eggplant

After that was done, I piled it on top of some wheat noodles that I had left over from the ratatouille. It left me feeling cool enough to write a cookbook.

It's great having a variety of ingredients to experiment with - new combinations of flavors can be fun and surprising! Really the only thing you have to learn is which things to add first and last, but that comes quickly.

Ratatouille... it's not just a movie

Connected to my favorite cookbook is Simply in Season, which organizes recipes by season according to their ingredients.

This was perfect for me today - I just went to the "SUMMER" section and easily found a recipe that called for things straight from my garden!

Summer Garden Ratatouille

2 onions (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 bay leaf

Saute in 3 tablespoons olive oil about 5 minutes.

1 medium eggplant (chopped)

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh basil (chopped; or 2 teaspoons dried)

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (chopped; or 1 teaspoon dried)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon fresh marjoram (chopped; or 1 teaspoon dried)

Add, cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until eggplant is soft, about 15-20 minutes.

2 summer squash (chopped)

2 gren, orange, or red sweet peppers (cut in strips)

2 cups tomatoes (chopped)

Add and simmer until peppers and squash are tender, about 10 minutes. Serve over pasta or polenta sprinkled with chopped fresh parsley, black olives, or freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

real live steam