What are you growing and cooking?

[DeniseM]

GROWING: I have baby Praying Mantis all over my yard, which is awesome, since they eat all kinds of pests and don't bother plants or people! There are a lot of them on my Strawberry Green Stalk, so I'm wondering if their egg case came in with the potting soil. The one below is on a strawberry leaf, and they are gobbling up the aphids!

COOKING: Here is the recipe for tonight's one skillet dinner. I made it 2 weeks ago with russet potatoes and onions and it was a big hit! Tonight I'm making it with sweet potatoes and onions, because Rod loves sweet potatoes and sauteed onions.

*** REVIEW: The verdict on this dish made with sweet potatoes instead of russets is that it tasted good, but the sweet potatoes wanted to stick in the skillet and fall apart, and the russets didn't. The russets were easier to cook, tasted as good, and had a better presentation, so I will stick with the russets going forward.

Chicken And Potato Skillet

Ingredients
• 1½ pounds baby potatoes halved or quartered, depending on size (I used 5 small-med. sweet potatoes this time)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter (I used 1/4 c. olive oil only)
• salt and pepper to taste (I used Benson's salt substitute)
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (I used a generous sprinkle of mixed dried herbs - Benson's Supreme, and Benson's salt substitute on the potatoes.)
Added: 1 large sweet yellow onion - sliced thick

Chicken Marinade (I marinated the chicken all day for more flavor)
• 4 chicken breasts boneless and skinless (I used about 3 lb of boneless skinless chicken thighs)
• ¼ cup olive oil (I used garlic flavored olive oil)
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce low sodium
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 4 cloves garlic minced - (omitted because I used garlic flavored olive oil)

Instructions
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the halved baby potatoes and parboil for 8 minutes. Drain and set aside.

(I cooked the sweet potatoes in the microwave, cooled them and sliced into thick slices, instead of boiling them.)

• While the potatoes are boiling, prepare the marinade by whisking together ¼ cup olive oil, soy sauce, honey, Dijon mustard, minced garlic, and a pinch of pepper in a bowl. Toss the chicken strips in the marinade and let sit while you sear the potatoes, at least 10 minutes.
(I made the marinade in the morning and marinated the chicken all day.)

• Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the drained potatoes, cut-side down. Sear without stirring for 3-4 minutes until they develop a golden-brown crust. Flip the potatoes, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown. Remove the potatoes from the skillet and set aside.

• Add the marinated chicken strips and sear the chicken for 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown and cooked through.
(I added thick slices of sweet yellow onions at this point & sauteed with the chicken.)


• Push the chicken to one side of the skillet, add the potatoes back and allow them to cook together for another 5 minutes. Check the seasoning and adjust with more salt and pepper if necessary and red pepper flakes. Remove from heat and sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

 

[easyrider]

While I didn't plant these Scottish Thistles I am letting them grow. My plan is to harvest the flowers to use as a tea for hay fever and allergies. I might try eating the stalk but im on the fence with this. I know it's edible but I'm just not that hungry.

Bill

 

[Chrispee]

Not exactly growing, but we’ve had a good couple of days of eating. Our teenage son put out a crab trap and had some success. He made a delicious crab dinner with local romaine Caesar salad. The next day my wife made crab cakes. Too early in the season here for local farm grown veggies so we have Costco to thank for the Greek salad.

 

[Brett]

tomatoes coming in crazy

 

[clifffaith]

The 5th anniversary walk today at the old folks home took us past our garden patch. WHOOPS! Our strawberries have been thriving under benign neglect. After the In-N-Out burger truck and Jimmy Buffet cover band festivities (I’m officially a curmudgeonette, too damn loud!), I had to retrace my steps to harvest berries.

 

[DeniseM]

COOKING: I like to have a quick healthy breakfast that requires no cooking. So I make jumbo oatmeal/fruit muffins, a dozen at a time and put them in the fridge to microwave quickly in the morning and have with a cup of tea. In my mission to make healthier sweets for Rod after his open heart surgery, I started making oatmeal muffins for him too, with a slightly different recipe (I'm gluten sensitive and he is not.) However, I noticed that I was making them, but he was not eating them, and I realized that he just didn't care for them that much. So then, I had 2 dozen uneaten muffins in the freezer, that weren't going to be eaten. I brainstormed some other uses for them and realized I could use them to make Brown Betty (often called Apple Brown Betty.) A Brown Betty is similar to a crumble, except it has layers of "crumble" and fruit throughout, instead of just top and bottom. This was the easiest recipe ever:

Muffin-Berry Brown Betty

I sprayed a backing pan well and crumbled one jumbo muffin into the bottom of the pan.
Then I sprinkled a thin layer of mixed berries over the crumble, and sprinkled it with cinnamon-sugar.
I repeated the layers 2 more times, for a total of 6 layers of fruit & crumble.
I baked it, for 40 min. at 365º, covered with foil.
After 40 min. I removed the foil and baked it for 10 more min. to brown the top. I spread 7 pats of butter over the top, before returning it to the oven for 10 min., but that's optional. (I was concerned that it might not be moist enough.)

Delicious and super easy! You could make this with any leftover bread product and any fruit that you have on hand - fresh, canned, frozen, whatever. If it's an unsweetened bread, you'd just use a little more cinnamon sugar.

REVIEW: Rod just said this was the best healthy/sweet thing I'd made in the last 6 mos. YAY!

 

[DeniseM]

GROWING: I have a small herb & lettuce bed that I keep under bug/shade netting all summer to prolong the growing season. It works remarkably well! Today I harvested Dill (it's done for the year) Basil (just cut it back - it grows like a weed and I will have plenty all summer) Cilantro (I just cut it back, it may or may not come back) + 1 head of Romaine lettuce. In the area where I pulled out the dill, I planted more lettuce and radishes for later in the summer. It's supposed to be 106º tomorrow and the next day, so I also did some extra watering.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the dill in the picture on the right is about 3 feet tall, so I harvested a lot of herbs! I'm going to dry the dill for pickles, salads, dressing, etc, and chop the cilantro and basil in the food processor (separately) and freeze it in ice cube trays, and then store in freezer bags in the freezer. This is a super easy way to store a lot of herbs, and when you need some for whatever you are cooking, you just drop in a cube of herbs for a fresh taste.

My herb & lettuce bed looks rather funny, but it works so well! It gets so hot here, plus we have cabbage loopers and they LOVE lettuce and herbs. And yes, those are binder clips - I use them all over my garden to hold things in place. To get into the bed, I just unclip one panel while I work, and then clip it back on when I'm done. In each corner, there is a 5 ft. wrought iron rod driven into the ground to support the netting.

 

[slip]

I'll find out in a few hours, what survived and what didn't during our trip. Stay tuned.

 

[DeniseM]

Jeff - Have you considered putting it on a automatic waterer?

 

[slip]

Jeff - Have you considered putting it on a automatic waterer?

My condo is on the second floor so I don't know how I would be able to do that.

 

[DeniseM]

Oh - no outdoor faucet, I see.

 

[slip]

It was starting to get dusk by the time I checked my Greenstalk yesterday so I took pictures this morning. We sure weren't used to it being light until about 9pm in Wisconsin. It's about 7:15pm here in Hawaii.

Anyway, I had some casualties and some things doing really well. Some things were affected by not getting some sun. I go out and spin the Greenstalk to make sure everything gets some everyday.

Others were affected by lack of water. Again the back plants didn't get as much of any of the rain.

We had three Strawberries. One is definitely gone. The other two were wilted pretty bad. I did water them yesterday and this morning they looked better so we are hopeful that two will come back. We planned on getting more of these also. We had about 10 pockets that I planned to plant when we got back.

We have one Green Pepper that is still doing well but it looks like something us eating the leaves. We had two other pockets with smaller Peppers and one probably won't make it and the other may come back.

We have a Cherry Tomato plant that got bigger and has Tomatoes. We were surprised to see two red ones. We will pick those today. The plant was a little wilted last night but it looked better this morning after last night's watering. I watered and used Miracle-Gro this morning.

Another Tomato was a little wilted but it grew and has bunches of Tomatoes. It is big enough now for me to add my other plant support that I got from Greenstalk. I only had one on there when I left.

This last one I need ideas on. We were given a Sage plant and this thing more than doubled a few weeks after I planted it and now that we ate back it doubled in size again.

How do you cut these back and what are some ideas that I can do with Sage?

I also have some more soil. I didn't have some of the pockets filled enough. I didn't plant those but I'll add soil before I plant.

Here's some pictures from this morning. We did get our usual morning shower this morning too.

 

[DeniseM]

WOW! I can't believe how big some things are!

 

[slip]

WOW! I can't believe how big some things are!

Yes, I may have to add both of the extra plant supports that I have. We'll definitely be eating Tomatoes. I hope I can get the peppers going.

We have some lettuce and beans to plant too.

 

[DeniseM]

Peppers are slower and they like a lot of sun. You can hand pollinate their blossoms with a small clean paint brush to help with pollination, you just go from blossom to blossom and gently swirl the center of the flower.

 

[slip]

We picked the two Cherry Tomatoes. Nice Fresh, Homegrown taste. I counted over 15 tomatoes on the other plant. All close to as big as these Cherry Tomatoes.

 

[DeniseM]

I have not tried this, but I saw a YouTube video in which a woman only watered her Green Stalk once a week, using a deep watering technique. This might work for you when you go out of town. Her plants looked pretty bad, so take it with a grain of salt. But you could try it as an experiment when you are home, and see what you think.

VIDEO:

 

[slip]

Peppers are slower and they like a lot of sun. You can hand pollinate their blossoms with a small clean paint brush to help with pollination, you just go from blossom to blossom and gently swirl the center of the flower.

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check for blossoms on those. I didn't check those yet.

 

[slip]

I have not tried this, but I saw a YouTube video in which a woman only watered her Green Stalk once a week, using a deep watering technique. This might work for you when you go out of town. Her plants looked pretty bad, so take it with a grain of salt. But you could try it as an experiment when you are home, and see what you think.

VIDEO:

Mahalo, I'll check it out. No trips planned now until Kauai next May. We decided on the mainland in Five more years.

 

[DeniseM]

Jeff - They way your plants are growing, they are probably due for a little fertilizer. I like to use a liquid organic fertilizer, mix it in a 1/2 gallon of water, and pour it into the top basin, and then water as usual. What is the large leaf plant at the top of your planter?

 

[slip]

Jeff - They way your plants are growing, they are probably due for a little fertilizer. I like to use a liquid organic fertilizer, mix it in a 1/2 gallon of water, and pour it into the top basin, and then water as usual. What is the large leaf plant at the top of your planter?

I did use some Miracle-Gro yesterday. That large leaf plant is Sage. I was given that and know nothing about it.

Any ideas on how to cut it back and what and how to use the Sage for or with?

 

[DeniseM]

With most herbs, you can cut them back and harvest the leaves all season long. I'd cut it back to about 6 inches (or longer if it looks more attractive longer), wash the leaves well, and air dry them. If you have a salad spinner - they work great for washing herbs. Pick the leaves off the stems, put them in the salad spinner, fill it up with cold water, and spin. Then remove the inner basked, pour off the water, and spin dry as usual.

I know you are limited for space, but you could lay them out on a towel on a baking sheet in the oven to dry (oven turned off.) In your high humidity it may take a couple of weeks? After they are completely dry, put them in a zipper bag and crush them with a rolling pin or a large can of food, then store in a small jar or sandwich bag. Currently, I have my dill harvest hanging in the kitchen in net bags. I like the net bags because they collect any falling herb leaves and protect the herbs from bugs and dust. But I hate to keep telling you to buy more stuff! The oven will work just as well.

Going forward, you may not want to keep harvesting sage, so you can just trim it to an attractive length and discard the cuttings, to keep the sage as a decorative plant in your planter.

Sage is very popular with poultry - might be good with fish too. I see lots of recipes using sage on the internet. Google: fish with sage.

 

[slip]

With most herbs, you can cut them back and harvest the leaves all season long. I'd cut it back to about 6 inches (or longer if it looks more attractive longer), wash the leaves well, and air dry them. If you have a salad spinner - they work great for washing herbs. Pick the leaves off the stems, put them in the salad spinner, fill it up with cold water, and spin. Then remove the inner basked, pour off the water, and spin dry as usual.

I know you are limited for space, but you could lay them out on a towel on a baking sheet in the oven to dry (oven turned off.) In your high humidity it may take a couple of weeks? After they are completely dry, put them in a zipper bag and crush them with a rolling pin or a large can of food, then store in a small jar or sandwich bag. Currently, I have my dill harvest hanging in the kitchen in net bags. I like the net bags because they collect any falling herb leaves and protect the herbs from bugs and dust. But I hate to keep telling you to buy more stuff! The oven will work just as well.

Going forward, you may not want to keep harvesting sage, so you can just trim it to an attractive length and discard the cuttings, to keep the sage as a decorative plant in your planter.

Sage is very popular with poultry - might be good with fish too. I see lots of recipes using sage on the internet. Google: fish with sage.

View attachment 95098

Mahalo for the tips. I will try the drying and the oven first. I plan to plant Dill and Basil too. We'll see how those go before I buy anything else.

I'll Google that and try it with fish and chicken next time we make it. Kim heard about using it for tea also so she will check on that too.

It looks like the Strawberries are coming back. The peppers are looking better this morning also. I counted over two dozen tomatoes now. The sizes range from a pea to the Cherry Tomatoes we ate yesterday.

I'll be planting more this week and hopefully we can find more Strawberries at the Saturday Market.

 

[DeniseM]

Dill and basil grow really well for me, but in our hot, dry climate, the dill goes to seed in June. Which is OK, because dill flowers/seeds are used in pickles and all kinds of other things, so I harvest the whole plant. I dry it in 6 inch pieces, instead of pulling off the leaves, because I like to put sprigs in jars of refrigerator pickles, or bottles of home made salad dressing. Basil grows like a weed and as long as you keep it watered, it will probably grow year round for you. I use basil the most in my cooking, because I throw it into anything that is tomato based. Young, small leaves are also delicious in salads. It is easy to grow from seed, and 2 pockets of basil will produce all the basil you can ever use. Basil comes in a lot of varieties, and colors and some are very decorative.

 

[slip]

Dill and basil grow really well for me, but in our hot, dry climate, the dill goes to seed in June. Which is OK, because dill flowers/seeds are used in pickles and all kinds of other things, so I harvest the whole plant. I dry it in 6 inch pieces, instead of pulling off the leaves, because I like to put sprigs in jars of pickles, or bottles of home made salad dressing. Basil grows like a weed and as long as you keep it watered, it will probably grow year round for you. I use basil the most in my cooking, because I throw it into anything that is tomato based. Young, small leaves are also delicious in salads. It is easy to grow from seed, and 2 pockets of basil will produce all the basil you can ever use. Basil comes in a lot of varieties, and colors and some are very decorative.

View attachment 95105

We got some Dill and Basil seeds for free with our Greenstalk orders. I'll start with one pocket each. I know we would use the Basil and we'll experiment with the Dill.

I would do Cilantro too but Kim hates it so I better not. if I find more Pepper starters at the Saturday Market, I'll get a fee more of those too.

Since most things made it through the trip, I know we'll get a harvest now. So far I'm very happy with it and I still have one more plant support if I need it.