We should have a "What are you cooking?" thread. Now we do.

[davent]

Dress em up. Found some size appropriate slider buns for our 100g  meat patties. Bacon, Shropshire blue, sauteed onions & mushrooms, garden greens, Costoluto Genovese tomato, home garlic dills, sweet relish, ballpark mustard, Hellman's.







We've used pork loin to make porchetta and never been very impressed, this time went with a ~3lb pork belly, the winner version by far. Smoke ~4 hours usind some cherry and bundles of sage/rosemary/thyme, same as the those in the stuffing, rotiserried after that to crisp things up.  Italian Romano beans and Bequinho peppers (Brazilian) from the garden, stirfried, potato salad with a Hellman's based dressing...







Have a great week!
dave

[davent]

Gave up apartment life years ago so we could have a garden to munch from. Today harvested the first of our Lucid Gem tomatoes, perfect for a blt sandwich but first up are a couple Berkeley Tie Dyed, no bacon in the fridge at harvest time. Both tomatoes developed by Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms, his tomatoes would be worth growing even without their outrageous appearances, great tomatoes.

https://wildboarfarms.com/








dave

[davent]

Leftover smoked pork belly porchetta, my wife admitted to disappearing the cracklings... tacos, best tasting tacos to have emerged from our kitchen so far. Salsa cruda using backyard tomatoes, yellow Biquinho peppers, green onions & garlic, to that added lime juice & crumbled Arbol chili. Shredded cabbage, pickled red onion, cilantro and feta cheese to finish and, fresh squeezed lemonade, perfect.







Once the weather turns to crud again i may get a chance to finish a pedal, so close but yet so far...
dave

[alanp]

Aren't tomatoes supposed to be red? I thought when they looked like that, it meant they were going rotten?

[EBK]

Aren't tomatoes supposed to be red? I thought when they looked like that, it meant they were going rotten?

Heirloom tomatoes come in just about every color imaginable, it seems. Some extremely beautiful cultivars out there, and also some ugly ones (which are beautiful in their own way, really). My wife buys brown ones when she sees them.  My uncle used to be fond of growing Cherokee Purple ones. 
Those Berkeley Tie Dyed look like Bloodstones.  Quite cool!

[davent]

Aren't tomatoes supposed to be red? I thought when they looked like that, it meant they were going rotten?

Heirloom tomatoes come in just about every color imaginable, it seems. Some extremely beautiful cultivars out there, and also some ugly ones (which are beautiful in their own way, really). My wife buys brown ones when she sees them.  My uncle used to be fond of growing Cherokee Purple ones. 
Those Berkeley Tie Dyed look like Bloodstones.  Quite cool!

Last year and this it's been a battle with the raccoons to get to the Berkeley Tie Dyed's first, they're are big and low on the plants, wouldn't be so bad if they ate the one they started on but they sample and graze.




Another from the same breeder, Brad's Atomic Grape. We've had a really dry summer and you can maintain the plants okay but then we had a deluge of rain and these blew out with all the water suddenly available, not an issue with any of the other fifteen varieties we grow, these are all from one plant, raccoons have a go at these as well


dave

[EBK]

We always fought with squirrels when we tried to grow tomatoes and squash.  Same thing though.  They'd bite their way in and eat some of the seeds, but leave most of fruit behind.  For a time, we were able to grow tomatillos and peppers successfully, but we haven't tried to grow anything edible in several years.  Different season of life for now.  I'll enjoy gardening vicariously through your pictures. 

[davent]

Thanks Eric, garden has always been a good place to find some peace, this year more so then ever.

We were pretty good at deterring four legged furry creatures with deer netting/fencing supported by hoop across the beds, until last year and the arrival of rabbits, they easily snipped entry and exit holes through the netting and fed at will on a choice smorgasbord, fix the holes and the next morning repeat, this year had to make changes.

So far so good with the addition of low metal fences around each bed, combined with the hoops and netting we've kept all but chipmunks from getting into the beds (not an issue), the tomatoes however aren't protected, they're trellised so need other strategies to deal with that. Always a work in progress, always something new to contend with, always new things to learn, all good.
Take care!
dave

[davent]

Pasta night, use a ratio by weight of eggs:flour, 2:3, have done many a dough now following that and so far foolproof. Flour i use semolina/'00' in a ratio, again by weight, of 1:2, here a four egg dough. Someone had suggested adding some turmeric to the dough for colour and here tried going with a maybe an eighth of a teaspoon.

Simple quick sauce of halved cherry tomatoes, diced red pepper, onion, garlic, crumbled Arbol chili, olive oil, vermouth, basil, parmesan, grilled shrimp.











Take care.
dave

[davent]

A couple more new ones to try tonight and an old favourite. Chicken thighs marinated in olive oil, cider vinegar, garlic and rosemary, grilled over charcoal. Romano beans with crispy bacon & onions. Tuscan potato salad been making this one maybe once a summer for decades, no mayo... baby potatoes, red onions, garlic, cider vinegar, olive oil, ricotta cheese, salt & pepper, parsley, from our Moosewood library.





Have a safe one.
dave

[davent]

My favourite dawgs that i've found available in the neighbourhood, Kung Fu Dawgs.
My wife keeps it simple Cheese Whiz and yellow mustard, me pepperoncinis, sweet relish, yellow mustard...




Summer bonus. Take care.
dave

[davent]

In addition to a good sized bowl of Amish Paste tomatoes for sauce, picked a nice mix of tomatoes for everything else, Wapsinicon Peach, Costoluto Genovese, Lucid Gem, Amethyst Cream, Indigo Apple & Bloody Butcher, only have room for one plant each of the odd varieties so never swamped with those.




For salad used, a Costoluto Genovese, Brad's Atomic Grape, Garden Peach & Lucid Gem.




Take care!
dave

[davent]

Friday tomatoes = uncooked pasta sauce - tomatoes, garlic, greens onions & basil from the yard, ricotta, Arbol chili & olive oil from the market, salt & pepper, mix together serve on steaming hot pasta, top with more basil and parm. Pretty much another recipe from our Moosewood library.





Yellow biquinho peppers picked and pickled for weekend pizza.






Yard long Red Noodle Beans, but only a yard in name only, these are almost at 2', no ideas/recipes yet to put these to use in.



Have a decent weekend.
dave

[davent]

Any excuse to pick up more Shropshire blue cheese... Saturday night grilled pizzas.

#1 Mushroom Glory - mushroom ragu using portabellos, grilled-garlic-oyster-mushrooms, Shropshire & ricotta cheeses, arugula, balsamic glaze, olive oil.

#2 Cacciatore salami & chorizo, garden tomato sauce, some of yesterday's pickled peppers, bocconcini, Arbol chili, dried oregano, fresh basil, olive oil.

For grilling dough have always made it with bread flour but for these used "00" flour and will chase this for all future pizzas, better!








Two slices of the mushroom for later... cheers!
dave

[davent]

Tried out the 'Yard Long Red Noodle Beans' today for a first. Blanched, which i wouldn't bother with again, stir fried with lots of ginger, garlic and shrimp, simple sauce of Vermouth/Maggi/garlic chili paste or Sambal Oelek if you have it. Green onions, toasted sesame seeds & cilantro.

Thought the beans would cook up green but just went dark, reminiscent of cooking up squid ink pasta, not a colour i usually associate with food, but, it did taste really good, all present approved.

Salad of Lucid Gem tomato with supporting staff from the garden, going strong.









Hump day, halfway to the long weekend, take care!
dave