Tomato Harvest

A couple of my heirloom tomatoes finally came around!
The big guy on top is an Italian Heirloom, in the top corner is a handful of Cherry Romas, the Russo Sicilian (look at the seeds on this one - it was like cutting open a bell pepper), and a Black Krim that I probably picked a couple days early but couldn't wait for :)

Plantings

An updated shot of the vegetable garden..including my new tomatoes from Seed Savers Exchange!

The broccoli is starting to grow like crazy..every day it's bigger and prettier!
The onions and garlic are also doing well, and I've harvested some of my lettuce already. Very tender..great flavor.

Tomato alley!
The two larger plants were given to me and have been in the ground for a couple weeks now. All the smaller plants (eight, to be exact) came from Seed Savers Exchange on a recent trip to Decorah. Lots of varieties, lots of colors :)

The last few days have also been busy planting around the house.
I bought several Korean boxwood at Home Depot a while back because they were good sized and marked down like crazy. I thought I could keep them alive for a while until after I had painted the trim and finished the front stoop.
..turns out I was wrong.

So, once we started planting a few, we had to plant A LOT. We planted the boxwood and that bushy willow you see in the corner here....then we went to my grandma's and dug hostas....then we went to the grocery store and bought a few more....then mom went to Wal-Mart and bought a few more!

Including this one - I think it's called Mouse Ears..it's supposed to stay small like this while spreading out.
I've already got about a dozen varieties of hosta in the ground..and I didn't know I wanted to plant anything just yet ;)

Knoxville Nationals

As I’ve mentioned before, Knoxville happens to be the Sprint Car Capitol of the World.

What is a sprint car, you might ask? Watch and see!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXApxIMRRjM

Though I don’t go to the races often, they are actually a lot of fun. Especially when you’re surrounded by 50,000 ‘new’ Knoxvillians for the ten days of the Knoxville Nationals.

This year was the 52^nd Annual Knoxville Nationals – it’s basically the Super Bowl of sprint car racing and attracts people from all over the world. Literally.

http://sprintcarhof.com/Pages/Home

The sport is pretty big across the Midwest, but has a large following all over America, Canada, and especially Australia and New Zealand. So, once a year in early August, they make their pilgrimage to my hometown and hang out with us for a few days. It’s not only really exciting racing, it’s a great excuse to party, stay out late, and generally let your hair down.

People from all walks of life make Knoxville their summer vacation. It’s not at all unusual to find the newest Ferrari, Mercedes, or Porsche parked next to the oldest, rustiest junker you’ve ever seen. Lake Red Rock fills up with expensive boats and jet skis, and local businesses bring in more money in a few days than they otherwise would in months. It’s a pretty exciting time to be in town, and a wonderful opportunity for us to show ourselves off to the world.

http://www.redrockarea.com/events/lake-red-rock/

I had a few friends come to town again this year, and – for the first time – they got to stay at MY house during the Nationals J

The weekend started out innocently enough..a little Thursday harvest.
The 'Atomic Red' carrots were really good! Very carrot-y.

Things quickly descended into a booze-fest.
Exhibit A: Gin Bucket. Bottle of Gin, two-liter bottle of Sprite, juice concentrate (whichever flavors you like)
This was one of two made.. for the night.

No weekend would be complete without a margarita stop..



..followed by a brewery stop. Followed by a stop at the track.
Needless to say, no pictures were taken at the track..



Farm Box Soup

Did I tell you I signed up for a CSA membership?

Well, I did.

For those who haven’t heard of it, a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture and basically gets me my percentage of all the crops harvested from a local, organic family farm! I’ve read a lot about them, and known people here in town who have bought shares before, but never been in a position to do it, myself. Not having a kitchen will do that..

Ahh..the good old days. Er..

I took the plunge this summer, and have been very happy with it so far! I only ever really know what I’m going to get on the day I go pick up my box full of goodies..the farmers send out an email to everyone letting them know what will be in the box, new developments around the farm, how they’re doing at the market, etc. It’s a really cool way to stay in touch with what’s happening around you, AND the farmer gets a much larger chunk of your food dollar than they would if you bought the same produce from the grocery store.

It’s also way fresher (picked right before it goes into the box), local (less fossil fuel to transport AND it helps you develop higher tolerance to local allergens..a big selling point for me because I really suffer through the fall allergy season) and chemical free (never a bad thing).

http://www.bluegatefarmfresh.com/

The cost of a big box of goodness once a week throughout the growing season was $460 – kind of a big chunk of change to drop all at once, but it’s not that much more expensive than buying the same foods from the grocery store over the same time period.

Plus, it’s delivered to the bookstore near my house (http://thenextchapterbooks.wordpress.com/) so I don’t have to drive across town..I can pick it up on my walk home from work! It also forces to me try new things..otherwise I waste food and money, neither of which I want to afford to do right now.

Anyway – I got my ‘farm box’ on Tuesday and took it home to see what I had to work with.

Two different kinds of summer squash, snap peas, Swiss chard, new potatoes, hard-neck garlic, lettuce, beets, squash blossoms, assorted herbs, and a few other things. You can purchase an egg option, extended herb option, honey, or goat cheese through the program..I went with the base share this year.

Another cool thing: I haven’t been exposed to a lot of the things that come in this box. I’m learning so much, and experimenting with new things all the time! Up until yesterday, I had never eaten or cooked with a summer squash before..I decided I like them a lot!

Anyway, as I said, I had no idea what I would do with some of these things so I decided I’d make something up: Farm Box Soup..or CSA Soup, which rolls off the tongue nicely.

I large-diced the new potatoes, squash, and a few carrots I had in the fridge and spread them out on a big sheet pan. Didn’t even peel anything..very colorful..very hippie-healthy. Olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast these at about 375F until they get to be fork tender..kind of al dente, I suppose.

In the meantime, I started warming a quart of store bought chicken stock that I mixed with a little homemade chicken stock I had in the freezer. I plopped a few cloves of farm garlic into the stock to infuse a little more flavor..and let that come to a slow boil. The homemade stock used all kinds of herbs and you could really smell them all at this point.

(http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-stock-recipe/index.html - I never follow the recipe completely. She uses way more chicken than I do..because she makes millions of dollars. Also, what the hell is a parsnip going to add? Cost.)

I pulled the roasted vegetables out of the oven and scooped them into the stock to soak up all that flavor. I also mounded some chard and leftover fresh spinach into the pot and stirred that in to wilt.

At this point, I also pulled out a couple old parmesan cheese rinds from the freezer. I keep the rind to use for sauces or soups because there’s a ton of flavor left in them. I salted and peppered a bit and let everything simmer away.

About this time, I minced up some green onion for a little more flavor and pulled some pesto (that I made with the basil from last week’s farm box) out of the freezer and dropped those into the pot.

Cubed up some homemade bread from earlier in the week..use the leftover olive oil on the roasted vegetable sheet pan and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Parmesan and toast in the oven. Homemade croutons are better than anything else you’ll ever eat. Ever.

After all of this, I still wasn’t totally sure it would be any good. Like I said, I’d never had a summer squash, and I’m still pretty new to chard. I had tasted things along the way to make sure I wasn’t going to screw up a huge pot of vegetables and I felt OK about things..but whoa.

Anything with chicken soaked croutons, though..right?

This stuff is good!

And wicked nutritious. It’s so different from the chips and salsa dinners with an M&M dessert I had eaten the previous days..

The difference food like this makes is really amazing. I don’t get to sleep as much as I’d like, but I don’t feel tired when I eat this way. There’s so much good stuff in this soup it makes me feel...good!

Anyway..highly recommended made-up soup here. Exact proportions should be decided on-the-fly..that way you can’t blame me if it doesn’t turn out right J Give it a go!

"Roughing It"

When I titled this entry, I knew I was completely full of it. I am in no way roughing it, as the name would imply. Though I have to make do without some of the things you might expect in a house…namely, a kitchen.

The kitchen has been somewhat delayed because my cabinet maker may or may not be going to prison. Which is interesting..

Initially, we thought we would build the cabinets ourselves because my former roommate/Dad has experience doing it. Then the jailbird..excuse me: potential jailbird stepped in and said he could do it better, faster, cheaper..blah blah blah. I don’t know how many times I’m going to fall for that line.

To (hopefully) put you at ease: he isn’t going to jail for butchering children or small animals. (For your own future reference, there is apparently a limit to the number of times you can get pulled over while driving and reeking of whiskey.) I trust the work he does..just not the personal choices he makes. My main concern was that he shows up when he said he was supposed to and do the work he said he was going to do. Now that I know that won’t happen, I get to regroup: He called the other night and said he didn’t want to start on it this close to his court date.

There is no shortage of interesting circumstances, is there?

I’ve looked at buying stock cabinets from IKEA, but I’m just not sold on that idea. I know they’re reasonably good cabinets for their price, but the styles aren’t what I’m looking for and the sizes are what they are..No customizing.

I’m also going to look at purchasing cabinets from a home store. To this point, I haven’t looked at stock cabinets at all because I’ve been on the build-my-own track for a while now.

Anyway, as I said, I’m doing without a “kitchen” and have since made my own. While washing dishes in the bathroom sink isn’t as convenient, the cooking setup isn’t horrible.

I have a big cutting board and a toaster. Who needs more?

I made a roast beef with vegetables and mashed potatoes the other night, and an apple crisp Monday night. Anytime I’ve ever lived on my own I’ll make these big family-sized meals and eat the leftovers for a week. Most of the time I’ll make two different meals so I can eat one thing for lunch and the other for dinner. That’s my solution to cooking for one. Plus, if someone comes over around dinner time, I have plenty of home-cooked food to offer them!

My "pantry" in the laundry room all ready to go. I've never had a spot like this before, and so far I'm really, really liking it!

Oh! Tomorrow is my birthday – the big 2-5. The number itself isn’t that big of a deal..I won’t be paying that additional fee to rent a car. But I never rent cars anyway..  No, this birthday will be a big one because I’ll be spending it with friends in my new, old house J