Friday, April 23, 2010

Spring in the Garden - Part II


All of the lovely spring rains are making the garden flourish. And, in case you were not aware, not all of our garden is edibles, we have a lot of plants that are not. Over the last couple of years, we have been planting more and more California natives. Above is an image of a flower stock from one of our Coral Bells. We have a shaded area behind our garage/carriage house thing and it desperately needed some sprucing up with some vegetation. The only thing back there is a 70 foot Ash tree but the ground around it was barren. So, last year we started planting some natives. Some took and a few died but the Coral Bells have been doing great. Though this is the first flower stock that we have seen off of any of them.


More natives, this is an Indian Mallow (Abutilon Palmeri). This is located in our front yard. It took about a year for it to really come into its own but it's doing great now and can really handle the hot afternoon sun in the summer. It's drought tolerant and it loved by native hummingbirds and butterflies. It should continue to bloom all spring.


Back to the edibles, these are part of our new arugula crop.  We have two 4' long rows of these. Hoping that we will finally be able to harvest some by mid-May.


Well, our bush beans have really taken off. We have four containers of them. Our friend Beth named our first little sprout Timmy. Well, as you can see Timmy has a lot of friends. Sadly, we cannot remember which one is actually Timmy or may be...they can all be Timmy.


This is what happens when you think that your lettuce is really pretty and you cannot bear to harvest it. Instead, it bolts, starts to go to seed and looks like a tree. When gardening books say that bolted lettuce tastes bitter, they are not joking. It was nasty. So, lesson learned...harvest edibles when they ready. Or, like us, you will end up with lettuce for our compost instead of your dinner. 

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Oy Vey! So Much Matzoh!



After Monday night's Passover Seder, we had so much leftover matzoh that we were not sure what to do with it all. Then, I saw this great post on Salon.com about making matzoh brei. Not just any old matzoh brei but a french toast version. So, I can't resist and have to try it the next morning. Really easy, since it's just beaten eggs with a little milk and some broken pieces of matzoh all cooked up like scrambled eggs. Then you just add some maple syrup. Of course, I couldn't help tweaking the recipe and I added some cinnamon and nutmeg. Everything is much nicer with a little spice.

But, the experimenting did not stop there. Today, I made a Tex-Mex version. I added in some cheese (feta since I did not have any cotija) and topped it with sliced avocado and some hot sauce. It was delicious. I may just have to have it again tomorrow. Unless, of course, I will think of something new.