My First Garden

I've been talking about growing some vegetables of my own for a while now, and had an idea of how I wanted to do it. I got started with research early and was able to set up my first vegetable garden this year. I hope it turns out, cause it was a ton of work!

First, getting the ground ready was the toughie. Luckily, with all the rain the ground was nicely saturated so it was easy to dig and till the ground in the area that I saw had good sun most of the time (obviously not in picture below!).

Then I wanted to have a small garden to start with. I found a 4x8 garden "kit" at Home Depot for less than $100. If I tried to build myself, it would have been a hot mess and well over $100 due to mistakes. This was really easy to build and took me about 15 minutes total!

Not pictured, but still essential to the project, adding soil. RESEARCH, read the reviews, its the best advice I can give. This is still really brand new, so I don't have my review yet, but I chose an organic soil that had rave online reviews.  I put a couple of bags down, watered, raked, then put another bag down, watered and raked. I kept doing this until I thought there would be plenty for the plants to root in. I added around 8 inches high, with my 32 sq ft boxes. I used about 7 bags.

Now to the good stuff!  I got my starters from a local greenhouse and they all had convenient detailed instructions on how far apart and how deep to plant them. I just followed the instructions as best I could, so help a girl out and cross your fingers and hope I did it right!

These are my pots with the herbs we use most!

Cilantro

Mint

 Basil

And here are the garden choices. I went for 'relatively easy' to start with for my first time, so it might look way simple, but you gotta start somewhere, right!?

Lettuce

 Cucumbers

 Summer squash

 More summer squash

 Bell peppers

 Tomatoes

 Cherry tomatoes

 More lettuce! I heart salads, and I think I will feel a huge sense of accomplishment if I get to eat a salad that I personally grew! I also have some jalapeños that I didn't take pics of (it would have been a picture of soil, so sorry!)

 All together now:

Checking out the goods.

That's it for now, a cage for keeping the critters out is built and I owe that to my sweet Joey and his best friend Scott. They know how to keep a gal happy!

If you have a garden, what do you have growing?

Cena

Whenever we have a super busy couple of weeks, it is sometimes frustrating to not get to hang with your person for an extended period of time. Usually a night out is just what we need to get back on track with one another. One thing I love most about Joey is that he asks me out on dates all the time. Seeing a text "Can I take you to dinner tonight?" is a sweet note that brings a smile to my face. It's the little things, people!

Our most recent date night, at Cena (pronounced Chen-a), was so much fun. Cena is located below Mussel and Burger Bar in JTown, formerly The Place Downstairs. Walking through Mussel and Burger Bar and not dining there is REALLLLLY tough. Totally worth it though. The meal at Cena  was simple, authentic, rich, decadent, and comforting.

We always like to take to take the waiter/waitress advice on what's good, what we should order, how much. Our waiter was excellent. He suggested for two to get an appetizer, primi, and secondi (first and second course). Perfection.

Since I know there are like 2 of you reading, I am going to overshare and tell you all about our meal. You're welcome!

Appetizer

If you read - "smoked poached egg" on a menu would you immediately say, yep, that's my app! ?. I wouldn't! But, we were being adventurous- Gotta try it!

It was brought out in a closed jar, and opened at the table to let the smoke out. The jar was filled with ricotta cheese, maple, walnut and sea salt. Say what??? Yeah...it sounds different, and it was! The poached egg was on top, and to break it open and mix with all the other items in the jar was part of the fun of eating it. I would have been happy eating it off a spoon right out of the jar but they serve it with grilled crostini. We kept saying, wow, this is one of the most delicious things we've eaten! Immediately followed by "This is the most unusual appetizer I've ever had!" I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. SERIOUSLY! Interestingly enough, it is the only non-italian item on the menu- it is an appetizer from the restaurant that formerly resided there and patrons who loved it made a fuss about it going away. Thank you, former patrons! I see the reason why it made people hangry if it had been taken off the menu!

Primi

Perfect Poached Egg under that cheese blanket.

We had the carbonara. ALL THE CARBS - yahhhh. No, but seriously, this dish was RICH, decadent, and one of the most simple dishes I have had in a restaurant. No fuss, just the pure goodness of the spaghetti, poached egg, shaved parmesean and BACON! And you know the buttery goodness was all up in there too.  Mixed all together, there was silence at the table because we were too busy fighting with our forks over who got the next bite. And the gentleman that Joey is, let me have the satisfaction of breaking the egg and watching all the yolk cover the pasta.  I want to recreate one day. I know it won't be as good no matter how hard I try.

Secondi

Just whispering sweet nothings to my meal.

For the main dish, we were cray. I was like, why don't we try the sea bass? Joey was cheering inside - but threw in the "you know that's the whole fish?" comment. Ack! Sure, why not? In a former life, where I cooked boxed lasagna kits to impress a date, never would I everrrr order the whole fish. Why not try to live a little! In my 30th year, I will have the whole fish, and enjoy it, dammit! It was simple, cooked perfectly, and had me giving myself a high five for stepping outside the box. Served with the crispy skin (I wanted more!) along with kalamata olives (shocker, I liked them!), sundried tomatoes, capers, artichokes, and more. Was awesome.

Our friend was hungry in the afterlife.

The Ultimate Side Item

Help me. I want to eat the creamy polenta with mushrooms for every meal. Holy crap this was good. You can SEE the butter pooling on the edges. Dreamy.


Dessert was tiramisu.

Picture quality enough to win awards, don't you agree? ;-)

They called it Cenamisu - their twist on the classic.  Seriously yum that was a bit different with crunchy chocolate balls (I don't know how else to explain other than mini whoppers without the malt flavor? Maybe mini crunch bar balls? I don't know.) Great ending to the already great meal!

At the end, we were stuffed and happy, isn't that what matters most?

Side Note: I know it may be annoying to have your dinner date take pics, but who cares? I don't, and lucky for me, Joey doesn't either. He has one rule: No Flash! So dark and grainy pics - you shall receive!

Favorite Kitchen Tools

"I've got gadgets and gizmos a plenty...." -my girl Ariel

via

Errrmmm, moving on.... Here are a few of my favorite kitchen gadgets/tools!  I figured I should start making some notes on what I like and don't like to use on the regular and tell all 10 of you about it!!! Which, by the way, thank you for humoring me by reading this blog.

I'll start with the big stuff: These are the mac-daddy kitchen essentials. Technically, you don't need these but they sure do make life a lot easier when cooking for your fam.

1. Kitchen Aid Mixer. LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTY COLORS THEY HAVE NOW. Y'all know what's up with this. I use this at least 3 times a week for pizza dough, pasta dough rolling and mixing, any excuse I have for using it, I usually do. I'm really interested in the ice cream maker attachment for it. Can you imagine!?!?!? I'd really be hurtin for a personal trainer then.

 via 

2. Food Processor - This hefty guy makes hummus, date bars, sauces, etc. It's the bomb. I use this weekly for my hummus (way cheaper than store bought) that I take to work (will post recipe soon). This chops veggies, slices potatoes, and so much more. There are some neat attachments I haven't tried yet, but my hibernation begins during winter when I only leave the house for work, groceries or wine, so that's probably a good time to try them out, right? I will report back. 

Image via google

3. A Great Set of Knives A great chef, ahem....like myself, should always have a great set of knives. We have this set of Henckels. The key to a great, efficient knife is keeping it sharp. When you have a dull knife, you will know, that crap is majorly annoying. You technically should get your knives sharpened every few months or so. Which reminds me....

Also, I know these aren't the best of the best kind of knives around - but they work great for us and we try to take good care of them- which reminds me again....need to get these sharpened...

Image via Bed Bath and Beyond

4. A Non-Stick Pan. Seriously, one of the better "As Seen on TV" items I've encountered. I've said before, we are suckers for any "As Seen on TV" items.  This pan cooks eggs like a DREAM. Omelettes, no problem. Pancakes? Check. This is a great pan for $20. I'm sure there are *better* pans out there, but this one fits us just fine!

Image via Target

5. Spider This guy is a dream for deep frying, pasta retrieval, grabbing veggies from boiling water, etc. I recently picked this up after a marathon browsing session at Williams-Sonoma. I could spend days in there, just can't spend all the monies. Boo. But, for $15, I had to have it.

Image via Williams-Sonoma

*update: I realize I say "like a dream" alot. I'm not even sorry about it.

These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty!

"These pretzels are making me thirsty!"  - Everyone that matters on Seinfeld

Let's get to it. My dear friend LP was at dinner with me last month and suggested I try to make these. So, here we are! Thanks LP for the inspiration!

WAIT, I forgot something…. remember, time = glasses of wine while I cook. (Disclaimer: I drink cheap wine, so sometime in the future, sure, I could possibly critique Trader Joe's vino, but no where in the near future).

I don't have recipes in my head just ready to be shown to the world! Yep, my trusty google is my BFF and the first recipe to pop up was a soft pretzel by Alton Brown.

SOLD! He is the bomb.com and knows what he is talking about. Good Eats! is my favorite show on Food Network, ever. Hashtag bringbackgoodeatstoprimetime anyone? I tend to go off on a tangent, click that link above to make these the right way...

Let's make some pretzels. I changed one thing about this recipe because I read the first 10-15 comments about the recipe to see if something worked better for the layman like myself. So always read the comments if you want to know what people really think of it! Please laugh with me at these comments. See what I did differently below:

Here's the ingredients & recipe:

1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water (hot to the touch)

1 tablespoon sugar (Totally important food for the yeast)

2 teaspoons kosher salt - this is where I deviated from the recipe: I put the salt in with the flour and butter.

1 package active dry yeast

22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups - this amount worked perfectly
 
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted 

Vegetable oil, for pan and bowl (approx 4 tbsp)

10 cups water

2/3 cup baking soda

1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water (pretty spot on)

Pretzel salt, soooooo I am using Kosher Salt because, well, I just am, okay? I couldn't find it at the 

grocery. 

Please, this isn't that boring. Wake up! Realize your worth that you are able to make pretzels from scratch and they aren't just frozen and hung in a spinning hot box waiting for you after a serious dip in the pool. (IDEA: I need to make slushies!)

Please follow the directions except for the salt part. Cause these are DEELISH.

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.  (this is really really obvious, you can see it foaming) Add the flour and butter (read the directions, i almost put in non-melted butter) and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. (these two speeds are totally accurate)

Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl (i just wiped out with a paper towel) and then oil it well with vegetable oil (2 tsp). Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes (I left for about 1:15 because life happens and I had to fold laundry) or until the dough has doubled in size.
 During this step, I drank a glass of your favorite vino.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper (this is very important!) and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.


In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.
Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving. 

 See the difference after an hour? It's awesome. Yeast (in cooking) is awesome.

 Cut in 8 sections. Pretzel pizza anyone???

After rolling into a snake,

Whip it into this. I can't actually tell you how, just roll and twist into a pretzel. Trust, you will be able to do this. :)

THEN: this is soooooo important. Boil in the bubbly baking soda and water for 30 seconds.. I set a timer. Really, 30 seconds that is IT. Its so the most important thing ever in the world for your pretzels.

DO IT NOW. But, one at a time. You will see that they stick together. 

They are still uncooked, but are shaped. :-)

 Well, well, well…. after spreading salt and a bit of egg yolk (per directions….)

These beauties are the end result!

When I told J that I was making pretzels, he stopped for 2 kinds of mustard. Clutch. One sweet (for me), one spicy (for him). Huh, fitting for our opposite personalities. ;-)

SUCCESS! Challenge accepted! Challenge accomplished.

What's your challenge for me? Joey just said Challah…..holla, ain't no stopping me, copy written, so, don't copy me! (yeah, I said it!) Challenge….Accepted!