Pickled Jalapenos

This picture was taken back in June and the plant has grown like crazy since then!

I planted a little plant.  A little Jalapeno plant.  I watered this plant, I loved this plant…this plant grew and grew and then become a tree.  It supplied me with all the jalapenos a person could want…and then some!!!!  LOL!!!

I really didn’t think that this plant would survive the searing summer sun and temps but it has thrived.  Thrived to the point that it has a 2 inch trunk and peppers popping out all the time!  And these are hot.  Very hot peppers.  Last week I ended up with so many I wasn’t sure what to do with them  I just can’t keep up with simply eating them.  So I decided to pickle them.  A favorite topping of mine on nachos!

I am submitting this post to this months Grow Your Own (GYO) event because I really did grow this jalapeno tree!!!

Pickled Jalapenos (Recipe from The Purple Foodie)

Ingredients:

about 20 jalapenos, whole or sliced
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 tbsp peppercorns
2 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic, lightly pounded
2 tbsp coarse sea salt
1 tbsp sugar

Directions:

1. Pack the jalapeños in a clean glass jar.
2. In a saucepan, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. Pour the hot pickling liquid over the jalapeños and let it rest for a few hours. Shake it up a little so that the peppercorns are evenly distributed.
4. For a crunchy bite, you can start nibbling on them within a few hours. As for softer texture, let this sit for 4-5 days.
5. Keep refrigerated for up to two months or can it according to jar manufacturer’s instructions.

***I added some onions to the jar and the top to help keep the jalapenos under the pickling brine!

Oven Dried Tomatoes

I have definitely been blessed this year with an abundance of tomatoes. The tomato plants that I planted in the fall have served me well (that is the tomatoes that great, big, huge mutt hasn't eaten!) but my CSA has also been sending me some. As an added bonus when I visited Jaden from Steamy Kitchen I left her place with a bag of sweet little juicy tomatoes.

Well, all of these tomatoes have been adding up on my counter and I had to do something with them before they rotted. The large ones were processed using my food mill and frozen for sauce and the little ones I had decided to dry them. I knew that sun drying was not going to work out but had heard that you could easily dry them in the oven. I consulted my favorite resource...Twitter! Follow me here! and Sandy from Eat Real gave me exactly what I was looking for.


I washed and dried the tomatoes. Threw out any of them with blemishes. I first did the Roma's I had. Sliced them and tossed them in olive oil and salt and pepper. Placed them on a baking rack and turned my oven on to 225 degrees. And I cooked them...and cooked them. I checked on them about hourly and turned them over half way through. I think in total they probably cooked for about 3 hrs.

The next ones I did were the cherry tomatoes. I halved them tossed them with the olive oil, salt and pepper and threw them in...

Almost done...

Done:

These are so delicious! I am storing them in the fridge right now covered in oil. I figured to help preserve them this is the best way! I have been using them on salads and in a pasta sauce that I will post later. They can be used in the exact same way as sundried tomatoes!!!

Oh and a Happy Belated birthday Mom...did you get the flowers I sent (just kidding!)?

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Jalapeño Poppers finally...

Jalapeño Poppers

I have been wanting jalapeño poppers for a while now. Every time somebody mentioned peppers or I saw jalapeños it was all I could think about. I wanted the yummy ones that we used to be able to get in the bars. Filled with piping hot cream cheese and just a little zing of hot pepper. These were way better than that.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. We had set aside the morning to finally get our garden in. I am really hoping that we aren't too late but we'll see. We planted a variety of tomatoes and some zucchini, peas, arugula, basil, parsley, oregano, cilantro and just for fun some sun flower seeds. Every year I swear I will keep a diary of what works and what doesn't but I never, ever do. When will I ever learn...

Doesn't look like much yet but just you wait and see...

It was after that when I decided that we were having poppers for lunch. After hunting around on the internet for that perfect sounding recipe I decided that I liked what was in my head a bit better.


Jalapeño Poppers

Ingredients:

2 packages (8 oz) of cream cheese, softened
1 cup of cheddar cheese, grated
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
12 jalapenos, split lengthwise, seeds and membrane removed
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 box panko breading

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, and cheddar cheese Spoon this mixture into the jalapeño pepper halves.
2. Mix the flour with the black pepper, salt, paprika and garlic powder
3. Put the milk and flour mix into two separate small bowls. Dip the stuffed jalapeños first into the milk then into the flour, making sure they are well coated with each. Allow the coated jalapeños to dry for about 10 minutes.
4. Dip the jalapeños in milk again and roll them through the breadcrumbs. Allow them to dry, then repeat to ensure the entire surface of the jalapeño is coated.
5. Place in the freezer to chill for about 20 minutes before frying.
6. In a deep pot, heat the oil to 365 degrees F ( 180 degrees C). Deep fry the coated jalapeños 2 to 3 minutes each, until golden brown. Remove and let drain on a paper towel.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Tomato and Green Bean Salad

Looks like summer huh?

Last night for dinner we were just going to have burgers and a tomato salad but as I was cleaning out my fridge yesterday I found some green beans that I had forgotten about in the crisper. I had bought them over the weekend so they were still in great shape. I decided to make a simple salad using my garden fresh tomatoes. This salad turned out great. I had seen it years ago in one of the food magazines but can not for the life of me remember which one! Seeing as I didn't have a recipe to follow I just went by memory and taste. Everyone loved this and it tasted just like summer to me!

Tomato and Green Bean Salad

1 box or bag of green beans (however you get them at the market), trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
3 lg tomatoes, chopped and seeded
1/3 cup olive oil (I think I would use less next time)
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
4 garlic clove, chopped fine (use more or less depending on taste)
1 Tbsp fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

• Cook the beans in boiling water for 3 - 5 minutes or until tender crisp. Drain and transfer to an ice bath. Once shilled drain them well and place in a large bowl.
• Mix the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and stir into the beans.
  
• This can be served immediately or chilled in the fridge until ready to serve.

Fresh tomatoes for the salad

Basil is getting a little leggy so I think it is just about done! It is getting way too hot and dry here to grow anything!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

A walk through my yard.

My first lettuce harvest!

I took you for a short walk through my yard a couple of weeks ago but so much has changed. The temperature here has risen and we no longer even have much cooling at night. The lowest it has gotten in the last week was 65 degrees. Not very cool at all. Next week looks like it is even higher with a low temp of 70! That is still cool compared to our July, August and September temps.

Needless to say my little container garden is struggling already. I have completely lost my cilantro. I am going to try to get some to grow inside. Hopefully I will get better results. My basil is still doing alright and my tomatoes are starting to ripen. I got my first taste of a tomato and some lettuce from there last night and it was incredible!!!

This is the second tomato to have ripened. They taste so amazing!
Lettuce in desperate need of thinning

My basil is still going strong but the cilantro is done.

My avocado tree has lost all of its fruit but for 3. The tree is pretty young yet so I am happy to have 3 on it. My mango tree has gone nuts. It must have about a 100 starts on it. Hopefully I will be able to get 1 or 2 off of it this year.

3 is better than none!!!

Crazy mango tree. In the next couple of weeks it will drop most of this fruit and only grow what the tree can support!

Onto some food. I have been trying to make beet chips for several weeks now and have yet to find the best method. I use my mandolin to slice them nice and thin. Coat them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme. Place them on a parchment lined sheet pan, pop them into a hot 400 degree oven. I cook them until they start to curl about 20 minutes. Turn them over and keep cooking them. This is where I am running into trouble. Some of there edges burn before the center is cooked. What am I doing wrong? Should I use a lower temp? Thinner slices? Any ideas???

I love my Mandolin!

Beautiful, bright beets!

Any ideas or tips would be appreciated!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Lunch?

I was making my lunch today, after spending the whole morning cleaning up messes, and I looked at it and thought "Summer". I was instantly transported to a beautiful July or early August day up in Canada. I guess it is the smells of the garden fresh basil and the nice juicy, ripe tomatoes that does it.

This is probably my favorite way to eat fresh mozzarella and tomatoes and I know sometimes this is called a "Caprese Salad". I like mine really uncomplicated so I hesitate to call it a Caprese. I like mine with tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, salt and balsamic vinegar. That's it. No olive oil, no capers, no pepper. Just the bright, light flavors of summer.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Farmer's Market Day and our small little garden!

Malta garlic, basil, tomatoes, green beans, shitake mushrooms, bell peppers, jalapenos, zucchini, summer squash, patty pan squash, long and skinny eggplant, cilantro, spinach, onions, red scallions, lettuce, and finally swiss chard!

Pretty, Pretty, Nasturtiums for our salad!

A couple of weeks ago we decided that we were going to plant a small garden to help me get over the upcoming ending of the Wednesday Worden Farm Farmer's Market at Fisherman's Village. I decided that if I could at least get the herbs to grow through the summer I would be so very happy.

We ended up doing 3 small containers. 2 with herbs and 1 with tomatoes. But while we were getting all of this at Home Depot (they actually had heirloom plants available) I saw something really cool! They had a Praying Mantis eggs casing that they were selling for less than $5!!! Just the cool factor of this was great but to think that they may eat all of our bad vegetable and herb eating critters was even better. We have been waiting and waiting for these to hatch and finally today as I was walking out of the house to go to the farmer's market I saw them!!! I am so sad that the girls didn't get to see them but at least I got pictures and they didn't have to see the lizards that were feasting on them as fast as they got out???!!! (Speaking of lizards-one just scared the SH** out of me by jumping onto my computer tower???!!! I yelled at it to leave so I hope I have another minute or two before he comes back!)

See the size of the pod?

Baby Praying Mantises

Tomatoes, basil, purple basil, Greek oregano and parsley

Everything seems to be growing well and we can move them around as the days get hotter. I have some blooms on the tomato plants so that's a good sign!


****I am cutting this short because that freaking lizard is in here somewhere-not that I don't like them. I like them just fine but OUTSIDE!!!!!!

Well of to decide what to have for dinner...bet it will contain a lot of vegetables!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

My Farmer's Market haul and new compost bin!

Crazy looking huh? Romanesco - cauliflower

Fresh Produce from the Farmer's Market

Okay now I have said it before and I will say it again and again...I am a city girl, was born a city girl and will always be a city girl, but...I have one problem. I really like good food! I have found that they best way to get some really good food is to grow it myself or find some really good sources for it.

Doesn't sound very city girl like huh? I have learned though that there is nothing in the world like a nice ripe tomato plucked from your garden, still warm from the sun and just waiting for some sea salt and a knife. I have found a really good source for organic produce at the Worden Farm Farmer's Market. I have also been able to locate a great source for goat milk...I am still hunting the fresh eggs but the cage free ones from the store are satisfying for now! But having my own garden again will make it all right again. I think we may have to make it bigger for all the things I would like to try.

Somehow though we missed this years growing season which starts in late August, early September. We went through a couple of surgeries last year and just our regular day to day chaos got in the way. But regardless of that I wanted to be completely ready for this year coming up. I made T. buy me a composter!!! This is not our first time with one but this is the fanciest one we have ever had. No turning the pile using a shovel. No worrying about critters getting into it. By starting it right now we can have the dirt all cooked and ready to go by the end of the summer. My brand new composter

It sound like a perfect plan right? Oh, but our garden needs a lot of work this year!!! We need to take the weed barrier up and get rid of the empty tomato cages, maybe expand it. Maybe we should tackle that this weekend. My sadly neglected garden (and really old dog (16 yr old black lab!!!)

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com