Black-Seeded Simpson (Lettuce) & Romaine Lettuce

Broccoli & Red Sail Lettuce

This is the time to start your seedlings for planting in April. Since it’s still chilly here in the Northeast U.S., the first planting should be cool weather vegetables. I selected Butterhead lettuce, Spinach, a red leaf lettuce, Romaine and Black-Seeded Simpson. In addition I’ll be planting broccoli.

Creating seedlings is easy and fulfills the A.D.D. minimum daily requirement of getting dirt under your fingernails. You’ll need seeds, seedling tray and soil. The seedling tray is your typical flimsy plastic tray and the soil is Jiffy-Mix® Seed Starting Soil.

Before filling the plastic trays you might want to cut them into smaller sections and place them in small aluminum trays which makes it easier to find a spot for them on your windowsill. (See below) You then fill the little plastic trays with soil, place one or two seeds in each pod and used your finger to push the seed into the soil. Warning! Each time you put a seed or two on the top of the soil push it down immediately. If you do not you will find that it is almost impossible to differentiate the seed from the soil. (Yes…I speak from experience. )

I used a piece of masking tape to label each grouping of seed pods. Be sure to do something to label the pods because you will certainly forget, usually within fifteen minutes, as to which seeds are in which pods. After you’ve finished putting seeds in the soil, take a measuring cup and carefully water each seed pod. (You did put the seedling tray into another tray to catch the water that dribbles through…right?) Don’t drown them. Just get them moist. When you are done you can place a piece of cellophane over them to help keep in the moisture. (See below) Water them every two to three days.

Check back here in ten days or so for a “progress report” on the seedlings.

“There’s nothing easier or quicker to make than a good little sauce. All you need is a pan to deglaze (the one you roasted your bird in), and some liquid — wine or stock; even water will do in a pinch. The pan will still have all the tasty brown bits of meat and caramelized stuff clinging to it. Extra flavorings are nice — shallots, wine, stock, herbs — but you don’t even really need them.”

For the full article see: Deglazing: It works like magic - Los Angeles Times

That small patch of dirt with the blue tarp in the middle (there are lawn chairs hiding under there) will become a vegetable garden in less than a month. It doesn’t look like much of a vegetable garden right now but contrast it with some of the pictures below which are from last year and from this same small patch of dirt. So even if you don’t have much land to work with you can still have a very productive vegetable garden.

 Eggplant

Broccoli

What To Plant 

I’m writing this on March 11, 2008. It’s still a bit chilly in New York (okay…it’s freezing cold…I admit it). However by early April you can start to plant some cool weather vegetables such as lettuce and broccoli. These plants will have reached the end of their productive cycle by the time the weather goes from cool to warm to hot.

There are many varieties of lettuce with different textures and very delicate flavors. If your only experience is with Iceberg Lettuce then you’ll definitely want to try some of the more interesting varieties such as Black-seeded Simpson or Ruby. Even Romaine tastes better when it is homegrown. 

My family and neighbors were ecstatic over the broccoli I had grown so I’ll certainly grow broccoli again. Since I only have broccoli seeds I’ll start the seeds around the end of March. They’ll be ready to grow into the ground by early April. Be warned. Those little tiny broccoli plants grow REAL LARGE so give them plenty of elbow room.

So, get out there and get in the dirt. It’s a wonderful break from the winter doldrums.

Source: West eats East — chicagotribune.com

Marinade: The liquid foods marinate in. Marinades always contain some acidic liquid like lemon juice or vinegar to tenderize the foods, and may contain spices or herbs to add flavor.

Ziploc® Bags: A popular brand of plastic bag characterized by its distinctive method for closing the bag, essentially zipping it like a zipper.

Zip It: Spoken by Doctor Evil.

Now that we’ve differentiated marinate from marinade, Ziploc® bags from Zip It, we can speak intelligently about this oh-so-simple method for marinating your foods. Simply stated, use a Ziploc® bag.

How to Zip It (your food, that is):

1. Mix marinade in a container.
2. Place food to be marinaded in the Ziploc® bag.
3. Pour marinade into Ziploc® bag.
4. Gently squeeze out some of the air in the bag and then seal the bag.
5. Toss and turn the bag a few times to swish around the food and the marinade.
6. Place bag in refrigerator.

Some of the Reasons to Use this Method are:

• The marinade is more evenly distributed around the food.
• It’s easy to store in the refrigerator.
• You don’t have to search your cabinets for a container and matching lid.

Chicken marinating in balsamic vinegar

Here are Other Ziploc® Bag Ideas:

1. Before you go on your camping trip, premix ingredients you need for your morning pancakes and put it in a Ziploc®. See Zip-lock Bag Ideas for Outdoor Cooking. (And go here for health and nutrition information on chocolate chip pancakes.)
2. Here is a list of twenty five other uses for Ziploc® bags, like kneading dough, storing your pantyhose and using one to create an instant funnel.
3. And be sure to visit Ziploc® Central at http://www.ziploc.com/.

THE METHOD

1. Start with a peeled cucumber.
   
2. Slice the cucumber in half.
   
3. Take a melon baller (a tablespoon would work too) and gently scrape out the seeds. If you use a melon baller, use the smallest amount of pressure as you scrape out the seeds so that you don’t accidentally split the cucumber.
   
4. Your seeded cucumber should look something like this:
   
5. It’s really that simple. When we get to the Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki sauce, then you’ll know why you need to remove the cucumber seeds.

Tzatziki and Cucumber Trivia

1. Wikipedia on Tzatziki
2. Making Tzatziki
3. Wikipedia on Cucumbers
4. A (very small) tribute to my last homegrown cucumber for 2007

When the weather turns cold I start thinking about soup, the “magical” food that needs only a handful ingredients and water. For the A.D.D.er, soup is another one of those cook-it-and-forget-it dishes. You can’t hurt the soup by leaving it on the stove for too long.

One note about the photo above. When people think of French Onion Soup they think of a bowl of soup with a one inch thick layer of cheese on top. If you need to control your intake of dairy products there is no harm in using just a few slices of cheese. This fulfills the basic French Onion Soup requirement needed for flavor and cheese stringiness. However, if you are still 20 or more years away from clogged arteries then you can create a thick layer of cheese by filling the bowl with broth till it is very close to the top and then placing enough layers of cheese across the top till you’ve sealed it up. But before you can add all that cheese…let’s first make the soup.

INGREDIENTS

Quantities below make enough for about three bowls of soup.

• 1/4 cup of butter or margarine
• 1 large yellow onion
• 32 oz beef broth
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• 2 or 3 Beef bouillon cubes (optional)
• At least 4 oz of Gruyère cheese
• 1 baguette (in a pinch…use Italian bread)

DIRECTIONS

1. Slice up the entire onion into long pieces. (See Slicing Onions)
2. Melt 1/4 cup of butter (or margarine) in a large saucepan (3 or 4 quart size).
3. Saute the onions until they are limp and translucent.
   
4. Add the beef broth, water and wine. If you want a stronger flavor, add the bouillon cubes. (I skip the cubes in order to keep the total salt content down. The beef broth itself has a high sodium content.)
   
5. Simmer for 45 minutes.
6. Place a 1/2 inch thick slice of bread in the bottom of an oven-proof crock or deep bowl (these bowls are not expensive and have other handy uses…like for chicken soup. See Set of 4 Onion Soup Bowls.).
7. Ladle the soup into the bowl. The bread will rise to the top. When the soup is near the top…stop.
8. Cut at least four thin slice of cheese and lay them on top of the soup (the floating bread will help to keep them up).
9. Place the crocks in an oven heated to 350 F degrees and wait till the cheese melts (7-10 minutes). Alternately you can place the crocks under a broiler so you get a restaurant-like melted and brown cheese “seal” on top.

VARIATIONS

1. Add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.
2. Skip the cheese altogether. The soup is great all by itself.
3. Use grated Gruyère cheese. This will give you the cheese flavor and may help you to cut down on the quantity of cheese.
4. Toast the bread prior to placing in the bottom of the crock.

Here is a brief histoire of le French Onion Soup.

Let’s start with a peeled onion with the black line representing the north/south axis and the gray line representing the “equator.”

The first cut (see image below) is along the equator.

The second cut is along the north/south axis. In the photo below, I cut in half the bottom half of the onion. Notice the light brown “nib” indicating the north/south axis (the black line in the very first photo).

Take one of the halves and flop it onto its side (see photo below) and start cutting.

The slices are made on what is left of the “equator.”

If needed, you can cut these semi-circles into smaller pieces.

A note about the color of the photos: Photographing an onion, which is almost translucent, against the background of a white cutting board turned out to be a formidable task. Therefore, the images have been manipulated to enhance their contrast. Despite noticeable visible differences from one image to the next, I certify that it is the same onion used in all of the photos. The differences are a result of digital manipulation. Additionally, I certify that no onions were hurt during the making of these photos.