Some garden pics

The last two years seemed really long- first there was graduate school, then there was pregnancy and then came the baby. The full time job was present throughout. Not all pure delight! But I have now graduated and I am thinking of making cupcakes and roasting a chicken and making some kaalan.

Our garden has totally overgrown. Perennials have overtaken the whole garden. Weeds are flourishing. We are slowly reclaiming it. It’s not like we can go out an garden with abandon. The baby needs to be placed somewhere. We put him in the patio with his toys but can’t be left alone. Don’t get me wrong..it’s not like we were great gardeners before the baby, but we could garden at will. Even without any care, there are spectacular flowers on show. Imagine if they were cared for!!

My first attempt at a cupcake from here. Thanks Archana for the help.

If you have organic rose in your garden, make some gulkhand.

Pick of the evening: Salad Greens

Our first pick of the season from our little veggie patch.

Two types of lettuces, arugula and pea shoots.

Tossed it with some lemon vinaigrette. Arugula was my favorite.

Sending this over to the Grow Your Own (GYO) event at the Daily Tiffin.

Baby food: Ragi/Millet

These are soaked in water, drained and ready to be powdered.

It is recommended as a great food for infants. It is supposed high in calcium for the growing bones.

We brought back lots of ragi flour from India which finds its way into baby food and also puttu (like this). I know there are other ways to use this flour, but haven’t ventured to try any.

To make porridge for the baby, just mix the flour with water till runny. Cook over medium heat till it is cooked and thick. We don’t add any sugar. I save extras in single serve containers in the refrigerator.

Clams- Kakka irachi

This picture was taken while we were in Kerala. The clams come shelled which is a major convenience.

Kappa

Go Obama!

What a remarkable victory for Obama! Hope to see some real changes now!!

Grow Your Own- Green Zebra

This year I was decided on planting some heirloom tomatoes. We planted Brandywine and Cherokee tomato. Along with these we also planted Green Zebra, a roma tomato and a grape tomato plant. The only plant that bore fruit so far is the Green Zebra.

Green Zebra is a tomato cultivar with characteristic dark green and yellow stripes, although there are newer variations that blush a reddish color instead of yellow when ripe. It is slightly more tart than regular tomatoes, and it is an unusually early breed.

Green Zebra was bred by Tom Wagner of Everett, Washington, and first introduced in his Tater-Mater Seed Catalog in 1983. Given its recent origins, it is not an heirloom tomato, despite often being mistakenly designated as one.  ( Link )

For lunch we made sandwiches inspired by this recipe. We used green tomatoes, basil and chives from our garden.

They were easy to make and so yummy. Since the Green Zebras were still not ripe, I did a quick saute in olive oil with salt and pepper before they went into the sandwich.

The ricotta spread was also a breeze to make. We had an assembly station and  from there the sandwiches went onto a skillet and I used a cast iron lid to flatten the sandwiches. We had fun making these!!

This goes to Jugalbandi who is hosting Grow Your Own event. Grow Your Own is a twice-a-month blogging event that celebrates the foods we grow or raise ourselves and the dishes we make using our homegrown products and is a brainchild of Andrea.

Related: Fried Green Tomatoes.

Click – Yellow for Bri

The click theme for this month is yellow. Yellow to highlight the fight against cancer. There is a fundraising over at Jugalbadi for Bri who is fighting breast cancer. More about it here.

This is a cabbage thoran made almost 2 years ago. It is a favorite of mine and is my entry.

Sending along with the dish are some flowers from our garden for Bri. Hope you feel better, Bri.

Click-Au Naturel: Lettuce

Weather is perfect outside and the time is right for gardening. We haven’t done much this year as far as gardening goes. We did get a patch ready and dropped in some salad green and radish seeds. Few days later we saw our neighborhood squirrels digging deep into our veggie patch. There were big holes in the carefully prepared soil bed. Despite all that some seedlings are popping up. Let’s see what happens.

These are lettuce from last year. Just dropped the seeds into some organic soil and we started harvesting them as soon as they were ready with few leaves. We transplanted a few into the patch and they grew to a decent size. Nothing like eating greens from your own garden.

The theme for click this month is Au Naturel. And this is my entry.

Sprouting Lettuce – Entry for Click

Spring 2008

Spring 2008 is here…

The crocus are blooming….

Snow drops are showing their heads…

More snow drop pictures…

More pics as more blooms happen.