Jenmenke

Road Warrior

salad

How much of a good thing is too much?

Garden Tomatoes.

Can you ever have too many?

Yes and no, is what I say. Yes, if you are buried under mounds of work and untended-to yard and garden chores. No, if you have all the time in the world. Like my kids seem to have…

nevermind.

I am told it is a bad year for tomatoes in these parts. In my little corner of the world, it isn’t so bad. Better than last year for sure, but not as good a a few years ago.

I think all the rain — records smashed here in Minnesota– has made them get the blight sooner for most people, though not for me. I struggle with that particular problem every year, no matter where I plant them, what they are mulched with, or how much rain we get. Blight just seems to be my lot in life.

I accept that.

Right now though, I’ve got tomatoes coming out my ears. I picked a full bowl yesterday.

And left at least that many more on the vine. Making salsa is out of the question. I have no time. Hopefully I will soon, but even if I did have the time, there is something about preserving garden surplus that just doesn’t sit well with me in August.

Why is that? The most I seem to be able to do is chop and freeze. Or, on a really good day, roast, puree and freeze.

One thing I meant to write about earlier in the season was the strange way the plants were sold by the nursery this year. I bought them from a different place than usual since I was so behind schedule and had to pick them up when I could find them. Sadly, I had no time for a special trip to my local grower. I found my main-stay Brandywine in a fairly large sized pot while shopping for flowers and bought two pots. Oddly, this nursery had allowed several seedlings in the same pot to grow. So instead of having one sturdy seedling, there were about six. My understanding has always been that this is a huge no-no, so I asked one of the people at the nursery and they said not to pinch any back, but to let them all grow. I’m still not sure if they knew what they were talking about, but at the very least, because I also planted a pot with a only single seedling, it would prove to be a fun experiment.

With pretty much no conclusion.

At this stage in the game, when compared to my single-seedling plants there isn’t much difference. I can’t even say for sure if the multi-seedling plants were more susceptible to the blight or not. That was my hunch, but I would guess, from looking at them planted all together, that blight damage is more a factor of proximity to another blight-damaged plant than to multiple seedlings in a single planting.

This is a very boring post, isn’t it.

Anyway, getting back to the title, “how much is too much”, it really didn’t refer to the harvest. It pointed back to the eating. How much is too much?

Is this too much?

Because that was my lunch yesterday. I decided to eat the split tomatoes before the fruit flies (curiously absent so far this year) found the leaking fruits. But there were three (!) split tomatoes.

So I ate them all.

Is that too much?

Is that gluttony?

I tempered it with some fresh moz. I love fresh mozzarella. Sometimes I think the tomatoes are just an excuse.

I also heaped the rest of my quinoa salad on the side. Which I thought I had already posted here, but I apparently did not. Or did I? I can’t find it. Can anyone help me resolve this burning question?

Anyway, this salad is SO GOOD! Make some today or as soon as the temperature starts to melt you. It keeps in the fridge for about 3 weeks.

I’m kidding. Not three weeks. More like 1 or 2. Just smell it for gawd sake. Everyone is so flipping freaked about about things going bad! Just SMELL IT! If there isn’t anything funky growing on it and smells the same, eat it and stop being so paranoid. I’m still alive. That should give you some confidence.

Or not.

Quinoa Salad with Fresh Anything

  • 2 cups quinoa, rinsed (skip the rinse if you are lazy like me)
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice (more or less to taste)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • various fresh veggies diced: onion, cucumber, tomato, sugar snap peas, asparagus, sweet peppers, fresh raw corn, etc.
  • 2T chopped fresh herbs: any combo or single addition of basil, mint, cilantro.
In a medium saucepan, add a film of olive oil and toast quinoa over medium heat for about 5 minutes it starts to smell good. Again, if you are über lazy, you may skip this step. It just adds a dimension to the flavor. Add 3 cups of water and 2t salt to pan and bring to a boil, then turn to low, cover and simmer about 12-15 minutes. Fluff and cool.
In a large bowl, whisk lemon juice and olive oil together. Add add quinoa and diced veggies. Stir in chopped herbs. Salt and pepper to taste. A stunning additions is — of course — diced, fresh mozzarella. Another thing I tried was left-over strips of warm flank steak. It was yum!

Exactly How Far Will She Go?

I wonder myself sometimes.

I bought this formerly lovely broccoli — I don’t know — a week ago? Two? Actually, now that I think about it, Michelle Sandquist bought the broccoli for me when her family came over for dinner last weekend.

Oh dear. I just looked at the calendar and realized it wasn’t last weekend it was the weekend before last. July 9th to be exact.

OK, so the broccoli was 15 “crisper days old” when I unearthed it and decided it was “just fine”.

Yes, it looks bad, but honestly, it tasted “just fine.” Not slimy at all. Just strangely brown colored…

I simply vigorously rubbed the brown nubbins’ (Morgan absolutely hates the word “nubbins” and so I use it just as much as I possibly can) into the sink…

and proceded with the recipe I intended to make two weeks earlier.

I’ve mentioned I’ve been busy lately, right?

This salad was served at who-knows-how-many graduation parties this spring. I have always loved it, saying “What IS the dressing on this? It’s SO good!” to many a hostess, only to be met with blank and/or incredulous stares.

Apparently, EVERYONE knows how to make this salad dressing except for me. But since I consider myself a cultured and experienced cook, I can’t admit that I truly am the only one in the dark. and so I share it with you today in case you, too, are broccoli salad clueless. (With some tweaks, of course). (Let me know in the comments if I really am the only one who didn’t know the wonder of combining mayo with cider vinegar and sugar)

Broccoli Bacon Salad

  • 1/2 cup light or regular mayo
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 head broccoli cut into small pieces. (I use most of the stem, too, but peel tough part off)
  • 1 small or 1/2 a medium onion, diced
  • 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
  • 1/2 – 1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
  • Lots ‘O Bacon crumbles (I used the stuff in the big bags at Costco, because it’s so easy)

Put broccoli, onion, craisins, almonds and bacon in a large bowl. Mix mayonnaise, vinegar and sugar together. Adjust to taste. If you like it creamier, add more mayo, sweeter, more sugar, etc. Pour dressing over ingredients and mix well. Serve at room temp or chill.

Try to disregard how awful mine looks. Trust me, it tasted just fine.

Keeping Up With the Beans

varieties of beans(and zuchini…)

I have a confession to make: my family & I hate canned and most frozen vegetables.

This poses quite a challenge for the whole local food movement because it disallows us from truly utilizing my garden’s bounty by canning and freezing the excess harvest. Come December, I hang my head in shame as I shop the produce aisle of Cub Foods purchasing plastic bags full of imported green beans. It is a serious shame. But isn’t it worse to slave away, steaming and freezing green beans that languish in the freezer, only to get fed to chickens in July? Tough call.

Anyway, because of the frozen food aversion, I give away a lot of my harvest. It is one of the only nice things I do with no ulterior motives. (Really.) I do still end up preserving quite a bit: raspberry jam, tomato salsa, I cook and freeze kale (it suffers none of the indignities that beans or carrots do when boiled and frozen), etc. Oh, and I pickled several pints of green beans this year, completely ignoring my notes from six years ago that said, and I quote, “do not pickle beans. no one eats them,” because I figured a lot can change in six years. But mostly I ignored the note because I have so many effing green beans. Aside from freezing them again — and notes from last year’s wasted frozen beans score a lot higher on my believability chart than the pickled beans from 6 years ago — I just don’t know what else to do with them! You wouldn’t believe how many of today’s fine UPS and FedEx drivers are uninterested in free bags of green beans! In addition, two large families I used to supply started their own home gardens. The nerve!

Anyway. I have never professed to be a good cook. I cook good. There is a difference. A “good cook” is creative and inventive. I cook other people’s recipes “good.” However, today I actually invented a recipe.

Green Bean Salad

I am calling it my KEEPING UP WITH THE BEANS recipe. Plus, I offloaded several zuchini into it, so that is an undeniable bonus. It also happily accepted cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and onion. I’m pretty sure that you could add just about anything — in vast quantities.

I will reiterate that last point: It uses vast quantities of garden produce. I say this because of how many times I have searched for recipes in order to use up some massive quantity of zuchini, for example, only to find that instead of four, 5 lb zuchinis, it calls for only 1/2 cup. Totally pointless. This recipe uses LOTS of beans. And since it’s a salad, you can keep it in your fridge for days and munch on it at will. Fatty finds this very handy, and I’m sure you will, too.

Twp important tips:
1) DON’T OVERCOOK VEGGIES AND
2) USE AN ICE BATH IMMEDIATELY TO STOP THE COOKING AND RETAIN COLOR & CRUNCH!!

prepare ice bath

I steamed the beans, corn and zuchini all together. I cut up 2 cukes, 1/2 large onion and as many cherry tomatoes as I had on hand. After that I thought “hmmm….” and added a can of garbanzo beans and bacon crumbles, which were both super good. I went scrounging for some blue cheese as the crowning glory, but alas, my hunk was no longer even blue. It was orange and greenish. And while I am a huge proponent of pushing the expiration envelope, even I have standards. I threw it out and chopped up the remaining fresh mozzarella I had, which was good, but blue would have been better.

For the dressing, I used about 1/4 c balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon honey, 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, then slowly whisked in olive oil until the mixture was thick and tasted good. I am guessing it was about 1/4-1/3 cup of olive oil. I added salt and pepper to taste. I tossed the dressing with the cooked, iced and chopped veggies, then chilled. Before serving, I sprinkled skinny strips of basil and mint over the top.

It was FABULOUS and GUILT FREE! Try it. And let me know what changes you made. Pine nuts? edamame? Comment!