"Gardening’s real when so much of the world ain’t."

Gardening’s real when so much of the world ain’t-- Loretta Lynn (April/May 2016 AARP magazine)



Horse trough raised garden

Some people don’t like having an overabundance of garden produce, but I dream of such a problem—it makes cooking and eating fun and creative experiences.  Years ago when I was teaching school and enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Tennessee, I had part ownership of a large vegetable garden.  We were inundated with spinach and Swiss chard.  I had never even heard of Swiss chard!  This was before the internet so I pored through cookbooks hunting for suitable recipes.  I remember a chard and Parmesan cheese bake, but I’m not sure what else I came up with.  Other people in the house also had cooking responsibilities so they probably fixed “messes” of mixed greens and corn bread, and we all ate well.

I’m originally from a small town located in a wide valley between mountain ridges in Southwest Virginia.  Many people there agree with Loretta Lynn and still plant a garden, and harvest time inevitably brings forth an abundance of squash.  You would be hard pressed to enter a home that didn’t have at least one loaf of zucchini bread in the freezer, waiting for a new neighbor to move in, a friend to fall ill, the birth of a baby, or a bereavement.   Zucchini bread covers it all.

When I had an overabundance of zucchini in grad school, thanks to the largesse of a friend (as it was before I moved into the big garden house), I co-hosted a party that was billed as “Tribute to the Zucchini.”  I made zucchini Provençal, stuffed zucchini, zucchini dipped in a beer batter and fried, and zucchini bread, to name a few of the dishes. 

 A few years ago, I spearheaded the planting of a small garden at the Early Head Start Center I supervised.  Our successful crops were cherry tomatoes, okra, cucumbers—and zucchini.  When I bought the plants I didn’t realize that most of my staff only ate yellow squash and had never even seen a zucchini.  That meant that I had all the zucchini for myself!  I made a stacked squash casserole; zucchini corn bread, zucchini chocolate chip cookies, oven “fried” zucchini and, of course, loaves of zucchini bread. 

Zucchini chocolate chip cookies

Last week a friend gave me a bunch of Meyer lemons so I fixed black-eyed peas, sautéed Swiss chard, roasted red potatoes tossed with lemon juice and olive oil, and lemon corn bread.   

As you can see above, currently my garden is a raised bed, actually a horse trough, supported by a frame so it is modest in size.  I hope this experiment produces something edible.  If not, like Blanche Dubois, I’ll be depending on the kindness of strangers, or friends, to share their oversupplies with me.

Thinking about Herbs

I'm sitting here eating a piece of rosemary bread with honey, thinking about herbs.  I didn't make this bread, just baked it, but lately I have been contemplating cooking with herbs, all because of the third book I've read as part of my Foodies Read 2 Challenge.  Susan Wittig Albert's An Unthymely Death is one of those books that I've had sitting on my shelf for awhile.  I had read a little bit of it but laid it aside and forgot about it. As I gathered books from my library for the Foodie Reading Challenge, I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to complete it.

Albert, as mystery lovers will recognize, is the author of 21 mysteries featuring China Bayles, a former criminal defense attorney and current proprietor of a herb shop, Thyme and Seasons, and a tearoom, Thyme for Tea, that she owns with her best friend Ruby Wilcox who also features prominently in the herb series mysteries.  Albert has other mystery series, too, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter and the more recent garden club mystery series.  She writes a series with her husband under the pseudonym, Robin Paige; and she has written 60 Youth Adult Books, in addition to several nonfiction books.

A former English professor, Albert is, to state the obvious, a multi-talented and prolific author. 

An Unthymely Death fits in with the China Bayles series.  It is a collection of short mystery stories featuring China and Ruby, interspersed with numerous sidebar facts about herbs, herbal recipes and craft ideas featuring herbs.  For example, there is a mini history of mustard, a listing of herbs for a tea garden, as well as herbs of the Bible, instructions on how to make a tussie mussie, and scores of recipes.  Albert is also the honorary President for 2012-2014 of the Herb Society of America.  To read more about herbs and the herb society, Click Here.   She also has an excellent website with lots of links and information about herbs on it.  Wittig's About Thyme website gives recipes and a lot of fascinating facts about herbs.  To view this website and find more herbal recipes, Click Here.

Two recipes I want to try:

Faerie Blossom Cookies

1/8 cup sugar

1/4 cup fresh lemon-basil leaves, packed down

1/4 cup fresh lemon balm leaves, packed down

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 cups flour

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease two baking sheets.  In a blender or food processor, process the fresh herbs with the 1/8 cup sugar and set aside.  Using your electric mixer, beat butter or margarine until creamy, gradually adding the 3/4 cup sugar.  Add egg and lemon juice and blend.  Add herb-sugar mixture, then flour, 1 cup at a time, beating to blend thoroughly.  Shape into one inch balls and place two inches apart on greased baking sheet.  Dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and flatten each ball.  Bake until golden brown, about 8-10 minutes,  Remove to wire racks to cool.  Makes about three dozen.

 

Rosemary Caper Tapenade

2 small (6 or 8 oz) jars of oil-cured black olives

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup tiny capers (nonpareil) drained

2 (2 oz) tins flat anchovy fillets, undrained

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 cloves garlic, minced fine

2 teaspoons finely minced fresh rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon dried

Pepper to taste

Pit the olives and place in a blender or food processor.  Add olive oil and blend.  Add capers, anchovies, lemon juice, garlic, and rosemary.  Blend until smooth (or, if you prefer, still slightly grainy).  Taste and add pepper if you like.  If the spread is too thick, add additional olive oil.  Refrigerate several days for best flavor.  Serve at room temperature.  (To store, pack in a large-mouthed jar and cover with olive oil.  Cover jar tightly.)

There's only one thing standing in my way to culinary prowess with herbs--my current herb garden!

Umm, this is my current herb garden, the planter outside the back door
and it's empty--no seeds sprouted.



Once Upon a Time: The Greek Myths Made Real

I finished book 3 of the Once Upon a Time challenge several days ago, but I've had little time to post about it.  The actual title of the book is Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real, published in 2005 by Nigel Spivey.  Spivey, a British academic teaching at the University of Cambridge, obviously believes in the value of a classical education and he is willing to help the reader achieve that goal.



Nigel Spivey

 Spivey divided his collection of classic Greek tales into five parts:

• An Early Childhood of the World--the story of Gaia, Mother Earth, and Ouranos, the sky; Prometheus and Pandora; Demeter and Persephone
• Heroes in the Making that recounts selected heroes' stories--Herakles, Theseus, Perseus, and Jason and the Argonauts
• War about Troy
• A Hero's Coming Home about Odysseus' wanderings and adventures
• The Stuff of Tragedy that tells of the fall of the house of Atreus.  This final section is the only one I don't recall from my own Liberal Arts Education, which admittedly did take place some time back.

Spivey's version of the myths has elements of a bodice ripping romance, although a disinterested tone is maintained throughout.  Spivey doesn't take himself too seriously as the purveyor of the classics, but the gods were a bawdy and vindictive group of individuals, and these stories illustrate that repeatedly. 

The Kirkus Review felt that Spivey's collection was appropriate for the young adult market who have been reared on TV and sensationalism.  Songs on Bronze probably would serve as a good introduction to the myths, but I felt they may work better as a refresher for someone like me who had to study drier versions of the tales years ago. 

I read the whole book while pedaling away on my stationary recumbent bicycle, thus, combining my physical education with my classical education in true Greek fashion.  Spivey has also written a book on the ancient Olympic games.


The small room where I ride my bike also doubles as a potting shed and is one of
my favorite rooms in the cottage (though it looks too busy in bottom photo).

View from the "bike" room--the shade dappled trellis and fountain.
It will soon look much more lush as two plants grow down
and the others grow up!