Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard
AKA
Granny's Garden Meals
Salads for the week contained mixed lettuces, celery, onion, tomatoes and radishes, fresh from the garden.
Saturday's chicken stir fry contained onion, celery, carrots and sugar snap peas, straight from the garden, along with sweet peppers and broccoli from the freezer (2011 garden). Stir fry sauce and noodles finished the dish. The vegetables were tender-crisp and delicious.
On Sunday, I found a pint of home made pizza sauce in the freezer. The sauce was made with tomatoes, basil, oregano, onions and garlic from last year's garden, and just the thing for a "from scratch" sausage pizza. I made the crust in the morning, using my food processor, and refrigerated the dough all day. I removed it 20 minutes before making the pizza. It was nice and crispy-tender. I served it with a lovely fresh lettuce salad, with a sweet and sour balsamic vinaigrette.
The first new potatoes, from the garden, were served for brunch on Monday. The flavor of the fried baby potatoes was good, fresh and earthy, not a bit like old store bought storage potatoes. Buttered cracked wheat toast, bacon, scrambled eggs (whole eggs plus leftover egg whites from making ice cream) and chilled mixed fruit completed the meal.
Two days of cold, rainy weather kept me from working in the garden, so we ran away for the day on Tuesday, and ate a big buffet lunch at a restaurant. We returned home in time for dinner, but since we weren't terribly hungry, Mr. Granny had some grilled tilapia and a baked potato and we shared a huge (that's a mixing bowl full!) fresh garden lettuce and green onion salad with hot bacon dressing. I added a few craisins and walnut pieces to mine. I usually pour off the bacon grease and substitute canola oil in the dressing, but I was in an adventurous mood so, to the dismay of our arteries, bacon drippings were used.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Wednesday's dinner came straight from the garden to the kitchen. Fried chicken breast strips were accompanied by buttered baby carrots and beets, and the new potatoes with onions were oven roasted in a foil packet. Not shown is the salad of fresh garden lettuce, radishes and celery, topped with home made ranch dressing made from fresh picked garden herbs; parsley, dill, chives and garlic. The fresh vegetables were so delicious, I didn't even eat the chicken! I did have seconds of everything else, but left room for dessert of home made strawberry ice cream (frozen strawberries from my 2011 garden).
.jpg)
Home made strawberry ice cream.
.jpg)
Mr. Granny said the home made ranch dressing was the best.
Ranch Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
Chives (about 1 Tbsp fresh, snipped)
Parsley (about 1 Tbsp fresh, chopped)
Dill weed (about 1 Tbsp fresh, chopped)
Garlic (1 clove, chopped)
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
The amounts of fresh herbs I used are approximate, I just chopped and didn't measure. The flavor was more pronounced after the dressing chilled for a few hours, so don't overdo the herbs! I combined everything in the blender and processed it until it was smooth.
Our hostess for Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard is Robin, from The Gardener of Eden. Be sure to check out her blog to see what others have been using from their gardens, pantries and freezers.
homemade ice cream....yummy!
ReplyDeleteTosh, I finally found a recipe we like for ice cream in the new machine!
DeleteThat looks so yummy. And ice cream! I couldn't imagine eating it right now. Last week sure, but it has been too cold this week.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, we're going through a spell of cold weather now, too. In fact it's only 46F this morning! It was 71 yesterday though, and I mowed the lawn while dinner was cooking, so a bowl of ice cream tasted pretty good.
DeleteMy goodness Granny! I want to live at your house! I'm going to try your ranch dressing recipe. I'm sure "The Italian" will just love it!
ReplyDeleteHey, where's the Strawberry Ice Cream recipe???
The recipe is in your email "in" box, Robin :-)
DeleteYou are the best cook AND gardener! I want to come live at your house. ;)
ReplyDeleteKitsap, I think I'm forgetting how to cook. It used to come so naturally when I had the kids at home, but Mr. Granny is getting so picky in his old age! I swear, either his taste buds have changed, or my cooking has gone downhill.
DeleteYour post seems to have had an effect on my mouth. It's feeling rather watery.
ReplyDeleteLOL, Sustainably!
DeleteYou are an inspiration! If we ate this well, I'd think I had reached perfection. Maybe my best plan is to move into that weedy house next door to yours. Hubby is great at weed trimming, and I'm pretty good with a lawn mower.
ReplyDeleteI'd go for that, Dianefaith! Especially if you used that lawnmower on my yard. I've been mowing with the self propelled, instead of letting Mr. Granny mow with the rider, because the rider doesn't have a catcher and I want the clippings for the garden. Yesterday when I mowed I really felt my age! It took me three sessions to finish, with a bit of sitting in between. That's what happens when we have 3 days of rain, with no garden activity. The muscles tighten up!
DeleteLook at you living on the wild side, using bacon grease! I love wilted salads with bacon grease dressing. Add some hardboiled eggs on top and it makes such a filling meal.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ranch recipe, I will have to try it out!
Prairie Cat, some times I just have the urge to live dangerously ;-)
DeleteI can't vouch for the dressing, as I don't like ranch, but the Mr. did the taste testing and gave it a thumbs up. The original recipe, that I found with a Google search, used dried herbs:
1 c. mayo
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour cream
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Wonderful spread of food and I just love that colorful basket of veggies!
ReplyDeleteJenny, after I got all those veggies washed and trimmed, I filled the basket to take them out to the patio table to photograph. I thought the basket full just looked so pretty! Too bad the carrots didn't show.
DeleteI see. So the key is to garden on a yearly basis. One after the other. Then you can reuse things from previous gardens to make delish food in the present. Got it.
ReplyDeleteStay @ Home, one should remember to actually use the produce from the previous year. The new zucchini is on its way, and the freezer still holds unknown amounts of 2011 zucchini. I did, however, freeze exactly the right amount of green beans. I canned too many pickles, but not enough tomatoes. It's all a guessing game.
DeleteYUMMY everything looks great!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mrs. P.
DeleteOh my gosh Granny! You've been doing a ton of cooking. My mouth is watering, especially for those new tomatoes!
ReplyDeleteJody, no more cooking than I usually do. I was just better about taking pictures of it this week!
DeleteWow you've been eating well! Everything looks so delicious.. especially that homemade ice cream, and salad, and stir fry, and I must stop because now I'm really hungry!!
ReplyDeleteJulie, I think we tend to eat a bit better when I have to blog about the meals ;-)
DeleteYour presentation is great. You should do a garden cooking show!
ReplyDeleteGardener, HA! I can't hardly keep up with blogging it, but thanks for the compliment!
DeleteHi Annie, Your meals look so yummy,yummy,yummy! Maybe I could take some cooking lessons! Could you e-mail to me the ice cream recipe too if you have time? I am running off the ranch dressing one to try. Mine is similar but yours looks so nice and creamy and thick. Nancy
ReplyDeleteNancy, I don't see your email address on your blog, but I'll be putting the ice cream recipe in next Thursday's post.
DeleteYou are eating very well Granny, Mr. Granny is a lucky man. That pizza looks awesome.
ReplyDeleteKris, it was pretty good, but I got the crust a bit too thick (dough was too cold). I like a really thin crispy crust. It was better the next day, heated up in the toaster oven!
DeleteBeautiful food! Yum Robbie:-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Robbie!
DeleteWill you adopt me Granny?
ReplyDeleteSpiderjohn, can you dig out Bermuda grass? If so, you're in ;-)
DeleteSuch a wonderful bounty. I envy you being able to grow lettuce and tomatoes at the same time. In the South we either get one or the other!
ReplyDeleteCoral, I did keep the lettuce growing all through the summer last year, but we had a cooler than usual summer. I can normally grow it fine through July though, then again in the fall. August is the most difficult month for my salad greens.
DeleteI just read this and it all looks divine. Love the from the garden plates and last yrs garden too! You are an inspiration as always!
ReplyDeleteYum, Yum and Yum. You are truly an inspiration. Strawberry ice cream? Do you have an ice cream maker? Recipe? I have one (in storage somewhere) and some berries from last year that need to get OUT of the freezer also. hmm. We had a bunch of garden meals this week too including salads, and lot's and lot's of meals with kale and swiss chard.
ReplyDeleteAmy T. (fleur), Yes and yes. I bought myself a gift of a Cuisenart ice cream maker a couple of weeks ago when Costco had them on sale for (I think) $27! Ice cream recipe coming in Thursday's blog :-)
Delete