How Adorable! Gardening Inspired Cupcakes

This weekend, I’m going to help my mom make some cupcakes from her new cupcake cookbook, Hello, Cupcake! by Alan Richardson and Karen Tack. The ideas in the book are absolutely the most adorable things you have ever seen. While I am given to exaggeration, that was not an exaggeration. Most. Adorable. Ever.

The great thing about the recipes in the book is that they are “doable” by regular folks like me and you. You do not need to have studied under some famous, fancy pants pastry chef to make these cupcakes. The authors use everyday ingredients and easy to replicate techniques in ingenious ways. And lucky for me and you, they put them in a cookbook with tons of full color photos of every, single recipe.

Hello, Cupcake! costs less than $10. What more can I say? The book is cheap. It will make you look like a baking superstar. And you’ll be able to eat cupcakes when you’re done. Nuff said? Good. I’ll leave you with a few photos then…

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p.s. Don’t forget to submit a photo of your favorite indoor plant. If your photo is chosen, you’ll win a copy of The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual.

December 5, 2008 | Filed Under Book Review, Recipe | 10 Comments

Thyme Roasted Sweet Potatoes

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a recipe, mostly because I haven’t been cooking much myself. To get back in the swing of things, I will definitely be making up a batch of these potatoes this weekend.

This is a great go-to recipe when you want a more interesting side dish. You can cut up the potatoes and toss them with all the other ingredients the night before, if you’d like. Simply refrigerate in an airtight container after step two, then pick things up with step three 40 minutes or so before you plan on serving dinner.

Photo by su-lin

Ingredients

4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch-thick rounds
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions

Preheat oven to 450°F / 220°C
In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and toss.
Arrange potato slices in single layer on heavyweight rimmed baking sheet.
Place on top rack of oven and roast until tender and slightly browned, about 40 minutes.
Serve warm or at room temperature.

p.s. Thyme is a great container herb and can be taken inside for the winter if you live in a temperate climate.

October 24, 2008 | Filed Under Recipe | 6 Comments

Growing Mojito Machines

Okay, so they’re not exactly mojito machines in the sense of creating a great cocktail from thin air. But they are prolific providers of an essential ingredient in mojitos. What in the world am I talking about? Mint, of course.

Photo by jeepeenyc

The name “mint” is kind of misleading. There isn’t just one mint. There is spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint, Egyptian mint, and on and on. The great thing about mint, from a balcony gardeners’ perspective, is that it is best grown in containers. Mint will take over a bed if allowed to grow directly in the ground. But its shallow root system is ideal for being grown in containers.

Mint is super easy to grow from either a transplant or from seed. Here are some great varieties to try:

Chocolate Mint - The leaves taste like an after dinner Andes chocolate mint. If grown in full sun, the leaves develop a nice chocolate-colored tinge around the edges of the leaves.
Pineapple Mint - This mint has a faint pineapple flavor to it and pretty green and white variegated leaves. This is the variety to grow if you are gardening in the shade.
Egyptian Mint - Has a mild mint flavor and large fuzzy leaves.
Kentucky Colonel - The leaves have a fruity-mint flavor. This guy is the traditional choice for mixed drinks that call for mint.
Corsican Mint - A small-leaved ground cover mint. This plant would be an interesting replacement for baby’s tears.
Persian Mint - Probably the most mild flavored mint. This is a great mint to use when you don’t want an overwhelming mint flavor or aroma.

As I mentioned earlier, mint is an important ingredient in mojitos. If you grow a variety of mints, you can try them out and decide which is your favorite in a mojito. Kentucky Colonel is probably the safest choice, but who says that Chocolate Mint wouldn’t work well in a mojito?

MOJITO

2 fresh mint sprigs
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 ounces light rum
Chilled club soda

In a tall glass with back of a spoon crush mint with sugar and lemon juice until sugar is dissolved and stir in rum. Add ice cubes and top off drink with club soda or seltzer water.
Stir drink well and garnish with mint leaves.

Makes one drink

August 25, 2008 | Filed Under Recipe | 8 Comments

Food Fest 5: Ode to Corn

Margaret over at A Way to Garden and her friend Deb at Everyday Food’s Dinner Tonight got together and came up with this idea called Food Fest. Basically, the idea is to feature recipes that highlight a fruit or vegetable that is at the height of its season. This week, it’s corn.

Below, you’ll find my contributions. The first is a corn salad I adapted from one I found in Vegetarian Times. And the other recipe is adapted from something I saw in Everyday Food.

Photo by rich66

SWEET CORN SALAD

Ingredients

6 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely minced red onion
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cups corn kernels
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1-1 1/2 cup peeled seeded and diced tomato
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar (to taste)
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Heat 2 Tbs. oil in skillet over medium heat, and cook onion 2 to 3 minutes. Add chili powder and cumin, and cook 1 minute more. Cool in bowl. Add corn, peppers and tomatoes to onion. Fold in cilantro.
Whisk together remaining 4 Tbs. oil and vinegar, drizzle over salad and toss to combine well. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

TOMATOES STUFFED WITH GRILLED CORN

Ingredients

3 ears corn, with husks
4 beefsteak tomatoes
1 large orange bell pepper, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for grates
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1/2 cup crumbled soft goat cheese
1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

Pull back corn husks, without detaching them from the base of ear. Remove the silk and then pull the husks back over corn.
Heat grill to high and lightly oil the grate. Arrange corn on the grill. Cover and cook, turning occasionally with tongs, until husks are slightly charred and corn is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
While the corn is grilling, cut off the top third of tomatoes. Cut around wall of tomato to loosen flesh. Gently squeeze out seeds. Scoop out the interior flesh but leave the wall intact. Coarsely chop interiors; transfer to a large bowl.
After removing the ears hold the bottom of hot ears with a towel, peel back husks and all the corn to cool for a few minutes. Then cut the kernels off cob and transfer them to the bowl with tomatoes.
Add scallions, bell peppers all but 2 tablespoons goat cheese, vinegar, and oil. Season with salt and pepper; toss to combine. Spoon filling into hollowed tomatoes; sprinkle with remaining goat cheese.

August 20, 2008 | Filed Under Recipe | 5 Comments

Tasty Flowers and How to Eat Them

A good way to kill two birds with one stone is to grow edible flowers. You get to grow pretty flowers and something you can eat all in one plant. It may seem that edible flowers are a relatively new fad, but people were eating flowers way back in the Roman times and they were really popular during the Victorian era.

Photo by KHall65890

There are a surprisingly large number of flowers that are both safe to eat and taste good, and many of them can be grown in a windowbox…

Bachelor’s Button - Spicy/Sweet flavor; easy to grow from seed.
Basil - The flowers have a similar but milder flavor as the leaves; sprinkle them over pasta.
Bee Balm - Citrusy/minty flavor; use them in place of oregano or sprinkled over a fruit salad.
Chives - Onion flavor; sprinkle over salads or use instead of chives in other dishes.
Dianthus - Sweet clove flavor; remove the base of the petals as it is bitter.
Mint - Tastes like a milder version of the plant’s leaves; goes great in Middle Eastern dishes.
Nasturtium - Spicy/peppery flavor; use in a green salad for added color and zip.
Queen Anne’s Lace - Has a mild carrot flavor; great sprinkled in salads. NOTE: Only eat Queen Anne’s Lace that you have grown yourself, from commercial seed. Queen Anne’s Lace is easily mistaken for Poison Hemlock in the wild.
Squash - Mild raw squash flavor; can be fried or stuffed.

Before munching down on some blooms, you should keep a couple of things in mind. First, if you want to eat your flowers, don’t spray them with pesticides. And second, be sure you know what you’re eating. Eating a poisonous flower would not be a good thing.

August 8, 2008 | Filed Under Recipe | 2 Comments

5 Great Tomato Recipes

It seems that lately I’ve heard nothing but “my garden is overflowing with tomatoes” comments, not to mention that the most beautiful, juicy tomatoes have been showing up at my local farmer’s market. Here are five great (not the same-old, same-old!) recipes to use up your tomatoes:

Herbed Tuna in Tomatoes from Real Simple Magazine
Sherry Tomato Granita from Epicurious
Golden Gazpacho from Body + Soul Magazine
Marinated Tomato Salad from Backyard Gardener
Heirloom Tomato Tart from 101 Cookbooks

August 1, 2008 | Filed Under Recipe | 1 Comment

Breakfast on the Balcony Ideas

Sometimes the early morning is the best time to just relax on your balcony. Here are some ideas for a simple breakfast that can be taken out to the balcony:

1/4 cups pineapple pieces (canned) + 1Tablespoon honey + 2/3 cup plain or Greek-style yogurt + 1/2 cup granola
Slice the top off of a medium, ripe tomato and hollow out the inside. Place the tomato into a glass baking dish or small ramekin. Season tomato with salt and pepper. Break an egg into the tomato and bake, uncovered at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Sprinkle top of tomato with cheddar cheese and return to oven for 5-7 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and melted.
Remove the peel and pith from a pink grapefruit and a navel orange. Seperate the segments and put them in a bowl. In your blender, put three tablespoons fresh mint leaves and 2 tablespoons sugar and pulse until mint is finely chopped. Sprinkle mint-sugar and a handful of dried cranberries over fruit segments.

July 26, 2008 | Filed Under Recipe | 2 Comments

Make Your Own Vegetable Wash

This is the time of year that you probably have tons of vegetables, which means you’re doing a lot of vegetable cleaning. Do you know what the primary ingredient in all of those expensive commercial vegetable and fruit washes is? I’ll give you a hint, it is common natural cleaning agent and it is also used to make salad dressing.

Did you guess vinegar? Man you’re smart! So, at this point, I hope you’re asking yourself, “Why do I pay a bunch of money for something that I could easily make at home?” Good question. You shouldn’t!

Here’s how you can make your own vegetable wash. Mix 1 cup of water with 1 cup of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of salt and put it in a spray bottle. Spray your fruits and vegetables with the mixture and then scrub gently with a brush you use just for produce. Then rinse with water.

For fruits with soft skins or nooks and crannies where dirt, bugs and pesticides can hide (artichokes, broccoli, etc) fill a bowl the the mixture described above and let the vegetables soak for a few minutes. Then rinse with water. Just don’t soak mushrooms because they absorb liquids when soaking.

Now you can wash your vegetables and eat them with one of my dip recipes.

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July 25, 2008 | Filed Under Frugal Container Gardening, Fruits & Vegetables, How To, Recipe | 3 Comments

Great Vegetable Dips

One of my favorite things to eat is a whole bunch of super-fresh, super-juicy, fresh vegetables loaded with tasty dipping sauce. I’m always looking for new homemade dip recipes, but these two are among my tried and true, never fail dips…

Photo by Generation X-Ray

ITALIAN VEGETABLE DIP

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 (6 ounce) packet Italian salad dressing mix
1/2 diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallion

Directions:

Mix together the mayonnaise, sour cream, salad dressing mix, bell pepper, scallion and parsley.
Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 48 hours before digging in.

GINGER-SOY VEGETABLE DIP

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups low-fat mayonnaise
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons dried ginger

Directions:

Blend all ingredients well; chill for at least 2 hours.
Serve with fresh vegetables for snacking.
Will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator.

July 25, 2008 | Filed Under Recipe | 1 Comment

Grow Your Own Herbal Tea

Herbal Teas taste great and can often be used to treat minor maladies or improve your mood. What’s really neat, is that many of the common ingredients in herbal teas are easy to grow in containers, which means you can have fresher than fresh herbs on hand when you’d like to make a cup or two to sooth a tummy ache or treat the symptoms of a cold, or to help you relax before bedtime.

Photo by EasyPickle

Making an herbal tea is pretty easy. All you need is the herbs, a teapot and a tea ball infuser (see the photo above, you can find them at coffee & tea shops or you can buy one online). You could get a teapot with a special infuser compartment, but it’s not required. Simply put the herbs in the infuser, put the infuser in the tea pot, pour hot water into the teapot, and let the herbs steep for a few minutes.

There are tons of herbal tea recipes on the internet, but this Apple-Chamomile Tea recipe is a good one to get started with because it only has a few, easy to acquire ingredients and who couldn’t use a mug full of relaxing chamomile?

These herbs can all be grown in containers and used for herbal tea infusions:

Flowers
Alliums (flowers and young shoots), bee balm, carnations, hibiscus blossoms, hollyhock, honeysuckle flowers (the berries are highly poisonous), Johnny-jump-ups (flowers and leaves), lavender (blossoms and leaves), nasturtiums (flowers, buds, leaves, seedpods), pansies (flowers and leaves), roses (petals, leaves, and rose hips), violets (flowers and leaves)

Kitchen herbs
Basil, chamomile flowers, chives, dill, lemon balm, marjoram, oregano, parsley, peppermint and other mints, rosemary, sage, thyme, verbena.

Bushes and trees
Citrus blossoms, gardenia, hibiscus flowers, honeysuckle flowers, scented geraniums.

“Weeds”
Chicory (flowers and buds), goldenrod, good King Henry, lamb’s quarters, purslane.

Sources: Gardeners Path, and WebMD.

July 24, 2008 | Filed Under Container Gardening, Herbs, How To, Recipe | Leave a Comment