Pickled Radishes *nom nom*

As an FYI: pickled radishes smell like pickled farts. But they are delicious. Also, any canning that happens here is purely by accident. I don't can things, since they get eaten too quickly to bother. But if you want to can these, knock yourself out!

To enjoy these... well, I just open up a jar and go at it with a fork. 

3/4 cup apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pickling spices

A bunch of radishes
Half a red onion
Optional: a few cloves of garlic, a really hot pepper, a few sprigs of thyme

Set the vinegar, water, salt, and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Slice the radishes so they are very thin and even in width; slice the onion to the same size as well. I used a mandolin for this purpose.

Add the radishes, the onions, the pepper, the garlic, pickling spice to a jar. Add the liquid. Seal and let it sit in the fridge for a week. This will keep for up to a month, uncanned.

Be careful with that damned pepper or your mouth will water uncontrollably.

Random Roasted Veggies

I have a membership at a CSA in Upper Marlboro. CSA, for the uninitiated, is short for Community Shared Agriculture: you purchase a share of all of the vegetables that the farm produces for the growing season and ... eat away. Claggett Farm is my CSA spot, and I've been going there since my son was about as big as a beefsteak tomato. Clagett's growing season has made me become creative with my weekly menus: sometimes I think I am drowning in tomatoes and zucchini, but the variety and taste is oh-so-good.

 

Last week I found that my fridge was overflowing: time to cook this stuff up. While my kids are very good veggie-eaters, they're only around half-time, and cooking day-to-day meant some of this stuff was going to spoil. So, I chopped up a bunch of stuff and seasoned and tossed in the oven. The only store-purchased items were broccoli and an onion. This works for lots of random veggies that can stand up to roasting.

Heaven. 

• Large zucchini 
• Large onion 
• a bazillion sweet peppers 
• Large eggplant, peeled 
• Two heads of garlic 
• A head of broccoli 
• Any other veggies you have on hand that you feel like cooking. 
• Two tablespoons olive oil 
• Salt and black pepper to taste 
• Pinch of five-spice powder  
• Paprika 
• Red pepper flakes or hot pepper flakes (that's another recipe for another day) 

• Pre-heat your oven on broil to 400 degrees. 
• Finely mince the garlic 
• In a bowl, mix the garlic, salt, peppers, five-spice powder, and paprika together 
• Roughly chop your veggies into bite-sized pieces; toss with the olive oil mixture 
• Spread in an even layer on a large cookie sheet, stick it in the oven for about 15 minutes
• Clean up the mess you just made in your kitchen 
• Share your veggies with your work wife 

A side story: there's a reason why this guy is called Mr. Tomato. Besides steak and strawberries, he will roll over you for a tomato.

  

The year before this photo was taken, he was about 18 months old when tomato season started at the farm. He walked up to the table that came up to his nose, reached into a basket and grabbed a big, red tomato. He took a bite. He was in heaven. Ever since the staff and volunteers at the farm look out for him in tomato season. Hence the name, Mr. Tomato. 

Adult Applesauce

My friend Kojo, intrigued by the food that I post on the Book of Face, said I should start a blog.

I'm here to tell you now this blog will exist late summer into fall and then probably lie dormant unless something REALLY interesting crops up. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not any kind of chef: I get a CSA share and I like to come up with stuff to do with the share. Full disclosure, this first post has nothing to do with that CSA share, but apples.

This past weekend, Future President and Mr. Tomato and I drove up to Milburn Orchards in Elkton, MD. Available for picking: golden delicious, red delicious, and mutsu--a GIGANTIC apple with tons of flavor. Not to discount the delicious varieties though: they're not the bland, mealy crap you get at the grocery store. This was totally one of those situations where we were strolling along, sampling apples, and tossing them in the bag. Thirty pounds later...

                                                       [silliness break]


First up: apple sauce. Of course you need an adult version too, so here goes:

3 - 4 pounds of apples (the more flavorful, the better)
1/2 cup water
Juice of a lemon
1/3 cup or so of brown sugar (you can use less or more; I tripled this recipe and only used a half cup)
A cinnamon stick (optional)
Half cup of your preferred booze (I used Angostura 7 year rum)

Peel, core, and chop your apples into 1-inch or so chunks
Put them in a heavy-bottomed pan and simmer in the water for about half an hour
Add the lemon juice and sugar, (and optional cinnamon) and simmer for another half hour
Remove the cinnamon
For chunky sauce, mash with a potato masher; for a smooth sauce, blend in a blender or food processor till it gets to your desired consistency
Put it back on the heat for a few more minutes till it's nice and thick
Remove from heat, let it cool
Add the booze

Enjoy! *hic*