Green Chile Pie.

One of the "extra-curricular" activities at my work is a company cookbook. Ideas are being solicited from employees to make a cookbook with recipes, entertaining and etiquette tips and original artwork. My submission is a simple recipe, but delicious. My mom used to make it now and again and it's just melt-in-your-mouth quiche awesomeness. I give you: Green Chile Pie.

1 1/2 cup shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup Milk (or 2 cups half and half)
2 cans whole green chiles (or fresh if you are so lucky)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
cilantro to garnish

Take the whole green chiles and slice them open. Fan them out in the bottom of a pie pan to make a "crust" of green chiles.




Layer the cheese into the pie pan.




In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture evenly over the pie pan.





Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro if you've got it.

Busy.

We were busy in the garden this weekend. I'll post pictures soon. The little starts in the window are starting to get bigger and there are some sprouts outside too - peas, radishes, onions and kale! On the agenda this weekend was:

-Starting tomato seeds
-Sowing more radishes and spinach (two rows of each)
-Pruning the raspberry vines
-Buying seed potatoes
-Planting two grape vines
-A little weeding

Next up on the agenda in the coming few weeks:

-Transplanting broccoli starts outside
-Sowing beets and onions outside
-Making potato towers and planting the seed potatoes
-Building a proper raspberry trellis
-Weeding beds around berry bushes and rosemary. Insert edging to make it look nice!

The busy season is fast approaching. I'm feeling much more relaxed and confident about the things I planted last year like broccoli and peas. But I'm stressing out about things I haven't done before like grapes and potatoes. I guess it's all a learning experience and if something doesn't turn out well this year, I'll do it better next.

El Cheapo Banana Bread.

No, I didn't find a miracle banana bread recipe that uses less ingredients and costs pennies. I did, however, find a giant bowl of overripe bananas in my workplace lunchroom that were on their way out the door.




I spared six the fate of the landfill and made some banana bread with a free main ingredient. I went with Banana Banana Bread from allrecipes. I've made it a few times and it's good and banana-y.





I woke up an hour early this morning and made it before work. I felt so accomplished before I even left the house. I had already baked bread, done the dishes, put out the compost and watered the seedlings. I wish more days were like that.

Transfer.

I spent a little time this afternoon with my seedlings. I have a couple seed trays with 1" pots where I start all my seeds. Last year I transplanted straight to the garden from the 1" pots. I didn't realize until I got further along in the season that the starts would fare better and get larger if I grew them in a larger space. There just wasn't enough space for the roots to expand. So, this year I am starting in the 1" pots and moving them over to 3" pots once they get large enough in hopes of having heartier starts to put out in the garden.

I transplanted the broccoli and cabbage over to the larger pots. Grow, little broccoli, grow!!

The window is filling up now.

I don't know what I'm going to do when I get new windows and I lose my perfect southern-facing window ledges.

First day of Spring.

I've been a little absent from the blog the last week, mostly because I haven't had anything of note to write about. It's still raining, it's still cold and I'm still waiting for my first sowing to sprout.

This weekend is Mike and I's anniversary. When we met, on our first "real date" we went hiking. I remember we had to take off our jackets half way through the hike because it was getting too warm. We ended up going to a jazz show in the evening and we rode our bikes. It was a cool early spring evening, but it wasn't cold. Last year we attempted to memorialize our first date by doing the same hike. We got caught in stop and go traffic on the way out because everyone was headed to the coast on such a beautiful early spring day. We ended up going to the Arboretum and walking around in short sleeve shirts. This year, however, it's still barely breaking the 50 degree mark in the days and the forecast is a consistant 10-day out call for rain.

Yesterday we had some unforecasted sun. We went outside and stood in it. It was glorious.

A Little Comparison.

After a brief review of my blog posts last year at this time I discovered by this date last year my plum tree looked like this:

This year, right now, my plum tree looks like this:

It's been a chilly early Spring around these parts and nothing's happening yet...

On any given weekend.

I feel like it's a pretty average Sunday here. My kitchen looks about like it does every weekend. English muffins cooking on the griddle, black beans simmering, muffins rising, tortillas defrosting, muffins cooling, cheese for snacking, and the ever-present overflowing sink of dirty dishes. The curse of the small, working kitchen without a dishwasher:

Lousy Smarch Weather.

Finally, three weeks behind schedule, I put out the first spring seeds today. We added some more soil to the far bed and covered up and tilled in the crimson clover and favas that had been overwintering there. Those will break down over the next few weeks and that bed will be ready for planting by the first of April. I cleaned up the center bed and put in radish, spinach, kale and onion seeds.

Overwintering there in the center is some onion and arugula. I learned this morning from reading a book that arugula doesn't do well in spring; the days getting longer make it bolt very early. Recommendation is for arugula to be a fall/winter crop. Sure enough, I went out there today and little flower stalks are forming in the arugulas. Time to eat it up!

This was the first real harvest, with the basket and everything, in quite a long time.

Down in the far end of the center bed are a few heads of lettuce that are holding on with a tenacity I never expected from a lettuce. I put those seeds in last fall and they didn't get big enough before the cold hit. They froze out into a slimy mess. But somehow life clung to them and they made it through the winter! I'm hoping they aren't woody or bitter (very likely) because it will be a great treat to have some very early season lettuce.

I planted way too many scallions last year too and there were several that never got eaten and stayed through the winter. I didn't intend to do this; but I did what is the hardest thing to do with onions, I grew for seed. Onions have to stay in the ground until their second year to produce seed. It takes a commitment of time and space to save your own onion seeds. A few weeks ago we saw the flower stalks starting to emerge from the overwintered scallions.

No more buying green onion seeds for me! I'll have to be sure and keep a few out in the garden from this year's planting so I can keep the seed saving going through the years.

Seeds and Beers.

A couple nights ago Mike and I attended Grow Portland's seed packing event at Amnesia Brewery. A nice group of people all volunteered their time (and a little bit of money) to put together individual packets of bulk seeds for non-profits and home gardeners alike. In exchange we all got to take home 15 seed packets. It works out to about 50% off for each packet. It was good fun and a nice way to spend the evening. A little beer, a little garden talk, and watching the Blazers get slaughtered on TV in the background (sad).




I planted some of the lettuce seeds and put them in the window along with 2 other varieties of lettuce leftover from last year and cauliflower.

Lemon Scones.

In winter there isn't a whole lot that's in season. We ate a fair amount of brussel sprouts, squash, onions, mushrooms, potatoes and citrus this winter. Citrus is one of the bright spots in winter. It's a little reminder of the flavor and freshness that comes with summer; a reminder that it will come again...someday. A couple times this winter I have bought bags of meyer lemons. When they are in season, while it's dreadfully gray outside, a big bag of bright, juicy lemons is a bargain. But, what exactly are you supposed to do with an entire bag of lemons? I decided to make scones. Here's how it goes:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, chilled and cut into 10-12 small pieces
8-10 tbsp fresh meyer lemon juice
1-2 tsp meyer lemon zest

1 more tbsp meyer lemon juice
2-4 tbsp powdered sugar

First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk all your dry ingredients together. Add the butter, cut into small cubes, to the dry mixture.

Get your hands in there and push the butter in the the mix until it's a fine-ish crumb.




Add the lemon juice and zest, a little at a time, fluffing with a fork as you go. Press the mixture into a ball; add enough juice to hold together.

Divide dough in half and form into two balls. Press each ball of dough into a 1" think disc. Cut into fourths or sixths with a knife and separate slightly.

Bake on a cookies sheet at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until slightly browned.

Meanwhile, mix a tbsp lemon juice with a few tbsp powdered sugar to make a glaze topping.

When scones are cooked put on a rack to cool. Drizzle each scone with glaze.