What's Happening Now!

That's Mr. Big Food's shop light that he uses to see the grill when he's grilling after dark. I put it up under the covers on the walkup greenhouse.  

"They" "say" it will get below freezing tonight-- maybe even as low as 28 °F. That's cold for tomatoes and peppers and eggplant and tobacco and stuff. 

Let me make a statistical point. There is no such thing as the "average last frost date." That is an impossible statistic, given the nature of the data. And don't even get me started on the Lickert scale. 

That said, it is April 15th! That's the latest last frost date I saw predicted for this region. With all this rain-- and the sun and wind today-- it will frost in places over night.

But I doubt that it's going to get below freezing here on the patio. But that's not the point. The point is, tomatoes and peppers & such do not like cold weather. It is cold. 

What a georgeous day! Let's do some gardening!

By column back to front: tomatillo, Napoli & ? tomato; black cherry & honor bright tomato, gooseberry; hyssop, marjoram long purple eggplant

A closer look at the hyssop which is cute as a button

Columns (or rows depending on your perspective) back to front (left to right): society chives, thyme (because you need enough thyme to last a lifetime), eggplant purple something, eggplant antigua; tobacco Wisconsin something, tobacco little Dutch, scarlet runner bean (for fun), two more tobaccos.

A closer look at some tobacco. When they get just a tad larger I'll replant to individual pots.

A bunch of peppers

There are more on the shelf below and in the walk-up green house in front of the window in the dining room. And some flats are still sitting on the heat mat. Celery, celeriac, fennel and such all take a long time to germinate. But all in all I think we're off to a fine start.

Recipe: Bean and Rice Stuffed Peppers (Veganizable)

To veganize, omit cheese

 BEAN AND RICE STUFFED PEPPERS

Serves 4 as a main dish

4 medium sweet bell peppers, with tops, membranes, and seeds removed

1 C cooked rice

15 oz can chili beans with chili gravy OR Ranch-style beans

1 C (4 oz) Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (or use Pepper Jack for a spicier dish)

15 oz chunky tomato sauce with onion, celery, and green pepper (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)

Combine rice, beans with sauce, and half the cheese, and spoon evenly into peppers. Pour tomato sauce into the bottom of a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker, and place peppers, filled side up, in cooker. Cover and cook on low heat setting for 6-6 ½ hours, or on high heat setting for 3-3 ½ hours. Transfer peppers to serving plate, spoon tomato sauce over peppers, and sprinkle evenly with remaining cheese.

So Red!

Dried Tobasco peppers

I have so many Tabasco peppers, I don't think I'll ever need to plant another seed! We have a quart jar filled with peppers and vinegar; now nearly a quart dried. And there are thousands more to pick! Wonder if Daughter C could sell some at work?

Recipe: Chili Casserole

Mr. Big Food made some adjustments. He made one half the recipe, cut back on the cheese, and as we have an overabundance of peppers, he used fresh and just parboiled them.

It was very good!

CHILI CASSEROLE

Serves 6

6 green chilies, canned or roasted, cut into strips

1 lb cheese, grated

1 egg

2 C milk

1 tsp salt

½ C cracker crumbs

Preheat oven to 350^o. Place a layer of chili strips in a lightly greased baking dish, then a layer of cheese, and repeat until chilies and cheese are used. Beat eggs slightly in a bowl, add milk and salt, and pour over chili and cheese. Sprinkle with cracker crumbs and bake 1 hour.

Just a Dash

Tabasco

There are soooo many. And they are soooo hot!

Recipe: Pepper Casserole

Did I mention that we have an abundance of fresh peppers? As I recall, Mr. Big Food cut back on the cheese.

PEPPER CASSEROLE

Serves 10

7 large bell peppers, cut into strips, cooked in water until tender, and drained

1 stick butter

2 C bread crumbs

½ lb sharp cheese

3 eggs, beaten

2 C evaporated milk

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 325^o. Place a layer of drained green pepper strips in a buttered casserole, and dot with butter. Cover with a layer of bread crumbs and cheese, and repeat layering until all ingredients have been used up. Combine eggs, milk, salt, and pepper, pour over green pepper mixture, and cook until eggs and milk set, about 40 minutes.

Recipe: Potatoes with Peppers

Easy and quite good!

POTATOES WITH PEPEPRS

Serves 6

1 bell pepper, parboiled 5 minutes, drained, seeded and chopped

6 boiled potatoes, cubed

¼ C cream

¾ C milk

1 tsp salt

Grated cheese

Preheat oven to 350^o. Combine peppers and potato cubes in double boiler (or saucepan), add cream, milk, and salt, and cook 15 minutes. Pour mixture into a buttered baking dish, sprinkle mixture with cheese, and bake 20 minutes.

Recipe: Taco Peppers in Electric Skillet

Surprisingly good!

Assembled and ready to cook.

TACO PEPPERS IN ELECTRIC SKILLET

Serves 6

6 bell peppers, each cut in half lengthwise, stem, seeds, and membranes removed, cooked in a large amount of boiling salted water for 5 minutes, drained, insides salted lightly

14 ½ oz jar tamales, drained, wrappers removed and discarded, sliced into ½ inch pieces

15 oz can chili with beans

1 C (4 oz) sharp cheddar cheese

¼ C catsup or chili sauce (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)

¼ C chopped onion

Hot water

1 ½ C tortilla chips, crumbled coarse

Combine chili, ½ C cheese, catsup or chili sauce, and onion, fold mixture into tamale pieces, and stuff pepper halves evenly with chili mixture. Place stuffed peppers in electric skillet, pour hot water around peppers to depth of ½ inch, cover, and simmer with vent open for 25 minutes, or until filling is heated through and peppers are tender. Top peppers with remaining cheese, sprinkle with crumbled tortilla chips, and heat uncovered until cheese melts, 1 to 2 minutes longer.

Recipe: Baked Chiles Relantoes

Eat your veggies!

BAKED CHILIES RELATOES

Serves 6

6 eggs, separated

1 Tbsp flour

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

4 oz whole green chilies, seeded, cut down middle to open up (can use canned)

½ lb mild cheddar or Jack cheese, sliced

Hot sauce or salsa (for serving, and preferably homemade—see recipes in Appetizers … section)

Preheat oven to 325^o. Beat egg whites until stiff. Mix flour, salt, and pepper into egg yolks, and fold yolk mixture into egg whites. Pour half the mixture into a greased 2x7x13 inch baking dish. Spread chilies over egg batter, cover with cheese slices, and pour remaining egg batter over cheese. Bake 25 minutes. Cut into 3 inch squares, and serve with hot sauce or salsa.

Inside the life of Tabasco

Yellow to orange to red

Up to 100 pods per plant!

Mr. Big Food is going to make his own Tabasco sauce! 

Speaking of Tabasco sauce, from the seed packet, I learned that the name Tabasco comes from the Mexican state. During the 1850s New Orleans and Tabasco traded extensively. The McIlhenny family of Avery Island, Louisiana began growing Tabasco peppers and developed the original Tabasco sauce.

McIlhenny Tabasco Sauce has a Scoville Heat Unit of 2500-5000. Tabasco peppers are 30,000-50,000. They are hot. Just ask Mr. Big Food who tasted a teeny tiny bite of an orange one the other day.

Recipe: Tomatillo Salsa

on the left

This is the salsa for chips! Or anything else, for that matter. As Mr. Big says, "This is the freshest salsa we make." Not that all of our salsas aren't fresh-- but this one really tastes fresh!

The recipe (below) begins:

The combination of tomatillos, chilies and cilantro creates a salsa with an authentic Mexican taste. In addition to making a great dip for corn chips, this salsa works well as a condiment for fajitas, burritos and quesadillas.

Recipe: Pickled Pepperoncini

Pepperoncinis are one of our favorite peppers. Should you decide you'd like to grow your own, be prepared for gazillions of peppers. The plants are prolific! I only have two this year and we have so many pepperoncinis...Mr. Big Food went looking for a recipe to make pickled pepperoncinis as you would find on an ante-pasta try. He found one on eHow!

I disagree with Morgan O'Conner (below), though. On the Scoville scale, which measures pepper "heat," pepperoncinis come in at 100-500. Bell peppers are 0; pimento, 100-500; Scotch Bonnet habaneros, 100,000 - 325,000; police grade pepper spray, 5,300,000. (From Chiliworld.com)

“Pepperoncini, part of the pepper family, can add some heat to your dishes. They are not as spicy as many other peppers, so they are a good choice for those who do not enjoy extremely spicy food. You can stuff them, add them to soups and sandwiches, incorporate them into soups and stews, and even eat them plain. Pepperoncini are most often pickled rather than used plain. Pickling your own pepperoncini is a relatively simple process that can help you enjoy these peppers for months to come.”—Morgan O’Connor, eHow contributor

As God as my witness

I will never eat a store-bought pepper as long as I live.

I get a harvest like this about once every three days or so. To give a sense of scale, I'd call the purple bell pepper on the far left "very large." In addition to the purple peppers, there are jalapenos, Neapolitan (green & red), jalapenos, true Hungarians, and gazillions* of pepperoncinis. All are heirloom. Each has a unique taste, unlike store bought which, having tasted these, have no taste at all.

With respect to my claim about never eating store-bought peppers... . The 2011-2012 season-- that is, grown in 2011, froze enough to last until 2012's harvest came in-- was the first year since the 2008-2009 season that this didn't happen. (Crop failure. We just didn't make it all the way.) Oh, sure. I'm sure I ate store-bought peppers in a restaurant salad or what have you. I'm talking about having enough peppers to eat stuffed peppers (and pickled jalapenos!) and to cook with without having to buy peppers for these purposes at the store.

Food security. 
~~

* An extremely large fictitious number. 

Recipe: Corn Stuffed Bell Peppers

Fresh!

Unit for unit, peppers have more vitamin C than citrus. And there ain't nothing like fresh corn.

Recipe below.

Stuff it!

Peppers and tomatoes picked this morning. Corn picked about 10 minutes before Mr. Big Food scraped the kernels from the cobs. 

Recipe shortly!

Freezing Peppers

All laid out

Remember several years ago when peppers were recalled from grocery stores and restaurant food suppliers? That was the year Mr. Big Food and I discovered it is possible to freeze fresh peppers. Naturally, they lose their crispness, but if you cook with a lot of peppers, as we do, they'll do just fine. So much better than store bought!

Most years I harvest enough to keep us in peppers until the fresh ones come in from the garden. I recommend growing your own because of the sheer variety you can have. But buying fresh from your local Farmers' Market would do.

Instructions below.

Recipe: Stuffed jalapeños

These are cute as the dickens! Since I am not keen on hot peppers (except true Hungarian peppers) Mr. Big Food adapted the recipe and used fresh sweet marconi and immature pablanos I'd picked earlier in the day. They reheat nicely in a skillet. 

Photo here. Recipe below.

SALE!

I can recommend the muskmelon, sweet potato pumpkin, and watermelon.

New Hope Seed Company-- for whom I really do not work!-- is having a seed sale.

Record keeping: Is 60 too many?

03/03/2010

Today I planted tomato seeds in 60 peat pots, so if all goes well, I should have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 tomato plants to plunk into the ground around the end of April. Looking at this photo of pepper seedlings from two years ago makes me feel as if I am behind-- and I certainly am compared to 2010-- but there's still plenty of time. When it comes to tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and so on, there's just no point planting in the ground before the last of April.

But to answer the question, "Is 60 too many?": No. Not for Mr. Big Food and me!