Other Garden Pictures

Sorry posting has been very light this month.  Its a combo of being busy with other things and my garden wilting and generally looking sickly as a result of the incredibly hot, dry summer we have been having in Illinois.  I'm off on vacation to Yellowstone tomorrow, but will be back to cooking and crafting once I get home.  In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of other people's gardens.


Starved Rock State Park
I went to Starved Rock a couple weeks ago and stumbled across this little garden.  I think it is probably used as a kitchen garden since it was right next to the restaurant.  I like the cute little signs identifying the plants.

Hyatt Lodge
I recently attended a wedding at the Hyatt Lodge on the McDonald's Campus in Oakbrook Illinois.  Yes, THAT McDonald's...the property in Oakbrook is home to Hamburger University where McDonald's management is trained.  It might seem like a weird place for a wedding, but the property was really beautiful and I couldn't resist taking pictures of the flowers in the outdoor courtyard area.

Mini Caprese Salad

I've always loved miniature things.  When I was a kid my parents' used to get these dollhouse furniture catalogs and I would spend hours looking at tiny sofas and kitchen tables.  So it makes sense that I'm a sucker for miniature versions of classic foods.  This mini caprese salad was inspired by the tiny leaves on my spicy globe basil plant, but if you can't find this type of basil you can just use regular and chop it into small pieces.

Mini Caprese Salad

For each salad you will need about 10 cherry tomatoes, 6 small fresh mozzarella balls (called bocconcini), 6 spicy globe basil leaves, salt, pepper and a splash of olive oil.


Layer into a bowl or a martini glass if you are feeling fancy.  Serve at room temperature.

Herb Biscotti

I really love recipes that lend themselves to lots of variations.  These biscotti can be made with almost any type of herb you like.  I used cinnamon basil, but you could also use regular basil, any variety of mint, thyme (add in a tsp grated lemon zest to this if you want), tarragon, lavender and rosemary (add a tsp grated orange zest, it goes great with rosemary).  These cookies are not too sweet so they are perfect for dunking in a cup of coffee or glass of wine.  Don't be afraid of using herbs in sweet foods.  It is not overpowering when combined with all the other ingredients.

Herb Biscotti

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup white sugar

1 stick unsalted butter

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt

Chop herbs.  Try to get them chopped as fine as you can.  They will distribute better throughout the dough.

Cream together butter and sugar.  Add in eggs, vanilla and chopped herbs and mix until combined.  Don't be afraid if your dough looks a little green from the herbs.  Once you get all the dry ingredients mixed in it won't be noticeable.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet a little bit at a time until it is all incorporated.  Place dough on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.  Form dough into a flat loaf shape about 4 inches wide and 1 inch tall.  The dough might be a little sticky so if you are having trouble just put some flour on your hands.

Bake about 35 minutes.  Let cool 30 minutes.  

Biscotti means twice cooked so the large loaf we have created will need to be sliced and baked again.  Using a serrated knife, slice the loaf on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices.  Don't worry if it crumbles.  Biscotti are supposed to be crumbly.

Place the slices on the same parchment lined baking sheet you used earlier and bake another 15 minutes, turning them over halfway through.  Let cool completely on a rack before eating.

Cinnamon Basil Sweet Tea

After I posted a few drink recipes a couple weeks ago, my friend who is expecting her first child in November asked if I would do some drink recipes that were alcohol free.  Of course I will!


This recipe uses cinnamon basil, but you could also make the simple syrup with lemon basil or mint.  Just keep everything else the same.

Cinnamon Basil Sweet Tea

Iced tea (made anyway you like)

2 tablespoons cinnamon basil syrup (recipe follows)

Ice

Place syrup in a tall glass and add ice and tea.  Stir to combine.

Cinnamon Basil Simple Syrup

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 1/2 cups water

5-6 large sprigs cinnamon basil

1 vanilla bean

Combine sugar, water and vanilla in a large pot over medium heat.  Cook until all the sugar dissolves and the syrup isn't cloudy anymore.  Remove from heat and add basil sprigs.  Let basil steep in the syrup for at least 30 min.  Strain and store in the fridge.

NOTE about herb varieties.  I've found it is really easy to find a lot of these more unusual herbs. I don't shop at fancy nurseries, just a regular Home Depot and I've seen lots of cool varieties there.  So don't be scared to grow something a little different than the standard types of herbs.  I'm loving experimenting with my cinnamon basil and orange mint.

Farmer's Market Number 2

What a difference a couple weeks make!  Last Saturday I went to the farmer's market again and it was so different that the first time I went.  For one thing it was packed!  And all the stands were completely bursting with all different kinds of fresh fruits and veggies.


My strategy for navigating the farmer's market is I try to stay away from the huge stands because they are usually the most crowded and the people selling the produce are too busy to talk.  I like to search out the smaller stands.


It was one of the smaller stands where I found these gorgeous cherries.

They were so sweet and juicy and didn't last long before I ate them all.


I also found these...

They are garlic scapes.  Garlic scapes are the top part of the garlic plant and are usually cut off as the plant is growing.  But now they are becoming popular for cooking.  Its one of those ingredients that I've been seeing popping up lately in food magazines and cookbooks so I was excited to try cooking with them myself.  So I decided to make a quiche.

Garlic Scape Quiche

Pie crust (either homemade or store bought)
5 garlic scapes chopped
1 tablespoon chopped chives
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a 5 cheese Italian blend)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  


Saute chopped scapes in a little olive oil until they start to soften up a little.  Set aside to cool slightly.


Place pie crust in pie pan and prick bottom and sides with a fork.  This is called 'docking' and lets the steam escape so the crust doesn't puff up.  Bake crust for 15 min.


In the meantime, make the filling.  Mix eggs, cream, chives, salt, pepper and paprika together.  Spread cheese and scapes over prebaked crust and pour filling over the top.  Bake for another 30-40 minutes.  Since it is technically like a custard, I like to pull my quiche while the center is still slightly wobbly.  This insures I never end up with rubbery eggs.  Let the quiche rest for 15-20 min before serving.

Is it Rick Bayless Week?

Have you ever noticed that whenever you learn a new word all of a sudden it seems like that word is everywhere?  Or you hear a song for the first time and then it seems like every radio station in the world is playing it all the time?  Well, that happened to me last week.  Only it wasn't a word or a song...it was Rick Bayless.


For those of you who don't live in the Chicago-land area and might not have heard of him, Rick Bayless is a celebrity chef with several restaurants in Chicago.  He specializes in Mexican cooking and while I haven't eaten at any of his restaurants myself (yet) I've heard they are incredible.


My inadvertent Rick Bayless week started at Lit Fest.  There is a food stage where cookbook authors show off their stuff and he was presenting.  My friend and I were planning on going to another event at the same time so I didn't get to see him cook, but I did walk right next to him on the street.  Unlike when we saw Rachael Ray who was carefully guarded by security, he was just walking down the street by himself.  I could have reached out and touched him if I wanted to.  I didn't though of course.  That would be creepy.


Then on Wednesday night I was channel surfing and came across a really old episode of Iron Chef.  It was Rick Bayless vs. Bobby Flay.  Bobby Flay won unfortunately which was a bummer for me because I've always found him a bit smug.


All this lead up to the main event on Thursday...a garden tour of Rick Bayless' garden!  A lot of the salad greens and herbs for the restaurants are grown on this property which spans 3 lots in Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood.  This tour was already planned prior to the rest of all my sightings so its funny how things work out.  The tour itself was amazing and really interesting.  It was given by the man who designed and manages the garden so he was incredibly knowledgeable.  


Here are some highlights:

These raised beds grow about 500 lbs of greens in a season!  I was amazed at how neat and clean they look and how closely they plants were packed together.  They were definitely designed for maximum efficiency.  

They are constructed of metal to make the most of the space since the thin metal takes up less space than brick or wood.  And it makes it really easy to clip the bird netting to the frame.

One thing I was really interested in that I think I'm going to try myself is how they grow butternut squash.  They grow them vertically in cages (for support) so they don't sprawl out all over the garden and take over.  We have a spare tomato cage at my parents' garden that isn't being used for anything right now so I might try to convince them to let me grow a squash plant or two.

 Overall, I was surprised at how pretty the garden was.  I knew it was a working garden that was supplying the restaurants with food, so I wasn't expecting any space to be dedicated to landscaping and non-edible plants.  It was really lovely though and truly still looked like someone's home garden.  

According to the garden manager, this beehive is a new addition this year.  

Since most of the plants wouldn't survive the cold Chicago winters, there is also a greenhouse built on the second floor deck of the house.

 Here are a few more pictures I took of various things around the garden.

Seedlings, microgreens and compost pile in the back

Potting bench

The grill and outdoor kitchen.  Amazing!

Aphids of Doom

WARNING!  This post contains some gross bug pictures so if you are squeamish, scroll past them really quickly.


Last week was kind of a bad week for my garden.  Seemingly overnight my pepper and tomato plants became totally infested with aphids.

I tried a bunch of different things to get rid of them starting with a homemade garlic and dish soap spray I found online.  After that didn't work, I actually broke down and bought commercial pesticide even though I don't like to use it.  Nothing worked and my plants were getting totally destroyed.  


Finally, they were so damaged that I had to pull them out.  This was beyond frustrating because before the aphid attack they actually seemed like they were doing pretty well.


I rallied quickly though and bought some new plants to take their place.  This time I decided on more herbs.  One of the things I was trying to accomplish in my garden this summer was to experiment with what types of plants I could actually grow in the conditions I have (part shade, limited space).  Now that its already late June, I decided to focus my energy on growing plants that I knew would do well.  The herbs I already have growing are doing really well so I bought a few more varieties.  I added rosemary and two more types of basil.

Spicy Globe Basil and Cinnamon Basil

I've never tried either of these types of basil before.  I usually just grow the standard Genovese basil which is what you would use for pesto or caprese salad.  My boyfriend experimented with the spicy globe basil and made this pasta dish.

Sorry no exact recipe because it was kind of an experiment, but it has chipotle pasta that we got at the farmer's market, alfredo sauce, lots of garlic and red pepper flakes, parsley and spicy basil from my garden and shrimp.  Very spicy, but very delicious!