Thai Friday

First things first. My baby is broken. Not Midget or Peanut, but my beloved DSLR. For some reason, it just pooped out in the middle of our vacation in Montana. I guess it just couldn't handle the utter gorgeousness of my home state. But I prefer to blame it on the hubby, since he was taking pictures of me being a total bad*ss on a jetski when the camera died. Yeah. I'm awesome like that...

So, not like you're used to super awesome pictures on this blog, but you can expect some super crummy pictures for at least the next few weeks. I'm just praying that my camera is back before the turdlets' birthday party, which is in less than a month.

Anyway, remember my little bitty Thai Container Garden? Well, this is what it looks like now!












Thanks to our lovely plant-sitting neighbors, the container didn't die while I was gone for almost two months. As a thank you, I planted them their own Thai container. I ended up removing two pepper plants from this one, so one went into the garden and one went into their pot, I separated one of the Thai basil, and then transplanted the lemongrass that I propagated. Their container looks lovely as well, and I am a bit surprised that all of their plants thrived after such a brutal transplanting and the fact that I rooted out their lemongrass!

First order of business was to snip all the basil flowers. The flowers smell lovely and I'm thinking it will make fabulous Thai Basil Flower Vinegar. I'm steeping most of the flowers in plain white vinegar for a few weeks and will report back to you whether or not it was a successful endeavor. I'm thinking it will make a neat gift for friends.

I'd like to take a quick second to brag about my first garden harvest of the season.

Isn't it gorgeous?? Grape tomatoes (the orange ones were an awesome surprise), cubanelle peppers, banana peppers, red bell pepper, crookneck squash, a better boy tomato, and some OBSCENELY large cucumbers. I've since pulled gobs more tomatoes, but the cucumbers are slow to grow after supporting those giants!


Next, it was time to put that gorgeous Thai pot to good use! For dinner on Friday, it was Gai Pad Prik Khing (Chicken and Vegetables in a Chili Ginger Curry) and Som Tam-inspired salad (Green Papaya Salad) made with zucchini instead of green papaya. Just so you know, I'm not attesting to the authenticity of these Thai dishes, but they are DELICIOUS!











The curry recipe is all my own--a mishmash of many recipes I found online and using what I had on hand. The Zucchini Ribbon Salad is from Aarti Party on foodnetwork. I would highly suggest you start with only ONE tablespoon of fish sauce in the salad and then add more to your liking. I really love cooked fish sauce, but raw fish sauce is, well, fishy. Just take a piece of zucchini and dip it in the sauce (before you dump it on all the zucchini) and then add more fish sauce if you want it.

Here's my curry recipe. Have lots of beverage nearby and reserve a bit of chicken and veggies before you add the curry if you have kids. Midget took a bite, said "YUM!" and then spit it out on her plate once the heat hit. Peanut kept shoving it in his mouth, chewing, then crying, then gulping his water. I'm not a two-meal sort of family, but they both got some ham to eat after the hubby pointed out that there are some adults that wouldn't eat my spicey curry.

Wusses...

Gai Pad Prik Khing

2 Tbs Vegetable Oil, divided
1 small Onion
1 Thai Dragon Chili (VERY optional, as the curry paste is quite hot anyway) cut into very fine mince
1 cup diced Zucchini
1 cup diced Eggplant
2 Tbs Fish Sauce
10 oz boneless skinless Chicken Breast, cut into thin strips
2 Tbs Prik Khing Curry Paste (recommended brand Mae Sri)
1 can Light Coconut Milk
Cooked Jasmine Rice

Heat 1 Tbs oil in a large skillet with high sides (at least 4 inches tall) over high heat. Add vegetables and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add fish sauce and then chicken and saute for another 3-4 minutes until chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken and veggies to a plate and turn heat down to medium-high.

Heat remaining oil in skillet and add curry. Fry curry until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and veggies back in and stir until coated with curry paste. Stir in can of coconut milk, reduce heat to medium-low and heat through.

Serve over Jasmine Rice.

Thai Container Garden

I'm SO geeked about this container! Seriously, could I be any more of a garden nerd?? I loooooooooooooooooooooooove Thai food, but I don't like the 20 minute drive each way to the Asian market every time I want to make it. So I started thinking about what I could grow at home and began the hunt for what would grow well in my climate and how easy it would be to find.

I decided on Thai Basil (yummy anise flavored basil), Thai chilis, and Lemongrass. They all require full sun, which they will happily drink up out on our deck. All of these plants would grow well inside your home if you have a nice sunny spot, but I have the kidlets and the wieners, both of which are not conducive to growing plants indoors without spilled containers and/or plucked leaves and/or chewed up plants which results in a very angry Mommy...

Thai Basil, also known as Siam Queen Basil, is easy to find. I saw seeds at Lowe's, but you can also buy it online at amazon and burpee. You can start it easily from seed, but I took the easy way out and bought two plants.

Thai Chili seeds are also fairly easy to find, but for many of us, it is getting to be a bit late to start peppers from seed. Your best bet is to find plants. You can order them on amazon or burpee, but you can also just go to your closest asian market and pick up some dried Thai chilis and use the seeds from those! You'll want to sow your pepper plants indoors, unless you live in the Southern United States. My container has four thai dragon chili plants in it right now, but I will most likely remove one plant (and maybe even two) depending on how they fill out.

In searching online, I found that you can actually propagate lemongrass at home! Just buy some lemongrass and cut off most of the top woody portion and plop it in some water. Mine didn't quite grow as fast as was shown on the link, but I suspect the lemongrass I bought wasn't very fresh. It still isn't ready to transplant after three weeks, so I was thrilled to find a plant at a local store!

Stay tuned for delicious Thai recipes in 45-70 days! " )

Garden Bounty

Wowee, have we been reaping a BIG harvest from our garden!! It just amazes me that we are getting SO much more food than we did last year! Three of our four zucchini and squash plants died this year, but we've had so many cucumbers that it hasn't bothered us much. Plus, I bought four HUGENORMOUS zucchinis at the farmers market for $2.00, which ended up providing us with TWELVE cups of shredded zucchini for the freezer.










Two items of note that I need to highlight--an entire basket of cherry tomatoes and a foot-long cucumber!!! AWESOME!

First Harvest

AND SECOND HARVEST TOO!!

Garden Update

Here's our garden one month apart. The first picture is missing a few plants, but it definitely illustrates what a month can do as far as growth is concerned. We did lose the first cucumber plants we planted to heavy rain, but the new plants have grown faster than anything else in the garden! We have two itty bitty bell peppers, two teensy little jalapenos, and two decent sized cherry tomatoes already!

Let it GROW!!

We worked furiously last week to get things growing at our house. It's a little bit early to be planting in Michigan, as the last frost date has yet to come, but we wanted an early start this year. We got a late start on our garden last year, thanks to Burpee and their not-so-phenominal customer service. We placed our order in mid-January and it was supposed to be sent mid-May and after several phone calls where I was told not to worry, our plants didn't arrive until almost mid-June. Needless to say, we did not order from them again this year.

The garden looks so sparse right now, but it is full to the brim! We planted TWELVE tomato plants to keep up with Midget's tomato addiction, four bell peppers, four banana peppers, four jalapeno peppers, two four feet rows of bush style green beans, four cucumber plants, two zucchini squashes, and two straightneck squashes. I'll post pics of the garden next week, as I missed my opportunity to take pictures and now it's super crummy rainy outside.

Here's the non-vegetable portion of our planting.

I have a container on my deck for the herbs I utilize the most for cooking. The Sage from last year survived, so I added Rosemary, Thyme, and Oregano.

I planted seeds in a deck railing planter of half Flat-leaf Parsley and half Cilantro.

Here's what I'm most excited about!! My Mother's Day present of a Perennial Herb Garden! We started with Lemon Balm, Bee Balm (a.k.a. Bergamot), Lavendar, Tarragon, Chives, Peppermint, Spearmint, and Chocolate Mint. We also added in a few Pansies for color and because the flowers are edible and look beautiful sugared on cakes and cupcakes.

Midget loves being outside and had a ton of fun with her little garden tools moving soil from one place to another. I love it when something so simple can keep her occupied for HOURS! " )

The First Harvest!

All I have to say is, "I GREW THIS!!!"













*Crookneck Squash, Cucumber, Purple Kohlrabi, and Radishes*

For those of you who asked what Kohlrabi is--it is my favorite vegetable of all time! It's hard to explain, but it tastes and has the texture of peeled broccoli stem, but just a little bit more cabbage-ey (pretty sure that isn't a word, but it is now because I said so). You can eat it raw or cooked, but my favorite way to eat it is raw, sprinkled with a little salt. YUM!

A Blueberry

The ONLY blueberry this year, to be exact. In order to allow the bushes to put all their energy into the plant instead of the fruit, we picked off all the berries before they matured, save this singular beauty. I was so looking forward to tasting this little blue sphere of happiness, but unfortunately, I left it on the table inside while I was talking to the hubby on the deck for a second. Midget climbed up and ate it.

*Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah*

Garden Update

The garden is growing so quickly! I took these pictures a week ago and they're already outdated--BIG TIME!

Although the garden has grown a lot in a week, we've hardly harvested anything yet. It's definitely a major exercise in patience for me. Because basically, I have none.

But no one's perfect right? It is my one and only flaw.

What??

When you say "lack of modesty," what exactly do you mean??

You can explain some other time. I'd rather just show you the pics.

Garden Goddess

Or as I like to call it, "Ho with a Hoe."

I know you're all laughing with me, not at me, right??

Excuse the blue hue--I'm still getting to know my new camera and I change things and can't remember how to get them back.

Oh! And can you believe how skinny I'm getting?? You may now commence heaping praise (even though I still gots lotsa chunkies). Actually, I don't think I've ever posted a full body pic on here before. Don't even ask for a full body "before" pic--I'm DEFINITELY not going to post one!!




By the way, all my plants are in the garden! Now I just have to have patience. This is not a skill I possess.

Trust me...

Growing Like Crazy!

Remember my little seedling pots I posted three weeks ago?

Here's the parsley on 4/27.















Here's the parsley today.















Here's the basil on 4/27.












Here's the basil today.












Here's the first picture of Midget on this blog.












Here's Midget today.








It's a miracle I haven't killed any of them. Especially Miss Sassypants, who seems to have developed a MAJOR attitude all of a sudden! Fun times ahead, right??

I'm in a Rhubarb State of Mind...

My awesome Sister-in-law gave us four rhubarb roots to plant in our yard! I grew up eating lots and LOTS of rhubarb, as my grandma grew tons of it and both of my parents loved it. The hubby's Mom also has a GIGANTIC section of rhubarb in her garden (it's seriously huge--trust me, it's enormous), which is where my Sis-in-law got her roots from. These little plants will be huge in a few years!












Doesn't this scream "Feed Me Seymour!?!"













She also pulled some stalks off her plants and gave us a gallon ziploc stuffed full of rhubarb. Of course, I had to make some rhubarb sauce! I love eating it on Angel Food Cake. For any of you who've never eaten rhubarb, WHY IN SAM-HELLLLLLS NOT?? It is deliciously tart and is fantastic in quick breads and pairs especially well with goat cheese! Oh lordy lordy. It's so good!















Sugar Free Rhubarb Sauce

6 c rhubarb, diced
1/4 c water
1 .3 oz sugar-free raspberry gelatin (you could use strawberry, but I prefer raspberry)
1-1 1/2 c splenda

Place rhubarb and water in 2 qt saucepan. It will nearly fill the pan, but will break down quickly. Bring to a boil over high heat. Stir and turn heat down to medium-low and cover. Stir occasionally, simmering for 10-15 minutes until rhubarb has broken down. Turn heat down to low, add gelatin and 1 c splenda. Mix thoroughly and add remaining sugar to taste. Remove from heat and serve warm or cold.

Hello Beautiful...

This is what we did on Saturday, and by we, I mean my husband.














I'll give you a minute to finish squealing.

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Now that you've got yourself back together--isn't it lovely? This is the future home of my vegetable garden! We've ordered all the plants and seeds and are now just waiting for the last frost date to pass and then we'll get started!

My black thumb is slowly healing and is currently a lovely shade of purpley-yellowish. I expect it to be fully green by the time my plants arrive. I've even been practicing in my windowsill!











I found the little basil and parsley containers at IKEA. I think they were about a buck-fifty each, but I can't remember. The parsley in the green pot was purchased at the grocery store and then transplanted into the little pot. I can never seem to use up a sprig of parsley before it spoils, so I thought I'd try buying a plant and snipping some off when I need it. Seems to be working okay so far!

I also have a container that I'm going to plant herbs in and keep up on my deck for easy access. I can't wait to show you all the progress!!

Have I told you I'm a complete novice at this whole gardening thing? I'm terrified that the plants will arrive when my husband is out of town! I don't have the foggiest idea of what to do with the plants and the seeds once they arrive...

SO if you are a gardener, make sure you let me know in the comments so I can bug you when I have a question!

This is what we did on Saturday, and by we, I mean Me & Midget!