Archive | July, 2013

At Least We’ve Got Some Beautiful Garlic….

Our vegetable garden has been fairly catastrophic this year. Aside from a decent harvest of peas and some nice lettuces, much of what we have planted has been eaten by critters, rotted by excessive rain, wilted by excessive heat, or inexplicably stunted. The radishes never took off, the broccoli hasn’t produced a single floret, the eggplant looks like an bad bonsai experiment — utterly lacking in buds to boot — even the basil has been chewed to a lace and ribs, and do you know ANYONE who can plant zucchini two years in a row and only have ONE, that’s right, ONE SINGLE SOLITARY, zucchini to show for it? That’s just pitiful.

Helping out with garlic harvest at Restoration Farm (in 100 degree heat!?!)

Well, I could go on, but that might jinx the tomatoes, which actually look quite good, except I think my watering has not been consistent and there could be some blossom end rot in my future.

So, I will look on the bright side and say that not only did our garlic produce lovely scapes earlier in the season, but we are also drying a healthy bunch of our own garlic bulbs, planted last October in our raised beds from a head that I reserved from Restoration Farm last season.

Accentuate the positive...our homegrown organic garlic is beautiful and heady with fragrance. My friend Vic Munoz calls this stage: terrestrial jellyfish

Accentuate the positive…our homegrown organic garlic is beautiful and heady with fragrance. My friend Vic Muñoz calls them terrestrial jellyfish for their look!

So, no recipe today. Just a deep breath, thanking goodness that I am not depending on my crop to feed my family. A celebration of what has gone right. And a resolution to keep trying. Because knowing how to grow your own food is important and because perseverance is important and because everything takes time to master.

Wish me luck with the fall vegetables, some of which are already planted….

Tags: gardening, garlic, planting

Comments 12 Comments
Categories CSA, farming, Food, gardening

Finally! A Summer Alternative to Roasting: Tender and Crunchy Grilled Beets

29 Jul

We are awash in beets in the summer and while roasted beets are fantastic, the recent heat wave has not made me (or anyone else) eager to run the oven at all!

Vinny buying the beets at the Greenport Farmstand…Vinny might make a better blogger than me…he was very insistent that I photograph everything!

So, thanks again to the Macchiroles, I learned a new technique for an old favorite. it was great at theirs and then this week my dad gave it a try and they were sublime.

Capturing Vinny’s every move

So, without further ado, here is the recipe (this is a very busy week of kid stuff — all good, but more in-depth posts will not be happening for a while!)

These are simple and delicious…beet sweetness

That caramelization balances the saltiness!

Grilled Beets

As many beets (the root part) as you’ve got

Olive oil

Pepper and salt (or Adobo seasoning)

Top, tail and peel your beets (Note: Vinny does not peel, his but scrubs them well. It’s up to you!). Slice into ¼ inch rounds. Rub with olive oil until evenly covered and add salt and pepper or Adobo to taste. Alternately, you can marinate them for a while in the olive oil and seasonings while you do other things.

Lay rounds on a hot grill and cook, turning after about four minutes. Check after eight minutes. They won’t get soft like roasted or boiled beets, but they will be tooth-tender. Serve as a side to any summer dish!

Slow Cooker Caribbean-Style: Chipotle-Lime Jerk Chicken

26 Jul

I acquired a slow cooker with credit card points about a year ago. In my tiny space, it is rather a big deal to bring in a bulky piece of equipment that you have no place for. So you’d think I’d make it work for its slice of my kitchen shelves.

Vinny in the kitchen (this may be him making the ceviche and not the chicken, but nevermind)

But perversely enough, no. I’ve been intimidated by it! I love it for softening beans, but have hesitated to truly play with it in that way we hesitate when confronted with a new way to do habitual things. You wouldn’t think, since I do so much cooking and experimenting, but surprise…I too can be loathe to embrace a new (for me) technology when my customary ways have been working out so well!

Remember to put veggies on the bottom, then meat, then sauce

So I was very glad to be tossed right into slow cooking by my friends Vinny and Carolyn Macchirole with whom we stayed for several days in Long Island’s North Fork recently (Leandro happily at sweaty, buggy, scrape-y, muddy, swimmy Peconic Dunes summer camp from 9-5, everyday for a week, oh heaven for both of us). We’d been planning a Caribbean Night cooking extravaganza (more recipes to come) and Vinny was in charge of the jerk chicken. He came up with a recipe for slow-cooked chipotle-lime chicken that he felt could be easily altered to our purposes. And he was right,

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Tags: chicken, chipotle lime, family dinners, food, jerk chicken, North Fork, recipes, slow cooker recipes, spicy

Comments 19 Comments
Categories Chicken, Comida Criolla, Entertaining, Food, Recipes, Slow Cooker

Edible Long Island Launches! Hurrah!

25 Jul

And you thought we in central Long Island were too Married to the Mob and the Strip Mall to do anything but frequent pasta and pizza joints?

Uh. No.

Edible Long Island — the latest magazine in the Edible Communities family — proves the stereotypes wrong by uncovering the vibrant food cultures between Riverhead and the Queens border. I am so pleased to be a contributor to this very meaningful project and I hope you will have a look (my stories in this first — digital only — issue are on Stony Brook University Hospital’s rooftop farm and AHRC’s garden work with adults who face learning challenges). Congratulations to my editor, Betsy Davidson, for corraling it all together!

Click to Order Edible on Any Screen, Anywhere and click here for the current edition!

Tags: Edible Long Island

Comments 4 Comments
Categories Edible Long Island

A Natural Mosquito Repellent? We test it.

21 Jul

The mosquitoes have been rabid this year; in my neighborhood we now have daytime mozzies (for which we are once again blaming someone else — this time it’s the Asians because we are calling them Asian tigers (Aedes albopictus if you would like the scientific name). Kind of reminds me of the French pox, the Spanish flu, the German measles. We love to throw other nations under the bus for our epidemics, so ATTENTION INTERNATIONAL READERS: please let us know what plagues you blame on the Americans (particularly whether you actually name them the American something! I may be opening myself up for quite an onslaught, but I hope to be amused!)

Anyhoo,a friend on Facebook posted a suggestion for repelling mosquitoes from the I Hate Mosquitoes FB page. You are meant to stud halved limes with cloves. I always have both ingredients around and they looked very pretty in the picture, so I was all over this idea. The theory is that they are repelled by citrus, which seems reasonable enough, I guess!

I finally got around to trying it while staying last week at the waterfront Greenport home of Vincent and Carolyn Macchirole. The mosquitoes drove us away from the lovely seating area on their dock one dusk, so the next night we sliced and studded limes and laid them around the table. And the result?

It looks very pretty, but is it an effective mosquito repellant?

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Tags: natural mosquito repellant

Comments 52 Comments
Categories Asian

Revive Prosecco or Champagne Bubbles with Raisins

16 Jul

Since I am not a quitter, since I am a person who finishes what she starts, it’s been a long time since I have had to resort to this trick.

When I open a bottle of prosecco or champagne, it is always with a friend (or several) and there’s never anything left in the bottle by the end of the party. But yes, it sometimes happens that you just can’t finish by bedtime and you regretfully stick the bottle in the fridge, bidding adieu to those marvellous, fine, fizzy bubbles, and promising to have a quick mimosa in the morning with the now-fairly-flat wine.

Thanks to Kim for providing these fab flutes….from the Patchogue-Medford prom of 1991! (Apparently yes, they gave out champagne glasses at the h.s. prom back in the day!)

But morning comes and goes and kids need tending and driving around and there’s just no time or place for that mimosa. And yet you can’t just toss the remaining wine!

Here’s how to salvage the bubbles in your bubbly.

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Tags: champagne, fizzy drinks, prosecco, saving bubbles

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Cocktails, Entertaining, Vegan, Vegetarian

Three Deliciously Sweet Blueberry Baking Ideas

14 Jul

Blueberries are in at Restoration Farm, our C.S.A.! We pick our own, each family picking as much as seems reasonable, given that we share with a lot of people, but keeping in mind that these berries won’t stay ripe forever.

Blueberries are one of those power foods, loaded with anti-oxidants, which may or may not counter the aging process. We just know they are powerfully delicious! The good news is they don’t seems to lose that phytonutrient power when frozen. They are also native to North America, which makes it positively patriotic if you are from around these parts. The bad news is that even domestically-grown blueberries are high in pesticide residue, according to the Environmental Working Group. So use their freezeability to your advantage. Buy them organic while in season and freeze them for later use!

Here are three of our favorite blueberry recipes — should you be brave enough to turn on the oven in the middle of a hot summer. Or, store these recipes when you store your blueberries in the freezer, and pull them out for a burst of summer in your baking in the middle of winter!

Blueberry-Strawberry Muffins

We like mini-muffins because you get so many you can share them around!

Blueberry Pound Cake

Blueberry pound cake is rich and tart and sweet

Blueberry-Lingonberry Muffins

A favorite for tea, lunchbox or thoughtful treat for neighbors, caregivers and friends

Tags: blueberries, cooking, desserts, food, muffins, poundcake, recipes

Comments 12 Comments
Categories CSA, desserts, farming, Food, Recipes

Offering Today’s Post (and Prayers) for 14-year-old Pakistani Blogger Malala Yousafzai

12 Jul

NOTE TO READERS; HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MALALA – who LIVED to celebrate her 16th birthday today by addressing the U.N. and demanding education for all!!!! See her speech –

Hot, Cheap & Easy

The Taliban today attempted to assassinate a 14-year-old Pakistani girl who blogged in defense of education for girls.

Malala Yousafzai is now fighting for survival with bullet wounds to the head and throat. According to the BBC and NBC News she may very well survive, but she may never regain her speaking voice.

So today, I offer this post in tribute to her bravery and the importance of equality and education for women and girls.

Examples of Malala’s posts

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Categories Uncategorized

I wouldn’t say I am cheating on you, but you might see it differently….

10 Jul

While I haven’t been posting with my usual frequency here on Hot, Cheap & Easy, I have been busy working on stories for Edible Long Island’s blog (and for the upcoming digital launch). it has of course, involved food and agriculture.

So if you’ve missed me lately, I have missed you too!

So let me catch you up a bit on what I’ve been up to. Please click on the images or links and feel free to comment over there as well as over here. We love feedback!!

A Slow Food Huntington potluck at Restoration Farm!!!!

Click on image to go to my short post on Edible Long Island about the Slow food event!

Do NOT call it a garden! The Stony Brook Heights Rooftop FARM at Stony Brook University Hospital.

An unusual location that makes perfect sense…a farm on a hospital roof!

Tags: community farms, Edible Long Island posts, Stony Brook

Comments 10 Comments
Categories CSA, Edible Long Island, farming, Food

No-cook Cannellini and Garlic Scape Dip (fast and seasonal)

8 Jul

NOTE TO READERS: another garlic scape idea! Don’t lose them…use them!!!

Hot, Cheap & Easy

Garlic scapes are the gorgeous twisty tops of garlic plants as they begin to mature in late spring. They need to be removed from the plant so they don’t take growing power away from the bulbs still developing underground.

They are so good to look at that I actually stick them in vases and use as centerpieces when they are in season, but of course I pull them right out of their decorative function whenever I need garlic flavor, which is what garlic scapes give you. You top and tail them to remove the crown and any woodiness at the bottom of the stem, slice and voila! fresh tasting garlic. When I have had overabundance, I have diced and frozen them to good effect.

This is a recipe that Caroline Fanning, head grower at Restoration Farm, suggested I play around with, as the farm had just such an abundance…

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Categories Uncategorized

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