Lettuce Eat More Greens

I am a notoriously terrible lettuce grower.  I don't know if I just always plant at the wrong time, if my soil isn't right for it, or if I'm just not holding my mouth right.  My lettuce always bolts before it even gets big enough for me to be willing to pluck a leaf to see how it tastes.  Until this winter.  In late fall I planted some mesclun mix in my greenhouse, just a small patch as a test.  I didn't expect much given my track record, but in the past few weeks some of the lettuce has grown to testable size without any sign of bolting!

And I have discovered something because of my success:

The Best Thing About Jefferson Davis

All I've ever known about Jefferson Davis is that he was the president of the Confederate States of America.  Interesting, but for me, not particularly enthralling.  I'm not a huge history buff so I don't study into the lives of people that don't excite me.  However . . . the "Joy of Cooking" has a recipe for Jefferson Davis Pie that has interested me for quite some time, and a few years ago Joe noticed it and exclaimed that I should bake one some time.  Yesterday I made my first attempt.

Magic Potion

I hope none of you are suffering from what I've been suffering from the past 24 hours, but just in case, I want to pass on a little recipe that a dear friend passed on to me a few years ago.  Not only will it cure what ails ya, but it's delicious to boot!

Everything's Coming Up Roses

One of the best grocery store discoveries I've made in recent years is Rose Petal Spread

You can almost invariably find it at your local (or perhaps like me, not-so-local) Indo-Pak grocery store, and believe me it's worth the trip.

How to Split Beans

The other day I wanted to make some Kichari.  This wonderful Indian meal can be spelled almost as many ways as there are recipes for it, and there are almost as many recipes for it as there Indian households!  My own personal favorite recipe for Kichari does not quite follow any recipe I have found in a book, but rather is a mix and match of several different recipes.  The basic concept, as far as I can tell, is that it is a mixture of dals (split peas or beans) and rice cooked in plenty of water so that there is a nice broth preferably with a lot of flavor added in the form of spices and roasted seeds.

Calming Breakfast Soup

Oh, the joy of a winter garden!  It frosted pretty well last night but such happenings serve only to sweeten most of what remains in the garden.  There are daikon radishes, and turnips and in the greenhouse there are collard greens and kale at various stages of growth.  With this in mind this morning, and having read last night in  Masanobu Fukuoka's "One Straw Revolution" that daikon radishes have calming qualities, I decided we would start out our day calmly.  So I made a simple egg drop miso soup with fresh grated daikon added raw to the warm bowl of soup.

Grinding

This morning I awoke knowing that I absolutely HAD to make some space in the freezer.  I t was getting ready to overflow and there is talk of some up-and-coming hunts which, if successful, will require a bit of freezer space.  So, I pulled out a huge bag of cushaw squash chunks, not quite knowing what I'd use it for.  While it thawed, I decided to turn it into an unreasonable quantity of quick bread.  So I started grinding.