Harvesting and using garlic scapes

Late spring is the time when you can find garlic scapes at the farmers market, or if you grow garlic you get an extra crop.  The scape is the seed head that emerges from the center of the garlic leaf stalk on hardneck varieties.  If left in its place it will flower, and produce bulbils (small clove like seeds).  There is a debate among garlic growers as to whether or not removing the scape will produce a larger bulb or not.  In my personal experience I have not seen a difference between a garlic bulb with or without the scape being removed.  If you choose to remove them you can cut them off with a knife or simply pull directly up on the scape and it will break off where it wants to break off and now you can get excited over the size of the scape you can pull out!!Or unreasonably upset when you get a small one.

That being said what do you do with a garlic scape now that you have it.  We use the scapes the same way you use garlic to season any dish, but the scape can also be used as a vegetable, as it has the texture of asparagus.  Scapes are excellent simply grilled with olive oil and sea salt, or eaten raw finely diced on a salad.

This is a fresh pea and mint salad with garlic scapes.  Scapes are also a great topping on white pizza, just leave them whole and lay across the pizza, or made into a savory jelly.  I use the  Ball Blue Book garlic jelly recipe and replace the garlic cloves with garlic scapes. 

Scapes are also popular as the key ingredient in a Pesto alternative, here is my recipe for Garlic scape and Lambs quarter pesto.

Garlic Scape and Lambs Quarter Pesto*

2 Cups lambs quarter leaves*

1 Cup basil

1/2 Cup toasted walnuts

1/2 Cup grated parmesan cheese

1 dozen garlic scapes

1/4 Cup olive oil

black pepper to taste

enough water to start blender.

Rinse lambs quarter, basil, and scapes and roughly chop.
Toast walnuts.
Add all ingredients to blender with enough water to get it blending, blend until smooth, add more water or oil as necessary.

This yields about 1 pint of pesto concentrate, I put mine into small jars and freeze for later use.  When I want to use some I reheat it with more olive oil and top pasta or grilled summer vegetables.

* Lambs quarter also known as goosefoot is a wild relative of spinach, so spinach could be used as a replacement.

So if you grow your own garlic or see scapes at your local farmers market, don't be afraid to experiment in the kitchen with this unique and seasonal product.

-John

Recipe of the Week 7/16

We are now going to feature a recipe of the week at market, and share it here.

Zucchini Cakes:

2 cup grated zucchini
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup diced onion
1 clove diced garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients in large bowl.

Coat pan with oil.

Cook like pancakes.

Top with sour cream, or salsa.

Working on some new stuff...

I have been busy working on some new stuff this past week.  We always seem to get out of the habbit of being less wasteful.  Nothing big, but we need to get back on track.  I made some more cloth napkins this week.  We also finished out last roll of paper towels, so it is back to using cloth towels.  Sometimes you really do need paper towels though, especially when it comes to food.  For instance, patting a whole chicken dry with a cloth towel always leaves fuzzies.  The bad thing is, if we have the paper towels we will use them for everything.  Kind of an all or nothing type deal.  I am going to try and go without them again and see how it works.  I have also been wanting to replace ziploc baggies for awhile now.  I always reuse them, and recycle them when they are too worn out, but I wanted something that I could send to school with my son that wouldn't get thrown out.  Since most of our containers are glass, I decided to make some reusable snack bags.

I wanted to make something that was waterproof so I could send stuff like strawberries or grapes.  I did some research, but there doesn't seem to be any reliable information about the safety of using ripstop nylon or PUL.  I settled for unbleached linen instead.  It works for snacks like pretzels, raisins, and peanuts, and I prefer the idea of using cotton.  I still wouldn't mind having a few bags that could be used for wet snacks so if anyone does know of a place that sells food safe nylon material please let me know :)  They are super easy to make and require little materials so I hope to have a tutorial up on the website by next week!

This week whole chickens were only .85 lb. so that was the focus of my meal planning this week.  I made a roast chicken last night (that turned out awesome!), and chicken salad, and chicken stock today.  Tonight I will use the stock to make chicken noodle soup and the chicken salad will be dinner for tomorrow.   I finished a new page for the website, so check it out if you would like to learn how to make 3 meals from one chicken. 

Our grocery bill has been a bit out of control the last month or so.  Still trying to get back on track with that as well.  One thing I am working on is serving more whole grain, dry bean, and potato side dishes as well as a veggies side dish with every meal.  This seems to help stretch meals.  Always more things to try and areas to improve I guess!  Hope you enjoy the new page!

New recipe and a new page on growing plants from seed...

I have been working on some new stuff for the website.  I recently added my recipe for chicken enchiladas.  It uses dry beans which really help make this a frugal recipe.  Dry beans are a great way to stretch meat dishes.  You can find the recipe here.

We have also started most of our seeds for this year.  Growing plants from seed saves us a ton of money every year and is not as hard as it sounds.  There is not much of an investment and you can be sure the quality of the plants will be great!  We have had bad experiences with plants purchased from large home improvement stores.  We have a couple of nice greenhouses in town but would go broke pretty quick if we bought all of our plants from them!  I have written a page on how we start our plants from seed.  If you are interested in trying it you should check it out :)

My new website and a recipe for mac and cheese....

Sooo I started a new website http://www.simple-and-frugal-living.com/.  Blogger is aight but I really wanted to go the extra step.  I love all things simple and frugal so I thought it was a good idea to put my knowledge and passion into a website!  I would love if you get a chance to check it out.  I just added a recipe for my easy baked mac and cheese.  It is really tasty and frugal recipe.

I have some other recipes, tutorials, tips, and such.  I will try and post everytime I add something to the site.  If you like what you see, you can share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. at the bottom of each page.  I would be very appreciative!  I hope you enjoy!

Cookin with jersusalem artichokes and some market pics....

So this year was the first time we planted Jerusalem Artichokes....

Here they are stuffed on the side of the house.  We had to tie them up because they kept falling over. 

They have also been a nice addition to cut flowers we sell at the market.

Here they are all scrubbed up.  Most recipes say to peel them but I read a couple places that said that wasn't necessary so I just made sure they were really clean and chopped them up.  As you can imagine they are really hard to peel so this is a big time saver.  I had never cooked with them before so I just kind of winged it.

Ta da!  Jerusalem Artichokes sauteed with chard, garlic, walnuts, sage, and olive oil!  The artichokes have a nice smokey flavor and they have the same texture as a water chestnut.  Very very good.  We will be growing LOTS more of these next year.

Also the market is booming.  Lots of people and produce, it has been a lot of fun.  I wanted to get some pictures since things will be winding down here soon.

Looks like Black Opal Basil?  I do know the flowers are edible and really nice on a salad.

Heirloom maters....

Tiny little peppers....

Look at those cute little baskets...awww....

Flowers that look like brains (lol!)....

It should be mentioned that none of this stuff is mine.  I have 2 whole eggplants and 2 rotted ones on my plants..haha oh well maybe next year.

Rain rain...thank God!

This has been an all or nothing kind of summer.  Either way too much rain or way to little.  We haven't had much lately so when I saw this...

I don't think these pictures do justice to just how dark it really was.  That house in the picture is a forclosed house next door.  It really started coming down and all of the sudden this guy parks his truck in the alley, jumps out of his truck, unloads a weedeater and mower and starts mowing the lawn!  It was really coming down in sheets and the sky was churning.  Lightning was crashing everywhere and the wind was insane.  I think the guy must have been a little crazy.  I thought banks didn't really care about foreclosed homes but apparently this one is different!

So with all this rain I am hoping the garden really goes crazy.  Things have begun to taper off, I believe it is due to the lack of rain.  It is funny how much my perspective on things has changed.  I never thought the weather would effect my life so much but it really is important for us!  We have one little baby watermelon that should really love this!  Now we have gotten quite a bit of summer squash.  Some of them are rather large so I have been stuffing them...

This one is filled with dirty rice and topped with mozzerella.  This is the one area in my life I take it easy, it is just Zattaran's Dirty Rice which is really good and really easy to make.  I usually use Morning Star fake ground meat.  I have also stuffed them with ricotta and sauce, and quinoa.  I am also working on some new stuff to sell at market.  We do well, but I think we really need to find our niche there.  I will let you know how it goes.  So I hope you are finding all sorts of good stuff to do with summer's bounty, and I hope your gardens are staying watered!

Duck egg noodles...

So this was a new adventure for me!  I have made noodles before but never with duck eggs.  One of the ladies at the market had them today so I got them, took em home, and made some noodles!  They are AWESOME!  So much richer than chicken eggs.  This is the recipe I used if you are interested.  I had a difficult time finding a duck egg recipe as they are quite a bit larger then chicken eggs.  I did find that I needed a lot of flower to roll them out.

A little wonky but yummy!  I think I better go make sure they still taste ok....

Radish sprout sandwich...

This sandwich was inspired by the French Breakfast radish.  I had to thin the radish seedlings but didn't want to just throw them out so I decided to try them on some whole grain bread with butter.  It was actually so good I made another one!

Mmmmmm!  It's all about as little waste as possible!

I also want to try pickleling radishes with some garlic....so many things to do so little time!

Apple sauce butter pancakes

So we have like a million jars of this "apple butter" I tried to make.  Ok maybe not a million but like 9.  Anywho I wanted to make it a bit chunkier and with less sugar then regular apple butter.  I really like how it turned out but I don't use a lot of apple butter so I still had 8 jars left.  One of my first jobs was in a little diner and the best thing they served were pancaked with apple pie filling dropped on top of them while they were cooking so the filling was in the pancake.  Good stuff!  I decided to use some of the chunky apple butter sauce stuff I made (like that title?).  They turned out really good so I wanted to post the recipe.  You could use applesauce or applebutter with the same results.  The recipe is as follows:

2c Flour
2 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1-1 1/4 c milk
1 c saucy type apple product
2 tbsps melted butter
2 tbsp vanilla extract
*optional add some cinnamon as much as you like

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt.  Mix eggs, milk, vanilla and melted butter in sepperate bowl.  Mix in flour mixture.  Add saucy apple product and mix.  Cook like you would a pancake and enjoy!

Also we got these in the mail today...

You screw these on to almost any jug type product.  Milk jugs, pop bottles, juice containers etc.  We got them from the Bountiful Gardens.  We got two so that if we can try a giveaway here soon.  :)

Ditching the packaging

Where had the time gone?  When we started this blog we wanted to post once a week.  I just can't seem to findthe time.  My job has lifted a lot of the financial burden from us but leaves me with no time to do the things I want to do.  I feel it is important for us to document things through this blog.  I am sure I can find some balance here! 

Ok on to the reason I wanted to write this post...New Years resoloutions.  Mine personally was to ditch that stupid packaging.  I know we recycle but looking at all that crap gives me a panic attack.  I read an article about a woman who tried to not buy anything that had plastic for a week.  That got me thinking...do I EVER buy anything that DOESN'T contain plastic?  Really with the exception of purchases made at the farmers market in the summer I don't think so.  A few idea's I have for this are:

1. Make my own produce bags.  I am trying to think of the best thing to make these of.  I can buy some on etsy but they are around $15.  I have some sheerish fabric I think would work so I will probably try that.  I also have this worry that I will try to use them at the store and they will tell me I can't.  Haha I don't think that will happen but we will see.

2. Make what food products I can to reduce packaging.  We buy Stonyfield yogurt which is great stuff and a great company but I still hate the containers I am left with so I have started making my own yogurt.  After several extremely frustrating attempts with the crock pot that left me with spoiled milk I discovered that my bread maker is a wonderful yogurt maker!  It is runnier than the store bought stuff which made the boys a little nervous but I made yogurt drinks with banana and vanilla and they loved it.  Also you can drain a lot of the liquid for a thicker yogurt but that seems wasteful so we will just adapt to it. :)  Also we purchased a juicer which is great because we get a healthier product and we don't have to have the containers.  I just need to make those produce bags to but the fruit and veggies in and there will be hardly any waste!

3. Don't get lazy!  Remember the cloth bags at the store and use more cloth diapers when we are out.  We have gotten in the habit of putting papers on her when we go out.  I think I have had to change her once while we were out so I really want to try and use almost all cloth.  Also not using paper when the diapers are clean and dry in the basement but I am too lazy to go downstairs to get them.  I have 2 bags that fold up and fit in my purse that can fit a lot of stuff in them for the store.  Also I just tell the cashier to jam as much in as possible. 

4. Research how to make more household things...not justlaundry soap.  The laundry soap cuts back on a lot of packaging but are there more things I can so?  Can you make your own toothpaste? How about dish washing detergent? 

5. Try my darndest to cut back on the extras like coffee and use less shampoo and conditioner.  I have a habit of squirting a huge pile to use when I could use probably half and get them same results.  We keep the heat at 62 and I am putting my foot down there!

Also I have to remember not to be toooooo hard on myself.  I do work and have a baby and a toddler.

Heating the milk to 180 degrees.

Let it cool to 125 degrees.  Mix in 1 cup yogurt and put in bread maker...ta da!

MMMM juice! (He likes the yogurt too!)