Fried Okra

I really like southern food. I am not that great at making it though. I am a little hesitant to use all of the fat and salt that makes it so great. When I used to drive around the country on a regular basis, I used travel as an excuse to eat the things that were specific to the region and really, really bad for me. In the south of the USA, gas stations were my favorite snack place because of the readily available sweet tea and deep fried okra.

Okra is one of those foods that turns people off. I think it was my dad that said, "thats been eaten before." It is slimy and viscous. When you make it the right way, the natural okra mucus (so so gross of a description, but so accurate) doesn't have a chance to form and ruin your dish. The key is to make it work for you. I used it as the binder to keep the coating on the okra. I chopped the pods into bite sized pieces and poured a tablespoon of cream on them. I let them sit in my fridge for an hour or so and stirred them every 15 min. The cream and the slime mixed together and coated the okra. The seasoned flour and cornmeal stuck to the binder very well. I pan fried them in olive oil and had to flip every single one. I let them sit on a paper towel to drain off the excess grease and sprinkled a bunch of salt on them. Crunchy, tasty and great. So bad for me, yet so so delicious.

The Garden (Chapter 2)

After C worked herself to the point of complete exhaustion and moved all (most) of the dirt into the beds, we spent a Saturday planting the plants and sowing the seeds. I think that it is one of the best gardens I have ever seen and it has been really fun and exciting to spent time out there on the weekends. This weekend will be spent cleaning up the paths and weeding the rest of the yard that has been a little neglected. I don't have very much time...what can I say. The above photo shows globe artichoke, tomatillo, edamame, corn and a patch of brocolli seeds.
This is where we planted our lettuces, arugala, and brussel sprouts all intersperced with radishes.

This is the climbing bed filled with purple hyacinth beans, scarlet runner beans, climbing sqash and rosemary.
This is the view from my bedroom window.
The plan is to put a table and chairs in between the triangle beds. Once we get the paths done and the plants start to take over, this is going to be where I eat all of my meals.

The fruit season's first cobbler attempt.

I love cobbler. Fruit that is baked with sugar...I mean who doesn't love that. Add a cakey topping and serve it warm out of the oven, everyone will swoon. We swooned over this one and I have to admit that it was just okay. I didn't have a recipe which usually works out fine, but I forget that baking is a little more scientific than cooking. It was my first one though. I'll get it next time. This cobbler consisted of white peaches, blueberries and strawberries with a lavender and lemon zest topping. I like more of a biscuit topping than a cake topping and next time if I use lavender, I will use only peaches as the fruit filling and not muddle in too many flavors. And...it was vegan, so there was no butter, only margarine. That is something that I have to play around with since all of my friends are vegan. If I want them to eat my food, I have to make adjustments (sometimes).

The Garden (Chapter One)

I live in a compound. A large fenced in area with a big house in front and a small house (mine) in back. C, one of the big house owners, decided that she wanted a big garden to grow all of our food. There is a big area of land behind my cottage and it was just the right size to feed all of us.
C did most of the work since she is on break from grad school and I have to work all day long. She convinced me that buying the plants would make us work faster, so we bought a bunch of heirloom vegetables at the farmer's market. That, my friends, was the easy part. Next came a week of math. C measured and did a lot of math on construction paper to get the amount of wood and dirt that we would need. After a very exciting Saturday at hardware stores, we were able to start.
We set out all of the wood and all of that colorful math worked its magic. We bought the right amount! We screwed a bunch of them together and cleared as much room as we could before we were too tired and had somewhere else to be.
Later in the week, J and C put the rest of the beds together and C moved 6 cubic yards of dirt by herself. She worked for 12 hours one day and was exausted. This was just the beginning!

Serious (breakfast?) Pie

I went to Serious Pie with my cousin. He is my favorite dining partner these days. He is just as into food as I am, if not more. Ok, more...he goes to Italy for truffle dinners. This isn't a review since we all know that Tom Douglas is a bad ass and he only hires bad ass servers, this is just a rant on how awesome my pizza was.

Arugala, guanaciale and fontina cheese topped with soft cooked egg. A true breakfast pie. The flavors complimented eachother very well and the guanaciale added a light element of salt. Top the whole thing off with the creamy yolk...I loved it. I want it now actually.

Usually the term "breakfast pie" has referred to the left over White Chocolate Coconut Cream Pie from the Dahlia bakery that my family can't finish after stuffing ourselves at the Palace Kitchen. Douglas has now earned full rights to the term in my book.