Recipes for a Cheapskate: Poppin' Peppers

Too many things to do this weekend to really get the dirt under my fingernails but I did get to harvest my jalapeño plant.

As the peppers were starting to turn bright red, that signaled that the time had come.

I got 13 peppers, just enough to make into a side dish for this week's barbecue.
So what can I do? Make mini jalapeño poppers.
Easy in concept but the smaller size of these peppers make a bit hard to stuff.

Each pepper is sliced on one side, propped open, and stuffed with my homemade mixture of cream cheese, chopped serrano peppers, and bacon.

I wrap them up in foil, poke a few holes in the top, and then put on the grill with our burgers.

The finished product looks something like this.

Darryl
Copyright 2013 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Super Sides: Stuffed Pasilla Peppers

I like stuffed bell peppers but, for some reason, these mild peppers give me an acute case of heartburn.  The hotter pasilla chiles don't so I use them instead, just like I would bell peppers.

Here is a very good and easy recipe for them, similar to jalapeno poppers.

INGREDIENTS
3 large pasilla peppers
1/4 pound cream cheese

Slice open the pasilla chiles.  Remove the seeds inside if you want to reduce the heat.  Slide in some cream cheese.

Loosely wrap with foil paper.

Put on a barbecue grill, direct heat, with the foil open at the top for half an hour.

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Winter's Tangy Harvest

Late fall...winter starts next week...and in the middle of a big drought, not a lot to do in the garden but we can find something.

December in Southern California is citrus season and our three trees are producing! 

The cara cara navel orange tree (at the top of this post) has put out the most fruit it's ever given us.

Our Meyer lemon is not far behind.

We harvest just enough to last us for a week or so and let the rest of the fruit stay on the tree til we're ready for more.

Along with the oranges and lemons, I also find a few rogue Anaheim chiles that will go into tomorrow's eggs.

These tart but sweet cara caras are just the ticket for a nice, healthy shot of vitamin C on the side of this sandwich.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

RECIPES FOR A CHEAPSKATE: Guacamole

In my seemingly never ending quest to use all of our tomatoes, this week I made some guacamole.

I could have asked my neighbor for a couple avocados but since I was thinking about this while I was at the store, I took the easy way out and bought a couple of Haas avocados, some green onions, and a lemon. I probably could have used a homegrown onion but I used it last week on another meal and don't have another.

This tomato...

...and these chiles, however, came straight from the garden.

It's a pretty easy recipe, first dice up the tomato.  Take the dead skin off of two whole green onions, along with the roots. Chop it all up into 1 inch pieces.

Put the onions and the chile...I've got a very small Anaheim chile, a Thai chili, and a few serrano chiles..into a food processor and chop up into fine mixture of little cubes.

Scoop out the avocados into a bowl, add the tomatoes, and mash up like mashed potatoes. Add a teaspoon of minced garlic and another of salt.  Squeeze lemon juice over everything and add the onion and chile mixture.

Add half and half or heavy cream to give a creamy taste and texture. Stir thoroughly and add salt and cream sparingly to taste.

When done, we add it to our tacos, as shown at the top. You can also use it as a very tasty dip for your tortilla chips.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

September Harvest

Great haul this week.

Heirloom tomato, guavas, hybrid tomato, Anaheim chile, hot chiles, and onion. Time to make salsa.

These cherry tomatoes will be used for a Caprese salad.

Darryl

A Labor of Love

Well, Labor Day 2015 has just passed, marking the unofficial end of summer. How did our garden do? This year was much better than last. We had a lot more good news than bad.

Let's start with the good stuff and save the bad for next time.

On the sweet side of things, the guavas are ready to start picking. Some are already dropping on the ground. Lots of fruit on this tree.

The dragon fruit aren't ripe yet but they're getting there.

The tomatoes have done great. Three plants have put out enough that we haven't had to buy tomatoes for two months now. Maybe not enough to share with all the neighbors but a banner year still, especially compared to the lousy year we had last year. 

The hybrid has put out many in clusters like this.

The heirloom has been a bit stingier, only giving us about a half dozen but they were pretty big, tasty, and spectacular.

Although the leaves could look healthier, the hanging cherry tomato has been loaded down all summer with tiny, tasty fruit.

On the spicy side of things, the pasilla I planted last year that I gave up on because it was ravaged by squirrels has made a comeback and is providing a good, late harvest. When done, I will transplant it into a more suitable spot.

Another plant that was rodent plagued last year was our Anaheim chile plant. It has also produced handsomely this summer. Great with eggs or in salsa.

Need some more heat? I've got more than enough serrano and Thai chiles for the whole neighborhood. This shows just a tiny portion of those plants.

And coming soon, this Meyer lemon should be leading our late fall and winter citrus parade.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved.

Hot Time in the Garden

The biggest chore I had this week was deadheading the roses but the temp is 110 and climbing. I expect it'll hit 115 before the day is over.

Just too hot, so I'm just fertilizing and check the progress of the crops.

These tomatoes have weighed down their part of the vine so that they're resting on the soil. I don't want them there where the worms and other insects can get to them.

Gingerly, so I don't break their branch, I lift them up and rest them on the neighboring hot chile's cage. Now, they're about a foot off of the ground.

Something's already got this green heirloom, so I picked it off and threw away. Nothing else seems to be affected right now.

Except this little zucchini plant. It's hard to see in this picture but something has been digging at it's roots and the plant is a bit wilted from it.

Across the path, it's sibling is finally producing some fruit. Homegrown zucchini on the way.

This pasilla chile has three fruit that should be ready in about three weeks and will feed the three of us with the tastiest peppers in the garden. A lot of trios in that paragraph and there's also about 40 more chiles on the plant in the earliest stages of ripening.  Can't wait.

Finally, although most of our crops are in between harvests right now, I got one good heirloom tomato, one hybrid tomato, and a nice little Anaheim chile to go with a good harvest we already got last week.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

A Weighty Harvest Indeed

There are so many tomatoes on our plant that it is weighing it down and blocking my son's access on our path. It's in a cage but the cage is no match for this vigorously growing plant that's full of fruit. 

What a wonderful problem to have! Let's see what I can do.

I take a couple of stakes, push the cage up against the wall as hard as I can, and pound the stakes through the cage and plant to hold it up to the wall as best I can.

Eh, it's not perfect but at least it clears up a bit of the path.

It also helps to pick off some of that fruit that's weighing it down.

I'll also get some chiles and cherry tomatoes while I'm out here.

And the basket holding today's harvest looks like this.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

Making Every Drop Count

Notice the three orchids on the top row starting at the second from the left. See how dry they are?

That's why I do sprinkler pattern checks now and again. You'll notice that the spray is not hitting the top row. Resetting it into first pot and re-aiming it fixes that problem.

Chores done, what else is happening this week? To start off, our first dragon fruit bud has come up.

The recently transplanted zucchini is putting out some spectacular flowers.

Anaheim chiles are looking great...

...and the cherry tomato hanging basket is about ready for first harvest.

Darryl
Copyright 2015 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved