Musings of a Metalhead...

... Who is also a Gorean, recovering addict, cigar smoker, hippie, artist, crafter, pervert, sadist, sensualist, spiritualist, biker, geek, singer, prepper, cook, defier of labels in general, and a whole lot of other things!
Just Various writings and such that I feel the urge to share. Warning... If you have narrow ideas about what a (insert label here) ought to be like, this blog will most likely offend your delicate sensibilities, and you are better off going elsewhere.

Showing posts with label scraps. Show all posts

Tuesday, 5 May 2020

Thrifty Kitchen Tip ~ Quick, Easy, and Basically Free Marinades

As usual, we're going with the theme of, "don't throw it away"!

Those unused condiment packs from take out or delivery meals, like spice or seasoning packets, dipping sauces, salad dressings, honey, sweet and sour, soy sauce, hot sauce, jams/jelly/preserves, etcetera, as well as your own leftover bits/dregs of salad dressing, beer, wine, spirits, soft drinks, juice, mixed drinks,and all manner of other small bits of stuff can be reused and turned into delicious marinades, glazes, and other additions to meals.
Sometimes, you even find something that ends up being the "secret ingredient" that pushes a good meal over the top to awesome!

I often go hunting in the kitchen for the almost empty bottles of sauces or salad dressings to incorporate into a spur of the moment marinade.

Use a little bit of water, beer/ale/lager/etc, wine, coffee, soft drink or juice to pour in almost empty bottles and shake up to get the last little bits out of the bottle and into your delicious creation!

As you add each new ingredient, use your nose. Smell the mixure. Smell things you have around to possibly put in it. Smell what you want to marinate. Imagine how those will be combined! Science has revealed what home cooks and famous chefs alike have known all along; 80%-90% of how food "tastes" is actually how it smells!
So put your sniffer to work to whip up an amazing, on the fly marinade for your next meal or few.

And remember, it's not just meats that you can marinate a few hours or a few days to turn a decent dish into a decadent delight that will impress the heck out of everyone who tastes it.

As for how to save those little condiments and culinary bits and bobs...

Packs that are unopened and/or already individually packaged can go right in the freezer as-is. I like to put them in Ziploc, freezer bags, just to keep them together and easy to find.

For stuff that isn't pre-packaged, check out this post.

Wednesday, 15 April 2020

Getting the most out of your lettuce harvest!

So, as you already know, if you've been reading this blog much at all, I started growing my own food with a couple AeroGarden setups last December. I have gone from some seeds/seed pods and water to a kitchen that looks kinda like a jungle with all the potted plants (from transplanting) everywhere as well as the AeroGardens, and it's ALL edible, and in many cases, also medicinal. Which is awesome, but isn't really what this post is about.

This is, specifically, regarding my lettuces, which, by now, I have divided and regrown countless times. I went from 6 pods initially to... I don't even know now. I have lettuce everywhere.

Seriously, just today I harvested about 2.5 POUNDS of lettuce leaves, cause even though I still had about 1/2 pound left in the fridge (and I eat a LOT of salad), it had gotten tall and big enough to interfere with the grow lights and keep new leaves from growing properly!
There's still enough left on the plants that I could make another huge salad just with another harvest, but I can also let them grow just fine for another few days or so before I have to prune any more.

That is a freaking LOT of lettuce!
I have enough excess now that I can start trading my extra salad greens with a friend who keeps chickens, for fresh eggs. How awesome is that!? (It's pretty dang awesome!)

Anyway, initially, I was thinking the harvest "season" for them was going to be a lot shorter than it is, because that is what everyone said, including the AeroGarden folks. Well, I've already had about double the "expected" harvest season, but I still thought I was going to need to "retire" some of the plants pretty soon. Here's why.

At a certain point, the lettuce starts to bolt, no matter how well and faithfully you've been pruning. The stalks start getting taller and more woody, and you still have a decent amount of leaves, but you also have the lettuces trying to flower, and you've got a lot more thick stems that are just too tough to enjoy in a salad, even if you chop them up pretty well. So, in terms of growing "real estate", if you have a limited area in which to grow all that you are going to grow, you end up with more by-product than it's worth to keep the plants growing, rather than starting new plants, which are almost exclusively tasty, tender, lettuce leaves.
Right?
Wrong!!
As it turns out, these stems and flower buds are totally usable in anything where you'd use broccoli stems, carrots, thicker asparagus, etc.
Like the awesome "stratarole" that is in the oven as I type this.

Also great chopped up and roasted with root veggies or Brussels sprouts, tossed in stir frys, minced finely into soups, sauces (like spaghetti sauce), or anywhere else you want to sneak in some extra leafy green veggie nutrition.

And, speaking of nutrition, get this; The stalks and stems often have an even higher concentration - up to double for certain nutrients, like vitamin C - of the vitamins and minerals found in the leaves!

The flavour of the stalks is generally going to be similar to the leaf flavour profile, and may be a little bitter, owing to lactucarium - the milky, white sap that is produced in this phase of growing (which also has medicinal properties, as a mild sedative and analgesic, in sufficient quantities). It's perfectly edible and not at all harmful, but you could rinse it off if you wanted to. I never bother. Once the stalks are cooked and even lightly seasoned, it's not at all noticeable, and even less so cooked along with other ingredients.

The leaves you get from these stalks are going to tend to be a bit more bitter than when the plant was younger, but as long as you're mixing them in with your younger lettuces, it isn't at all unpleasant. You may not be as prone to want to munch them directly from the stalk as you harvest, like the more tender leaves, if you prefer only sweeter lettuces, but they will still be a super tasty addition to your salads too.

To keep harvesting the stalks and leaves, just use sharp scissors or small pruners and cut the stalks right off, as far down as you feel like. Just make sure there is still some budding leave growth showing below the cut, and it will be all good. Strip the leaves off and put with the rest of your leaves, and store the stems like you would store broccoli or asparagus.

I suppose there may be a point at which even this extended harvest ends, but it's been four months, and I have yet to find it. I'll update when/if I discover it.

Enjoy your new cooking vegetables, and please feel free to comment or contact me with any new recipes or uses you find with it!

Wednesday, 15 January 2020

2019/2020 Garden update #6 ~ First lettuce harvest!

The "Farm" and transplants, as of today, January 15th.

Here is the lettuce and herb side on the 13th.

And the tomatoes on the 13th. Looking lively.

I decided to try light reflectors to get light to the lower leaves of the transplants. We'll see how that goes.

You can just barely see the little sprouts peeking out on the lavender, sage, and cilantro.

Lavender - 2020.01.13

Sage - 2020.01.13

Cilantro - 2020.01.13

And the PGSC is ALREADY sprouting on day 2!

Platinum Girl Scout Cookies - 2020.01.13

The rosemary sprout is a little taller.

And the tarragon and oregano are going to town. :D

Tarragon - 2020.01.13

Oregano - 2020.01.13

Still nothing on the new Thai basil. Hope springs eternal.

New Thai Basil (started 2020.01.07) - 2020.01.13

Here's my tower o' sprouts. The lowest tier is actually ready to harvest at the next watering in this pic.

The microgreens are more than ready for another "haircut" too.

SO excited about my first lettuce harvest!!
Here, you can see the harvested lettuce, a little bit of basil, thyme, and dill, and some microgreens, all ready to go into a salad.

Here's a closer look at the microgreens.

And the lettuce. It's not a lot, but enough for a decent sized salad, once I put other fixin's in it.

And my beautiful dill, basil, and thyme. They are SOOO aromatic! Even just those tiny bits.

And here's the salad, with leeks, lettuce, sprouts, herbs, and microgreens. The leeks in there are the ones that were originally the ones I'm currently regrowing. Everything else in the bowl, I grew myself.

I didn't grow the tomatoes or avocado that are also going in. Those are from Imperfect Foods, which is an AWESOME place to get massively discounted, fresh farmed produce, as well as other foods now. They buy up the stuff direct from farms and other places that is not pretty enough to grace the displays in the supermarkets and groceries, and then give a crap-ton away to food banks and meal programs and whatnot, and sell the rest for really cheap.

If you click my link and sign up, we'll both get $10 credit there, which buys a LOT of produce.

Here's the lettuce after the harvesting.

Saturday, 11 January 2020

Gardens update #5

Above, my "Farm" garden, transplants, and one container of microgreens, as of today, January 11th.

Here are the lettuces yesterday, along with the thyme, dill, and one of the basils that I moved from the smaller garden, cause they got too tall for the lights at the level they need to be for the tinier plants.

And tomatoes yesterday. All but one have sprouted now, and most are growing nicely.

Only one day later, the lettuce is almost doubled in size!

The tomatoes are taller too, but not nearly as dramatic as the lettuce.

Here is one of my containers of microgreens. Crazy growth! And that is after a couple times harvesting.

Microgreens, 2020.01.10 before harvest

Here it is after the 10th's harvest.

Microgreens, 2020.01.10 after harvest

And the other container on the 10th, before and after harvesting, respectively.

Microgreens, 2020.01.10 before harvest

Microgreens, 2020.01.10 after harvest

The basil cuttings are coming along nicely. they are much healthier than the original plant, actually.

Cuttings from Winco "living basil. 2020.01.10

Here are the small gardens, regrowing scraps, and cuttings.
The leeks and green onions are really taking off, and the original, remaining Winco basil stem is already looking healthier from being just in the water with a small amount of nutrients.

The first garden is doing well. It's already about time to prune the basils again, have the first mint cuttings in water, the chives are starting to look like chives, and the parsley is getting there. Plus the second dill is peeking up above the label there. We're just not going to discuss the Thai basil.

Here's a closer look at that little dill sprout.

Meanwhile, the new, DIY oregano and tarragon seed pods are sprouting now.

The oregano just barely, but it's VERY green and lush looking, so I think it will do well.

The other thing I did today is use one of the grow anything pods to plant Sammy's Platinum Girl Scout Cookies seed. So there wil be regular updates forthcoming on that as well.