The rains are beating down many of my plants. The flowers which would lead to peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, and beans are not setting. The New Zealand spinach is going wild. This is one leaf vegetable that I have never really had a issues with. I do let it grown wherever it pops up. Pests do not seem to attack it, and the vines will be vigorous. With my family coming back from vacation, I wanted to prepare a special meal for them, and I was hoping for more from the garden.

    My daughters are fascinated by the potato plants in the garden. The idea that we will be eating from the roots is intriguing. Carrots can be seen, but the tubers are not visible. We do have Jerusalem artichoke, but they have not made the connection that we will be eating the tubers of this sunflower. With the potato on their minds, I decided to include it in the meal. The most common preparation in my home is to boil the potato, coat them with butter, and then add parsley, cilantro, or paprika. This time I parboiled them. In a roasting dish, I mixed yogurt with turmeric, fenugreek, salt, pepper, and sumac. I also included sugar. I coated each potato, and then roasted them in a 425F oven for fifteen minutes. The paprika colored the spuds yellow while the sugar browned the edges. This went down well with the family.
    For the next component of the meal, I focused on the garden. I harvested a good deal of the spinach. I cut leaves from the garlic bulbs too. I used the same water from preparing the potatoes. I blanched the leaves in boiling water along with sliced ham. This was thin sliced luncheon meat cut into strips. Sorry no schinken or prosciutti on hand, but that we have been great. The garlic leaves were finely chopped. I took them and a little domestic feta for the spinach. This came out well.
    I pan fired chicken thighs. Removed the skins, and placed them pack into the pan. I added a tomato sauce and balsamic vinegar. The thighs simmered for about forty minutes till they were done. Fresh basil from the garden was thrown into the sauce when I had taken the pan off of the flame.
    Iloved the flavor of the potato dish. I think that next time I should add peas to the completed dish. I think this might be Indian inspired. I had planted fenugreek recently, and they are growing well. The remaining seeds were crushed for this meal.  So how do you prepare a potato?

In between the storms and the heat, my garden is taking on the appearance of a jungle. I did manage to tame the chaos to a degree for my daughter’s birthday. However, pants are beginning to grow on top of each other, so I transplanted a few to open spaces, while clearing away the damage. In a quiet moment, I spotted Katya pulling out a seed packet. She calmly walked outdoors to several spots, placing watermelon seeds carefully into the ground. When I came upon her, she proudly explained how she made sure that the birds would not eat the seeds by having the dirt cover them. I hugged and kissed her for her efforts.
    My New Zealand Spinach is popping up all over. This vine crowded a few of pepper plants out of the sun light, so I had to move them. Peeking their heads out through the spinach, I am finding my okra is doing well. Okra and jalepeno plants have set many flowers leading to a bumper crop. On top of my own okra, my mother came for a visit bringing okra from another gardener. This was not a bad thing in my wife’s view. I do not know how she came to love this vegetable. She was introduced to it when she was in her late teens.  I have never met a person who is indifferent to okra. There seems to be those who love it or hate it. Maybe those who have never eaten it do not have an opinion.
    I love frying okra. Simply coating them with flour to be stir fried is the most common method of preparation in my house. I do like coating them in batter to be deep fried. In both ways, I do use quite a bit of oil, and I wanted to reduce my oil usage. I used to make gumbo often, and this goes over well. Since I was preparing Whiting fillets, I decided upon a steaming/braising dish. I added vinegar to water. Once the water came to a simmer, I slipped in the fillets. They cooked fairly quickly. I placed them on a covered pate while seasoning them with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and a little melted butter. The cut okra went into the water along with a diced onion. After five minutes, I scooped the okra out. I added chopped cilantro, red wine vinegar, and feta. A quick dinner was completed with already prepared rice.
    The baby and my son ate the okra. My daughter had her reservations. The gooey quality of okra does not always go over well. In the end, she determined that this vegetable was not for her. She has eaten okra when I fried them, so I guess that I have to stick with that cooking style for the children. My son, who is older, ate without complaint. I consider that a success. He is in the not fond of okra camp. My wife was quite happy. I have seen pickled okra, but I have never tasted it. I wonder if the texture is more acceptable to children. I think that I should try that preparation next.

My son loves ramen. He who does not wish to be bothered by much preparation finds this the best meal. In fact, he often asks if we could have ramen for dinner. Nothing added, just what is in the package. My baby daughter figured out that she can open these packages, which she considers a most helpful act. I decided that I needed to make ramen for dinner with so many open packages; however, I did not want that flavor package with nothing more, so I changed the recipe.
    My garden is in a transition phase at the moment. Winter vegetables have gone to seed, while spring vegetables are coming into their own. Sure some vegetables are ready for harvest, but of the spring vegetables I have a little bit here and there that are ready to pick. One tomato was ready to eat, and some beans as well. Not enough for a proper side dish though. I also was slowly simmering a chicken. I guess that I could have made a soup, but I had that ramen. I cooked the ramen in the chicken stock. I also had a homemade barbecue sauce from the previous night. I mixed this into the ramen (no flavoring packets added). I chopped up various vegetables from the garden, and dropped them in. The added chicken stock was enough for the ramen to absorb, so no liquid was in the pot. I then chopped a good handful of mint for the ramen.
    To complete the meal, I took slices of the stewed chicken to be spread over the ramen. For a suace, chicken stock was mixed with the barbecue sauce. This meal was happily accepted by the children. Even my son, who vocally complians if I do not prepare the ramen to package instructions, was overjoyed by this version of his favorite dish. I think that the barbecue sauce was the secret ingredient for sucess, and the vegtables were well used.

Picture if you will two little girls going after the carrots. The fronds become brooms as they work their way down the driveway. At the end of the drive, they decide to have a sword fight, using the carrots as their foils. Maybe they need to stop watching their brother when he has his foils out. They are hungry, and hoping for pizza, but you do not want the standard fare. Luckily, you are in the process of making another loaf of bread. Pizzas for all.
    I guess fencing works up your appetite. I have been getting back into bread making. I really need to start making cakes again. I use to make them every Sunday. Saturdays were my grandmother’s baking days. Her house was filled with treats, which I consumed on Sundays. I guess that is why I like baking on Sundays. I was working on a basic bread dough to which I added flax seeds for fiber. I did not think that I had the ingredients, but I wanted the kids to have their pizza, since they had been working around the house. My measuring cups have been disappearing on me, so I have been creative with amounts. I begin with 1 1/2 cups of warm water (milk is also good), a tablespoon of dried yeast, two tablespoons of sugar, and a cup of flour. I mix these together, and let them sit for 1/2 hour. This proofs the yeast. If I see bubbles, then I am good to go. I add another three cups of flour, a little salt, a little oil, and the flax seeds. Since I was given a mixer, I have been doing my kneading in that wonderful machine. I add more flour to the dough till everything is combined into a ball. Usually about two more cups of flour does the trick. I use a dough hook in the mixer for about four minutes. I do the final kneading on a floured board. The dough should be tacky, but not overly so. This will rest in a warm spot for an hour or two in an oiled bowl.
    It was at this point that the pizza request was made. I have some tomatoes on the vines, but they are not ready, so I broke into a can that I have for emergencies. I went out into the garden for rosemary, garlic leaves, and oregano. I chopped the herbs and added them to the crushed tomatoes. I spread this over dough that I had rolled out after the rising. I grated the only cheese that I had, Muenster. For a topping, I sliced up bratwurst from a butcher in the Hill Country. This went into a pre-heated oven (420F) for twenty minutes.
    I thought a salad would go well with my pizza. Since the girls had given up their carrot foils, and they wanted to eat those with dinner, I added these into a bowl. I sliced them thinly. Back out in the garden, I went after, swiss chard, the tops of pea vines, mint, and parsley.The ingredients were torn by hand into the bowl.  I added a little bit of oil, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar over the salad, then I tossed it all.
    Maybe I can say that this was a healthy pizza. Rustic may be a better term. This pizza was not like those purchased from pizzerias, but the meal was a success, considering how the kids ate. The crust was thick. I think that I should invest in a pizza stone to really have a better crust. Maybe I should make some tomato sauce to keep on hand. However, the “sauce” that I made worked fine. The dough took time, but there was not too much work involved. I would do this again.

Flowers, flowers, and more flowers. That has been my gardening life for the past week. I went to Corneilius on Voss (north of Westheimer), and the children became excited with the multi-colored blooms. Since we are spending more time in the backyard, we began planting in beds, pots, and wherever else they decided (my hat turned out to be popular). That is when I noticed that some mint was filling out the open spaces in a bed, and it was beginning to move in the other areas.

    When mint begins to spread into my grass, I am quite happy. Cutting the grass releases their scent; however, in my beds, I do not want the mint crowding out some other favorites. My soultion is to start my harvesting, and to harvest heavy. Now I have quite a bit of mint to use.
    Making mint tea works for me. We have been spending our evenings in the garden, and the tea is a nice accompaniment. I added mint to my rice for one meal, but I added it too soon. The mint was overcooked. All fresh herbs should be added at the ended of cooking. For my next meal, I sauteed carrots and apples. The carrots are going to seed, but I harvested some before they began to flower. I usually add green onions to this dish, but I noticed that the family has not been eating them much recently. I have an apple tree in my yard. The tree is the type developed in Israel, and I feel that I will have apples once the tree establishes itself. The apples from the dish were Fujis. My son loves Fujis, and they had some large ones at Canino’s. When the carrots had softened, I added a handful of chopped mint. This went well with the roasted pork.
    My lemon tree is in bloom, so I am thinking of the future. A sauce of mint, lemon, garlic, and olive oil. With the garlic and shallots growing, I could make a vinagrette with the leaves of those plants and the mint. So tonight a salad? Oh, this might go well over chicken. Should I be concerned about overdoing the mint? I guess that I should be handing packages of mint to family.
    I need to keep thinking about uses for mint. I will start drying the mint for later. Maybe I could use it as a spray for freshening up the home? We will see how that goes down. How would you use so much mint?

My wife and teenage son have been in my kitchen. Yes, my kitchen. Alright, we do share the space, but since I am the one preparing the meals, I feel that I deserve first priority in pantry and cupboard space. Life does not work that way though. I had tried to impose some kitchen organization on my family, but I had not taken dramatic action. With my wife buying more of her snacks, which she feels takes precedent over my spices, and with my son buying his powdered drinks, which take precedent over my my bowls, I felt a concerted effort at reorganizing my kitchen was needed.

    I cleared out everything from my cupboards and shelves in the kitchen. The pantry will be next. What I found was several items that I have not used in years, and two containers of one particular spice. In fact double items are common in my pantry. When I cannot find something, I buy a new one, thinking that I do not have it anymore. My wife who rarely prepares a dish, will buy the ingredients for a traditional meal, and forgets that we already have those ingredients on hand. With all spread before me on the counters, I placed like items together. Combined what could be combined; threw out what was no longer needed or would never be used. Since the cabinets were clear of goods, I proceeded to clean.

What you should consider when organizing your kitchen.

    -everyone who uses the kitchen storage space wants to retrieve their own items quickly. Plan out space for each user.
    -you will need for cooking close to your prep space. My pantry is in the utility room next to the kitchen. I would have to walk five steps to go to the pantry door, but when you are cooking, you will not make that trip. I keep larger container items in a lower cabinet that I can open quickly from my prep area, while smaller items go into an overhead cabinet. I have racks for vegetables or other ingredients by my refrigerator, which is behind my prep area. I keep my bulk rice and flour on these racks. The idea is common items are kept close, while the pantry is for canned or other goods that are not often needed.
    -Plan your shopping carefully. Buying in bulk is so popular, but if you do not have the storage space, does it make sense? By having assigned places for certain goods, you can scan quickly to know if you have to buy more. I noticed in a friend’s pantry that she buys the same products each week, whether the good is needed or not. I feel that this is a frequent mistake people make. Then they end up throwing extra goods out when they go bad.
    -If you are not using it, why is it in your pantry? Since people know that I love to cook, I find myself the recipient of bottles and cans of various items that others decided that they will not use, so Frank will. Problem: I make my own sauces and dressings from scratch, so I do not use these gifts. I have to remember to use them up. If you have no use for a good, then it should not be in your pantry. Throw it out.

    -I strongly feel that you need to clear everything out from the cupboards. I mention this, because the fore mentioned friend undertook organizing her cabinets by moving things around inside the pantry, which accomplished nothing.

Well, that is my take. Boiled down to consider every user; make it easy for them to obtain what they need; and do not keep what is not needed.

Last night, I decided to try something new when preparing my meal to see if I could cook in a healthier style, but this may have been an energy efficient style. I was boiling ingredients to warm them up to imitate a stir fry served over cous cous. The result looked like a stir fry, even though texturally you could feel that the meal was not a stir fry. What I have wanted to do was save on the number of pots and utensils that I was using to save on clean-up. One pot meal are becoming popular with me. I do take conscious steps to reduce the amount of energy used in the kitchen on a normal basis, and I thought these tips may help others when planning out their meals.

    To begin, you have to lay out your entire cooking process from preparation to cleaning to find ways to save energy. During each step, you will see that there are factors which will cause more or less energy to be used. How messy the preparation of the meal is will effect how much cleaning will need to be done. Do you cook in the oven? What method do you use when on the cooktop? Even temperature settings will matter. When planning your dinners, you may wish to consider these elements, and how you may be using energy when cooking. Here are some suggestions.
Preparation
-I think that it is better for the home cook to have all of the ingredients cut and/or laid out before you start cooking.You want to reduce your cooking time, so having everything ready means not slowing down to hunt for the item later.
-Consider how a meal can be prepared where you use fewer utensils, dishes, and other cooking implements. I use my chef’s knife for all my cutting needs, including paring. The more knives that I use means more clean-up later. Instead of using a strainer, I try using the tongs which I used for other parts of the cooking process. Then I try to use as few pots, pans, and skillets.
-How do you defrost? Do you use a microwave or an oven? If you have thought about the meal ahead, you may let the meat defrost in the refrigerator by setting it in there the previous day.
Cooking
-Having several burners going on the cooktop is not good. When roasting a chicken, for example, I will place a casserole with the rice in the oven to cook too. Then I add a foil bag with vegetables, or I roast the vegetables. I find ways to only use the oven.
-Higher heat means shorter cooking times. If all your ingredients are ready, then stir frying at a high heat will go quicker. Yes, high heat means more energy, but reduced cook times mean less energy. There is a balance which you need to find.
-Turn heat off when it is not needed. You can turn off the heat when rice comes to a boil, cover the pot, let it sit for ten minutes, and the rice will be done. Cous Cous and bulghur can have boiling water poured over them, and covered. They will be ready sooner. When a potato is almost ready, you can turn off the heat, and let it sit in the water till done, or drain the water to let it steam in the covered pan. 
-Consider how you can make a one pot meal. Sure stews cook in one pot, but if you cook pasta, you may want to use that hot pot for making the sauce after you have drained the pasta out. Place the pasta in the pan to reheat it before serving. You may find other ways to create one pot meals.
-Be creative in how you cook. The boiling dinner involved cooking kohlrabi in chicken stock. After it was done, I placed them in a covered bowl. I used a dutch oven, which has a tight fitting lid, so I reached boiling point quickly, and then I could turn the heat down. I used the boiling stock over my cous cous. Then I added my carrots, green onions, and shredded chicken (previously cooked) into the stock. Covered for a minute. I took these items out, and placed them with the kohlrabi, turning off the burner. Then I poured my sauce over this dish. The carrots and onions did not have the same crunch as they get during a stir fry, but they did have a bite, and I used hardly any oil, which is healthier. (There was a little oil in the sauce, and I had taken the fat out of the stock).
Clean-up
– fewer items to clean means less energy needed to clean them up.
-consider using your dishwasher late at night, when you have it fully loaded. This saves energy and water.
-Less items also means a faster clean-up for you.

What ways would you use to reduce the energy when cooking? It only takes a little fore thought.

My day begins at three in the morning, and last week I was getting home around 5:30 in the afternoon. My family was waiting for me to serve a meal, so I needed a quick dinner idea. I hit upon making a one pot dish to minimize clean-up: a pasta cooked in soup.

    I remember years ago a friend saying his pasta sauce was the best. He mentioned that his secret was to buy one of these pre-made sauces in a jar that he would add herbs and spices too. Since I had some canned soups for my hurricane kit, I began to prepare the soup. I added the box of pasta directly into the soup. I headed out to the garden where I harvested parsely, oregano, and rosemary with some onions and celery. The herbs went into the dish just before serving. Adding herbs in last seems to keep their flavor better. Since the soup contained salt, I did not add anymore. I did throw in some pepper, paprika, and garlic flakes. I had my meal in thirty minutes.
    I do not buy too many canned goods, but I always try to have a good supply on hand for the hurricane season. This does mean that I have to use before they go bad. After our last hurricane in Houston, I found my vegetable garden in ruins. I was still able to harvest some vegetables and herbs, but I do not rely on the garden after such a storm. The nice thing about cooking pasta in this way is that the pasta absorbs the flavors of the soup, which becomes the sauce. Adding the fresh ingredients helps with the flavor, and I imagine that the nutirtional value improves.
    I think that I need to keep more soup on hand for those days where I have no time to prepare a meal. I think thirty minutes is pretty good for a quick dinner.

Kohlrabi does well in the Houston garden during our winter. After the freezes this past weekend, I found my kohlrabi standing tall, enjoying the cold. (My wife says that this is my season, because I love the cold so much). I did not plant too many of  these plants this year. In fact, I have not planted them for some time.
    I harvested half of my kohlrabi plants this week. I like having this vegetable on my winter table. I have experienced a problem lately with the children though. I can remember some mothers who came up to me at Whole Foods, amazed that my son was eating vegetables instead of junk food. How did I do it? Simple, I did not buy junk food. Now my life has changed. My son is a teenager, and my little daughters spend time with their cousins; their peers have been influencing them. On the positive side, they still eat a larger variety of foods than many others. They all enjoy going to the various farmer’s markets (in the freezing cold morning, I went to the market at Rice University on Saturday. The vendors were glad to see me, but all of them asked where are the girls, instead of greeting me- they are loved).
    I love root vegetables, so I have been serving them since they are in season. Turnips did not go down well. When the kids saw the kohlrabi, they had a flashback, and they refused to touch them. Once my son tasted one, he was pleasantly surprised, and they have asked for more. I am going to see if I can find them- well, I know that Canino’s has them on hand.  It appears that kohlrabi will be on the table again soon.
    Preparation: you can eat the leaves of kohlrabi. They are tough, so you do need  to cook them for some time to soften them up- think of using them like cabbage, with maybe a little bit longer cooking time. As for the base, you will have to peel it. As a note, kohlrabi is not a root vegetable. This bulge occurs in the stem above the ground. Because of this bulge, kohlrabi is frequently referred to as the space ship plant. I find that the skin can be hard to peel, similar to broccoli stems. Peelers can work, but I take my chef’s knife to cut off the skin. The softer center can be prepared like any root vegetable. Since I was roasting a chicken, I sliced the kohlrabi into quarter inch wedges. Lightly slated and oiled them on a baking sheet. Once they had browned (about a half hour at 350F), I took them out. I sprinkled some flavored vinegar on them for serving. I have boiled them, and used them in stir fry dishes. What surprises my kids is the fact that kohlrabi can have a sweet flavor, particularly when roasted.
   Herbs which go with kohlrabi: I have had luck with basil (if my basil lasts into this season); caraway; chives; rosemary; marjoram; oregano; parsley; and thyme. I think that dill or fennel go well too. 

Rice became my main starch once I married. Growing up in a German household, I was used to potatoes. I was comfortable with a potato. I knew a variety of ways to prepare them. The easiest ways was just to add some chopped parsley and butter, or maybe some paprika. Rice was a blank slate to me. You had a fully flavored sauce that would seep into its edges, and then you could use the rice to mop up the remainder of the sauce. My perception of rice can from reading a book. Anne Rice mentioned adding garlic and butter to cooked rice, and I was liberated. I began to experiment.

    I found myself adding my spices and herbs to rice dishes. My favorite spice to add to a rice dish turned out to be tumeric. Tumeric gives that rich yellow color, but it provides a wonderful flavor to rice. I decide that I was free to explore, and the rice dishes could stand on their own. I think that I surprised some with my wanderings. We do have the tendency to only eat rice in its plain form. I would suggest that you see that a the blank slate to add a flavor. I do remember having milk rice as a dessert as a child, which did have cinnamon and nutmeg, so I guess that I should have recalled that when older.
    At the Farmer’s Market, I found a bounty of citrus fruit in season. My son has taken to the Meyer lemons. He is acting like I never have given him one previously. After purchasing many oranges, I began receiving quite a few oranges from other sources (gardening friends who knew that my orange tree is not mature enough for many fruits yet). Oranges are popular with the kids, but I felt that I needed to incorporate them into my dinners. Goose a la orange? A stir fry? There were possibilities. I had a pot of plain rice that I was going to combine with some herbs from the garden, when I hit upon using the oranges. I squeezed two of them. After tasting the juice, I added some sugar to sweeten it. I picked mint. I added these ingredients to the rice. It was a great combination. I think that I will make a marinade for a pork loin next.

    There are a few markets selling local produce, even with this cold. Leafy green vegetables abound (I am making quite a few salads), and there are others, but the citrus fruits are stealing the show right now. I go to the market on the Rice University parking lot next to Christ the King Lutheran church on Saturday mornings. If they have some, look for the goat’s milk cheese (not the season for it, but you may find some).