Planting Fall Garlic

About a month or so ago, I planted my first-ever crop of garlic. It's great for a fall garden because it doesn't have to be covered during the freezing temperatures (although apparently there are two schools of thought on this matter) and seems to be pretty low-maintenance, which is also helpful since during the week I only see daylight from the window on the other side of my cubicle glass. (Seriously, I suffer from Daylight Savings Time Depression.)

Somehow, like many things in life that I don't know until my mom tells me, I had never made the connection that the clove is actually the seed of garlic – to grow garlic, you plant a clove.

Simply peel a garlic bulb, find a nice-sized clove and put it upright in a little furrow in the soil with the pointy end up, the flatter end down. (Just the way a bulb of garlic would sit when upright.)

As always, please excuse my horrible iPhone camera.

Plant the garlic cloves about two inches apart from each other, covered with about an inch and a half of dirt.

Soon enough, you'll see their green shoots sticking out of the ground – a nice sight to see amongst the browns and browns of November.

This top photo was taken about a month ago, just a week or two after I planted the garlic.

The above photo was taken today, November 28, about a month and a half and several freezes after planting my fall garlic.

I just planted more fall garlic today to see if it will survive. I feel like you just can't ever have enough garlic. It's healthy and flavorful, and I put it in everything, in omelets, on salmon, in vinaigrettes – and my mom's Lentil Soup, a nice warm recipe for a forecast of highs in the 40s, lows in the 20s this week. Brrr.

Lentil Soup
¼ cup good quality olive oil
1 red onion
1 medium leek
1 medium carrot, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, mashed with coarse salt
1 large celery stalk, diced
1 cup lentils, rinsed
5 cups water or stock
1 tsp. salt

Sauté veggies in olive oil until just turning brown, about 7 minutes, on medium high heat. Add lentils, water/stock and salt.

Cook for 45 minutes. Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer, partially covering with lid. Skim off foam, stir every now and then until cooked. Taste for salt, add pepper, cover again and let sit for 20 minutes. Can drizzle with olive oil upon serving. Delectable!

Why You Should Thin Your Carrots [Gardening]

So this is apparently why you should thin your carrots. In case you were wondering.

I was just trying to pull out one carrot, but these obviously had gotten close.

I wasn't even expecting full-blown, ready-to-eat carrots to come up. Just the spindly little roots that had come up the last time thinning my carrots crossed my mind. But nope, it's officially carrot season. At least they're a little more thinned out now.

What else is in? Peas are gone, but I've had my first tomatoes!

Just the cherry ones. The others – Celebrity, Mortgage Lifter and Brandywine Yellow – are still quite green. And not even fried green tomatoes ready. Definitely not 'mater saminch ready.

The eggplant is getting close to ready. I will be cooking the heck out of some eggplant parmesan. And probably grilled eggplant, too. If some animal doesn't get it before I do.

Speaking of purple veggies, we did have radishes. Well, we had a couple of radishes. As in, two. I think this was another problem related to me not realizing how much root vegetables need to be thinned.

Yes, peas in the background. Yum, but again, not enough. Next year, I may need to adjust the placement of my trellis.

The radishes did make for a good salad. (That's my lettuce mix, too.)

And now we will discuss casualties.

I did have some jalapeno peppers growing....

...but they fell off. They had some sort of brown ickiness on them anyway, so I guess it was for the best. My ancho pepper plant looks great, but no sign of any peppers.

I think the jalapenos died because they were being overshadowed by my squash and zucchini plants. I mean, they are ginourmous, taking up nearly half the bed. And that's just TWO plants.

We did have some yellow crookneck squash, but today I found it off the plant in the bed covered in some gross fuzz that made me glad I was wearing gloves. Squash beetles, maybe? I saw a bug, which startled me, so I threw it to the end of the backyard. Except I accidentally threw it over the fence. Sorry, neighbors.

(Don't worry, no photos of the gross, fuzzy yellow squash.)

However, we are overrun with zucchini. I think the current zucchini is going to turn into chocolate zucchini bread, but in the meantime, we've gotten creative. Zucchini tacos, anyone?

We sauteed the zucchini with cilantro-lime rotel, to make up for that we also used fresh tomato juice (canned by my mom), onions, garlic, cumin, crushed red pepper and fresh cilantro. Then we added the veggie mixture to ground beef, leaving in a separate pan the leftover tomato juice, which we reduced down ith some habanero sauce. And then put the whole mess into a tortilla and covered it in freshly grated cheese (Chipotle Cheddar from Kenny's Farmhouse).

(And then we sat down to watch True Blood on demand, and five seconds into that, we were reminded that you can't eat and watch that show.)

Anyway, it was delicious. I was originally going to make a casserole, but one commenter left an oh-so-helpful message that she sauteed the mixture and wrapped it up in a tortilla. Genius.

Of course, it's good we like zucchini, because we sure have plenty. That, and our mutant carrots.

Tortilla Soup [Eat]

So Ty and I make tacos every week or two, but we almost always end up with leftovers, and I am never in love with the idea of making tacos two days in a row. Plus, it's not very portable to work. In this case, we had extra seasoned beef and black beans, so I decided to tweak a recipe for Tortilla Soup that I found.

The (local Tennessee) beef was seasoned with, um, taco seasoning (you can get it in a shaker.... I don't even want to know the sort of preservatives in it) and sauteed with onions and garlic. The soup called for beef and various seasonings, so I figured that would work. Combine that with the leftover beans, can of pinto beans, can of diced tomatoes, can of rotel, beef broth and fresh cilantro.

Then heat it for a while, let it thicken... and while you're waiting on that that, grate some cheese. We used Monterey Jack and cheddar.

Because then, since it takes a few minutes for the soup to thicken, you can eat the cheese to tide you over.

Eventually, the soup is finally done, and it's basically like a Mexican chili. Instead of crackers, you crush tortilla chips over the top, and then add the cheese (and sour cream, if you like it... I don't). Delicious.

Tortilla Soup
1/2 lb. ground beef, browned (leftover taco beef works great)
1/4 yellow onion
1 clove garlic
1 T. taco seasoning
1/4 c. water
1 can rotel
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans
1 can pinto beans
1 cup broth
fresh cilantro
red pepper flakes and Tabasco, to taste
cheese
tortilla chips

If not using taco leftovers, brown the beef in a large pot and drain. Sautee onion and garlic with the beef, and add taco seasoning and water. Let mixture come to a boil, then cook over low-medium heat until water evaporates.

Add the beans, tomatoes and broth. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes or until soup thickens. Add hot sauce and red pepper to taste. Pour in bowl, then serve with cheese and crush tortilla chips, and any other fixings such as sour cream or green onions.

Breakfast Pizza [Eat]

Some friends of mine were in town, so yesterday we went to brunch at Mad Donna's. They had revamped their brunch menu since we'd last been there, adding some new items such as Crab Cake Benedict (yum, but filling – cheddar grits not necessary), quiche of the day and Breakfast Pizza, which Ty ordered. They used sausage gravy as the sauce of the pizza, which is pretty ingenious (if you like sausage).

We still had breakfast pizza on the brain, and today over coffee, my friend said next time we visited them they would make it for us. Then I realized we had an extra pizza crust on-hand, along with eggs, bacon and feta ... so we decided to make it today. We improvised – I had no spinach but did have mushrooms and parsley, and we only had four eggs. I also had a ton of cheese, and we ended up have a theme where we used only white cheese that I had on hand – feta, mozzarella, Monterey jack and Parmesan. (Speaking of cheeses, we've started buying a block and grating it ourselves – so much better! Too many chemicals and not enough flavor in the pre-shredded kind, despite its convenience.) I had watched our food stylist/recipe creator make breakfast pizza a few months ago, and I remembered that she baked the crust partially before, since the eggs make it hard to cook all the way through. But anyway, it turned out amazing, though my food photography skills are seriously lacking. The idea to blog about it later came late, and then I didn't want to spend time setting up food photos... it's good while it's hot!

Next time we might try this gravy as sauce concept, though. Mad Donna's version used pita bread instead and cheddar cheese, and I'm not sure if any veggies were in the eggs. Breakfast or dinner, I love making homemade pizza because you can just throw in whatever is in your crisper.

Anyway, without further ado:

Breakfast Pizza

1 pre-cooked pizza crust (I used Mama Mia thin crust)
4-6 large eggs (could have used one or two more)
splash of milk
4 strips bacon (optional)
2 large mushrooms, sliced
parsley, chopped (to taste)
2 cloves garlic, diced
salt and pepper to taste
feta cheese crumbles
Monterey jack and mozzarella cheese, grated
Parmesan cheese

Follow directions on pizza crust. Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and cook crust directly on rack for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Fry bacon in skillet and drain on paper towel when done.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs and milk together. Salt and pepper the eggs. Set aside.

Chop mushrooms, parsley and garlic. Sauté in olive oil for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are done. Add egg mixture and scramble over low heat until eggs are no longer runny, but not cooked completely. Spoon egg mixture over crust.

Crumble up the bacon into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle over egg mixture. Then add a handful or two of feta over the bacon, and grate the mozzarella and Monterey jack directly onto the pizza. Top with Parmesan.

Following directions on pizza crust box, bake at 425 for 7 1/2-10 minutes directly on rack. (We put a baking sheet underneath to catch any wayward cheese.) Remove, let cool for 2-3 minutes and cut into slices. Eat and enjoy!