Delishytown

Cooking is fun. Eating is funner. I cook, photograph and write these recipes. Everything I post on this blog I make from scratch using fresh wholesome ingredients.. I've been cooking since I was a little kid. My recipes are based on trial and error, along with studying cookbooks, family recipes, blogs and cooking shows. Some of the veggies and herbs I use are grown in my garden. Yay sustainability! I'm working on making my yard into an edible landscape. It's really fun to go out in the garden and pick your veggies for dinner!

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14 posts tagged edible garden

Grow Your Own Potato Salad

There’s nothing more delicious or fresher tasting than potato salad from your own homegrown potatoes. These waxy red fingerlings were so fresh and amazing, I can’t wait to plant more of them. They grow great in any container. I love growing them in containers instead of in the ground because I don’t have to have a big trench in my garden, and there’s no danger of putting a garden tool through a perfectly good potato when it’s time to harvest. The last photo here is the potatoes growing in my garden in a fabric pot. Here’s how I like to grow potatoes.

I either plant sprouted organic potatoes from my kitchen counter, or I buy the seed potatoes from Peaceful Valley Supply . I plant them in containers like these smart pots. The smart pots, or grow bags, are great for growing potatoes because potatoes grow in layers of soil and form on the roots. The more roots you have, the more potatoes you will eventually harvest. So farmers hill up the soil around the stems of the potato plants to create more roots. Foldable pots are great for this because when you plant them, you start all the way at the bottom of the bag with the sides folded down and plant the potatoes in a few inches of organic potting soil. This lets the sunlight get to them so they can grow strong and healthy. Once they start to grow and get several inches tall, it’s time to add more soil and “hill them up”. So just unfold the sides of the bag to make it taller, and add a few more inches of organic potting soil. You can do this a few times over the next several weeks, finishing top layer with a thick layer of straw. The straw will shade the potatoes and prevent any of them from turning green, which is toxic.

 Grow bags make it easy once it’s time to harvest them too, because you just dump out the bag and find all your delicious taters!  I can’t think of anything more fun than harvesting potatoes and root vegetables, it’s like digging for gold. 

Front Garden Edible Landscape Project

This is a big, beautiful vegetable and fruit garden I planted in my friend’s front yard. It’s a very sunny, west facing wall / fence. These photos were taken in the morning. This area gets full sun from about noon until sunset.  This part of the yard before was weedy trees and viney things. They cleared the area and built the raised beds, which came out great, really tall and sturdy. Then they went to a composting facility, bought a truckload of organic compost and soil, and worked for an afternoon shoveling it all in to fill the raised beds.

The next step was going to the nursery to pick out plants. We made a list of all the fruits and vegetables they like to eat.  It was fun plant shopping and we made several trips to various nurseries in the area, including making a stop at Tomatomania, a local Heirloom Tomato sale.

We planted grapefruit, orange and lemon trees, 2 kinds of grapes, 4 blueberry shrubs, lots of strawberries in pots, 8 varieties of Heirloom tomatoes, 3 types of peppers, zucchini squash, 2 kinds of corn, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, cucumbers, green beans, peas, carrots, various lettuces, chard, beets, basil, tarragon, oregano, and cilantro. We also planted some flowers like marigolds, cosmos, lavender, hollyhocks and sunflowers to attract the bees. I added bagged, organic compost containing additional fertilizers, along with organic multi purpose granulated fertilizer, to every planting hole. 

It looks really beautiful and everything is thriving. This was a really fun project to work on! I can’t wait to do the next one.

Edible Landscapes for everyone!

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Here’s a picture of Carrots from our garden! And a couple of peas too! My sister and I had so much fun harvesting these. Pulling carrots out of the garden is like finding gold. I might make some carrot soup, or maybe just chop them up into a big salad. Yum! Can’t wait. Carrots are so much easier to grow than I previously thought. We grew these in big pots filled with organic potting soil. If you plant in the ground, they like loose, loamy soil, so dig deep, and add organic compost. They don’t like being transplanted. Sow the seeds directly where they will grow, on top of the soil and gently pat down. Surprisingly, they do well when crowded, don’t feel like you have to thin them out meticulously. They love cool temps, so all you Northern gardeners can get your carrots started soon!  Happy gardening! :)

Here’s a picture of Carrots from our garden! And a couple of peas too! My sister and I had so much fun harvesting these. Pulling carrots out of the garden is like finding gold. I might make some carrot soup, or maybe just chop them up into a big salad. Yum! Can’t wait.

Carrots are so much easier to grow than I previously thought. We grew these in big pots filled with organic potting soil. If you plant in the ground, they like loose, loamy soil, so dig deep, and add organic compost. They don’t like being transplanted. Sow the seeds directly where they will grow, on top of the soil and gently pat down. Surprisingly, they do well when crowded, don’t feel like you have to thin them out meticulously. They love cool temps, so all you Northern gardeners can get your carrots started soon! 

Happy gardening! :)

Garden Greens in our edible landscape. Purple Kale, Rainbow Swiss Chard, Red Romaine, and Radicchio. Happy Spring!

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Rainbow Chard Quiche with Buttery Corn Flake Crust This quiche was made with Rainbow Chard from our edible garden. The corn flake crust was a delicious experiment. I used up the last of the flour to make this crust and forgot to save some for rolling out the pastry dough. I wracked my brain and came up with the idea to blend organic corn flakes in the food processor until very fine, and use it as the flour to roll out the dough. It’s the best experiment I’ve ever tried. Please try this technique! It’s so good, flaky, crispy and tasty!  Heat oven to 400. In a mixing bowl, sift 1 cup flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar. Grate 1/2 stick cold butter into it with 2 tblsp coconut oil. Mush together with your fingers until pea sized bits form. Add 2 to 3 tblsp ice cold water and mix together until just combined. Form into a disk, cover and chill for 20 minutes. While the pastry dough rests in the fridge, Saute 1 small chopped onion and 2 - 3 cups chopped chard, stems and leaves, in a skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Scramble 4 eggs with 1/2 c milk. Add fresh grated nutmeg to the egg mixture. Grate about 3/4 cup cheese, I used cheddar, swiss and parmesan. Pulverize organic corn flakes in a food processor until fine and floury.  Dust the surface of a large cutting board with the corn flake flour, place the chilled disk of dough on the board, top the disk with more of the corn flake flour and roll into a circle about 12 inches in diameter, adding more of the corn flake four as needed. The corn flake flour and crumbs will press into the pastry and become one buttery flaky delicious crust once baked. Yum! Press the rolled out crust into a buttered pie pan. Press gently into the pan and shape the edges. Add the sauteed vegetables, then the grated cheese, and pour the egg mixture over it. Bake at 400 for 1/2 hour or so until a toothpick comes out clean. Yum!

Rainbow Chard Quiche with Buttery Corn Flake Crust

This quiche was made with Rainbow Chard from our edible garden. The corn flake crust was a delicious experiment. I used up the last of the flour to make this crust and forgot to save some for rolling out the pastry dough. I wracked my brain and came up with the idea to blend organic corn flakes in the food processor until very fine, and use it as the flour to roll out the dough. It’s the best experiment I’ve ever tried. Please try this technique! It’s so good, flaky, crispy and tasty! 

Heat oven to 400.

In a mixing bowl, sift 1 cup flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar. Grate 1/2 stick cold butter into it with 2 tblsp coconut oil. Mush together with your fingers until pea sized bits form. Add 2 to 3 tblsp ice cold water and mix together until just combined. Form into a disk, cover and chill for 20 minutes.

While the pastry dough rests in the fridge, Saute 1 small chopped onion and 2 - 3 cups chopped chard, stems and leaves, in a skillet. Season with salt and pepper.

Scramble 4 eggs with 1/2 c milk. Add fresh grated nutmeg to the egg mixture.

Grate about 3/4 cup cheese, I used cheddar, swiss and parmesan.

Pulverize organic corn flakes in a food processor until fine and floury. 

Dust the surface of a large cutting board with the corn flake flour, place the chilled disk of dough on the board, top the disk with more of the corn flake flour and roll into a circle about 12 inches in diameter, adding more of the corn flake four as needed. The corn flake flour and crumbs will press into the pastry and become one buttery flaky delicious crust once baked. Yum!

Press the rolled out crust into a buttered pie pan. Press gently into the pan and shape the edges. Add the sauteed vegetables, then the grated cheese, and pour the egg mixture over it. Bake at 400 for 1/2 hour or so until a toothpick comes out clean. Yum!

Edible Landscape Update Feb. 14, 2013

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone! My spring garden is up and growing. I haven’t posted edible garden pics lately so here a few shots of some of the plants in our garden from this week. I live in Southern California. The days are usually in the low to mid 60’s, and the nights go down into the 40’s. We get occasional frost and it’s supposed to rain next week.

We currently have a lot of spring vegetables growing in our front and back gardens. In the front yard I plant pansies, poppies and stock with the vegetables. In the back I have a bunch of nasturtiums planted, and various other flower seeds started, but I’m mostly concentrating on vegetable growing back there. We’ve got garlic, shallots, kale, chard, various lettuces, arugula, peas, carrots, fennel, potatoes, blueberries, strawberries, lemons and artichokes growing right now. There’s also cilantro, thyme, rosemary, parsley and oregano. Some of the herbs are a bit dormant right about now, but the cilantro seems to love this weather.The grapes, apple tree, and raspberries are also dormant at this time of year, and I won’t plant basil, tomatoes and warm weather stuff until about late April or early May.

I harvested a big salad spinner of rainbow chard and kale this morning and i think I’m going to add it to bean and cheese burritos for lunch. Yum. Happy Gardening! 

Amaranth Eggplant Rainbow Carrots Hibiscus Amaranth and Fennel

Veggies From the Garden   July 2, 2012

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The Mc DLB        Inspired by the 1985 fast food phenomenon “The Mc DLT” which featured “Hot side Hot, and Cool side Cool” packaging (and a cheesy commercial to go with it), I made a hot and cool veggie burrito. This dish has rice, cheese and veggies cooked inside a burrito, with cool crunchy salad veggies added at the end. Yum! We have lots of garden chard and romaine growing, so I featured those ingredients mostly in this dish. You can use any veggies you have on hand.   Chop chard (stems and all), red bell pepper (or a hotter pepper if you like spicy) , a small onion, 2 stalks celery, 1 or 2 carrots, and a few garlic cloves and sauté in a skillet with a little olive oil. Add some drained and rinsed beans, or leftover cooked meat, optional. (We used leftover cooked chicken). Add a little broth or stock and let this mixture cook together for a minute. Cook some rice ( I used basmati). Grate some cheese. Place cooked rice, veggie mixture, and cheese on one end of a flour tortilla, fold the sides in and roll it up. Wrap with foil and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes until piping hot and melted. Once cooked through, remove from foil, unroll halfway and add chopped lettuce, tomatoes and avocado and roll back up. Serve with your favorite salsa, hot sauce, plain yogurt or guacamole. mmmmmm…

The Mc DLB      

 Inspired by the 1985 fast food phenomenon “The Mc DLT” which featured “Hot side Hot, and Cool side Cool” packaging (and a cheesy commercial to go with it), I made a hot and cool veggie burrito. This dish has rice, cheese and veggies cooked inside a burrito, with cool crunchy salad veggies added at the end. Yum! We have lots of garden chard and romaine growing, so I featured those ingredients mostly in this dish. You can use any veggies you have on hand.  

Chop chard (stems and all), red bell pepper (or a hotter pepper if you like spicy) , a small onion, 2 stalks celery, 1 or 2 carrots, and a few garlic cloves and sauté in a skillet with a little olive oil. Add some drained and rinsed beans, or leftover cooked meat, optional. (We used leftover cooked chicken). Add a little broth or stock and let this mixture cook together for a minute.

Cook some rice ( I used basmati). Grate some cheese.

Place cooked rice, veggie mixture, and cheese on one end of a flour tortilla, fold the sides in and roll it up. Wrap with foil and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes until piping hot and melted. Once cooked through, remove from foil, unroll halfway and add chopped lettuce, tomatoes and avocado and roll back up. Serve with your favorite salsa, hot sauce, plain yogurt or guacamole. mmmmmm…

Thornless Blackberries Blueberries and Red Chard Fennel Rainbow Chard

 Here are some of the fruits and veggies in the front garden. The chard is beautiful as a landscape plant and we cook with it a lot. The slugs and snails find it quite delicious. One of these nights I’ll have to go out there with a flashlight and catch them in the act. I promise not to make escargot. 

Peas Meyer Lemon blossoms Artichokes, Lavender, Poppies red kale beets

Here are some shots I took this week of our edible landscape in the back yard. We have peas, carrots, artichokes, beets, various lettuces, red kale, blueberries, fennel, herbs, grapes, and strawberries growing. Soon to go in: tomatoes, eggplant, basil and other warm season crops. 

Sweetheart’s Salad

Gorgonzola Pecan Salad is my husband’s favorite. So this is what I’m making to go with our dinner. I picked all the red lettuces I had in the garden, along with red pansies, which are edible flowers.

Wash and spin salad greens.

Make caramelized pecans.

For the Candied Pecans: (These things are so good!) Combine 1 tblsp olive oil, 1 tblsp balsamic vinegar, and 2 heaping tblsp brown sugar in a bowl. Add 1 cup whole or chopped pecan pieces and mix thoroughly with the sugary concoction.  Place on a lined cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 5 - 6 minutes. (They burn easily, so watch them closely) You can do this step ahead of time and keep them in a cool place in the kitchen until dinnertime. 

Top the salad with eaquel amounts of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, garnish with candied pecans and gorgonzola cheese, salt and pepper

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