Grow: Herbs and More

Lemon Thyme, German Thyme and Lavender

Living in North Texas we get some pretty extreme weather.  From ice and snow in the Winter to triple digit temps in the Summer.  So I do what any right minded person would do: I do container gardening on the patio.  Easy. Cheap. Manageable. So much less maintenance, and, when the weather gets dicey?  I move them under cover with no trouble.

Sweet Basil

I bought one basil plant at the Home Depot for $3 and we have been eating off this monster all season.  From caprese salads, to sandwiches and salads, it is a Summer staple we love each year.

Southern Style: Sweet & Savory Tomato Jam

FROM THIS ....

TO THIS ...

When sweet meets savory, delicious explosions happen. It's nature. Go with it.  I love Summer; tomatoes, sweet and delicious.  I want to save it for myself and to share with everyone I know.  I found a tomato jam recipe, but it didn't really fit the flavor profile I was looking for. So I did what anyone would do: I made up my own.  This is the result.  Try it.  The only thing it costs you is an afternoon.

Eat This: Peach Apricot Ginger Jam

Peach Apricot Ginger Jam

I love the fresh fruit taste of the Spring.  I went to the Farmer's Market and brought back some beautiful peaches, grown here in the DFW area. I knew I wanted something special, so I am paring them with dried Turkish apricots and ginger. Sweet and spicy with the ginger.  It's delicious.  This is a lower sugar recipe as well. The original called for 7 cups of sugar. I used 2 1/2.  The use of Low-No Sugar Pectin has changed the way preserving works!  Try this.

Eat This: Rosemary Oregano Parmesan Focaccia

Impossible not to cut a piece to taste.

I love focaccia.  I bought a loaf last week from a local grocery. It was delicious, creamy with Parmesan.  I wanted to try that myself and this was the result.  I added herbs fresh from my backyard, rosemary and oregano along with shaved parmesan.  Oh yeah. Delicious.  Just try to make at least two loaves because one?  Like eating one potato chip. Not happening.

Eat This Now: Strawberry Lemon Ginger Jam

I love strawberries.  Sweet. Tart. Pretty. Red.  Come on, everyone likes strawberries, right?  I've been on a jelly/canning/preserving kick over the past year and I thought, what could I do with strawberries?  These Texas grown berries are delicious. They're pretty BIG too.  I took a basic recipe from Susan Can Cook and modified it a bit.  It came out really nicely.  Delicious and tastes like "Summer".  Try this. It's easy and delicious.

Let's Eat Cake: Lemon Pound Cake

I love lemon anything. Cake. Cookies. Whatever.  I found a recipe and modified it and this was the outcome.  I gave our neighbors half of the cake, so I wouldn't eat it all, and they proclaimed it the best lemon cake they'd ever had.  You be the judge. It really WAS pretty awesome.  It is a basic cake that you can add any kind of extract and make it your own.  Enjoy.

Eat This: Crabcakes

I grew up on the North coast of Florida.  We had such wonderful, fresh and seemingly unlimited seafood to eat.  I reminisced with my mom recently that I thought we were poor because we consumed so much seafood!  I mean, it came from the end of the street, right out of the Intracoastal Waterway or a block up the street to the Atlantic Ocean.  You can still, in our old neighborhood in North Beach, St. Augustine, wade out in the water with a screwdriver, break off a fresh oyster and eat that bad boy right where it came from. That fresh.

I know better now. I know we were blessed.  We particularly loved blue crab.  Usually just boiled and picked, and now, in all their glory, crabcakes.  This is a new recipe I put together as I am limiting my carb intake so this really cuts it to the bone.  Enjoy! 

Neutral Friday: New Rooms From Restration Hardware

The cocktail table and sofa are awesome.

Ok. Yeah, I know.  You get the catalogs too.  I love Restoration Hardware's room vignettes.  This time I highlighted the "small spaces".  I feel like I could just move right in.  These are from the latest catalog set - you  remember, that 12# package in the mailbox?  Happy Friday.

Eat Smarter: Low Carb Peanut Butter Cookies

I love peanuts, peanut butter... whatever.  I am avoiding wheat at the moment and my craving for  cookie is hard to work out.  I found this recipe and it came out pretty good!  Not like a "regular" flour based peanut butter cookie, but pretty good as a substitute.

I didn't take photos of the mixing and measuring process but... well, it's pretty simple.  One caveat: I got mine from the grocery in the "grind it yourself aisle".  You don't want to use regular peanut butter because it has so much added stuff already, sugar, etc in it. 

SMOKIN!: Slow Smoked Baby Back Ribs

Smoked Baby Back Pork Ribs

I am crazy about BBQ. Crazy.  A couple of years ago, I got all worked up over smoked foods and it has become a hobby.  

Yesterday I was at Sprouts Market and they had some beautiful baby back ribs on sale - minimally processed - no additives - no hormones.  Naked pork.  I got 4, count em, 4 slabs.  They are great to smoke and freeze in individual freezer bags for a quick meal later on. Check this out - rub recipe after the jump too!

Eat This: Easy Tempura

Shrimp, broccoli and green bean tempura

I love tempura.  Hot. Crisp. Light.  I also hate cleaning up after making it, but sometimes the sacrifice is worth the trouble.  Tonight I made shrimp, broccoli and green bean tempura with a VERY simple tempura batter.  You should try this some time. It's delicious.  I'm also including a uber easy knockoff on the Bonefish Grill's Bang Bang sauce, which I love along side the shrimp.  Ponzu right out of the bottle is awesome on the veggies.

Photography: Point And Shoot Friday

Special Effects!

I continue to enjoy getting to know my Nikon D5100 DSLR.  There are so many settings and features that are built in it takes a quick reference guide just to get to them all!  I took these within about 15 minutes - fast, point and shoot.  Enjoy photography?  Let me know what sites you use as I am trying to improve my own repertoire.

Furniture Obsession: Chests

This could be my favorite.

I am crazy about some furniture.  I have recently been obsessing over what many call "bachelor chests"; small, usually three or four drawer chests that go beside a bed, or under a window, or stand all on their own.  Check these out. 

Try looking at my Pinterest board - Furniture: Chests (there is a link on the right side at the top of DUBD.).

Saturday Eats: Fresh Rolled Biscuits

Fresh Rolled Biscuits with Clementine-Habanero-Ginger Marmalade

These are wonderful biscuits that I adapted from Joy of Cooking.   It is a very simple basic recipe that only has 5 ingredients. 

I like a more “layered” biscuit so I actually turn them out onto a floured surface (my kitchen island has a SileStone top which is great for baking) and knead them turning 5 or 6 times only.  Don’t overwork them or they get tough and won’t rise as nicely.  This basic recipe can also be used as the top for pot pies and is REALLY delicious if you add a ½ cup of finely grated Parmesan for that purpose. Enjoy!

Super Simple: Strawberry Cobbler

I love cobbler. Pure and simple. Love it. It is super simple and awesome. It's pretty hard to screw up too. This is the simplest version yet. Incredibly moist, sweet and delicious. Not for the faint of heart carb-wise, but once in awhile you just have to have what you have to have!

Cheeburger: Home Made Hamburger Buns

I love fresh bread.  I also like a good burger.  When I wanted burgers today I realized I had no buns. Bummer.  But wait!  How about a quick and easy homemade hamburger bun in less than an hour?  I know, you think I am off my meds, but I am not.  This recipe was adapted from this one at Taste Of Home.

Sunday Supper: Shrimp & Green Grits

OK. It sounds a little out of the ordinary, but these creamy, buttery, cheesy grits are delicious on their own loaded with butter, cream, spinach, chives and basil.  Not for the faint of heart, or calorie counters, but once in awhile this is a delicious indulgence.  When topped with succulent shrimp, it's awesome.
Here's how we do it after the jump.

Savory Sunday: Parmesan-Cracked Black Pepper Shortbread Crackers

I have been making shortbread cookies for some time now.  Barely sweet, buttery, nutty with pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts.  I love the texture and the "not too sweet" nature of them.  I also love a nice cracker.  A little wine, a good cracker and some goat cheese?  What's better?

I use the food processor to make the shortbread cookies so I thought, why not go for a savory cracker?  See how I did it after the jump: 

Saturday Morning: Pecan Pie Muffins

I love pecan pie and I love muffins so when I saw the recipe this morning at The Tasty Kitchen I hopped up and made it.  The photos on the Tasty Kitchen website are much better than mine so check them out.  I made a couple of small changes and it was awesome.  My photo is above and at the end of the final product.

Eat This: Smitten Kitchen "Favorite Brownies" With Hazelnuts

Deb Perelman at the Smitten Kitchen blog got me started down the road to blogging and enjoying recipes online.  I read blogs like other people read biographies, unashamedly, unabashedly, happily.  

Deb's recipe for "My Favorite Brownies" was simple and delicious and now my new favorite.  I made three small changes and they turned out perfectly.  (1) I dusted the pan with cocoa powder before adding the batter (2) I added one teaspoon of instant espresso powder and, (3) I added one cup of chopped hazelnuts.  I was just in that kind of mood.  These lend themselves to additions really well.

Eat This: Gingered Sweet Pickled Jalapenos aka "Cowboy Candy"

 
I made candied jalapenos aka "Cowboy Candy" here in the past.  Click HERE for the original recipe with step-by-step instructions.  I ate or gave away my stock so it was time to make more. I wanted to change it up a little and this time, adding a layer of flavor so I added fresh ginger to the recipe.  I love the Asian ginger influence mixed with the Texas taste of the jalapenos.  I cooked fresh ginger, about a 3" long piece, peeled and chopped, in with the vinegar, sugar and spice mixture.  I strained it all before adding the jalapeños.

Preservation II: Clementine-Ginger-Habanero Marmalade

Oh yes baby.  Delicious: Clementine-Ginger-Habanero Marmalade.

I enjoyed making the Orange-Ginger Marmalade so much I decided to take on a new batch.  This time, I used Clementines.  They're sweet, seedless and full of flavor.  To give it a kick, I added ginger, this time in the form of candied ginger and three, yes THREE habanero peppers.  Surprise!  It was a little heat way back on your throat, but not "hot".  Turned out to be delicious.  And here's how it happened...

Preservation: Orange-Ginger Marmalade

Orange-Ginger Marmalade

I tried canning in November of 2011 for the first time when I made Chili Piquin Jelly.  It turned out well and gave me some confidence to try new things.  Up to that time, preservation for me was the freezer.  It turns out, that if you follow directions, things work out pretty well!  Who knew?

Eat This: Lemon Sour Cream Cake

I am crazy about lemons. In almost anything; freshly squeezed over a pork chop - a wedge served with my fried chicken .... anything.  Desserts are especially wonderful when they are really tart and sweet together.  This recipe was adapted from Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake recipe at The Barefoot Contessa.  Love her. This is not too sweet, just tart enough to be awesome.  Enjoy.

Southern Roots: Buttermilk Biscuits

The Final Product

Growing up in the Deep South in Northern Florida, I had a lot of biscuits.  Family members from Southern Georgia often baked the most delicious things I have ever tasted.  Some of the biscuits were called "Cat Heads" because of their size... these could surely be called catheads - they are huge and fluffy with a nice bottom snap to the crust.  

Buttery and delicious, not for the faint of heart nor an every day thing, so indulge and get back on that treadmill later! This recipe adapted from Saveur Magazine's article featuring the Island Creek Oyster Bar in Boston.