Cabin Fever: Dreaming of Fresh Vegetables

We have now had snow on the ground for about four months.  It's so deep, that it's almost up to my waste.  Monday I took my parents' dog with me cross country skiing, and he got stuck because the snow came up to his neck.  He's a hundred pound black lab.  So needless to say, I kind of tired of the white stuff.  I've done better this year than previously, but it's still time for it to go.  Seeing seed packets showing up in stores makes me ready for spring and ready to plant seeds.

I traveled around on Etsy and made plans for all sorts of things I'd like to plant this year.  I'm kind of planning on actually putting in a garden this year.  I grow a ton of stuff on my deck, in pots, but some things just don't far well in pots.  Things like corn, beans, peas, and even my tomatoes have a hard time getting enough water.  Plus, I would have more room, and wouldn't have to invest in so much potting soil each year and spend so much time watering!

So here's a Pinterest board of some of my favorite finds:

I love salad greens, so I want to plant kale, bibb lettuce, mixed greens, and spinach.  I like a variety of tomatoes.  You need some for slicing and some for salads.  I love yellow pear tomatoes.  Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli are all necessary.  And if I'm going to grow a real garden, I want some sweet corn, peas, and beans.  Cucumbers for pickling as well as slicing sound delicious.  And I love some zucchini as well.  I also want to try some fun things, like rainbow swiss chard and purple carrots and weird heirloom beets.  I think I'm either going to have to narrow my selections down or convert my whole back yard into growing space.

There's a lot of sellers on Etsy who offer unique seeds.  I haven't ordered from any yet, but as we get closer to growing time I'd like to try some of  them out.  Heirloom Seeds 2 U is from Wisconsin and they have a wide variety of pepper seeds to choose from, as well as some tomatoes, cucumbers, and other veggies.  Box Garden Organics has a ton of unique heirloom veggie and flower seeds and they're from Idaho.  Sherwood Seeds has a ton of unique tomato and pepper seeds, as well as some other veggies and flowers.  They're from Pennsylvania.  Kenyon Organics are from Utah and sell  tons of veggies and flowers (eight pages of seeds!).  If you're thinking of trying some heirloom seeds or unique breeds, I'd start with these four shops.  Also, you can buy seeds from around the world, but just remember that then you have to deal with customs and other headaches, so it may take longer for your seeds to arrive, if they do at all.

So, for most plants you can start seeds inside about six to eight weeks before your projected final frost.  For my zip code, that would be somewhere between March 19 and April 2.  Still more than a month, before I can even start planting seeds.  :( 

What do you think?  Anything else awesome that I should be considering planting?  Feel free to let me know in the comments.  Or know any good seed resources?  Please share.

Greek Tomato Salad

So did everyone have a good weekend?  I did.  Saturday was busy!  I got up early, hit the Farmer's Market and ran some errands, and then swung by a work friend's housewarming party.  Very cool to see it in person after seeing pictures of it.  Then my husband surprised me by offering to take me to Duluth for dinner.  Duluth is in Minnesota.  It's also about two and half hours away, one way.  But Lake Superior is my most favorite place on earth, so after he convinced me he was serious, I said yes.  We had a good trip.  Supper at Pizza Luce which was delicious, and then a quick spin to Park Point which is a beach right on Lake Superior so I could go stand in the sand and get my feet wet.  Then home.  But, it was fun to do something spontaneous.

But, now back to normal.  So, I mentioned my pear tomato was going crazy producing sweet little yellow yumminess.  I love to pick them fresh off the plant and eat them when they're still warm from the sun, but there was so many, I had to do something with them.  So I was thumbing through my recipes when I found this recipe for Greek Tomato Salad that I had made a couple times last year, so I decided to mix it up.  Here's how it goes.

Pear Tomatoes (Equivalent in size to Cherry Tomatoes)

 Greek Tomato Salad
Serves 5
1/4 cup red wine vegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 minced garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup coarsely chopped peper
4 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges
6 whole olives, halved
3 tablespoons crumbled feta

In a bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, garlic, oregano, basil, sugar, salt, and pepper.  Add the onions and pepper.  Toss to coat.  Stir in the tomatoes, olives, and feta.  Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.  Serve with a slotted spoon.

Greek Tomato Salad

I did make changes to mine this time.  First off, using pear tomatoes.  I also used a raspberry wine vinegar because I didn't have any red.  I used sliced olives, and red peppers because that's what I had on hand.  You can add more or less of things to customize it to your liking.  Serving it with a slotted spoon is a good idea, because it does get juicier as it sits.

Zucchini Fritters

So, I saw my patio zucchini plant had a zucchini.  I was going to pick it about three days ago, but forgot, or only thought about it when I was walking by it on my way to the car to go to work, or had my hands full with groceries.  So I finally picked it.  It seemed bigger than I recalled.

My three pound squash.

Then I had to decide what to do with it.  Growing up, we pretty much only used zucchini for bread, cupcakes, or muffins.  But as I've gotten older, I've found I use it more for cooking than baking.

I found a recipe for Smitten Kitten's zucchini fritters and thought I'd give it a shot.  I like potato pancakes and they sounded similar.  You can check out the recipe at Smitten Kitten for the particulars, but I'll give you the gist. I only needed a pound of zucchini, so I whacked mine in half and pulled out the seeds and grated it with a box grater.

I left the peel on because I thought it looked prettier.

Then you salt it and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Notice kitty lurking in the shadows?

Then, press out all the water you can using paper towels or cheese cloth, throw it back in the bowl, and add egg, pepper, shallots (or some garlic in my case).

 

Next add a little flour and baking powder. And mix.

 

Then fry in oil on the stove top over medium heat till golden on bottom, flip and cook a few more, and then your finished.  Serve with yogurt or sour cream and some fresh lemon juice.

Lunch!

I thought these were pretty good, they fry up crispy on the outside, but soft and tender inside.  They were pretty fast to make too and no fussy ingredients.  I love that!  Next time I think I'll skip the sour cream and just put a little butter on top.  Which, I'm in luck, because there's leftovers! The recipe makes about 10 fritters.  Yum!  And now you have an idea for zucchini besides more zucchini bread.