Garden is almost planted!

Mark is gone for two weeks in London, so I was left planting the last few varietals of herbs and cleaning up our hydroponic bed before it got too warm. I was a little disappointed on Wednesday when I was out at the farm that none of the thyme was coming up, so I counted it as a loss. As much as we use thyme, I knew we were going to have to purchase some. I made a quick stop at Home Depot since both markets I visited and a nursery was out and selected some lemon thyme and regular thyme. I could just smell lemon thyme all day. I cant wait for some summer chicken with some of that lemon thyme!
The garden had plenty of time for weeds this week - lots of rain and lots of quick sunlight. It helped many of our plants grow, but darn those weeds. Four and a half hours later, I finally could tell what I had in each bed. Cleaning out on of the herb beds I started to smell thyme. Looking down in my hand I realized I pulled up a small amount of thyme - of course, after I purchase more, the thyme is actually growing now and has re sprouted in the same spot we planted it last year. We will have plenty of thyme this year.
Garden looks good and I cant wait to post some pictures (when Mark returns with the camera). Here is what we are looking at now:
Tomatoes - 25 plants and about 7-8 varieties
Corn - silver queen
Peppers - from hot to sweet we have a ton of them
okra
cucumbers
green beans
fennel
carrots
radishes
watermelon
cantaloupe
onions
shallots
zucchini
lettuce
broccoli
strawberries
basil
cilantro
parsley
thyme
oregano
rosemary
and if my little brother has his way, he will be planting potatoes this week.

One of these days I will keep up with this... an update!

This summer we continue to work at my parents house most weekends to prepare our garden. When we say garden, most of our friends think a few plants and while that would be nice, we love to get ourselves into some type of huge growing experience. It would be much nicer if it were closer to home, however, its nice to make ourselves get out of the city once a week. We now have planted peppers, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, bunch beans, cilantro, parsley, radish, carrots, catnip, basil, watermelon, cantaloupe with corn and some other varieties going in later this week. The plants we havent seen growth from as we hoped: onions, chives, fennel, strawberries. Some will be replanted, others will have to just wait until next year.

We have been cooking like crazy this year. I will start posting pics and some short descriptions, since detailing all of the parts would take forever. If you want a recipe or know how we did something, just ask. I will be happy to post.

For now - pics of the garden last year!

Sylvester the cat loves to help Mark in the garden - he also had to get his photo taken!

I love fall and the food that comes with it.

Its simple. Food in the fall is wonderful. I love summer veggies, but I just go crazy for some dishes and their spices. I am a huge fan of cinnamon and love that I can smell it in many dishes in the fall and winter. We have moved into making our fall dishes and I am very excited. This week Mark has pulled out two beautiful fall dishes and one of our favorite go to dishes and I can tell you they were wonderful. Eventually I will take pictures of him actually cooking the food, but for now you get the finished product.

I have split up the posts since they all need their own credit. I will start with last night -- smoked pork chops, braised pears, and buttermilk biscuits. My sister Kat came over for dinner so it was a dinner filled with red wine, and even a little sip of some Makers Mark.

The smoked pork chops have become a staple in our household. We were introduced to them by our friends at Busch's Country Corner. You can visit them at the market in the market house for many wonderful meats. They told us we had to try these smoked pork chops as an easy week night meal and they were right. A simple sear in our cast iron skillet and they are ready to eat. Mark decided that pears would be a great addition to this dish three weeks ago when we first tried them. He sauteed them in a pan with some brown butter, added a simple syrup and then flambeed them with whiskey. Tonight's choice was Makers Mark and it will remain in the recipe if I have anything to do with it. This dish is a great mix of salty and sweet and the biscuit was a great item to soak up all the beautiful syrup from the dish.

All Three dishes with the wine glass and Makers in the background.

A close up of the pears and pork.

I am sure we will have many more of these pork chops - however if you would like to try visit our friends at Busch's.

http://www.findlaymarket.org/busch.htm

Our trip to London - through the food

I am still kicking myself for missing a ton of photos of the wonderful food we at during my trip to visit Mark in London in March. I was flipping through photos and realized I had to post pictures of the market we visited and as I recall all of the wonderful things we ate while we were there, I am regretting every time I didnt have my camera.

We attempted to not be tourists when we went to London this trip. Mark has been there before as have I, so we focused on just spending time together and small food adventures. We did slip once and visit the London Eye, but neither one of us ventured there before and it was a great view of the city. I dont regret it, but realized I wasnt as fearless as I had hoped. I sat on the bench in the middle of the pod the entire time and only ventured out toward the glass for a few quick photos.

If you have never been to London, its worth a trip. I went for the first time in college for a soccer trip and loved it. We didn't venture out very much for food, but this trip I attempted to hit all the favorites. When I arrived, Mark was in an all day meeting so it was up to me to travel with no cell phone to find him. I had directions and had planned my tube route prior to the trip but once you exit the underground, you are on your own. Thank the Lord a nice lady saw me twice and realized I was lost. Only a bit of time later and I found the conference center that he was meeting at. I stopped for a burger and a pint prior to heading back to Ealing where we were staying. I can say that even ordering a burger was a little hard when you are tired and all you want to do is sleep.

After finally making it back to the house we were staying, getting lost for 2 hours on my adventure back to the underground (I am a total idiot now looking back at it - just stop and ask) I found my way to Mark and his co-workers for a pint at a local bar near the event space they were meeting at. We decided not to stay with them for dinner so we could venture out to find something interesting. Mark decided that we had to eat in China town and I am not regretting that decision at all.

We arrived at China town with no idea as to where we should eat. We went by our old rule - if there is a line it must be good! It did not fail us. Once we were inside, Mark realized this was the same spot he had eaten before and we were excited to try many dishes. Mark and I ordered peaking duck, a noodle dish as well as a seafood soup that was listed as very spicy. When they brought out the soup it was a bowl full of red chili's in broth with seafood. Mark was sweating while eating it but it was worth every bite. We didnt get photos but you cant go wrong with any of the places in this little spot. I suggest going with our fail-safe rule of finding the line if your adventures take you here. I hope to be back to visit soon!

Here is a link to the China town organization in London - http://www.chinatownlondon.org/cuisine_eatingout.php

Our tuna adventure

Tuna is another staple fish we tend to purchase at Hyde Park Fish Market every time we go. Sometimes I go in with a plan to get another type of fish, however, tuna always seems to call my name. On this shopping trip, our intention was to get something other than tuna (although I am not sure what) and we ended up taking home a beautiful piece of tuna to enjoy. Mark has been making variations of couscous in the last year (all available at Dean's Mediterranean Market in Findley Market) and he had another wonderful dish idea.
This dish consisted of two tuna steaks - lightly seared so they are essentially rare inside, couscous, roasted cherry tomatoes and roasted red onion and topped with an olive tapanade. The couscous was a perfect match for this dish. The roasted tomatoes and onions were enough vegetable not to overpower the dish, and the tapanade was a great garnish/sauce for this meal. Here is one photo of the finished product:

of course, it didnt stop there. This wonderful night I was also treated to homemade butterscotch pudding with homemade whipped cream. I have never had a homemade pudding before, but this could be a terrible discovery. The butterscotch was devine and rich, but a perfect dessert to finish our night. I would give you the recipe, however, he didnt even share it with me. It was a total surprise dish I am anxious to learn how to make at some point in the near future.
Here is the end result:


All in all, another great creation by my wonderful (now) husband. One day I will post on one of my dinners, that is, if I actually remember to take a photo soon!

Scallops, oh how I love them.

You can pretty much cook a scallop any way you wish and I am a fan. I think they are fairly addicting. I have found my favorite come from Hyde Park Fish Market since they are "dry" scallops. For those of you who don't know, dry scallops are fresh scallops that have not been treated with phosphates. On a side note, these phosphates also cause the scallops to absorb water which will end up costing you more at the store and they shrink down when cooked. While I don't find "wet" scallops inedible, I would prefer them dry any day.

We usually make a trip once or twice a month to Hyde Park fish market to get some delicious fish. They have beautiful sushi grade fish (even roe) and lots of other beautiful options. We opted for some scallops and Mark decided to get creative. When we do scallops, we typically make this recipe:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Scallops-with-Asparagus-238094
This time, Mark ventured off on his own to make this beautiful creation:

As some of you might understand, bacon goes with everything. This time it fit perfectly with scallops. Mark thinly sliced the potatoes (Yukon golds) and pan fried them like a chip. After cooking the bacon, he drained most of the grease, then seared the scallops in the same pan. After a garnish with some chives - it was perfect. I wanted way more than I was served (as always with scallops) but it was perfect for our dinner. As much as I would pay for this later, I could eat this dish every night. The buttery taste of the scallop with the fresh crisp bacon was a perfect combination. While we still love our go to asparagus and scallop dish, this is a great substitute for those times when you are out of asparagus, or looking for a quick alternative for some scallops.

Crab cakes and Fennel

Certainly not together in this post, and not exactly sure if they would ever be great together, but I am sure some Iron Chef will do it at some point. We love fennel and use it quite a bit in the winter. I think its one of those items that you just have to have when its cold. It goes well in a salad, roasted as a side and you can even use its parts for garnish. Here are a few of our lovely fennel favorites:

Pork with roasted fennel: Mark roasted both the pork and fennel which is delicious.


Crab Cakes with fennel salad: Yes I know I stated that crab and fennel don't go together, but since these aren't on the same plate they don't count. We had some left over crab meat to use up, so Mark started to experiment with a crab cakes a few different ways. They were great with his fennel and citrus salad. (He even garnished with the fennel.)


I must say, fennel wasn't something we typically ate prior to the past year. We have had it so much now, that I am not sure what else we ate prior to it. Its getting to be that time of year, and I can say I am pretty excited about the pork and roasted fennel dish again. To view the recipe visit epicurious.com under Fennel-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Fennel Wedges.