The Wildsmith potato crop arrives

Alcoa resident and good buddy Steve Wildsmith already has produce to share. This week he gave me a generous heap of red new potatoes from his garden. We'll make good use of these Monday or Tuesday, at the latest. 

Big 'maters on the horizon

We have high hopes for these robust Brandywine tomato plants. We have about 10 of these plants, which have survived the early summer heat better than most of our vegetables. I snapped this picture on Friday.


Brandywine tomatoes get big -- up to two pounds each. I plan to make my first pizza sauce using these tomatoes. 

Karen and I are not surprised to see that the golden zucchini plants are growing faster than the other plants. The sunflowers are running a close second, though. 


Notice how the zucchini leaves reach for the sun. The way they shift and turn toward the light, their leaves like cupped hands, makes me think of Scott Smith's horror novel about vines called "The Ruins."

Try kale chips -- seriously

Last night we put olive oil on kale leaves and baked them. I got the idea from a Cooking Light recipe earlier this year and wanted to try it. Kale chips are wonderful and easy to make.

Hydrangea blue

My hydrangeas blooming (and still blue!) makes me so happy!

Distraction, thy name is Scrappy

This tiny mongrel is completely in charge of my life right now. 

Don't his back legs look like perfect fat drumsticks?

This morning's haul at the Farmer's Market

Twenty bucks goes a long way at the Maryville Farmers' Market.


Karen and I got there at about 9:20 a.m. on Saturday, which is almost too late. The market opens at 9 a.m. and you should get there early if you want first choice of the good stuff. We filled our bag with onions, garlic, two big crowns of broccoli (you see one above) and a bunch of kale. We also bought fresh spinach and arugula. 


As expected, the lines for the bakery booth were long. Blackberry Farms wasn't present, however. Usually, BF draws a good crowd. Tempting as the baked goods are, that's not why we go.


The Maryville Farmers' Market is held every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. through sell-out.  The Saturday market is located in the heart of downtown Maryville on Church Avenue near CBBC Bank.

Waiting for Kale

We've planted a lot of different vegetables this season, but I'm most excited about kale.The first few kale plants popped through the soil this week.

Blame Cooking Light for my obsession of the moment. When I did a search for "kale" one of the first results to come up was the magazine's selection of 15 kale recipes. They all looked yummy.

Here are my top three:

• White bean soup with kale and chorizo - Cooking Light suggests using Spanish chorizo instead of "raw" Mexican chorizo. Takes about 20 minutes to prepare.
• Farfalle with sausage, cannellini beans and kale - This dish features turkey Italian sausage and sun-dried tomatoes. This dish can be made in 35 minutes, according to Cooking Light.
• Spinach and kale turnovers - This is my favorite. The magazine's description made my mouth water: "Spinach, kale, feta cheese, and a dash of nutmeg makes for a tasty turnover filling. ... Make-ahead tip: Prepare the turnovers in advance, and freeze them for up to two months."

Kale is hardy (ours survived the winter) and very good for you. WebMD expert columnist Kathleen Zelman called it a "nutritional powerhouse" in "The Truth About Kale." 

The Great White Wheat Crust Experiment

I use King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour for my pizza crust and it has never failed me. On Friday, I decided to substitute white wheat flour for my usual flour to see if I liked it. I use a recipe for basic pizza dough from "The Gourmet Cookbook" by Ruth Reichl. It's a simple recipe that calls for active dry yeast, a bit of salt, olive oil and about 1 3/4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour. (I do recommend the book).


I tried white whole wheat flour because I wondered if I would like it better than the all-purpose flour I have used for about five years now. I didn't have the King Arthur brand handy so I used what was available: Eagle Mills. White wheat flour is more firm and less sticky than the all-purpose flour. It also doesn't shape as easily, though. For instance, once the dough was finished rising, I couldn't pull it into a big round pie without tearing it.

Instead, I cut the dough ball in half, rolled out each half and cut it into eighths. I had to roll it out super thin, but it held together well and wasn't very sticky. It didn't cling to the cutting board, which happens sometimes. So I cut it up into eight squarish pieces and stored them on parchment in a glass container. 

The slices were tasty. I pre-baked each one for 6 minutes at 500 degrees, added toppings, then cooked for another 8 minutes. Today I had three slices topped with cheese, tomato sauce and turkey pepperoni. It will become a part of the regular rotation in my refrigerator. 

Arugala!

I planted three kinds of lettuce in the new raised bed on Sunday: kale, arugala and red bibb lettuce. It all came up last year, but I couldn't remember which came up faster. Well, this year it's arugala. 

This morning I took this picture of the first leaves breaking through the soil. I started liking salads when I realized that the fresh stuff from local farmers actually tasted good. 




Years of supermarket greens, particularly iceberg lettuce, had left me less than enthused. Patricia Wells' excellent book, "Salad as a Meal", has also motivated me to give the green stuff more attention. Karen checked out Wells' book at the Blount County Public Library and we discovered several enticing recipes. We plan to buy a copy for our ever-expanding personal library of cookbooks.

The next raised bed goes up

I finished the second raised vegetable bed last week. It cost about $50 in materials. Half of that went for lumber. I bought four 2" x 6" boards, each 10-feet long, and a dozen wooden stakes. The rest of the money covered a couple of bags of compost and two hefty bags of organic soil. Like the bad sheriff in "Unforgiven," I'm no carpenter. But even I can build a raised bed, and I encourage you to do the same for flowers or vegetables. 


Note: I had all the tools you need for this. You really need a good rubber mallet for the stakes.

Aside from the light rain that fell when I started to put it together, the only other challenge was the puppy. He want to dig in the dirt whenever I was trying to build the frames or add compost and soil. Only three months old, Scrappy has the super-sized paws of the Basset hound and can create a big hole in a hurry.

Maryville Farmers Market opens!

If you drive through downtown Maryville on Saturday morning, the parking lot by CBBC Bank be crowded. You'll hear music, see plenty of trucks and probably smell fresh baked bread, if you're on foot.

The Maryville Farmers' Market opens tomorrow at 9 a.m. It's best to get there just before they ring the cow bell that signals the opening of the market. The good stuff disappears fast. 

This is the feature on the market written by Melanie Tucker of The Daily Times.

Chocolate truffle cookies revealed

These are not fudge cookies, as I called them in previous posts. Actually, the cookies Karen made are chocolate truffle cookies, which explains all that yummy richness. 


The recipe for truffle cookies came from Gourmet magazine cookbook, but she also found it online.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-truffle-cookies/

Dangerous cookies and other baking adventures

My favorite things to share are pizza and cookies (but not at the same time). Last night, Karen made a batch of cookies (chocolate chip and fudge) so good that I deemed it dangerous to keep too many at the house. As I took my first bite of a fudge cookie, my head swam. I had visions of me, up late tonight, eating about a dozen cookies and drinking a quart of milk.

So Karen filled a couple of boxes full of cookies for her co-workers and mine. My colleagues loved them. They asked for the recipe. I mentioned Karen's Christmas goody bags, the ones with five different kinds of cookies. They said, "Sign us up." 

We are all too glad to share.  If she is not covered up on her day off, she might post the recipe. Look for it in a day or two.