Roasted Mushroom Asparagus Parmesan

Yum, yum, yum, yum, I had asparagus that I needed to cook immediately before it went bad. I'm now obsessed with this nutrient rich fern. Meals should be a slice of Elysium and asparagus, mushrooms, and peppers would bring Hades to the table.

1/2 lb. asparagus

6 button mushrooms

1 1/2 cups milk

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

4 cups cooked spaghetti
1/4 fresh red pepper
1 tsp. garlic
sweet basil
chives
parsley
pepper
salt
olive oil
flour
shredded mozzarella cheese

knife
fork
sieve
sauce pan

frying pan

glass stove pan

1. Preheat oven to to 450 F.

2. Remove woody stems, chop asparagus into 1'' sections, chop mushrooms and julienne peppers.
3. Mix into glass pan, toss with olive oil and cracked pepper, place in oven for about 30 mins.
4. Set water to boil and leave spaghetti to cook in sauce pan.
5. Blend garlic, basil, chives, and parsley and pour milk over it in frying pan.

6. Turn heat on low, slowly stir in all the parmesan, when warm blend in flour until thick.

7. Drain spaghetti, and plate vegetables, pour cheese.

And have a warmed over heart attack.

No groceries for a year

I've heard about this challenge and would love to be able to do this. This year my garden provided for about six of my meals and Mrs Tuttle's provided a few others. I collected eggs, apples, tomatoes, eggplants, blueberries, and blackberries. I want room to plant more, and may have found a way, the volunteers at the Live and Let Live Farm, can help in their organic garden and take home both knowledge and food. I wonder if I'll ever be able to make things like egg drop soup, minus the salt, directly from my own yard.

Egg drop soup

2 large eggs
3 cups water
parsley
chives
salt

optional: corn or mushrooms

pot
measuring cup 

1. Turn on stove burner, combine all the water; parsley, chives, and salt to taste.
2. Let water boil for five minutes.
3. Crack open eggs, drop them in and stir.

http://www.liveandletlivefarm.org/

Ovo-vegetarian

I'm trying hard to be an ovo-vegetarian only. I can get my eggs cruelty free from my boyfriends family, not so with milk and cheese. Then my friend makes his fresh caught by him tuna steaks, homemade cream of mushroom soup with organic milk, rice pilaf, broccoli, and corn. And layers it into that dreaded tuna casserole and again I'm back to being a pescatarian who has to physically concentrate on not adding the alot less then fantastic ingredients to my own food. I wish for a world where we could trade organic foods rather than needing cash for them.

Asparagus

I cooked Asparagus Officinalis or very obviously those yummy green stalks that pop up in spring and have charmed people since the time of De re coquinara to the George Foreman grill cookbook. I was going to pick the unused Asparagus from Rob's garden next year for my mom, but hey she decided to forfeit the treasures from my gathering sessions. So anyway I've decided to cook Asparagus again, again, and again. My recipe last night was soy sauce, chopped cashews, sesame and flax seeds. I added the cashews to obtain protein because I didn't know Asparagus carried protein in it's very cells.

Soy crusted Asparagus

1/2 pound fresh Asparagus
1/4 cup cashews
sesame seeds and flax seeds to taste
3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 medium sauce pan
measuring cups
knife
wax paper
cookie tray

1. Preheat the oven to 150 F.
2. Clean, steam, and cook the asparagus until just soft.
3. Finely chop the cashews.
4. Add the cashews, and seeds to the covered cookie tray and put in the oven.
5. Mix cashews, and seeds with the Asparagus, drizzle with soy sauce.

Cherry Tomatoes

I knew nothing about hybrid plants beyond the fact that they existed. I didn't know that unlike dogs breeds that have been breed together, like the pug and the beagle, which can have the next generation breed one pugle with another pugle to become purebred animals, plants genetic structures break down in following generations. So I blithely planted unknown half rotten cherry tomatoes in a broken purple pot I got for free. I planted from seed in late May instead of late February or March when more experienced planters start their seeds inside. They grew spindly plants that have finally born fruit that I'm checking daily hoping and begging that they ripen and taste good so I can cut one and save the seeds for next years growth. The internet sources I have read say that saving your own seeds eventually, if you choose healthy plants with good production, will lead you to have plants uniquely suitable for your garden. Please let all my fuck ups and experiments actually lead to something good for once. I have had only one of my fuck ups lead to something good. I now know how to apologize but the one person I want to be forgiven by won't listen, so hopefully the good that comes out of my garden won't be so painfully earned.

Stuffed Italian Eggplant

1 large Eggplant
1 small tomato
2 button mushrooms
2 tblsp olive oil
parsley
salt
pepper
mozzarella
pairing knife
oven safe dish
spoon

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut the eggplant into circles, and peel.

Core every piece leaving a little at the bottom.

Dice the tomato, and mushrooms.

Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with parsley, and mozzarella.

Cook for 25 minutes, serve.

Ivory Egg Tomatoes

I haven't written in the past couple days. I have doing internet digging instead of the physical kind. I've been looking for seedlings for Ivory Egg tomatoes. I only found traders or sellers in Chester Mass or Upstate New York. I don't have enough sunlight, space, or experience to start plants inside from seed. Does anyone have these plants in New Hampshire? I'd love to find a tomato both my boyfriend and I might like. Plus, I like the idea of doing a heritage garden, and trying something my ancestor Anna C. Johnson had eaten other than Rye bread.

Applesauce

Ever wonder why we use imitation vanilla it's because those black sticks are so, so, so expensive. The extract from them can when made by Watkins company up to $124 per quart and as little as $89 per quart. Then Mt. Williams imititation vanilla is $19 per quart. Now you're wondering why I'm talking about vanilla when the title of this post is applesauce, aren't you? My boyfriend Rob and his family have apples they don't use so as long as I trot myself up the ladder to get them I have about a six year supply that rounds itself out every year. I made plain applesauce this time and canned it, but next year I might make GOURMET APPLESAUCE and add vanilla or homemade caramel. Hopefully by then I'll have a job so I can afford to fail at making my own food.

Basics

I totally missed the basic steps to creating a garden. My soil was undernourished clay based scum from underneath a destroyed porch, and yes I expected it to grow vegetables! Later i used my intelligence to look up soil improvements. My suggestion for clay heavy soil is to mix environmentally safe rabbit litter, chicken manure, hay, chopped maple leaves deep into the soil, using a rototiller. Actually know the variety of vegetables or plants you have and give them proper space. Release earthworms into your garden they really help and they mean less work for you. Then finally occasionally loosening the topsoil to allow water to sink into the ground.