Cherries

We have three young tart cherry trees.  We have had a bit of harvest in the past few year…enough to make a pie.  But this year, we have hit a new level!

I have been harvesting a bit at a time as the berries get ripe to stay ahead of the birds.  Once they catch on that there are ripe cherries for the taking…forget it!

So, each day I harvested a pint or so.  But now, it is a half gallon a day!  And that is just picking what I can reach from the ground!  My ladders are all at the reno and besides I do not need more cherries than I am harvesting.

 

A day’s harvest.  Then to pit them.  Luckily, I have an antique pitter that pits two cherries at a time.  You can put a handful of cherries in the feed tray and let the pitter shafts gather eight cherries at a batch.

I looked online for a more efficient pitter but could find nothing near this efficient for a home cook.  Go antiques!

Related articles

• Fresh Cherry Tart (cafecarol.com)
• Griotte Cherry Clafoutis Recipe (greatbritishchefs.com)
• Cherry Harvest (agriculturaprofetica.wordpress.com)
• Michigan’s sweet cherry crop in good shape despite cold spring, growers and packers say (mlive.com)

 

Greek Salad

If you are anything like me, some time before noon each day you think to yourself, “What am I going to make for dinner?”  Sigh.  Some days inspiration is readily at hand.  Other days not so much.

Today, I knew I wanted to tend toward the Vegetarian since we had meat last night.  But nothing inspired me.  THEN, watching PBS in the afternoon…there it was!  I was watching Growing a Greener World and Chef Nathan made a yummy Greek salad that had the additional ingredients of chickpeas and avocado.  Yum!

 

You can find the recipe at 
http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/205recipe/

For the salad:

Chef Nathan’s Greek Salad

1  large head Romaine lettuce, chopped
1  small red onion, peeled and finely diced
2  teaspoons chopped fresh mint leaves
2  pints cherry tomatoes, halved
½  teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1  cup feta cheese, crumbled, Greek if possible
¼  cup roughly-chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley
1  cup drained, pitted, roughly-chopped Katamala olives
1  (15-oz) can chick peas, rinsed, drained
1  large red, yellow, or orange bell pepper, seeded, small dice (3/4 cup)
4  small cucumbers, Persian or Japanese, peeled, medium dice (1½ cups)
2  large avocados, halved, pitted, scooped out with a spoon, medium dice

For the vinaigrette:
1  large clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2  tablespoons red-wine vinegar
¼  cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt, as needed
Freshly ground black pepper, as needed

In a small container with a tight sealing lid, combine the vinaigrette ingredients, close to seal, and shake until emulsified, 30 seconds.

Method:
Place everything but the vinaigrette into a large serving bowl and gently mix together with a large spoon, spatula or your hands.  Finish the salad by stirring in half of the vinaigrette and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Stir to combine, adding more salad dressing, salt and pepper to taste.  Seriously, folks.  That’s it.  Enjoy!

Note.  You can halve this recipe with great success.  Also, If you’re a fan of lemon, feel free to substitute 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice for 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar.  If so, your vinaigrette would be ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon red wine vinaigrette and 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice.

YIELD: Serves 6 to 8

 

 

Related articles

• Easy Chopped Greek Salad (seriouseats.com)

 

STILL not done.

Yikes.  The hosta painting will never be done until it is overdone.  Then it will be too late.

Still struggling in an ocean of green.

Last time you saw it…

 

And now….

 

Can you see the difference.  There are several hours of work involved but not sure how much they show at this point.

I may be cross eyed before I give up on this one!

 

Done? What Do You Think?

There is a fine line between being finished with an art project and overworking it.  I am at that point….maybe.

Here is where my current projects stand.

The Hosta painting. I am thinking just a bit more shading…?

The Ram painting. I think a bit more color in the forehead at least….?

Sometimes it is hard to figure out when to STOP!

Ciao Asparagus

The asparagus crop is slowing now.  We have had 6 weeks of abundance and have used every spear fresh.  We have found that freezing or canning asparagus is a second rate use…no where near as yummy as fresh.  So, we have delighted in each meal of asparagus…although we have laughed that our heads are becoming a bit pointy and green.

Tonight, I tried a recipe from Ciao Italia for Asparagus and Sausage Pizza.  It was wonderful.   Pretty easy, especially if you have time to make the dough.  Otherwise, use store bought dough and relax.

Before baking. I used yellow pepper instead of red, spicy Italian sausage instead of mild, and mozzarella instead of provolone because it was what I had.

After baking. Yum.

A great success after a plethora of asparagus.  Something worth saying!

 

• Delicious Ways to Use Asparagus from the Garden (goingbackwards.wordpress.com)
• More Asparagus Recipes (goingbackwards.wordpress.com)
• Grilled Asparagus (chronicinthekitchen.com)

 

More Asparagus Recipes

The asparagus continues to come in in bunches from the garden each day.  Last night we had it as a side dish.  Tonight it was the star.

I frequently make risotto.  It is so much easier than I had been led to believe before trying to make it.

Asparagus has starred in Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto.  I have talked about it before on this blog.  Yum.

I had lunch with friends and The Bearded One had a heavier than usual lunch so we decided to eliminate so much protein in the risotto and tried Mario Batali’s Asparagus Risotto.

It was great.  The pureed asparagus made a great difference in color and depth of flavor!  Try it!

Learning

I attended a full day workshop for colored pencil artists yesterday.  The presenter was Cecile Baird, a phenomenal artist in many mediums, but one of my heroes in colored pencil.

She is known for her extraordinary lighting of natural subjects.  Just look at some of her art at 
http://www.cecilebairdart.com/
.

She gave a great workshop.  I learned quite a bit and enjoyed working alongside fellow artists.

Although we only had three hours to work on our subject once she taught us techniques, here is her image and my copy.

Her finished painting at the top, my attempt at the bottom.

I am pretty pleased.  A colored pencil painting takes hundred of hours on average so three hour to complete a project is very short.  Granted, she has MUCH more talent than I but I am pleased about the techniques I learned.  She is a gifted artist and teacher.

I worked a bit more on the Ram painting today but it has hundreds of hours to go.

The last time you say Dos…