Pie oh Pie!

Spring is here, the fruit tree's are both flowering and still overflowing with fruit.

The exotic scent of jasmin mixed with flowering citrus fills the air day and night.

The now over abundant produce spilling out of the garden beds is obscene.

Each night I'm trying to discover how to prepare the ingredients from the garden for my fussy families palate.

Shepard's Pie has been a saving grace.  This seems to be the perfect vehicle to dump all the different veggies in to.

It is the most superbly simple recipe; basically a pie crust filled with whatever is on hand and topped with mash potatoes.

I have tried different pie crusts, spelt being the most healthy choice, but not the most tasty, most likely because of the lack of lard or some other fat.  Frozen wheat pie crust from Trader Joe's being the one to have on hand in a pinch.  Two come in the box, and so use one and freeze the extra for your next pie.

Here goes:
Take out your frozen pie crust from the freezer, or if you have time there are many easy ones to make.  Follow directions on the box or shell wrapper for oven temperature.

place pie crust in pie dish 

 crimp edges

FILLING:

the ingredients

2-3 medium carrots or you can substitute one carrot for one parsnip
 1/2 cup English peas
 1 small bunch spinach or other green
 5-6 stems broccolini or broccoli rabe
 1 celery stalk
 1 med. shallot  or  1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb. chicken tenders salted and peppered

Mashed PotatoTopping:

2 lbs russet potatoes, or Yam's, which make a sweeter topping.  You can also use both together. Or about 4 medium.  Scrubbed.
3/4 stick unsalted butter.
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup whole milk warmed

Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce a bit until they simmer.  Cook 20-30- minutes until when pierced with a fork they are tender.

Peel potatoes if you like, otherwise it's quite rustic to leave them on.
Mash with a potato masher or fork until soft, stir in butter until it's well mixed and whisk in milk.
Add salt and mix in until potatoes are at desired consistency.

yam and potato topping still lumpy for a rustic effect

THE FILLING

minced garlic and shallot

Mince shallots and garlic and put in small bowl.
peel and cut up carrots/parsnip in to rounds
Shell peas and discard pods, or feed to nearby dog.
chop celery
cut up broccolini in to 2 inch pieces

grilled tenders

Cook chicken tenders on grill or in oven and cut in to small bite size pieces

Heat  a large frying pan over medium and add olive oil.
Just before  the oil begins smoking add:
Carrot, celery and brocollini
When they begin to get soft and a bit brown add:
Garlic and shallot
Mix well
Add greens
Add cut up chicken


Put the delicious compote in to the pie crust and top with mashed potato.

the filling

the topping

Follow directions for the pie crust.  If the potatoes begin to get too brown you can put foil on top until the pie shell is cooked.

Remove from oven and serve!

et voila!  The pie!

Today's Pickin's

Very tired from two nights in the sweltering Anza Borrego desert heat left me parched for fresh vegetables.

Ocotillo

The desert was alive with wildflowers and blooming Ocotillo's stretching their blooms up to the sun.

Back home the garden was infested with snails,and aphids and happy ladybugs.  They left me plenty to eat, I don't mind sharing a little bit with them.

I'm too exhausted to write, but here are some of the things I picked this afternoon and will be consuming over the next day or two

Kale

Pea pods and pea tendrills

Endive and butter leaf lettuces aka the $15 salad

Broccolini

Snowball Cauliflower

Green with Envy

The results of combining different vegetables has yielded a delicious and biodiverse garden.
 The bountiful rain we were subjected to in southern California these past months has shifted our garden to spring.
We now reap the benefits.  Hungry?  Come on over and harvest some for yourself...
Just give me a bit of notice..

From one day to the next broccoli has flowered  broccolini to be exact.

Neat little rows of spinach baring different sizes of tender, nutty flavored succulent leafs.

jewel colored nasturtiums bring butterflies, hummingbirds and bee's to the bed they share with onions, carrots, and butter lettuce.

Veiled with bird netting red and gold beets, emerald kale bordered by garlic with  peas towering out towards the southern sky, draping heavy with their load of pods and flowers  scatter spent blossoms in the wind.

And the lettuce keeps on giving to the chamomile, onion, and  curly endive.

The peas stand alone..but not for long.

Oven Roasted Carrots

I remember being about nine years old and espousing the scientific fact, "If you eat carrots you will be able to see REALLY well"  I felt so proud to have this really meaningful bit of knowledge.  Most likely collected from Gilligan's Island episode 28 where Gilligan finds a crate of radioactive seeds, Mary Ann plants them and eats so many carrots she can see far out to sea.
 In reference to this I found some rather funny thoughts on the subject on Snopes... worth a peek..
http://www.ubervu.com/conversations/www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/carrots.asp?page=2

You don't have to look far to find information on the benefits of eating carrots.  They are high in Vitamin A and beta carotine which  to helps sustain good vision.

I began to thin carrots in one of the overflowing garden beds today- arms loaded down by the tremendous greenery the carrots produce- end result I began to resemble a pageant winner in 4H.


After de-greening the gems- I gently used a paring knife to remove superfluous roots.

Tossed with olive oil, Maldon salt and a bit of pepper then inserted in to the oven at 400 degrees.

Gently tossing carrots after 25 minutes they were done to perfection and quickly consumed.

Although things are still blurry- I'm hoping to be able to see clearly now.

The Secret Garden

Though most of the country is frozen deep in winter, outside my door the hillside and secret paths are splattered with the awakening of springtime.  Quietly our property has been transformed in to a dreamy and very colorful secret garden.

baby pinks

Fuscia  

Yellow and Green

Birds of Paradise

lurking in the pathways

Creeping over walls

scarlet pokers 

Droopy Pepper Tree's

Coral

Abundant Citrus

Dreamy Gauguin like images in the twilight...

I suspect not all was quiet over the holidays...

Wise Buddah

Proud Foo Dogs

Muted Duck

Majestic and Rusty

The protectors dry out in the fading sunshine.

Winter Green

When I was a child, time seemed to pass so slowly.   This fall days have melted in to weeks. The garden has served as a timepiece as to where I have been and what I have done.

the beds with Sanford and Son's skateboard ramp in the background

The planning and planting of eight of the ten new garden beds took some time.   I planned as I planted, with a bit of help from John Jeavons book, "How to Grow More Vegetables"- I companion planted my garlic and onions with lettuce and nasturtium; beets and peas, broccoli and cauliflower- and the list goes on.  Since I used seeds, I wasn't certain what the outcome would be.

Every short visit  was a display of some little green bits emerging from the soil.. combined with some strange animal footprints trampling and crushing some of the starts.    

First the lettuce:  Arugula, mesclun, endive, romaine and butter leaf each silky new leaf, sweet and unlike any I've ever consumed before.

Lettuce and Onion

Thinning carrot, beet and other seedlings to add to salads as micro-greens.   Some of them tasted like dirt and were spat out immediately!

 A green only found in nature appears, silvery pea shoots covered in dew.

English Peas

Pretty little carrots all in a row

Carrot, Butter Leaf Lettuce, Nasturtium

Mrs. Havisham still lives in my garden...

Mrs. Havisham lives on

As I begin to rip out dead tomato plants I am halted by beautiful little striped heirloom tomatoes...

Heirloom Tomato

and the last of the summer squash

Butternut Squash

My garden volunteers...somehow not consumed by rabbits?

Patty Pan Squash and Tomato

 Happiness....to be continued.....

Cheers!  Happy Holidays from Ivarene Farms.