Recently in Food Category

Finally able to get some pictures of my vegetable and flower gardens.

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Well last week I pretty much got the vegetable garden in the backyard and the flower gardens in the front yard finished except some spaces purposely left open for future updates or seasonal vegetation.

I rototilled around the huge artichoke plant that is now producing like crazy. In the garden on the other corner in backyard I tilled around the existing sage, thyme, parsley, chives & strawberries that stayed over the winter.

To compliment my existing herbs I planted, basil (didn't last over winter), mint & more chives, & green onions.

I planted Roma, Big Boy, & Yellow pear tomato plants. I also planted eggplant, hot jalapeno, Serrano, banana, red chili & three kinds of bell peppers.

For the root type vegetables I planted red potatoes, garlic, & red onion.

I also planted watermelon, zucchini squash, mammoth sunflowers, sweet corn, Swiss chard, collard greens, and mustard greens. Today I got some celery, cilantro & summer squash.

I almost forgot I also planted last week some peas, green beans, black-eyed peas (cow peas), a grape vine & another blueberry bush.

I still have a raspberry vine & what I believe is a blueberry plant from last year that survived the artichoke bush from last year. Reminds me I also planted some asparagus I hope is out of the way. Last year the asparagus, grapes raspberries, greens, Swiss chard and other veggies were over run by the artichoke bush.

Last week I also made repairs and changes to the drip/watering system.

Today I also pulled up about 5 bags of weeds from the small corridor between homes I have as well as cut the grass and edged with the weed eater and pressure washed the patio and sidewalks in the backyard around the pool. Now I have the pool pumps going to get the dirt that inadvertently got in the pool from pressure washing.

All in all it was a long but productive day!

Tomorrow the finishing touches and time to hall off some trash perhaps. Ah yes I also got some ground cover flowers to go between my roses up front called "verbien tapien blue-violet".

Pictures later perhaps. For now I will have another martini & watch the pool lights change colors on this very pleasant night.

As I was removing 2 bags of weeds from my garden today I also took up some huge carrots I planted last year and noticed the artichokes are really starting to come in now!

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These are the first Artichokes from my garden. The plant is huge and finally giving me produce! Artichokes don't produce until the second year and this is this plant's second year and this second year seems to be promising much produce from this artichoke plant!

Here are some chickens I smoked this evening so I will not have to cook a main dish the rest of the week.

I used the "Indirect Smoking" method with my Char Griller model #2424.

They came out very tender and the smoke taste was all the way through the meat.

My first rack of ribs on my new gas grill came out fantastic!

I cooked the ribs on my new Charbroil Dual Gas Grill stainless steel grill model 463268007 that's hooked to my natural gas line I had installed in my new home as an option.

I also tried some new spices and a nice dry rub rib mix of spices I blended for half the rack. I used the same spices for my wet half of the rib rack as well.

The combination of my new gas grill and my new blend of spices was ridiculously tasty!

My previous gas grills flared a bit sometimes even with two separate zones made for indirect cooking a bit dicey with the rocks they provided.

With this grills flare guards over all 4 separate burners the flare ups were virtually non-existent.

Indirect grilling is great with this grill since I could separate the two halves of the rib racks to different areas of the grill because the sizes were different and I needed to control the heat and flames on each individually.

I was able to thoroughly cook the ribs and yet had the meat coming off the bone just the way I like with good flavor.

Let me go back and clarify this was my first pork rack of ribs. I have earlier done some boneless beef ribs.

When I first got the grill about a month ago I also did some rib eye steaks and they were damned near perfect my friend brought some nice vegetables and we really enjoyed that meal. She cannot stop talking about how good those steaks turned out. Actually the chicken I cooked that day was pretty tender and tasty too.

I then had someone help me rototill my backyard and cooked some nice inch and a half thick porterhouse steaks that turned out very nice with a little indirect cooking every once in a while.

I cannot forget the salmon fillets I threw on the grill and with that and use of the side burner I have tested the grill fully and have become very familiar with the hot spots and how I need to cook each type of food I grill including vegetables!

I now feel I have the hot spots indirect cooking and timing, flame control how the grill cools and heats as well as proper cleaning methods down and I'm ready to really rock!

I’m currently doing prep for Gumbo I’m cooking tomorrow it will be at least two large pots and maybe more. Now when I say large pots one pot is 34 quarts and the smaller pot is 20 quarts. .
I am making my gumbo with large Alaskan King, Crabs, Chicken, sausage, scallops, oysters, clams, and all of the other fixings!
We will also have some collard & Mustard greens, black eyed peas and I think Turkey.

My dad decided to cook some seafood gumbo Saturday. Anyone who has cooked seafood gumbo know this is quite the endeavor and expensive as a car payment for a large amount of people! We all usually pitch in to help offset the cost but he still bears the brunt of the cost with some not really contributing as much as they consume but that’s how it rolls sometimes. I also always try to get over and help with preparation. I make gumbo sometimes myself and I know how it can go and I like picking up additional tips.
There are a lot of us in my family and my dad makes his gumbo fully stocked so each bowlful has plenty of all ingredients. This was one of his best efforts with pieces of King crab almost as wide as a small child’s wrist, lots of shrimp, oysters, chicken, sausage etc...
Three huge pots of gumbo you can bet I’m going back over there to make sure I have my fill. I brought some home already but that’s going to go pretty quick.
My mother said he started banging around about 4am so I missed how he starts his roux the most important part but I remember a few things from previous times, plus he gave a brief overview Friday when I was helping cut up some veggies.
I may do my part and make some gumbo this winter myself and have people over and I keep my pots fully stocked just like my dad.

Going to pick up a few items at the grocery and spotted snow & alaskan crabs and couldn't resist making a late night seafood snack! Shrimp crabs boiled in red pepper seasoning and dipped in garlic butter!!! With slow/mellow jams playing in the ears and topped with a nice scotch!