Zucchini Noodles with Ham and Peas

My mom got me a spiralizer for Christmas and I've been having fun trying out new recipes with it. We had some leftover ham so I made a ham and pea pasta with zucchini noodles - really tasty, and a lot lighter than a big bowl of pasta. (Get ready for more recipes like this - I just found out I have gestational diabetes so goodbye carbs for the next two months.)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 zucchinis, ends trimmed

1/4 cup chopped up ham (feel free to use bacon if you don't have ham)

1 cup of frozen peas

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

1 pinch red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Pecorino or parmesan cheese for grating

optional: basil leaves for garnish

April 26 - Vegetable Garden Week 4

Even though it has been frigid lately, things are growing! The radishes, snap peas, and lettuce have all sprouted.

Garden - Week 6, April 20

The garden is coming along! The snap peas, peas, radishes, and lettuces were all sprouting. The chard was coming up a little bit, but not as quick as the others. It's so satisfying to see!

Garden - Week 1, March 15

It's time to start the garden! Can you believe it? It has been such a long, cold winter, but there are some things you can plant as soon as the ground can be worked, and if you have raised garden beds, the ground can probably be worked now.

Vegetable Garden-May 18 (Week 9)

The garden looks great! I planted the peas on March 16, planted most of the tomatoes, hot peppers, and eggplants (with Wall O Waters to keep them warm), the cucumbers and zucchinis form seeds, and the lettuce, transplanted, on April 20. I hadn't been out in a few weekends and everything is looking happy.

Even though there have been some cold nights, the Wall O Waters seem to have kept the tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers happy, the snap peas are almost 2 feet high, the zucchini and cucumbers have come up and look healthy, and the lettuce is already huge. My parsley also survived the winter from last summer and is enormous.

Spring!

So it's 30 degrees and freezing and maybe not quite spring yet, but it's pea planting time! The tradition is planting peas on St. Patrick's Day, so Jamie and I are heading out to Long Island to plant our peas this weekend. Can't wait to be working in the garden again. It makes these lingering cold days bearable, sort of.

Garden Week 12

Everything looks awesome, and we had tons of peas! (I also yanked another carrot with overcrowding as my excuse. It's just too fun to pull them out.)

Those on the left are the Organic Pea Wando and on the right are the Sugar Snap (both Burpee). The Wando are not as tall and a little flatter and the Snap Peas are like 7 feet tall.

Week 11

The garden looks amazing! Everything is really starting to grow quickly. There were some peas (it seems the "pea wando" peas I planted in the first bed are actually snow peas not snap peas because they're flat). Next weekend we should have a lot more, and there were some babies forming.

I was impatient and pulled out a beet and a carrot. It was so satisfying! The chioggia beet had these beautiful circles on the inside, and the little baby carrot was crunchy and tasty.

Vegetable Garden Week 4

After being away for about a month, I went back out to the country last weekend and got to see my garden. Apart from being super dry, it looked great! (Especially once I watered it.) Four of the five brussels sprouts I planted sprouted, a perfect line of beets popped up (I'll need to thin them next weekend), and all the peas had sprouted! So exciting.

Brussels Sprouts

Beets

Peas

I planted another row of beets and carrots, a row of swiss chard, zucchinis, and cucumbers. I also set up a little trellis for the cucumbers and planted some lettuce underneath.

Garden Bed #2

Jamie and I were out in Southampton with our garden plan this weekend and ready to dive into this year's garden. It feels great to be outside and working in the dirt! Very satisfying. We built a second garden bed, so it was back to Riverhead Building Supply for wood and Lynch's for LOTS of dirt and composted manure.
We found out they do free delivery, so that was great. We put the new garden together pretty quickly - after doing the first one last year, we're old hands now.

Fried Cornish Game Hen

Jamie and I had a big ugly sweater Christmas party and the next night were feeling like we needed a little comfort food.

I had never made real, deep fried chicken before and went to the grocery to pick out what I thought I might need. There was a sale on Cornish game hen and I love these little birds. They cook faster than chicken and they're delicious, and great when you just have two people to feed. So then fried chicken turned into fried Cornish game hen. Sounds fancy, right? You could totally serve it at a dinner party without seeming too down home. (Don't be intimidated by the name - Cornish game hens are basically just mini chickens.)

15-Minute Fried Chicken and Pea Puree

I was in the mood for some comfort food last night and remembered a chicken I had made after reading the recipe in the times in 2009. It was Mark Bittman's 15-Minute Fried Herbed Chicken. I was daydreaming about it all day and couldn't wait to rush home to make the crunchy, herbacious chicken. I thought pea puree would be the perfect, homie side, also a pretty burst of color. It was a big hit. Jamie had two pieces of chicken and we devoured the peas. We followed with some delicious brownies (recipe to come). It's an easy dinner and the bright pea puree and the browned chicken are very tempting.

15-Minute Fried Herbed Chicken (served 4)
Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cheaper to buy with bone in/skin on and debone/take off the skin yourself)
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs, I used sage and basil
2 tbsp tahini, or peanut butter
1/4 cup olive oil, more for frying
flour for dredging
lemon wedges for serving

Directions:
In a food processor, combine onion, herbs, and tahini. Puree the mixture and add just enough olive oil to make a smooth, thick paste (you don't want it too watery or it won't stick to the chicken).
Put flour in a small bowl. Smear the puree on the chicken and dredge in flour. Shake off excess and repeat, putting on more puree and dredging again - this makes it extra crispy.

Heat about 1/4" olive oil in a large skillet and heat until a pinch of flour sizzles. Add the chicken thighs and cook for about 4 minutes on each side. Serve with a lemon wedge.

Pea Puree
Ingredients:
1 box frozen peas
3 tbsp water
2-3 tablespoons butter
1 tbsp milk
salt and pepper

Directions:
Add the frozen peas and water to a small pot and cook about 5 minutes, or until peas are tender. Add to a food processor with butter and milk and puree. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Vegetable Garden Week 10

I don't know if it was least week's heat wave, but the garden is growing like crazy! The zucchini are enormous, the yellow brandywine tomato has grown up to about 3 feet, the green grape tomato is bushy and thick, and the three Better Boy tomatoes are starting really grow (about a foot high now). The Swiss Chard is growing and I was actually able to harvest some - dinner recipe will follow soon.

The peas are getting a little too tall for their trellis, but there are finally peas to be had!

The basil is also growing like crazy, and one of the peppers has its first flower. I can't wait til next weekend when I can start pulling off peas. The mulch (and all the rain) has helped keep the garden moist, and the new marigolds and nasturtium give it a little more color. The zucchinis are starting to have little blossoms, so that'll add some nice yellow/orange flowers. And fried zucchini blossoms are out of this world (recipe will follow). The eggplant is also finally growing, yay!

Jamie behind the peas

 Beautiful healthy garden

 Me with my basil and Swiss Chard - first harvest from the garden

 My pretty rainbow Swiss Chard

Vegetable Garden: Week 7

 My Swiss Chard, Zucchini, and Peas - all from seeds!

After not making out to Long Island for two weekends, I was a little worried about my garden. Luckily there had been a lot of rain. I went out on Saturday and am happy to report that everything is happy! The peas are two feet high and clinging to the trellis, the tomatoes plants look good - not too much change, two zucchini plants emerged from the seeds I planted, and the Swiss Chard finally came up! Aside from a large bunch of weeds, I couldn't have been happier.

After admiring all of my little seedlings, I got to work planting the newcomers. I stopped at the farmer's market on Friday and picked up a 3-pack of Better Boy tomatoes, a 3-pack of zucchini (I didn't know if any of mine had sprouted), and a 3-pack of jalapeno peppers. I also got 2 little basil plants. I planted the tomatoes with cages around them (it's better to put them in early as not to damage the roots) and planted the two basils in between the tomato plants - apparently growing basil with your tomatoes improves the tomato flavor. I planted the new zucchini next to those that I planted, so my zucchini patch will be a bit larger than anticipated. I left plenty of room around the chard because I know they'll get a lot bigger - provided they don't become bunny food. I planted the peppers with lots of space in between. There's a fare amount of free space right now which I think I'll fill with herbs, nasturtiums (pretty and edible), and marigolds (to keep the bad bugs away, also adding a little color).

It's so satisfying to see things you've planted from seeds growing. (My little peppers in the egg shells are growing, just a little slowly. They might stay in the city in pots.) I can't wait to get out there again next weekend to mulch, water, and plant herbs/flowers. Stay tuned!

Vegetable Garden - Week 3

My garden is starting to look like a real garden! I went to the Union Square Green Market last week and was pleased to find that all of the vegetable plant vendors are back! I browsed several of them to find the plants I was looking to use. I found a pretty big green grape tomato plant (produces bright, almost neon green cherry tomatoes that are tart and sweet and look beautiful in salads) and a small yellow brandywine tomato plant which is supposed to make big, yellow beef steak tomatoes. I want to plant a few big beef tomatoes as well. The heirlooms are definitely pretty and tasty, but the big beef tomatoes straight from the garden are equally as tasty and they're much hardier and produce more tomatoes. To hedge my bets, I want a few heirloom and a few big beef for a good mix. I also bought an eggplant plant - first time planting them and very excited.

Vegetable Garden - Week 2

My little peas are sprouting! Just a little thing popping out, but it looked like each pea I planted sprouted, so I'm happy! Just hope the deer don't eat them. No sign of the Swiss Chard, but we'll see this weekend.

And two of my pepper plants have sprouted! Hopefully they'll grow quickly enough to actually get some peppers this summer!

Vegetable Garden - Part One

I had a little back porch vegetable garden last year with a few tomato plants etc in pots and have since been planning my real vegetable garden. Summer tomatoes are so amazing and juicy and red and having them fresh from your yard is such a treat. My tomato plants did pretty well on the back porch, so I'm hoping they do even better with more room to grow. I'm also planning on planting some zucchini, eggplant, peas, swiss chard, hot peppers, and strawberries, along with some herbs. It was a really fun activity - and luckily this early April Saturday was sunny and warm. Jamie was an amazing help, very handy and strong - the bags of top soil and the beams were super heavy.