Breakfast!

Oh wow, some days food just arrives like a Zeusian shower of gold onto the waiting Danae of your appetite. This morning, craving oatmeal but without any in the house, I made what I shall herafter refer to as "The Best Day Ever Breakfast Mush".

In a pot with a lid, combine

1 cup lentils, washed and drained
1/2 quart water
4 small lovely locally-grown carrots, diced
1 lovely round locally grown onion
...bring to a boil, then simmer about 35 minutes. Don't be turned off that it gets all mushy. If it doesn't, you did a better job than I did. I'm infamous for bad bean-and-rice making.

Now, the goodies. In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Then add:
1 teaspoon each of
cinnamon
coriander
cumin
and
1/2 teaspoon cayanne and nutmeg.
Toast this delcious spices until the smell is amazing (about 3 minutes). Stir in your eagerly awaiting lentil mush. Eat it warm right away! You can also add salt, pepper and lemon juice, toast some pita slices, and eat it as a dip.

I'm eating it right now, this minute, and I couldn't be happier and more full of yum-yum-yum sounds.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This morning I got to the Greenmarket around 9am. All the farmstands were packed with beautiful produce--and extra hands to help! Despite the chilling wind, everyone seemed really cheerful. Thanksgiving is a popular Greenmarket holiday--there's nothing like picking up a new vegetable you've never cooked before, and getting the farmer's favorite recipe to try it on your family! I picked up parsnips for the first time, and substituted them in for potatoes in the following recipe. Personally, I think potatoes get way too much attention as it is during Thanksgiving--I wanted to give other root crops a chance to shine.

"Lasagne" of Fall Vegetables
...and Mushroom Broth Topping

1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, thinly sliced
1 1/2 pounds carrots, thinly sliced
1 pound parsnips, thinly sliced
1 pound turnips, thinly sliced
1 cup sliced shallots
1/2 cup sliced garlic
3 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 325*F. Double layer butternut squash in greased, salted/peppered 12x9x2" baking pan. Top with 2 tablespoons of

shallots, garlic & thyme mixture. Layer remaining veggies. Season with extra shallot, garlic & thyme mix. Dot with butter. Bake 1 1/2-2 hours, or until tender. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

Mushroom Broth

3 tablespoons white button mushrooms, thinly sliced and sauted in 1 tablespoon butter and 3 ounces of honey until lightly colored. Combine with 5 cups water. Bring to a boil; let simmer 30 minutes, stirring. Strain into a bowl. Add: 4 ounces sherry vinegar and 3 ounces soy sauce. Melt 3 tablespoons of cold butter into a saucepan and add all broth ingredients. Wisk. Pour over lasagne.

South Bronx "Nardening"

Tonight I crept out into the yard to enjoy the "starlight" of Manhattan glowing on the horizon and check on the garlic and tulip bulbs. Unlike in Westchester, where deer and squirrels love to dig up and nosh on these bulb-treats, ours seem to turn up their little button noses in favor of garbage.

It was time for a little nardening (night gardening). I laid out more dead leaves in the compost to encourage decomposition. Mmm, the stink! Then I readjusted the cat/rat guards in the raised beds. Finally, I thought about our little yard.

For me, Growing Chefs has long meant the nurturing of habits that carry outside the classroom: good eatin' and good livin'. Tonight, in my yard, I watched the tree branches poking out of the abandoned car in the yard next door blow back and forth in the wind before the rainstorm. Even the weeds waved prettily. It's not the best of yards by landscaping standards, but I love it, and I love that it reminds me, when I'm cooking up kale and garlic for dinner, of their roots. Besides herbs and the wee salad of a month ago, my yard hasn't yielded much of a harvest, but living on a block with no trees, it's a great escape to The Great Outdoors--or at least, Great Dirt.

Salad's served!

Aw, how cute! The salad seeds that the squirrels, cats and other critters haven't dug up is coming up in adorable style! Note the lovely purplish hues of the baby mustard. For whatever reason, note the obstinent lack of anthocyanin pigmentation of our one tree. Hmm. If it doesn't change color within the month, I'm going to slip some red slips of tissue into the boughs and call it even.

Farm Weekend! Recipes for Fall Eats

Here's what you gotta cook this fall: crepes! My pal Lex P. met me up at Keith Stewart's farm in Port Jervis, New York, and we made three types. One: (crepes with) apples, shredded carrots, garlic, a touch of scallions, nutmeg, cinnamon and Ronnybrook butter (from the Union Square Greenmarket), two: broccoli, garlic, bell peppers, peanut butter, rice vinegar, and honey; and three: tomatoes, basil, sage, and oregano. You'll be so glad you'll jump (in the mustard) for joy. All of these things are available at Greenmarket right now.

Fight for Your Right (to Have Radishes!)

War! It's Radish & Lettuce Versus Cats! This particular cat is perched on the abandoned car in our neighbor's yard. The leafy "tree" is actually our other nemisis, Japanese Knotweed, which seems to draw its Evil Strength from the car, growing in a very unweedy thicket over our fence. The cat loves to paw our sprouts (curiosity will not kill it!). Solution: abandoned overturned dishrack-style thingeroos. Right back atcha, kitty!

Sprouts!

All sorts of things are growing up in the yard: radishes, scarlet creepers I was pretty sure were dead (until look: buds!), and that perpetual party-pooper, Japanese knotweed. JK and I are developing a special relationship: every morning I go out and win a few battles, but the war is so clearly going in favor of this weed, I can almost see its smirk.