Category Archives: Recipe

Garden Party Sparkles With Peach Cake and Dragonflies

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

The July 14th garden party menu was in place.  A few more details and we would be ready for the day. Captured by the beauty of the dragonfly, our theme quickly developed around this unique and fascinating creature.  Invitations, nametags, garden stakes,  decorations, and even cookies were all bearing a strong resemblance to the winged wonder.  (And how appropriate that one of the interns even came wearing a dragonfly necklace!)

Dallas in July usually means that our gardens are full of cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, lemon verbena, basil, pineapple sage, and more.  All this and a few surprises became part of our menu.

Cucumber Ready to Be Picked,Growing in a Dallas Garden

 Who could resist a chunky piece of fresh peach pound cake?  Of course, the difficult part was deciding whose peaches should go into the cake batter.  Which area would receive the honor?  Parker County peaches, East Texas Lorings, or maybe even a few from the Texas Hill Country.  Why not just give them equal standing and use a little of each?  Talk about a flavor explosion!

Peach Pound Cake in front of periwinkles, next to strawberries

And those luscious lemon verbena thins, light as a feather and topped with sweet goodness, disappeared in a flash.

But the real crowd pleaser had to be the melt-in-your-mouth but almost too pretty to eat yummy little dragonfly sugar cookies.

Dragonfly Iced Sugar Cookies

 Ah, yes, we were treated to a delightful show of nature in all her glory.  Did 87% humidity stop anyone from savoring every moment of our time together?  Of course not!  As any true gardener will tell you-gardening isn’t for sissies.

And so, after months of anticipation, we proudly proclaim that the class of 2012 is now fully initiated, ready to “dig in and get growing!”

We wish them all a very successful and meaningful start to a lifetime of gardening adventures.

Linda

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Cucumber Dill Sandwich Rounds

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Tray of Cucumber Sandwhichs at Dallas Garden Party1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and grated

1 (8 oz) pkge cream cheese, softened

1 small shallot, minced

1 T mayonnaise or 1 T milk

¼ tsp dried dill weed

2 loaves Pepperidge Farm very thin white bread

2 T butter or margarine, softened

1 medium cucumber

1 pkge fresh dill, for garnish 

Shred cucumber; pat shredded cucumber between absorbent paper towels to remove excess moisture.  Combine cucumber, cream cheese, minced shallot, mayonnaise, and dill weed.  Mix well. 

Cut crusts off bread. 

Spread one side of each slice of bread with 1 tsp butter, and spread cucumber filling evenly over butter on 1 slice.  Place 2nd piece of bread on top.  When all sandwiches are made, wrap in plastic wrap, placing wax paper between each layer, and chill at least 8 hours.  Before serving, cut into circles with biscuit or cookie cutter or glass.  1 ½ inch cutter makes a good sized round sandwich. 

Score small cucumber with tines of a fork.  Cut 11 (1/4-inch) slices from cucumber, and cut slices into quarters.  Reserve remaining cucumber for other uses.  Insert a cucumber wedge, point side down, in top center of each sandwich.  Add a sprig of dill from your garden for garnish. 

Yield: 30  sandwich rounds

Karan

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Strolling Along The Garden Path

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

  Sunflowers in a glass bottle staked to show the garden path   On Saturday July 14, we welcomed a new class of Master Gardener Interns to a morning of “meeting, greeting and eating” in Linda’s  backyard.   A chorus line of dancing sunflowers (courtesy of the Earth-Kind® Demonstration Garden) turned their perky little “faces” to greet the guests.  Over 120 Mentors and Mentees found each other along the way ready to embark upon the journey ahead.

Dallas Garden Party

 Another “garden feast” had been planned, orchestrated and beautifully prepared by a committee of enthusiastic volunteers, otherwise known as “foodies.”  How we love those garden-themed events that give us the opportunity to think creatively and exercise our culinary skills!

 And so it was decided, this one would highlight the best that our July gardens had to offer, especially those glorious herbs and veggies.  

Our menu included a “little of this,” and a lot of “that.”  Here’s a sampling of what we munched on throughout the morning:

 Strawberry Lemonade Coolers 

 Jalapeno Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

 Cucumber Dill Sandwich Rounds

Cheesy Quiche Squares 

Crudité Tray with Spinach/Herb Dip

 Strawberry Bowl 

 Fresh Peach Pound Cake

Lemon Verbena Thins

Dragonfly Sugar Cookies

Summertime Iced Tea 

 Linda

Keep following Dallas Garden Buzz for these recipes!

 

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Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

 You may have been searching for  this vinaigrette recipe, like the bee in this picture is searching for pollen in the dahlia.  This is the last of our recipes from the May menu in the “Farm to Table” write up.  We will continue to give  information about growing vegetables  and using what you are growing in the future.  Keep searching Dallas Garden Buzz!Bee gathering pollen on a dahlia bloom 

 

 Ingredients:

¼ cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons  honey

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup canola oil 

Directions 

3 Easy Ways to Mix the Dressing: 

*In a blender.  Add everything except the 2 oils to the blender and mix until combined.  With the blender running, add the oils in a thin stream through the hole in the blender lid.  Blend until well mixed.

*In a bowl.  Whisk together everything except the 2 oils.  Continue whisking while adding the oils in a thin stream.  Keep whisking until well combined.

*In a jar.  Add everything except the 2 oils to the jar.  Cover and shake to combine.  Add 2 oils and shake vigorously until well combined. 

Serving Suggestions:

Toss dressing with your choice of salad greens.  Use approximately 1 tablespoon of dressing per 2 cups of greens. 

Drizzle dressing over sliced tomatoes or cucumbers. 

Yield:  About 1 cup

Linda

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Posted on July 7, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Tomato Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes

Stir 4 minced garlic cloves and 3 tablespoons of olive oil together in a cold large skillet.  Cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes until the garlic is sizzling and fragrant.  Stir in 2 pounds of cored and peeled tomatoes, cut in ¾-inch chunks and ½ teaspoon of salt.  Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick and chunky, about 15-20 minutes.  Reduce heat if sauce starts to stick to bottom of pan.  Remove from heat.  Stir in ¼ cup chopped fresh basil with salt and pepper to taste.

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Tomato Talk

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

TOMATO TALK

Dallas Tomatoes ripening on the counter

Thirty tomatoes ripen on the kitchen counter.  Little red bottoms in the air, stem side down, they were picked when blushing, but not ready to slice.  Now they deepen into that lovely rosy red of June gardens.  A strainer full of cherry tomatoes drains in the sink.

A part of me wishes the tomato plants in my garden were as lovely as their offspring.  Now, with our high temperatures, their yellowing leaves are hosts to masses of spider mites, a miniscule pest. Yes, we did spray the plants with fish emulsion—which is just what it sounds like—that is supposed to repel the insects.  But we lost that battle.

And there’s the space issue. Or lack thereof. The unruly Sweet 100 Cherry tomato bush is about 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide and completely covers the well-behaved Celebrity tomato.

Celebrity Tomato

In the seed stage, tomatoes line up to be Determinate or Indeterminate.  Determinate tomatoes agree to only grow to a certain height, have lots of large offspring, and bring them to graduation ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

Indeterminate tomatoes are the embarrassing relatives of the straight and narrow determinates.  They have their own time table and in mid- June look like they haven’t had a shave or decent haircut in months.

Indeterminates grow as tall and as wide as water and fertilizer will take them, have zillions of cherry tomatoes, and ripen WHENEVER THEY WANT TO.

Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato

If that’s confusing—a little botany goes a long way—look at it this way:

A determinate Celebrity tomato would vote for Mitt.

An indeterminate Sweet 100 Cherry tomato would support Barack.

Elizabeth

 

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Blackberry Cobbler

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Blackberry Cobbler

Blackberry Cobbler

Fruit Mixture:

8 cups blackberries

¾ cup sugar

6 tablespoons small pearl tapioca

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Cobbler Dough:

8 tablespoons butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 ½ cups milk

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt 

Cobbler Topping:

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 ¼ cups boiling water

Cinnamon 

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients to make Fruit Mixture.  Mix thoroughly.  Pour the Fruit Mixture into a buttered 9” x 13” baking dish.

3.  In a bowl mix thoroughly all ingredients for Cobbler Dough.  Spread over Fruit Mixture.

4.  In a medium mixing bowl, stir together dry Cobbler Topping ingredients  Sprinkle evenly over the Cobbler Dough.  Pour boiling water evenly over the cobbler.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.

5.  Bake for 1 hour until the top has a golden crust.

Serves 15.

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A “Farm to Table” Menu

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Looking Back at the May Master Gardener Meeting

Planning to feed over 125 Master Gardeners a satisfying lunch fresh from our garden can be quite a daunting task.  Preparations must start early.  This year was no exception. 

In late January Jim set out over sixty 1015 onion slips.  By mid March it was time to plant green bean seeds.  We weren’t sure of the variety because the seeds were given to us.  However, they ended up producing one of those “bumper” crops.  Then in April some radish seeds were added to one of our raised beds.

Already in the ground and doing well after three years were four different varieties of blackberries:  Natchez, Rosborough, Womack and Brazos.  Also, our upright rosemary was so large it was about to overtake the raised bed planted three years prior. 

Blackberry Blooms at the Demonstration Garden

As May rolls around with the thought of providing a healthy and delicious lunch for our Master Gardener friends it’s time to get started with menu ideas.  Our speaker for the event was going to be a professional “bee keeper”.  How appropriate for our group since we all value and understand the importance of bees in the garden.  

Why not offer the group a “honey” based menu?  Here’s what we finally decided was doable with limited oven space but volunteers determined to meet the challenge. 

Menu  

Rosemary Chicken Skewers with Satay Sauce

Rustic Onion Tarts

Garden Salad Bowl with Fresh Green Beans and Radishes

Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Old Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler 

Blackberries Picked for our Cobbler

Here’s how we did it.  The onions were fully developed and ready by mid May so the harvesting and drying in bundles of eight began.  At the same time, our blackberry bushes were heavy with luscious ripe berries in beautiful shades of purple, black, and burgundy.  Picking them over the next few weeks was a treat. Our strategy was: eat one, pick a dozen.  And so eventually we dutifully harvested over 15 gallons and sent them to the freezer.  

Happily, our “garden to plate” plan produced the following: 

  • Enough 1015 onions for ten rustic tarts (each tart yielded 12 slices)
  • Plenty of “thyme” for flavoring the tarts
  • Blackberries to make six 13” x 9” cobblers (each cobbler fed 25)
  • 125 10” rosemary strips for the chicken skewers
  • Six gallons of green beans for the salad
  • One lonely radish (if you have to supplement somewhere, why not with radishes?)  Rosemary Skewers on the Grill

Thanks to Abbe’s husband, Neal, for bringing his grill to cook the chicken skewers on site.  What an enticing smell as MG’s were arriving!  It was a delightful morning for our event.  Lots of full and satisfied gardeners celebrated the joy of locally grown, fresh organic food.   

Waiting in line for homegrown cooking!

 Now it’s time to get our hands dirty again and put that fall crop in the ground.  After all, some new menu ideas are buzzing around in our heads! 

Linda

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Rosemary Chicken Skewers

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Rosemary Chicken Skewers

 

Rosemary Skewered Chicken Tenders 

20 rosemary branch skewers with foxtail end, approximately 10” (soak skewers in water for one hour)

Chicken tenders or breast cut 1” x 4”

Lemon-half moon cut ½” thick

½ cup lemon juice

1 Tbs. lemon zest

1 Tbs. garlic, minced

4 Tbs. basil, chopped

1 teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon chili flakes

4 Tbs. honey

½ cup olive oil

Salt and pepper for seasoning 

1.  Weave chicken strips onto skewers.

2.  Combine ingredients and marinate skewers overnight.

3.  Season with salt and pepper just prior to grilling. 

Serves: 10 

Satay Dip 

1 Tbs. good olive oil

1 Tbs. dark sesame oil

2/3 cup small-diced red onion (1 small onion)

1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)

1 ½ teaspoons minced fresh ginger root

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 Tbs. good red wine vinegar

¼ cup light brown sugar, packed

2 Tbs. soy sauce

½ cup smooth peanut butter

¼ cup ketchup

2 Tbs. dry sherry

1 ½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice

 

Cook the olive oil, sesame oil, red onion, garlic, ginger root, and red pepper flakes in a small heavy-bottomed pot on medium heat until the onion is transparent, 10 – 15 minutes.  Whisk in the vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter, ketchup, sherry and lime juice; cook for 1 more minute.  Cool and use as a dip for grilled chicken skewers.

 

Yield:  1 ½ cups

 

 

 

 

 

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Onion Tart

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Back in January Jim planted 1015 onions in one of our raised beds.

After several months they grew to be some of the biggest, best looking onions ever seen.  We harvested them in late April and used them in May to let our fellow Dallas County Master Gardeners fall all over themselves the way we did when tasting an onion tart made from our harvest.  Oh my!

Rustic Vidalia Onion Tart

Rustic Vidalia Onion Tart

2 Tbs. butter

4 medium-size Vidalia onions, thinly sliced(we used our 1015 onions)

(about 6 ½ cups)

1 ½ tsp. chopped fresh rosemary or thyme

¾ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

½ (15-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts

Parchment paper

1 egg white, lightly beaten

¾ cup (3 oz.) shredded Gruyere cheese, divided

1.  Preheat oven to 425*.  Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add onion and next 3 ingredients.  Cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until tender.

2.  Unroll piecrust onto a lightly floured surface.  Pat or roll into a 12-inch circle.  Place piecrust on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  Brush with egg white.  Sprinkle ½ cup cheese in center of crust.  Spoon onion mixture over cheese, leaving a 2 ½-inch border.  Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup cheese over onion.  Fold piecrust border up and over onion, pleating as you go and leaving a 4-inch-wide opening in center.  Brush crust with egg white.

3.  Bake at 425* on bottom oven rack 17 – 19 minutes or until crust is golden.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Yield: 6 servings.

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