Lettuce

I am am a seedling thin-o-phobe.  I hate to thin seedlings,, i usually avoid having to do it by only dropping one seed if i think i can get away with it. But yesterday evening i decided i needed to thin my buttercrunch lettuce and some of the pak choi peat pellets had two plants in them.  I figured i had waited long enough,  i had wanted the thinnings to be large enough for eating.  I also thinned out a couple collards.

I got quite a bit, probably enough to put on a few burgers, but we ate them right up. I didn't even think to take pictures until it was mostly gone.

Its a big deal enough to take a picture because this represents  the first harvest of any sort this year.

The pak choi were about 3 inches high, the buttercrunch was about 6 inches and the collards were just getting their 4th set of leaves.

It was all pretty yummy, we each had a few bites. They didn't need dressing.

Technically they didn't come from the garden, but its still the first edible of the year grown at home.

I got to make my Avocado soup today also.  Its a cold soup, basically a guacamole.

3 Avocadoes
2 cups water
2.5 teaspoons Lowry's seasoned salt
1 cup heavy cream
juice of one lemon

avocadoes, lemon juice, seasond salt and water go into the processor or blender.  Wizz 'till smooth. Then add the cream and pulse to mix it in, blend too long and it will become butter, so just get it combined. Then chill it at least one hour.
If i had cilantro that would be a garnish. I think i have sour cream, a dollop in the center of the serving bowl will go nice.  I do have some green onion,  i'll probably garnish with that too.
Its a Low Carb delight.
I also made some deviled eggs with a nice pate' i bought at a local sausage kitchen. It has black truffle in it.  Wish i could garnish the eggs with caviar...  lol.  Yeah,  i don't get caviar too often, but sometimes i like to pretend i could.  Even if i had the money for good caviar, i'd probably spend it on something far more practical.... and likely enjoy it longer.

But caviar, pate'... the closet foodie in me just loves to think about it.

Well, as of yesterday we have officially had Molly for a week.  She is getting on well with us. I think she was depressed for the first few days, she wouldn't eat.  She drank well enough, but not her food. But she would accept treats, so i knew it wasn't anything serious.  She is eating normally now.
She prefers to spend much of the day outside, so i put a temporary tie-up out there.  We haven't decided where to put her permanent tether stake yet.  I have her in a nice shady spot in the grass and she goes from napping in the sun to the shade from late morning to early afternoon when she likes to come in and stretch out on the cool tiles of the kitchen floor.  In the evenings, she naps on the armchair we designated as 'hers'.
She is a good dog for a small house and a small yard. They don't need miles of walking or large open spaces to run.So that is good. But she is a beggar.  A shameless beggar. So we gate her away from any room where there is food.

But its all fine.


Got to decide what to do with that grape plant. Its still in its pot.  It will need a trellis of some type so i need to decide how to peg up a single plant or decide if i want more than one and then what will i do?

The glory of the Lobster

This was a fun day. Especially where i don't get out much, but even for someone who does get out quite often, this would be ranked pretty high on the scale of fun. (especially for  a wannabe foodie such as myself!)

Today was the day that my sister-in-law got to compete as one of the three finalists in a state wide cooking contest. The cooking contest was to find  Maine's Lobster Chef of the Year.
This is not a small deal.
The 3 finalists were chosen from recipe submissions that came in from all over the state. All three of the finalists were Maine born-and-raised which wasn't a requirement, but it was a nice fact.
Another interesting fact is that my sister-in-law, aside from being the only female finalist, was also the only finalist without any formal training as a chef, the guys she was competing against were graduates of either Le Cordon Bleu North America or  the Culinary Institute of America. Now if that doesn't sound impressive, i don't know what is.

Now, i had intended to take a photo of each sample dish as the tasting was going on,  but i was trying my best to be objective and discussing it with hubby and listening to and watching the demonstration- as each chef prepared the dishes while we were tasting.

I did however photograph my SIL' tasting sample:

Maple Butter Poached Lobster Tail with Sweet Potato and Fuji Apple Bisque and Fizzles of Green Onion 

That is quite a mouthful of a name for what is known as an "amuse bouche" . It looks like a nice piece of lobster tail on in a small pool of clarified butter, but looks are deceiving. The butter-like substance is the Bisque of Fuji apple and sweet potato, it has a nice creamy texture with a good balance of sweet and just a touch of tartness. The recipe also contains orange zest and i noticed it as a pleasant extra touch that kept the bisque from tasting flat.

There is a lot of butter in the recipe, but since the lobster is simply poached in the butter, you don't actually eat very much of it. The maple syrup as it is properly used in this dish, brought out the sweetness of the lobster without being  cloying.  This is an important thing to note since i think many people might think that real maple syrup is similar to pancake syrup. They are totally different entities.

There is a reason why you can get 32 ounces of pancake syrup for $2.50 but 8oz of real maple syrup costs at least $5.00. 

I think my favorite quote from my SIL's demonstration was when asked about why she uses unsalted butter...

the reply was "Because salt is one of those things you should watch your intake of."  as she deftly began  a pound and a half of butter melting in a pot.

Now you know why i like her so much!

i might write more on this later. i started it Friday night and finally got enough written for it to make sense this Saturday morning!  Or i may leave it at this :-)