For once, then, something

Summer has finally passed and with it we had the final harvest from our garden. As far as a first attempt at a garden the sou chef and I did a pretty good job. We lost the basil and the black eye peas to some sort of animal yet we saved the tomatoes and the cucumbers.

The garden was something that I really wanted to do and share with our daughter. You experience a lot of joys with children but introducing them to something like a garden where they can tend it, watch it grow and then enjoy the bounty is a treasure. Few things bring greater joy then hearing a 4 year old shout excitedly over the things they have achieved.

We decided to pick the tomatoes early rather then loose them to a frost. We decided to make
Salsa Verde with Green Tomatoes, Avocados, and Cilantro from the excellent blog Kalyn's Kitchen.

I have also been working on my photos and feel these are much improved.

looking good team!

Big, bigger , biggest

And since it is the end of summer (technically it is Fall but I am wearing shorts as I write this) who better then Robert Frost to escort us out-

For once, then Something
by Robert Frost
Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
Me myself in the summer heaven godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths—and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.

Carrot Tops

Last week I wrote about the London Broil we had made for dinner. When it comes to having a vegetable side dish for our dinners it usually follows the standard fare. Items such as broccoli or green beans or usually asparagus when we have steak.

I wanted to have something different and given the marinade on the London Broil some sort of veggie with a little bit to balance everything out.

If you have ever been to Boston or Chicago there is a restaurant called Brasserie Jo. It is a French Brasserie and serves consistent food. Not surprisingly their French Onion soup is fairly killer.

The one item that we always enjoy is these mustard carrots that they serve cold prior to your meal. The plan was to replicate those carrots and serve them hot as a side dish.

Carrots area fairly underrated veggie by most accounts. Despite having a Carrot Museum online where you can email Mr. Carrot a question one does not hear a lot about carrots.

I checked the cook books we have around the house and none had any recipes for mustard carrots so I went to my usual recipe book, Google, to see what I could locate. I got back 1,240,000 results for mustard carrots.

I read through the first few dozen or so recipes and settled on what seemed to be the basic elements:

• Lots of BUTTER whooo hoooo!
• Carrots of course
• Mustard, I used a whole grain Dijon (which I would not use again)
• Brown sugar
• Parsley to garnish

Having made sugar glazed carrots a bunch of times I started with the same basic way:

Some butter in the pan

I then added some roughly julienned carrots (I know you can't roughly julienne something either it is julienned or it is not but work with me here) once the butter melted.

Once the butter had coated the carrots and the carrots had softened just a little bit, about 5 minutes over medium heat, I added about 2-3 tablespoons of the mustard. Once that had been incorporated, I added about one tablespoon of brown sugar.

Another minute or two until the desired softness was achieved.

We like ours a little crunchy.

Then I added the parsley and ta da! All done.

Overall I thought this was wicked easy and the wife said it was serve this to company. However, the sweetness of the Dijon mustard was a bit of a put off. At the table we added a bit of fresh ground black pepper to offset the sweetness of the mustard. Additionally, while we liked the way the cracked mustard looked on the dish, the little bits tended to get stuck in our teeth.

Next time I will probably go with a good quality 'plain' mustard and then add tarragon if I want some sweetness to the dish. I add tarragon to the compound butter I make so it would most likely be very complimentary.