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Beer, Bread, Cheese….and Tomatoes!

Tonight was the “go-to” meal for my family – bruschetta (or at least our version of it). A few slices of toasted bread, mozzarella, and fresh basil. This time we were able to use basil from my garden. Previously, due to the hellish weather, my basil was all wilted come dinner time and thus we never did use it.

don't forget the Parmigiano

Tonight’s meal was one of the most flavorful I’ve had in a while. The basil was incredibly tasty and the tomatoes were just about perfect! We were licking the olive oil off our hands trying to savor every last morsel of Italian goodness.

Normally with this meal I pair a red table wine, but tonight at the grocery store I saw an intriguing bottle of beer and decided to risk it. When we opened it at home it had a champagne like cork, which when popped allowed white “smoke” to billow out of the top of the beer bottle. I love that…

We poured the glasses and were greeted with a sweet earthy smell and a cheerful caramel color. The weight of the beer was light – like a wine – and had an almost effervescence to it. The taste was sweet and rich. It was complex and hard to describe. I think I have found my new beer! It paired really well with the savory bruschetta, but the coolest part was I ate a little piece of dark chocolate and it completely highlighted the sweetness and caramel quality of the beer. It could almost be a “dessert beer”.

So what was this delightful discovery? Ovila Abby Ales.

Not only is the beer amazing, but it is associated with monks and an abbey - I just can't resist that.

 

The proceeds go to the rebuilding of an ancient abbey that has been relocated from Spain to California. I love this. I love drinking a beer that contributes to a mission that will help people connect with the Triune God. CHEERS!

bean and cream

Cream added to Coffee - love the swirls. Food is intrinsically arty

Eating Out: Korean

Asian food is one of my favorite types of food. In fact, I think Vietnamese is my comfort food. But today I’m talking about Korean food as it is my newest food discovery.

One of my good friends is Korean-American and probably the only young mom who makes her own bone broths. Every time I go over to her house she’s got homemade kimchi, homemade broth, rice, and some sort of amazing soup or noodle dish all going at once on the stove. She even showed me how to make mochi at home! I’m in awe….

Anyway, while I’d love to show tons of photos of her food, tonight I’m going to share another Korean food adventure with you. Saturday for lunch I had my second experience at New Oriental Market – a Korean market on N. Lamar (Austin, Texas) that has a cafeteria. The first time I tried this place I was nervous and went with the safe bet: Bolgogi, Korean BBQ. It was super delish!

Beef bulgogi and side dishes - kimchi and bean sprouts and rice

This was in the mid summer when it wasn’t diabolically hot yet.

Saturday, it was the hottest day on record and so I went crazy and ordered a cold buckwheat noodles soup (Naengmyeon). This soup was amazing! It had a vinegary broth and was full of what I think was asian pear  and cucumbers sliced like french fries, as well as a hard boiled egg and buckwheat noodles.

Naengmyeon - notice the ice cubes of broth to keep it cold!

I was in awe of the deliciousness of this dish. It was so cool and refreshing, sweet (the pears) and sour (vinegar). Plus I really liked eating out of a giant metal bowl.

20lbs

What do you do with twenty pounds of tomatoes?

HOMEMADE SAUCE!!

My chef sister processed the organic red globes using my mom’s crazy tomato sauce machine (actually from Italy). The onions in the sauce were grown in my garden. One of the few things the deer did not eat.

Add some grass fed beef, a bit of pasta. Voila! You have a meal.

Delish!

We had quite a bit of extra “meat sauce” as well as tomato sauce. We mixed it, let it rest over night in the fridge then poured the goodness over polenta for dinner the next night. It was amazing!!

 

the gang’s all here

One of the reasons I have not been blogging lately is that it’s so darn hot outside and gardening is a bit on the miserable side. Also, anything I do spend time sweating over, the deer eat. They’ve become so desperate that they knock down my fencing.

Yesterday, my brain, overloaded by cherry panna cotta, made a startling discovery: The deer are NOT EATING my HERBS! DUH!!

I woke up early this morning to find a cool breeze and a temperature in the mid 70s. Perfect for pulling out munched down squash and cantaloupe vines. I started “weeding”, slowly working my way from the left side of my garden to the right. All was well until I nearly stepped on one of the culprits of my garden’s demise. Right under my nose was Bambi’s stunt double. A tiny deer was napping between the house foundation and the plumbago.

At first I thought it was dead.

Then I noticed it was faking dead. So I walked off hoping it would run away. I returned a few moments later to find the little bugger in a new position, but same spot. So I kept working, it breathed heavily as I puttered a safe distance around it. I’m sure it’s mom had said not to move and if you see Kate she’ll want to kill you for having eaten her tomatoes. But my cold, gardener’s heart melted as I imagined what terror this poor kid felt and so after I cleaned up I willingly exposed on of my carefully protected cherry tomatoes.

I went to dress for church.

I returned to find it sill in place, napping and breathing normally. PHOTO OP!

Bambi hiding between the foundation, septic control thingy, and my plumbago.

I was so worried this precious but destructive animal was hiding in my garden to die (drought is so bad this year…I wonder how any of these animals survive – oh wait, they’ve had more tomato sauce this year than I had the whole semester I studied in Italy). I feared I would return from church to find dead Bambi. Luckily, when I got home, she/he was gone and all was well.

And so I easily continued forth with my herb garden bonanza. Already in my garden I had 11 varieties of herbs. I planted 21 more varieties (but 31 4″ pots total).

Left side of raised garden - pre planting

Left Side planted

Right side planted

While planting I almost hit a bunny with my hori hori knife as it came sprinting out of the oregano. GOOD GRIEF!! I looked around to find bees buzzing near me, a humming bird, some sort of sparrow like bird, and a huge dragonfly. I’m becoming a Disney princess! Can I use these animals for good, to clean and weed, like Cinderella did?

Bees and Blooms

Today I noticed that the cactus by the vegetable garden is covered in blooms. And I noticed that the blooms were covered in bees. I love bees. The only time I have been stung was when I smashed one with my shoe as a child and then later accidentally placed my hand on the bee stinger. Ironic. It got me, even in death.

This cactus pad was covered!! I love that there's a mix of pink and yellow. Also the flowers are so unique!

A bee flying up to the bloom to check it out.

This was one special bloom! The bees were all "fighting" over it.

Aside from my one bee sting as a kid, I’ve never had much of a problem with the bees. While other people freak out over them, I’m following them around. They buzz near by as I work in my garden. They pause on a bloom while I lean in close to take a shot with my phone.

You see bees are really docile. They don’t want to sting you. It means death for them. It’s suicide. They’d rather frolic in the pollen. Just don’t swat at them or beat on their hive. Respect their space and they’ll respect yours.

I’ll be back…soon!

Hello Blog, I’ve missed you. Life has been so crazy lately, you know, me being in the home garden design industry and this being spring and all. On top of my clients, I’ve had my own garden to attend to!

I’ll be back…soon!

Cactus Blooms

Cactus blooming in my garden. I love how something so rough and prickly can produce such fantastic color and interest!

A Taste of the Sun

Finally, something besides radishes and greens!!!

My first strawberry was sort of tart, but tasty all the same.