Cooking Experiments

This is a kohlrabi....Gardenmom had NOOO idea how to cook a kohlrabi. So I googled it. You might ask, why are you bothering growing things that you have no idea how to cook? Well, Gardenmom is a grow first, ask questions later kinda gal. So, after googling it, I decided to try mashing it like a potato. First, I removed all the leaves and peeled it. This is about 5 inches across.

After peeling it, I chopped it up into small pieces.

Then I boiled it until the pieces were soft. After that I searched for 10 minutes for a potato masher and realized I don't own one. Right now I am following several antique wooden potato mashers on ebay. I settled for using my food processor right then. I mixed it up with butter, milk, and a little salt.

Meanwhile, I sauteed some fresh garden peas with a little butter. I think next time I will steam them, because some of the littler peas turned out a little tough with sauteing.

This was the final result. A meatless dinner of garden experiments. I could have paired it with some fish or some free-range chicken, but oh well. I added a handful of herbs to the mashed kohlrabi and called it good.

This is my new breadmaker that I picked up yesterday. I have already made two loaves with it. It is a Breadman model. It will bake up to a 2 lb loaf. I am excited about making my own bread with local, organic flour. My guy is pretty psyched about fresh bread every day.

Here I am observing it rising during the 'fast bake' mode. You can go from zero to loaf in 58 minutes!

Here is my second loaf. I did much better the second time, because I learned how to scrape down the sides of the pan while it is mixing. This is a huge loaf of bread. The crust is perfect...just the right texture and color.

This is a close up of one of my hybrid lilies that is blooming right now. The petals actually shimmer. I don't know how they breed flowers to look like they have glitter in them, but this lady is a genius. I buy my lilies from Nan Ripley, who lives about 20 miles from here. Most of her business is hybridizing lilies.

http://www.northernlightsdaylilies.com/index.php?pr=Walkabout_Gardens

I am very impressed with her work. I have another variety that is not blooming yet.

I also noticed how much nicer pictures my guy's fandango camera takes than my little everyday camera. Mine is 6.1 megapixels. I don't know how many his has, but it is obviously much better than mine. I took the flower pictures with his.

This is my luna hibiscus. The blooms are little because the plant is still little. It is still about 5 inches across though.

And my coreopsis. I love them. They are the most cheerful little things i have ever seen. I need to deadhead him, but I have been busy. We are having a birthday party for my son and stepdaughter next week, and I want the yard to look great.

Stay tuned, for more cooking experiments with Gardenmom! Next week, who knows, maybe purslane salad!