"Sunflower, good morning, you sure do make it like a sunny day" - courtesy of Glen Campbell! i sing this song every time i go out in the front yard and see the sunflowers!
this a volunteer sunflower - volunteer meaning that a squirrel buried a sunflower seed here - we have a pile of them all over the yard. no matter tho - we love them and we allow the squirrels to plant the flowers where they would like to see them, too!
this sunflower is for my sis, Helga, in place of a sky pic. this way i could take a pic of the sun for her instead!
if anyone is hungry - STOP READING. there's a ton of food pics that we have been gorging on for the past few days coming up!
first up - chicken parmigiana! on top of pasta with radish kimchi and raw radish - yummeh!
we've been on a chicken kick this week - so of course, next up would be chicken satay with herbed rice, peanut sauce, carrot, raisin, mint and ginger salad, and fermented beets and daikon radish! sorry for the blurry picture!
there's always leftovers, so with the chicken satay, we had couscous tabouleh and hummus - fresh made of course!
and hey - check this out: my very good buddy North asked me for my bulgogi recipe. of course i sent it to him. he followed all of the instructions - like marinating the meat for 72hrs - and then he and his wife had a delicious meal. see for yourselves:
i love it that he sent me a pic. i also love that serving platter! he said that his wife even went back for seconds - bahahahahahah! oh that one made me and jambaloney laugh!
thanks for sending the pic, North buddy!
next up - little mushrooms. i love mushrooms. they are indicators of faeries. you didn't know that? yep, they darn tootins' are indicators of faerie activity in your yard. that's why i love them! here's a cluster of them.
and here's up close...so beautiful!
beautiful? did someone say beautiful? is there anything more beautiful than this:
that's 10 and a half litres of home-made stock. yummeh. i used to make vegetable stock, chicken stock, beef stock and fish stock. then i asked myself - "why?"!!! now i save all of my veggie pieces, chicken and beef bones and make "stock". and then with fish bones and shells i make fish stock. fish stock is very good for you...especially for weak bones and cartillage. also for arthritic joints and muscles. and you can hide fish stock in anything.
a sunset for my sister.
and lookee here:
that's volunteer Jerusalem artichokes! woohoo! the previous owner must have had some growing here years ago. this is the first year that we have noticed them. but i am super happy to find things growing that i didn't plant!!!
and last but not least - yaaaaay for me- i got a potatoe fruit! and you just know that i am going to dry all of the seeds and try growing potatoes from seed next year! wish me luck!
we are experiencing our Indian Summer here...the weather has been beautiful so many afternoons will be spent at the river. tomorrow is supposed to be exceptionally gorgeous so we will be at the beach. i promise to take many beach pictures to bore you all to death with. your welcome!
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I love the volunteer sunflowers. I think I see a new potato plant where I just got all the potatoes. Where are the seeds? Since Indian Summer is the warmup after it turns cold, has it been that cold where you are? I must have fairies all over my yard at night!
ReplyDeletePracticalP - i love the sunflowers too! look for little green fruits on your potatoe plants - inside of those fruit are the seeds. they sometimes take years before a plant will fruit. and there is much controversy as to whether or not potatoes will grow from seeds. but, heck, it's gotta be like any other fruit/seed producing thing no? so i am going to dry the seeds from this fruit and try planting them and see what happens. this is the only fruit that i have found so far and we planted 24 tires...so they are very rare. no - it hasn't been cold but our Indian Summer came early this year. normally it comes right about now but we have been enjoying hotter than normal weather for over a week now and it should continue for another week. i am glad that you have faeries all over your yard - teehee!
DeleteDear sister - Your food is divine as usual ! I adore the quality and presentation - very, very nice ! You've succeeded - everyone is hungry now ! That sunflower is huge and will the birds ever love that baby !
ReplyDeleteSquirrels - oh my, how I love those little guys ! Between them and the froggie frogs - entertainment for hours. Throw in the beautiful sunset and life is perfect !
Fairies - at least they are the well behaved ones - they've been busy then because that's a nice cluster of shrooms indeed. They are beautiful and look like oyster mushrooms the way they fan out like that.
I must have the mischievous ones because they are causing trouble to this mortal ! Bahahahah ! I'm glad that they are bestowing good fortune on you though.
I can see soups, gravy, and all sorts of good things on the horizon there at the Manor with all that delicious stock ! I better get my butt in gear and do the same.
Great pictures hon and such a cheery post ! I hope you have a great beach day - and may faerie dust always be sprinkled upon you !
I love always, forever, and day ! xoxoxoxo
hey sweet sis - thanks so much! that sunflower really is huge...i will take a better pic of it with the other sunflowers so that you can see how much bigger it is! because the squirrels have been planting a variety of birdseed around the yard we are thinking that soon we won't have to buy birdseed anymore - they can just eat what's growing out there - bahahahahah! yep - i love the squirrels and the frogs and the rabbits! oh and faeries - i'll have to show you some of the stuff i do around the yard to keep the faeries happy! i wish i could be sure that those were oyster mushrooms cuz i'd eat 'em...but i am still too afraid to try! i cook the crap out of my stock over a 3 day period before straining and then freezing - it's awesome health in a bowl! when we go down to the beach, i'll of course, be thinking of you! and take a bunch of pics for you! i love you, sweet sister, always, forever and a day! xoxoxoxoxoxxoxo
DeleteOh that chicken parmigiana looks so delicious! One of my favorite dishes that didn't swim! Hopefully next week I will be able to go catch the ingredients for my favorite dish that DID swim, fish birds! Flounder fillets wrapped around blue crab stuffing and baked. Mouth watering don't begin to describe it...
ReplyDeletethanks so much Craig! i have never heard of fish birds - that sounds delicious! oh if you make some you have to take a pic and post it!
DeleteI zipped by the food, and I still go hungry.
ReplyDeletebahahahahahaha! sorry Russell buddy!
DeleteFor 30 years I cooked Thanksgiving meals on an apartment sized stove, and I only had two small pots and one large one! I didn't have the cooking pans I've seen that you have. We manage, don't we. But you do make glorious looking food. I'm wondering if you and Jamie really limit yourselves to one helping? Junk food is the destroyer of us all.
ReplyDeletelotta joy - it has been quite the challenge moving from my huuuuuge kitchen in the city to this dinky little kitchen with the apartment-sized appliances - but ya gotta make do! i do have the good fortune of having a nice set of good cooking pots and pans and that always helps! as for the portions - what you see served on plates in the pics is for presentation. once i take a pic, then i take about a quarter all of the food and put it on another plate (in a pretty way of course - food has to be pretty for me to eat it) and then jambaloney gets the 3/4 of the plate. i always make enough for there to be leftovers for the next day or day after...but we usually only eat one helping at a time, we don't usually go back for seconds. also, we don't eat dessert at our meals. during the day we eat breakfast, an hour or so later we'll eat some fruit, then dinner, an hour or so later we'll eat some fruit or nuts, then supper, and in the eve we snack on peanut butter toast or a cheese plate or some popcorn. write back if you have any questions about any of this.
DeleteGood luck with the potatoes! Your food looks delicious! Beautiful sunset! Pretty flowers! And you are a busy woman!!!!!
ReplyDeletethanks Kelly - when we lived in the city i grew potatoes for about 4 years and the last year i got several potatoe fruit...but then we were moving so i didn't get the chance to try and plant the seeds! this is our second year here growing potatoes so i am excited to try these potatoe seeds. i am going to plant them in their own area and see what happens. some people say they will grow in the first year, some people say it takes a few years. no matter tho - i ain't going anywhere and we have tons of room to clear an area and see how it goes.
DeleteOooooooh, yum!! Now I'm hungry & I just had dinner (followed by a bit of ice cream). You should post your bulgogi recipe or if you did, please send me a link.... please. Me thinks you must share! :-)
ReplyDeletehobo - here is the recipe:
DeleteIngredients:
¼ cup of soya sauce
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of unpasteurized honey
3 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds ( i always use way more. Do you know how toast sesame seeds? If not, just write back and i will send you that recipe – it’s really simple!)
6-8 cloves of crushed garlic
A 2inch knob of crushed ginger
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1 tablespoon of Japanese rice wine vinegar (if you don’t have it, you can substitute with regular white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. But if you can get it, it makes a real difference!)
1 asian pear, finely chopped in a blender or food processor
1 head of green onions, chopped into 1inch pieces
1lb to 1 and a half lbs of beef – you can use expensive meat but that would be wasting the meat. Use a cheaper cut of meat, that’s what Koreans use, because marinating it will cause the beef to become very tender.
Directions:
Mix all of the above ingredients together – i put it all in the blender.
If you don’t have a meat slicer, put the meat in the freezer for 15 mins...take it out and slice it as thin as possible and against the grain. Put the meat in a plastic Ziploc bag or a container, dump in the marinade and let sit for 72 hours. Letting the meat marinate for 72 hours is the real trick.
then cook it on the barbecue or in a pan on the stove.
enjoy!
Thank you very kindly!! :-)
Deleteyour very welcome hobo! i hope that you try it and i hope that you enjoy it!
Deletehint for the future
ReplyDeleteplant about more "wild crops" that can yeild grains, nuts, fruits, ectra....'
your food preparation is great, too bad the internet cannot broadcast the aroma of those meals
what is bulgogi?
Wildflower
Wildflower - you and me think in the same way! i have been learning about stealth gardening and forest gardening and i plan on saving seeds from everything and then tossing them willy-nilly all over our land to see what takes. i will do this in tandem with planting seeds in our traditional gardens but if i could cover all of our land with wild crops - that would make me even happier!!!!
Deletebulgogi is a traditional korean food - it's actually a way of preparing beef. read my comment to hobo above - the recipe is there.
any kind of meat?
Deletelike texan?
Wildflower
Texan would work just fine, Wildflower - bahahahahahah!
DeleteAnother Great Posting
ReplyDeletethanks Rob buddy!
DeleteYum and YUM! Love the pics around your property-sunflowers always bring a smile to my face :)
ReplyDeletei love sunflowers too Donna - they always make me smile!
DeleteGreat pics. The sunflower is the state flower here. Grows profusely here. Almost a weed! But a pretty weed. We grew Jerusalem Artichokes at our other house. They are very prolific. They are very good to eat, just don't eat too many at a time. If you do make sure you have gas masks available in a few hours, if you know what I mean! I'm talking SBD (Silent But Deadly)!
ReplyDeleteJohn - you are very lucky to have the sunflower as your state flower! i love them! as for Jerusalem artichokes, i was thinking about maybe planting some next year and then BINGO - these guys show up out of nowhere!!! and they are growing on our driveway area which is rocky, crappy, clay-like soil...full of rocks??? so they must love to take a beating because they are very healthy looking and beautiful. i am going to gather seeds from them, as well as tubers, in November and then scatter the seeds all over the place as well as plant the tubers in the new Jerusalem artichoke garden. i have been looking at all kinds of delicious recipes for them...i can't wait to try them (never had them before!). and i will heed your silent but deadly advice - bahahahahahahaah!
DeleteSo how come you eat so much but you are so thin! :D
ReplyDeleteJoey, buddy - i am not that thin - i got a little paunch in my belly - bahahahahah! but i am pretty active and do lots of work in the garden and on the house and whatnot, i try to stay fit. and i really believe that when you eat good, healthy, organic food and stay away from all processed food - then you will be able to maintain your weight. as well as we consume fermented food daily.
DeleteI love volunteer sunflowers ..... and I grew a whole field of pattypan squash...on farmville..lol
ReplyDeletebahahahahahahahahahah! oh JUGM bahahahahahahaahah! woohoo for you - a whole field of pattypan - i'm impressed gurlie! bahahahahahaahahah!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteJUGM's comment came up twice so i deleted this second one.
DeleteAfter you prepare the bulgogi recipe how ever do you wait 72 hours? I just read the recipe and my mouth is watering!
ReplyDeleteJanet - THAT is the conundrum! it is so hard to have that bag of meaty deliciousness sitting in the fridge calling out your name for the whole 72 hours - bahahahahhah! i often break down after 12 hours or a full day and cook it - it's still delicious but the real trick is to let it marinate the full 72 hours. it just melts right in your mouth!
DeleteHello from the land of Oz.. There is only one name to call your page, and that is HAPPINESS... a joy to behold. God bless you both with sunshine, sweet days, and your delicious looking food always.
ReplyDeleteHello back to you Crystal Mary - thank you for following our blog. i have seen some of your lovely comments on Gorges Smythe's blog and welcome you here with open arms. that blessing is truly appreciated...and may God bless you with the same.
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