Help! Tomatoes and Gardening Misadventures!

[blue]

I shop at Trader Joe's all the time. I've never seen alligator meat there. Perhaps I'm not looking in the right cooler.

C

Cooler? What about the suitcases? Look for the snap lock lids? Something that has a bite to it?

There are Whole Foods Markets and Central Markets in town, but I'll have to look up Trader Joe's. Heard of it, haven't been in one.

[Cole Parker]

Wow, what interesting recipes. I had a roast of crocodile once in Australia so I suppose alligator isn't beyond possible, once I find a source for it other than something dank hanging up in a chinatown shop window. The pork loin, however, makes me wonder how you folks in New Mexico can keep your teeth with all that chewing. Five to seven pounds of loin to serve four? And here I've just gotten my head around portion sizes similar to a deck of cards.

Chewing? After being in the oven for 4-1/4 hours? With the first 3/4 if an hour at 450? I was thinking I'd have to spread it on a cracker.

But it does sound yummy. Looks like a lot of work, but yummy. Hey, you know, just a thought: I'll invite Richard out to cook it for me. And maybe Paul can stop by with a few pounds of alligator draped over his shoulders.

Want to join us, James?

C

[Lugnutz]

I'll be there, I'll have a roll of duct tape handy if Des shows up.

[Merkin]

I'd love to, but I would first have to know whether the alligator drapery was sentient or not.

[Cole Parker]

I'd like to know that, too!

C

[Paul_and_Paco]

Had to look that up... If he is draped, he no longer is... if he was.

[DesDownunder]

Duct tape wont be needed, I'm a vegetarian, so I'm sitting out the alligator and other meats. As I've said before I prefer my meat live.

[Paul_and_Paco]

OK Des... You can substitute tofu for the bacon in my onion tart, and the following is even without eggs...

Ratatouille

6 servings... Time: 1¼ hours

Tools

•knife

•several platters or plates

•large skillet or Dutch oven with cover

•wooden spoon

Ingredients:

◦1 pound eggplant

◦salt

◦3 T olive oil

◦3 cloves garlic, chopped

◦2 medium onions, roughly chopped

◦3 T fresh basil, chopped

◦3 T fresh parsley, chopped

◦1 t oregano

◦½ t rosemary

◦½ t thyme

◦1 pound zucchini, cubed

◦1 red and 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped or sliced

◦2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped

◦black pepper

Directions:

Slice the eggplant, sprinkle both sides of each piece generously with salt, and lay out on platters or plates. After 45 minutes,* rinse off the salt, pat dry, and cube.

Heat olive oil over medium heat, add garlic and onion, and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add eggplant and herbs, stir well, and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, until eggplant is tender.

Stir in zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, and black pepper. Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes, until zucchini and peppers are cooked.

Notes:

* Salting eggplant removes the bitter flavor, but you have to be careful. If you leave the salt on for too long, it will permeate the eggplant and - unless you're wild about salt - ruin the ratatouille. The general rule of thumb is that smaller eggplants are less bitter, so very small ones only need 30 minutes or so of salting, while very large ones may take up to an hour. The eggplant is ready when several tablespoons of tan-colored liquid have oozed out of each slice. This recipe is quite versatile. It can be served hot, warm, or cold. It can stand alone as a stew; cover pasta, rice, polenta, mashed potatoes, or toast; or fill a crepe or sandwich.

The ingredients are pretty flexible - just be sure that they are fresh!

[JamesSavik]

One morning on the bayou I was awakened by two gun shots and I got up to see what the noise was about.

In the pre-dawn darkness, my Uncle had stepped on a gator's tail while he was walking to his truck to go to work. Needless to say, the gator was not amused and came after him.

Granny shot the gator twice with her 30-30. Nobody messes with a Cajun granny. We had gator steak for supper that night.

[blue]

Looks like a good ratatouille recipe. I can vouch for ratatouille. Very good veggie dish.

Hah, granny 1, gator 0. Mess with granny and granny messes you up. :D I'll bet the gator said he was sorry for bein' so full o' meanness before he expired. ;) C'est ça!

[Merkin]

I love ratatouille because it is so versatile; it can be served as a main dish, as a side, or as a sauce for pasta or rice, even as a cold dip. I follow Julia Child's advice to saute the eggplant and the zucchini each seperately in order to preserve their flavors, then I combine the ingredients in layers and bake it. Either way it is a wonderful dish.

[Gee Whillickers]

Ok, I need a volunteer to concatenate all of the recipes so far in this thread (and those forthcoming, and those in other threads) and put together an "Awesomedude Fine Eats!!" book.

I'll pay good money for that.

[blue]

I may do something with those recipes, as Gee suggested, but I'm working on something else at the moment.

[blue]

Well, my garden is my garden.

A few days ago we had good rain. I've been watering regularly, except the day of and day after any decent amount of rain. Yesterday we had a very heavy downpour just before dusk, which must've continued lightly overnight, given how wet things are outside right now. That's good, but I may water this evening.

I hadn't been closely monitoring the baby tomatoes. So when I looked today, I was disappointed. I only see one baby tomato, still small and green. No others. There should've been about three or four, not counting the one that broke off now more than two weeks ago, I think it was. I don't know what's happened to them. I'd think an animal or bird would leave some bit behind. I will look this afternoon or tomorrow. Maybe I missed them somehow. I guess the poor mauled main plant thought it had been hassled too much. But that doesn't explain the other plant or two.

That said, the plants look pretty good. I see signs of something doing damage, small holes, so I'll get some Sevin Dust or something like garlic or chili spray, to combat whatever's getting at that plant. Even the one most frazzled seems to be doing OK. The one that I transplanted that had been crowded is doing OK. I see signs of flowers that wilted, despite watering, on each tomato plant. So I presume I won't have further tomatoes start.

That one tomato now has a lot riding on it! As a song says, "Hang on, little tomato!"

Meanwhile, the marigolds are quite happy and the basil is terrific. I'll harvest some soon.

The chocolate mint is doing OK, could be doing better. I may move its planter box somewhere a little shadier. I think that's what's getting to it. -- I did have to rescue it from a vine tendril that was trying to move in and choke it. Nice minty smell from that.

The grass seed I put out in the back yard seems to have started up. It and the clover and not-grass (whatever the stuff is) are doing OK.

The difference between getting intermittent rain this year (still not as much as usual) and the extended drought last year is so marked.

I need to look at the front yard when I get the mail this evening. But if any of the grass seed I put out has sprouted or taken hold, I'll be amazed. Bare, dry, grey dirt in front, between too much shade from trees and last year's drought, all the grass in the front yard died; just straw and dirt.

The side yard is OK, though.

So, that's my gardening tale for the day.

One tomato. Four, no, five nice plants, and only one tomato.

I am so doing things differently next year.

You'd better live so I can have you on a nice salad and save the seeds, tomato.

Gee, that sounds mercenary and predatory, doesn't it? But...I like tomatoes!

Harrumph!

[blue]

"Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary / How does your garden grow?"

I may not be Mary, but then, my garden is not much of a garden either.

After almost a solid week of on-again, off-again thunderstorms (and much-needed rain)....

My tomato plants' last two green tomatoes didn't make it. I suspect squirrels, as there is no evidence of either tomato. The plants themselves? Some sort of damage, insect or fungus or a mix of sun and rain, too much for several stems of the vines. The rest? Very bedraggled. With no flowers that might put forth fruit... I gave up in disgust, pulled up the plants, and they will compost down into that garden bed for next year.

My basil plants are thriving. In fact, I'll need to harvest some leaves for the kitchen, the basil is doing so well. Hah, at least I know one thing that'll grow. They might last through the winter, we'll see.

The marigolds are fine too, happily blooming, very cheerful. They'll stay until they die off in the winter, if they do.

The chocolate mint I got... looks leggy and a bit forlorn. I had to rescue it from a clinging vine that was trying to choke it all out. I've moved the planter I have the mint in. -- I'm considering attempting to harvest and use or dry some of the mint, because it's so long. I'd expected it to be "bunchy," but no, not so.

My aunt and uncle may send me something (peach or apple) later this year, and may send a cedar sapling too.

The grass seed I cast in my back yard is doing fine. No results at all in the front yard.

A side-effect of the rain: I have a fine crop of some large, broad white mushrooms of unknown kind growing in a swath in my back yard. They are welcome, I have no reason to get rid of them. -- And not knowing what they are, I am not foolish enough to try them. I presume they're a "gift" from food waste or a passing bird or squirrel. The mushrooms can do their thing in the yard, no hassle from me.

So, I am now tomato-less and disappointed, but the rest is doing OK.

[Paco]

We have a rather large garden at home. Next year you might try putting netting over your tomatoes. We built a long tall frame to cover the tomato rows with a firm netting to keep out the birds and squirrels. You must become the constant gardener.