zucchini calzones and eggplant calzones

Got the recipe from The Chew -- Mario Batali Calzones with eggplant and zucchini. (Two separate recipes - the eggplant is stuffed with an eggplant caponata filling, the zucchini sit with some salt to pull water out and is mixed with a ricotta mixture) I needed a good eggplant recipe, because one of my plants makes prolific chocolate brown eggplant about 3-4" long and about 2" in diameter - but 7-8 ripen at a time. And lets face it everyone can use another yummy zucchini recipe! Served up with a tossed balcony garden salad and some tomato/basil sauce to dip in.  Came out really good - have leftovers in the freezer.

Weather hasn't been garden friendly

It rained almost every day for 2 weeks, it's been pretty cold (if you're a tomato or a pepper plant at least)  Today is supposed to have a high or 62 so I put my plants out on the deck for a few hours to start getting them used to the outdoors!

I also tried planting some chard, carrot and radish seeds... they are taking forever!

 
 

The only thing about the end of summer that makes me sad

The last few nights we have had "killing frost" temps dropping into the 20's.  So I went out and harvested what I could (I'm considering fried green tomatoes as they don't seem to be ripening in the bowl) Chopped and froze or set out to dry all my peppers.  Cut down and cooked the last of the rainbow chard (seriously I harvested each plant at least 4 times this summer - magic)

What makes me sad is I had eggplants that were on the plants and the eggplant, pepper and tomatoes still had more flowers (each flower a potential yummy goodness) It's like they were trying to make more and they didn't know they were going to die.  I wish I had a greenhouse I could have moved them to ( potential bugs mean I can't move them in to the house) I'm thinking of trying to make "cages" out of thin pvc piping that I can cover with heavy clear plastic drop cloths  as "mini greenhouses"  for both next spring and next fall.  This will probably end up being my winter project - so you may see more about those later.  

Fortunately my favorite flowers - Montauk  Daisies can make it through until the  hard freeze comes (or freezing rain) light snow they can handle, freezing rain not so much.

weekend's balcony bounty

Sunday's picking - not a good shot- just to annoy my father in law

Seriously, the rainbow chard just keeps growing back after I cut it! I love chard, Curt probably not as thrilled - but I love it in my breakfast eggs so that's where the extra goes.

Bunch of tomatoes - the tiny yellow ones are coyotes.. OMG so perfectly sweet! A few mini red bells made their way to this bowl.

Early wonders, an overripe kermit and cukes.

Mini sweet bells - these seem to cycle one color at a time, had purples early last week, yellows a few days later, now reds.. although some more purples aren't far behind.  Grace these are the mini bells, my goldens, purple and chocolate full size peppers are still most definitely green.

Haven't updated the balconey container garden

Since about 2 weeks ago - a lot has been happening in the containers!

May 26th:
 

Two in the corner last Thursday:



coyote tomato last Thur:



One of the Kermit's was the size of a golf ball on Saturday:



Some Early Wonder on Saturday:



it's a little hard to see - but I have cowhorn's about 4" long already!
 

 

Just some pictures of the balcony garden as a whole

Eggpants and Peppers

I'm posting twice today because with all the pictures I didn't want a super long post.



My favorite three eggplants here.  The front two are Kermits, the right with Rose basil, the left with Lime Basil.  I'm probably going to have flowers on these two by Memorial Day!!!  In the back left, potted in it's big pot last week is Caspar with Cinnamon Bouquet Basil.

I currently only have three peppers in their big pot.  Mini Chocolate Bell,  Mini Red Bell and Mini Yellow Bell got potted about a week ago.  (I pick the flower buds off until they are potted in their big pots, so the roots grow in better)  yesterday they had new buds that I left and today the bloomed!!



The Ancho hybrid, Cubanelle and Marconi Golden are going to need bigger pots soon, they are getting too top heavy in their intermediate pots, probably the beginning of next week when I start leaving the tomatoes outside at night. (running out of room inside at night- as well as room on the balcony floor - need to be able to hang soon!)



Most of the other peppers are slower late season peppers, so will be happy for a bit longer.

We interupt knitting updates for a special bulletin!

I have been working on my rainbow shawl - it's slow going - and I have knocked my little tray with hundreds of beads on the floor more than once... I may have spent more time crawling around fetching beads than actually knitting - so no update pictures at this time.

What I do have to tell you about - is the only thing that makes me not totally want to cry when winter is over.  The only good thing about summer - is my veggie garden!  I don't grow "normal" veggies - the kind you can find at all the farm stands/ farmer's markets and even the grocery store.  I don't grow veggies to save money (I'm pretty sure they are the most expensive anywhere but Alaska if you add it up)  I really believe there is nothing tastier than a tomato still warm from the sun fresh off the vine.   Chiliplants.com is actually located in "central"  --- nope can't say that - sorry C! -- south Jersey and you can go to their greenhouses to buy plants in person (it's actually the only current way to get at their huge assortment of basils and their tomatillos)  Curt and I drove down there on the day they opened for the season.  It's just over an hour from here.  They open at 10am - we were there at 10:06am and we got the LAST PARKING SPACE!!!!  The greenhouses were packed with people like me that wanted to get their "babies" home!!  I really had to go early - last year they sold out of coyotes before I could get one!!

I have some favorites.   Kermit is a hybrid eggplant.  It's about a 2" round globe.  There is no bitter, it ripens green early in the season (listed at 60-70 days).  Sliced, grilled with a splash of olive oil and balsamic - warm is super yummy and melty creamy - cold is a great addition to a salad.  I use them also in a lot of Asian inspired sesame and ginger dishes. I also like to bread them and make eggplant parm sliders.

Casper is another of my favorites- a more "standard" oblong eggplant shape - it's mid season (80 days) about 4-6" long and white as a ghost!!

 I recently found that, while I know that tomatoes and basil and marigolds make great companion planting - basil planted with/near eggplant keeps aphids away.  My eggplants aren't usually that far from my tomatoes and basil, that may be why I never had an aphid issue - but this year I decided to put basil right in the pots with the eggplants!



The two Kermits are at the top of the picture.  The bottom tomato is an Early Wonder.  Most of my tomatoes went from the little seedling pot to a 3" pot on Monday - they will then probably go in a 6" pot a few weeks before going outside for good.  Each of the 3 times I transplant - I pick off all but the top 2 or 3 stems and put the stem in deeper to get a better root system.  (investing in roots early - while my plants do look smaller to my father in law and mom at first - means once they are outside all day in the sunshine they grow big and bushy much faster and I end up with earlier more prolific plants than either of those two get)  My early wonder was already about 7" tall in the seedling pot- and since it has been designated the plant that will kick the old peoples asses-- it got trimmed and buried deep in the big pot straight away.  (don't think I'm mean - my mom and father in law are retired, they live at a significantly lower elevation than I do--there is a definite climate band change where 287 intersects 80 -- the spring flowers I showed you on Tuesday?  Theirs were in full bloom on Easter.  they are at least 2 1/2 weeks ahead of me - they should be able to beat me - they never have -- the "competition" gets them plotting early - and out digging etc-- I think it keeps them young)











And before you think otherwise - no those pots aren't staying outside.  If it's over 60 before I leave the house they will go out to sit in the sun - and then I bring them in at dinnertime.  If it isn't 60 when I leave - I just open the screen door and let them bask in the sun while inside.  (if we get a cold day where it isn't 50 I'll leave the screen door closed) 

A girl's thoughts turn to...

We've had a cold a snowy several weeks in NJ (not like Boston though!)  I don't mind the cold - it was 3 degrees when I left the house this morning and I put on a zip up sweatshirt my friend Grace gave me with a sheep on it, fingerless gloves and my Devil's scarf - which is mostly open air.  I'm kind of getting tired of people feeling the need to inform me it's winter and asking me about the location of my coat... um my closet???  If I was uncomfortable, I'd put something else on.. seriously I'm not a moron, I do understand that if I feel cold, I need to put something more or different on.  I have a lot of hair - and I just don't have a good hat face - so my head is ok.  Sometimes if I'm going to be outside for a longer period and it's windy, I'll put a headband on to keep my ears warm.  When I walked Carl out to his truck (no coat, sweatshirt was in my locker) I got comments of do you know what the temperature is? and you'll freeze  to death.. Um I don't care about the actual number, and in 10 minutes it's highly unlikely I'll even get mild hypothermia.  I told Jim (groot) that love would keep me warm... he went grumbling off.... 

As much as I like winter, and truly enjoy making the people around me somehow feel colder because of my apparel, I find it great fun when my garden catalogs start arriving in the mail.  Right now, covered in snow, the possibilities are infinite... ok some things won't grow here... the possibilities are huge!  For me, the two things that makes summer bearable are going to racetracks and watching the cars, and having the perfect just picked tomato, pepper or other veggies.

My favorite place to order from is chiliplants.com , they have over 500 varieties of pepper plants (sweet, mild, all the way up to scorpion and ghost peppers) 180 different tomato plants and 65 different egg plants.  I order most of the plants either for pickup - or some years I have them shipped (it's amazing how they pack the plants for safe travels!) but I like going to the nursery - its about an hour away from my house, because they have a ton of different basils and tomatillos that aren't available on order yet.  I haven't been really successful with the tomatillos yet, but love all the different basils!

 The striped Tioga is an eggplant!!  While the leaves of the plant look like eggplant leaves, the plant is tall - and the fruit grows in bunches, they are about 3" long.  Toss with some salt and olive oil - put on a grill until the skins start splitting, then sprinkle with balamic...omg.. I'm getting hungry!

Kermit is another favorite, nd not just because in my brain it's named after the frog.  About a 2" globe - it's very versatile, since it's Thailand - I tend to cook it with sesame and ginger dishes - another grills well. Kermit also ripens relatively early in the season, so I can get my fork in early!

Cloud nine has become one of my favorite for eggplant parms..it seems to be less bitter than the purple eggplants.. and it's cute!

 
I'm adding this Rotundo Bianco to the mix this year - It's an Italian heirloom variety.

Tomatoes coming soon - it takes me longer to figure out peppers!


All the pictures are from the chiliplants.com website and belong solely to them.
 

Eggplants & Cucumbers

Two kinds of cucumbers - lemon cucumbers  on the left and bush cucumbers on the right.



Three kinds of eggplants.  From top to bottom  Calliope, Ghostbuster & Fairy Tale.