Cold Weather

Lemons

We've got a frost alert for the next few nights. This means various tender plants need to be protected from the cold, mostly citrus. This evening I went about covering and insulating my two lime plants and two lemon plants. I also picked most of the lemons from the lemon tree that bears fruit. Last year the fruit froze and fell off in a cold snap. This year I was looking forward to harvesting lemons on an as-needed basis. Now I have a basket full of lemons that will need some sort of processing. I could juice them and freeze the juice or I could make lemon marmalade. I love the idea of doing some of each.

I started making some green tomato jam yesterday, and it is resting before I'll cook it up some more and then process it in half-pint jars. Since water bath canning is so energy intensive I could do a batch of marmalade and process them all on the same day.

Thanksgiving day in the USA is on Thursday, November 25 this year, and I'm thinking I'll make a pumpkin pie using one of the pie pumpkins I grew this year. I'm going to brine two organic chickens on Wednesday and then on Thursday I'll roast them in the oven. One will be stuffed with tomato and feta from my Greek cookbook, and the other will be unstuffed.  We'll have mashed potatoes with lots of butter, perhaps some pan gravy, collards from the garden (which will be nice and mellow from the frost) and perhaps a few other things. I enjoy cooking with things that I've grown. The pie pumpkin and collards in this case. A few weeks ago I made some pumpkin cannelloni with one of the French heirloom pumpkins I roasted and some tomato sauce I made in September, and had in the freezer.

Making Dolmades

The grape vines are producing lots of leaves, many of which are rather tender just now. I also have a couple of small fennel bulbs and lots of top setting onions, scallions, leeks, and various herbs around. I decided to make vegetarian dolmades for an upcoming art reception at a non-profit art gallery, where I have a couple of pieces on display. I looked at several recipes, in my various cookbooks and online, and I had a couple in front of me for reference as I went. My practice run went well enough that we ate all of the dolmades and I decided to refine my process based on the first go-round.

Today I went out and picked many grape leaves, no smaller than the size of my hand, and only the tender ones. I also harvested the other things I mentioned above: fennel bulb, leeks, top-setting onions, scallions, mint, and parsley. I used a store-bought yellow onion (certified organic and grown in California) and I used Arborio rice (I do not grow rice in my garden, but live in a rice-growing region so it is a locally produced ingredient).

Fresh grape leaves, and other ingredients.

Bamboo steamer lined with fresh grape leaves.

Preparing the leek. Sliced down the middle eases rinsing of any dirt caught inside.

Chop chop chop.

Mixing leeks and rice.

More chopping.

Laying out the blanched grape leaves.

Filling

Folding

Rolling

Uncooked dolmades in the bamboo steamer lined with fresh grape leaves.

On the stove for approximately 45 min.

Cooked dolmades await.

Viola! They are steamed to perfection! Now they will cool and then wait in the fridge (where the flavors will develop overnight) until the reception tomorrow evening. Of course I had to sample one to make sure it was cooked!