Flexing Muscles! ((crickets))

OK, so for our next recipe effort, we're going w/Jems' suggestion of Mussels. Yums! I must do some serious skipping around in the produce section because I don't know that I've ever actually seen a vidalia onion. I've heard it plenty of times and had dips made w/them. Time for some produce education.

 So looks like we're supposed to serve it up with garlic bread to sop up the sauce. We'll also make a nice salad to have with this dinner.  Mmmm, chorizo...

Ingredients

• 2 (5-pound) bags mussels
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound spicy Mexican chorizo, casing removed
• 1 Vidalia onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, slivered
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 bottle dry white wine
• Parsley, chopped, for garnish

Directions

Working, 1 at a time, scrub any grit from shells under running water. Discard open mussels that do not close with a few taps of the finger and any with cracked shells. Put the mussels in a bowl of cold water.

Heat the oil in a large wide pot over medium-high heat and add the chorizo. Using a wooden spoon or potato masher, mash the chorizo into chunks, so it resembles ground beef. Saute until brown, about 8 minutes. Remove chorizo to a bowl. In the same pot, add the onion and garlic and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Saute 3 minutes to sweat. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Pull the mussels from bowl and transfer them and the water to the pot, do not strain, leaving behind any sand and grit that has sunk to the bottom. Stir to coat. Add the chorizo back into the pot and cover. Cook over medium heat until the mussels open, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a large serving bowl, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Lessons Learned #1

So, I spent this morning transferring all of my veggies from the seed tray to pots. I was getting a lovely fungus growing on them and needed to transfer them before I normally would (I was originally planning on transferring them directly to the containers). After some internet research it looks like something called "damping off". This comes from the peat pellets and too much moisture. Evidently it's fairly common, so I don't feel like a complete idiot. The remedies are supposedly transferring them to soil. If that doesn't work, then some organic remedies are sprinkling them with cinnamon or watering them with a mixture of water and strong chamomile tea. Beyond that, there's chemicals, but I'm trying to avoid those. So, here's hoping this works. In general, though, they're still growing and looking pretty good. Hopefully that's a good sign.

First Recipe - Jeremy's Take 04.09.10

So, last night it was my turn. All in all the recipe turned out really well. I agree with Claudia that the potatoes were a little "toothy" and I cooked them a little bit longer than the recipe. There's so few ingredients so it's a lot about quality ingredients, and I wish I could've found nicer fillets. Also, I apologize for the mediocre quality of photos. All I have is the camera on my phone. Overall, though, the recipe was a great, light dinner for spring.


The vultures are circling and looking for dropped food.

I had this great fume blanc with the meal. I've had this before. If you're looking for a really delicious, light, crisp and refreshing white, then I highly recommend this affordable wine.

The finished product, and ready to eat.

In general, I'd recommend this recipe. I do agree with Claudia that the lemon really makes this. Since there are such light ingredients the lemons and chives are pretty essential and make the flavor.

So, what's recipe #2?

First Recipe for our Project - Red Snapper

Red Snapper from No Take Out.  (<-- Clicky here for full recipe from NoTakeOut.com site)

Red Snapper - Served with mushrooms and sautéed potatoes

Shopping List

• 1 lb. potatoes (we like Yukon Gold)
• 1 lb. mushrooms
• 1 bunch chives
• 1 lemon
• Four 6 oz. fish fillets, with skin (such as red snapper or flounder)

 Pantry Items

• Black pepper
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Garlic
• Sea salt

Wine Suggestion:  Sauvignon Blanc (perfect because I have a Cupcake one that we got a bit ago that I'm jones'ing to try)

We're going to be making this tomorrow night. Agreed?  Pictures of what each of our dishes end up looking like and what our impressions of the dish are. We can rotate some more of this site's recipes w/our Jamie Oliver recipe book as well.

Results (to be updated post cooking):

Claud's results for 4/8/2010: 

So, me and my Sioux Indian Chef worked on the prepping and cookin' of the first meal of this @Home blog mission together tonight. I'd say it turned out quite tasty and light and easily digestible. Yums! The lemon juice really gave it that spring meal feel.
What I'd do differently than what recipe called for:

• Cook potatoes longer in the first step. The recipe called for 7 minutes, however, we cooked 'em for about 10 or so minutes and then put them aside. When we put the combo of 'tatoes and mushrooms back in to cook together as last step (for what was supposed to be just 3 minutes) we had to end up cooking it for over 10 min which overcooked the mushrooms and potatoes still didn't seem all the way cooked. ((shrugs))
• I overcooked the fish. doh! I'd not overcook it next time. :)
• I added a dash or two of Paprika to the potatoes while cooking. I wanted something other than salt and pepper. I'm just not a salt and pepper girl so refraining from adding Adobo or cumin was tough for me.

Recipe called for Sauvignon Blanc to accompany the cooking process. We had a Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc that we both enjoyed and neither of us are the biggest Cab Sav fan.
Pics of process and finished product:

Your turn Jems!

Gardening from a beginner....

So, after spending way too many years reading about gardening and growing and supporting local food, I'm finally going to give it a try. I have my patio in Philadelphia and I'm working on my own lot of container veggies. I'm trying to grow quite a bit and I've never done it before. My main thought process is that it's my learning year, and if at least half of it grows I'll still make out like a bandit. My dream scenario is that I'm giving veggies away left and right because I have so much. My main resources are "Grow Great Grub" by Gayla Trail and "Fresh Food From Small Spaces" by R.J. Ruppenthal. Of course, in addition to the handy interweb. I'm starting all heirloom veggies from seed. I'm growing a couple different kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, spring greens, pole beans, cantaloupe, jalapeno peppers, Thai chilies and a bunch of herbs (plus, some daisies, just because they're purty). I'm also hoping to try out some blackberry and blueberry bushes. So feel free to join me in my beginning gardening adventures. And hopefully they won't be adventures in futility.

Here are the slim beginnings of my gardening process. Not much to look at, but at least they're growing.

**If you're interested in the gardening and local food books I've been reading, here's a list:

-Pretty much anything by Michael Pollan (who was also one of the contributors to the doc "Food, Inc."). I'm partial to "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

-"Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver is a great book about a family trying to live (mainly) off their own land for a year.

-"Farm City" by Novella Carpenter is a fun book about a couple building up a farm in the middle of inner city Oakland, CA.

Here we go!

Ok Jems, our blog is set up so let's do this.

What we're going to cover in this bloggy blog:

• Recipes - initially from our Jamie Oliver Food Revolution cookbook, once we receive the book in the mail (we both ordered today). At least one if not 2 a week. Sean's going to be my Sioux chef.(*Jeremy kindly pointed out that I failed to differentiate Sioux and Sous correctly. fail. Sean did say he thought he had some American Indian in him though so maybe I'm not that far off?)

• Gardening - I get to see your purty, thriving garden as it flourishes under your virginal gardening care. Excited to see your results from your first garden!
• Home progress - as we both make decor changes (paint/furniture/etc...) to our humble abodes, we can share pics here.
• Book Club Notes? You think you want to share on here?
• What else?

So exciting! Here's to new chapters in our life and actually feeling productive as opposed to limiting ourselves to feeling stressed out. May our stressors continue to chill themselves out and may we keep building character in the face of adversity.

Boo-yah.

Obligatory Hamming it up picture after Jeremy's botox injections