I think August is about our most miserable month. It is hot as hell and the monsoons are upon us. Humidity is UP and patience is down. On the days we have one of our wondrous thunderstorms, we are reminded of one of the many reasons we live here. Other days it is merely a blast furnace with humidity. Not something we desert rats enjoy! But....
The gardens! I am being shown how good an idea it was to really cram everything close together. I do have to search many times, for the tasty booty hidden within, but I am convinced that by crowding it creates a micro climate that benefits the plants. One plant shades another and they all shade the ground beneath. I still have to water everyday or the plants become wilted and stressed. I am discovering though, that good and diligent care through these roughest of times will pay off in the fall. While many gardener's tomato plants are dried and crispy, never to see another fruit, mine are hanging in there and will be producing again soon. In fact, I am beginning to find some tomatoes here and there already! As our weather cools over the next few months the tomatoes and peppers will flourish once again! The onions have all matured and it's time to plant more of them. I am readying another little garden space on the west side of the yard and plan to plant artichokes and some other "winter" crops there. Wish me luck.
The amount of water used to keep everything alive has been significant. But given the quality of produce we have gotten (with no fears of any dreaded diseases brought on by contamination) we are ready to continue planting year round. We love the opportunity to provide fresh, wholesome veggies and herbs in our cooking classes and we are convinced the health benefit and value of the increased flavor and freshness of the produce is priceless for ourselves and our students .
Chow!

Have your landscape (and eat it too!)

Here it is, mid June. Gardening in Tucson is soon to become a sort of hell. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean it isn't worth it. This simply means, with our heat, you fight with the devil himself for your plants! Right now, our gardens are really vigorous. Fruit is ripening everywhere. Just a few minutes ago I picked some cherry tomatoes, a huge Japanese Eggplant and a beautiful yellow Banana Pepper. I simply ate the one strawberry I found without bothering to take it into the house. Our plants are just beginning to mature and the rewards are just around the corner! Chiles! We have about eight or ten different varieties from the "World's Hottest" to some nice tasty but mild ones. I can't wait for the fresh salsa. I am sure we will can or freeze a lot of our harvest for later use. Tomatoes! Wow, we planted probably a dozen varieties of them. Lots of the usual kinds, just to make sure we have plenty of wonderful, tasty, REAL, tomatoes. I picked a few of our first Celebrity tomatoes from our vines the other day. They absolutely blasted us with flavor! The Early Girl vines are loaded with nice big green, orbs that are tantalizingly close becoming ingredients in our cooking class recipes. Our Roma tomatoes will be mostly used for paste and are coming along little later than the others. We also planted a number of endangered heirloom tomato plants. These are mostly indigenous to the desert southwest and Mexico. I even was able to acquire and plant some heirloom tomatoes from France given by a friend who "discovered some seeds had somehow become stowaways and made the trip home with him." Several of the heirloom plants are a little happier than others but we have some great looking fruit on some of those too. I am really excited to taste these and see which we like best. Of course, those will be chosen as candidates for next year's gardens. There are many other choices while browsing among our plants; onions, (I've been grilling them and they are fantastic!) baby carrots, fennel, and so many different herbs, it's hard to mention them all. There are squash and cucumbers and artichokes and Leeks. I let some of the onions go to seed so their beautiful puffball flowers stand sentry over the other plants. About that title.... Here is the bottom line; we live in the desert and it is very tempting to grow some grass, plant some wonderful looking, water guzzling, leafy landscape plants and have a beautiful yard. Just like back home. You will work your butt off to admire something that just does not belong here. One other alternative is Xeriscape. A sort of water miser, barren, cactus studded.......area. UGH! Don't take this the wrong way. I know, I know, our water is precious and in short supply...and expensive. I just think there is a wonderful compromise. In fact I think this is better than a compromise for a number of reasons. So, if you want to have beautiful landscaping (and eat it too)... Here is what you do. Plant a garden! Go to your favorite nursery or Home Depot, Lowes, hell.. even Wal-Mart and buy some plants you would like to eat. Prepare your area. ( it doesn't have to be very big) You are not starting a farm, you're only planting some stuff you like. Three feet by eight feet of space will grow a lot of veggies. I have about five different spaces this size arranged around our yard. This is a manageable size and you will be able to reach in to the middle to harvest. You can plant directly in the ground or create raised beds. I have both. Dig down about six to ten inches and turn the soil. Take your time and enjoy, you don't even have to do this all at once. Use some of the soil to build little berms around your garden space. This will help keep your watering where it belongs. Add some dry composted horse or cow manure (usually free on Craig's list, I got six cubic yards delivered for free!) and some garden compost to your existing soil mixture and turn it to mix evenly. I use about one third of each. Now, among your veggies, plant a few colorful flowers. Petunias and marigolds are great. They look pretty and chase off pests. You can add stock or daisies for a little height. It's a win, win. Your garden will naturally use more water than the arid type landscapes we see here so often. But, you are now growing edibles and not just grass and decorative plants. Hey, someone somewhere is growing, and watering the veggies you eat anyway. And, God only knows what chemicals they are putting on their crops, (your food) but you will know exactly what went on yours, won't you? No longer will you be paying a fortune for "hothouse grown" "vine ripened" tasteless tomatoes. Yours will be bursting with flavor and healthy vitamins and all that other good stuff. Walk out the door and pull a few onions for tonight's spaghetti sauce from your own garden. Snip some homegrown oregano and a little thyme. Wow! You are going to feast! Many of the herbs will grow year round here and most of the other things will need to be replaced with your next crop. With a little planning, and not a lot of work, (honest) you will have a beautiful, edible, landscape. This time of year you may have to water everyday or even twice if it's windy. But. You won't need to worry about e-coli or any of those other pesky critters that can make people sick, or can even kill us. The water you use will have been used somewhere on your food anyway but now you will reap the rewards of wonderful, tasty and wholesome vegetables and herbs. Go ahead.......eat your landscape! From our Newsletter; BiteMe on www.CuisineClassique.com

Heirloom Tomatoes in Tucson

Last week I came upon a post on Craig's List. It was for organically grown Heirloom Tomato plants! Of course, I was excited, since I try to grow most of our veggies and nearly all our herbs for our cooking classes. Heirlooms! These are not only part of our heritage and many times indigenous to one's local area, they also have not been ruined by genetic messing. Here they are, natural, and real. Real flavor, real seasons, and.....real seeds to keep your plants growing year after year. Their website link is: http://www.aravaipa.com
The actual farm is north of Tucson but you can order your starts online to be picked up either in Oracle, Arizona in early March, or at the Santa Cruz River Farmers' Market on Speedway in Tucson.
I can't wait to order a selection for my gardens. I plan to get about six varieties (they have 33!) choosing from the ones that have a local connection or are great producers. I love the idea of having pieces of history growing in my gardens. Being able to eat the results, priceless!

The Truth About "Organic" Food Labels

ORGANIC

We have all seen this designation on the foods we purchase.

Often, this is a determining factor in choosing one product

over another.

Well, "Not so fast my friend!".

The ubiquitous USDA "ORGANIC"seal so prominently

displayed on many products, WITHOUT the words,

"100% ORGANIC" only means; at least 95% of the

content, by weight, is organic. Oh, (excluding water

and salt). The remaining five percent of ingredients

is on an approved list of non-agricultural products

not available in organic form. Products are certified

(usually by a third party) and, here is the good news,

may not include using methods such as sewage sludge

and ionizing radiation.

WARNING THIS IS GRAPHIC!

YUCK

To be truly organically grown (and minimally processed),

our food must have been produced without conventional

pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, sewer sludge,

ionizing radiation, genetic engineering, or food additives.

Sweet!

To be certified as organic, livestock cannot be grown with

the use of growth hormones nor the routine use of antibiotics.

There is a lot more information beneath this surface layer

I am providing. The process to have one's produce

or animals CERTIFIED as "ORGANIC" has become so

expensive that it is prohibitive to many small farms.

HMMMM.... interesting.

Now, this does not mean theese small farms are not producing

perfectly wholesome food. On the contrary, most small family

farms do care about their products and cultivate in a responsible

way. They just cannot SAY it is "ORGANIC" because they

didn't pay the (sometimes $10,000) fee to have it certified by

USDA. When shopping, we try to look for other "codewords"

such as naturally grown, etc. It is also helpful to shop when you

can, at local farmer's markets. There, you will be able to meet

and talk to the actual grower. Join a CSA. It hardly matters

where you live, you will be able to find small family owned

farms and gardens that are eager to share their bounty!

Of course, you're not going to drop dead from eating less

than 100% organic food all the time. But, given the (real)

choice, you may want to eat in as natural and wholesome

way as you can. The bottom line is this: In the supermarkets

etc, it isn't really organic unless it says "100% ORGANIC".

We call the rest of that stuff "Organish"

Chow!

Monsoons and Prickly Pears

Last Saturday, Mardi and her sister Marci decided to make Prickly Pear jelly (and whatever other goodies they could devise from the delicious fruit) Marci stopped on her way down to our place and spent about an hour picking the fruit. Our monsoon rains have loaded the desert with fat ripe fruit! It's truly a crime not to use it if you can. I loved her description of how she chose the fruits. "I left the high ones for the birds and the low ones for the lizards and other little critters. So, if you see a patch of cactus with a band picked clean around the middle.........those are mine!"
She arrived with two, nearly full, five gallon buckets of cactus fruit, ripe and ready. By now, Mardi had called our good friends Marika and Sandy partly as reinforcements and mostly to just join in the fun. In no time, they had pots and cauldrons boiling on the big commercial stove in the outdoor kitchen. It Was Hot as Hell, even with the cooler "blasting". (so we work in our swimming suits, a quick dip in the pool now and then really helps)

Meanwhile, they had all put their heads together and devised a rather elaborate straining system using about everything we have. Cactus fruit has small stickers on it (no big deal) but there are also these almost microscopic little buggers which can really cause havoc. They are so fine, they will get inhaled! The final stage was to pour through several layers of muslin and a paper coffee filter. The bounty from all this was about eight gallons of prickly pear cactus juice. Nectar of the desert! We poured several gallons into ice cube trays to freeze for later use.

Sunday, Mardi and Marci began making the actual jelly. Recipes abound for this process but none of them seem to be complete or they are contradictory with each other. You just have to read between the lines and be a little creative. After a couple of false starts, the jelly was piling up like a real canning line.

It tasted wonderful! I took some of the juice and blended it with my Hummingbird mix.

They love it too!

Marci arrived Monday morning with her "Cordial Maker" a kind of odd little machine that looks to be a cross between an ice cream maker and a yogurt machine. What the Hell, let's try it. You simply take about half cactus juice, half vodka and some sugar and pour it into this contraption. Set the dial and wait a few hours. Voila! You have Prickly Pear Cordial! Simple as that. Hmmmmmmm...I think we may be onto something here. Sweet, thick, and it packs a kick! It looks as if we may need a few liters of this stuff just to make it through the winter.

The next plan is to devote a few gallons of juice to cactus wine. We have most of the stuff already and the fruit is ready to pick! I'll let you know how it turns out, in a few months.

Chow!

It might have been a wake, but the food...................!!

Our cousin's mom passed a few days ago. The funeral was yesterday with a wake afterward. We volunteered to cook the food because, that's what we do. Our cousins were overwhelmed by out-of-town guests and preparations. The last thing they needed was to try to feed 60 or 70 people.

As luck would have it, I had just installed my new grill on Sunday. I gave it a quick trial with a few brats and decided that it would be ok. It's not like my old clunker but I will get used to it. Besides, this one is a whole lot fancier! The real test came Tuesday. I first, grilled an 11 pound pork shoulder roast. The seasoning wasn't too involved as we were going to make pulled pork BBQ with it. I used the indirect grilling method on my trusty broiler pan @ about 275.

I left it on the grill for just over five hours and basted it regularly with its own juices. After about two hours, I tented it with a piece of foil. I think this helps keep in the moisture while not allowing things to get too dark.
As the pork roast cooked, I prepared a 12 pound beef brisket. This one got a wonderful sugar and chile powder based dry rub. Nothing particularly exotic, just add a little extra zippy enhancement without overpowering the wonderful beef flavor. When the pork roast came off the grill, the brisket went on. I kept the temp the same and followed the ironclad rule: NO looking for two hours! After that, I basted the brisket with its own juices. KISS cooking at its best. 6 hours later I turned off the heat and removed the beef, wrapped it with foil and let it rest for about another hour. Wednesday morning I sliced it thinly and poured some of the left over juice right back over the meat. Oh, I almost forgot, I also baked a big ham in the oven of our outside kitchen while all this other stuff went on. It was wonderful! but..............................

back to the brisket. We managed to get all the food to the wake by about one in the afternoon. everyone was really hungry from all the crying and the pressure was on. In no time at all and with a lot of help, we had a fabulous spread! We used an electric roaster for a makeshift steam table and put the pulled pork and beef brisket in it to stay hot. I was a little nervous as I had never cooked a brisket before. To add to my anxiousness, this is one of my favorite things to eat and it is always made to seem almost impossible to do right. (unless you have a $10,000 trailer mounted smoker, a keg of beer and a half dozen rednecks to keep you up all night cooking, tending and drinking) Now, I am as much a redneck as the next guy, and I am willing to do all that other stuff. If I have a couple of days to recuperate. Time just did not permit that much fun.

The first indication that maybe the beef was ok, was when I noticed one of the guests bragging about how everything but the brisket was fantastic! While talking up all the other food, he was loading his plate with brisket! Several times. At last, he confided, it was the best brisket he had ever eaten. This was a cool thing. Over and over, people raved about our food. Mardi had made a ton of other stuff all while teaching a class. We are so fortunate that an event like this is pretty easy for us to pull off now.

For us to be able to provide a wonderful meal and help lessen the grief of all the guests is truly a gift we are very thankful for. The rest of the day was spent telling stories, drinking and eating. I think everyone went home feeling just a little better, and a lot fuller.

Chow!

Our best ribs yet!

Ok, I know we always say this - but really, I think this latest rack was the best yet! We love to cook ribs on the grill. In fact, a couple of summers ago we cooked ribs every weekend. All that practice has really paid off. I use a gas grill and indirect heat. My grill is not exotic but it works very well, especially after Mary Q "pimped it a little". We souped it up from a paltry 35k BTUs to a more manly 55,000 BTUs. Besides being able to get far more heat from it now, I also can go lower and hold the temp (at say, 300 degrees) with ease. Before, I had to prop the lid open and other embarrassing tricks.

We use pork ribs (not baby backs) as we think they have more and better flavor. First we remove the silver skin. (that tough membrane over one side of the rack) Just get under one end with a sharp boning knife and peel it up a little. Grab the flap with a paper towel and pull firmly. If you are (very) lucky, it will all come off in one piece. If not, just keep picking at it till it is gone. We then trim the excess meat off from around the bottom of the rack. (St Louis style) Cook these pieces along with the other and treat them the same. I like a dry rub that we make ourselves. I'll post the recipe on our newsletter website, BiteMe!, soon. Smear the dry rub all over the ribs and allow them to rest for at least 45 minutes. Make your mopping sauce ( I'll post a recipe for it too) and soak your wood chips. If you use a charcoal grill the chips will not be needed. For your gas grill, try this easy and non-messy trick: take a piece of foil about a foot long, place a generous handfull of wood chips in the center. (hickory, mesquite, whatever you like) bring the sides of the foil up to meet all around and fold into a pouch. Punch a bunch of holes in it and soak this whole thing in a container of water for 20-30 minutes. Drain the water off and place right on the fire of your grill. Wonderful smoky flavor will result! Simply throw the pouch away when you are done.

Meanwhile, back to our ribs. I found a broiler tray and pan from a kitchen stove at a tag sale. I love this thing! I spray both pieces with Pam then place my rack of ribs bony side up on it. You also can use one of those disposable foil baking pans with a roasting rack in it. Either one keeps the ribs from sitting in the drained fat. Heat the grill to about 300-350 degrees using one burner. Place your ribs on the unheated side. Cooking ribs is where Life in the Slow Lane is perfect. Close the lid and walk away for about 30 minutes. When you check in again, liberally baste them with your mopping sauce and tent the ribs with a piece of foil. This will help keep them moist. Keep checking and basting about every thirty minutes and cook for a total of about three hours. About halfway along, I will turn the whole pan 180 degrees to share the heating wealth. Using an instant read thermometer, and without touching a bone, bring your ribs to about 155-165 degrees. They will probably clock in at about 130-140 and you may need to raise the temp of your grill for the last thirty minutes or so to bring the ribs up to temp. A little extra cooking time only makes them better. Low and Slow, remember? When you remove them from your grill, allow them to rest for at least fifteen minutes. those wonderful juices on the top will go back into the meat. There you have it, the best mouth watering ribs ever! We like to serve them with a bbq sauce on the side with beer or a sturdy red wine. A hearty Zinfandel is my choice.

Chow!