Bread and Butter Pickles and Basil

From the Compassion Garden: Cucumbers
From the Herb Garden: Basil

The basil is ready to bud and flower, so yesterday I harvested the tips of the plants to keep them growing and to make pesto. Pesto is a paste made in the food processor with olive oil, garlic cloves, pine nuts, salt and parmesan cheese. It can be added to pasta or served as a spread with french bread. It is good stirred into minestrone soup. I'll share more recipes with basil in future posts.

This is the time of year I become overwhelmed with cucumbers. What I long for is a good Greek salad with home grown tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, green peppers, feta and kalamata olives in an olive oil, lemon juice and oregano dressing. BUT the tomatoes are slow in ripening and there are no tomatoes just yet.

So, I've been using the cucumbers in other ways. Today for Sunday lunch I made an Italian pasta salad (corkscrew pasta, salami, cucumbers, garbanzo beans, green onions, grape tomatoes, green, yellow, and red peppers, and olives in a basil Italian dressing). Yesterday I spent time making pint jars of bread and butter pickles for the church with the cucumbers not taken on Sunday mornings.

So, what do you do with jars of bread and butter pickles?

They are good on a hot burger or alongside a sandwich. You can put them on sandwiches of cold cuts or cheese. Or you can use them in the following recipes:

Pressed Pork Sandwiches

1 loaf Italian bread (about 8 ounces)
¼ cup Dijon mustard
12 slices bread-and-butter pickles, plus more for serving (optional)
2 cups shredded pepper Jack cheese (8 ounces)
10 ounces reserved Roast Pork Loin, thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Halve bread lengthwise. With your fingers, pull out some of the bread from both cut sides, leaving about a 1/4-inch shell all around. Spread mustard on each cut side.

2. Layer one of the bread halves with pickle slices, half the cheese, and all the pork. Scatter remaining cheese over pork, and top with other bread half. Press with your hands to flatten sandwich.

3. Place sandwich on a baking sheet. Place another baking sheet on top; weight with a heavy ovenproof skillet. Bake until cheese has melted and bread is crisp, about 15 minutes. Cut into 8 slices, and serve with more pickles, if desired.

Peanut Butter Sandwich

2 slices whole grain bread
¼ cup chunky peanut butter
1 Tablespoon mayonaise
3 bread and butter pickle stackers

1. Spread one slice of bread with peanut butter. Top with pickles. Spread remaining slice of bread with mayonnaise. Place on top of pickles, mayonnaise side down.


Bread and Butter Pickle Potato Salad

2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (about 2 1/4 inches wide), scrubbed
1 tablespoon mustard seed (see notes)
1/2 cup bread-and-butter pickle juice (see notes)
1/2 cup finely chopped bread-and-butter pickles
1/2 cup reduced-fat or regular mayonnaise
2 tablespoons cider or white wine vinegar
1 red bell pepper (1/2 pound), rinsed, stemmed, seeded, and diced
6 tablespoons minced parsley
Salt and pepper

In a 4- to 5-quart pan, combine potatoes and 1 1/2 quarts water. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender when pierced, 25 to 30 minutes. Drain and let stand until cool enough to touch, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix mustard seed, pickle juice, pickles, mayonnaise, and vinegar. Peel warm potatoes, cut into about 3/4-inch cubes, and drop into dressing. Add bell pepper; mix gently. Let cool to room temperature, at least 15 minutes. Add 4 tablespoons parsley and salt and pepper to taste; mix. Scrape into a serving bowl and sprinkle with remaining parsley.

NOTES: Pour the pickle juice out of the jar through a fine strainer into a bowl and save the mustard seed for the salad, or use dried mustard seed soaked in hot water for 5 minutes, then drained. If making salad up to 1 day ahead, cover and chill; mix before serving.

Zucchini, thyme, dill and cucumbers

From the Compassion Garden: Cucumbers (refrigerator dill chips and bread and butter pickles)
From local farmers: zucchini
From my herb garden: thyme and dill (coming soon….basil!!)

Sunday noon meal: baked salmon with lemon and dill, cucumbers in dill sauce, Mediterranean Rice Salad (wild rice with radicchio, endive, garbanzo beans, grated carrots, sliced zucchini, sliced mushrooms, grapes, diced apples, feta cheese and greek olives in a olive oil, lemon juice, and thyme dressing), and multi-grain baguette.

Because of the foodfriends caning day, I was not able to get to the Winchester Farmer’s Market last Saturday. A recent AP article in the Newsgazette headlined “Number of farmers markets growing steadily as demand increases.” It goes on to read “the growing popularity of the markets is attributed to a number of factors: less tolerance for bland meat and produce some consumers associate with big factory farms; more demand for the just-picked freshness and nutrition of locally grown food, increased awareness about supporting local economies; and health and environmental concerns about the use of antibiotics and pesticides……Buying local is less wasteful, it reconnects us with our neighbors, and the food tastes better and is more wholesome.”

I missed getting to see what was available this past week. I am thankful for the work of many in Winchester who began this market and I appreciate opportunities to visit with people like Gary Girton (the brother of Joyce G. Edwards) and to see what his garden is producing.

Reconnect with your neighbors and shop in Winchester on Saturday mornings!

foodfriends cooking day.....

Bushel of Green Beans: $22
Jars to can Beans: $5.00
Hours to snap Beans: 3
Can of Green Beans at Aldi’s: $.39

A day with wonderful friends......
Green beans with sea salt and no preservatives......
Learning how to use that ugly pressure canner in our kitchens.....
Fresh green beans for supper......
Not going to Aldi’s in January when it is 3 degrees outside:
PRICELESS

A foodfriends canning day with Virginia D. went well this past Saturday. Thank you, Virginia, for your time and talent in showing us how to can beans and use our pressure canners.

So what do you do with a pint or quart of beans when you are tired of just plain beans?

There is always the traditional green bean casserole with French fried onions and mushroom soup, or Shepherd’s Pie with beans, hamburger, tomato sauce and onions topped with cheesy mashed potatoes.

You can make a Swiss green beans casserole of green beans in a swiss cheese sauce topped with corn flake crumbs.

You can use beans in vegetable soup, minestrone soup, or green bean soup (a vegetable chowder with carrots, potatoes, onions and lots of green beans with parsley and summer savory and cream topped with diced hard-cooked eggs……ask Pam for the recipe.)

Virginia uses beans in the crock pot for a one dish meal of ham, potatoes and beans. I use green beans in a tuna salad Nicoise (a bed of greens layered with potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, hard cooked eggs and tuna with a vinaigrette dressing.)

Or make a bean salad with green beans, yellow wax beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, onions, and green peppers in a vinaigrette dressing.

The sky is the limit now that your shelves are full of green beans......

Green Beans and Rosemary

July 9, 2005 Saturday evening Barbeque: Grilled hamburgers, baked beans, coleslaw, corn on the cob, relish plate with peanut dip, potato chips, lemon meringue pie.

July 10, 2005 Sunday Lunch: 3 Fruit Chicken Salad, Rosemary Green Bean and Potato Salad, Tossed Salad, Fruit Salad, Carrot Cake, Waldorf Astoria Cake.

From Compassion Garden: Cucumbers, dill pickle chips, bread and butter pickles.

From Winchester Farmer’s Market and local farmers: Kohlrabi, cabbage, watermelon, cantaloupe, fresh corn, green beans.

RECIPE: Rosemary Green Bean Potato Salad

2 pounds of red potatoes, steamed and peeled, cut into chunks
1 ½ pounds of green beans, stemmed and lightly steamed until barely tender
1 small red onion, thinly sliced

Mix together in a large bowl and pour ½ - ¾ of dressing over room temperature potatoes, green beans and onions. Just before serving, add last of dressing if needed and sprinkle with sprigs of rosemary. Serve at room temperature.

Dressing:
1 cup olive oil
½ cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 Tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped

Mix dressing ingredients together and pour over room temperature vegetables.

Dill and The Last Juror

From the garden: cucumbers and dill

From Winchester Farmer’s Market: Turnips, cabbage, and watermelon

July 3, 2005 Sunday Lunch: Fried Chicken, Mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, green beans, buttered turnips, coleslaw, cucumbers in vinegar with dill weed, biscuits, watermelon and peanut butter ice cream pie with chocolate sauce

For the last several weeks I’ve been listening to John Grisham’s book, The Last Juror and have fallen in love with one of the main characters, Miss Callie Ruffin. The novel is set in the 1970’s and Miss Callie is in her 60’s, an articulate, self educated black woman, mother of eight children of which seven are accomplished college professors. We see Miss Callie through the eyes of young Willie Trayner, the editor of the weekly paper for a small town in rural Mississippi.

Willie Trayner grew up in the home of a mother who did not cook. He never went hungry, but food for him consisted of cold cereal for breakfast, peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and frozen TV dinners for supper. More often than not, he ate alone. His first meal on Miss Callie’s front porch opened his world to a wonderful friendship and the glory of Southern cooking. I loved the descriptions of food just harvested from the garden and the emphasis on living off of the land, but more than anything else, I loved Miss Callie’s relationship with God.

At that first meal with Miss Callie, Willie Trayner could hardly restrain himself from the food set before him. Just as he was about to dive into the delightfully smelling dishes on the table, Miss Callie took both Willie’s hands and lowered her head to pray. As I listened to Grisham’s description of Miss Callie’s prayer, I was blessed. It was a lengthy prayer and full of thanks for all good things. Willie watched her pray and was amazed at her perfect contentment in talking to her God. In Willie’s words……”In the clutches of this very holy woman, I had never felt closer to God.”

I am not a great southern cook, or even a great cook for that matter, but it really doesn’t matter. We each have an opportunity to bring people close to God through something as simple as a shared meal around the table. It is in the moments when we give thanks for all the good things in our world and we recognize God's gift of the land and the food it produces to sustain all life that we draw all to God. And that is what really matters.

We truly are thankful and blessed. Even for turnips.

Cucumbers, Parsley and Mint

Herb
Garden

Parsonage
Backyard
June 2005






Sunday Lunch June 26, 2005

From the garden: cucumbers, parsley and mint

From Williamsburg Main Street Market: wheat bulgur *

Tabouli, hummus, pita bread, falafel with yogurt sauce, and baklava

Tabouli (Wheat and Parsley Salad)

Soak for an hour: 1 cup cracked wheat and 3 cups boiling water

Cool and drain wheat and toss with:

1 ½ cups finely chopped parsley
½ cup chopped mint
½ cup finely sliced green onions
2 med cucumbers, diced
2 cups diced tomatoes
Optional additions: 1 can of chick peas (garbanzo beans) and/or grated carrots

Cover and chill. Can be made in advanced with tomatoes added just before serving. Just before serving, toss tabouli with a dressing of ¼ cup olive oil and ¼ cup lemon juice and 1 teaspoon lemon pepper.

Tabouli can be served with romaine lettuce, which is traditionally used as a utensil for eating tabouli.

* Bulgur is whole wheat kernels that have been heated in water, dried, and cracked with some of the bran removed.


Other uses for parsley: Usually we see parsley only as a garnish, but it is a healthy food and tastes good. It can be used in any salads, in sauces, and in soups. I use it in pumpkin soup, minestrone soup, thousand island dressing, and chicken gumbo. It goes well with lemon and garlic.

Other uses for mint: It can be used for drinks and teas and mint jelly for lamb.

One of my favorite drinks is fresh mint and ginger lemonade:
½ cup packed mint leaves, chopped and crushed
1/3 cup chopped fresh ginger (chop in a food processor)
1/3 cup honey
Combine above with 2 cups boiling water and steep together for 30 minutes.
Add:
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 ½ cups cold water
Refrigerate until cold and serve over crushed ice with fresh mint leaves and lemon slices for garnish.

Compassion Garden

This is the fourth year for a Compassion Garden. This little urban garden has been a gift. It was inspired by an article in a Heifer International magazine about a rundown school yard in California that was transformed into a large, beautiful organic garden tended by the school children. Students planted and harvested vegetables, the cafeteria staff taught the students how to cook what they grew for school lunches, and excess produce was sold to an organic restaurant down the street. Everyone profited: the restaurant, the school, the children and the community.

Across the street from the Winchester Friends Meeting are two parking lots, one belongs to the Quakers, the other the Presbyterians. Between the two lots lay a narrow "no man’s land" of soil, 6ft by 50 ft, that mostly produced weeds each summer. In 2002, with the Heifer story for inspiration, church leaders proposed planting a vegetable garden there, to be weeded and watered by youth from both churches. The produce grown would be divided between the two churches and sold to support a Compassion International child in Uganda.

Since then, each summer we harvest green peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes from plants interspersed with bright marigold flowers. Youth come by to weed and water whenever they have time. Adults support this project with donations of hoses, wire cages, and labor. And they give lavish prices for the vegetables. We collect enough money each summer to pay a year’s support of a Compassion Child. That speaks far more of the generosity of the adults buying the produce than it does of the amount of produce from the garden. Their acts of giving have been an encouragement to the youth.

I won’t pretend the youth are doing all the work, but I have been pleasantly surprised at their interest and pride for this project. We are learning important lessons from this garden. In a world where 24,000 people die each day of hunger, it doesn’t make sense to let weeds grow where food can be produced. The food we grow won’t make its way to Africa, but it does provide good healthy nutrition for our community. From our financial abundance we can assist these youth to help one child out of poverty. This is good stewardship of land and labor, and a visible expression of God’s intentions for our earth. The garden teaches us that our physical work to nurture this soil in Winchester, Indiana, matters to a child in Uganda. Money helps, but how we live makes the real difference in our world.

The Compassion Garden builds community. People come together to work and watch the garden grow. Youth relate to adults as they sell produce. Their excitement is visible when they realize how generous people are to this project and how pleased people are with their efforts. I’m blessed by those who wave or honk as they drive by while I’m watering and weeding, or who patiently slow their car to allow me to pull the watering hose across the street. I appreciate the opportunity to greet my neighbors as they walk by and to hear their comments on the garden. The Compassion Garden produces vegetables, but I think we are really growing compassion. And everyone benefits: the neighborhood, the Quakers, the Presbyterians, the youth, and a young girl in Uganda.