the great outdoors

I took some pictures, intended for the blog, in late summer 2012. Then, due to the kind of job that frequently ended up with me doing infinite hours of work… on a Sunday… while on vacation… it was fall and the pictures no longer seemed topical.

Then, we had a spot of shockingly temperate weather in the late fall and I said, perfect! I can now post about these lovely warm-weather experiences. Surprise surprise, didn’t happen.

And now it is April, and at last warm enough again (with my qualification for being “warm enough” being, of course, the ability to grill outdoors with comfort). So at long last I seem to be ready to publish the pictures (though of course I’m only three short paragraphs into this post as I type this, so you never know, you may be reading this in 2016).

Regardless of the time of year, I love the W&OD Trail. It is particularly atmospheric on the days it threatens to storm.

When the sky began to look decidedly ominous (albeit beautiful)…

… Steve and I decided we could be warmed and sheltered in one of our favorite spots, The Pure Pasty. If you live within, say, 200 miles of Northern Virginia I’d recommend coming just for a pasty.

1. The crust is a buttery, subtly tangy, flaky, chewy taste of heaven.
2. The fillings range from perfect executions of traditional fillings to delightful experiments, including a seasonal vegetarian one that in the past has included roasted autumn vegetable delight, Indian lentils and potatoes, and spinach and feta for summer.
3. They get local, sustainable, humane meat.
4. You can get all kinds of fun British treats like bourbon biscuits (<3<3<3) and digestives.
5. Yes it’s a lot of calories but there is a beautiful and long trail a mere block and a half away to burn ‘em off!
6. Or if you want to let your inner fat kid run free (recommended), there’s a great cupcake bakery next door and a Great Harvest a few doors down.

This time we opted to split one (meaning I wasn’t hungry but Steve is Steve so he got one and then I had to take some bites cause read the above please).

And, as has happened MULTIPLE times near closing, they offered to send us home with pasties that hadn’t sold. For free. Like four. (Note that the way to differentiate the pasties is the little shape they carve on top of the crust).

Then it looked REALLY ominous. So we went to the coffee shop next door. And, knowing us, probably also stopped in the pizza place a few doors down from that (can you tell there’s a lot of good food on Church Street?!) so Steve could get another “snack”

 

Remember when I grew tomatoes? Tending and then harvesting them was one of the most rewarding, fulfilling, emotionally soothing experiences of my life.

Now that grilling season has returned, here are two things you have to do:

1. Make Martha Stewart’s grilled chicken with lemon and oregano. Butterflied whole, marinated with lemon-herb awesomeness. So amazing.

 

2. Grill peaches and serve them with cream (we had leftover cream from somethingorother and GOD cream is good).

 

Now we’ve moved up chronologically to last fall, when I made the yummiest salad.

 

It really had the whole shebang of flavors: dark, bitter farmer’s market salad greens; buttery roasted cauliflower; protein-rich hardboiled egg; sweet and crunchy chopped apples.

Best of all was the dressing: Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and mango chutney. I HIGHLY recommend this combination.

 

And now we have reached the present day, where my family hosted our first cookout of 2013!

We knew we wanted some nice grilled fish for the party, so I picked up some beautiful steelhead trout (very similar to salmon; I would’ve gotten wild salmon but Costco didn’t have it and while steelhead is farmed sustainably, not so much for salmon, per the Monterey Bay seafood guide).

For a vegetable side dish, what was fresh and beautiful and the farmer’s market- leeks- served as inspiration.

My mom found another Martha Stewart recipe, for grilled leeks. I’ll be straight with you: cleaning leeks is a huge pain, and since the recipe recommended two leeks per person (which is completely unnecessary if you buy big leeks, as ours were) it took a good long while.

Then I blanched them til just tender..

And grilled ‘em til charred and gorgeous. I had to kind of splay out their innards so they’d get charcoal-licious all the way through.

 

The steelhead soaked in this tangy lime marinade for about an hour and then I grilled it whole.

Grilling fish is tricky. Keeping on the skin as long as possible is helpful for holding it together, but at some point you have to take it off to get both sides that nice grilled flavor.

 

It all worked out. The fish was really yummy.

And I channeled my grandmother in multiple ways with dessert; first, as my mother reminded me, my grandmother always served fish with lemon dessert.

And, this dessert was really her signature. My family goes crazy for it; we were scared it had died with her, but my aunt found the recipe and I’ve made it a few times. It’s extraordinary how tasting this dessert makes all of us feel like she’s with us.

And that recipe is… Gingersnap and Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches.

A few things to note:

1. The gingersnaps are chewy. They’re also buttery and homemade. But I want to just emphasize, these are not dried-out store gingersnaps. They are CHEWY.

 

2. The lemon ice cream is just that- ice cream. Not sorbet. Creamy, lemony ICE CREAM.

Enough said.

 

the harvest

So I’m starting to understand how parents feel. Because I”ve been watching something grow, and it’s pretty amazing. I mean, as I see it, as a young person I can either work it into my budget to have children one day… or be able to afford to occasionally buy lunch from the Whole Foods salad bar. Not one without the other.

But watching something grow feels good. Bragging about its accomplishments.

Regular readers will recall that the tomatoes started (relatively) small, just a wimpy little sissy things held up with chopsticks.

But they had a serious growth spurt, and got some big grownup stakes to hold ‘em up.

  

And along with a massive growth spurt in the height of the plants, what were once buds became proper flowers.

Cunningly held to the stake with the help of what are essentially giant bag ties. If we’re sticking with the (creepy?) children analogy, perhaps we could consider these the equivalent of braces?

  

Tragedy struck them in their youth- when we had our crazy DC weather, the gusts of windwere so violent that they blew two of the plants off the deck. One of the pots broke, the stems were bent every which way, and the soil was violently flung out.

I repotted them as securely as I possibly could. I sang them both “I Say A Little Prayer For You” and “Hey Jude”, because I’ve heard music is good for plants and because I’m fond of both of those songs and find they very encouraging.

And they just kept on truckin, man!

And what were once flowers popped out into these enchanting little green things.

 

And yes, I did count them pretty regularly (and watered them evvvvery day). What was once two or three became eight, then fifteen, then twenty two (!) in pretty rapid succession.

And Holy Toledo they got bigger and bigger and bigger!

AND THEN THEY STARTED TURNING RED! I seriously can’t pick what was the most exciting point in the process (yes, seriously. Exciting.) but this might’ve been it.

At a certain point I had to consult the advice of more experienced gardeners regarding the harvest.

I took their advice until one (not actually either of the ones in the picture, suggesting some tomatoes simply mature at their own rate, like some humans) at last was ripe and beautiful.

It came right off the vine. Good sign!

 

I was so. proud. It looked totally heirloomy!

Since a single tomato was available to fill me, my sister, my boyfriend, and my mother… none of us got all that much. I made a salad with some (also local, though not grown by me) spinach and a simple vinaigrette (blackberry balsamic and olive oil).

Plated…

 

OH MY GOD MY TOMATO WAS SO GOOD.

If all it is is the magic of having grown something yourself, I want to grow all my own food. I think it was also just a really excellent varietal of tomatoes (thanks Lyddie!)- they are heirloom Abraham Lincolns. Anyway, they were wonderful- firm on the outside, juicy and sweet within, tasting incredibly flavorful and redolent of sunshine :)

 

plant family

Sorry to’ve not been around.

I’ve been breeding.

 

Lookit my beautiful babies!

They are growing BUDS!

Which is particularly impressive given their past life. These guys have a PEDIGREE: they are Abraham Lincoln heirloom tomatoes. They spent the early years of their development in the USDA building in downtown DC, and then somehow ended up in the hands of my bestie, Lydia, who works at DC Central Kitchen. So she, being an excellent friend, called me and went “Uh, I have fifteen heirloom tomato plants. Want some?” The USDA was REAL keen to get rid of these poor guys, languishing away indoors. They were sort of tragic and droopy.

I fortified them with stakes (chopsticks), water, and lotsa sun, and they are thriving!

   

And just yesterday they got some baby siblings!

Rumor has it tomato and basil grow well together.

The friends from my tomatoes were cleverly germinated by my father in yogurt jars! Neat!

 

(B for basil. He’s got a whole nursery going over there)

Also on the subject of plants, see that little gap between my front stoop and where the ivy begins?

 

It is, in fact, a (seemingly) rather large underground hole.

And the cat loves it. She goes sprinting across the lawn, dives underneath, and completely disappears. We call it her bunker, and enjoy speculating about what activities go on down there. Slash what she’s hiding. She emerges purring and covered with cobwebs.

Another thriving plant: the oregano! Year after year, with absolutely no encouragement, it winters over and thrives.

And went into my lovely dinner.

Chopped up some farmer’s market squash (all different colors; yellow, light green, white, dark green), and threw it in the oven for a head start on roasting (just with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper)

Meanwhile, cooked up a cup of quinoa.

Stirred together squash, cooked quinoa, a can of white beans, and a whoooooooole bunch of fresh oregano. Sprinkled the top of the casserole with Parmesan, chucked it in the oven for… awhile, and went outside to play frisbee with my sister and our neighbor’s adorable children.

Dinner is served.

  

Effortless, amazing (particularly with a little extra cheese). Love summer.

Important questions:

1. What do I do next with my tomatoes? I’m scared they’re going to outgrow their planters. But I don’t want to put them in the backyard cause there’s not a lotta light and I think deer will eat them (they eat everything else).

2. What’s your favorite easy, summer-vegetable-licious, one-pot dish?