Suburban Gardening

One thing many people do not know about me is that of all things I have a Culinary Degree.....I am a trained Chef.  Somehow I ended up in Hotel Finance, go figure.

Well, I have to say I am completely addicted to Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  I simply can not wait until this time of year to be able to get them.  This is one of the only syrups that they carry that they will not sell to the public.  I work for a hotel with a coffee shop that is an authorized Starbuck's vendor, and they will not even sell it to us. 

Well, I created my own.  And I made it SUGAR FREE.  And based on my calculations, it is only 1 (yes, one) calorie per teaspoon.  This is a great improvement over their verison. 

Check out the recipe, I posted it on eHow.com. 

CLICK HERE FOR MY RECIPE

I know, I will catch a little heat from it, I used canned pumpkin.  I have to admit, I could not even get my pumpkins to sprout this year.  But I am sure everyone will be able to make it work for them!!

Let meknow what you think, leave me a comment here, on eHow, or both!!

Thanks!

SG

As I mentioned on an earlier post, my first job was at a Chinese Restaurant.  Well, really, my FIRST job was a summer camp counselor, but my first REAL job was in a Chinese Restaurant.

As this was a small family run establishment, I often ate real Cinese food.  Let me be clear, this was not the stuff on the Americanized Chinese menus, but the real stuff.  One of the most common items was actaully KimChi, while I know that techincally Korean, we often ate it.

I was playing on the blogs, and as always, one blog lead me to another, and to another, and then I stubbled upon The Subsistence Pattern.  An there it was....a kimchi recipe.  While I read it, it didn't sound exactly like to one I ate growing up, but it seemed like a good recipe, so I decided to try it.  The stuff you get in the jars at the grocery store just were not right....

Here is the link directly to his recipe...Kimchi Recipe on The Subsistence Pattern.

 I work for a hotel, so I asked the storeroom clerk, if they had any gallon size glass jar that I could have...they were happy to give me one.  If you read the comments on the recipe, you will see a little debate forming over plastic containers verses glass.  Once I made it up, I transferred it into two smaller quart size mason jars to store in the fridge, while I eat it up!

It turned out great....the good part about making it yourself, you control it....a little more spice, a little less salt, more ginger.....

NEXT TIME:  I will make it with Brocoli stems.  That is the other way we often made it at the restaurant.  While the American-Chinese cooking has a lot of brocoli, it rarely used the stems.  We would slice these up about a quarter inch thick and make it into kimchi.  

Oh the childhood memories......

Until next time

SG

So I am a little behind on my posting, but wanted to share anyways.  Better later than never.

The garden is very much on the bare side.  After ripping out the final tomatoes, the only things left are my herb garden and some peppers (oh and one watermelon vine).  The heat finally took out everything else.

I was able to harvest a little more than 12 oz. (cleaned and picked off the stems) of Basil.  As my last batch was dried (thanks Granny for the microwave idea) and I am still using it, I decided to take advice of The Modern Victory Garden and make some pesto for freezing.

I put the basil in my food processor along with a little olive oil and some Italian cheese. In the end I ended up with a large amount of pesto, that I zip-locked and froze. When needed, I will pull it out, cut off the amount I need, and put it back in the freezer.

From the harvest picture about, you will see a few habinero peppers and some ripe (red ripe) jalepenos.  I decided to combine that with some cider vinger, diced onions (left from my harvest months ago) through the blender and cooked it on the stove until a little thich with some salt.  I added a little more cider vinger (as it boiled out).  Then I bottled it for some SPICY hot sauce.  It turned out great.  I have been putting it on my grilled chicken.  I am told it will keep in the refrigerator for about six months. 

I expect it to be gone in a few weeks.....only one bottle of it....perfect for the 5 harinero and 8 or so jalapenos.

The only other thing that seems to be producing well in the herb garden is some ginger root I planted in April or so.  I need to do a little more research, but I just bought some from the grocery store and popped it in the ground.  I love fresh ginger, so I hope it turns out well.  My first job was in a Chinese Resturant, and I am hoping to adapt a recipe for the Ginger Dumpling sauce that I am able to can and put up for use anytime.  I will eat this sauce on EVERYTHING (plus it make a great marinade).

Thanks for reading.  As always I appreciate any comments left!

SG