Peppers

Here are the pepper I started from seed in the Aerogarden.

(The left one is actually an eggplant bought at Lowe's)  The
two plants on the right are the bell peppers.

New pepper

New pepper

Baby pepper

Herbs

Siam queen basil, red rubin basil, parlsey - doing well

Basil that my dad gave me, dill

Raised bed

The raised bed is doing really great.  Here are the sweet potatoes next to it.

Raised bed 2 weeks ago

Raised bed now!!

Sweet potato patch in the back

Tomatoes

Oh yeahhh... this is an Aerogarden page!  I haven't updated on the Aerogarden in a while, so here's a few pics.

Still dealing with whiteflies.  I keep spraying with the dish soap/water solution which does kill a lot of them.  When I spray I slide a cutting board under the lights so they don't get hit by the spray & burst.

Upside-down tomato plant outside

It is making a lot of tomatoes - we pick them like twice a week

More that will turn red soon!

Pierogies!

While I wait for my sauerkraut to ferment (moved it to the garage where there's no A/C - that will speed it up), I made some pierogies!  I got the real deal - Polish Cookery - which was actually written in Polish initially and then translated to English.

Making pierogies was actually a New Years Resolution of mine to try to stay in-tune with my Polish heritage.

Whenever anyone in my family makes pierogies, the other family members beg her to make extra and send the pierogies home with them!  They also freeze very well.

Not much required for the dough.  Flour, egg, and a little
bit of water.  I had to kind of play with the egg/water ratio
to ensure an elasticy, play-dough-like consistency.

Step 1 - convince your significant other to make delicious
mashed potatoes

Saute onion in butter til lightly golden brown

Roll out your dough.  This is half of the dough.  This would
be considered a single batch.

Find a cup/container that will make circles the size you want.
You can reuse/reroll the dough to make more pierogies after.

After mixing potatoes with the sauteed/minced onion/butter
mixture, spoon a little into the center of each circle.

Add cheese!  I used sharp cheddar.

Press ends together.  I used a fork to make it cute.  This
reminded me of when I was a little kid making these out
of blue play-dough.  Every time I had play-dough I would
make pretend pierogies.

Demo of the fork method

Every pollock will tell you that you gotta make a double batch,
which is what I did.

Although it's not pictured, first you BOIL in salted water
until they float.  Most people would stop there.  However,
I like to saute in butter.  Gives it just the slightest crisp -
about a minute or two each side.  I also think it helps to bring
out the flavor of the filling.

 

They get just a tad golden brown.

And here is the finished product - complete with another
batch of sauteed onions (sauteed in butter, of course)!   If
you are going for authentic, ya gotta do it right!

This took about 2 hours and my feet and back were killing me by the time it was all done!  I ended up with approx. 34 pierogies.  I froze some, we ate some, and there are some leftovers in the fridge!  Yum yum!

Lacto-fermented sauerkraut

I, Polish girl, am trying my hand at making lacto-fermented sauerkraut. I got this recipe from Joanne who I think is brilliant. Recipe here: http://frugalhomeandhealth.blogspot.com/2012/03/sauerkraut-lacto-fermented.html

1st, I quartered & cored the cabbage and cut it into strips.

Then I pounded each quarter with 1.5 t. salt for approx
5 minutes til it reduces & gets juicy. I added more salt for
each batch I pounded. I used the handle of a knife
sharpener to pound with.

I added the cabbage to a mason jar.

I pushed down. This is cabbage juice resulting from the
process, no water added. 

 

I cut a margarine lid to size and put it on top of the cabbage. I
filled a small glass jar with water, used it as a weight to keep
all of the cabbage under the cabbage juice so it
doesn't rot. Now I will wait several days until it gets very
bubbly. (Approx 5-6 days). Then I'll refrigerate. Eat
"raw" - do not cook - the beneficial bacteria is
very good for your gut! If you cook the kraut it will
kill the beneficial bacteria.

This was very fun and pretty exciting! It makes me feel more connected with my Polish heritage. 

Joanne's other recipes:

http://frugalhomeandhealth.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html

I think I'll try the homemade butter next, since we get raw milk directly from a farm every week. All you really need for that is some salt, a cake mixer, and some time. You also get buttermilk out of the process.

Upside-down tomato / eggplant