We received an ice cream maker for our wedding over four years ago. Like everyone else who has an ice cream maker, we haven’t used it like we had planned. So, this year I am going to make sorbet…Lots of sorbet!

We started this year by using the basil that is growing out of control now on our patio. Here is the recipe we used:

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups water
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon zest
4 tablespoons lemon juice
24 basil leaves

In a small saucepan, combine the water, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sugar is dissolved, about 10 minutes. Add the basil and set aside to steep for 3 minutes. Strain syrup through a fine mesh sieve and set aside to cool. Transfer to the refrigerator until thoroughly chilled, then process in an ice cream machine according to your machine’s directions. Transfer to a freezer-proof container with a lid and freeze until ready to serve.

Our first attempt at this sorbet turned out a little too sweet, so I have adjusted the water/lemon/sugar ratios. I try it again soon, and hoping the adjustments help!

Here is a link to all of the Farmer’s Markets in the L.A area. I am sure there is a similar list for your metro area if you search for it.

Artichokes

carrots

There are certain fruits and vegetables that I love to buy from the farmer’s market. Honey, beets, greens, citrus, broccoli, and strawberries are our seasonal staples from the farmer’s market. Organic or pesticide-free strawberries are also cheaper for us at the farmer’s market than from the grocer. Our two-year old loves strawberries. so pesticide free is important to us. When I am in the supermarket, I always try to look for products that are produced locally.

Beets

Beets are relatively inexpensive at the farmer’s market. I can usually pick up three bundles for $4-5. Choose beets that are firm and medium sized. There are several colors and varieties of beets available. I love the orange and yellow beets, as they are less messy! After roasting, I add beets to salad, eat them plain, or toss them with some feta cheese and balsamic vinegar. Roasting beets brings out the sweetness.

Here is how I prepare them:

Cut beets in half and place cut-side down on foil that has been lightly sprayed with olive oil.
Lightly coat the beets with olive oil, and roast them at 350 degrees for about 1 hour, or until you can poke through the largest beet easily with a fork. I have also read that you can lightly wrap the beets in foil, and that they might cook faster.

Remove the beets from the oven and let them cool to touch. The skins should easily slide off by rubbing the beets with a paper towel, and by coaxing them a bit with a fork. Slice and enjoy.

You can also eat the beet greens that are attached to the beets! Vendors will sometimes ask if you want them cut off. They resell them as beet greens…Duh!

Cut the greens from the beets, wash, place in a pot with about a 1/4 cup water, and steam for 15-20 minutes. Add salt and pepper and enjoy. I also substitute that steaming liquid with orange juice on occasion to add a citrus taste to the greens. Basically, you can cook the greens as you would regular spinach, but they might need longer cooking time depending on your preference.

Rocket Salad

My Rocket Salad growing in a small container on my patio.

Rocket Apollo is a fast growing salad rocket with large, rounded, tender leaves, and an excellent peppery taste. Rocket Salad is best harvested as young leaves or as “cut and come again” salads.
Easy to grow in containers or flower boxes and can be ready to harvest in 25 days.

The interesting flavor of this Arugula will add spunk to any boring salad. It is spicy, so I add it to milder salad mixes. Roquette Arugula is most often eaten raw in salads but can also be steamed or added raw to many other dishes, and is even good on pizza with goat cheese!

Arugula, when mature, grow to 2 to 3 feet tall, but the leaves are tastiest and less bitter when harvested 2 to 6 inches long. The flowers are white and are also edible. Plant in early spring, 3 to 4 weeks before the last average frost date and plant successive plantings therafter every 3 weeks until first fall frost approaches. Rocket Salad Arugula prefers light, fertile, moist, and well drained soil. In warmer climates, delay planting during the heat of the summer, or keeping containers in a partly shady area during hot summer days has worked for me.

My favorite summer salad combo:

2 tbls olive oil
2 tbls balsamic vinegar
1 tsp grainy mustard
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
4-5 cups baby arugula leaves (or any spicy rocket salad)
cubed roasted beets (about 3 medium)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Feta or Goat cheese

Whisk together the olive oil, mustard and balsamic vinegar in a large bowl. Toss salad ingredients to lightly coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving. When available I also add roasted red peppers, spicy sliced Calamata olives, or sliced radish.

We bought some canned, pickled green tomatoes last week at the Farmer’s Market. They were super expensive, so much that I am embarrassed to say! So, this year I am going to attempt canning. Our family pickled tons of vegetables when I was growing up in Michigan, so I assume that my mom has a nice recipe that I can borrow! My favorite pickled vegetable is pickled green beans.

Pickled Green tomatoes

This jar is half full of course! Pickled vegetables are so yummy. You can make them as sweet, sour, garlicky, spicy as you want depending on your tastes!

*Important notes about canning and pickling vegetables:

The acidity of pickled products is important because it helps prevent the growth of Clostridium botulinum. Only recipes with tested proportions of ingredients should be used in pickling. Only use vinegar (cider or white) having an acidity of 4 to 6% (40 to 60 grains). This is the range of acidity for most commercial vinegars. “Pickling” or “canning” salt, Sea salt and Kosher salt can be used. Iodized salt can darken pickles, and table salt contains anti-caking agents that can make the brine cloudy.

Pickled Green Beans
2 pounds fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
8 cloves garlic, peeled
12 sprigs fresh dill weed
4 teaspoons sea salt or Kosher salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
2 1/2 cups distilled water
Red pepper flakes (to taste)

Cut green beans to fit inside pint sized canning jars. Canning jars and lids can be found at your local hardware store.
Steam green beans over 1 inch of boiling water, and cover. Cook until slightly tender but still firm, for about 3 minutes. Place beans in ice water, drain well.
Pack the beans into four hot, sterilized pint jars. Place 2 clove garlic and 4 sprigs dill weed into each jar. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, and red pepper (optional) to each jar.
In a large saucepan over high heat, bring vinegar and water to a boil. Pour over beans.
Fit the jars with lids and rings and process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

This is a recipe that I have adapted and have used in the past. I will have my mom send me the “official” family recipe asap!

My tomato plants in patio containers have been growing well so far! I have been keeping them watered, and the hot sunshine is shaded by the house by around 2pm. My Early Girls have already bloomed fruit, and my Purple Cherokee has also bloomed. I am recycling water back into my plants that has collected in the drainage pans. I read somewhere that this water has nutrients that have drained through the soil.

Since our tomato plants aren’t actually fruiting yet, we recently purchased some lovely tomatoes at the farmer’s market. I remembered this recipe for oven dried tomatoes that my friend Jeri gave to me.

Prepare these in advance, even days ahead, but be sure to serve them at room temperature, on a salad or just eat them! Slow roasting or sun drying tomatoes brings out the sugary sweetness.

So easy:
TIME: 3 hours

a dozen vine-ripened tomatoes, cut in half horizontally
2 tablespoons olive oil
Preheat the oven to 275ºF.

In a small roasting pan, toss the tomatoes with the olive oil. Roast the tomatoes, seed-side up, for three hours.

Tomato plants growing in containers

May in California: I have had to water my tomatoes about every other day depending on how hot it is outside. I water until there is about an inch overflow into plastic tray under the pot. I also use a watering can, not the hose. Keeping the hose on during watering wastes water!

Eggplants grow well in larger containers, and small garden plots. Keep them in a sunny place and water often. We use eggplant to make baba ganoush, use it in spagetti sauce and layered in lasagna. Don’t wait until eggplants get too big to pick them though, eggplants that go too long can be seedy and kind of bitter. Roasted eggplant is the best. Yum.

Baba Ganoush

1 1/2 lb Eggplant or 2-3 medium sized eggplants.
3 tbls Lemon juice
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Minced fresh garlic (I lower the garlic amount because it hurts my belly)
2 tbls Sesame tahini
2 tbls yogurt or sour cream
1/8 c Chopped fresh parsley
1/4 c Toasted pine nuts (optional)
2 tbls Olive oil to drizzle over the top.

Preheat oven or grill to 400 degrees F. Prick eggplant all over with a fork. Cut the eggplant in halves (the long way) Bake or grill flesh side down, until tender (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven or grill and carefully scoop out the flesh. Blend in a food processor with the lemon juice to consistency preference (I like small chunks of eggplant). Mash the salt and garlic together and blend into the eggplant, along with the tahini and yogurt. Cool and stir in the parsley and chopped pine nuts (optional). Before serving, drizzle with the olive oil, and sprinkle with paprika. Best served in a shallow dish in my opinion.
Serve as a dip with baked triangles of flat (pita) bread.