Rob the Fiddler

The Fall garden is dying!  Well…mostly.  First frost of the year hits this weekend. The basil and arugula were bitten pretty hard last night.   After tonight, the only survivors will be some of the lettuce and the chard.

This was probably the best fall garden I have ever had.  The peppers did really well.  Arugula grew pretty well too, but a little of that seems to go a long way.  The best fairing lettuce was surprisingly some kind of six pack of lettuce that I bought at walmart of all places.

Broccoli was hit and miss.  Some plants thrived while others just never did much of anything. There is one spot that it grows like gangbusters…but I have to rotate crops.

I did let one pacman bolt to bloom.  It makes a surprisingly LARGE bloom.  The bloom in the pic below is like th size of a soccer ball. The bees loved it too…so I left it alone.  The bees loved the orange cosmos in the picture as well.  They grow like weeds in my backyard. Sweet, sweet weeds.

Another MVP (most valuable plant)  this year was  tarragon.  Very strong tasting! I thought I had one last year…but it was utterly tasteless. Unfortunately, there  is another plant that grows as a weed out here and it looks surprisingly similar.  I suspect that’s what I mistook for tarragon.   (Perhaps the real one died…and Im pretty sure I was eating junk) .

The blooms smell like the herb too.  If you look close, you can see a little Habanero in the basil.  Tarragon is supposed to be cold hardy…we will see.

Each year you garden, you learn more lessons.  Last year, I learned that I really needed more bees. To encourage this, I planted plenty of flowers.   Bees love basil, so I let the lemon basil flower rather than prune them. That worked out much better as far as yields go.  I was still swabbing cukes and zukes with Q-Tips and pollen, just in case.  Maybe I ought to look into an apiary?

Rather than doing a fall planting of tomatoes, I left the spring ones alone.  I cut them back a bit to encourage growth, but they didn’t do all that well.  They grew…had LOTS of fruits…but all are green.  Bummer. (I hate fried green tomatoes).

My Chile Piqune plant is still around.  I dug this one up from a lot in East Dallas just before it was to be turned into condos.  The stuff grows wild out in Texas.  Its getting on 3 years old and I hope it has a year left in it. Next to that is a purple tomatillo. I  grew this from seed.  It survived the summer, but the fruits never got all that big.  The problem with the fall garden is that once things start growing, the days get shorter REALLY quick.  Still, it was a beautiful plant.  I probably should have pinched the flowers back.

Some kind of wild melon grew.  Its a hybrid of a cantalope and something…I dunno. It grew from a pot that I never  put seeds into…so of course I let it be.  It finished out about the size of a baseball. I have not opened it up yet.

One of the coolest plants was a purple bell pepper. I bought this at Central Market.

This was one of the sweetest peppers ever.  I babied it to death too.  The outside is purple but the inside was green.  When cooked, it acts like purple beans.  The phytochemical that makes it purple, goes away with very little heat, so it turns green quickly.  Your best bet for visual effects are to eat them raw.

We took a different approach and turned them into tasty migas!

ummm.

So on Thanksgiving, I went into the garden and picked what I could before the first frost. This is what I found.

Habaneros, Cayennes, two bells (or poblanos..I dunno) some lemon cukes and small cucumber.

I left the beans out to dry out.

Final lesson…when stuff dies, clear it out. Overwintering pests are bad for gardens.

I can cook, grill, brew, stir-fry, stew and steam….but not bake.

Its getting to be about the edge of hatch chili season and I wanted to try some kind of hatch chili cornbread thing.  Should have been just a slight variation from Jalapeno Corn Bread.

The thing is I was trying for something that didn’t require a cup of oil or had a million calories.

Mistake one: Baking, unlike cooking, is a much more exact science.  If it says 1 cup of x, that is what you need.  I tend to substitute.

Mistake two: Just because the recipe looks like a recipe, does n0t mean that it right in the first place.  The best place to find something standard is not off a website.  The best cornbread recipe would be on the package of corn meal.  The best cookie recipe will be on the package of chocolate chips. (yet I still mess those up too).

If I religiously follow things like I was taught….I might pull it off.

So…back to my mess.

The recipe I found promised great results and was low fat. Ok.

Problem 1.  I was in the bulk foods section and blue corn meal was available.  It looked so much more interesting.

Problem 2. Recipe called for Vanilla Yogurt.  I had honey flavored greek yogurt.  I was a little worried that greek yogurt is one step below ricotta…but its what I had.

Problem 3. My timer died, so it was in the oven a tad bit longer than planned.

What I ened up with was nasty purple “Barney” cake.  Hard as a rock and required spoons of butter to make it palatable.  The purple texture with chili green chunks was just horrid.

So the Boys Named Sue and the O’s got to do a show in Hawaii for a wedding. Talk about a sweet deal.  I gotta admit, its  nice to see all those days lugging a violin back and forth between home and Jr High paying off some dividends.

The only thing that went wrong was at the start of the trip. Somehow, someway, my camera was lost.  I had it in my computer bag, but the pocket could have been open or something and it fell out.  Luckily, I never invest much in cameras, but still…I dig taking snapshots of just about everything.

So, the pics I do have are all from either my phone (crappy) or from a disposable 35mm.  Actually, with the ipod hipstamatic being so popular, it kinda seemed like I would get an interesting look.  Naw…that whole  charging a flash and winding business is just a waste of time.

Looks hip enough to me.

We were in a town called Hawi in the North part of the Island.   Truly a one light town.

We got into town from the airport around 8pm.  Luckily, there was a bar next to the hotel.  Unluckily, last call was at 9:30pm.  The motel was nice.  It was very low key.  No A/C but had fans.  Considering the sticker shock of ANYTHING in the state, a place for under 100 bucks a room is a steal. Plus the coffee in the morning was probibly the best I have ever had…and I drink a lot of coffee.  If your looking to see the underside of Kona on a budget, this is more your sort of  place.   If you want a resort and a beach…move on. (wimp)

On Saturday, they have a farmers market.

Everybody was really nice and fed me.  I got to try lilikoi…which is pretty much passion fruit.  Great in a Mai Tai.

Bananas, Bamboo n sugarcane.  Sweet.

It was nice to have an actual tour manager for the trip.  Mike took care of just about everything. All we had to do was relax and play music. The wedding party was all weekend so the O’s were  on Thurs and the Sues on Sat.

The food part was interesting.  The most tastiest dish was a Poke salad served at one of the pre-parties.  It was served in a clear plastic storage container and was AWESOME!!!!! From a distance it looked like a big tub of raw fish and onions…and it pretty much was. WOW!  I ate about a pound of raw fish right there.   The other food at the wedding and pre-party was stellar, but the poke was was about the best thing I ever ate the whole time there.

Mike treated us to dinner at Huggos. The bar faced the sunset perfectly.  The food was excellent!  If I ever went back to Kona…this is were I would go.

Spam sushi.  Yes…this is like the big mac of Hawaii.

Its called Spam Musubi.  At 3 bucks at the Airport…its a steal

Fish tacos on the beach at Hapuna Bay.  Excellent.

Things to see on the North part of the Island…..well…there is not a lot of beach actually. It was a 20 min drive to the closest beach at Mauna kea.

Party Cove and I did the zip line tour. That was pretty sweet. Well worth it. Also, I did about a 7.7 mile hike around the area.  It was interesting, but pretty hard to actually see the coast without a private property sign. There is a public access point…but by the time I found it, I was 4 miles in and tired. Plus it looked to be a 20 min hike…all switchbacks from that point. At this point I figured I needed to get home.

The history of the island was pretty interesting.  Lots of cattle.  Most of the island seems to be one big cattle ranch.  The wedding itself was located on a part of Kona that used to be sugar cane.  When big sugar left, the whole side of that mountain was pretty much burned bare.  The family that owns the land is reforesting the hillside.  Turns out wild cattle do a lot of the work. Cattle love Guava and poop the seeds all over the place.

Guava Guana…coincidence?

Anyways…if anybody has a book on the history of Kona, I would love to borrow it.

I gotta admit, this was not the best growing year for me. From what I can tell, its not just my yard. The Richardson wildflowers that grow all over were pitiful. Im usually overrun with sunflowers and now I just have one.  Worst of all, I was hit with some kind of mosaic virus that infected the squash and morning glories.  The tomatoes were ok, but none of the the big ones came out.

I did edit up with plenty of cherry and small tomatoes though…so its not a big loss.

Onions were small too….but I picked enough of them along with a few peppers to make some chili.

Pitiful compared to 2005

Good weekend.  On Friday a friend too me to see my first Rough Riders game. She had season tickets too, pretty much behind the plate. A lot more fun than a Rangers game.  I might have to try minor league hockey next.

Other than that, it was a relaxed weekend. The O’s and Romp Almighty did a block party in Richardson. I tagged along. Richardson is pretty cool.

See real front porches…old ladies enjoying lemonade (or Whiskey?)

Seven Mart

501 West Davis

Taco Tuesday #2

This time I tried driving into OC from 35. I forget exactly where I got off…I was lost around 8th and 35.

Ultimately found myself in the Bishop arts district when 12 minutes came up. The next visible taco stand was the Seven Mart.

Tacos were a dollar and a few items that I did not recognize were on the menu.

I asked what Deshebrada meant. I was told it was beef….shreaded..and spicy.

Ok, not a lot to go with, but at the same time…enough to be in my belly.

I ordered two fajita, two pastor and one deshebrada.

Turns out I think I got one pator and two of the shredded beef.

Those were  my favorite. It was was like hot spicy, but was kinda green chili-ish. Maybe had the taste of a Chorizo-egg taco? Still, great!  The grilled onions and sides were tasty.

Certainly much greasier…by a landslide. The fajitas were a little odd. They were colored red on the edges. Almost artificial looking. It still had a grilled tasted as if it was was carne asada flame broiled….but of the three, it was my least favorite.

I bit into the Jalapeno and had to find a big gulp afterwards.

When I started working downtown, I had big plans of taking all kinds of little trips to Oak Cliff for tacos.

Dallas LOVES tacos. They are pretty much everywhere, and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes (including tortas, gorditas, and BBQ brisket on a flour tortilla) . They are easily found in the  the back corners of gas stations and mini marts. Even bars like Vickery park and Lee Harvey’s have great tacos. Even in East Plano, you can find plenty of taco places here and there.

The first time I had real tacos was when I started playing music in Deep Ellum on a regular basis. There is a taco stand called Taco Pinocho which is open until at least three. I knew enough spanish to know what  lengua meant. It was amazing. Greasy, spicy…tasty…but all you need are a few.

At the same time, there was a taco stand in an old Airstream across from the Green room in Deep Ellum. I heard that it was basically the same kitchen as the Green Room. They served al pastor tacos with a slice of pineapple! Yum.  Omegas occasionally had a little stand too.

So the plan was to do “Taco Tuesdays” where I go and try a new place and take notes. Im not particularly a good food critic, so do not expect much.  Alas, I never really got around to doing it because I was paying for parking on a daily basis.  I found a monthly lot at 40 bucks a month and have no excuses!

Turns out, there is a fairly popular website going that is doing Taco Brackets!  I might have to check that out too, but the current criteria for choosing a taco stand is based on time. Drive from work into the OC for exactly x minutes and then when that time has passed, go to the next place I see.

Since Im still not all that familiar with the streets of Oak Cliff, its been interesting.

Here is what I have so far.

Tacos King

2535 Fort Worth Ave
Dallas, TX 75211

Was not sure how even to approach this whole “drive into oc” for 12 minutes thing, so I took a horrible route. Turns out there are a lot more taco on Davis that worth…but its about the exploration right. Timer dinged and the next place I saw was Tacos King.

Not bad. Actually not greasy at all. The tortillas were not dipped in oil. A practice my mom abhors! Things were a little slow so I hopped next door to get an empanada for later.

The presentation was impressive.  Grilled Jalapeno!  Wow.  Classico! It came with two sauces too. One was a Guacish/Cream thing. Ill have to learn more about this.  Plenty of onion and cilantro.

Two Fajita and two Al Pastor.

The al pastor were far superior.  In both cases, the meats were kinda stewy. Cubed and stored in a container. Kinda average. Ill admit, part of the fun is to see them take a chunk of meat, chop it up a bit and then place it on a tortilla. Alas, I was nest door getting dessert to say how it was prepared. Im sure it was flash seared on the grill which was well cared for. I saw them grilling some sort of torta thing which looked like awesome in a bun! Im going back for that.

I only got one bite into the Jalapeno before I had to make a stop at 7-11 for a big diet coke! Turns out a few sips of sugar coke can clear the hotness before filling the cup with diet which does NOTHING to clear hot.