Grow Your Own #37 Round-up

Based on the emails I’ve received lately, my announcement of the Grow Your Own winter hiatus seems to have sparked concern, and I want to thank everyone for thinking of us. We are all well, no health problems, home life is just a little overwhelming right now. Caring for three little boys, two of whom have special needs, is a challenge and I have come to a place where I need a little break so I can find some balance at home. For now I will continue working in our garden, writing, and photographing, but without the self-imposed deadlines. I’ve dropped all freelance work for a little while and am assessing other things I participate in that have deadlines. This is not a permanent change, just a temporary adjustment to give us a breather. I will continue to write Grow Your Own posts in the coming months, I just can’t keep up with organizing an event until things settle down at home. Thanks to everyone for your understanding and support.

I hope you will continue to share your Grow Your Own posts on your blogs and will join us when Grow Your Own returns in the spring. Read more

Papas Criollas (Tiny Yellow Potatoes)

One of my fondest food memories is of the tiny round potatoes known as papas criollas from Colombia. The Colombian papas criollas grow wild in the Andes highlands and have a thin, tender skin and a buttery yellow interior that yields an amazing flavor. They are a favorite for soups such as Ajiaco or served as appetizers or sides either roasted, fried, mashed, boiled, or skewered and grilled. Here in the United States you can buy them frozen in some stores or in jars from various online grocers (see Where to Buy below). I have searched for years but still have not found frozen, canned, or fresh papas criollas in any of our local Hispanic or international grocery stores.

If you’ve ever had a memory of food so strong that you still dream of it 15 years later, you’ll understand my excitement when I spotted tiny yellow potatoes in Trader Joe’s last week. Read more

BBA Challenge: Cornbread with Bacon

I realized as I started this challenge that I had forgotten to mention the cinnamon and sticky buns, which I actually made for the first time two years ago with The Daring Bakers. Since I had made them for a previous challenge I decided I did not need to repost them, though I highly recommend the recipe as they were delicious.

Now for the cornbread. This is one challenge where I suspected Mr. Reinhart and I might butt heads. I grew up eating my Southern mother’s and grandmothers’ cornbread, which is definitely not sweet. For me, eating sweet cornbread is akin to eating dessert, at least some of the versions I’ve tasted. Reinhart’s recipe has granulated sugar, brown sugar, and honey, a triple punch of sweet, but I made it exactly as directed so I could get the full essence of what he intended. Read more

Oven-Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Have I ever mentioned that purple is my favorite color? I find the color exhilarating and like plants that bear purple fruits and vegetables, including tomatillos.

Our tomatillo plants were slow this year along with everything else in the garden. The extended cold, wet spring put a damper on things, making everything slow to grow and blossom. We finally harvested some tomatillos a few weeks ago, much later than last year, and with the early cold snap this week we didn’t get much of a growing season at all. All we can do is preserve what we have and hope for better next year. Read more

The Daring Cooks Make Steamy Kitchen’s Pho Ga

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

I was excited to see that Jaden would be our host for the October Daring Cooks challenge, especially since I finally got to meet her at BlogHer Food, but when I scrolled down and saw we would be making pho (pronounced “fuh?”) I almost got week in the knees. I’ve eaten pho at Vietnamese restaurants but have never made it at home, and none of my family had ever tasted it. I couldn’t wait to give them a taste of this soup that won my heart long ago. Read more

Percy Train Birthday Cake

My husband Michael, the engineer (aerospace, not trains), is the designer for all our sons’ birthday cakes. He’s a big fan of Duff Goldman and watches Ace of Cakes often trying to pick up any tips he can. We only tackle cakes like this three times a year and we are definitely not pros. I bake the cakes and whip up the frosting and he does all the assembly and decorative work. Here’s his story on how we made the Percy train birthday cake.

Monkey Boy’s favorite toy is trains so for about six months prior to his third birthday we heard all about how he wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine cake, then just a couples months before his birthday he changed his mind and asked for Percy, the green number 6 train. Green is his favorite color, so it wasn’t a big surprise.

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