h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've read somewhere that a person could be self-sufficient with just nine square yards of garden. That space would have to be cultivated pretty intensively, though .

For this summer anyway, my gardening efforts involve flowers. The local bees seem to be happy with my flowers. I like the colors and the beautiful fragrances.

Maybe in future years I'll try testing the nine-square-yard theory.

I think the person would have to be pretty small and skinny. And perhaps to have already put an entire cow in the freezer. But keep us posted!

Mol

I had a beautiful Tom Yum Gai, that was annoyingly lsightly spoiled by the fact I didn't quite get the sticky rice right. Most irritating.

Mouth on fire now, bird eyes rock!

FB

I made refried beans (on tortillas, with cheese). Added some of my smoked paprika hummous, still interesting, but not quite refried beans.

For supper today I made "Smoked Pork Collins." It serves four people. It contains four pork chops, a pound of chopped cabbage, half a pound of carrots, a chopped onion, a can of dark kidney beans, 2 cups of water, half a tsp of thyme, one beef bouillon cube, and half a tsp of celery seed.

Oh, and also an unpeeled red potato that has been diced.

I was going to make bangers and mash. I cook, and I like to eat, plain, relatively bland, food. Food that tastes of what it is and not of what's been sprinkled over it. I don't see the point of pepper.

However, my sons were all home at the weekend and they had done a thorough job of harvesting all the basil in the garden and made pesto by the bucketful. We also have a walnut tree so it's a basil / walnut pesto. Pine nuts are better but ridiculously expensive.

So my husband and son had some linguine with pesto. I didn't bother. Maybe I'll have some later.

How did you cook those pork chops, Paul? All in a slow cooker, or in the oven, or on the hob? Or all the items cooked separately? Is it a dry-ish or a liquidy dish?

WOuld that be 9 cubic yards? That might get you through

I had some coated. Old filley(m and s job, lightly seeded) served with insalata tricolore. There's enough salad left for tomorrows lunch, might add some ham or smoked salmon

Super sticky and hot here tonight -36 deg (96F) and 86% humidity at 8pm- so I made a chilled tomato, fennel and red pepper soup (sorta gazpacho-ish but I sauteed the veg first then pureed) Added in some chopped cucumber, basil & coriander when it was chilled.

We had that as a late lunch/early starter with some lightly toasted village bread rubbed with olive oil.

Dinner was pork Pad See Ew. Pork loin strips marinated in cornflour, soy sauce, fish sauce and white wine (no Shaoxing available here) then stirfried quickly. Chucked mushrooms, spring onion, yellow pepper, rest of fennel & courgette with garlic & ginger in wok, gave it a few rounds then added flat egg noodles, juices from meat, let it coat for a minute then added pork back in. Fresh, tasty and not too heavy.

10 minute dinner and only sweated one bucketload whilst cooking.

"Old filly" was of course "cod fillet".

Last night was potatoes and carrots from the veg patch, with a Julia Child serving of butter...

All of what I have produced this year (my first) has been very tasty, but I couldn't live on it - I have two lots of two metre squares. For a start, when we didn't have any sun for four months, that didn't help...

sprout

"How did you cook those pork chops, Paul?" [TC]

On the top of the stove, together with 2 cups of water and all the other ungredients. I prefer one-dish meals.

Yesterday was new potatoes parboiled and then fried whole, skins on and roasted peppers. And a veggie filet thing, because they were on sale.

I also had refried beans on Thursday. Weird...

B

It's just ten in the morning here, so I haven't cooked anything *yet.*

For lunch, I'm going to make "Norwegian Cod-Vegetable Casserole." I won't be using cod, though. I'll use two cans of tuna fish, plus potatoes, green peas, carrots, lemon juice, milk, thyme, dill, parsley, a little salt, and a top crust. It'll be baked in a loaf pan for an hour.

I´ve put in the fridge melon soup. It will be cold for tonight.

Chop and fry spring onions, later add diced cucumbers and melon, let all that boil for 10 minutes.

add a bit of fresh ginger and salt. Make a paste with the mixer, add a bit of water and off to the fridge.

You can add cream or butter, but if you have used a good olive oil you don´t need more flavour nor creamer texture.


As second dish ,goat cheese with carne de membrillo, ( a kind of quince jam)

Mmmm...sounds gorgeous, Maria.

I'm doing a Jamie Oliver salad with roast avocado, tortilla chips, pumpkin seeds, cheddar and cress.

Sounds weird? Yeah, probably.

B

roast avocado? more than weird it sounds to heresy!

the pumpkin seeds are excellent in salad, and also, I´ve heard, they have something good for men´s prostate.


I´ve been for a few days in the tropical coast of Granada (the climate there is subtropical) and all kind of exotic fruits are grown there. Avocados are a-plenty.

We had a salad of tomatoes with avocado, riped, full of flavour, (the owners of the chiringuito have their own orchard) Only salt and olive oil, no more, and it was amazing the intensity of the flavour. We also had fried aubergines/ eggroot, with melasse of sugar cane (also grown in that area) on top.

I mean eggplant, this is how it looks the dish I mentioned:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2010/2321841957_18379bb3e0.jpg