Stuff I Gotta Do: Yard Work Updates

It's been a busy few months over here in my little world, between work, throwing out my back a bunch of times, and working on the yard when my back isn't out.

As I've stated before, my yard is pretty huge by Vallejo standards.  It was completely overgrown with weeds, volunteer trees, more weeds, a 20'x15' blackberry bush, and other plant life.  This summer, I've made it my business, with the help of my family and friends, to get this nasty yard into shape.

But you wouldn't believe what kind of progress we are making back there!  It still looks rough, but we're pretty much stripping it down to its bare bones so that I can plant beautiful things next year, and invest in more attractive landscaping features.

The other thing to consider is the drought here in California.  I'm not watering the "lawn" (and by "lawn" I mean "patch of dirt and weeds"); only the vegetables and plants are getting water as needed.  The plants I've purchased so far are drought friendly, so mine isn't the most lush of gardens.

Anyway, here are some updates. Click on through for pictures.

Lord of the Beans: One Soup to Rule Them All

I once read a parody of Tolkien's "The Two Towers," which that gave the name Minas Troney to one of the towers (get it?).  The book was the most worthless bundle of paper and ink I ever wasted money on, and I'm confident I never finished reading it and threw it away, but every time I eat or make minestrone soup, I think of it.

Read more after the jump...

B-L-Tarian

I decided to go without eating meat for a week or so, to force me to eat more vegetables and cleanse my system a little bit.  It's going well, except that I keep eating bacon.  So I guess I'm not totally successful in my temporary vegetarianism.  Unless we can all just agree to call bacon a vegetable.  In fact, let's just do that.

The reason I keep eating bacon is BLTs.  Tomato season is drawing to a close (*sniff*), so I'm trying to make every last one in my CSA box special by crowning them with bacon and lettuce and enrobing them in crispy, golden bread.  But these BLTs are special.  They include the usual suspects, but with a special component - a cream cheese spread that will knock your socks off.  And the option of a scrambled egg.

Also, I fry the bread in the bacon grease.  Don't judge me till you try it.



BLT on a Barbra Streisandwich plate.  Not kosher.



Plum Tarte Tatin

I'm wild about tartes tatin.  A tarte tatin (tart ta-TAN, except you don't pronounce the "n") is a French upside-down fruit tart in which the fruit is baked in caramel with crust on top, and then flipped over so the crust is on the bottom and the fruit is on top.

A brief history of tartes tatin can be found here.  (As a side note, I want to be a culinary historian when I grow up.  How cool would that be...for me?)



Traditionally, a tarte tatin is made with apples, but there are skads of recipes on the internet using other fruit. I had a a bunch of plums from the CSA and a sheet of puff pastry to use - and a few hours to kill - so I decided to tackle plum version.  I'd already ventured into tarte territory a few weeks prior with a wonderful savory tomato version, so I was ready.



The result was delightful, and a wonderful balance of tart (not tarte) and sweet.  I brought to work so I wouldn't eat the entire pan on my own.  My coworkers kept going back to the pan to sneak tiny pieces throughout the workday. 

(As another side note, I don't care for pie, and this is basically pie, but I love it.  Maybe because it's puff pastry instead of pie crust.  Except that I love pie crust.  But not pie.)

Click through to read on for the recipe.