Today I made red chile sauce.  This is a very time-intensive work of art.  The recipe isn’t difficult, but it requires straining the soaked red chile through a vegetable mill (sometimes called a rice mill.)   This milling is done twice (sort of like first pressed olive oil and second press. )  So today I made a wonderful batch of the stuff.  This chile sauce is then used to slow cook meats or is added to beans and other dishes.  It has a wonderful flavor that cannot be duplicated, although many a restaurant cheats and thins the sauce with tomato sauce or uses dried chile powder to attempt the same sort of sauce.  Trust me, it isn’t the same.  This method is native to New Mexico, probably originating somewhere in Mexico with the indigenous Indians there.  They make a mole type sauce that is similar although chocolate or tomatoes and other ingredients (such as garlic, onions, other chile types) are usually added.

I pretty much make the sauce much like tomato sauce is made, only I don’t have to cook it down.  The chiles are rehydrated from a dried state, and so to get the right consistency it’s a matter of adding just the right amount of water.

Making the sauce is very messy because the chile stains pretty much everything it touches–instantly.  When I’m finished, everything goes straight outside to be hosed down.  This morning, I did just that. I was pretty pleased with myself. The dishes were clean and the lawn got some water. I walked around the corner of the house to rinse my hands a final time and to shut the hose off. When I came back around I saw my work sabotaged!!! Or maybe he was trying to help dry the dishes…The neighbor’s cat was licking my nice clean dishes. He looked up with a very innocent expression on his face when I demanded to know just what he thought he was doing. He then proceeded to stick his nose right inside one of the pans and slurp up the remaining water.

Sigh.

I came back inside, washed the dishes again, and began moving the containers to the freezer–only I set one on the door where it wasn’t secure.  The next time I opened the door, it slid out, smashed on the tile floor and spattered EVERYWHERE.   We’re talking have to paint some lower walls…throw out the rug that was there and someone is in serious need of a bath.

It took me the better part of an hour to clean the freezer, the doors, the walls and the floor.  I was already hot and sweaty so may as well make a day of it.

Anyway, I’ll be very happy to have the marinated pork or marinated beef in a few days.  It’s a wonderful dish.  I’m trying not to cry over the container of missing, splattered chile, but it’s hard.
Click on the photos for larger images.

Zucchini in Texas is a lot of work. We have these nasty little moths that look a lot like orange wasps. They lay their eggs (see above picture) on zucchini stalks. The little worm that hatches bites into the stems and begins to eat the plant from the inside out. Yeah–science fiction in the real world. This year I tried injecting the plant with BT worm killer. I had no real way of knowing it if was working or not.

Two weeks ago, I saw one of the parasites (moth) land on my zucchini. I managed to kill it. Had it already laid eggs? I had no way of knowing at the time because I didn’t know what the eggs looked like. I injected the stalks again as best I could and began to watch. Had I known what the eggs looked like I could have knocked them off. They aren’t that hard to remove because unlike a lot of other insect eggs, they aren’t very sticky, and they are actually pretty easy to see on most parts of the plant.

Today, I saw frass–this is basically worm poop that squirts out the entry holes when the worm invades. Sigh. I began cutting the stalks from the main stem. My hope was that I could cut the leaves/stems off before the worms worked their way to the main stalk. Once they are inside the thick, main stem, injecting BT worm killer is almost impossible–and so is killing the worms. Within a few weeks they will eat the stem out and the plant will die. I found one spot with worm poop where it looks like a worm made its way in. We’ll see, but I don’t have very high hopes. I also found several more eggs which I removed.

On the bright side, I do think the BT worm killer works. There were some leaves/stalks where the worm did a bit of damage–but then the damage stopped and there was no worm. The leaf continued to thrive. I cut a couple of these leaves off and inspected them pretty carefully.

The overall problem is larger of course. The moth lays so many eggs (I found about 10 tonight, about one per leaf) it’s impossible to find all the worms and kill them in time. The eggs are much harder to see near the soil or on the main stem.

At any rate, I did better this year than last. I have had zucchini now for about two months–at least 3 zucchini per week. I don’t expect the plant to live much longer, but at least the moths are infecting it rather than the cucumbers and cantaloupe. I’m afraid that if I didn’t have the zucchini, the moths would use the other cucurbits as a substitute! I’ll be planting early again next year. It seems to have helped that the plant was quite large by the time the moths began looking. (They started late April or early May and then continue throughout the summer in Texas.) I’ll also be vigilent about looking for those stupid eggs.

Here’s a picture of a moth–I didn’t take it because when I see them, I kill them if I can. I tried to make sure the credit for the photo showed up.

Update: I’ve had a lot of questions about cutting off leaves and or the leaf stems and whether it will kill the plant: Yes, you can cut some of them off. I have cut several away as time has gone by–the worms entered the stems of the leaves and left evidence. If they are close to the main plant stem, I definitely recommend cutting the whole leaf/stem away from the plant. If they are not, you can inject the BT worm killer into the hollow leaf stem. The BT worm killer does seem to work after about a day.

I also inject the bt worm killer into any infected parts of the main stem. It’s hard to do because the main stem is not hollow, so you kind of have to hunt out the part where the worm has eaten it away. At this point, my plant stem is large enough that it has withstood two or three worms–so if you see frash (worm poop!) don’t give up. Try the BT worm killer, try to follow the path of the worm with a thin, sharp object and kill it.

Summertime isn’t my favorite time for soup, but when you have tomatoes…you gotta use’m up! My neighbor actually made this little soup and brought some over. I’ve changed it here and there, but it’s a good summer soup with lots of veggies (you can put almost anything in here.)

2 cans chicken stock (4 cups)
2 cans water (4 cups)

Bring to almost a boil. Dip 5 to 7 tomatoes into the stock for about 5 minutes so that you can peel them. I do this using the soup stock so that the flavor and whatnot from the skins goes straight into the soup. When the tomato skins split, remove them from the stock using prongs. Set them in a bowl to cool.

Add three celery stocks (these do not have to be cut as you will remove them after cooking.) to the broth and simmer.

Dice two small zucchini and add to the broth, continuing to simmer.
Add 1 tsp thyme
Add 1/2 to 1 tsp finely diced fresh rosemary (This is a strong flavor so you might want to start with 1/2 tsp and go up from there if you like it.)

When the tomatoes are cooled, dice them carefully, saving as much juice for the stock as possible. Add the diced tomatoes to the stock.

Add 1 tablespoon sugar.

Optional: Dice in some cooked sausage. I used Wisconsin beef sausage (sliced about an ounce, grilled it, and then diced it.)

Simmer, covered for about an hour.

You can add meatballs, cooked beans (white northern, pinto or red) and other vegetables (onions, garlic, parsley). After the soup has simmered, remove the celery stalks and discard.

Prepare two cups of dried pasta by following the directions on the bag. Little shells, small elbow pasta or any small noodle will do.

Add the noodles right before eating.

It’s a simple soup, but a very nice tomato based soup. It is quite good, even on a hot summer day!!

June 10, 2008  –  I’m very excited to announce that Coyote Wild Magazine has just released my short story, Toil, Trouble and Rot . This story is a little different from my other two published short stories…okay, it’s a lot different. It’s sort of like an Agatha Christie in medieval fantasy…or maybe it’s Agatha Christie meets Amelia Peabody (Elizabeth Peter’s Egyptian series) in a different time zone!

It’s a free read–enjoy!

Note: There seems to be a small formatting problem when viewed under Internet Explorer 6 and 7. It only interferes with the top paragraph and should be fixed soon. Coyote Wild recently redesigned their website and something was lost in the translation. The front page and stories look just fine under Firefox.

Mocking birds, that is.  They love tomatoes.  I had to put up a net one year and then it was a battle to keep them from digging under it, squeezing through an opening, reaching their beaks through the net to get at the tomatoes…then there was me getting caught on the net, the tomato vines growing through it and getting broken off in the wind…endless battles.

For a couple of years, we had a great cat.  She was a dear thing; a stray that we adopted, and boy, she went after those birds.  I don’t think I lost but one tomato the two years we had her.  Sadly, she disappeared one year without a trace.  I’ve missed her for a lot of reasons, but I’m really missing her now that the tomatoes are coming in strong.   Some will say I’m completely crazy, but this year, I’m using camouflage.   Yes, you read that correctly.  Check out the picture:

If you click on the picture, you’ll get a larger one and in the right-hand bottom corner you’ll see a tomato just about to ripen with a big chunk taken out of it…

Basically, I found material that looks like twigs.  Well, not the beige part, but the rest of it.  As the tomatoes hint at turning, I go out and wrap the things.  Time consuming and tedious?  You bet your bottom.  Foolish?  Probably, but it seems to work fairly well. I have lost a green one or two because the birds still spot them and try them out. A bird also spied a bit of red in a gap one morning and pecked at a prized two pounder. Oooh, if I had caught that bird…!

My neighbor is having a lot of trouble with the birds this year too. Her husband built a cage out of netting. I think it’s working for her, but I actually have tomatoes in several areas of the garden so a cage would have to have a hallway and a ninety degree angle. Yeah, I kind of plant a little haphazard. But it works. The plants I put in later, away from the first set, tend to get the bugs later or not at all.

At any rate, I’m getting a very good batch of tomatoes this year. As always, it’s a lot of work. But I have high hopes for the tomato sauce I’ll be making this weekend. I know the salads we’ve been eating have been superb!

As you get older, you get told to eat oatmeal to lower your cholesterol and ease up on the salt. I’ve posted several low-salt recipes and recently I reinvented my chocolate chip cookie recipe to add more oatmeal to my diet (the doctor didn’t say how to eat oatmeal). After playing around with the recipe, it turns out I like these cookies even a bit more than my regular recipe!

Cream together:

1 cup margarine
3/4 cup regular sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar

Add and stir well:

1 egg (high altitude needs two)

Add and stir:

1 cup flour (high altitude needs 1 tsp baking soda at this time and an extra two tablespoons of flour)

Add:

2 3/4 cups oatmeal (2.5 cups for for gooier cookies)

Stir and then add:

1 to 2 tsp vanilla (I like 2 tsp, which is unusual for cookies)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or more if you prefer)

Stir everything well and chill for two hours. Form one and a half inch balls and flatten with a fork on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes.

Whew.  That’s so healthy, I think I’ll go have myself a big fat BLT!!! 

The lilies have finished their delightful blooms!  On to the dalhias!  I have one dahlia so far.  It’s kind of a small lilac color.  Not the dinner plate I was expecting, but the plant is tall!

As for the tomatoes, I’m getting one or two a day now. I’ve planted tomatoes for years. Every year I try to put in a different variety. A lot of times, they don’t make it in the Texas heat so I have little to report. This year most of my trials made it (all but the cupid and the yellow). I am pleased to report that I have a new favorite to add to my list: Wisconsin 55. Boy is it good. My very favorite all-around is the Celebrity variety, but the Wisconsin is giving it a run for the top spot. I’ll be planting this one again. Beautiful bush, beautiful tomatoes, but best of all, the *taste*. Just magnificent.

The sugary hybrid grape has been pretty good, but I don’t think it is better than the Juliet. The Juliet has been a very good producer for me here in Texas. It requires little care, the spider mites aren’t unduly attracted to it and it produces all through the summer. The sugary hybrid is doing okay thus far, but did attract more bugs. The Juliet is very viney and can get out of control, but it produces better in the heat than anything I’ve ever grown. It’s also quite large for a grape tomato.

The Siberians have done pretty well too and so far I’ve loved the flavor. They will likely make the grade for next year and also for a winter tomato I think!!! They are just bigger than a golf ball and full of flavor!!

There will be more–I haven’t had an Opalka ripen yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

The previous post I covered my favorite money savers.  This one, I’ll cover those things that grow really well, but only sometimes save you money.  I’ll also cover a few things that didn’t work out so well, at least in Texas.

Onions:  Onions aren’t that expensive in the store, but they are so easy to grow that you can plant a row or two and easily break even on the investment.  For about 2 dollars you can grow thirty onion starters if you have the space.  If you grow green onions, you’ll save some money–they run about 50 cents a bundle in the grocery.  I always spare a corner for green onions and I get three or four bundles, more in a good year.  One or two rows of regular onions keeps me in onions for about 2 months.  Any more than that, and I don’t think I’d eat them fast enough.  Onions in Texas are the short day variety–which means they have a lot more “juice” so they will decay faster, even after being properly dried.

Fruit Trees - Most fruit trees have good years and bad years.  A lot of time the fruit freezes.  If you have a good year, you’ll probably more than make up for your investment…if you didn’t pay too much for the tree and you’ve already waited for it to get to the four-years-old mark.  Four years old is when most trees actually begin producing fruit.  My favorites are peaches and cherries.  Pretty easy to make back your money if you get a good year or two out of them.  Of course, you do have to spray them for bugs and to get the cherries, you will have to fight off the birds.  Those activities will add to the effort!   You also get most of your crop within about a two-three week period, which means you have to can them, give them away or eat them all! 

Apple Trees — probably easier to grow. Generally require pesticides once a year.  While apples are relatively cheap, there’s something to be said for picking your own fresh.  My favorite are golden delicious and black beauties…although I like red delicious and Gala too!

I think if you can grow citris of any kind, it might be worth it.  Personally, I’d like to grow lemon or limes, but I don’t think Texas has the right climate.  That, and I’m not sure where I’d put another tree.  We already have many an oak, two pecans that I planted (which don’t produce for 10 years) some Junipers and a couple of Asian fruit-producing trees.  I don’t know what the fruit is on those trees.  It is edible because I’ve tried it and I didn’t die (an Asian friend told me the Asian name and assured me the fruit was edible).  

If you can grow avocado, I can’t help but think they would be a good investment.  At 50 cents a piece in the store, it wouldn’t take long to make back your investment.  Of course the problem here is that avocado doesn’t grow anywhere that has freezing.

Things I wouldn’t bother to grow:

Celery:  It’s too hot here anyway.  All I got was leaves, and the thing seemed to need water twice a day.

Carrots:  Never tried them.  They aren’t that expensive in the store and they taste the same whether I grow them or the store sells them to me.

Asparagus: Too much water and who wants to wait 2 years?

Radishes:  Only if you really have a lot of space and love the things.  They are inexpensive, but they take up a lot of room and once you pick one, that’s it, it’s done.  You need several rows in order to get enough ready at the same time.

Strawberries:  I went back and forth on where to include this fruit. There is nothing yummier than fresh strawberries–but they take up a lot of room and you must have several plants.  Consider that about one or two fruits ripen at a time on a given plant, you multiply that out by how many you might want each day (or every few days.)  Ten plants was not enough.  I got about two berries every couple of days from 10 plants.   They are pretty hardy plants though, and their only real enemy is slugs.   I would think you could do pretty well with thirty to forty plants.  The season in Texas ranges from a few short weeks to probably twelve weeks when it stays cooler well into May.  (They can be covered during light freezes.)   You do use up the room permanently with strawberries; the best berries happen after the second year.  This means you get to water them all through the summer even when they aren’t producing.