Saturday was spent trimming trees, removing debris, amending the soil, and mulching around the plot. Much of Sunday was spent laying down the irrigation, creating a work space and planting seeds. Lucky for us it wasn't just Ken D, Jew and me working on it, we ended up renting two laborers and all our friends showed up to help!
Of course if people show up to help, I always make it a point to at least provide cold beers and good food. Saturday night I was planning to make grilled chicken, but my buddy T Chan always manages to push me to new culinary limits. His girlfriend wanted to have sausage for dinner, so we went off that. Henry's (a local Trader Joes type store owned by Smart and Final) had some hot italian links freshly made, which we roasted on a pan in the oven. Made a savory onion, apple marmalade to go with it. As sides we made a salad (lettuce, sliced red onions, wedged red grapefruit, diced avocados, lime juice and olive oil), eggplant cutlets with a tomato sauce (oregano, diced tomatoes, and balsamic reduced), and roasted root vegetables (yukon gold potato, sweet potato, home grown turnips all tossed in fresh thyme and olive oil.) The entire dinner was complemented with a delicious 2008 Columbia Crest Riesling from Washington State.
Sunday was a completely different day. Instead of being in the upper 70s, it was in the low 60s. Cold. Over cast. Cold. I was sore from digging at the UCSD community garden (Sunday morning) and I did not want to work. Every time I tried to take a nap at the Surf Club, a friend would show up and keep me awake. Dragging my feet, the Jew had me finish planting.
The garden consists of 20 strawberry plants, half are ever-bearing and half are June bearing, assorted green vegetables, assorted peppers and onions, red okra, sweet corn, butternut squash, six varieties of summer squash, several different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and a wide variety of herbs. Pictures coming soon and a complete run down of the garden.
So after another long day of gardening, it was soon dinner time. Roberto and I decided to make a ground turkey white chili and corn bread. I've never made white chili, so going off of a recipe found on Simplyrecipes.com we made a delicious chili for 10 people. The four different peppers added a ton of flavor to the chili, and had a slight heat to it, but not too much.
3lb of Ground Turkey
2 large white onion diced
6 cans of white beans w/ juice (garbanzo, white kidney beans, and northern beans)
2 cups of chicken broth
2 tspn of Cumin
2 bay leaf
1 tbsp fresh oregano
4 cloves of garlic
4 cups of Pepper Jack Cheese, shredded
2 Pasillo Pepper
1 Jalapeno
2 Dried Green Cayenne Pepper
1 Poblano Pepper
Saute onion, garlic, and ground turkey. Add the spiced and beans. Let it simmer and check for liquid level. I added chicken broth slowly so that it was never too much broth. When the beans and the meat started to break down slightly I stirred in the magnificent cheese. You don't have to use all the broth, but add only amounts necessary to reach the consistence you'd like.
The corn bread, I went a bit crazy with. To three boxes of Jiffy Corn Bread mix, I added half a can of diced jalapenos, 1 cup of grade Pepper jack Cheese, and about 2 tsp of fresh Rosemary. Mix and let the mixture sit for at least 20 minutes before throwing it in the oven.
The entire meal was absolutely divine and very hearty. This year its been hard to get all of my friends under one roof, so it was a real treat for me. There used to be at least a dozen of us who would get together for weekly dinner parties, but last year most of our friends graduated and left San Diego, and those of us who stayed are busy trying to get our careers started.
Damn right it was hearty.
ReplyDeleteCornbread = A+