Gigi’s crabbies

1lb, 6.5 oz of claw crab (no need to use the premium for crab cakes).  I just happened to have a 1lb can and a 6.5 oz can on hand and company was coming over, so I used both. I used fresh, pasteurized crab that has been refrigerated.  In a pinch, the canned stuff off the shelf would work too.  Fresher is what it is.

1.5 tsp Old Bay seasoning (any crab seasoning will likely do)

1 tbs Dijon mustard

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup oats (or more depending on your moisture content)  If you don’t do oats, fresh Gf bread crumbs will work - probably close to the same amount.

3 tbs mayo

1 egg

And the critical ingredients:  fresh chopped chives, parsley, dill (preferably from your garden if you have one) and finely chopped green onion (3 onions? I forgot to write that down).  Hum, how much herbage?  Probably at least a tablespoon of each - I like flavor and don’t know what subtlety means.  I barely know how to spell subtlety these days.

fresh cracked pepper

*****

rice flour

Mix it all together, except rice flour.  Eyeball everything adding more or less for your humidity level in your house.  Form into patties.    Once formed, dust with the rice flour and then saute in olive oil until golden brown on both sides.  I had the oven on warm and stuck them in the oven to stay warm while the rest cooked.  The rice flour forms a nice crust and helps hold it together.  You can skip the rice flour and just flip the patties carefully.  Serve with wedges of fresh lemon.

This recipe made 8 hamburger sized patties.  A white wine beurre blanc sauce or an aioli would put these crab cakes over the top and you might not recover.

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Saturday:

Vietnamese lunch: Chicken pho - lots of Thai basil left from last week and the cilantro and mint need to be harvested.

Dinner: Over at a friends for fun!

Sunday:  Thai chicken bamboo curry with basil and coconut milk, fresh spring rolls with mint,dill, cilantro, basil and shrimp.

Monday: Mexican Jalisco

Carne en su Jugo, charred green onions, salsa and chips

Tuesday: Italian bistro

Grilled scallops with angel hair pasta and fresh herb pesto, garden salad

Wednesday:South American

Chimichurri steaks and mini arepas with avocado crema and maybe shrimp ceviche

Thursday :  On the road North for the Fourth

Friday:  Up North at the farm :Strawberries, pontooning, Lake Michigan and grilling oh, and the Polka Fest!

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Oregano.  I have two types growing in large pots in the potted garden.  Greek and regular.  I would like to get my hands on some Mexican oregano plants.  I keep them in pots as I learned long ago that both oregano and mint will overtake anything else growing in it’s path over the years. I use oregano a lot, both dried in rubs and soups and fresh in everything.
Below is a picture of my portable garden. Oregano is in the giant green pot and Greek oregano in the sky blue pot.  Keeping it in containers allows me to bring the pots in for the winter and use them all winter long.

Menu.  This week’s menu swap is hosted by Karen of Gluten Free Sox Fan and you may have figured out that oregano is the ingredient of the week already (the title of the post being the first clue).  Make sure you check out her blog and what everyone else is cooking, I always do!

Saturday: Smoke

Smoked pulled pork butt  with black pepper vinegar sauce (we still have our friend’s smoker) over hickory smoke.  This recipe is courtesy of Bobbie Flay - who makes great rubs (this rub has oregano).  I first noticed this recipe when I was looking for slaw recipes a long time ago.  My slaw will be different as I did a little experiment last week (I was out of town most of the week and didn’t bother with a menu - I felt lost the rest of the week) .  I used this recipe from Epicurious.com except I didn’t grill the cabbage (and just used purple and half the sugar), I smoked it for about 15 minutes.  Incredible!  It was addictively smokey, tangy and crunchy.  I throw in some fresh green onion at the end for a bit of bite.

Sunday: Italianish

Polenta Sausage Mozzarella casserole from Elise and of course there will be oregano in the sauce.  Garden salad with fresh herbs mixed in.  I am really ready for a tomato or cucumber in my salad, but am trying to stand strong and wait for the garden to bring them in.  I am adding shallots and fresh oregano to the polenta for extra flavor.

Monday: East Coast

Crab Cakes with aioli.  I still need a side dish for this one.  Garden salad with fresh herbs for zing.

Tuesday: Flat bread of the week

Jim Lahey’s potato pizza altered to be GF and adding, creme fraiche, chives and bacon - that is as long as it isn’t 90F outside.  So I guess the only resemblance will be thinly sliced potatoes and onion to the original.  I suppose I could sprinkle some fresh oregano and rosemary on the flatbread after baking, in keeping with the theme.

Wednesday:  on the road for work

Perhaps I will make a wrap for the road, I guess as long as I am making a flatbread the night before I might as well, eh?  A corned beef wrap sounds interesting - Reuben in a wrap.  Probably not the best thing cold.

Thursday: Thai

Spicy chicken and basil fried rice or kao pad gkai gkaprow .  Really what I am trying to do is replicate my local Thai hole in the walls’ kau pad ped - but every recipe site spells Thai words differently.  This recipe looked closest to what one of my friends ordered.  Some sort of Asian themed salad to go along with this and of course, fried GF spring rolls.

Friday: Indian

I still have to flesh this one out, but I am in the mood for dosas (of course), a potato curry of some sort (perhaps South Indian) and a kofta curry made with our grass fed beef.

So, who’s coming over for dinner what night?

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It is the happiest day of the year for my garden, which is growing gangbusters now that the weather has turned into summer.

Since I am a green thumb blogger, I thought I had better get on with some garden gushing.  It amazes me how different the yard can look from one year to the other.  This year we added 10 4′x4′ raised beds for the garden.  The old garden space is still being used too!  It has three rows of potatoes, pole beans and cucumbers in it, along with a gigantic compost bin, well two of those.  The strawberries and asparagus are in that area too.  We already can’t keep up with the lettuce and greens. The raised bed closest to the house has herbs and the other one has lettuce to make it easier to run out and grab a fresh handful on a second’s notice.

We have quite the list of veggies this year:

Leeks, bunching onions, onions, shallots, 31 heirloom tomato plants, 25 anaheim green chiles, poblano peppers, jalapeno peppers, okra, sweet peas, 3 types of eggplant, fennel, collard greens, swiss chard, purple cabbage, spinach, escarole, red lettuce, butter leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce, broccoli, broccoli rabe, brussel sprouts, cucumbers, pole beans, potatoes (all red throughout, all purple and muddled purple and russian bananas), one artichoke plant (keep your fingers crossed), asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb and carrots.

The herbs get their own list:
parsley, both flat and curly, garlic and regular chives, thai basil, holy basil, sweet basil, 2 varieties of cilantro, marjoram, savory, 2 varieties of thyme, lemon verbena, chervil, sage, rosemary, oregano, spearmint, and dill. Hops too, I guess I will count that as an herb.

Even though most of the veggies are in the raised beds, I still find it necessary to weed. Until the plants grow big and close, I guess I will get my weeding exercise.

i’m out and happy solstice

It was tasty, not to heavy, good mouth feel and not to sorghum tasting and best of all an ale. I would perhaps add a few more hops to it, but to do that, I will need to make my own. Encourage your small local breweries to consider making a gluten free ale and if they can’t do that, then ask them to offer hard cider.

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For the moment I am eagerly anticipating delivery of my first growler of gluten free ale!  I found out a while ago that Old Hat Brewery in Lawton MI always has a GF beer on tap.  One of their patrons has Celiac.  Somehow Lawton is in a location of the state that I rarely every travel too, but one of my friends has to go there more frequently to check tart cherry traps (looking for plum curcuilio ) as part of a rigorous IPM program.  Today, on a Saturday, when the pub opens at 11 instead of at 4 as they do during the week, he must travel there for work.

Happy ale coming my way.  I have only had the GF lagers, New Grist, Bard’s tale and Redbridge, for the most part.  I am not a fan of sorghum lagers, I would rather drink vodka (well, you all know I love vodka anyway).  An ale, however is a different beer making method that results in a very different body and flavor.  I can’t wait and just wanted to share my excitement with you.  I will report back on it later this evening or tomorrow.  I am changing today’s menu as we are running to the farmer’s market in Okemos and I hope to find some baby veggies since my garden is producing mostly greens from the broccoli family right now.  Strawberries are just coming into season here this week - those are on the list too.  I am craving a nice grilled steak and grilled baby veggies (thanks to opening this month’s Bon Appetit before eating lunch or breakfast).  So, the pork ribs will have to wait, but we are picking up the smoker today.  Big juicy grass fed beef steak, grilled veggies (I like their grilled slaw idea a lot) and cold microbrewed GF ale!

Summer is here!!

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So, I don’t think I will focus on eggs, but if they are in something I use, I will make note of it.

Sunday: No power, severe storms, grabbed Mexican from the Taqueria and had take out. Had to throw perch out as the fridge was just a bit too warm.

Monday: Fish fry: pan sauteed lake perch with lots of lemon. Salad from the garden mixed with fresh herbs and broccoli casserole. I had to go buy more perch as I was craving it.

Tuesday: Taiwan (this didn’t get made last week as I realized I had a night meeting)

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken I found this recipe linked in a blog over a year ago, bookmarked and am finally getting back to it. This will be served with a side of Kai Yang Bai Cai or otherwise known as sauteed cabbage with ginger. We lost power again around 1 am, but not long enough to have to throw anything out.

Wednesday: American Fusion

Bacon wrapped marinated turkey tenderloins on the grill. Grilled asparagus (still in season here), grilled polenta and garden salad.

Thursday: Indian

Dosa’s with aloo/potato cabbage masala, kofta with grass fed beef and raita

Friday: Pizza on the grill (hopefully)

Saturday: Smokehouse BBQ

I hope to smoke some of our ribs from our pig share (Pancetta), homemade baked beans and homemade slaw (I like a vinegar based slaw occasionally)

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Natalie is back hosting the menu swap at Gluten Free Mommy so skip on over and check out her site and all the delish sounding menus on the other sites.

Monday: Mediterranean spring

Seared scallops and lemon asparagus risotto (based on Jamie Oliver’s risotto recipe). Asparagus season is in full swing finally in MI. Garden green salad with vinaigrette.

Tuesday: Frenchie bistro

Chicken almondine revisited: Garden herbs, garden baby spinach and goat cheese stuffed chicken breasts in an almond crust with a brown butter lemon sauce. Sides: Stewed tomatoes provencale (from last year’s garden)and roasted potatoes with rosemary and cracked pepper.

Wednesday: Where in the world?

Unstuffed cabbage rolls - I made some traditional stuffed ones last fall - never again! This will be more like a casserole with cabbage in between the fillings (ground pork? tomato? rice? fish? mango? potatoes?chiles?). Ethnicity of the meal - to be determined. Most cultures use cabbage in one form or another so this should be a fun experiment. Please weigh in with your ideas! Perhaps it will end up like the insides of a delicious pork cabbage spring roll with mung noodles and dried mushrooms…

Thursday: Taiwan

Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken I found this recipe linked in a blog over a year ago, bookmarked and am finally getting back to it. Unfortunately I don’t yet have enough Thai basil growing in the garden to supply 2 cups, so hopefully I find some at the farmer’s market on Wed. This will be served with a side of Kai Yang Bai Cai or otherwise known as sauteed cabbage with ginger.

Friday: West African

Mafe : West African meat in peanut sauce using our grass fed beef and stewed collard greens from the garden.

Garden update:  Everything is planted except the cucumbers.  We are harvesting the lettuce for the first time this eve and have been eating our fresh garden herbs all year long (I brought most in for the winter and put them out again as soon as it warmed up), but the chives are back with a vigor now!  The asparagus and rhubarb I planted last year are giving us an occasional tasty treat, but they need to grow another year before either is bountiful.

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This week’s menu swap is hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. Make sure to visit and see what’s on the table this week that features tomatoes. My menu is a little late as I only returned from our weekend last night.

Monday: Indian

Butter chicken with yogurt instead of cream and butter (uses lots of tomatoes) , Saag Paneer, brown basmati turned yellow with turmeric and papads for crunch.

Tuesday: Thai

Spicy pad ped with pork and zucchini or green eggplants - whichever the Asian market has, with rice and spring rolls

Wednesday: Italian

Lasagna bolognese and green salad

Thursday:Vietnamese

Pho ga (chicken) with Goi Ga spicy salad if I can figure out a recipe similar to what I had in Chicago once. All those links combined will do the trick I hope. Cabbage, carrots, lime, fish sauce, basil and mint. Sounds good to me!

Friday: Latin American

Red snapper Veracruzana style (Mexican with tomato, olives peppers and capers) and arepas (Venezuelan)

Saturday: Mid Eastern/Turkish

Grass fed beef kabobs. The rest I need to think on. Perhaps a veggie Turkish pide as an appetizer.

Sunday:  Taqueria - out to dinner with friends at the local taqueria which is very authentic - no tex mex here!

I have 3 avocado plants growing in my house from pits that I planted long ago. No sign of an avocado growing yet, but they are nice plants. I have this week off to use up some comp time and clean the house, experiment with cooking, blog, garden and so on. I plan to experiment a bit with my lunches and am not sure what I will be doing yet, but I have a whole week to cook, so expect some perfecting of dosa’s, injera if I can find light teff flour and maybe some GF potsticker’s and who knows what else.

This week’s menu swap is hosted by Cooking and Uncooking so visit her site and check out all the menus everyone is cooking.

Sunday: Brunch: Sindu’s for the Indian buffet - more chaat and dosas!

Dinner: Mac and cheese with a green salad full of garden herbs. I finally made perfect mac and cheese, no need to improve upon this recipe ever. Luckily I wrote it down. I think it has 4 cheeses in it. I made a batch a while back and froze 1/2 of it unbaked in a casserole dish. Saucy and cheesy with a nice cheesy crust. I will post this one.

Monday: Korean - out to dinner Champung: A spicy seafood soup, mine will be with rice noodles. A friend of a friend cooks at one of our local Korean restaurants on Monday nights and we are finally going in when he is working. He can specialize my soup, kick it up and make sure that it is gluten free. I just have to bring my own GF oyster sauce.

Tuesday: Beer club (well, cider for me) Our host makes veggie sloppy joes with soy and they are gluten free. Bonfire on the lake. Perhaps I will bake some GF cookies to bring along.

Wednesday: Lunch: Subject to change but for now a green salad with avocado (I need a couple of days for my avocado to ripen), dried cherries and smoked turkey. Or I might try making an avocado dressing with lime.

Dinner: Turkish : Turkish pide - well I hope. Pide is sort of like a pita/calzone of the Turkish variety. Turkish style salad and yogurt sauce to accompany. I think I might try Gluten Free Gobsmacked’s Lavash style bread for this.

Edited to change to Mexican Guacamole, carnitas, Slaw, salsa, beans and rice. I love carnitas! I will be making this with our own home grown pig share pork - from Pancetta - that was her name.

Thursday: We are hitting the road one day early now, so I am making GF Gobsmacked wraps with turkey, provolone and avocado for the road along with some hummus and carrots. Then off to Leelanau county for Memorial Weekend. I can’t wait to get to the farm, see my niece and nephew, the rest of the friends and family and this year’s batch of chickens and pheasants. Of course I will go morel hunting and harvest a boatload of wild leeks.

Friday: Dinner with friends in someone’s backyard.

i’m out