Cameron Mushroom Gravy

Cameron Enteros are whole Shrimp that are dehydrated.  If you eat them dry they are extremely salty with a concentrated Shrimp flavor, not bad, but Harley didn't like them at first.  I had been looking for a way to use them, and I was inspired to make gravy, Mushroom gravy.  First I wanted to infuse the Cameron taste into a liquid, but didn't want to change the flavor, so I used water.  Soak the Camerones in a cup of hot water for 30 minutes.  I added some extra energy to this process with the microwave.  After the Camerones had been soaked they were a lot more like regular Shrimp, in a brine (sea water).

So I decided to make something plain so that I could experience the Cameron as the feature flavor.  Pan fried Chopped Steak patties with white Rice, and Cameron Mushroom gravy should do it.  Things that are plain for me usually have big flavor, so I had to tone down my seasoning deliberately to let the Cameron stand out.  The white Rice has Caldo de Pollo as the flavor base, and the chopped Steak is seasoned with Sea Salt an Black Pepper.

After the Chopped Steak is cooked I use the pan drippings to build the Cameron Mushroom gravy.  Start with Garlic, Onion, and sliced Mushrooms.  Fry them in the pan drippings, and then add some flour to make a Roux.  Mix the flour in there well to mitigate the lumpz.  Take it easy on the Salt here because the Camerones and their broth is very salty, do add some black Pepper tho.  Let the Roux cook for a while to eliminate that raw flour taste, and then add the Camerones, and their broth.  Whisk the mixture together while it is thickening, and then add some Ale to thin the gravy as needed.

Use a Cup form to make a lump of white Rice on the plate.  Add a couple Chopped Steaks to the plate.  Then pour the Cameron Mushroom gravy over the chopped Steaks.  This was just awesome good.  I was smitten with umami, mui delicioso...

Garden Fence 2

Well, this has been an arduous process.  Iz re-defined tired.In the meanwhile here I planted 25 square yards of sod with the new tiller.  Oh, yeah, there is the job thing too.  But persistent effort is bringing the garden fence, and garden into shape.  Here is a shot after I leveled the garden boxes.

I have also stripped the green OSB sides of the greenhouse.  We are converting to Cedar now.  The painted OSB (Oriented Strand Board) is a lot like particle wood, a bunch of wood pieces glued together.  Over time, in the weather, became confetti waiting to happen, huge mistake.  We are replacing it with Cedar now.

Here I have some Tomatoes and Chiles planted.  Also digging the first post hole.  In the meanwhile I hauled 2 truk loads of Cedar, and 540 pounds of concrete home.

Here I have cut the posts to 6 feet, two underground, and 4 on the top side.  We're making a Ranch Style Fence, so we're gonna use rough Cedar, which is cut but not sanded.  It fits well with the ginormous animals and garden genre.

There is a couple Mason lines that we use to line everything up.  The 1x2 stakes help keep the posts aligned until we get the concrete in the holes.  I'm using concrete forms to keep the support concrete slugs uniform.  When you have a post die, it really helps to have a uniform support slug.  You can pull the bad post more easily, and you have a uniform hole to put in a new post.

Then we'll back fill the soil around the concrete forms.  Turns out Samurai and I wound up pouring concrete in the pouring rain.  I couldn't believe the timing there.  Harley would only go as far as the patio cover, and not out into the yard.  That was krazy

After the concrete went in we could take off the braces, and start populating the runners, and clean up the area.  Covering all the mud was a ginormous priority.  After weeks of Spring rains and mud we are totally burned out on the mudz.  Got lotz of mulch and compost to cover it all.

Now I'm starting to move some plants back to the garden and plant them.  Harley loves to eat the plastic pots, and I have been eliminating them.  We're down to three as of now.  Everything is going into the ground for water conservation.  Pots have to be watered everyday in the summer here.  Putting everything in the ground, and mulching them takes less water, and makes better plants.

The new Tiller helps this process tremendously.  It's compact and gets into small spaces extremely well.  What it doesn't do well is this Texas Clay Soil.  I still have to break the clay before I can till compost into it.  But with every pass its getting a little easier.  The soil in the garden is far superior than what is in the yard.

Here, last Saturday we made the big push to finish the gates.  I had Nineclaw helping, and I needed it because we hit it hard, knocked out the gates, hardware, and got the garden sealed off from the ginormous animals.  What I have built here is a livestock fence, for a ginormous galoofa woofus...

He hasn't breached it yet.  I say yet because there is not the temptation of my homegrown Tomatoes yet.  When they are ripe he'll find a way, I'm sure.  In the meanwhile I'm going to install some other deterrents.

Next I'll be moving all the compost heaps to the back of this garden, under the Oak Tree.  The compost has been invaluable in the garden this year.  Not just to nourish the soil, but I also use it as mulch,  That reduces the mud migration from the garden to the carpet, and that has made life a little easier here.  I only spent two months bustin' ass in the garden to do it...

Garden Fence

Spring Time, Mo Tilling required...

This is what the garden looked like at the end of Winter.

This year Harley ate literally everything in the garden, save some Garlic, and one Carrot.

Harley loves helping in the garden...

He loves helping so much that we need to keep him out of he garden, he's a little overzealous...

So we are taking out the garden boxes in order to run a fence from the greenhouse to the alley.

Here I have broken down all the garden boxes and emptied all the giant pots.

I am going to flatten the garden, and make one contiguous space.

This is literally Tons of dirt that I am tossing around...

The idea is to have a flat garden space that I can till with a mechanized tiller.

The fence around the garden will be welded wire so I can grow climbing plants like Beans and Cucumbers.

This changes the size of the garden considerably, from 200 Square Feet to over 600 Square Feet.

This has taken several weeks so far, I have some pros coming next weekend to help...

Late Fall Harvest

Got the word over the weekend that the first freeze would be Sunday night.  In fact we even got some snow on Monday morning.  Its always cool to catch the first snow of the year, even if its at 4 AM...

So Sunday afternoon I pulled all the fruit from the plants in the garden.  The was an abundance of Cayenne Chile this time.  I have two bushels of green Tomato clusters.  The Jalapenos are tiny this time.

Cayenne Chiles in the wash.

Drying the Cayenne Chiles before the dehydration process.

Green Tomato clusters, either pickles, or Fried Green Tomatoes.

The Habaneros were not as prolific this year, and produced some Red Savinas.

The Jalapenos turned out extra small, and extra hot this year.  I need to look at my organic soil composition.  This year I only used composted yard scraps as fertilizer, and maybe it needs a little more.  Both the Habaneros and the Jalapenos performed less than I had hoped.  There are two issues with the garden now, nutrition, and light.  My large trees shade the garden in the afternoon.  The nutrition is less of a problem, I can solve it by changing the nutrient mix when I till the garden in the spring.  But getting the light back requires trimming the trees, and that we don't want to do.

Sauerkraut

Once I started doing this fermented foods thing it keeps getting easier, and I find that my body really likes the home made Sauerkraut more than anything I can buy at a store.  My wife is the same way about my homegrown Tomatoes, and doesn't like store bought Tomatoes any more.

And, its so easy, just Cabbage, Sea Salt, and time makes the most awesome Sauerkraut.  We're going to shred this cabbage, and Salt it liberally, stuff it in a jar, and wait for it to turn into Sauerkraut.

It took like five minutes total to prepare the Cabbage, shred it, salt it, stuff it, and done.

Then I'll add a little, maybe a cup, of brine to have a little liquid over the top of the Cabbage.

Then use another smaller jar filled with water to hold the cabbage down.  Then we wait...

Tamales with Chili Sauce

Craving Mexican food again.  This time I'm going to make Tamales with Chili Sauce.  We'll start with the Tamale Doh!

Two cups of Masa for Tamales, Two cups of water, 2/3 cup of Bacon Fat, 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder, and 1 teaspoon of Sea Salt.  Then everyone into the mixer for a spin.

In the meantime I prepared some Beef Taco filling with off the shelf Taco Spices, and soaked the Corn Husks in cold water.  Spread some Tamale Doh! on each Corn Husk, and Add some Beef Taco Filling inside.

Roll the up so the Tamale Doh! covers the Beef Taco filling, and repeat until you have used up the Tamale Doh!

The Chili Sauce is Carroll Shelby's Chili Mix, a pound of ground Beef, a 14.5 oz. can of whole Tomatoes, a 8 oz. can of Tomato sauce, and 8 oz. of water.  That will simmer down for about an hour.

We'll finish rolling the Tamales, and get them ready to go into the steamer.

The Tamales will steam for an hour.

After the Tamales come out of the steamer they need to cool for a while to set the Tamale Doh!

Here is the final product.  Not as pretty as I would have liked, but tasty none the less...

Kimchi 2

That first batch of Kimchi is really Hot and Garlicky.  I like it, but a lot of other people wouldn't.  So, I made another batch that is milder.  Also this time I didn't use Fish Sauce.  Instead I used brine to make the Sambal.

The one thing I am missing here is Ginger.  The Ginger would temper the sharpness of the Garlic, and then it should taste more like it should.  That is the way I learn, by doing.  Maybe within a few more batches I'll have it down.