A garden full of surprises

My effords in the spring bore fruit, but not necessarily what I expected.

This year there were a few surprises.
Carrots never grew. One always reads that carrots are easy to grow. I have grown them for the last three years.
Not this time. Nope, they didn't germinate. I bought several new seed packets. Nothing. Weird.

Spinach and peas but no carrots.

But there were other crops I have never seen before.

There was that cucumber seed that turned out into something like a cucumber-melon. Started out like a small pickled cucumber and then grew round and yellow. What the h...? We tasted them - they tast like cucumber.

The other thing is this. I thought it was an acorn squash but it turned out my neighbour knew better.

It is a "petit gris de rennes melon", a very old heirloom melon with origin in France. One of the most expensive melons on the gourmet food marked.

They were delicious, very sweet and full of flavour. MMMMh.

What I thought was pumpkin seeds turned out to be zuccini! Under the big leaves I found these three.

and a month later another pair - even bigger. And more "cucumber-melons". The biggest zuccini is 2.2kg (4.8pound). Amazing.

A rare guest at my house was sitting in the apple tree.
A cardinal. He was gone in a blink of the eye.

Welcome to PatsyIrene. Thanks for joining my blog. I read in your blog that you froze your apples? I have never done that and definitely will try it this fall because I have not enough time right now to make apple sauce at the moment.

Grilled Pork Ribs

Side dishes: Potatoes and Cucumber/Tomato Salad.
Such a nice warm summer evening, just right to start the grill.
Take ribs and steam with little water for about 15 - 20 minutes. Drain and season the meat with salt, pepper, lemon pepper and grill until done.
If you fancy grill sauces, just use them. We like the plain meat taste.

Cook about 4 potatoes. (Even if we don't eat all of the potatoes, it is good to have some cooked ones in the fridge for hash browns at lunch time).
Salad: slice 1/2 cucumber and 1 Tomato. Season with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, dill, basil and juice of ca 1/2 lemon.


Grilled Pork ribs and Cucumber/Tomato Salad

Gegrillte Schweinerippe mit Gurken/Tomatensalat.
Ein warmer Sommerabend lädt zum Grillen ein. J.P hat Schweinerippen eingekauft und die werden heute abend gebraten. 
Erst lassen wir die Rippchen 15 Minuten lang in wenig Wasser dünsten, dann werden sie mit Salz, Pfeffer gewürzt und auf den Grill gelegt.
Dazu koche ich ein paar Kartoffeln. (Lieber mehr als weniger, dann habe ich immer ein paar gekochte Kartoffeln für Bratkartoffel im Kühlschrank).
Für den Salat: 1/2 Salatgurke und 1 Tomate in Scheiben schneiden und mit 1 Eßl Olivenöl, Saft einer 1/2 Zitrone, Zucker, Salz, Pfeffer, Basilikum und Dill würzen.

Igjen en varm sommerkveld og J.P. tar ut grillen.
Det blir kokt noen poteter. Kok gjerne noen flere slik at det er kokte poteter i kjøleskapet i tilfelle noen vil ha stekte poteter til lunsj.
Kok 2 stykker svineribbe i 15 minuter over litt vann. Dryss på med pepper og salt og leg de på grill.
Salaten: 1/2 agurk og 1 tomat skjæres i skiver. Smaker til med salt, pepper, sukker, basilikum og dill. Tilføy 1 ss oliv olje og juice av 1/2 sitron.

Almond breaded Pollock and Tomato/Cucumber Salad

My husband is thrilled because he thinks that our dinners have improved since I started to blog about it. Well, well, isn't that something?


Today I we will have a fish day. The recipe asks for Tilapia, but I only have pollock. We will see how it goes.
For side dish I prepare a tomato/cucumber salad. And - of course - potatoes. I will boil more than for one meal because, for tomorrow I need some cold, cooked potatoes.
Start with peeling potatoes and setting them to a boil. After that slice 1-2 tomato and 1/2 , peeled salad cucumber. Season with each 1 tbsp vegetable and olive oil. Add salt, pepper, dill, basil and sugar. Mix well and set aside.
Now to the fish.
We need 2 eggs,1 teaspoon lemon pepper,1 teaspoon garlic pepper,1 cup ground almonds, 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, flour and 4 fish filets.
Beat the eggs, the lemon- and garlic pepper until well mixed and set aside.
Stir together ground almonds with 1 cup of Parmesan cheese in another shallow dish.  Dust the fish fillets with flour. Now dip the fish first in egg, then turn it in the almond mixture.
Heat a pan with 4 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp vegetable oil and fry the fish on medium heat for about 3 min per side, or until they are done.
Serve with parmesan cheese on top, or like my husband likes it, with tartar sauce. (Here I used some leftover sauce from the day we had potato salad).

Today's dinner: Almond breaded pollock with tomato/ cucumber salad.

Remark: There was no problem using pollock instead of tilapia.


Die Deutsche Ecke:

Köhlerlfischfilets mit Mandelkruste, Tomaten/Gurkensalat und Salzkartoffeln.

Die Kartoffel schälen und zum kochen bringen. 1 - 2 Tomaten und 1/2 geschälte Salatgurke in Scheiben schneiden. Salatsoße aus 1 Eßl Salatöl, 1 Eßl Olivenöl, Salz, Pfeffer, Zucker, Dill und Basilikum bereiten. Gut mischen und zur Seite stellen.
Für den Fisch: 2 Eier, 1 Tlf Zitronenpfeffer, 1 Tlf Knoblauchsalz, 100g gehackte Mandeln, 2 Eßl (oder mehr) geriebenen Parmesankäse. Die Eier mit den Gewürzen in einem Teller vermischen; die Mandeln mit dem Parmesan in einem anderen. Die Fischfilets mit Mehl pudern und zuerst in die Eimischung geben und dann in der Mandelmischung wenden.
In einer Pfanne 4 Eßl Butter und 1 Eßl Öl erhitzen und die Fischfilets auf mittlerer Hitze ca 3 Minuten von jeder Seite braten, oder so lange bis das sie gar sind.
Mit frischem Parmesan servieren, oder wie J-P vorzieht: mit Remuladensoße.
(Hier hatte ich noch einen Rest Soße vom Kartoffelsalat).
Mit Gurkensalat und Salzkartoffel servieren.
Das Rezept schrieb eigentlich Barsch (Tilapia) vor, aber es gab keine Probleme mit dem Köhlerfisch (Pollack).