Day...oh, who knows - What to do with a lot of parsley, redux

Yes, almost two months have passed since my last post. It's funny, but for all these days, I pretty much forgot about the lone remaining Aerogarden of parsley (remember that it's sitting on the top shelf way above my head).

In fact, twice in these two months, I did check up on the Aerogarden, expecting to find unintentionally dried parsley. But to my surprise, it kept growing and growing. The first time I checked, the water was almost completely dried out, but only a few outer leaves had turned brown--the rest of the parsley was doing great. And by the second time I checked (it was bone dry again, and I had completely run out of nutrient tablets to boot), the parsley had grown even more.



So, as you know, my goal is to use up the parsley so I can retire the Aerogardens and start fresh again in a few months. But how to use up parsley if it just keeps growing so danged prolifically?

Jackpot! I found a recipe that used a whole cup of parsley at AllRecipes.Com! It's a recipe for Alfredo Mostaccioli. No, Alfredo Mostaccioli was not a kid you went to high school with. "Mostaccioli" is a fancy Italian word for Penne Pasta which is not ridged. I happened to have one more box of Penne pasta in the cupboard, so it was perfect. I just had to go out and buy cream, but everything else I had in the fridge, in the cupboard, or growing like wildfire out of the Aerogarden.

The first step in the recipe was to combine the cream and the butter. At this point, I knew this recipe was a winner. Anything that uses this much cream and butter MUST be good.



Next step was to grate the cheese. I happened to have a block of Parmagiano Reggiano (that was Al's best friend in high school) in the fridge, so I whipped out the Kitchenaid with the grater attachment (I'll spare you the requisite pun) and grated up a whole lot of cheese.



Next step was to harvest the parsley. And yes, even after using all this, I still have more to use up!



Throw it all into a pot...



And voila (or should I say presto), a meal fit for a king.





The fresh parsley and the fresh cream and the fresh garlic gave it an interesting taste that I can only describe as "fresh". Definitely a step above your Olive Garden variety pasta.

So, now I'm just searching for one or two last recipes to use for my parsley. We'll see how much it continues to grow without nutrient tablets.

Day 132 - What to do with a lot of parsley, part deux

And so, three Aerogardens are down to one now. The holiday Aerogarden unit is on Day 132, and still living on the top shelf.

The harvest for the flank steak made the unit look a little more orderly, and it was time to find another recipe that used a heck of a lot of parsley. I want back to AllRecipes and looked for another recipe that used a big chunk of fresh parsley. I found a great recipe for meatloaf that once again used a whole 1/2 cup of chopped parsley.

Once again, I harvested and chopped:


The recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of breadcrumbs. Feeling in a "do it yourself" mood, I decided to bake a fresh loaf of bread...

...with the sole intent of using my Kitchenaid to grate fresh breadcrumbs.

The recipe was easy enough. Sautee carrot and onion and add the mixture to a mixture of garlic, parsley, ketchup, bread crumbs, eggs, and ground beef. The results was a wonderfully gooey hunk of meat that I shaped into a loaf.

As with all meatloafs, it looked beautiful coming out of the oven, especially with a slab of tomato sauce poured over the top and let to seep in.

The recipe was admittedly a wee bit bland (needed salt), but nothing a good squirt of ketchup couldn't fix.

I'd say there's one more harvest of parsley in the ol' Holiday Herb Aerogarden and then we'll hang it up for a while.

Day 190 / Day 125 - A harvest of tomatoes

Well, it's come down to this for the Tomato Aerogarden. I did one gigantic harvest of all the remaining tomatoes on the Aerogarden unit.

Had it not been for the critters, I probably would have bought a few more nutrient tablets and continued to harvest tomatoes. But for now, I'm content with this bountiful harvest.

Now, the question I had to ask myself was, what do I do with these? I did the salad thing, and I did the BLT thing. What next?

If you recall some early blogs, one of my dreams was to make my own homemade tomato sauce. Of course, when I wrote that I foresaw having bushels and bushels of tomatoes. But I wasn't about to let the fact that I only have 21 little cherry tomatoes deter me from this dream.

I put the tomatoes in a mini food processor.


Whirr-whirr-whirr-whirr...

The blended tomatoes certainly smelled like very fresh tomatoes. I then improvised, tossing in a bunch of herbs and spices. Among other things, I used fresh basil from my potted basil plants, the remainder of the fresh oregano from the Aerogarden, and the usual suspects of garlic, salt, sugar, and olive oil.


After a bit more whirring, I put the contents into a little saucepan and simmered it down until it was chunky.


I added more random spices from the cupboard, and then tossed it with a little fresh Italian pasta.

How did it taste? It was definitely fresh, and I think the fact that it took half a year to make made it all the more satisfying.

All in all, I'd say the Tomato Aerogarden fell a bit short of what I'd hoped. It was cool growing tomatoes in the house, of course, but at the end of the day I think the Aerogardens are more suited for herbs like parsley and basil. While at the end, the tomatoes started to finally grow prolifically, it took way too long to get to that point and the fact that it looks like it was the tomato leaves that attracted the whiteflies will make me think twice about getting this seed kit again. Put another way, the next time I grow a tomato garden, I hope I'll be able to do it in a yard.

Day 182 / Day 117 - How to use up a whole lot of parsley

On January 10, my Holiday Herb Aerogarden looked like this. The oregano had grown back a little, the thyme was hanging in there, but the parsley was going crazy.

My goal at this point was to use up the parsley. My plan for now is to retire both the tomato Aerogarden and the Holiday Herb Aerogarden. Then I'd take a little break from the Aerogardening to give time for the remaining whiteflies to disappear. (Don't worry, I'll be back with new Aerogardens soon enough!)

Anyway, I had a TON of parsley to use up. So, I scoured the Web to find recipes that used parsley. A LOT of parsley.

I went to my favorite site, AllRecipes.Com, and found a recipe for Parsley-Stuffed Flank Steak. The ingredients were simple enough--flank steak, Romano cheese, garlic, and parsley. I went to the supermarket and bought me a big ol' flank steak (which had a big ol' price tag). The rest of the stuff I had already.

I started by cutting some parsley from the Aerogarden, estimating how much I'd need for 1/2 cup. Happily, the critters didn't seem to care for the taste, so they were clean. I washed them anyway, and put them on the cutting board.

Then, I chopped them. As you can guess, I had a bit more than 1/2 cup.

The next step was stuffing the flank steak. Now, I've never stuffed a flank steak before, but it seemed simple enough. Sprinkle on the parsley, then the cheese, then the garlic, roll it up, and then wrap it all in foil.

Here's how it came out. In retrospect, I probably should have cut the meat thinner, but it didn't matter, because it was amazing. Sometimes the simplest recipes are the ones that turn out the nicest.

Day 169 / Day 104 - Bye Bye Lettuce and hopefully Bye Bye Whiteflies

Well, the little whiteflies on my lettuce just got to be too much, so I retired the lettuce Aerogarden. Here's what was left of it.

As you can see, the leaves were still in decent shape, but dealing with the flies just got to be too much. Every day I'd vacuum them clean, and the next day there'd be a couple dozen more. I'm just glad the whiteflies' eggs and pupae stages are too small to be seen with the naked eye, or I'd be totally grossed out!

In any case, Heather, I read your comment in the last posting, and if it's any consolation, you're not alone! I did a little research on whiteflies and aphids, and they seem to be a very, very common problem in households and greenhouses.

I'm still not quite sure how they happened to get into the house (the usual way is for them to hitch a ride on other plants, but I haven't gotten any new plants for a few months). My guess is they were attracted to the bright Aerogarden lights that I have on overnight. All it takes is two randy whiteflies to find their way through a crack in the window, and then it's like they're in Vegas--bright lights, all-you-can-eat salad bar and...well, you know the rest.

The good news is, I made the very prescient step a few months ago of NOT putting my houseplants (and my other herb plants) near the Aerogardens, so they haven't infested the whole house.

They seemed to particularly love the lettuce and the tomatoes, and even though they're not supposed to like basil, I noticed they didn't mind that mind that either. They all but destroyed what was once a glorious basil plant. This is the one that had been transplanted from my original Aerogarden and was at one point the biggest, most productive basil plant I had. But by now, the leaves were all wilting and falling apart, and the underside was sticky (whiteflies excrete a sticky honeydew which, if left around, eventually turns into icky black mold fungus).

So, the plan is still to shut down the tomato Aerogarden--taking Corinne's great advice from the last post, I've been trimming the leaves which does two things: it help control the whitefly population (they hang out and lay their eggs on the undersides of leaves), and it ensures that the bulk of the remaining nutrients goes straight to the tomatoes.

I did salvage pieces from the lettuce Aerogarden. As luck would have it, one grow light had gone out in the Holiday Herb Aerogarden, so I took the one working light from the lettuce Aerogarden and put it into that. And I used the two remaining grow tablets from my lettuce kit to give the tomato Aerogarden a few more days of growth.

Once the tomato Aerogarden is gone, that'll leave just the Holiday Herb Aerogarden (which currently has the thyme growing weakly, the oregano growing moderately, and the parsley growing through the roof). So far, the whiteflies don't seem to be infesting those, but to be safe, I did a little investigating as to the best way to be sure they don't.

Insecticides, of course, won't work because the herbs have to be edible.

Ironically enough, one popular method to control whiteflies is to use a vacuum to suck them up, but as I've found, that's a losing battle.

The most popular solution I found has been sticky yellow Whitefly Traps. They're available at Gardener's Supply Company. These are not only safe, they're also very easy to set up, and I imagine once you get over the ickiness factor, you might get a sense of satisfaction seeing all those pests done in by their own gluttony.

The way they work, you stick up a yellow card near your plants. They'll attract and capture whiteflies, (as well as gnats, aphids, thrips and other pests). Once the card is covered with insects, you just replace it with a fresh one.

So once I retire my tomato Aerogarden, I'll be investing in a couple of these just to make sure the Holiday Herb Aerogarden can live out the rest of its days in peace. I still have a lot of plans for that parsley.

Day 154 / Day 89 - The good, the bad, and Critters! :(

So, I'm minding my own business when it hits me--I write a blog, don't it?

Yes, it's been about three weeks since my last post. A lot has happened since then with the Aerogardens.

The good:

1. The week after Thanksgiving, I bought myself two ducks on sale at the supermarket, with the intent of using my fresh basil to cook this recipe. I started by harvesting the basil:
   
   
   Now, usually the rest of this post would be a beautiful picture of the beautifully honey glazed duck glistening in the oven, but guess what? I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF IT!! So you'll just have to take my word for it that the duck was flavorful, juicy, and absolutely delicious.
   


2. The tomato Aerogarden is absolutely thriving. All of a sudden, tomatoes are sprouting up like crazy. I counted not 10, not twenty, but THIRTY new tomatoes growing on the danged thing! If you look carefully, you can count up to 15 in this picture!
   
   
   
   
   
   I learned the secret of successful "pollination" of the tomato plants. The instruction booklet says to shake the plants, but that's a good way to send fragile little flower buds flying across the room. Others have suggested Q-Tips or toothpicks, but that just takes too much time. The method I've found which works best is to take your index finger and just lightly tap the stem underneath the flower buds. If you look carefully, you'll see a little cloud of pollen spread out (you'll also smell a tomato-y scent). If you're feeling silly, you'll make a little buzzing sound when you do this like I do.
   
   The pollen will pollinate the flowers--each time I've done this, within days I'd see a cute little tomato form.

The bad:

• My grow bulb has finally went out on my Holiday Herb Aerogarden unit. Now this isn't really 'bad', because the bulbs lasted through two generations of Aerogardens. Pretty amazing when you consider these units are on 15 hours a day non-stop.
  
  
• I am down to my last nutrient tablets on my Tomato Aerogarden and my Lettuce Aerogardens. The lettuce has served me very well, but I'm a little wistful that it's only when the tomatoes are starting to pop up that it's time to say good-night. I guess I could order a new set of nutrient tablets, but my goal is to retire the Tomato and the Lettuce Aerogardens in 2-4 weeks because of one little thing...

The ugly:

...actually, it's about two dozen little things and counting. That's right, it's the worst nightmare of an Aerogarden gardener-critters! More specifically, I've seen these tiny little winged flies on the undersides of my tomato leaves.

The good news is, they're not scary looking. They're just little white flies (in fact, they're called whiteflies). If they were fuzzy or had big bulging eyes or creepy antennae or big hairy teeth, I'd retire as an Aerogarden gardener and throw all three units out the window. But they look pretty harmless, and don't even seem to be sucking the leaves as I've always heard whiteflies do, it looks like they're just hanging out to be under the light. They've also attacked the few potted plants I have on the kitchen windowsill--all alumni of the Aerogardens: a mint plant, a thyme plant, two basil plants, and a chive plant. Interestingly, they don't seem to be very interested in the basil, something I've heard is to be expected because of the essential oils (as I was writing this I just realized for the first time in my life that "essential oils" means "oils that give off an essence", and not "oils you can't live without" :P)

I'm not even sure how they got into my kitchen, but there are dozens of them. I'm thankful that (so far), they haven't made the migration into the living room where all my houseplants are, because I've heard once they get on houseplants, it's all over...they are nearly impossible to get rid of. So when I walk from the kitchen into the living room, I make sure to shake up and down to make sure I don't carry any with me (critters like whiteflies and aphids love to hitch a ride on loose clothes).

I have a unique way of pest control. I take my Dyson handheld vacuum and hold it like a gun. Then, I shake the leaves, and once the whiteflies start scattering, I suck them up. It's like a lame, 3-D version of Whack-a-Mole.

The Aerogarden manual actually gives instructions on how to get rid of critters, but it involves taking the unit and showering it under a stream of water. But since the lifecycle of the tomatoes and lettuce are almost at an end, I'm just going to let them live the rest of their lives in peace and then retire them (I'll figure out something cool to do with those 30 tomatoes) and try to make sure it's rid of whiteflies before starting a new batch.

Day 134 / Day 69 - Recipe for Fresh Oregano

Tomorrow is our company's "pot luck". Now, every year I've come up with a dish that I've made in the past, but this year, I figured I'd make use of my bumper harvest of oregano from the "holiday herbs" Aerogarden. 

The "holiday herbs" Aerogarden has taken a bit of a back seat to the tomato and lettuce Aerogardens, but that's only because it's been doing so well, like the well-behaved child that doesn't get much attention because his siblings are busy getting into messes.  

Well, our star pupil has gotten into a bit of a mess. The Aerogarden's grown into quite a bit of a jungle. The oregano in particular has grown so voluminous that it's intertwined with the parsley and the thyme, and the one sage plant (the other never came up) is gargantuan! 

So, my goal was to find a recipe that used fresh oregano. A LOT of fresh oregano.

Most of the recipes I found were for fish dishes. Turns out fresh oregano is excellent with salmon, red snapper, halibut, and a whole bunch of other great fish. But of course, I can't bring fish to a potluck (although in the coming months, I'm sure I'll be attempting a fish dish.

I decided upon this recipe: Fresh Tomato Penne with Oregano.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1218732

Ingredients

• 1  (16-oz.) package penne pasta
• 1/4  pound  prosciutto, chopped
• 1/4  cup  olive oil
• 3  plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 4  garlic cloves, minced
• 1  (2-oz.) package pine nuts, lightly toasted
• 1/4  cup  chopped fresh oregano
• 1/2  teaspoon  dried crushed red pepper
• 1/4  teaspoon  sugar
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and keep warm.

2. Cook prosciutto in hot oil in a large skillet over medium heat 8 minutes or until crisp. Add tomatoes and next 7 ingredients; cook, stirring often, 5 minutes or until tomatoes are tender. Toss with warm cooked pasta. Serve with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

It seemed like the perfect dish. I had most of the ingredients already, and tomatoes and prosciutto were on sale at the local supermarket. So, I went and bought what I didn't have.

The first step was harvesting the oregano:
  

A pretty good haul. I managed to chop 1/2 cup full of oregano, more than what this recipe later, but it would turn out handy later. 

Next step was mincing the garlic and chopping the proscuitto into diced pieces. I read a handy hint on the Web that the best way to chop proscuitto is by freezing it for 15 minutes (yes, I know I'm spelling prosciutto wrong each time, but at this point I've given up trying to fix it).   

Next step, chopping the tomatoes. It would have been cool if I had been able to harvest the tomatoes from the Aerogarden, but alas, the smiley salad was the last recipe for a good while. 

In an effort to "inspire" the tomato Aerogarden like last time, I held the box of tomatoes up to it and gave it a little Knute Rockne inspirational speech. 
Well, long story short, after a while, my whole house smelled soooooooooooooooooooooooo good. If I were in the scented candle biz, I'd sell a candle that smells like fried proscuitto. It was one of the most amazing smells, especially when intermingled with the garlic and the toasted pine nuts and the fresh smell of oregano. 

I mixed it with a pound of penne pasta. I tasted it, and unfortunately, it ended up tasting like slightly-flavored penne pasta. 

Not to be defeated, I went and repeated the whole process again. Turns out I had double of every ingredient, including the all-important fresh oregano. So I made another batch and tossed half of it into the pasta. That brought the flavor out, and it was not bad, although knowing what everyone else is bringing to the pot luck, I have a feeling this dish isn't going to blow anyone away. 

And so, this is what I'm bringing tomorrow: 

I'm hoping people like it, but if they don't, that just means I've got my dinner plans set for the next few days!