cauliflower

Cauliflower harvest makes delicious dinner…

The winter vegetable garden came bearing gifts yesterday.

I ventured out into the rain to harvest our first cauliflower.

It was big and beautiful in the garden — and it had been calling to me for several days.

With a nice roast, mashed potatoes and roasted beets waiting as accompaniment, I brought it in.

Of course, we took a few pictures of it first.

I cut it up and put it on a baking sheet with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Then I sprinkled a little shredded Parmesan cheese on it and topped that with some bits of garlic from the garlic press. After 30 minutes at 425 it was a nutty, cheesy, crunchy batch of yumminess.

Jeff checked online and learned that the beautiful leaves that I cut off of the cauliflower are also edible like greens. I cut and cleaned them and set them aside. Tomorrow I’ll steam them and toss them with some bacon, onion and sea salt … maybe a little balsamic vinegar, too.

There are three more heads of cauliflower growing in the garden, but they have a few more weeks to go so we have something to look forward to.

Homegrown cauliflower turns into fabulous casserole…


Today I picked two small heads of cauliflower in the garden. This is my first year to grow cauliflower and it was so easy.

I meant to take photos of it when I washed it and when the casserole was done. My focus on getting to the eating part must have affected my memory and I completely forgot to take photos.

Last week I found my old recipe box with a solitary recipe card sitting on top of it. Yellowed with age, I probably copied it out of a magazine or the newspaper at least 25 years ago. (oh, no, I meant to write more than 5 years ago. I’m really not that old, really I’m not!) But I’m certain that I never made it.

Today I made it with my home-grown cauliflower. It was simple and delicious. And since I couldn’t invite you to dinner, I thought I’d share it the recipe with you!

Cauliflower in Cheese Sauce

1 head fresh cauliflower
2 cups bechamel sauce
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
4 oz. dried beef
buttered breadcrumbs

Cook cauliflower until tender. Make bechamel sauce (melt butter, make a roux with a little flower, add milk or cream & cook until thickened. Add nutmeg. Do NOT salt or pepper this.) Cut dried beef into very small bits. Add to sauce with cheese. Place drained cauliflower in greased baking dish. Cover with sauce. Top with a little extra cheese & buttered bread crumbs. Bake in oven long enough for everything to melt together and get hot. (350 degrees) 4-6 servings.

So yummy. Though I did taste a sample of the cauliflower when it came out of the boiling water so I could actually get the flavor of it all by itself. It was great.

What a fun process – growing them from seed in my veggie garden, photographing it, picking it, cooking it, and eating it. And now blogging about it and ‘sharing’ it.

Doesn’t get much better than that for a gardener.

What are you eating out of your garden?

By |2017-11-29T23:27:24-06:00January 30th, 2011|Blog, cauliflower, Sharing Nature's Garden|0 Comments

Growing goodies in the garden…

Though it’s winter outside, there are still wonderful vegetables growing in the garden.

Planted in early fall, these edibles love the chill of winter.

I know my gardening friends are already harvesting and have pulled up some lovely carrots. Mine were planted a little later, but I’m eager to check one of the larger ones.

My 8-year old is a veritable bunny, and would readily crunch on raw carrots at every meal. She will have a blast when we harvest these.

Don’t you just love the little vegetable marker? It’s an antique spoon with a hand-drawn label.

This Dwarf Satsuma Orange is in the greenhouse — it would not have liked our few light freezes. The warm humidity of the greenhouse provided great conditions to help it ripen. It’s the first year for the orange (with me) and it produced 3 oranges. We’ve eat two of them and they were sweet and juicy and had very few seeds. I can’t wait to eat the third one! Doesn’t it look tasty?
Growing happily, I can’t wait to eat the cauliflower with a creamy bechamel sauce, just like my mother made it and my German Oma before her.
The red cabbage adds a burst of color to the winter vegetable garden and brightens it up. Naturally, I’ll make German red cabbage with it.
I’ve already harvested some small broccoli florets, but there are just a few still hanging on. Next year, I will plant many more of them.

Also growing in the garden right now, I have artichokes, Swiss Chard, parsley, sage, cilantro, and strawberries.

Now it’s time to start seeds in the greenhouse. I know I will be ordering a variety of tomato seeds to try, but there is a world of other vegetables that work well started as seeds before the last frost in a warm indoor environment.

I can’t wait for the spring garden. But I have to eat the winter vegetables first!

Are you eating vegetables from your winter garden?

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