brunosdream

My brother and sister-in-law went mushroom hunting in the forest near their home and found some treasure! Here are a few photos of their outing:

Happy Hunting…

Bruno

When I’m running errands around town, I’ll occasionally drive by a Jamaican BBQ place called Mi Hungry, but I’ve yet to try their food. One thing for sure is it has made me crave some jerk chicken. To satisfy that craving, my most recent cooking project was, you guessed it, delicious, aromatic, roasted jerk chicken! After removing the backbone and flattening out the chicken, I rubbed jerk seasoning under the skin, then let it air dry, uncovered, in the fridge for 5 hours for a crispier skin. 45 minutes in a 425-degree Fahrenheit oven, and my bird was ready! Served w/ jasmine rice enhanced w/ some lime juice/zest, and a cooling red cabbage slaw … it was heaven on earth!!

One of these days, I’ll travel to Jamaica for the real deal. Until then, this will have to suffice.

Bon Appetit!

Bruno

P.S. – A Cotes du Rhone blanc was a nice pairing for this meal.

Fall has definitely arrived in St. Louis. It was a good day to break out the table top wood-fired oven and practice my cooking skills on a beautiful, chilly afternoon. I made calzones in a cast iron skillet for the first time, as well as a few pizzas. The calzones were filled w/ goat cheese, shitake mushrooms, roasted broccoli, orange bell pepper and garlic. The pizzas were topped w/ a San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, pesto and chunks of crispy pork jowl bacon. It was a fun and delicious way to spend Halloween afternoon w/ a couple of friends. 

Cheers!

Bruno 

Well, these beautiful zinnias kind of make up for the crappy tomato season this year!

Better years ahead…

Bruno

It’s been one month since I transplanted my baby vegetable plants into their new home. Everything is doing well so far. I did have a casualty in my herb patch though. My new sage plant shriveled up and died during the heat wave last week (it hit 101 degrees F in St. Louis!!). Oh well… looks like I’ll be using some dried sage in my cooking this weekend. On the menu are country style ribs, so I’ll add the sage to my dry rub for a little extra flavor. Below are some photos I snapped yesterday morning. 

Daydreaming of good things to come…

Bruno

Well, 2021 is off to a good start. Not only is Covid starting to dwindle in the U.S., mother nature has been kind this spring in St. Louis. No major drowning rainstorms, mostly some days w/ nice steady rain followed by sunny days. The average temperature in May was around 70 degrees F. Perfect weather to transplant my veggie garden. This year I grew 8 Cherokee Purple tomato plants, 4 Swiss Chard (Five Color Silverbeet) and 3 jalapeno pepper plants. All were started on April 4th and transplanted on May 24th. I also started basil (Thai and Genovese) in pots outside on May 1st. My sage plant was getting old and dying out, so I trimmed out all the dead sections and added a new sage plant in the same spot. The new plant is a different variety w/ large oval leaves and purplish stems. Everything is doing well in their new homes. I rotated the garden to the other side of the enclosure and gave the plants more space to spread their leaves and grow! Here are some photos I snapped on May 30th:

 Chard, tomatoes and peppers

 Thai basil in the small pots, Genovese in the larger ones

 Sage, tarragon, chives and oregano

Be well and stay healthy…

Bruno

St. Louis has been pummeled by rain during the past week. We’ve had several torrential downpours and many of my tomatoes were starting to split open from the excessive water. I decided to harvest the nearly ripe ones yesterday before they were ruined. Some were already starting to rot at the spots where they were touching each other. After cutting away the bad spots from a big tomato, I made a caprese salad for lunch today with mozzarella di bufala that I picked up at the wine shop where I work. Drizzled w/ an aged balsamic vinegar from Italy and served w/ tuna packed in olive oil… life was good as I momentarily forgot about the pandemic that is ravaging Missouri and St. Louis as well as the rest of the country! Tonight’s dinner will be a curried pork stir fry which will include some garden fresh tomatoes and Thai basil. Looking forward to more goodness!

Here are a couple of photos taken yesterday (August 1st):

Be well…

Bruno

Summer is definitely upon us in St. Louis! Temperatures have been in the 90’s for the past couple of weeks but there has been good soaking rainfall weekly. The plants are looking healthy and have started producing. If you enlarge the photos you’ll see some Cherokee Purple tomatoes and Jalapeno peppers coming in. I’ve already harvested some chard and basil to use in various recipes. The wildflowers are doing well too. The only thing that looks kind of scraggily is my patch of herbs. The sage and chives came back fairly well, however the tarragon and oregano didn’t. I’m letting them go to seed in hopes that I’ll have stronger and fuller plants next year.

Here are a few photos taken on July 9th:

Happy Gardening!

Bruno

 photos taken June 14th

What a pleasure it is to be outside again playing in the dirt! The last several months have been crazy to say the least as a result of  Covid 19. I’m hoping this will be a good gardening year to temporarily take my mind off of  virus related news.

Again, I’ve shrunk the amount of veggies going into the enclosure this year. Less plants and only what has produced well in past seasons. St. Louis had a lot of rain in May but now there’s been a good stretch of dry weather allowing the plants to get well established.

In the garden this year are: 4 Cherokee Purple and 4 Cuore Di Bue tomatoes, 4 Swiss chard, 2 Padron and 2 Jalapeno peppers. In the pots are Genovese and Thai basil.

Green thumbs up!!

Bruno

Summer’s winding down so I’m taking advantage of the remaining days of fresh picked produce. Hope you are too!

Yum, yum….

Bruno