Cukes and Squash Blossoms, and Dare I Say, Pole Bean Flowers??

•August 16, 2010 • Leave a Comment

As I’ve noted before in this blog, out of all three plants I’m growing, my cucumbers are doing the best.  I’ve been having camera issues and it’s been hard trying to get it to focus on certain parts of the plant (older technology, what can you do!), so I apologize if they’re not the greatest quality.  I’ve been trying to get a photo of the bigger cucumber that’s growing, but it’s been hard.  I have a photo of others that are starting to grow.  As you’ll see, the squash plant has regrown and I have a fair amount of blossoms now.  All I need is a bee to pollinate the female plants and I’ll finally get some squash!  I also have to clean up the squash plant and cut away the dead leaves.  The pole beans are actually showing some life!  I found one flower starting to peek out and another is starting to grow.

Squash Blossoms top

Squash Blossoms side

Squash Blossms, only 1

Here’s a blurry shot of the pole bean flower, followed by another.

Pole Bean flower out of focus

Pole bean flower, a little bit better

cukes at the bottom

As you can see, the problem that I’m having is that the camera focuses on the background (the fence and the trellis) instead of on the plant.  I don’t know why it’s doing this, maybe someone can help me out, but I’m going to have to play around with the settings so that this stops happening.  I’m really surprised that my pole beans are actually starting to flower!

I have some beet and pea seeds from Sprout Robot that they sent about two weeks ago, but I think I might wait to plant them when I get back from Italy since I’ll be away for a bit and won’t be able to water them.  I’m also going to start an herb garden which I’m really excited about.

I hope that my first cucumber can be picked in the next week or so!  The problem is the amount of sunlight I get on the balcony which I believe is causing my plants to grow at a slower rate.  It’s also causing some of the cucumbers that are growing, to shrivel up and die in infancy, as you can see in the photo towards the bottom.  Ah well, it’s an experiment, albeit a very tasty one!

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Pegu Club serves me a Mar-TEA-Ni

•August 16, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Quick update!  I finally went to Pegu Club last week and had the best drink ever.

Earl Grey Mar-tea-ni at Pegu Club

It’s an Earl Grey Mar-TEA-ni.  It consisted of gin infused with Earl Grey tea, lemon juice and a raw egg white on top.  DELICIOUS!  They basically read my mind on what would be the perfect drink.  I remember reading, either a year ago or maybe it was more recent, that they had to stop serving this drink because of the raw egg white.  But, I guess that’s not an issue anymore.

Veggie update coming tonight!

Posted in Around NYC

Farmers Market Fare

•August 13, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Early Fridays out of work are the best, and with the weather actually being normal for once, I decided to hit up the Union Square Farmers Market.  I’m so glad I was finally able to experience it on a weekday because it’s nuts if you try going in the afternoon on a Saturday.  I decided to check out the Flying Pigs Farm booth to see if they had any pork belly left.  The last time we tried was on a Saturday and they were wiped out.  What’s so special about Flying Pigs Farm?  Well, their pork comes from (quoting their website) “rare heritage breeds of pigs, raised with care on our fields and in our woods.”  It’s family owned and operated which is nice.  We’re talking about some high quality pork.  Lucky for me, they still had some left!  I snagged it up and can’t wait to cook it along with the other pork belly piece I got from my friend at work from her CSA.  As we all know from my last pork belly disaster, I made sure these pieces had some nice meat on them.  I also bought some heirloom cherry tomatoes, yellow and orange carrots, hen of the woods mushrooms and a nice baguette.

Yellow and orange carrots

Oof, please excuse the dirty window in the back!
Hen of the Woods mushrooms

baguette

Flying Pigs Farm pork belly

Pork Belly - meat

Living in the East Village, you’d think that the only farmers market in town is the Union Square one.  Wrong!  About 3 blocks down from us is Tompkins Square Park and every Sunday, they have their own farmers market.  Granted, it’s not as big as Union Square’s, but it still has some great finds, like these cipollini onions and carrots we cooked the other night.

Farm fresh cipollini onions

Farm fresh carrots

Of course, you can’t beat cipollini’s sautéed and roasted in duck fat (a shout out to Dr. Awesome’s mom for giving us that!)  It’s not an everyday occurrence, but sometimes it’s necessary.  Like I mentioned in my other post, you really can’t beat the taste and the freshness of produce and other items procured at the markets.  I know it’s hard trying to shop like this everyday, but if you’re able to find the time, I highly recommend it.  You’re supporting local businesses and you in turn know exactly where your food is coming from.

Posted in Around NYC, home cooking, Markets, pork
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Pata Negra and the Cloisters

•August 11, 2010 • 2 Comments

It was a busy weekend in I YUM New York land.   My good friend from high school and his wife were up from Ohio for a mutual friend’s wedding.  Since there are so many great places to eat around here, we wanted to take them to a great neighborhood spot.  Dr. Awesome suggested one of our new favorite places, located on 12th street and 1st avenue: Pata Negra.  We’ve only been to this place three times, but have always had great food and service.  It’s pretty tiny and there’s only one guy that comes around and takes the orders and another that cooks.  From our first experience there, we tried the dish that the place was named after: Pata Negra.  It’s a Spanish dried ham (sort of like prosciutto) that comes from free range pigs that roam oak forests along the border between Spain and Portugal, and eat only acorns.  It is the most delicious, melt-in-your-mouth ham you will ever eat.  What’s amazing is that you can also taste the acorns in the meat which gives it a great nutty flavor.

Pata Negra

Along with that, we ordered this Manchego cheese platter.

Manchego cheese and apples

There was a lot more ordered, like some grilled peppers, chorizo and blood sausage, a frittata, shrimp with garlic and an empanada that was filled with Manchego cheese and Portuguese sausage.  Everything was so good that I forgot to take photos!  What’s so great about this place is that the guy who takes your order is so passionate about the food and very appreciative to the customers.

The next day, we made our way uptown to go and visit the Cloisters.  Before we went there, we stopped to eat brunch at Bleu Evolution, where I had the duck hash that came with a poached egg.

Duck Hash

With bellies full and the sun shining, we walked through the park to get to our final destination.  I never realized that this place was here and that they brought all this medieval art and architecture to the city.  It’s really amazing how they were able to create such place and not destroy the things brought over in the process.

GW Bridge

Cloisters

inside 1

Inside 2

Inside 3

out in the garden

the garden

My friend told me that the Cloisters is known for their unicorn tapestries.  They were amazing. I didn’t take any photos in there because the lights were so dim in order to keep them from deteriorating.  I didn’t want to be that one obnoxious person.  Here’s a photo from the museum’s website: Unicorn Tapestry.  I was also told that there are different depictions of lions because no one knew what a lion looked like.  It’s a really interesting place to go check out.

Tomorrow I will post some more photos of my cucumbers (yes, plural!).  I didn’t realize that I had more growing when I took a photo of that first one.  I have about four right now.  Keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll actually grow into full veg.  I also have photos of our meal that we cooked with ingredients from the Tompkins Square Park farmers market.  It’s really amazing the difference of how fresh everything is vs. buying in a supermarket.

Posted in Around NYC, pork
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The First Cucumber!

•August 8, 2010 • Leave a Comment

The First Cucumber!, originally uploaded by iyumnewyork.

I went to water my plants this morning and look at what I found! This is the only cucumber that’s growing so far. It looks a lot bigger than it actually is. It’s so friggen tiny and cute! I hope more start growing! I can now say that my patio garden is successful! I hope I don’t jinx it and that lonely cucumber is the only one to grow. The squash seems to be doing really well and is having a ton of new growth. We’ll see if anything starts sprouting from them soon. I think the string beans may be a lost cause at this point, but you never know.

I have a couple of pictures from our lovely dinner at Pata Negra the other night, as well as some cool Cloister photos.

So excited about the cucumber! Crossing my fingers other parts of the plant get inspired to start growing.

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