[h3]Garden Jambalaya[/h3]
September 24th, 2016 - Well... it's that time of year again, where I start taking down the garden and getting ready for the winter. This year I made more of an event out of the cleanup so it wouldn't seem like such a chore. It really is all perspective!
I composted some of the plants and some were going to be burned, the ashes will be added to the compost bin. It was time to start a little fire.
I decided to wait till Sunday to stain the beds and winterize the drip irrigation, the weather wasn't really optimal for staining the beds.
I had a decent amount of veggies left so I decided to pull out the schwenker and the dutch oven and make a Garden Jambalaya....nothing hot and no shrimp, or I would be the only person eating it. Not that that's a bad thing but my better half was wanting some mild Jambalaya.
September 24th, 2016 - Well... it's that time of year again, where I start taking down the garden and getting ready for the winter. This year I made more of an event out of the cleanup so it wouldn't seem like such a chore. It really is all perspective!
- I had a few of the Hugelkultur beds stained from last week and was real happy with the results so I was anxious to stain the two raised beds on the hill.
- OK...Time to tear out all the remaining plants, this was tough for me, the peppers and eggplants were still producing and were loaded with flowers, I figured they wouldn't reach their full potential and wasn't worth taking the chance. I left the Datil pepper and Tabasco pepper plants alone as well as the Vertical Gardens.
I composted some of the plants and some were going to be burned, the ashes will be added to the compost bin. It was time to start a little fire.
I decided to wait till Sunday to stain the beds and winterize the drip irrigation, the weather wasn't really optimal for staining the beds.
I had a decent amount of veggies left so I decided to pull out the schwenker and the dutch oven and make a Garden Jambalaya....nothing hot and no shrimp, or I would be the only person eating it. Not that that's a bad thing but my better half was wanting some mild Jambalaya.
- Several Hours Later, all the plants are burnt and wood has burnt to coals.
- As I chop the vegges my better half is off to the store for some Sweet Italian Sausage and some boneless chicken thighs.
- Tossed some butter in the DO
- Woohoo! Meat is here!
- Sausage is browned then the chicken is added.
- Leeks are sliced and tossed in, wow what a wonderful smell these leeks have.
- Peppers are next.
- DO Is covered for each time after the initial browning of the meats and onions.
- I usually don't add eggplant to my Jambalaya. I really pamper my eggplant.
- Parsley and Oregano is next, I let the Eastern Black Swallowtails have the early parsley harvest, If I see them on the plant, it's theirs and I leave them be. The parsley is coming back pretty strong now, The parsley is fairly hardy,it will usually be kicking till about December.
- Then some tomatoes.
- Then some celery. (not from the garden). The lid is placed on the DO, I grab another beer and will let this simmer for about an hour. A tablespoon of garlic is added and a tablespoon of my Philly Style Rub.
- Ooops, wrong camera setting!
- Looking good, 32 oz. of chicken broth is added.
- Half of a coarse chopped onion is added.
- 3 cups of white rice is rinsed multiple times then added and stirred in.
- Lid is tossed on the DO and will cook another thirty minutes.
- Raised the DO to keep it on low heat.
- The jambalaya was pretty thick so I tossed in another 32 oz. of chicken broth and the 24 oz. can of diced tomatoes.
- How did it turn out? well I can say this, It was a beautiful evening, sitting there eating my jambalaya, enjoying the bug-less cool night and the fire, sipping on an ice cold glass if Killians.
- Everyone enjoyed the Jambalaya, but If I were making this for the guys or myself, it would have been loaded with shrimp, hot sausage and a few cans of RoTel and some other hot goodies.
