Oddball Veggies: Part I

The gardening in Corvallis this year has been interesting, albeit a bit slow for the tomatoes for some reason. Every year I try to grow several new vegetables, sometimes just to find out if I like them. Among them are the veggies that I just can't grow or aren't very palatable to me. The Radicchio just didn't pan out, as it tasted similar to what I imagine Skunk-cabbage tastes like. My Roma tomatoes last year were as hard as billiard balls. I've also found that often the stranger something looks, the better it tastes. A friend said that Kohlrabi looks like "some kinda weird space alien thingy...whatever..." And it does, but its taste is akin to a sweet and tender broccoli stem.

Then there are the truely bizarre, the outliers in which some process of cell division went horribly wrong. I'll post them here as I find them, and feel free to post your own in a similar fashion. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of some of them. Among the missing are the pontoon boat shaped zuchini, The two lobed lemon cucumber, and the V shaped pole bean.

The two headed fairy eggplant. I'll leave it to you to decide which part of the human anatomy this looks like.

Possibly my favorite: the so-called "Frankentuber," the oddest potatoe I've ever seen

A Crockpot is a New Mexican's Best Friend

Being back in New Mexico, I have reverted back to my old "burrito a day" habits. (and looking at my parents stash of beans I could probably eat 3 a day) .Beans are soooo good especially when they are homemade in a crockpot. I made the most amazing pot of shredded buffalo and beans last night.

I bought a couple pieces of buffalo meat and threw it in with pinto beans, red chile powder, garlic and onion, turned the crockpot on low and let it cook 24ish hours. The buffalo cooked down and shredded. I ate my bowl of beans with lots of green chile and cheese. YUMMY!

What to do with Green Beans

We've got a sudden glut of green beans from the garden. I hated green beans as a kid, but I figured I'd give them another chance. This is a very simple recipie for green beans that tastes almost as good as bacon. I'm not kidding. I haven't chowed down on beans like that EVER!
Ingredients:
enough beans to cover the bottom of a pan
2 tbsp butter (or olive oil, but make sure you salt the olive oil)
3-4 cloves of minced garlic
ginger (lightly) to taste

Melt the butter in the pan, toss in the garlic, ginger, and beans, and cook on a medium heat for about 10 min. Overcook (but don't burn) the beans a bit (the phrase "cooked into submission" come to mind here). I left them on a while longer than I thought I should have and they were perfect. When the garlic is really starting to brown and crisp is about right. Serve them seperately or with more garden veggies. I havent tried it yet, but eggplant strips would also be good in this I feel.
So easy, so nummy!