Posted on 10/01/2026 6:56:54 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
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It is impossible to hijack the Victory Garden Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to/removed from our New & Improved Ping List.
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Heh, we are forecast to hit 91 deg. F, and a little humid, tomorrow. Then next Sat. early morning I’ll likely have to be covering plants...
Of course. The big worry now is frost next Sat. early a.m. :-( After that we should stay in the 40's for lows.
I have been amazing my tech savvy sweetheart with the AI conversations I have been having. So much sympathy, appreciation, humor response, etc. A humorous comment or response usually gets something good from AI. No wonder some people are talking to their AI instead of spending money on mental health therapists. I am using AI that shows up at Google searches by saying “ask a question” in a little box.
Actually, I took such a chunk out of my finger, it was still caught in the blade so easy to see & remove ... so gross! No ‘added protein’ in my slaw:-)
How about a braised red cabbage side dish? You have a nice selection of meat with which it would pair well.
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Braised red cabbage is a sweet and tart side dish characterized by its deep purple color and tender texture, achieved by slow-cooking shredded cabbage with acidic and sweet ingredients. Common variations include adding apples, onions, vinegar (such as balsamic, cider, or red wine), and spices like caraway seeds, cloves, or star anise.
Key preparation methods and ingredients include:
Quick Stovetop: Sauté cabbage with butter, red wine, and vinegar for about 10–20 minutes until tender.
Slow Braise: Simmer covered with apples, honey, or jelly for 1–2 hours for a melt-in-your-mouth consistency.
Flavor Profiles: Popular styles include German Rotkohl (with red currant jelly and juniper), Swedish (with lingonberry or currant jelly), and fruit-infused versions using pears or oranges.
Serving: It pairs well with pork chops, roasted meats, or as a festive holiday side dish.
You lost me at Sriracha, because I just don’t do “hot.” ;-) But I will try the recipe with a change. A little less olive oil, and fry 1 or 2 slices of lean thick cut bacon. Remove when fairly crisp, then add cut up red onion and the potato patties. As onion gets cooked, pull to the side of the pan until patties are finished. Then enhance plate with onions on the patties and bacon at the side. I will experiment with a not “hot” dipping sauce, maybe some sour cream or yogurt and lemon or lime juice or grated rind.
Sriracha is not always use for “heat.” In some 5-star restaurants,
chefs add 1-2 drops sriracha to enhance their prized dishes’ flavors.
Dr Rhonda Patrick How to use coffee to live longer!
Go to Church! Have that cup of coffee after the service! (Do not have that doughnut!)
Enjoy your coffee and have a most excellent blessed Sunday!
Great splashed on top of Mac and Cheese (or quietly encorporated when no one is looking! Shh!) I have not tried it (yet) but it would work well in Qiviut's braised red cabbage, or the sweet and sour cabbage soup!
6oz of beet juice in the AM and a bit of ginger water and splash of pomegranite and siracha elevate it from blood pressure "food medicine" to a moderately enjoyable morning drink.
Ouch! I had a cheap one from Aldi and stopped using them because I was worried about that problem.
Y-e-e-e-s-s.......droplets of Sriracha in soups and sauces.....memorable flavor.
Another 5-star restaurant trick........sprinkle salad leaves w/ a few grains of sweet n low.
My finger looks much better today, thank goodness!
The ‘food holder’ that is supposed to keep you from cutting yourself is awkward to use & wouldn’t hold the apple I was slicing in the right position so I made the grievous error of barehanding it.
It occurred to me that a chainmail glove might be some good future protection - I worry about my chef’s knife slipping at times & slicing a finger/hand as well.
https://www.eater.com/24372089/best-cutproof-chainmail-glove-for-cooking
(I have been using Allulose in place of sugar in my coffee and avoiding most seed oils! (But not EVOO, butter, or cream! )
Chefs dont use much S/L——just a few grains is all.
And they do use EVOO, butter, and cream, which I do like! :)
The mandoline that I had was cheap plastic, small and dangerous so I donated to someone with smaller hands!
Spice worth more than gold "A Spice Worth More Than Gold. The Science Finally Explains Why.
Once prized above gold, saffron is now revealing extraordinary biological properties that modern science is only beginning to understand." ....Snip.....
In 1998, two Cornell biologists, Paul Sherman and Jennifer Billing, published a study in The Quarterly Review of Biologythat should be far more famous than it is. They asked a simple question: why do humans use spices at all? Spices have almost no calories. Many of them taste unpleasant on their own. Yet every traditional cuisine on earth uses them, and some use them heavily.
So they compiled 4,570 recipes from 93 cookbooks across 36 countries, mapped each spice’s known antibacterial activity, and cross-referenced it against the climate of every country. The result was unambiguous. The hotter the climate — the faster meat spoils — the more spices a cuisine used, and the more potent those spices were against food-borne bacteria. Nearly every meat recipe from India, Thailand and Malaysia called for spices; a large fraction of recipes from Norway, Sweden and Finland used none at all.
Their antimicrobial league table is worth memorizing:
Garlic, onion, allspice and oregano killed or inhibited 100% of the bacterial species tested.
Thyme, cinnamon, tarragon and cumin — up to 80%.
Chilies and other capsicums — up to 75%.
Black pepper, ginger, anise, celery seed — about 25%.
Sherman called it “Darwinian gastronomy.” Cultures that spiced their food survived their food. The taste for spice is, in his reading, an evolved and culturally transmitted form of medicine — and the prices our ancestors paid were the prices of survival."
I see a lot of the contents of that "Fire Elixer" for flu and colds in here!
Early explorers sailed the world for spices.
Christopher Columbus was looking for a direct western sea route to Asia to access the lucrative spice trade, including valuable items like pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Key Milestones in the Search for Spices:
• 1415+: Portugal begins systematic exploration of the African coast to bypass overland Ottoman and Italian trade monopolies.
• 1488: Bartolomeu Dias sails around the southern tip of Africa (Cape of Good Hope).
• 1492: Christopher Columbus sails west for the Indies, landing in the Americas instead.
• 1498: Vasco da Gama completes the first direct sea voyage from Europe to Calicut, India.
• 1519–1522: Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition completes the first circumnavigation of the globe, reaching the Spice Islands (Moluccas).
• 1602: The Dutch East India Company (VOC) is founded to aggressively take over the Asian spice trade.
SRIRACHA DIPPING SAUCE
Ing: 1/2 c ea mayo, sour cream 2 tsp Sriracha 1/2 tsp ea lime juice, gar/powder, paprika, pinch salt
Stir/combine mayo, sour cream, Sriracha, lime juice, gar/powder, paprika. Add more sriracha to taste. Serve in bowl garnished w/ drizzle of sriracha and chp herbs. Store leftover sauce airtight 3 days.
Serve with Sriracha Dipping Sauce: Chicken Fingers Sweet Potato Fries French Fries (perfect fry sauce) Kettle Chips celery/carrot sticks, bell pepper strips, Egg Rolls Sausage Balls Sushi Rolls Potato Wedges Hush puppies Chicken Wings Onion Rings Crisp garden veggies
Beau (and all the dogs, and my sweet Omaha puppy, as well as a new-to-us Beagle girl) will be home from Bear Camp tomorrow evening.
He would definitely love that braised cabbage along with a roast of some wild game. Thanks!
I gotta get back in the habit of cooking 2x a day, again! Ugh. But it always comes right back to me and he is always so appreciative of my meals after months of Leroy’s (Camp Cook) cooking, LOL!
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