Mike Burns Food

Sunday, July 31, 2011

The Best Zucchini

Squash season is upon us. Since we'll soon have more of these than we know what to do with, I figured I'd offer up a great way to cook zucchini that I cook over and over again. The idea here is to keep the texture of the zucchini while still getting a nice sear on it. This is one of my theories as to why so many people love grilled zucchini, because there is almost no way it can get soggy. If you cook with high enough heat and be sure not to crowd, you'll get the same affect in the pan. This recipe is incredibly simple and is one of my favorite ways to prepare this vegetable.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 small to medium zucchini, thinly sliced
2-3 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp good paprika

Directions

Heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add zucchini to the pan making sure almost all slices have surface contact to the pan. Add salt but don't stir. When zucchini slices are just beginning to turn brown(1-3 minutes), flip them over.

Let them cook for 1 more minute, then stir in paprika and pepper and cook 30 more seconds. Remove from heat. Serve hot.

Beer Craving Website Launch!

I've been working on a new website called BeerCraving.com for a few months now. The website is a photo gallery of what some are calling "suds porn." It's a way to catalog all your beer conquests around the world and share them with a community of beer enthusiasts. Each photo links you to more information about a particular beer. It's pretty addicting, especially for all the tastespotting.com and foodgawker.com fans out there. Here is a screenshot of it:

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Earth Worms

We just added some red wiggler worms to our garden to help out with the extremely sandy soil. As mentioned in a previous post, the soil in our garden may have never seen much love from anyone. We've added a ton of compost but it has begun to get quite expensive. While searching for a solution to this problem, we've decided to go back to the basics. Worms may be the ultimate composter and nutrient supplier out there. They're able to consume 4 to 6 times their own body weight each day and reproduce fairly quickly. They process what is typically seen as garbage and convert it to "black gold". While supplying plants with incredible nutrients, they also help to aerate the soil allowing for better root growth.

We've added about 200 worms to our garden and bought a home worm composter with 2000 worms to help with our food scraps. We'll add the worm castings and worms to our garden as time goes on and the soil is able to support more life. There are some things we feel that nature got right in the first place. This is exactly why we've opted to fertilize our garden using worms rather than some chemical like miracle gro. We've also added flowers around the perimeter of the garden to help attract bees. I'll keep you updated on our progress. So far so good though. Things are flourishing even in what you can barely call soil.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Kefir and Cilantro Fruit Salad

Serves 2-3

Step your fruit salad game up. Mix in some herbs and maybe even some cheese next time you put together a fruit bowl. Mint and cilantro are my go to herbs with fruit but, basil also works well. The tangy kefir plays nicely off the acidity of the raspberries, banana's provide a nice creaminess, sweetness from the blueberries and the cilantro bring it all together. This is a great 3 minute breakfast.

Ingredients

1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1 banana, sliced
chopped cilantro
2 tbsp kefir

Directions

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, being sure not to mush the berries too much.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Our Community Garden Plot

Here are a few pictures of the community garden plot Jenni and I will be planting. It was supposed to be done over a month ago but at this point we're just happy to start growing some of our own food. Our plot is in Denver at Colfax and Josephine directly next to East High School.

This garden is a huge step in the right direction for this community as well. This lot was filled with trash, broken concrete and tons of other unmentionables. The Colfax Corridor is a little run down to say the least. However, projects like this are completely changing the landscape(no pun intended) of this part of town. There's a farmers market directly next door to here and Marczyk Fine Foods is opening a second locations about 4 blocks west of here on Colfax. Not to mention great organizations like, Same Cafe, who also has their own garden plot here, is just down the road. Same Cafe's motto is "So All May Eat." Your lunch costs whatever you can afford. If you don't have any money, your lunch is free. We're trying to work out how excess crops grown here can be donated to Same Cafe to be served in their restaurant.

Looking towards Colfax

Looking towards East High School

We're still deciding what to plant since it's so late in the growing season but I came across this awesome guide today. Here is the crop calendar provided by Colorado Fresh Markets for Denver: