Jeff, the A.D.D. Chef

It didn’t take long for these seeds to start sprouting. Here’s the results after four days.

Black-Seeded Simpson (Lettuce) & Romaine Lettuce

Broccoli & Red Sail Lettuce

This is the time to start your seedlings for planting in April. Since it’s still chilly here in the Northeast U.S., the first planting should be cool weather vegetables. I selected Butterhead lettuce, Spinach, a red leaf lettuce, Romaine and Black-Seeded Simpson. In addition I’ll be planting broccoli.

Creating seedlings is easy and fulfills the A.D.D. minimum daily requirement of getting dirt under your fingernails.¹ You’ll need seeds², seedling tray and soil. The seedling tray is your typical flimsy plastic tray and the soil is Jiffy-Mix® Seed Starting Soil.

Before filling the plastic trays you might want to cut them into smaller sections and place them in small aluminum trays which makes it easier to find a spot for them on your windowsill. (See below) You then fill the little plastic trays with soil, place one or two seeds in each pod and used your finger to push the seed into the soil. Warning! Each time you put a seed or two on the top of the soil push it down immediately. If you do not you will find that it is almost impossible to differentiate the seed from the soil. (Yes…I speak from experience. )

I used a piece of masking tape to label each grouping of seed pods. Be sure to do something to label the pods because you will certainly forget, usually within fifteen minutes, as to which seeds are in which pods. After you’ve finished putting seeds in the soil, take a measuring cup and carefully water each seed pod. (You did put the seedling tray into another tray to catch the water that dribbles through…right?) Don’t drown them. Just get them moist. When you are done you can place a piece of cellophane over them to help keep in the moisture. (See below) Water them every two to three days.

Check back here in ten days or so for a “progress report” on the seedlings.

1. The FDA recommends A.D.D.ers get a minimum of 120 days worth of dirty fingernails. [↩]
2. Duh!! [↩]

“Sauces are elegant, clean, smart and flavorful. A sauce can elevate sliced white meat that’s cooked within an inch of its life to something, well, groovy. Gravy is just gravy.”

“There’s nothing easier or quicker to make than a good little sauce. All you need is a pan to deglaze (the one you roasted your bird in), and some liquid — wine or stock; even water will do in a pinch. The pan will still have all the tasty brown bits of meat and caramelized stuff clinging to it. Extra flavorings are nice — shallots, wine, stock, herbs — but you don’t even really need them.”

For the full article see: Deglazing: It works like magic - Los Angeles Times

That small patch of dirt with the blue tarp in the middle (there are lawn chairs hiding under there) will become a vegetable garden in less than a month. It doesn’t look like much of a vegetable garden right now but contrast it with some of the pictures below which are from last year and from this same small patch of dirt.¹ So even if you don’t have much land to work with you can still have a very productive vegetable garden.²

 Eggplant

Broccoli

What To Plant 

I’m writing this on March 11, 2008. It’s still a bit chilly in New York (okay…it’s freezing cold…I admit it). However by early April you can start to plant some cool weather vegetables such as lettuce and broccoli. These plants will have reached the end of their productive cycle by the time the weather goes from cool to warm to hot.

There are many varieties of lettuce with different textures and very delicate flavors. If your only experience is with Iceberg Lettuce then you’ll definitely want to try some of the more interesting varieties such as Black-seeded Simpson or Ruby. Even Romaine tastes better when it is homegrown. 

My family and neighbors were ecstatic over the broccoli I had grown so I’ll certainly grow broccoli again. Since I only have broccoli seeds I’ll start the seeds around the end of March. They’ll be ready to grow into the ground by early April. Be warned. Those little tiny broccoli plants grow REAL LARGE so give them plenty of elbow room.

So, get out there and get in the dirt. It’s a wonderful break from the winter doldrums.

1. See: The Perfect A.D.D. Activity [↩]
2. Urbanites can also grow some vegetables in large flower pots. [↩]

What most Americans know as Chinese food would be more properly termed American Chinese food, a category that includes chop suey and lemon chicken, dishes born in the U.S. Given, as Lee points out, that there are about 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., “more than the number of McDonald’s, Burger Kings, and KFCs combined,” Chinese food might be our national cuisine. “Our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie,” she writes. “But ask yourself. How often do you eat apple pie? How often do you eat Chinese food?”

Source: West eats East — chicagotribune.com