Al Fresco

I've been very busy redesigning my garden. The landscaping the previous owners had professionally installed was heavy on xeriscaping; it had a very natural, low-maintenance look with out-of-control winter jasmine shrubs, liriope, hawthorne, and fountain grasses.

But my favorite gardens are manicured, with fragrant plants that include roses, orchids, peonies, lily-of-the-valley, lilies, gardenias, irises, plumeria / frangipani, and pikake / jasmine sambac.

I'd guess that considerable sums were spent on landscaping 1/4 of an acre and installing a wall fountain. I'd rather that the money have been spent on a small swimming pool. It's tough to retro-fit for a pool now since one side yard is blocked by a brick wall and the other side yard houses the central air conditioning system which makes the path too narrow for a bulldozer.

Since moving in, I've pretty much pulled up or given away many of the original plantings and replaced them with plants better suited to my color schemes and sculptural forms. The knock-out rose shrubs can triple in size within a year; the leaves remain green and the flowers continuously bloom all year long.

This week, between the Olympics and the Democratic convention, I've put in about 50 hours of work in the yard—between 7am-noon/break for lunch, nap, and errands/back between 5pm-8pm. I've been burning up to 400 calories per hour and my body is sore and tired when I go to sleep. I also had a nasty run-in with some fire ant hills around my ankles...the bites have finally started to scab over.

But now it's all worth it: with everything perfectly in place, the beautiful views remind me of the wonderful al fresco dining experiences I enjoyed in Italy and France.

Here are some of my favorite sources for plants in my garden:

http://www.treepeony.com/
http://www.johnscheepers.com/
http://www.vanengelen.com/
http://www.stokestropicals.com/
http://www.schreinersgardens.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=SIGO
http://www.reneesgarden.com/
www.whiteflowerfarm.com
http://heirloomtomatoplants.com/

Back in the summer of 2005, when I was looking for a house to buy, one of the properties I viewed had a swimming pool and cabana that pretty much filled up the entire back yard. There was also a small lake/canal just outside the pool gate. If the house hadn't been so old, dated, and over-priced, it would have been on my short list.

Instead, our best option was a well-designed home that gives us about 1,500 s.f. less than our home in New Hampshire but makes better use of the space. The builder used to construct homes in Palm Springs, so the house has a vibe that that's very casual / open plan / low-maintenance.

Sometimes, I think about the new construction home with a pool we could have built on a hill overlooking Lake Lawtonka, but waiting 18 months to move in and sharing the mountaintop with the vermin that inhabit the area bring me back to reality. I'm very happy that we opted to scale down.

Spa Cuisine

One of my dreams has been to write and produce coffee-table books on cooking and entertaining. My preferred entertaining styles are global/authentic/eclectic and Neo-Zen. People have asked me if I own a restaurant and have suggested I apply for The Next Food Network Star.

I've received a request for vegetarian dishes and, being primarily vegetarian myself, happily supply these recipes for vegetarian spa cuisine. Use organic produce when possible, and go ahead and splurge on artisanal salts, vinegars, and oils. A little goes a long way, and I can taste the difference. My supplies primarily come from Williams-Sonoma, Formaggio in Cambridge, and Whole Foods Market.

Spa cuisine emphasizes simplicity and purity of flavors, enhanced in part through the infusion of marinades, dipping sauces, and dressings.

My calorie count is kept low using seafood and white meat poultry as a source of protein and controlling portions to a 2 oz. serving of protein for lunch and dinner. You can lose weight and eat flavorful foods through a judicious and balanced diet. You will lose weight more quickly if you incorporate 90 minutes of exercise each day, aerobic and free weights. I can lose 7-10 lbs in 2 weeks on a strict diet and exercise program.

One of my favorite meals is salad with enough texture and variety that I'm not bored eating the same thing for several days. I usually prepare sufficient quantities for 6 individual servings lasting 2-3 days.

organic mesclun
mache
baby arugula
tomatoes
fennel
carrots
radish
red onion
asparagus
haricots verts
1/4C fresh, thinly minced dill

optional: pomegranate seeds, olives, and/or feta cheese for garnish

Clean, wash, and prep all vegetables. Spin dry the mesclun and mache. If using grape tomatoes, cut in half, otherwise cut a larger tomato into 8 half wedges. I use a small Japanese slicer with ceramic blade to thinly slice the fennel, carrots, radish, and red onion. Blanche the asparagus and haricots verts by plunging into salted boiling water for 3 minutes, then removing and placing in cold water with ice cubes to quickly cool down.

Incorporate the dill into the leafy vegetables. You can store by placing all the vegetables in a large bowl, covering with plastic wrap, and refrigerating. I have a special square, covered glass container for this purpose and store by separately mounding the individually cut vegetables in the container. To serve, simply create a photogenic presentation of the assorted vegetables with garnish, sprinkled sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and homemade salad dressing.

In all the following recipes, it's important to taste and to correct the seasonings. For this reason, I recommend adding ingredients such as salt and liquids a little at a time rather than all at once. If the recipe seems too salty, cut with water or vinegar or use less salt. If the texture seems too thick, you can thin with liquid. If you don't like too much garlic, then simply use less.

I actually have a staple repertoire of a half dozen varieties of salad dressings. Here are two of the simplest.

Basic Oil and Vinegar Dressing: Drizzle walnut vinegar and first pressing artisanal olive oil to taste, plus sprinkled sea salt and freshly ground black pepper over the entire salad. Gently toss with your fingers so that a little salad dressing goes a long way. You can also substitute fresh lemon juice for the walnut vinegar.

Basic Vinaigrette: 1/4C olive oil, 1/4C balsamic vinegar, few grinds of black pepper, 1/4t sea salt (I use hand harvested fleur de sel from France), 1/2t Dijon mustard, 1 clove crushed garlic. Place in a covered bottle and shake vigorously.

Before he became nationally famous, I once ate at Emeril's restaurant at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. I had ordered an oyster po'boy and noticed that the flavorful greens that accompanied the dish were mixed in a large bowl with a splash of dressing. The cook used a gloved hand to vigorously incorporate the greens with just a sheen of dressing. This avoided the gloppiness that can sometimes weigh down a delicate leaf and, considering that 1 tablespoon of olive oil has 119 calories, also minimized the amount of olive oil used.

Here's an artichoke recipe that can be added to the salad composition or eaten as a separate vegetable dish.

Clean, prep, and quarter 2 large artichokes. Place in a pan and cover with water, 1T salt, juice from 1 lemon, 1 bay leaf, whole peppercorns. Bring to a boil, then gently simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes or until soft enough to eat. The seasonings enhance the flavor of the artichokes.

I like to dip the leaves and heart in either a garlic aioli or tahini sauce.

Easy Garlic Aioli: To 1/3C mayonnaise, add 1T fresh lemon juice and 2 cloves of garlic squeezed through a garlic press. Mix completely and add sea salt to taste.

Easy Tahini: To 1/3C tahini (I like the tahini made by Tarazi Specialty Foods with no preservatives, no additives, and no salt), add 1T of chilled, filtered water, or enough to mix into a smooth, velvety paste. Add 1T fresh lemon juice, 1 clove of garlic squeezed through a garlic press, and sea salt to taste.

The salad goes well with this simple preparation for flavorful poached salmon.

Place a 4 oz. piece of salmon in a small pan and just cover the fish with water and a splash or two of any kind of white wine lying around the house. Add a pinch or two of sea salt. Bring liquid to a gentle boil, then immediately place on a gentle simmer and cover the pan, leaving a slight opening. Poach for 5-7 minutes, depending on how well done you like your fish.

I'll usually defrost a few pieces of fish in the chiller compartment of the refrigerator and poach individual portions as needed since the fish takes no more than 7 minutes to cook.

Bon appetit!