Garden Update - Swiss Chard

I love Swiss Chard. The only thing that stopped me from growing it before this year was the fact that you can only get one crop out of it. When I was talking to a friend of mine who grows veggies, she said if you just take the leaves out and not disturb the roots, they come out again. I am trying that this year. I snipped the leaves of this leaving stem and the root intact. Let's see what happens. I will update this post when there is new growth.

On the other hand, my egg plant is suffering because of beetles (I believe they are japanese beetles). Any idea how to get rid of them naturally?

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Best of Year 2012

It is the last few days of the year 2012. People make new year resolutions, some look back and be proud of what they have achieved. Some plan for the next year. I won't do any of these. I might not understand rocket science, but I have understood one thing in my life. We have absolutely no control over anything except for some mundane things we do. It doesn't mean one should do something bad and say it was not under my control. I meant do your best to your knowledge and leave it at that. With that note, this post is for my blogger friend Srivalli's event - Best of 2012. She has been conducting this event every year for the past few years and this is the first time I am taking part in it. Many bloggers choose to write about a lot of things and I choose to highlight the most popular post of mine every month of the year.

January:
Easiest recipe appeals the most to many people. This Quick and Easy Salsa is the best example for that.  Its simplicity and the help from foodgawker and tasteologie made it very popular.

February:
Simple Black bean and corn salad with an equally elaborate Vegetable Pulav were the favorites from the February posts.

March:
A healthy Cabbage Rice had a tie with Vegan Coconut Cake this month. Both had a lot of help becoming popular through food picture sites.

April: 
Without any doubt, this Herbed Spicy Garlic Pull apart bread is one of the popular posts ever on this blog.

But I would like to share this beautiful Anise Bread/Braid also in the list.

May:
Whoever pinned this Tomato, Garlic and Mint Chutney gets all the credit for its popularity. Thank you.

June:
This Eggless Vanilla Bundt cake stole the show this month.

July:
This simple Zucchini Chocolate Bread made its place on the top this month thanks to foodgawker.

August: 
I didn't blog much this month, but my favorite among my posts is this Anise Biscotti.

September:
With only two posts written, it is very easy to choose the popular post of the month - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread.

October:
This Easy Low fat Pumpkin Loaf cake made it to the top this month. Again, very few posts this month.

November:
This Yeasted Chocolate Bread with cranberries and white chocolate chips was the most pinned, liked post of the month.

December:
This month is still not over and so far this Honey Rolls/Buns have been well received.

Have a safe and happy holidays everyone.

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O Olive Oil - Product Review

Have you ever had an experience of tasting a better product than what you believed to be the best all your life? I just had that experience. I have tasted, tried many olive oils. Many types, many brands. But none of them, I repeat none of them matched the taste and smell of the Olive Oil sent to me by O Olive Oil. I was given this opportunity by erecipecards. Thanks Dave and O Olive Oil. It was a pleasure to try these two products. By the way, if you already do not know, erecipecards was started by Dave as a collection of food pictures and posts. If you are a food blogger, you should try submitting your work to his site. If you are a food enthusiast, you should visit the site to get lot of ideas and recipes.

Coming to the point of this post, I was shipped Roasted Garlic O Olive Oil and White Balsamic vinegar. When I opened the bottle of olive oil, all I could smell was the perfectly balanced combination of garlic and extra virgin olive oil. These oils are not infused. They are cold pressed which makes their oil not lose its taste and flavor but just enhance it with the added flavoring components. And I was so impressed by the taste and smell of it that when I read they slow roast the garlic for 48 hours, my feeling was it is well worth it. My taste testing of Roasted Garlic O Olive oil was very simple. I bought italian bread and used the oil to dip and taste. Trust me when I say this, I could have eaten the whole loaf with it. It was that awesome. No, I am not even exaggerating a bit. I can see many uses of this kind of cold pressed oil. Use it in salad dressing, for making pesto, dips, pour over grilled veggies or noodles. It has limitless use.

Second bottle that I got was White Balsamic vinegar. I made a salad dressing out of it which will be my next post with the recipe. You can find many recipes and many kinds of Olive Oil on the O Olive Oil website.

Coolest thing is the best Olive Oil that I have tasted did not come from far off land. It was grown locally in California. And I wouldn't be happy if I didn't mention the packaging of the bottle was awesome. Not just the looks but the functionality of the cap is really cool. Perfect for preserving the flavors. Watch out for my post on a dressing made with both these products soon.

Enjoy.

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