I think those of you who know me and read my little blog are already aware of my love of life and organic living, most especially the joy I get when I am in my garden with my family and beloved pets.  I am fortunate enough to have my little indoor garden room where I spend a lot of time year round nurturing my plants and herbs.  Even if you do not have this space or even this desire to create a room around plants, there are still many wonderful ways to enjoy gardening year round no matter where you live. An indoor Garden Room can be as simple as a lovely sunny windowsill in your kitchen, it is here you can pot up some wonderful herbs and cheery flowering plants.  This is a very manageable ‘garden’ that will provide you with color and fresh herbs for cooking with year round, who wants to spend a ton of money on a bunch of herbs when you only need one teaspoon???  It also adds to the quality of the air in your home.  Mostly it truly helps keep your mind and spirit ‘happy’.   I honestly have never met a miserable Gardener.  And I can honestly say I never have the ‘Winter Blues’ because I am always growing something and staying very connected to the Earth.  As I have mentioned many times before, of all my hobbies, Gardening is truly my favorite, it is a such a joy.

{ I apologize for the poor quality of my photos, my camera broke and I have been using my Blackberry}

What is Christmas without a Flying Moss covered Reindeer.  Even the holiday accessories I chose are often as natural as I can find.  This room is filled with light and flowers year round.

Each Autumn or late Summer I plan out the Tulip Garden.  I grab some graph paper, seed packets and a pile of catalogs and start planning where our new bulbs will be planted.  I treat tulips as annuals, sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t.

We always add plenty of daffodils, irises, hyacinths, Lilies, and any other plants, tubers, rhizomes or bulbs that should be planted in the Fall.  Now this is according to where we live in the Northeast.  We are zone 6.  It is important to know what zone you are in if you plan on becoming a ‘gardener’.

There are many places you can purchase bulbs.  Everywhere from your local garden supply stores, flower shops, chain department stores to speciality catalogs that ship some of the worlds most glorious bulbs from Holland.

I like :

The White Flower Farm

Sheepers Catalog

Brecks

Dutch Bulb

Jackson and Perkins

K. Van Bourgondien & Sons

For roses I am a big fan of the Antique Rose Emporium

You can go online and request their catalogs.

Last year we planted 3,500 bulbs in a variety of plant styles.  This year I will still put in tulips but want to concentrate more on perennial plants such as daffodils, Lilies and Irises.

After a long day in the garden or planning the garden I like to make something quick and easy.  I love combining the two crafts of cooking and gardening. 

If you have a spot try and grow a variety of salad greens.  Rich amended Organic  soil will ensure you can step outside your door and pick delicious fresh salad greens which are just wonderful piled on top of a warm gourmet pizza straight from your oven.

Pancetta Pizza with caramelized shallots and pineapple slice:

I never write down the vast majority of recipes I devise, especially if they are my quick and easy ones, but I will try my best to describe how easy this pizza is to make.

1.  I started with a pre-made ‘Organic’ crust that I purchased at Whole Foods, I also love to make homemade pizza dough, when I have time and its not rainy and humid outside.

2.  I decided to make this a white pizza. I just brushed the crust with a delicious fruity olive oil and then rubbed it with a garlic clove for flavor.

3. I sauteed pancetta until crispy, drain on paper towel.

4.  I then added shallots to the pan with a little butter to caramelize

5.   then add the chunks of pineapple to the pan to caramelize a bit.

6.  I chose a combination of three cheeses

a. Grated Fontina

b. Grated Mozzarella

c. Grated Parmesan

6.  A step that helps me keep my pizza from becoming soggy, is to put some cheese over the pizza dough then place the toppings such as our pancetta, shallots and pineapple chunks on top of the cheese.

7.  Top with remaining cheese.

8.  I also use dried and fresh herbs that I have on hand to add delicious flavors to my pizza.

It was delicious.

Visit our ‘La Cuisine’ page and you can find our eggplant pizza, which I prefer as I don’t eat a lot of meet, however this pancetta pizza was fabulous!!!

Lastly, I prepared a simple organic mixed green salad with a classic French vinaigrette and topped each slice of warm pizza with the salad which wilts and gets warm releasing even more wonderful flavors.

I served this with cold crisp white wine.

***The pizzas can be assembled in advance, I would recommend making three different types and then putting them out with bowls of olives, nuts, chocolates and serve when guests stop over on a Friday evening during this festive holiday season.  Have a variety of wine and beer on hand.

Everyone will be ‘Ooh La Laaaing’ over what a marvelous hostess you are.

~** My computer is still broke, I’m trying to post with my husbands.  I have no idea when it will come back home, I will try to get over and visit all of you asap~ I would love to hear from you, I can read everything on my Blackberry and your comments make my day

I also have no idea if this will even post accurately, fingers crossed!!

Tags: gardening, Gourmet Pizzas, Homemade Pizza, Planting Spring Bulbs, tulips

This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Bunny's Garden, Entrees, La Cuisine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.