it's all about broccoli today

I may be dreaming here, but broccoli was planted this morning. Even though the moon is under the sign of Leo, dry and fiery, I decided to risk it because I hope to benefit from the energy of the growing moon. There's an old saying, "plants grown above ground should be planted during a waxing moon and plants grown underground should be planted during the waning moon" that about says it all.

I am trying two varieties of broccoli in each of two large 4-packs that are color-coded so I can see which does what, and when. And each 4-pack is also being trialed -- one will stay in the house to germinate and one goes into the cold-frame outside. A little experiment.

I do things a little differently. First I fill the 4-pack with organic seed-starting mix, then water it until I feel some weight, then sprinkle the seeds, cover with a thin layer of mix . . .

       . . . and mist that top layer with a spray bottle until it's nice and shiny.

                    Color-coded the 4-packs, in this case the green cells are De Cicco and

the others are Calabrese. I expect quite a few plants out of these, too many for us alone.

        One went into the cold-frame along with some experimental basil in the other 4-pack. Oh, I know it's unlikely basil will germinate anytime soon, but I wanted to give it a whirl.

                     This is spinach planted last fall. It has survived extreme temperatures at or below zero and is now looking like it's ready to grow.

                               At 9:30 this morning, the automatic vent had already opened.

   The other 4-pack will be on a window sill in the house, I'm not going to go baby it by setting it on the water heater or anything like that. I'll track germination dates for both 4-packs as well as the different varieties. I'll need a new journal for this now,

 won't I? The broccoli up there is for dinner tonight.

We get tired of steamed broccoli every week so I was happy to come across this old recipe recently. It's from March 6, 2001, and is from a person named Lisa. Thank you, Lisa. It's healthy, easy, and tastes good. What more could a person ask for?

Lisa's Roasted Broccoli

Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees. On a foil-lined sheet pan, spread broccoli flowerets in a single layer. Drizzle a good olive oil over the broccoli and use your hands or tongs to make sure it's all lightly-coated and back to a single layer again. Sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Roast for nine minutes -- but every oven is different so keep an eye on it. Nine minutes works perfectly in mine. You can sprinkle red chili pepper flakes on it or a little soy sauce (after cooking). It's a good one to play around with.

Anybody have any good & easy ways to make broccoli?

Also posted at Food Renegade.