From the Garden with Yum

For those of you wondering, yes I did finish Harper Lee's new book; Go Set a Watchman. If you read and liked To Kill a Mockingbird (her only other book) you should read this it's just as good and powerful.

It's been hot here lately – very hot. Today it was close to 90 and the humidity was high. Mind you I don't want to be one of those people who complain when it's cold and then complains when it's hot. I'd like to think of myself as a fall person – I love the warm days and cool nights, the beautiful trees of red and gold and the smells; apple pie, hot cider, bonfires – it's wonderful.

Until that comes however, I'm happy to say that we've been eating out of the garden – a lot. The hot weather has put the grape tomato and the early girl tomato in full production and the sugar snap peas, green beans and herbs are begging to be used.

Last night was movie night – yeah! We tried to keep turning on the oven to minimum so we decided on a simple spinach, mushroom and onion frittata and a salad of green beans, sugar snap peas, snow peas and grape tomatoes with a mustard dressing. There was also cantaloupe and fresh bread with rosemary (yep from the garden) and to top it off baby smores cupcakes (which I purchased).

The recipe for the green beans is here. Since we were having eggs as the entrée I opted to not put them on the beans. I also substituted dill for the tarragon and added some grape tomatoes and then I totally forgot to put the lentils on (which I had dutifully cooked Anne Lapkin)– it turned out just find tho I liked the combination of the beans with the mustard sauce and dill and the tomatoes provided  the color. 

We also spent some time at the farmers market yesterday – it seems odd I know, especially since we have a garden full of veggies but I wanted some patty pan squash and then I found these beautiful pea shoots that I'm planning to sauté for dinner tomorrow night with a little soy sauce and some spices. Also bought some onions, and eggplant for baingan bharta – which Dan is planning to make for a potluck at work tomorrow – lucky coworkers, is all I can say.

Whether you're at home, at the lake, in the city or in the country –Enjoy!

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes ... Squash

It's becoming one of my favorite garden times; the tomatoes are starting to ripen and that means toasted tomato and mayo sandwiches – not bacon, lettuce and tomato; not bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado; not lettuce and tomato but toasted tomato and mayo sandwiches end of story.

We had a lot of excitement in the neighborhood last weekend. A nasty storm blew through and we lost power on Saturday morning about 2am and didn't get it back until Sunday evening at about 6pm. It's amazing how much we rely on electricity; for coffee, hot water, microwave, cooking, cleaning, and of course those electronic devices that seem to have taken over our lives.

I'd like think I'm a pretty good sport when it comes to adversity; knowing that camping is not my thing (and yes I have tried it – but it doesn't seem to stick) I was in pretty good spirits on Saturday but when I woke up on Sunday and we still had no power I began to get irritated and cranky and yes a little snappy with the hubby.  But we made it through and now that the power is back I'm a happy camper again!

But I digress so back to sandwiches – toasted tomato and mayo sandwiches. You need to start out with dense grain bread with seeds, lots of seeds. We were at Costco a while ago and found a hearty grain bread with seeds so we purchased a couple of loaves and tossed them in freezer knowing tomato season would soon be upon us.

Tonight we toasted that delicious bread until it was crispy and brown then added mayo (not Miracle Whip), and thinly sliced tomatoes a couple grinds of sea salt and it was heaven. The simplicity of the sandwich was amazing you could taste every individual savory flavor. If you've never had a simple tomato and mayo sandwich you should give it a try, you'll wonder why you'd never tried it before.

On a side note – I've informed Dan that we are going to be "those people" the kind that leave squash on their neighbors step or wander around looking for cars with open windows to drop off a squash.

I planted 4 acorn squash plants and just came in from the garden and the official count for squash larger than 3 inches is 10 with about 15 – 20 smaller squash coming right behind them. Sometimes those new veggies work out better than you would expect - woot woot!

The rest of the garden is going well; harvested a large batch of sugar snap peas, some corn salad and leaf lettuce (just about done tho) the bok choy and swiss chard are close behind. The basil is coming along quite nicely and the carrots even though the *&^%$# bunny ate the fluffy green tops the veggie continues to get bigger so they'll definitely be fresh carrots.

My one disappointment is the green beans; the crazy rabbit got in there one too many times and helped him/herself to the flowers so our harvest has been pretty small.  Sigh – perhaps next year.

Thanks everyone for the comments, likes and personal notes – if you have a recipe to share please leave it in the comments!

Enjoy!

Gardening, Cooking and Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day! Yesterday was the 4^th of July; a day filled with fireworks, parties and celebrations.  Dan has been under the weather lately so we decided to forgo our regular bike ride to Deephaven and just hang out around the house.

I started the day at the Farmers Market with some friends followed by coffee and then a quick dash to the grocery store to get a few final ingredients; I felt like cooking.

I recall when I was a young girl my mom would marinade cucumbers and onions with oil, vinegar and spices it was one of my favorite dishes. My dill is in full bloom and I love the smell and taste of it so I took my trusty herb scissors and a bowl out to the garden for some dill and while I was at it I harvested another batch of greens; lettuce, corn salad, bok choy, arugula and cilantro.

I thinly sliced one onion (smallest slice on the Pampered Chef simple slicer) and the chopped 2 med cucumbers and 3 large tomatoes put all in a bowl, added ½ cup rice wine vinegar, ¼ cup olive oil, fresh garlic, fresh dill and agave to taste. Poured it all in the bowl and marinated for 2 hours.

On Friday evening a friend of mine posted a picture of a beautiful pie decorated for the 4^th with lots of stars for the top crust. I was inspired to create something similar and I have lots of rhubarb in the freezer so a strawberry rhubarb pie it was. I used this recipe by Smitten kitten and substituted cornstarch for the tapioca (not a fan).  

Next time I would brush the entire crust with the egg mixture first and then cut out the stars so they wouldn't shift around but I do like how it turned out and it got good reviews :-)

My final dish was a seed and carrot loaf, from Trinity's kitchen the recipe is here no substitutions and it was delicious. 

Tonight is leftover night and I can't wait!