Rain; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As a gardener I'm a huge fan of rain, as a homeowner with a wet basement – not so much.

I've been remiss in not posting for the past couple of weeks, that doesn't mean we've not been cooking awesome veggie meals, it means we've been bailing water and dealing with the aftermath of a VERY WET BASEMENT. But this too shall pass – we've called landscapers to give us estimates to grade the yard and move the water away from the house, we've pulled up wet carpet and spent 5 days drying out the wood paneling in the basement – NOT FUN!

Looking forward or backward with respect to cooking experiences, we've been cooking up a storm with our garden harvest. We've harvested tomatoes by the pound, carrots, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, red, green, yellow and orange peppers, cabbage, Thai chili pepper and jalapenos. I have to say it has been our best year yet. This was last night's harvest.

For those of you wondering what we've been doing with all those veggies, well cooking of course here are a few of our favorite dinner pictures.

Here is one of my favorite dinners; roasted beets, roasted green beans from the garden, watermelon with feta and basil (from the garden) and my favorite lentil dal. 

And then there cooked up some Swiss chard with onions, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and black beans. Served with a side of tomatoes with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a few feta crumbles. 

We've also been eating a fair number of tomato, avocado and mayo sandwiches for lunch and yes dinner too. I don't have a recent photo but trust me they are happening.

Tonight I decided that the red and green peppers were on the dinner menu and decided to stuff them with lentils, quinoa, kale and tomatoes (of course). Picture on its way - hubby is having some technical difficulties.

On deck for the weekend; cauliflower, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes – did I mention we have a lot of tomatoes? I think there will need to be some tomato sauce and tomato jam making.

If you have any recipes that need tomatoes please, send them my way.

As always thanks for stopping by!