An Adventure in Leftovers

The forecast is rain – again. Seems like this is the rainiest fall ever. Generally the warm and dry August days give way to brown patches in the front and back yard but not this year; it's as green as it was in spring.

Good news – we've had an amazing bounty in the garden. Bad news – the ground is saturated and people are bailing out their basements – not fun. You might recall we had water in our basement earlier in the season but this last flood go around we were dry as a bone – thanks to the landscaper who figured out how to regrade our yard and now all the water goes away from the house instead of toward it.

Last weekend Dan hosted a lovely 60^th birthday party for me – we had great food, family and a lot of fun. The weather cooperated so that we could be outside and I got to spend time with the people who really matter to me.

I did have a hand in helping Dan with the food and true to form we had too much. As a matter of fact we are finally getting to the end of the leftovers. One of the things we had too much of was grilled veggies; eggplant, zucchini, summer squash and asparagus. Don't get me wrong, I love eggplant but I get tired of eating leftovers even if they are wonderful leftovers.

On Saturday I decided that we needed to find a way to finish up the last of the roasted veggies so I decided to make soup, which just so happened to go well with the wet and cool day we were having.

I started with 2 chopped onions, and some garlic. To that I added the leftover roasted eggplant, zucchini and summer squash and 4 cups of vegetable broth and simmered until the veggies were hot, which didn't take very long since they were already cooked.

I pureed the mixture in batches in my Vitamix and for good measure I added two thai chili peppers from the garden to give it a kick; and a delicious kick it was. We served it with fresh bread and a spinach salad.

We're still pulling tomatoes out of the garden and the kale, collard greens and squash are not showing signs of giving in. I've been keeping notes on what worked and didn’t and have decided that I won't be planting carrots or eggplant again – our soil and/or conditions aren't conducive for growing them. I will however, add more broccoli and cauliflower – they were awesome. And I'll try to get the hubby to not plant so many cabbage plants – a girl can only eat so much cabbage.

If you have recipes for kale and collard greens – other than smoothies because if you know me you know I'm not drinking that stuff  - EVER, please send them my way.

Thanks for stopping by!