That's a Wrap - or is it?

It’s official, the 2023 gardening season has begun. After putting this year's garden to bed I planted garlic for next year. If you’ve never tried to grow garlic you should give it a shot it’s so easy to grow. You put it in the ground sometime between mid to late October, cover it with mulch, and forget about it until next Spring.

We are still working through last year's garden. We harvested about 20 honeynut butternut squash, 15 delicate (from one plant), and a few acorns. The green tomatoes have now ripened so we are working fast and furiously to eat them because I don’t have room for another batch of sauce - so it’s tomato sandwiches, Caprese salads, and tomatoes on pretty much everything. 

This year we got back to having a Halloween Party and it was fun. We dressed up as solar systems, cooked some appetizers, and carved pumpkins. Everyone had a good time! The next generation of pumpkin carvers joined us - my husband's cousin, his wife, and their little 2-year-old daughter got in on the carving action. Their daughter especially liked removing the pumpkin's guts. 

There were some great costumes - Marie Antoinette, Hippies, Aliens dressed as humans, the sun, and a couple of TV show characters I was not familiar with. It was great to see old as well as some new faces. And the pumpkins were fun - spiders, smiles, and ghosts.

 

One of my favorite things for an easy dinner is grain bowls. You roast some veggies, cook some rice (or whatever grain you have), chop some cold veggies and toss it all in a bowl with a sauce. You can add tofu or another protein but generally, I like it without. 

In our last grain bowl adventure, I added a simple tomato salad drizzled with oil and vinegar and topped with feta - it was delicious. 

Grain Bowls

Ingredients:

2 small delicata squash - cut in half and seeds removed

4 - 5 small carrots (we had some small purple ones from the garden)

1 - red or yellow pepper - cut into chunks

a handful of brussels sprouts - cleaned, trimmed, and halved

1 container of mushrooms - cleaned and cut in half

Spices - I used paprika, garlic, cumin, and a little cayenne pepper

1 - 2 T olive oil

rice - I had leftover basmati 

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prep all vegetables as instructed above and place them on a large rimmed baking dish. 

Mix olive oil and all spices together and pour over vegetables. Toss to coat. Bake until cooked through. 

Tomato salad

Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes - thickly sliced

a handful of spinach - used to line the serving platter

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

feta cheese 

Instructions:

Trim spinach ends and line the serving platter with a single layer. Slice the tomatoes and place them on top of the spinach. Drizzle a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the tomatoes and top with crumbled feta. Salt and pepper to taste.