I walked out into the garden this morning, in my pajamas, coffee in hand, to peek around and grab a few bites. I was so happy to see more cherry tomatoes were ready, as were a bunch of yellow pear tomatoes (not enough for a salad, but definitely made this girl's mouth happy). I also noticed another ear had emerged on one of our corn stalks-that takes us up to two. We have about 15 peaches starting to turn pink, and more zucchini, butternut and delicata squash than I care to mention. Good thing I love squash and good thing it keeps really well in a dark closet. I think I'm going to be eating it until March. I turned up a few handfuls of red potatoes, and munched on a few sugar snap peas. There is no better way to start a morning, for me at least.
We are in the middle of a pretty serious drought here in Indiana, and a very big heat wave. It's been between 90 and 108 for probably 16 out of the last 20 days. Hot! So I've been watering the garden a lot. I've left most of the flowers to fend for themselves, and the lawn too. But I'll be darned if I'm gonna let this drought kill the garden I planted from seeds I saved on my kitchen counter. I'm pretty attached. And the best is yet to come! I'm expecting a HUGE tomato crop. Salsa, marinara sauce, salads, we eat tomatoes like apples in this house.
So after my stroll through my garden (or in arabic "janene"...which means little heaven...i think that's much more appropriate) I decided our dinner would come from there, and if not totally from ours, from someone close. I took stock of what we had......pretty much just the basil and potatoes. That was a good start. At the farmers market we found some more red potatoes, sweet corn and the most delicious loaf of bread. It had apples and dried cherries in it, apfelbrot it was called....soooo good...it's gone!
This was the quickest, most satisfying, and healthy dinner.
RED POTATOES
Throw a couple of handfuls of red potatoes in a pan with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and coarse ground black pepper and a sprig of fresh rosemary. Cover pan with foil, cook in the oven on 400 till a fork pierces one easily.
TOMATO SALAD(I have to admit these weren't from our garden or local farmers, but I just really wanted tomatoes and these were on the counter)
Chop three or four tomatoes into large chunks, a little salt and pepper, drizzle with balsamic vinegar. That's it. It is so delicious.
FRESH PESTO- this is sooo good on fresh, creamy red potatoes
I use about a large colander full of basil. Take the leaves off the stems and discard the stems. Wash the leaves well and shake dry. Lightly pack them into food processor. I fill mine up to the top. I usually use Parmesan cheese, but we ran out, so I used a half cup of shredded mozzarella. 1 1/2 handfuls of walnuts, a heaping teaspoon of chopped garlic.Put it all in the food processor, and turn it on. While its going, drizzle some olive oil in.You may have to scrape down the sides once or twice to make sure you get all the leaves. I like to leave mine with a bit of texture, some people like a creamier taste, it's all up to you and your preference. Pulse until you've got it how you like it.
I store mine in a mason jar in the fridge but it freezes really well too. You can even just freeze it in a ziploc, but my mom puts it in ice cube trays, freezes those, and then dumps her pesto cubes into a bag so she can grab just a few without defrosting the whole batch. Smart lady.
CORN ON THE COB
Tonight we shucked it and boiled it, usually we grill it-husk on. That's my favorite way, but honestly I needed a chore to keep Noorah busy while I finished the pesto. This was it.
We sliced up our loaf of bread and took our meal out to the back deck to eat. It was the perfect end to a great day. We watched the hummingbirds and jays as we happily munched away.
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