Garden Fun—favorite easy recipes!

My garden this year—kept it pretty small and contained after I completely failed to keep up with last years garden.  It is a new spot (since we are in a new house).  We put it in late and added nothing to the soil (no manure, fertilizer, anything).  It has grown slowly, but really provided just the right amount for our family.  Plus—the weeds grow much less quickly!!!  Oh and it is also a bit of a patchwork since Joseph went plant shopping with me and helped pick out some items, plus snuck a few in the cart.  We have soybeans, two kinds of melons, and sweet potatoes which I have never grown before.  My carrots and cucumbers are much more successful then they ever were in my other garden bed—not sure why.  Peppers and pumpkins were very unproductive.  I love the challenge of growing and then using what is in the garden. 

Here are some of our current favorite recipes:

Kale chips

Tear washed and dried kale into little pieces, toss with olive oil and a little salt and pepper.  Bake until crispy

Beans with milk

Boil yellow and green beans until tender.  Drain and add a little milk and butter immediately.  Serve in a bowl.

Bean casserole

Boil beans in water, drain, mix with garlicky bread crumbs and sour cream, salt and pepper.  Bake.

Squash casserole

Same as Bean Casserole but with any mixture of summer squashes

Sautéed garden veggies

Obvious

Kale pesto

Process kale, basil, pine nuts (or other kinds of nuts), olive oil, and parmesan

Tart with garden veggies

Spread out a thawed frozen puff pastry and stick any of your favorite veggies on it, maybe some cheese.  Pre-cook veggies if necessary.  You can make very pretty arrangements as well. 

Refrigerator Pickles

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/easy-refrigerator-pickles-10000001646440/
My new favorites—so easy and yummy. 

Garden to table to jar

Tomatoes EVERYWHERE!! 

We love our garden so.  This year we planted kale, lettuce, broccoli, green beans, onion, sunflowers, zinnias, green peppers, red peppers, hot peppers, basil, rosemary, parsley, tomatoes (A LOT of those—Roma, some normal kind. and grape) cucumbers, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash, and zucchini.  It is such a fun challenge to try and figure out how to use all the produce we have! 

 

 

So far: spaghetti sauce, ketchup, pizza sauce, tomato soup, creamy tomato sauce, more sauce, and more sauce (my favorite recipe yet), more soup.  Basically every night I think, “what is a different way I can use tomato sauce?”

 

Making Christmas Pickles—Joseph’s favorite. 

  

The garden—a few of the sunflowers were knocked down during Irene.  More importantly though, the garden used to be at the edge of the woods, but we cleared (well—hired our bud Leo to clear) some of the brambles and enlarged the yard area.  So lots of grass growing work as well! 

How does your garden grow?  And I would love your favorite table and preserving recipes!