Dog Days Dinner

They’re here.  It’s hot.  And, steamy.  It’s been this way for a while.  It’s natural to wish for a change in the weather pattern.  But, after these dog days, the weather will change and summer will officially be history.  I love summer.  I live for summer.  Unwilling to wish it away, it's time to dig down and find the good.  My silver lining?  The food.  The garden is flourishing.  Peppers are coming in daily.  Tomatoes are coming in daily.  Summer squash is gorgeous.  Melons are so ripe that my kids walk in the door and ask for a slice because they can smell it at the threshold.  What to do with all this produce?

As you may recall, I have had a love/hate relationship with cooking for most of my life.  As a result, I have a hard time classifying anything I make as good.  Well, this dinner changed that.  This meal was good.  So good, in fact, that my husband made me promise to write it down so I won't forget it and will be able to recreate it next summer.  Even I am willing to admit it was good.  And, I am a tough sell.  

If it is so good, why not whip up a batch this winter?  Well, this medley shines because of fresh, locally grown produce.  And, the ingredients won’t be available fresh during the winter.  Maybe it will be good with frozen vegetables, but I haven't made it (yet) so I can't say for sure.  Why take the chance?  Hit up your local farmer’s market, grab your CSA box or harvest from your garden and whip up a batch of this Dog Days Dinner.  Your taste buds will thank you. 

Dog Days Dinner

This meal can be served hot or at room temperature which makes it perfect for dinner at the table or for packing for a picnic in the park.

Serves 4

3 cloves of garlic, pressed in a garlic press

1 large onion (any variety), diced

Medley of peppers, diced (I used 2 banana peppers, 2 cubanelle peppers, 2 poblano peppers and 4 pimiento peppers.  You can use whatever you have available.  You can also add some jalapenos for added heat.)

3 medium to large sized summer squash and/or zucchini, diced

½ cup golden raisins

½ cup pistachios

Juice and zest of one lemon

1 tablespoon honey (preferably local)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sea Salt

½ cup ground cherries, halved

10-15 leaves of lemon basil, torn

I realize this recipe calls for a lot of diced vegetables.  If you don’t have the time to dice this many, I highly recommend the Vidalia Onion Chopper.  Yes, it’s gadgetry.  It’s another thing to store.  Maybe you can do this with a food processor.  Or, are skillful enough with a knife that you can knock this out in no time.  I am not.  So, this baby is a time and life saver (literally, I am dangerous with knives) for me.  It allows me to quickly dice all these vegetables into perfectly-sized, uniform pieces. 

Here we go:

1.       Heat 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil on medium high heat in a large sauté pan.  Add the garlic and let it mellow in the pan.  You want it to lose some of its rawness, but not brown.  If it begins to brown, reduce the temperature.
2.       Once the garlic has cooked for about a minute, add the onion and sauté for 2 minutes.  If you have reduced the temperature, increase it to medium high again.
3.       Add the pepper medley to the pan and sauté for 2 minutes.  You want the peppers to sweat to reduce the moisture, but not brown.  If they begin to brown, reduce the heat slightly.   If the pan begins to get watery, increase the temperature.
4.       Add the summer squash and continue to cook.  At this point, you have two choices; you can cook at the same temperature for another 2-3 minutes.  Or, you can reduce the temperature and cook the mixture more slowly.  I reduced the temperature to medium low so that I could quickly make the sauce.
5.       To make the sauce, mix the juice of a lemon, the zest of a lemon and the tablespoon of honey.
6.       Once the squash is cooked al dente, remove the pan from heat and dress them with the honey and lemon mix.  Finally, toss in the golden raisins and pistachios.  Salt to taste.
7.       Plate the vegetable medley and dress each serving equally with halved ground cherries and torn lemon basil.

 

I served the vegetable medley over farro.  Farro is easily my favorite side.  I like it better than pasta, rice, quinoa, couscous, etc.  It has a wonderful texture and a delicious, nutty flavor.  It is the perfect complement to this medley.  I make it according to the package directions skipping any added fat and adding just a touch of salt. 

Stay cool!

The Lazy Garden

I love a good experiment.  I think most gardeners do.  For the most part, we don't get our egos wrapped up too much in the successes and failures.  We try just to try.  The real success is learning along the way.  Such is the case with the lazy garden.

For a long time, I have wanted to try a lasagna garden.  I have perused articles and books and even scoured Atlanta for the right ingredients per an article I read in Organic Gardening.  You try going down to the local feed store and asking them if their alfalfa hay is herbicide-free.  Let me know ahead of time when you plan to make your way down there.  I could go for some entertainment.  (In all fairness, the guys are great and they are working hard to stock organic items.  I appreciate what they are trying to do.)

At any rate, eventually, I decided it just wasn't something I could do this year.  Then, my daughter came home with three or four pumpkin seedlings she had grown in school.  She was beaming.  This was big!  See, for years, while my son has approached gardening with an interest level bordering on alarming, my daughter has shown only mild interest.  When I say that what I mean is that she will stand at the edge of the garden and read a book while I tend to the business of gardening.  The pumpkin seedlings changed that.  She was beaming with pride at what she had grown.  She was telling stories of why she chose pumpkins over flowers and sunflowers.  She told me her methods for watering and ensuring it got enough light.  This was the moment.  I could sense it.  I wasn't going to waste it. 

And so, the lasagna lazy garden came to be.  The lazy garden is a modified lasagna garden done the lazy gardener way. In the lazy garden, you skip measurements and commit to using what you have so you don't have to run around finding ingredients.  Everything is very loose.  You throw in a little of this and a little of that, top it with some soil/compost, plant and pray. If you absolutely have to have something, this is not the method to use! That said, I have, in the past, had some mighty fine things grow straight out of the compost pile and this is a similar concept.  

In our lazy garden, we are growing the three sisters.  We have sunflowers, beans and summer and winter squash.  And, I am going to toss in a few tomato plants at the back just for fun.  Oh, and we have a decomposing Jarrahdale Blue pumpkin in a brown Whole Foods bag thrown in for giggles.  We'll see what comes of that.  Most importantly, we are growing a gardener with our lazy garden.  Even if this lazy garden fails and we don't get a single bloom or a single vegetable out of it, if it succeeds at growing the gardener, then I say the lazy garden will have been a huge success.

The pumpkin seedlings that started it all.

Full view of the lazy garden.

Sunflowers sown directly in the garden.

Summer squash transplanted from the main garden.

These two squash plants were removed from the main garden because they were the weaker seedlings.  They incurred quite a bit of shock during that process and dropped almost all their leaves.  They have recovered nicely.

Inside this bag is a rotting Jarrahdale Blue pumpkin.  We'll just see what happens with that.  I'll either have a pile of seeds to dust off and save for next year or we'll have pumpkin vines and (fingers crossed!) pumpkins.

It Takes a Community to Grow a Garden

Things have been crazy for me the last two weeks.  There have been visitors, illnesses, recitals, workshops and even a surgery thrown in to keep things exciting.  During this time, it has been hard for me to get to the garden to get things done.  I made my way to the garden this morning to do some weeding, fertilizing and watering.  I wasn't sure what I would find.  What I found was amazing.  All of a sudden, there are cages where there weren't cages (thanks, Farmer Bob!).  Weeding had been done.  Watering had occurred (Thanks, Regan!).  And, I think soon, we might be ready for our first harvest day.  We need to come up with a harvest team and schedule.  If you are interested, please email me and I will add your name to the distribution list -->  shawnbard@gmail.com

What was once this, a mere two weeks ago: 

Is now:

Tomato bed blooming like crazy and even one Abe Lincoln tomato growing.

Pepper seedlings growing and squash plants blooming.

Cucumbers trailing and dill and radishes flourishing.

Another view of the tomato bed.  Gorgeous!

Sweet potatoes doing their thing, getting bigger and bigger and aiding the soil.

Hard to believe this was a seedling two weeks ago.

This, too, was a tiny seedling.

The first jalapeno of the season.