I dream of cooking with vegetables straight from my garden. This weekend we had a family reunion that included a potluck. I found a recipe for a pasta that I had been wanting to make and realized that most everything I needed was in my garden.
I had so much fun taking my basket outside and filling it with summer squash, broccoli, tomatoes, onions and peppers. Along with one of my favorite herbs - basil.
Although the recipe claims 10 minute prep time it ended up being 1.5 hours before all was complete. For the vegetables themselves you cut, season and roast them for 40 minutes. Then I decided to put some chicken in mine so that took some time as well as for the pasta. At the end you make a sauce of a little real butter, fresh Parmesan and fresh basil melted in a pan and stirred into the pasta, veggies and chicken.
The result was scrumptious and tasted like summer!! In reality there is such a small window of time for these kinds of meals. Most of our suppers throughout the summer consist of very little meat (unless we do it on the grill) along with sweet corn and steamed veggies...
Our garden is alot of work and sadly this year it is not the best we have had. Our tomatoes have gotten late blight because of all the rain and humidity. So it looks like our big canning extravaganza of tomato products (salsa, stewed tomatoes and tomato soup) will come from some of our Amish friends. (which really doesn't hurt my feelings) They have acres and acres of produce that they grow for Organic Valley(which is about 25 minutes from us). When it comes time to ship their vegetables any that aren't perfect get set aside. So when Rob works up there they send him home with boxes and boxes of fresh veggies of all kinds.
Today I plan to pick greens and possibly do some canning this evening if I get enough. I don't mind it so much really - it is just time consuming but so worth it in the middle of winter.
Well, have a wonderful day and I dream that you can enjoy the vibrant taste of fresh veggies today!!
No comments:
Post a Comment