Saturday, July 14, 2018

Garden Veggies and an Easy Recipe

Here's what we've harvested so far from our garden.........

* 4 pickings of salad greens-8.1 ounces
*  2.5 cups of basil-2 ounces
* 1 Japanese eggplant-2.4 ounces
* 1 zucchini-24.9 ounces
* 2 yellow squash-17.4 ounces



So what to do with your basil other than use it fresh or dry it?  I made tomato sauce and used some basil in it this week.
And then I made pesto for the first time!


Super easy to do.
You need basil leaves(remove the stems), EVOO, garlic, parmesan cheese and nuts(pine nuts or walnuts work best)and a food processor or blender.


Put basil, garlic and nuts in processor, whiz up a few seconds then with the power still on slowly add the olive oil until smooth.
Add the cheese afterwards and just pulse the machine to blend it in.
And that's it!



This will keep for 1 week in the fridge or throw it into the freezer.  I bought smallish containers at Dollar Tree for putting this into the freezer.  This makes enough for one large meal of pesto for 4-5 people.
I don't like pesto so I had to have Hubs taste test it for me.  It's a frozen asset now and can be warmed up some night I don't have a plan and someone wants pesto and pasta.

Garden Output so far......54.8 ounces or 3 lbs. 42.5 ounces
Not much but once the tomatoes kick in the total weight will escalate. ;-)

What's growing in your garden?
How is it doing?

Sluggy

10 comments:

  1. A bunch of zucchini, cherry tomatoes, green beans, and about 10 different herbs that I am now dehydrating for Christmas gifts. We got about 8 cucumbers and then the heat got to be too much and started frying them. Same with the peppers but we got a GAZILLION green onions. My beefsteak tomato plant that I was able to bring back from the dead has about 30 tomatoes on it, but they won't turn red......dh is VERY impatiently waiting and dd & I prefer cherry, but dh & ds prefer beefsteak.

    Do you do a winter garden or do you get way too much snow? We are going to do beans, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, parsnips, cauliflower, spinach, & carrots

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I live on a mountain in NE PA. Winter gardening doesn't happen here....we barely get enough good weather in the Summer to garden. lolz
      The only veggies it gets too hot for is peas and some lettuce.
      I did winter-over some mizuna(also called rocket or winter kale)accidentally one year.

      Delete
  2. I have 6 different herbs for canning and gifts, cukes (I am afraid they are going to fry soon,) green peppers, green onions, second planting of radishes and hopefully tomatoes soon. The cukes, radishes and basil are the only harvest so far. I have basil and pesto in the freezer and relish in the pantry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I figured from the pictures I've seen :) Our problem isn't too cold (usually doesn't get below high 40's low 50's) but we get 105+ in the summer which I'm REALLY bummed fried my blue jay peppers before we could even try them. We are trying kale this year - I don't like it (too chewy & bitter), but the kids like it in their juicer.

    What do you do with the eggplant? I've never even bought it because I don't know what to do with it, but I would be willing to try growing it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I made Eggplant in Garlic Sauce(Chinese food)and we've also made Eggplant Parmesan or Eggplant Rollitni(both Italian dishes). WE've grilled and roasted it with other veggies as a side dish too. I hear Babba Ghanoush is good but haven't made that yet.

      Delete
  4. I tried everything with basil--chopping and freezing in an ice cube, too labor intensive. Finally, I just washed the basil and dried it with towel and put it in a freezer bag, pushing out the air. I did this every few days and finally just squeezed the bag. It "chopped" itself and tasted wonderful all winter long.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I use walnuts in my pesto because pine nuts are crazy expensive. So far I have harvested kale, peas, lettuce basil, thyme, parsley, jalapenos, banana peppers, and my first 3 string beans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pine Nuts ARE insanely expensive! We may only get 3 string beans here as only 1 plant survived. lolz

      Delete
  6. I like that we’re all wearing our garden hauls to see how much we grow. None of my string bean plants made it

    ReplyDelete

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