Cooking From the Garden

Yesterday, I harvested all kinds of great veggies from the garden.  I got some tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, thyme and red onions.

It's like having a farmer's market in my own backyard.  

BTW, how do you like my "harvesting basket?"    We got a lovely fruit basket for Christmas one year, and the fruit was piled high in this basket.    It's the perfect shape for gathering the harvest.

Right now the garden is overflowing and I'm making primarily plant-based meals every night to take advantage of the garden.   I'm also cooking and freezing whenever I can as well (although I lost part of my frozen harvest bounty when we lost power for four days due to Hurricane Irene--BUMMER!!).  My dehydrator is also running non-stop drying herbs I'll use over the Winter in my cooking and to give as gifts as well. 

I thought because tonight is cold and rainy, a nice hearty tomato-based minestrone soup is in order.  What's great about making minestrone is that I can double or triple the batch and freeze it for other rainy-night dinners.

Tomorrow I want to harvest the first of these incredible savoy cabbages I tried this year.  I plan to saute the cabbage with pancetta and garlic and serve it over pasta.  

Two days ago, I harvested a handful of fragrant scallions from my herb garden along with cilantro and poached cod in a broth of scallions, cilantro, ginger and soy sauce.   I tossed additional chopped scallions and cilantro on top when it was done and served it over brown rice. 

I'm also eating lots of salads to utilize the tomatoes and cucumbers (although tomatoes cooked down are great over pasta as well).

And, the garden bounty will continue.   Yesterday I planted out red-leaf lettuce and broccoli raab for an Autumn harvest and sowed seeds for radishes and scallions.   My Brussels sprouts still need a few weeks before they're ready to harvest, and the flavor improves with a few frosts, so I'll be harvesting those through the end of November!!