Tomatoes & Squash & Basil....Oh My!!!

What do you do with an over-abundance of tomatoes, squash, potatoes and basil?  Grab a pan (a lasagna pan works nicely) and sprinkle a bit of olive oil in the bottom.  Then, slice everything up, add some tofu for your protein punch, layer it up, sprinkle some more olive oil on top, and add salt and pepper to taste. 

Pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered.    You can even add some parmesan cheese if you like (though I did not have any yummy parmesan at time of this baking).  

Pull it out and dig in!!!

The tomatoes are really what makes this dish fantastic!  It's easy and fast to put together and makes for a nice mid-week dinner that you don't have to slave over!

Full disclosure: This recipe was tweaked from one I found in one of my many magazines...though I can't remember now if it was Family Circle, Good Housekeeping or one of the other mags still being shoved into my mailbox on a monthly basis.  I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually looking forward to the day when all of my subscriptions to expire! Except, of course, my subscription to Urban Farm...that one I'll keep ;-)

Stinkin' Horn Worms

I read once that horn worms don't actually eat your tomatoes, they only eat the leaves.  I think who ever wrote that was confused...

Harvest Monday

Happy Monday everyone!!!

This week was a jumble of harvesting and non-harvesting due to guests being in town and then a cold that caught me.

Some highlights are: the first blue corn that was...er...not blue, lots of tomatoes, the very first lemon cucumber ever, lots of beans (these are all being blanched and frozen for winter use...anyone have a favorite recipe???), and a few jalapenos!

It's trying to be blue...just can't quite figure it out!

This weeks totals:

Tomatoes = 6 pounds 6 ounces

Corn = 10 ounces

Bush Beans = 2 pounds 8 ounces

Lemon Cucumber = 6 ounces

Jalapenos = 2 ounces

Basil = 1 ounce

Mint = 3 ounces

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne at daphnesdandelions.  Check out what she's harvesting, as well as what many, many others are harvesting!

HAPPY HARVESTING!!!

Hope you all have a fantastic day!

The Little Things

I have a cold and I absolutely hate being sick.  Period.  On a bright note, I have enjoyed a weekend full of...

 

 

• Good music & friends (that's my brother up there on stage with his band As In We)
• The sowing of fall crops (kale and carrots and beets, oh my!)
• Green chile stew
• Fresh eggs
• Rain
• The promise of (red) tomatoes 
• Hot tea
• Napping

I hope you all had a glorious weekend!

The Little Things is my way of taking a moment to 

slow down, acknowledge and appreciate...well...

the little things!

Garden Happiness(es)

Sunflower & blue corn

Winter squash, morning glories and a rouge sunflower

Blue corn...so close to harvest ready!

Lemon cucumbers!!!

Jalapeno

A single tomatillo flower

What's growing in your garden this week?

Garden Mystery - Tomatoes & Their See Through Skin

Remember this tomato?  As it grew on the vine, it (and it's sister) did this weird thing with it's skin.  They both had this funny patch of almost translucent skin!  Well, I just let them grow to see what would happen and when they were ready, I brought them inside...

Cut them open...

And discovered that they are perfectly fine!  Some of the seeds right up next to the funny skin look a little...well...almost burnt.  Maybe because the skin was thin and funny and was directly facing the sun?

It tasted fantastic and made for some really yummy salsa :-)  I'm super glad I left those babies on the vine!

Cheers!!!

The Birds & the Bees of Squash

Have you ever wondered how you can tell which of your flowers might become an actual squash?  I sure have.  Because, while the flowers sure are pretty, I'd much rather have a meal than a few flowers.

This is a male pumpkin flower...

This is a female pumpkin flower.
How do I know?

Because she is pregnant :-)

When her baby is ready, it will look like this.

This is a male Acorn Squash flower...

This is a female Acorn Squash flower.

When her baby is ready, it will look like this.

Thankfully, the bees usually do a fantastic job of helping the men and women in our garden do their thing...which is good because I don't really want to have to perform artificial insemination in our yard.  Really.  We'll leave that to the pros.

Remember though, that even though a male flower will not become an actual squash, you can use him as an addition to a variety of other meals :-)  I haven't done this yet, but I will someday...

Harvest Monday

Happy Monday everyone!!!

The Yellow Taxis have continued to bless us with their presence in the garden...which I am grateful for since not many of our other varieties are near ready for harvest!  We've harvested about a pound a day of these babies!

We also harvested our second (yes, their growth is slow this year!) squash and a few handfuls of beans.

In addition to all the "regulars", we have harvested our first and second jalapenos of the year!!!

Here are this weeks totals:

Tomatoes = 7 pounds

Squash = 8 ounces

Bush Beans = 1 pound 9 ounces
Jalapenos = 2 ounces

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne at daphnesdandelions.  Check out what she's harvesting, as well as what many, many others are harvesting!

HAPPY HARVESTING!!!

Hope you all have a fantastic day!

Sunflower Thief

I love sunflowers.  I know lots of people like sunflowers, but I really love sunflowers.  I have them planted pretty much anywhere I can fit them where they'll get enough sun.  

 

Apparently someone else in our neighborhood loves sunflowers, too.  Enough the behead one and run away with it.  I found this poor guy a couple of mornings ago.  He must have been peeking over the fence, saying Hello, when someone lopped his head off.

Silly neighbor.  All they had to do was ask.  I would have happily given them a sunflower.  Oh well.

Rain & Some Hail Damage

Last night, as we sat on our upstairs porch, we could see the storm blowing in.  When it hit, it hit hard with crazy winds, lots of rain and some hail.

I am super grateful for the rain...we've been so dry this year, it's been a little scary.  The hail, however, I could do without.  I think the garden will be OK since it's established and healthy, but some of it looked a little sad this morning.

Holes in all the pole beans leaves

The potatoes are all knocked down and most of the stems are broken

Not so glorious morning glories...

The bush beans got trashed too...

The baby broccoli sprouts are pretty wounded...

Sliced corn...

Even the sunflowers took a beating.

Of course, all the squash and pumpkins were beat up, too...I just got tired of taking pictures of my battered garden.  The butternut squash actually looks bruised where it got whacked by the hail.  I'm hoping it's skin is tough enough already for it not to affect the flesh inside.

By some miracle, it doesn't appear that a single one of our tomatoes were damaged!

And on a bright note, every one of our rain barrels is full.  Completely full!