Meals from the garden

The weather may be outrageously hot, but it's still a wonderful time of year to have a vegetable garden. For us Sunday marked the beginning of BLT (bacon, lettuce & tomato) season. To make this season opening, mouthwateringly delicious, sandwich we picked tomatos from two of our heirloom plants. The sourdough bread was fresh from the H&F booth at the Grant Park Farmers Market. Bacon and lettuce from YDFM. This sandwich was PERFECTION! I'm looking foward to more throughout the season. 

 For this evening's dinner we picked our two giant eggplants. They were mixed them with pole beans, small potatoes, red peppers, curry paste and coconut milk for a super spicey curry. 
I'd write more - but our Peachtree Road Race costumes are beckoning. I've decided to add pockets to my toga and the draw string in Oliver's Uncle Sam pants need mending. One more day til the big race! YAY! Keep an eye out for us if you plan to be there too.


Homemade biscuits on a Saturday morning & other random things


While Oliver made biscuits this morning I went straight from bed to the garden. The early bird gets the worm and I had some worm getting to do. By the time he called me in to eat (bacon, eggs and biscuits) I'd squished another dozen cabbage worms of varying sizes. 


Also, this morning, the Beekman Boys responded to my plea for cabbage worm help with two ideas: "make a spray using real soap (must have lye) or use row covers". The soap spray idea led my Google searches in a new direction and I found several sites that suggest masking the cabbage scent in an effort to hide them from the white cabbage moths (who lay the eggs on the leaves that then hatch into the worms that are eating the plants).  My new plan is to make a lye soap spray as suggested by the Beekmans AND refertilize with a second round of fish emulsion. The fish emulsion is so pungent that it will hopefully overwhelm whatever natural scent is attracting the moths. 

The photo on the left is the view from my garden into my neighbor's front yard. Like I've said before, this is the most beautiful springtime I have ever seen in Atlanta. EVERYTHING is blooming at once! And there haven't been a string of violent storms to knock down the fragile blooms. Azalea, hydrangea, dogwood, cherry blossoms, jasmine, Bradford pears, daffodils, irises - all blooming together and they're everywhere! I'm loving it (it helps that over 29 years I've developed a total tolerance to Atlanta's pollen).

The photo on the right is Topher getting ready for his shower. "Get out MOM!" Ok not really. I'd just finished cleaning the bathtub and he jumped in to lick the faucet. The light was so pretty that I grabbed the camera. He's a little cat version of a Vermeer painting!

And last for today: when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. When life makes your eggplant explode on the grill... make baba ganoush! Earlier this week Oliver grilled dinner in the backyard. Whenever he does this he throws an eggplant on the grate afterwards and lets it bake while we eat. Well during that night's dinner an unmistakable burp erupted from the grill! Oh no! Eggplant explosion! No matter though, it still makes a delicious snack. 

Baba ganoush: a healthy, tasty snack to keep on hand

Last night, while Oliver still had the grill going from the burgers, he tossed on two eggplants to roast while we ate dinner. After dinner he mixed them up into a baba ganoush. I love having a little homemade baba ganoush on hand; it's a great snack to offer when friends drop by. Just surround the bowl with torn bits of french bread, slices of radish, carrots, endives (any crunchy thing made of real food that you have available) and leave out on the counter for all to nibble and enjoy! Consider keeping it ready in the fridge for when all your holiday guests begin to arrive for the long holiday.


Cheers!




What he did with the fresh picked eggplant

Another quick post tonight: For yesterday's dinner Oliver used our fresh picked eggplant in a side dish he first cooked for me just a few months into our relationship. Since then it's become a cozy, healthy and delicious, "down home" southern side that we eat every few months. On it's most basic level it's a medley of diced eggplant, chopped okra, grape tomatoes and onions - but once you put it all together in a lovely old fashioned cast iron skillet it seems to become so much more then what it is.





















Two more things I should mention about dinner:
1. It was paired with grilled jerk chicken. I'll post more about that this weekend.
2. Until I met Oliver I'd NEVER had an okra that was not fried. I vividly remember my elementary school serving them fried. They filled one of those little melamine squares on my tray. Even fried I DID NOT WANT them. I'm happy to say Oliver's method of browning and smothering has happily changed my mind.

Recipe available on request.

Art Night, Harvest Night

Quick post tonight so I can get on to drawing and painting for my soon-to-exist Etsy shop. Wanted to share today's "harvest": two eggplants and a handful of grape tomatoes. It makes me happy to say that even though it's the last day of August there seems to be no stopping our summer vegetable garden. In addition to the peppers and egglants there are also four large green heirloom tomatoes alongside a few hopeful, tiny budding tomatoes.

It's almost 8 - time to get to painting.