What are you eating from your garden?

[applestar]

I *almost* had the chance to upgrade from rice cooker to instapot when we thought the rice cooker had gone bonkers and was bringing down the entire kitchen electrical circuits or at least the outlets … but it turned out to be a faulty outlet. My rice cooker is at least 20 years old… maybe 25.

We did find out in the scramble that the lithium battery that maintains the rice cooker during power outages or lets us unplug and take to a pot luck is NOT user replaceable and has to be serviced, so there might be another chance in the near future.

[pepperhead212]

This was a snack, earlier - last night's leftovers for dinner later.

I made a batch of a Mexican dip - a variation of Sakil Pak, which is a pumpkin seed dip. I made this with some butternut squash seeds (which I save every time I cut one up), and added some chickpeas I had left from last night, to stretch it - something I always do with this recipe, since the squash seeds and pepitas are so strong, a much smaller amount can be used. A habanero is the other main flavor. I usually grill the tomatoes, but it was a rainy day, so I cooked them in a skillet, on a piece of NS foil, to caramelize some of the skin. Did the same with the chocolate habanero, then cooled it all, and blended them with the remaining ingredients. Then stirred in some chopped chives and cilantro. I ate it with a stalk of celery and carrot, cut into sticks, and a handful of tortilla chips.
Toasting butternut squash seeds, to use like pumpkin seeds. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cooling the toasted butternut seeds. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Spears TN green tomatoes, cooked in skillet, since weather is bad for grilling. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ground up butternut squash seeds, before adding the tomatoes, habanero, and some chickpeas. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished butternut seed dip - a variety of Sakil Pak. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

I was in the mood for an Indian dish, so I put together a one dish meal in the Instant Pot - a sambar, using my last butternut from 2021(!), my last small eggplants and the last Indian cucumber of this season, some kale and senposai from today, plus a potato. I used a cup of toor dal, plus 2/3 c oat groats, and started with an onion, sautéed a few minutes in a little oil, with 6 cloves of minced garlic, cooked briefly, then 4 tb sambar masala added briefly, followed by some finely chopped tomatoes - a little over a cup. That was cooked a few minutes, then I added the diced veggies and greens, stirred to coat them, then the dal and oats, with 6 c water. Added just enough salt (added a little more later), set it on manual, for 14 minutes, and covered. Let the pressure release naturally (about 17 minutes), then stirred in some tamarind, and a little more salt and sambar masala, and checked for seasonings. I let it simmer while fixing the tarka (OK, so it's not really a one dish meal), which actually takes longer to measure out than to cook! The tarka was stirred in, then 1/2 c chopped cilantro. Absolutely delicious!
Last butternut squash from 2021, to make a sambar with, along with several other veggies. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Butternut cubes, stirred in with onions, garlic, and sambar mix. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Greens added to the mix - kale and senposai. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ingredients lined up for the tarka - mustard seed, peppers, urad dal, and cumin, then the asafoetida with the curry leaves. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sambar, with tarka added. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sambar, with butternut, kale, senposai, eggplant, potato, and cucumber. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

I took some of the “can’t get any riper” cherry tomatoes, roasted them in a casserole dish with some of the peppers + storebought onions and garlic, then Vitamixed them into a smooth sauce with some herbs and dried mushroom powder. Reheated some leftover chickenwings and pork chop (diced) in it with a bit of pasta cooking water, and turned it into a quick and easy penne pasta sauce.

[imafan26]

I had a few weeks break from them, but the cucumbers are coming in again. I also have been harvesting okra, tomatoes, and some chard. Tokyo bekana is also ready to harvest as well.

[pepperhead212]

Today I made probably my last batch of my favorite lentil salad, with 5 c of some of the last cherry tomatoes (actually, these were not the ones from this batch, but the next to last batch, all ripened), halved, and some of those garlic chives - still growing well outside, but not for long. It was in the 70s again today, and again tomorrow, but then the temps will take a dive, quickly, if they are right.

[Gary350]

Deleted, it was in the wrong place.

[imafan26]

Okra, eggplant, Tokyo Bekana, Chard, Peppers, cucumber, a few tomatoes are ripe and a few strawberries for snacking in the garden.

[pepperhead212]

I made a dish in the Instant Pot with that malvani masala I made last night - a dal, with 3 types of dal, starting by browsing a large onion, followed by sautéeing a tb of garlic briefly, then over a cup of finely chopped tomatoes (taking any of the bad tomatoes left, trimmed the bad parts, and chopped it all up), plus 2 tb of that masala, to release the flavor. When cooked down, I added 5 c water, 1/2 c each toor, moong, and channa dal, about 2 c of chopped cauliflower greens (last ones harvested), plus about a cup of dried summer squash (a first for me - something a friend gave me all at once, and I dried it). I added some salt - more later - and cooked it on manual, for 13 min, and let pressure release in 15 min. I added the butternut squash (first one of this year's harvest - the smallest), 1/3 c black quinoa, and another 2 tsp of the masala, and simmered about 25 min. I tried the first bowl as is, and it was good, but not as good as similar dishes with a tarka - the simple tempering of mustard seed, cumin seed, asafoetida, and curry leaves. So I made some, and stirred it in, and it was definitely better - the leftovers I'll also put some cilantro in.

It actually smelled like something with meat was cooked with this - tasted a little like it, too. Maybe it was that dagad phool - I hadn't put that in any masalas before.
Adding about 2 c of butternut to the dal, made with some greens, and some of that Malvani Masala I just made. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished dal, with greens, dried squash, butternut, and Malvani Masala. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

The dal looks really good.

I am flush with cucumbers again, so I gave two away yesterday and I had two for dinner tonight. They were crisp and sweet. And even better, none of them were stung by pickle worms. I am hoping to get a reprieve from the bugs for a few months.

I harvested one bucket of ginger and it has been preserved in sherry. That will last at least a year.

I also picked about a pound of hot peppers. It was a mix of Thai, super chili, Hawaiian chili, and a couple of Jalapenos. I gave them to a friend. Some of them fell while being picked. So, I will probably see some volunteers sometime soon.

[pepperhead212]

I went out and harvested some of those brassica greens, and a large scallion, and used that for dinner today. I based it on an Indian recipe I read, that had cabbage in it, but I used those brassica greens, and added some oat groats and red lentils, which I cooked in some ham stock, to use it out of my freezer.

It starts out with 3 Kashmiri peppers, soaked, then ground up with some garlic, and about 1/2 tb of that coriander/cumin mix. To mix in with the soup, I cooked 1/2 c oat groats with 3/4 c red lentils - set it in the Instant Pot on manual/18 minutes, and let the pressure release naturally.

While cooking, I got the rest of the ingredients cut up, and got cooking in a NS wok - in a couple of tsp oil, over med heat, I cooked that paste about a minute, then added about 2 c chopped scallions, and cooked a minute, then added a large, diced, red bell pepper - about 1½ c - and cooked about 3 min. Then I added the brassica greens - 5-6 cups, with the tough stems pulled out, before chopping up. I stir fried this until wilted - about 5 minutes - then stirred in those oats/lentils. I simmered this another 5 minutes, then stirred in about 1/4 c chopped cilantro.
Kashmiri chili and garlic paste, cooking down for soup. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The chili paste cooking down, along with with about 2 c of scallions. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

About 5 c of chopped, misc. brassicas, cooking down, after a large red bell pepper cooked a few minutes in the paste. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

1/2 c oat groats, and 3/4 c red lentils, cooked together in ham stock, added to the veggies, before mixing in. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished soup, before adding any cilantro. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished soup, with a little cilantro added to the bowl. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

Applestar, my rice cooker is probably older that yours. Mine has no chips or LCD window. I actually have two rice cookers but I only use the 10 cup rice cooker when I need to make a large batch. Mine is a cheapie Sony, not a zojirushi. It is not insulated and has a cook and keep warm mode only. I don't use the keep warm mode much since it is the quickest way to shorten the life of a rice cooker. It is probably why it outlasts the 5x more expensive zojirushi. I can still cook a whole meal if it takes less than 30 minutes in it, steam vegetables, or cook hard boiled eggs at the same time as I cook the rice. I have been contemplating an instant pot for a while, but I have pressure cookers that are bigger and smaller, and a slow cooker as well. I also don't use those very much except for making things like oxtail or Portuguese soup. An instant pot would be too small for either or those things. Peppperhead makes great use of his instant pot and it can be a real time saver. I just don't make many things that require pressure cooking or long cooking, and like you, I still have stuff that works and I really don't need more stuff.

I did replace my microwave, because I couldn't even get a fuse for it, and that was all it needed. The repair would have cost more than buying a new one. I did get a microwave combo air fryer and convection oven. So it is a multi functional tool I am still learning how to use. It cooks much faster since my old microwave oven did not have an inverter, but the turntable is noisier than the Cuisinart.

I steamed beans and okra in the microwave and ate that with rice, kim chee, and Costco rotisserie chicken. I saved some of the chicken to make mac and cheese with chicken and broccoli. I have cucumber salads again for lunch with mayo and soy sauce and once or twice I ate it with tuna salad. I harvested some of the sweet peppers chopped and froze them for later. I found out that I can freeze chopped peppers and onions without having to blanch them.

[imafan26]

I used my first papaya to make a papaya and banana smoothie.
papaya, and lime came from my yard. I got a small banana and honey that we harvested from the garden. I added truvia first, but it was not enough flavor so I added the honey and that was better. Coconut milk or coconut cream would have been better but I would not be able to use the rest of the container, so I used almond milk instead because that is what I have. It gives it a weird flavor, and next time I will use powdered milk or heavy cream if I have it instead.

[imafan26]

Yesterday, it cold, but with this weird weather the humidity was 23%! Unheard of. It is hard to break a sweat in that humidity. So, I thought it would be a good day to try to make bread. I haven't tried to make bread in years. I found a recipe that looked simple and it was for one loaf which is good place to start.
One of the reasons I don't make bread is because my humidity is usually around 80% +. It makes it hard to figure out how much flour to add to the bread. I am just getting the hang of being able to recognize what the bread should look like at different stages. This is something that took a long time to figure out. That is why bread making is hard for me because measurements and times are always approximate.

[imafan26]

I spent 5 hours in the kitchen yesterday cooking. Well, I did some house cleaning in between, and watered the garden too.
My vegetable bin is full and it was time to use up some of the stuff.
For dinner, I cooked some rice, and fried up some tocino.
With all the eggplant I got from the garden I made spicy eggplant
Stemmed and quartered the eggplant.
Steamed in microwave until eggplant was soft and bendable but not mushy
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 thumb sized piece of ginger minced
3 tablespoons of the infused ginger sherry. ( It is how I preserve ginger)
5 preserved chilies ( I preserve hot chilies in vodka). It is two years old so quite fermented.
Heated 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in wok until hot. Added aromatics
Sauteed about 1-2 minutes until aromatic
added 1 chopped bell pepper. Stir fry another 90 seconds or so.(I bought the pepper)
Add in the drained steamed eggplant

Sauce ingredients mix together and add to stir fry
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce ( Tamari)
1 tablespoon bean sauce ( I used garlic black beans, because that is what I had. I rarely use fermented bean sauce)
2 tablespoons honey (the recipe called for brown sugar, but I used honey instead. The honey came from our hives)
1 tablespoon fish sauce ( I could have left this out. It was salty enough for me)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
You could add a tablespoon of sherry, but I added the infused sherry earlier.
4 tablespoons oyster sauce. ( my favorite stir fry seasoning)

Thicken with a slurry of 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 4 tablespoons water.

Turn off heat. Add 1 tsp of sesame oil for flavor and stir it in

Serve hot in serving dish. Garnish with chopped green onions. (the onions also are from my yard)

[Gary350]

This dinner is mostly from the garden, not the ground beef. Wife bought several lbs. of extra lean 96% ground beef then added, onions, garlic, red peppers, spices, salt, pepper, 1 tabasco pepper for the entire mix plus 2 or 3 eggs as the binder. She used a scoop to make meat balls all the same size then cooked them is a skillet that gives them the best flavor. Meat balls were frozen in zip lock bags of 4 per bag.

We are getting down to our last several bags of frozen garden corn.

Wife cooked potatoes and onions in the skillet.

We decided that we don't want garden green beans anymore. When green bean pods turn yellow and soft like rubber pods are easy to pull open then white beans fall out. We froze several zip lock bags of beans. I turned white beans into BBQ bake beans with, garden onions, garlic, BBQ sauce, Dark brown sugar, salt, pepper, paprika.

This is how we use to eat 60 years ago when most families all had home gardens and depended on food from the garden. Meat was, pork, chicken, or beef cooked several different ways. Potatoes could be, fried, baked, boiled, masked. Vegetables were, corn, peas, carrots, squash, cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, peppers, melons. Home made bread and pies.

[imafan26]

I got some green beans from the other garden yesterday from the giving shelf. We used to have a giving bench before covid but now people were leaving extra produce in the classroom next to the sign up sheet so or in the main office. So, the garden has a shelf that 4-H uses for their activities, so now it is the latest place to leave produce for sharing. I collected a few more pension beans and combined it with the beans from the garden and the beans I had harvested before. Steamed them in the microwave and froze them in a ziploc so I can have it later and one more thing is out of my veggie drawer. The pineapples at the garden looked really good too, but I have pineapple in the freezer already. I'll wait for another day. The pineapples and sugar cane came from the Poamoho research station. I brought 3 papayas from home (6.4 lbs) and the other produce, eggplants,beans, Swiss chard, came from the MG training garden. This picture was taken before the training garden added what they harvested. There were also a couple of heliconia stems. They are not edible, but they are good flowers for decoration or the graveyard. If you have never had a fresh ripe pineapple you can smell it and tell how sweet it is. This Dole type pineapple is a low acid pineapple that is what they mostly grow these days. I kinda miss the older sweet tangy bite of the older varieties. The low acid ones can be bland. But these pineapple were allowed to naturally ripen and they are sweet.

The produce is shared with the volunteers and anyone who is in the garden that day whether it be members of the public who come to the MG helpline or office, or other people who are coming for classes.

[imafan26]

Valentine tomatoes from the garden went into my caesar salad and I also tossed a few into my scrambled eggs and spaghetti sauce. I have been giving some of them away at the garden.

In return, I got an upo and made pork and squash.

Eggplant was made into spicy garlic eggplant and talong torta (eggplant omelets).

Swiss chard was basically cooked like spinach with bacon, onion, salt, pepper, with some balsamic vinegar and sugar to balance the vinegar.

I am also harvesting a few of the calamondin for my ice tea, Green onions for fried rice, scrambled eggs, saimin, and pork tofu. Super chilies to add spice to sauces. I also dried some of my bay leaves. I bought a dehydrator, but I remembered I can still use the car to dry things as well. I should have enough bay leaves to last a while now. I made some roasted vegetables using the rosemary and thyme from the yard. I made lime cilantro rice with the lime and cilantro from the yard. I have been freezing the green beans and some of the lemon juice for later.

I haven't had a cucumber in a while. I am missing them now. I have more seedlings to plant out soon.

The wild bitter melon and sweet potato leaves are going to the worms.

I did eat the four corn that was able to pollinate. It was delicious, and gone too soon.

[hendi_alex]

Ripe tomatoes, cukes, zucchini, green beans, squash, jalapeño, garlic, onions, strawberries, blue berries, black berries, kale, basil, also green tomatoes.

[digitS']

I spent over an hour and a half picking peas, yesterday.

Tomorrow should be a good day for shelling them .

The next trip to the big veggie garden, imma gonna dig some new potatoes. Creamed peas and new potatoes needs to be on the menu, next week!

Steve

[imafan26]

I got some dragon fruit from the share at the garden. It was the red fleshed one. It is not as sweet as the yellow one, but with some honey, and some ice cream, yum.

[pepperhead212]

It's getting to the time of year when most of what I am I made some gazpacho today, surprisingly with frozen tomatoes from 2021! I went to my freezer yesterday, to pull out what I thought was the last bag, that I had taken a few tomatoes out of already. But way in the back, there was another bag, that somehow I had missed, but it was still in good condition. I had just over 60 oz of tomatoes, which I split into two batches, and made it in 2 parts in the Vitamix. I put a small cucumber, a half of a large pepper, half of a small garlic clove, half of a shallot, 2 tb EVOO, 1 tb sherry vinegar, salt to taste, and blended it briefly. Then I added 1½ tb chia seeds to it, let it gel about 5 minutes, then blended on high each time, until totally smooth. I mixed these two together, then refrigerated it all day. I got close to 4 qts of gazpacho! I diced up some more cucumbers, plus some fresh tomatoes and some chives to serve with (didn't have any more peppers), along with some croutons.

Frozen tomatoes, from 2 years ago, ready to use for gazpacho. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



Here's the soup, before I topped with the croutons.

Gazpacho, made with frozen tomatoes, everything else from this season. by pepperhead212, on Flickr



Earlier in the day I cooked the only thing I "cooked" all day - 3/4 c toor dal, which I cooked 13 minutes with 2 c water in the Instant Pot, which I cooled some, then ground in the food processor with some oily dried olives, pitted, along with some olive paste - both things I get all the time at Lidl - and added about 2 tb nam prik pao to it. I used this for a dip, for carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, and celery sticks.

[applestar]

We’re almost there — lots of green tomatoes on the vines, peppers plants getting enough size to put to production, eggplants, too. Cucumbers are starting to show female buds ready to open any day.

Our June strawberries and early raspberries are done. Blackberries will start soon.

Right now, we’re eating zucchini that come in every few days (but there are 3+1+1 pollinated on the 3 plants as of yesterday), zucchini flower petals, and culled baby peppers, thinned daikon culls.

[digitS']

Lettuce for weeks, some green onions and garlic, and the Asian greens that were under plastic film a month ago are beginning to bolt but that is OK because those stalks and buds are as good as the leaves. New plants have been transplanted out and new seed sown.

The broccoli survived a shredding by the marmot who might be finally intimidated by my efforts to disrupt his environment. Recovery was sufficient to allow the harvest of several heads and new leaves are growing back nicely and should be able to support side buds.

It may have been a mistake to plant both the Tiara and Charmant cabbage at the same time. They were ready to harvest at nearly the same time, as well. The carport fridge is crammed with cabbage!

The peas are spent so there will be no more reason to dig new potatoes to go with them in the kitchen. The early potatoes are not likely to make it all that many more days anyway before the foliage begins to go down.

A half dozen Yellow Jellybean tomatoes have come off the potted backyard plants. That is IT! The tomato patch in the open garden look to be a long way from having ripe fruit.

It's cucumber season!

Steve

[imafan26]

Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, Yesterday I got my first handful of contender beans which, I nuked for dinner.

[Gary350]

Tomatoes, carman sweet peppers, Mexicans enchilada peppers, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes, strawberries, cilantro, chard, Thai basil.

[pepperhead212]

Tomatoes, garlic, and basil from the garden - it's that time of year!

I had more than enough tomatoes to dice up 2 lbs of tomatoes, to make that pasta dish I make every year, with a bunch of basil, some minced garlic, and some EVOO, and this is mixed with the hot pasta, and this is the only cooking the tomatoes get in this. Other batches I will add other things to, for variations, but the first time is always the simple batch.
3 kinds of basil, plus the garlic and EVOO, before adding the tomatoes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tomatoes mixed in with the other ingredients, after draining some of the clear juice off. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

4 oz Kamut, soaked, then cooked with 6 oz of channa dal in the Instant Pot, then mixed with 6 oz ditalini, after cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The finished dish, with the drained pasta, Kamut, and channa dal stirred into it, the residual heat the only cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

This dish almost everything is from the garden, except for the dals and oats! And the salt, of course.

I made a dish with about 10 okra I had (they're starting to produce, now that it's hot), plus about 3 c of eggplants, cut up, and both of these veggies stir-fried, until browned in spots, then set aside, while a tomato sauce is made in the Instant Pot, starting with onions, then peppers, then some minced garlic, plus some thyme, parsley, and some of the basils, to cook down a bunch of chopped up tomatoes. Then I put in some more water, half the rest of the basils (I always use a lot of it!), some whole oats that I soaked a couple of hours, 3/4 c toor dal, and 1/2 c red lentils, and set to cook 8 min, then let it release 10 min, then released the rest manually. Then I put the eggplant and okra in, and simmered it just 8 minutes, since the veggies were pre-cooked. Then I stirred in the remaining basils, a little more salt, and this was done.
One dish meal - the ratatouille seasonings on eggplant and okra, with 2 dals and whole oats. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[digitS']

Lunch was,

cucumbers, slices of 4 different varieties -- from the garden.
sweet Italian peppers -- from the garden.
fried eggplant -- from the garden.
green beans -- from the garden.
mashed potatoes -- from the garden.
tilapia -- uh, well ... I did say to DW that we could set up a tank under the bench in the greenhouse and raise our own .

Steve
who, last night, had the first sweetcorn -- from the garden, for dinner. it was a little immature but just fine and, certainly, tender .

[Gary350]

We have several garden tomatoes, onion & garlic, that need to be eaten so wife made chili. She wanted 3 stalks of garden celery. I have Mexican oregano and home made red chili powder. We also put Thai Basil in it too. It cooked about 6 hours in the slow cooker crock pot then we added spices 30 minutes before eat it. It is so good I ate 2 bowls. Almost forgot to mention home grown jalapeno pepper slices to make your bowl of chili as spicy as you like it. We made a few phone calls to see who is hungry an 3 human garbage disposals came to eat. These guys eat more food in 1 meal than I eat in 2 days.

[applestar]

I made some fritters the other day — garden zucchini and culled baby peppers plus store bought carrots. There were leftovers in the fridge.

While they reheated at air fry setting in the toaster oven, I soaked glass noodles.

While the noodles soaked, I thinly sliced/shredded garden mini nappa, tender central daikon leaves, cucumbers, culled zucchini, a bunch of fresh squash blossoms harvested today, one of my project tomatoes harvested 3 days ago that was mild and not a candidate for seed saving. Queen of Malinalco tomatillos. All tossed in a bowl with ad hoc dressing made with mustard/harissa mayo/olive oil/rice vinegar with touch of honey, freshly ground black peppers….

Topped the salad with crisply air fried, reheated veg fritters.

Added hot broth to the noodles and then mixed in the above salad to eat with the noodles.

[pepperhead212]

Not dinner, but I just made another favorite snack today, though technically, I have never made this exact smoothie before, as it is with the first kajari melon I've had. I cut this one open, and immediately thought about saving the seeds, to make some horchata - a Mexican drink I've been making for years, since I got the recipe in one of Diana Kennedy's books. The seeds from cantaloupes are blended, then strained, and some water, sugar, and a little lime juice is added. And sometimes some other fruits are added. This time, I also blended the melon, after the seeds, and added the last few cubes of pineapple I had in the fridge, a small orange, and a few drops of coconut flavor (always good in these things!), and after blending all those smooth, I squeezed in a half of a lime, and added the other half a few dropsat a time, until it was just right. Then I removed half of it, a little over 375 ml, and put that in the fridge, and put ice in what was left, and blended that smooth. I usually add some chia seeds to it, but forgot, but I'll do that with the other half. Absolutely delicious, and only gave myself one brain freeze!
Seeds and liquid from the Kajari melon, blend in VM, until smooth, and strained. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Strained Kajari juice, going into the trimmed melon, to be blended. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished smoothie, with the Kajari melon, pineapple, orange, and some lime juice. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

After this I made some gazpacho, which used a lot of things from the garden, and also required no cooking - great in this heat!

Only took about an hour and a half, much of that was cleaning the tomatoes I had harvested the last couple of days. As always, I filled the Vitamix with just tomatoes, the first time, blended it briefly, with a generous tb of chia seeds, and let it sit to gel, while I trimmed and cut the rest of the things up - 2 cukes, a large bell pepper, one large clove of garlic, a medium sized shallot, and about half as many tomatoes. Then I finish blending the tomatoes, and the chia seeds thicken it just about right. I then blend the second batch of veggies up, with another tb of chia seeds, and let it sit, while I dice up some cukes, a large bell, and some more tomatoes, and put those pint containers in the fridge. Then I finish blending the second batch, until the chia seeds are totally ground up, then I add an oz of sherry wine vinegar, then, with the VM running on high, slowly add 2 oz of olive oil to the veggies, and it will emulsify. Then I mix the 2 together, and chill a few hours, before serving with those diced vegetables, and some croutons.
About 40 oz of tomatoes, and some chia seeds, for the first batch. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The second batch to mix in has 20 oz more tomatoes, and the cukes, pepper, shallot, garlic, and olive oil. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished gazpacho, ready to chill. Not bright red, due to the green bell, and cukes, but still delicious! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The only heat from making this is from the motor on the Vitamix!

[imafan26]

I had cucumber and tomato from the garden yesterday. Today, I steamed some green beans.

I gave the worms wild bittermelon, carrots, and sweet potato leaves.

[imafan26]

I harvested some ugly tomatoes yesterday. They were cracked and scarred on the outside, but still good on the inside. So. I made a salad with the peeled tomatoes yesterday along with a Summer Delight cucumber from my garden. This morning I made an omelet with garlic, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, bacon, Mexican cheese blend and two small peeled ugly tomatoes.

I picked two Sweet Slice cucumbers and I will have that with more of the ugly tomatoes (Burpee bushsteak) and it will go into my dinner salad.

[applestar]

Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini/summer squash, squash blossoms, daikon roots and leaves, eggplants, blackberries, shiso/perilla, basil … cabbage, kale, broccoli

DD2 is on a mission to combat garden harvest spoilage by personally eating some of the vegetables as late night snack. She likes tomatoes and cucumbers raw in salads along with squash blossoms, and to steam most of the others including daikon.

DD1 is not as accommodating, but she likes the fruits and cucumbers, and tomatoes if they are cooked to sauce level. And will eat most vegetables if they are cooked to indistinguishable lumps in soups and stews.

I can get hubby to at least try smoothies even when green and contains kale like the banana/cucumber/broccoli/kale with pepitos, yogurt, and rice milk smoothie I made the other day. He even told the DDs it’s good.

He likes to make big stockpot of soup or stew and will generally let me toss vegs in once he has his basic recipe cooking.

Yesterday, I added cubes of daikon and finely chopped daikon greens as well as about 3 cups of various super ripe tomatoes. In a previous stew, I added 3 kinds of summer squash and cabbage.

[imafan26]

I have more cucumbers than I can eat right now. It is feast or famine. I had a dinner salad last night with cucumber and a tomato from my garden with salad mix I got from Sam's club. I made my own oriental salad dressing.

[pepperhead212]

One of my usual favorites in the summer, which I made because I got my first ripe habanero of the season, is that lentil salad. Also has some garlic chives, and a bunch of cherry tomatoes from the garden.
about 5 cups of tomatoes, for the lentil salad, one of my favorite things to make with all those cherry tomatoes! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

First ripening Red Habanero, minced up for the lentil salad. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished lentil salad. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

cucumbers went into my dinner salad. I had beans as a side dish with my jook.

[pepperhead212]

I made a curry today, and started with some white chickpeas, and some barley, cooked in the Instant Pot. While that was cooking, I cut up all the vegetables, and blended up about 12 oz of tomatoes. When it was cooked, I removed it to a metal bowl, then sautéed the onions a few minutes in some oil, followed by the garlic and ginger, then added the tomatoes. Plus, I added some of the pav bhanji masala that I make, and let that cook down until very thick, then added the chickpeas and barley back in, along with the okra (and some mushrooms, which I had forgotten about), and cooked that down about 10 minutes, then added the cut up long beans and eggplant. Cooked those about 15 minutes, then added the tarka - mustard seed, cumin seed, dried chilis, curry leaves, and asafoetida, cooked briefly in oil in that order. I thought I photographed the bowl I served, but I must have forgotten it!

Curry, with the tarka on top, ready to stir in. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

Couldn’t find any meat to use in the fridge or freezer… not even bacon — if they were buried, I didn’t have time to look for them.

Took all the ripest tomatoes, removed stem end, white pith, blemishes, added a big tomatillo that had split from the rain, cut up and put in covered pot to cook while working in the garden — about 3 hrs. Then Vitamixed (skin, seeds and all) with diced garlic, peppers, leaf celery, basil, etc.

Meanwhile, cooked up some egg noodles and whole wheat penne. And air fried eggplants coated in cornmeal and beaten eggs.

Drained most of the pasta cooking water, then returned the puréed tomato sauce, added diced zucchini.

Added cake flour and leftover white Chinese food rice to the remaining egg and cornmeal mixture and dropped in the simmering purée to cook covered into dumplings.

Served like casserole garnished with eggplant “fritters” for protein/meat texture. Cheese added separately by family as desired since my allergies are acting up.

Yum!

…realized later that I’d meant to fry up some squash blossoms as well, and that was why I had so much egg mixture leftover that I needed to do something with them… but those dumplings where a big hit. So all good.