Yummy Garden Stuff

So now is the time when the garden is exploding with yummy goodness. Yesterday, I pulled out 10 hot thai chilis, 6 jalapenos (some of which turned red and will be REALLY hot), 2 red peppers, a couple dozen brussel sprouts, a big bowl of Swiss chard and about a pound of green beans. We know we can't eat all of this before it spoils, so freezing and canning are in progress ! And that doesn't include the approximately 10 pounds of tomatoes we picked Saturday.

I will freeze the hot peppers for when I make salsa later. Since we cook and can the salsa, it won't hurt the peppers to be frozen. Tomatoes we either blanch, peel and freeze (for salsa) or process through the food mill (for sauce). We can then do the canning all at once, instead of doing small batches several times.

But, the chard we ate. You really do need to boil it, it cannot just be sauteed like spinach. But, with a little salt, pepper and butter, it's still fresh and good. I just grilled some lemon pepper tilapia with it, and some corn we received from a friend. It was a nice, light summer dinner.

Tonight we will have BLT's, green bean salad and tomato salad. Ray's favorite way to eat green beans is really very simple. You boil the green beans for just a couple minutes, until they are bright green, but still crispy. In a big bowl, mince 3-4 cloves of garlic, and add some extra virgin olive oil, and butter. Toss the hot beans in this mixture, add salt and pepper, and pop into the fridge. They are really good.

The tomato salad is equally easy. I made a quick homemade balsamic vinaigrette, which was just balsamic vinegar, olive oil (about equal parts), salt, pepper and minced garlic. I halved a bunch of cherry tomatoes, and diced a small onion very fine. We just keep it in the fridge and snack on it !