The Garden's Last Gasp

Before I broke everything down, cleaned, and put the garden to bed for the winter, I wanted to share a few snippets of it with you.

Lavender

Rosemary and thyme

Chiles

The last of the Nyagous that escaped freezing

Same tomatoes transformed into a caprese salad

Feting and Salads

Greek salad

This summer when it was excruciatingly hot, I was really into salads. I can't recall which recipe I used for the Greek salad, but here's one from Epicurious if you're interested in concocting it.

Salade Nicoise

Again, I can't remember which recipe I used for my somewhat modified salade Nicoise, but here's a basic recipe from Melissa d'Arabian of the Food Network.

Canning Tomatoes

Several weeks ago, Jason and Crystal kindly invite me to their house to can tomatoes. I am now the proud owner of seven quarts of tomatoes. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to make dill pickles, but Jason generously shared six pints that he made later. (They were also sweet enough to bestow kale, potatoes, pears, and peppers on me; for awhile, I was absolutely swimming in produce.) We ended the evening with a marvelous eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Thanks to the Daleys for re-introducing me to canning--I hadn't done it since childhood--and recommending Ball's Blue Book Guide to Preserving. (Jason L. got me a copy for my birthday, so now I'm ready to preserve at the least provocation. ;))

Heating the tomatoes to loosen the skins

 

The tomatoes are plunged into an ice bath after being heated to faciliate removing the skins

Mr. Daley preventing air bubbles

The ebot monitoring the processing

The finished tomatoes put up in my cupboards

Rata-tat-touille

Glossy veggies all oiled up and ready for roasting

So I'm very proud of this ratatouille. I had scads of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini, and this dish is a go-to in that situation. In the past, the vegetables became too mushy when I cooked them on the stovetop, so roasting them was a revelation. My dinner guests didn't dig eggplant, so I pureed it and added it as a thickener. I also added chicken and grated parmesan to spice up the leftovers.

Finished product