Wordless Wednesday: Great Garden Gifts!

Santa's gnomes have got you covered with great garden gift ideas.

Harvest Spotlight: Pizza My Heart Peppers

Bell peppers are easy to grow in containers, especially when you buy a variety the flourishes in small spaces. That why I love Pizza My Heart container sweet peppers from Renee's Garden.

Now these aren't your typical bell pepper.  They look more like hot chili peppers!  But you'll be in for a surprise when you take a bite, because they are mild and sweet.  Every once in a while you get one that is a bit more spicy, but never to the level of a chili pepper.

As the name implies, they are great cut into circles and placed on a pizza. They are also good in salads or eaten whole, as is, as a snack. I use them in recipes as well, like ratatouille, but you'll need to use 3 to 5 of them to equal the amount you'd get from a standard bell pepper.

As with many other veggies that I grow in my garden, bumper crops can be frozen for later use.  Just wash the peppers and dry thoroughly, then slice or dice and place in freezer bags for later use.

I made a batch of seasoning mix using these peppers, which also includes sweet onions, parsley and celery as well.

PLEASE NOTE:  While I was writing this story I have learned some bad news!  My dearly loved Pizza My Heart container sweet peppers from Renee's Garden are currently not available!  According to the staff at Renee's Garden, pepper crop failures over the past several seasons are the reason for this problem.  I truly hope that this is a temporary situation and they return to the Renee's Garden catalog.

In the meantime, I need to save the seeds from these pepper (in the picture above) so I can continue to grow them in my garden.   Maybe I can even start a seed exchange for them too.

Here is the link for these seeds which is current not working: http://www.reneesgarden.com/seeds/packpg/veg/pepper-pizza.htm

Wordless Wednesday: Now Bring Us Some Figgies

Negronne figs, tree grown in a container

Great Ways to Eat Summer Squash

yummy Ham and Cheese Quiche
with a crust made from refrigerator biscuits

How I wish my zucchini and yellow squash plants had done better this year!  I love summer squash and always welcome a bummer crop of it when I get it.  Unfortunately that wasn't the case this year...

Nothing beats eating summer squash when it is freshly picked right out of the garden.  I can't tell you how much better home-grown squash tastes compared to what you can buy in the grocery store.

Zucchini and other summer squashes also freeze really well and there is no need to cook them beforehand.  Just wash, pat dry and cut into slices prior to stashing them in the freezer.  The frozen product is best used in stir-frys and other recipes.

This is my favorite way to use frozen squash slices when I have them:

Ham and Cheese Biscuit Quiche

2 cups thinly sliced zucchini or yellow summer squash (2 medium)
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (red or green)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup diced cooked ham
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded fontina cheese
1 package of 8 refrigerated biscuits

Combine the zucchini or squash, onion. mushrooms, bell pepper and olive oil in a microwave safe dish.  Heat on HIGH for 6 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.  Drain excess liquid and allow to cool slightly.

Stir in the parsley, basil, oregano, garlic powder and black pepper.  Add the beaten eggs, ham and shredded cheeses.  Mix well to incorporate.

Grease a 10 inch tart pan or pie plate. Place one slightly flattened biscuit in the center of the greased pan or plate.  Arrange the remaining 7 biscuits around the edge to form a crust, allowing the biscuits to extend over the side of the pan.

Spread the filling evenly into the crust.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes or until an knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cover the crust with aluminum foil during the last 5 to 10 minutes to prevent over-browning. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.  Makes 6 servings.  

Adapted from the recipe Ham-and-Cheese Quiche from the Better Homes and Gardens One Dish Dinners cookbook.  Get your copy at Barnes&Noble.com

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Bubba Okra

Flowers getting ready to bloom.

Gorgeous pale yellow flowers.

Okra pod ready to be picked.

Wordless Wednesday: Fragrant and Sweet Melon

I have an abundant crop of melons
coming ripe in my garden right now.
  What I can't eat now I plan to freeze for later.

Wordless Wednesday: Japanese Eggplant

Japanese eggplant: wonderful grilled or in ratatouille

Harvest Spotlight: Musica Spanish Pole Beans

On the vine

 I love growing green beans.  Growing green beans is really quite easy.  I just plant the seeds, add water and some fertilizer, provide a trellis for them to climb on and watch them grow.

The most challenging part of growing green beans is figuring out how to harvest the ones at the top of the vines.  That's where a Pik-Stik really comes in handy. I have a dedicated one stored in the garage that I only use outside in the garden.

I find that the green bean seeds I buy from Renee's Garden always produce consistent and delicious harvests from my container garden.  I can't always find her amazing seeds at my local nursery, so I often order directly from her website, which is quick and easy.

Now I think these green beans are the kind of beans that are used to make those French green beans you find in cans and frozen packs in the grocery store.  When it comes time to prepare them, I wash them, dry them, trim the ends and then turn them into slivers.

Preparing them for cooking or freezing

I enjoy them steamed or in my Garden Green Bean Medley, a recipe I just discover this year.  When I have more than I can eat at one time, I freeze them in Ziploc vacuum freezer bags so I can use them well into the Fall and Winter.

Try Musica Spanish pole beans next year in your garden.

 

 

Related articles

• Garden Green Bean Medley (theseatedgardener.com)

Beautiful Crockpot Stewed Tomatoes

Crockpot stewed tomatoes with onions and green bell pepper

My tomatoes vines are done producing for this season.  It makes me feel kind of sad really.  So for my last tomato hurrah of the season, I tried a new recipe for crockpot stewed tomatoes.

Now my original intention was to can these stewed tomatoes along with the whole raw packed tomatoes and juice my mother-in-law Kay and I created last weekend.  But according to pickyourown.org, stewed tomatoes require pressure canning, a device that Kay does not own.

I've been researching pressure canners, but they can be quite expensive.  Plus I am not convinced that canning is something I can do on my own.  I want to do more canning next year, but I think for now this sick chick will do so with help.

Here is the recipe I used:

Crockpot Stewed Tomatoes

2 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
10 large tomatoes, cored and cut into wedges
3 TBSP brown sugar
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients into a 5 to 7 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours or until tomatoes are tender.

I am pleased with the results of my crockpot stewed tomatoes.  I packed them into pint Ziploc containers and froze them for use later. According to the recipe I used, they can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.

All packed up and ready for the freezer

My recipe is based on All-American Stewed Tomatoes from Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever, which you can find at Barnes & Noble.com.

Related articles

• Tomato Week: Easy Tomato Sauce (theseatedgardener.com)
• Tomato Week: Ratatouille (theseatedgardener.com)

Wordless Wednesday: My First Canning Project

With copious amounts of help from Kay,
my mother-in-law, I canned for the first time.
On the left: tomato juice  
One the right: raw pack whole tomatoes
 Thank you Kay!

Wordless Wednesday: From Vegetables to Ratatouille

Wordless Wednesday: 14 Pounds of Tomatoes!

This picture makes me think of the Italian flag...

Garden Green Bean Medley

One of my favorite vegetables is green beans. They are so easy to grow and so easy to preserve after harvesting bummer crops. Simply wash, dry thoroughly, pack into Ziploc vacuum bags and freeze.  When you get around to using them, they'll taste as fresh as the day you picked them from your garden.


But don't pack them all for freezing!  Try this recipe to make a delicious, harvest-inspired Garden Green Bean Medley to enjoy now.  I'm even contemplating this instead of my usual green bean casserole for Christmas.  

Garden Green Bean Medley

1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2 to 3 inch-long pieces

3 tomatoes, halved and thinly sliced

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 large bell pepper, halved and cut into thin strips - choose two different colors from green, yellow, red or orange

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 can sliced ripe olives

1 palm-full dried basil (the way Rachel Ray measures her herbs and spices)

sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/3 cup slivered sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1. Mix together the beans, tomatoes, onion, peppers, garlic, olives, basil, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons each of the balsamic vinegar and olive oil into a 4 quart slow cooker.   Sprinkle the sun-dried tomatoes on top.

2. Cover and cook on LOW about 3 hours, just until the vegetables are crisp-tender.

3. Remove the vegetables from the crock and place into a serving bowl, leaving the cooking liquid behind. Dress with the remaining 1 tablespoon each of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Based on the recipe Green Beans, Peppers, And Tomatoes With Balsamic Vinegar And Sun Dried Tomatoes in the cookbook The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever by Natalie Haughton. Buy The Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever at Barnes&Noble.com.