Summer Squash Bruschetta

By this time of the summer most people who have a vegetable garden are sick of zucchini and summer squash! Or constantly looking for new recipes! This is one of my favorites. It's actually pretty filling so I usually serve it with a big tomato salad or something else refreshing from the  garden. As we do not have tomatoes yet this year, I served this batch with stuffed squash blossoms, another favorite!

Bruschetta with Summer Squash, Bacon & Blue Cheese originally from Cook's Illustrated

1. Dice and cook up about 4 slices of bacon, drain. 
2. Gather a few medium sized yellow squash (or zucchini), seed them and then cut into match-stick size pieces. Put them in a bowl and add a little olive oil, about a tablespoon or so of vinegar (any kind will do), and s&p. Let that stand for a few minutes. 
3. Meanwhile prep bread. Slice bread and place on baking sheet. Broil on each side about 3-4 minutes until desired doneness. Brush each side with a clove of garlic. 
4.  Add the bacon, some crumbled blue cheese and herbs - basil, oregano, tarragon all work well - to the squash mixture. Divide mixture amongst bread slices and place under broiler for about 1 1/2 minutes. 

Stuffed Squash Blossoms

- You can really stuff squash blossoms with just about anything! They are delicate so I try to keep that in mind. Typically i use a mixture of fresh ricotta, some shredded cheese, s&p, and some herbs. Mix it up to your liking. 

To Prep:
Clean the blossoms as best you can. Mix together whatever you are going to stuff them with. Gently open each blossom and place some of the stuffing inside. 

Set up a 'breading' station using an egg wash and panko breadcrumbs for their more gently nature. I dip each blossom in the egg wash and then into the panko. Heat some olive oil in a pan to get it nice and hot. Then drop each blossom in to fry them up.

Constantly turn the blossoms using tongs until all sides have a nice golden hue to them. Eat promptly! 

White Pizza with Arugula

One of my favorite 'farm dinners' is white pizza with arugula! I will take any cheese we have around the house,dough,  herbed olive oil, make a pizza and top it with arugula! To add even more flavor this year, we got the BBQ Pizza Pan from Pampered Chef to cook it on the grill.

How to make this delicious pizza:

- If making pizza in the oven, place your pizza stone in 500 degree oven while dough is rising.
- I typically use store bought pizza dough from the refrigerator section. If I'm feeling inspired, which is more often in the winter, I will make my own. I let the dough rise for about an hour in a bowl greased with olive oil.
- While dough and pizza stone are prepping, make a quick flavored olive oil. Heat a half a cup of oil in a small sauce pan and add some garlic and whatever herbs you want. Hot pepper flakes are also a great addition. 
- To roll it out: spread your work area with cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking. Stretch it out in your hands first, then put on work space and roll out to desire size. P.S. there are no rules as far as the shape!
- The best way to assemble the pizza is to cook the dough for a min or two before putting ingredients on. If  I'm using the oven, I slide it on the pizza stone to get it slightly cooked.
- For the grill: Place the dough on the pizza pan, place on prepared grill for about 2 mins until you see slight char marks. Flip the dough over and repeat on other side.
- Either remove dough from oven or grill. Generously spread olive oil mixture over the dough and edges.
- Top with about 2 cups of grated cheese. This particular pizza I used Fontina, Cheddar and mozzarella. Parmesan is great too. This is definitely a personal preference!
- Spoon 4-5 dollops of fresh ricotta on top. Again, a personal preference but it's so good when you get fresh ricotta! If you are in RI or even the NE, you can get Narragansett Creamery Ricotta, which is to die for.
- Cook pizza for about 7 mins or until cheese is bubbly and melted.
- While pizza is cooking toss fresh arugula with olive oil and freshly ground salt & pepper.
- When pizza is done cooking place arugula right on top, slice & eat! YUM.

Pizza dough stretched and rolled out with cornmeal.

Toppings all set.

Cooking on charcoal grill.

Fresh arugula waiting to go on pizza.

Ready to eat!

Turtle Knoll Farm Dinners begin...

One of my absolute favorite things about having the vegetable garden is creating fun 'farm dinners' based on what is out there to be harvested. Saturday night, July 14,  was our first of the summer in honor of the first zucchini. I'm trying a new variety this year called Green Tiger Striped Zucchini from Kitchen Garden Seeds, where I ordered a lot of seeds from this year for the first time. So far I've been very happy with most of what I started from them. I also grabbed a great bunch of beets from Brent at One Love Farm , who runs our local Richmond Farmers Market. My beets are coming in for the first time this year, but they were not quite ready for that night.

The menu that night was written out on the blackboard in our kitchen:

Appetizers:

• Microwave Chips using the Pampered Chef Microwave Chip Maker and freshly dug potatoes
• Oysters and little necks on the grill 

Dinner Served:

• Stuffed Zucchini on the grill
• Grilled Bread with herbed ricotta and beets
• Karl's Kitchen fresh kielbasa 

Stuffed Zucchini

ingredients:

•   sm - med zucchini's {1/2 serves 1 person}
• 1 sm onion, chopped
• 1 lb sausage {or whatever meat you like - we used the kielbasa in this one}
• 2 tbspns each of fresh parsley and basil
• 1/4 c bread crumbs
• 1/2 c Parmesan, some reserved
• 1 egg, beaten
• s&p

how to cook:
*We cooked the above in that baking pan on the grill for a half hour. We did cover it with tinfoil for 15 mins to make sure it was cooked through. 
**I do not pre-cook the zucchini because I feel that the half hour or so that it spends cooking is enough and leaves some of the crunch.  
 

• Crumble sausage and heat over medium heat. When it's about 2/3 done, add the onion. Cook until soft and starting to brown. As removing from heat add the basil and parsley. Let mixture cool slightly. 
• Cut off each end of the zucchini to the size that fits into the dish you are using to cook them. Scoop out middle so they look like boats.
• In medium bowl toss together sausage & onion mixture, bread crumbs, parm, s&p. Blend together with egg. 
• Fill each 'boat' with mixture and top with remaining cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for a half hour. 

Optional: a)You can use yellow summer squash or other summer squashes like pattypan instead. b)This can be made vegetarian by making the filling with entirely veggies - corn is a good filler. c)Cheddar cheese tastes great on top!

Grilled Bread with Herbed Ricotta and Beets:

ingredients:

• good bread, sliced about a half inch think on an angle
• olive oil
• garlic
• Ricotta, fresh if available
• Herbs: dill, chives & scallions
• baby beets
• s&p

how to cook:

• To make herbed ricotta: mix 1 cup of ricotta with about 2 tbspns each of dill, chives & scallions (or whatever you would like.) Taste to get desired flavor. 
• Beets: cut tops and bottoms off. Toss with olive oil, s&p and wrap in tinfoil. Either roast in oven at 400 degrees for an hour or place on grill for an hour. Let cool completely, peel and slice. 
• Grill bread for 1-2 mins on each side until desired doneness.   Remove from heat, brush with olive oil and rub with garlic. Sprinkle with a little s&p.
• Spread bread with ricotta and layer with beets. 

 
 

Asparagus Recipes... pasta

Part of this blog is supposed to be about what we (I) cook as the vegetable garden is harvested! We're already past one crop and I haven't posted a recipe yet... sorry!

The asparagus was delightful... I picked about a pound a week, which was just perfect. I kept most of it and passed a few spears along to willing recipients. Really - if you have a spot for asparagus, it's 100% worth it. The first year is a little work as you slowly have to fill in the trenches, but after that it's a very easy crop. Refer to this post about planting and growing it. I have had no problems with pest and disease, which is partly because it comes so early in the season. How can you beat picking fresh asparagus once a week for 6 weeks!

We made a few new recipes using the asparagus which I will post over the next few days. This is one of my favorites: Pasta with asparagus & pancetta. I've adapted it from a few recipes that I've seen around - the main inspiration from a recipe out of Bon Appetit sometime in the spring of 2010.

12 oz pasta - shells or something absorbs yummy sauce!
3 oz pancetta, diced
1 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces on the diagonal
2 cups of peas - fresh shelled or frozen
1 bunch scallions, white & lt green parts thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup Parmesan or Romano, plus extra for serving
1/2 cup of ricotta
3 tbspns olive oil
3 tbspns fresh lemon juice
zest from one lemon
1/4 cup of fresh parsley or tarragon is good with this too

 To cook ingredients: 

• Cook pasta according to directions, drain, reserve 1 cup of water and put pasta back into pot.
• Heat 12 inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook pancetta until nice and crispy; remove with slotted spoon to a bowl. 
• Add asparagus to pan, saute for 3 mins. Add peas & scallions, cook for about 2 mins. Add garlic until fragrant, 30 secs. Remove from heat. 

To assemble:

• Add vegetable mixture to pasta in the pot, about a 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water, 1/2 cup of cheese, olive oil, lemon juice & lemon zest. Mix together and season liberally with salt & pepper. Add ricotta by the spoon full and mix to desired consistency, thinning with more pasta water as needed. Add fresh herbs and 2/3 of pancetta. Transfer to serving plates and sprinkle with remaining pancetta and cheese. 

This is the delicious dish you will have!

 ** This pasta is easy and great to make throughout the summer as more vegetables come in. You could use summer squash, cook it until there is still a little crunch left. Add peppers, eggplant and anything else you have! I'll post as we use this pasta recipe with other vegetables.

May Flowers...

The flowers in my garden are just as important and rewarding as the vegetables! I am all about having fresh cut flowers around the house as much as possible. I've managed to get it so that I have them for most of the year from cutting flowers in the summer to Holiday arrangements and then forcing flowering trees come winter.

Of course, I have a favorite... I wait for 11 months out of the year for my peonies! When I first showed up at this house & property it was completely overgrown and overwhelming. During that first spring I had one thought "thank God it isn't me keeping up with this!" Famous last words. As overgrown as it was, you can imagine my delight when come early June, I was rewarded with the most incredible peony border. There is a saying that peonies are no fuss, and the fact that they had been neglected for 8 years and were still incredible, shows that. I've tended to them, split them up some and added to them. It's taken a few years for the ones that I dug out to start producing many buds again. This year has to be a banner year - I'm cutting bunches and bunches about every 5 days. I'll be sad when they're gone, and then rewarded again as all the rest of my annuals and perennials start to burst open.

All those gorgeous buds ready to burst open around May 20 (which was very early!):

 

A shot as the early light pink ones are open and the fuchsia are starting to open - I do not know what kind they are. There were 3 varieties here and I added 2. 

One of the bouquets that I get to fill the house with for 3-4 weeks!

 

There are are 2 Siberian Iris here, this purple and yellow is in the main garden. Once I cleaned the garden out, it grew like crazy so I split it up all over the place! 

 Living across the street from a garden center/ farm stand has quite a few benefits! One being that Cindy, the owner, hates to get rid of the end of the season flowers so she ends up loading up my car! This was a flower that I never knew existed and now I don't know what I would do without it at this time of year! She gave me a flat 2 years ago so that I have it scattered about - I love the variegated flower! It's called Malva:

Not to be left out: my poppy! I get a good 6 or 7 buds now. This year we dug up my Mom's and put it in my garden so hopefully next year I'll have them throughout. 

About 2.5 years ago, we thought my parents would not be in their house for another season so we dug up as much as we could and transplanted to a variety of places. I was fortunate enough to receive all of my Mom's roses. We put most of them in my veg garden. This is my favorite. Finally this year I was rewarded with many of the gorgeous, bubble-gum pink flowers with the most delightful scent. Hoping I'll be able to get it to flower like this again later this summer. Roses are something I'm still figuring out. I have black spot all over them right now so they lost leaves. I've fed and treated them with a systemic, which was likely a little late hence the problems.

The vegetable garden is about 95% set. I'll post about what went in there along with some of the preventative measures I'm taking. I've already spotted a few unfriendly guests, which means I have my work cut out for me this season.

More early spring vegetables

*This was supposed to publish on May 5 so reference to any time goes from there. I have started to second seed some of the below, which I'll go over in the next few weeks as the whole vegetable garden goes in.

Along with getting the potatoes in 2 weeks ago, I also put in a bunch of herbs, lettuces & root veggies. I've gone a little overboard with lettuce this year... I have purchased it already started and growing beautifully along with putting in 7 different seeds!!!

I have a row of lettuce in Plot C along with the Arugula, Swiss Chard & Scallions (or spring onions or bunching onions.) I purchased some started Romaine & Buttercrunch at Agway when I got the potatoes. I also purchased some other Red Leaf, Romaine & more Buttercrunch at a local greenhouse to my Mom that I'm going to put in amongst the tomatoes. Lettuce doesn't like heat... at all. The tomatoes will shield it some and keep it cool. Hopefully I can keep it growing a little longer. As lettuce starts to grow I either put grass clippings around it or hay to keep the ground a little cooler. I had gorgeous lettuce going last year that ended in disaster once the Groundhog found a way to get in... it still hurts to think about!

The seeds... for the past few years Mom & I have been growing Rocket Arugula from the company Franchi that I did some peas from. I've had enormous success with it. I usually start some in a planter by the house early. Then I put it in the ground. I cut back and let it keep growing. Last year I had it ALL season. I ended up planting a second row, but the first one kept coming back.
For Swiss Chard: a little tidbit I wasn't aware of in my first 2 years was that Swiss Chard & Spinach aren't compatible. The extent of the scientific side of this for me says that they likely suck the same nutrients out of the ground... if you want to know more you'll have to go look it up!!!! I also can't say that I've had enormous success with the Swiss Chard yet. Trying to figure that out this year. I purchased Bright Lights from John Scheepers. It's a different brand than I've done in hopes that maybe that will help it grow... hey, anything can help!
Next to the Swiss Chard & Arugula I put in a row of spring onions. I split the row between a random seed packet I got last year from Kew Royal Gardens and then a package from John Scheepers called Fukagawa, which is a bunching onion. The extent of the onions is going to be these and leeks. I've done others in the past few years, but I just don't think it's worth the effort when I can get them at the farmers market for cheap. I'd rather use the space for other stuff.

Back to the rest of the seeds of lettuce... most of it is stuff I'm reusing from years past. I did venture from this 'elite' seed place I've gone and purchased 2 packages of Burpee! I couldn't resist... we'll see. I'm sure they'll be fine. I picked red leaf and more romaine... Caesar salad anyone? From Botanical Interests I'm reusing a Mustard Green and Buttercrunch I purchased last last summer. From Franchi I have 2 packages of Mesclun that I'm trying and finally from Plant Harts Seeds I have Oakleaf. I'm sure I'm missing one, but you get the idea... obsessed with the lettuce. The thing about lettuce is that you do need to remember that it takes time to harvest & wash. All worth it in my opinion, but it's work.

The Carrots.... ah! I love them! There is a great article in the current Organic Gardening about planting Scarlet Nantes, a variety I have had huge success with in my heavy soil. I did not order a new pack this year, opting to change it up some, but I have last years pack and may end up putting some in. This year I chose 2 from John Scheepers, both supposedly will do well in my very heavy soil. Yaya, which is similar to the Nantes, and Yellowstone, which seemed to be able grow very easily.  Along with those I'm going to back to another favorite: Cosmic Purple from High Mowing. I love the purple and I've had success with these. Someday I want to expand to add more color. Carrots are fairly easy to grow. I do pay attention to carrot flies and put a deterrent in - rosemary and marigolds work wonders. I've been growing rosemary in the middle of the carrots for a few years and haven't had any problems. The parsley worm can show up, but they're so pretty you hate to do anything. I move them to a different location.

Radishes... I'm reusing these seeds too. They've been in for 2 weeks and they seem to be growing fine so I think I'll just stick with that. I bought a random package of French Breakfast at a garden center about 18 months ago that I'm using - those are really pretty with they're white and pink bulb. The other is Easter Egg II from Renee's Garden. I've been doing these since the beginning and just love them. The colors are fabulous in pink, red, purple & white. Radishes are by and far the easiest thing to grow. My advice is thin them to allow the bulb to grow and make sure you pick them when they're ready b/c they bolt. Keep planting radishes to eat all summer & fall.

Finally the spinach and herbs. I have NOT had success with spinach... well, minimally. It really does like the cold. I'm doing basic Regiment from John Scheepers this year. They say it's pretty easy. I'm paying more attention to my PH to see if that helps. This variety is supposedly bolt resistant, which is a problem I have when it starts to get warm. I'll post on how it's coming along.
For herbs I've put in Cilantro & Dill for now. Dill likes to go in in the cold weather. It's been hit or miss for me with dill. Sometimes I get lots, sometimes none. I'd like to be able to use my own in the pickles and I also just like dill.

As these items start to poke thru the ground and grow I'll post more pictures. The beets are coming in strong for now - let's hope that keeps up! I'm planning a round of fish fertilizer this week. I've never been good at it in the spring, but I'm changing my ways! I did buy an attachment for the hose which will hopefully encourage me to fertilize more. That should make it easier. Water and fertilizing really are the keys! I've been out watering every few days in this dry spring. It's so important to help the seeds germinate. All of this went in about 2 weeks ago so I'll be putting in the second round soon.

Growing Potatoes

Along with the beets, carrots & asparagus I also have a bunch of leafy stuff in and other root veggies. I put my potatoes in fairly early. To me it's just easier to have them in - I think some people wait until May. It's not really a big deal because the sun warms my soil during the day and because they are under ground, they won't get a frost. I started potatoes 3 years ago. I was inspired by my ex-boyfriends parents! They always put them in and I LOVED digging them up and eating them that fresh. I can't say I'm big potato person, but there is nothing like fresh from the ground potatoes! Searching for them is also half the fun. I love having the kids here and letting them see what they can dig up.

I purchase potato 'seeds' from our local Agway. They have a great variety and I haven't had any problems with pests or disease. This year I chose Red Norland - they didn't have the All Red I did last year or the regular Fingerling's. They chose blue Fingerling's, which I'm not that interested in. For the past few years I've done All Blue, but decided not to this year. Along with the Red Norland I chose Yukon Golds, which I did 2 years ago, and Superior, which is an all purpose. I tried to choose potatoes that are mid season, which means they'll be ready in August. The total cost for my 3 rows of potatoes was a whopping $2.11!

Potatoes really are simple to grow. You dig trenches about 6" down and lay the potato seeds in about a foot a part. Oh, to back track... I mostly got small potatoes this year with a couple of 'eyes.' You can also get larger ones and cut them - do it the day before and let them sit to heal some. The 'eyes' are where the stems grow - I'm sure you've had potatoes in your house start to sprout, that's basically what growing potatoes is! But you don't want to use those household potatoes! Make sure you get them from a reputable place. Back to the growing....

 

Once you get the seeds in, fill the trenches back up. On this particular day I got caught in the rain and had to race to get everything in! From here, you just want to water - something I've had to start doing very early this year. My potatoes went in on April 12, I'll probably start to see the leaves pop thru the ground in the next 2 weeks. Once the stems are about 18" high I mound compost to make hills on either side. {I'll post some pictures when we do this - this is one of Keith's jobs!} This helps to shield the potatoes from the sun and keeps the ground cool. The major problem you'll have with potatoes is the Potato Beetle. Early on I'm pretty vigilant about checking the leaves for the little eggs. If you see clusters of eggs just crush them b/t your fingers - or however you choose.  You'll know that potatoes are almost ready when the foliage starts to die back. I've been know to start checking for tubers once I see the flowers going strong - typically around the 4th of July. Side note: last year the tomato hornworm took to eating the foliage of my potatoes b/c I had made the tomatoes uninviting. Most of the foliage had died back at that point so it wasn't a big deal for me, but you want to watch for that too. Those little suckers can do an enormous amount of damage very quickly.