Delishytown

Cooking is fun. Eating is funner. I cook, photograph and write these recipes. Everything I post on this blog I make from scratch using fresh wholesome ingredients.. I've been cooking since I was a little kid. My recipes are based on trial and error, along with studying cookbooks, family recipes, blogs and cooking shows. Some of the veggies and herbs I use are grown in my garden. Yay sustainability! I'm working on making my yard into an edible landscape. It's really fun to go out in the garden and pick your veggies for dinner!

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6 posts tagged home grown vegetables

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Thanksgiving Sides: Cider Sausage Stuffing with Fennel, Leeks, & Dried Cranberries I made two kinds of stuffing for our Thanksgiving party today and froze them until Thanksgiving. If you’re cooking for a lot of people, it’s easier to do as much as possible ahead of time and put it in the freezer until the day of the party. That way you can just pop it in the oven for the last hour that the turkey cooks. Bread freezes well, so this is a good thing to make ahead. Make sure to thaw this in the fridge before baking. This version of stuffing includes seared and caramelized Italian sausage, which was cooked and drained and added back at the end. I also added fresh chopped fennel from our front yard garden, apple cider (along with the stock or veggie broth), chopped leeks, dried cranberries and toasted almonds. You prepare this the same way as the stuffing I posted earlier, adding chopped leeks and fennel to the vegetable saute at the beginning, and 1 cup of apple cider in the broth stage.  This also has dried cranberries added at the mixing stage with toasted sliced almonds. It’s delicious! 

Thanksgiving Sides: Cider Sausage Stuffing with Fennel, Leeks, & Dried Cranberries

I made two kinds of stuffing for our Thanksgiving party today and froze them until Thanksgiving. If you’re cooking for a lot of people, it’s easier to do as much as possible ahead of time and put it in the freezer until the day of the party. That way you can just pop it in the oven for the last hour that the turkey cooks. Bread freezes well, so this is a good thing to make ahead. Make sure to thaw this in the fridge before baking.

This version of stuffing includes seared and caramelized Italian sausage, which was cooked and drained and added back at the end. I also added fresh chopped fennel from our front yard garden, apple cider (along with the stock or veggie broth), chopped leeks, dried cranberries and toasted almonds.

You prepare this the same way as the stuffing I posted earlier, adding chopped leeks and fennel to the vegetable saute at the beginning, and 1 cup of apple cider in the broth stage.  This also has dried cranberries added at the mixing stage with toasted sliced almonds. It’s delicious! 

Eggplant ready for the oven Penne with roasted vegetables

Vegetable Penne with Baked Eggplant and Oven Roasted Tomatoes

This was our lunch yesterday. Yum! The vegetables in this dish were all grown in our back yard garden. If you’re growing mini eggplants, tomatoes and basil, this dish takes about 5 minutes to throw together, roasts in the oven, and tastes amazing.

I love fresh simple ingredients roasted in the oven, the flavors are so pure that they speak for themselves. The best part of this method of cooking is that you have to do very little work or prep for delicious results.

If you haven’t gotten frost yet, hopefully you still have some summer vegetables to harvest this weekend. This would be good with other garden vegetables too, like peppers or squash.

Heat oven to 375. In a small casserole dish place stemmed eggplants, pierce with a knife to avoid oven explosions. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

In a separate dish, chopped garden tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper, & slivered garlic, one or two cloves. Toss to coat.

Bake the eggplants and tomatoes until the tomatoes are bubbly and the eggplants start to collapse and become soft and fragrant, about 25 minutes.

Boil water for pasta and cook according to package directions. I used this pretty red vegetable penne, which has tomato and red pepper in it, and a “full serving of vegetables in every serving”, according to the box.

Serve the penne and cooked vegetables with chopped fresh basil. Add a grating of fresh parmesan cheese or any favorite cheese. Delicious!

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Nicoise Salad with Raspberry Potato Salad I like this kind of assembled ingredients salad in summertime, with one cooked thing. The potatoes in this potato salad were grown in our front yard! It was really fun harvesting these. I’ll definitely plant more potatoes next winter, they were so easy and thrived with very little care. Oh, and  most importantly, home grown potatoes are far more delicious than anything else.  For the potato salad: Cook potatoes in boiling water & salt and pepper, reduce heat to simmer and keep an eye on them. Once you can easily pierce with a knife, turn the heat off, cover and let sit in the hot water for another 5 minutes. Rinse with cold water to stop cooking and drain. Cut into potato salad bites & dress with a mixture of 1 crushed and smashed garlic clove, celery salt and pepper, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp honey, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 2 tblsp mayo, dried dill, fresh chopped parsley. Add the juice of 10-12 fresh or frozen raspberries pushed through a sieve.  Serve with garden greens, sliced tomatoes, olives, and tuna. Dress with your favorite vinaigrette. We used a mixture of 1 tblsp each lemon juice, olive oil, and raspberry vinegar. Yum! This was my first time growing potatoes. They grow in cool temperatures. Growing them took appx. three steps. 1) I Plant them in pots, or in well worked soil, in a sunny spot, very early in the spring. We watered about 2 x a week, depending on the rain. 2) Add extra soil to hill them up when they get about 5 inches high, and 3) Mulch with a thick layer of straw once they’re about 8 - 10 inches high. They grew this way for about 5 months, since late January, and recently the plants started to die back. Once the plants dry up a little bit in the heat, dig around in the soil. I found enough potatoes to fill a large colander. I’m amazed by nature!

Nicoise Salad with Raspberry Potato Salad

I like this kind of assembled ingredients salad in summertime, with one cooked thing. The potatoes in this potato salad were grown in our front yard! It was really fun harvesting these. I’ll definitely plant more potatoes next winter, they were so easy and thrived with very little care. Oh, and  most importantly, home grown potatoes are far more delicious than anything else. 

For the potato salad: Cook potatoes in boiling water & salt and pepper, reduce heat to simmer and keep an eye on them. Once you can easily pierce with a knife, turn the heat off, cover and let sit in the hot water for another 5 minutes. Rinse with cold water to stop cooking and drain. Cut into potato salad bites & dress with a mixture of 1 crushed and smashed garlic clove, celery salt and pepper, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 tsp honey, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 2 tblsp mayo, dried dill, fresh chopped parsley. Add the juice of 10-12 fresh or frozen raspberries pushed through a sieve. 

Serve with garden greens, sliced tomatoes, olives, and tuna. Dress with your favorite vinaigrette. We used a mixture of 1 tblsp each lemon juice, olive oil, and raspberry vinegar. Yum!

This was my first time growing potatoes. They grow in cool temperatures. Growing them took appx. three steps. 1) I Plant them in pots, or in well worked soil, in a sunny spot, very early in the spring. We watered about 2 x a week, depending on the rain. 2) Add extra soil to hill them up when they get about 5 inches high, and 3) Mulch with a thick layer of straw once they’re about 8 - 10 inches high. They grew this way for about 5 months, since late January, and recently the plants started to die back. Once the plants dry up a little bit in the heat, dig around in the soil. I found enough potatoes to fill a large colander. I’m amazed by nature!

Blueberries are turning blue Chard, Red Lettuce, Fennel & Flowers Red Lettuce Purple Beans that volunteered Beets

Edible Landscape Update

Blueberries started ripening this week! We harvest a bowl full every day. I highly reccommend growing blueberries. The shrub is pretty in the landscape, and it gives you an organic food that can be pricey at the store. Grow 2 or more plants (they need to grow near each other to pollinate)  in full sun in rich, well drained soil. 

We have more Chard growing than we can use. I’m going to give some to friends & neighbors. Chard looks really pretty in the garden, and it’s delicious in  so many dishes. Any recipe you can think of where you might use spinach, you can use chard instead. I’m going to make a Chard Lasagna later today with homemade ricotta cheese.

The lettuces are all getting big and I harvest from them every day. I have lettuces growing here there and everywhere, in all shapes and colors. The red ones are amazingly beautiful in the garden!. When it gets hot they’ll start to wilt and die away, so we’re enjoying salad from the garden while we have it.

The purple beans are from a dried purple bean pod that dropped last fall. I love volunteer plants. Beans like warm temps, but these are in a protected spot so they think it’s summer.

Beets are another crop I will always grow from now on. This is my first year growing beets successfully. Give them plenty of room to grow, loose loamy soil, water well, and fertilize when needed. The leaves are delicious in a salad when they’re small, and sautéed when they get a little bigger.  I can’t wait to pull beets out of the ground!

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Garlic Bread Salad I love crispy, toasted garlic bread! This is like a Panzanella, or bread salad, but using any veggies you might have on hand instead of the traditional red onion, tomato and cucumber. This crouton recipe is the perfect way to elevate French bread to amazing yumminess. The crushed garlic cooks on low in the oven with the bread and comes our caramelized and delicious. I add the raw crushed garlic to the pan after the bread cubes have baked for about 20 minutes. You don’t need a complicated dressing because the garlic seasons a simple red wine vinegar and oil perfectly. So, if you make the croutons ahead of time, it’s an easy salad to throw together after a busy day. The Romaine in this salad is from our front garden! Yeayy! I’m very proud of my first head of Romaine for 2012!  Heat oven to low, about 320 degrees. Cut French bread into cubes and place in a shallow baking pan, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, toss it all together and cook at 320 for about 20 to 25 minutes. Check on the progress and toss occasionally until they start to become crispy. Once the croutons crisp up, add 4 -5 crushed garlic cloves drizzled with olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Toss and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes till the garlic becomes fragrant and toasty.  Wash and spin salad greens and chop your favorite veggies. I used sugar snap peas, grated raw beets, sliced red bell peppers, sliced oranges, and carrots. Mix red wine vinegar and olive oil  for the dressing, you don’t need extra salt and pepper if you have it in the croutons.

Garlic Bread Salad

I love crispy, toasted garlic bread! This is like a Panzanella, or bread salad, but using any veggies you might have on hand instead of the traditional red onion, tomato and cucumber.

This crouton recipe is the perfect way to elevate French bread to amazing yumminess. The crushed garlic cooks on low in the oven with the bread and comes our caramelized and delicious. I add the raw crushed garlic to the pan after the bread cubes have baked for about 20 minutes. You don’t need a complicated dressing because the garlic seasons a simple red wine vinegar and oil perfectly. So, if you make the croutons ahead of time, it’s an easy salad to throw together after a busy day.

The Romaine in this salad is from our front garden! Yeayy! I’m very proud of my first head of Romaine for 2012! 

Heat oven to low, about 320 degrees. Cut French bread into cubes and place in a shallow baking pan, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, toss it all together and cook at 320 for about 20 to 25 minutes. Check on the progress and toss occasionally until they start to become crispy. Once the croutons crisp up, add 4 -5 crushed garlic cloves drizzled with olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Toss and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes till the garlic becomes fragrant and toasty. 

Wash and spin salad greens and chop your favorite veggies. I used sugar snap peas, grated raw beets, sliced red bell peppers, sliced oranges, and carrots.

Mix red wine vinegar and olive oil  for the dressing, you don’t need extra salt and pepper if you have it in the croutons.

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Home Grown Confetti Salad  I grew all this stuff! I went around the yard just now, front and back, and harvested everything that was ripe and ready to eat. Look at all the fruits and veggies I found! I made a confetti salad with honey lemon dressing. My friend Morgan sometimes accuses me of bragging when I say I grew this or that, but I  just want to encourage people to grow their own food. It’s fun and it’ll make you really happy. Harvest, wash and chop any ripe fruits & veggies you have in your yard. Mix with store bought extras if you don’t have enough for a good sized salad. I used store bought organic iceberg lettuce because my romaine isn’t big enough to harvest yet. One of the things I picked in the garden was the last ripe lemon from the Meyer lemon tree, so I made honey lemon dressing. For the dressing, squeeze a lemon into a small bowl, add 1 smashed open garlic clove, 2 tblsp cider vinegar, 2 tblsp honey, salt and pepper, whisk in 2 - 3 tblsp olive oil.

Home Grown Confetti Salad

 I grew all this stuff! I went around the yard just now, front and back, and harvested everything that was ripe and ready to eat. Look at all the fruits and veggies I found! I made a confetti salad with honey lemon dressing. My friend Morgan sometimes accuses me of bragging when I say I grew this or that, but I  just want to encourage people to grow their own food. It’s fun and it’ll make you really happy.

Harvest, wash and chop any ripe fruits & veggies you have in your yard. Mix with store bought extras if you don’t have enough for a good sized salad. I used store bought organic iceberg lettuce because my romaine isn’t big enough to harvest yet.

One of the things I picked in the garden was the last ripe lemon from the Meyer lemon tree, so I made honey lemon dressing. For the dressing, squeeze a lemon into a small bowl, add 1 smashed open garlic clove, 2 tblsp cider vinegar, 2 tblsp honey, salt and pepper, whisk in 2 - 3 tblsp olive oil.

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