OMG! We’re Growing Food!
Woo hoo! We are officially growing food!
Check out my first harvest…
I brought in the last of the lettuce (now that the bunnies left it for greener pastures), the first of the tomatoes, the first two peppers, the first three zucchini, a bunch of basil, a bunch of scallions, and a bunch of peas. I’m ridiculously proud. Haha.
I was feeling a little bit discouraged about my garden because I got my cabbage, spinach, lettuce, and bok choy in too late and they mostly went straight to seed. Nathan planted about 4 weeks before I did and had a bountiful lettuce harvest. He had so much lettuce that he’s been pawning it off on us, which I am grateful for. He also recently discovered his cucumbers. I’m so jealous. Mine are flowering and spreading, but I don’t have any beautiful cucumbers, yet. However, I was surprised and delighted when Steve came in and said, “Do you know you have zucchini out in the garden?” I said, “What?! No! What?! I have zucchini? OMG! I’ll be right back!” He laughed at me as I ran out to the garden to investigate the full sized zucchini that sort of appeared overnight.
I made my first dinner out of the garden. I used my harvested zucchini, tomatoes, and basil and made Zucchini Lasagna by using my vegetable peeler to slice strips off my zucchini. I browned one pound of ground beef with garlic and added a can of tomatoes (I’m hoping that next year, these will be from my garden). I added fresh basil chiffonade (French for thin slices – ooh la la) to a pound of ricotta cheese, one egg, and salt and pepper. Then I layered them in a casserole dish: meat sauce, zucchini “noodles,” ricotta mix, mozzarella cheese… and kept layering until I got to the top and had used all my ingredients. I had about 3 layers. I threw it in the oven and baked it for about 45 minutes. I served it with a fresh salad of Nathan’s lettuce, my first three tomatoes, and more basil drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Delicious! Justin loved it, I had leftovers for lunch the next day, and Steve had leftovers for dinner the next night (but that may because I was offering chicken curry which is not at all his favorite).
I planted quite a bit of zucchini and expect that I might be overwhelmed by it soon. I am frantically scouring the internet for recipes. Please let me know if you have any favorites.
