Several months ago, I asked my Dad to build a Little Free Library. I’d seen a few around our town and a couple in our neighborhood and thought it would be a fun addition to our house too. The Little Libraries are small boxes that act as free libraries for passersby. There’s always an assortment of books that you are free to take to read … Continue reading Our Little Library
Right now, my garden is an explosion of chard. It was growing well before we took our vacation to Maine at the end of June, but upon returning, everything in the garden just exploded in green! It’s now more than I can keep up with so I’m trying to find all the chard recipes I can, especially ones that preserve some of that green goodness … Continue reading Chard Pesto
Acorn squash lends itself well to being stuffed, with its little natural cup ready to hold whatever you have in mind to fill it with. I’ve done meaty fillings in the past, especially with ground lamb (very yummy), but I wanted to find a really hearty, meatless version that would go great as a side dish on a holiday table, but could easily work as … Continue reading Stuffed Acorn Squash
Upon returning home from our long trip, I spied several red tomatoes in the garden still holding their own in late September. I picked about 20 medium tomatoes and wanted to find an easy way to use them up quickly, since a few of them seemed like they’d been hanging around awhile. Because these are late season tomatoes, I wasn’t sure how flavorful they would … Continue reading Roasted Tomato Sauce with Spinach Pasta
Several years ago, the Washington Post Food Section printed a recipe for Roasted Vegetable Ratatouille and I knew I had to make it. This was even in our condo living years, before we had a garden that grew too much zucchini and yellow squash. I love the rustic feel of this dish and the flavors really pop. I’ve made it for guests many times as … Continue reading Roasted Vegetable Ratatouille
Every year around this time, I get a little burned out on making sweet, fruity jams and start to focus on putting up tomatoes for the winter months. Because my tomato plants don’t yield a huge amount, I turn to bulk buying tomatoes at the farmers markets. Each week the vendors lay out all their colorful varieties of heirloom tomatoes, but I end up bypassing … Continue reading Big Batch Tomato Meat Sauce
Every year when my tomato plants start producing, I can always rely on the cherry tomato as the star performer. I usually go out every few days and can pick upwards of a pound of cherry tomatoes each time. While these tomatoes are delicious right out of the garden, I like roasting these little guys as it sweetens and deepens up their flavor even more. … Continue reading Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
We had our good friends, Charles and Alexa, over for dinner this past weekend to enjoy good food, good wine and, our favorite card game, Cards Against Humanity. It was a great night. They brought some wine from their recent trip to Napa that went down all too well and I supplied the dinner. When putting together a menu for a dinner we are hosting, … Continue reading Menu – Braised Lamb, Saffron Rice, Lemony Green Beans, Plum Crumble
After devoting much of my summer garden space to tomatoes in previous years, I scaled back my tomato plantings to just a small section. I planted a couple Early Girls, which are doing pretty good, a yellow pear tomato (which has been a bust for me for the second year now) and a cherry tomato plant. By the time I planted the seedlings I picked … Continue reading Spiced Cherry Tomato Jam
I planted carrots this year despite having two lackluster carrot years, but this year made up for it as I had a pretty booming crop of carrots in the small area I designated for carrots. I pulled some carrots a few weeks ago to make a braised honey carrot recipe and felt it was time to pull the remaining ones to make room for something … Continue reading Roasted Carrot Soup
Half Pint Garden 