Summer Time

Summer officially started on Monday! The weather is still the same, HOT, but I guess its nice to know that the season finally matches the weather.

Our garden has been doing really well. With the exception of our squash and zucchini plants, nothing has died. We had some problems with vine borers in the squash, zucchini, pumpkin, and cucumber plants. Those nasty bugs caused the squash and zucchini to totally rot, but the cucumbers and pumpkin are still holding in there. Almost all of our plants are producing now. We've eaten several cucumbers off the vine, and we've been able to eat a few okra and black eye peas. The cantaloupe plants have been coming along really slowly, but they are starting to grow with a little more vigor. The garden as a whole is looking like a crazy jungle. The tomato plants, and pumpkin have taken over!!

I seem to post here less and less... It's mostly because I don't think most of the things I'm doing are very noteworthy. I've been baking and cooking as usual. I've made a ton of stuff, but I'm most proud of a few things.

I made homemade granola with dates and raisins early in the month. Parker and I eat it with yogurt (mine is unsweetened silk and his is full fat plain yogurt). I added a little amaranth this time to jazz it up a bit, but I don't think I will do that again. It got stuck in my teeth.

I made my family Pad Thai for Fathers Day this year. My dad's had the obligitory shrimp and of course we had tofu too! I followed the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz but instead of using sriracha in the sauce I use Mexican style hot sauce. I think sriracha tastes weird in this recipe.

The most fancy and impressive thing I have recently made was Eggplant and Artichoke alla Napoletana (also from the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook). So this little mountain of food starts with a layer of basil walnut pesto followed by a slice of fried eggplant crusted with herbs and panko breadcrumbs. After that comes a stewed tomato, artichoke, onion, kalamata olive, and caper mixture. Then another slice of eggplant, more artichoke stuff, another eggplant slice, and then a dollop of pesto!!!! Let me start by saying fried Eggplant is amazing! I think I could eat it every day! Goodbye onion rings, hello you little golden eggplant medallions! Everything about this recipe was great!! It stacks up so nicely and then you get to knock it down and eat it!

Another noteworthy dish I've been eating a lot of lately is cucumber salad. It really is the most simple thing in the world to make, but I'm excited because I've been able to use cucumbers I grew myself!