Homemade Green Hot Sauce

This summer was a tough one for the garden. The deer ate everything and we were pretty much left with just marigolds, some herbs, and the occasional cucumber. Towards the end of the summer, my parents put up a deer fence around the yard. It was too late for most of the garden veggies, but suddenly the peppers did really well. Jamie and I went out last weekend and picked about 20 peppers - a mix of jalapeños, birds eye, and habanero. All were still green. Since there was no way we could eat them all while they were still fresh and good, I found this hot sauce recipe - it's great! I love green hot sauce, and this one is really great. The green peppers are so vibrant and fresh tasting and the vinegar gives it a great tang. Can't wait to put it on tacos! It's a very simple recipe, but it does take about a week to make. I used the peppers we had on hand, but feel free to use whatever mix of green peppers you want/can find. 

Squid with Watermelon and Basil

After a long weekend of lots of food, Jamie and I wanted something fresh and healthy for dinner. I saw this recipe in Simple, Fresh, Southern and immediately started drooling. Watermelon just sounded so refreshing and nice, and I love fresh calamari. It's pretty simple - you just need to have an hour or two so it can marinate. It's pretty with bright pink and green from the watermelon and basil and it tastes great. Put in more jalapeno to give it a bigger kick.

Serves 2, double it for 4
Ingredients:
kosher salt
1 lemon, halved
1/2 lb cleaned squid, cut into 1/3" rings and tentacles cut in half
4 oz seedless watermelon cut into 1x1x1/4" tiles (about 1 cup)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/2 a jalapeno, finely chopped
a little less than 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
leaves from 2 sprigs basil, roughly chopped

Fried Jalapenos and Zucchini

I had some fresh vegetables from my garden (an eggplant, some zucchini, and some jalapenos) and was trying to think of new ways to eat them. I made a pasta with zucchini, eggplant, garlic, bacon, and tomatoes, but I wanted to try a new an hors d'oeuvres as well. I sliced the smallest zucchini into very thin discs with a mandolin, tossed them with flower, and quickly shallow fried them. I then did the same thing with a few jalapenos. So good! I don't know why this isn't a regular bar option. The fried jalapenos were so tasty - they were spicy, but not overwhelmingly so, and had a great crunch. Mixed with the little zucchini discs (which were crispy and a little sweet) it made such an amazing snack. I definitely want to make this next time I have people over. Also, it's so cheap! A couple zucchini and a couple of jalapenos will cost like $2 tops. Can't wait to make it again!

Ingredients:
One (or more) small and firm zucchini, sliced into very thin rounds
2 (or more) jalapenos, sliced into very thin rounds

Vegetable Garden Week 17

After being overloaded with zucchini last weekend, this weekend I only had one little baby! These are the fruits of the garden this week. There are still a few little rainbow Swiss Chard, although most of them have been smothered by the monster zucchini plants. The Green Grape Tomatoes are doing really well and taste amazingly sweet and delicious (I'm planning to make salsa tonight with the Green Grapes and the jalapeno - hopefully it'll carry the same kick as its predecessor.) The eggplant will either be marinated in olive oil and garlic and grilled in slices or made into babaganoush tonight, not sure which yet. This is the second eggplant I picked this weekend - the first was a little bigger and we tossed it with olive oil and salt and grilled it - tangy, fresh, and sweet. So much firmer than those you get at the grocery, but as I've said, watch out for the thorns up top!

I've also been having fun with my hipstamatic app on my iPhone and here is my adorable niece Grace proudly holding the eggplant (looks better on the small iPhone screen). I wish I had a video because she was waving it around in the air saying, "Robot robot, robot robot," for no apparent reason - so cute.

Vegetable Garden Week 15

After my hiatus in Greece, my garden was booming! The peas were finished and turning brown and the Swiss Chard were taken over by zucchini, but everything else was super happy. The yellow brandywine tomato plant is about 6 ft tall with a few big, green tomatoes. The thing is like a tree! It got so heavy I had to go buy steaks to position on either side of the garden and tie the cage to them with twine - hopefully soon those green tomatoes will turn yellow so we can eat them! The three better boy tomato plants were covered in green tomatoes (I've learned with heirlooms the plants tend to get pretty big but you get less fruit, so the yellow brandywine is huge but just has two tomatoes on it while the better boys are smaller but each had about 6-10 tomatoes already) and the green grape tomato plant has tons of little green tomatoes, some of them already edible and sweet ad delicious.

There were 4 eggplants on the eggplant plant - 1 ready to eat - so sweet and tasty. I was surprised. I've never grown eggplant before and I was kind of expecting to just get one eggplant all summer. This little plant seems to be pumping them out, plus it has really pretty, light purple flowers. Watch out for little purple thorns on the flowers and eggplant stems!