Grow Your Own Round-up #14

Why hello, Grow Your Own'rs!

Look right at me hosting the round up this week. And without any direct supervision! SKETCHY!

I assume Andrea, the proud creator and mama of Grow Your Own, was familiar with my particular style before letting me in on this showdown, so let's proceed as planned and hope that I don't return her baby singing any new swears or anything.

A recipe for: Overabundance

Kristin of Going Country did not make garlic soup as promised, but I forgave her because she made a delicious stream of consciousness that included 2 recipes and 8, count 'em 8, ingredients from her upstate NY garden that she Grew all on her Own: garlic, shallots, tomatoes, collard greens, basil, cucumbers, dill.

Random detail: Kristin has 34 tomato plants and is my hero.

A recipe for: Tomatoes, peppers, herbs

Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies is taking full advantage of the early heat this year in Ontario, Canada by plucking tomatoes and hot peppers from the garden two full weeks early and putting them into an Easy Peasy Summer Pasta. When you're over there ripping this great recipe, also look at the porny food shot of tomatoes and peppers which, wow, nicely done. She's growing this all in pots, y'all. That's really something.

A recipe for: Lemons

Anna at Life's Too Short for Mediocre Chocolate made up some Lemon Ricotta muffins that have a reported incredible crumb and AND two different mixing methods. Um, fancy. I do believe I still have access to my friend's overburdened lemon tree so will, perhaps, have to make these up myself - just to try out both mixing methods, you know.

A recipe for: White peaches

As though a magnificent trip to Yosemite weren't enough, Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple posted a recipe for all their oh lawdie what WILL we do incredible white peaches that involves grilling AND homemade creme fraiche. And I'm sorry but I can't make blogger do those fancy marks over the e and i, so please forgive me. Feel free to look at this recipe and be jealous of their white peach tree because, wow. If this photo isn't enough to make you want to plant one of your own, I'm pretty sure you're not human. Oh that California, she is a nice place.

A recipe for: Squash

Arika, of Raw for a Month in Biloxi, Missisippi, must be answering someone's Grow Your Own prayers here with her very delicious sounding recipe for Squash Rollatini with Ricotta, Mozzarella, and Chevre. Now, I know I've been whining about what do I do with all this chard but the original summer vegetable of doom is squash and so I'm grateful that she's put together a recipe for squash that is new (for instance, it's not mock anything) and includes chevre, which, YUM. You are wise in the ways of the squash, Ms. Arika.

A recipe for: Green tomatoes

If you're loosing sleep waiting for your tomatoes to ripen (I can't be the only one that does this) then you'll be glad that Irene at Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice defied her Italian-American and New York roots and forged ahead with a southern-type recipe for fried green tomatoes. From the YUMMY sounds I could hear in the background of her post (so they were in my head? Does that matter?) it seems like she's nailed it with, as she calls it, Fried Green Tomato And Swiss Cheese Bake. I do believe she might have also said something about how she now prefers green tomatoes to fully ripe red tomatoes, but I must be mistaken. That's just crazy talk.

A recipe for: Cilantro and lemongrass

I am pretty sure that this recipe from Ning, of Heart and Hearth, made the longest trip to Grow Your Own this week - all the way from the Philippines! Manila, to be exact. WOW. And even after all that travel, everything in this dish looks so fresh. How DO you do it, Ning? All joking aside, she's come up with a great recipe for Pinoy Tom Yum Prawns (Pinoy meaning Filipino) that's a little lighter on the spice than its Thai alter ego and uses lemongrass and cilantro from her own balcony garden. For anyone out there trying to stay ahead of their bolting cilantro - this could be a great recipe to try. If only Bubba weren't wildly allergic to shellfish, I'd try this myself.

A recipe for: Peaches, pineapple sage

Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi have searched the world over for a pie/tart crust that doesn't leave a greasy feel in the mouth and, at the same time, crafted a sweet recipe for an abundance of peaches and pineapple sage from their yard and their friend's orchard in the Pacific northwest. Now, I personally have never met a pie crust I didn't like, but for the more discerning tastes out there, their recipe for Vegan Peach tartlets with pineapple sage might do it for you. You big picky pie eaters, you. Not that I'm judging. I'm just saying is all.

A recipe for: Tomatoes and parsley

The Andrea, of Andrea's Recipes, likes to admit that she's not superwoman (whatever) and, as such, has been trying to simplify her family's menu without calling in for reinforcements from the local pizza joint. Um, yeah, me too, ahem. This time she picked a huge bowl of grape tomatoes from her Virginia/D.C. garden and tossed them up with some orzo and fresh parsley (and other things, check the recipe, I'm not exact here) for a very lovely Mediterranean Orzo Salad. Yes, please! (But I'm still not giving up pizza night.)

A recipe for: Lot of ripe tomatoes

Kim of Live Love Laugh Eat! offers up a great pasta recipe and her preferred vehicle for taking in as much pesto (use your favorite recipe here) as possible in each bite. Her Virginia garden is overflowing with tomatoes right now and this is a quick way to get through a handful. Nice and simple, this could be a good recipe for those of you like Andrea who, while trying to maintain the whole "I'm not superwoman/man" facade, still want to make fabulous meals from local homegrown foods. You know who you are, Pizza Man Shunners. Plus, this is a great excuse to wander out to the garden after work and hunt around the tomato plants in your heels. Because, obviously, we all like to look sexy while we pick fruit. What? You don't?

A recipe for: Tomatoes and basil

I have half a brain and almost didn't include my own contribution to Grow Your Own #14. Wow, that'd been just like me, wouldn't it? *Sigh* Anyway, I stepped away from the oven for five minutes to make something other than my favorite sauce recipe and instead made gazpacho - another summer Northern California tomato favorite. As usual, I shunned the perfectly decent (and published, which is more than I can say for moi) recipe details and changed it to suit my own whims. This soup has gotten better by the day, so don't worry if you have left overs. I've also heard rumors that it freezes beautifully. You decide.

And that will do it for this Grow Your Own Round-Up. Check out Andrea's blog for future post dates and hosts. Plus, it'd be good if you kept making things from your gardens (and neighbor's gardens - go on, I won't tell them you're stealing lemons from their tree) and posting recipes because some of us need help figuring out what to do with all this chard. Or whatever.