Garden Delights!

Garden, oh Garden, let me count the ways that I love thee!

Truly, I am CRAZY about our garden. As I've mentioned before, I get all the benefit with none of the work - Ian plants it and weeds it, and when he's home for the summer, he even waters it. Occasionally I go out there and pick a few things, but usually I just holler to Ian while he's out there watering to "bring me a tomato; oh and I also need some thyme!" It's truly lovely.

Just recently, I tried my hand at making my own tomato sauce. You know, the stuff they sell for like $.49 that is basically just pureed tomato? I needed it for a recipe and we didn't have any of the can stuff, so I gave  it a whirl. Here are my tomatoes:

Here is me trying to get it the same consistency as the can stuff - not easy. Maybe I should have peeled the tomatoes?

Here is the end result. It tasted delicious but it is clearly not the same color as the canned stuff. I added it to the Sloppy Joe's I was making and they tasted the same as when I used store bought, so that's good. But I did have to add more spices than usual; I think my homemade stuff was more watery.

On the whole, I would say it's probably not worth saving the $.49 but works in a pinch.

I know I'm sort of obsessed with how food looks, but seriously, look at this photo. Is that not beautiful?

Here is another garden delight - lunch made up of tomatoes from the garden, basil from the garden and mozzarella balls (that I got for free from the rental unit I manage - don't worry, they weren't opened yet). Yummy!

I know people have been growing and eating their own food for years, nee centuries, but still, I LOVE picking something from the ground and eating it moments later. Truly delicious.

Today, I am experimenting with how to use up yellow squash. I found a recipe for summer squash bread which, according to its reviews, is amazing. I thought I would make it into muffins, since I just made some zucchini bread a few days ago. As you can tell, our garden is going crazy!