The Garden

Wow, it's enjoyable to have a garden and eat it's bounty! The girls have loved planting, identifying, and picking the food (carrots are like plucking a treasure right from the ground), and we've all enjoyed eating it.

When the girls and I got back from our week of camping at the Ranch, Alan had harvested these zucchini, one of which was 15 inches long. I had a recipe in my "Simply in Season" cookbook (partner to my can't-live-without "More with Less" cookbook) for Stuffed Zucchini, especially for the oversized fruits that hide under the leaves (yes, I'm pretty sure zucchini is a fruit.)

Well, we gobbled it up. Evelyn's exact words were, "You made a really good dinner, Mom," as she ate the pieces of baked zucchini before the ground beef and vegetable filling. (It didn't hurt that it was after 7 pm and everyone was famished.)

Recently, we ate sauteed zucchini, green pepper, tomatoes, and carrots over rice with a side of green beans, all from the garden. Oh yes, and a slice of cheese, for protein. We sauteed the green beans with garlic we'd grown, dribbled with some lemon juice and--wow--very tasty. There's nothing quite like eating your own food!

And the girls? Well, they're my favorite garden, growing like weeds and blooming every day.