Potato Salad with Summer Herbs and White Wine Vinaigrette
July 1, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Grow Your Own, Holidays, Salads, Vegetables
For us the Fourth of July is about celebrating our nation’s heritage as well as family, friends, parades, fireworks, and of course the annual Fourth of July cookout. Our cookouts vary somewhat from year to year, but we always have some kind of potato salad for the Fourth, and this potato salad recipe is particularly good for summer cookouts because it has no dairy, so you don’t have to worry about it spoiling in the summer heat. Read more
French Green Beans with Prosciutto and Pine Nuts
June 3, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Vegetables
Our nighttime temperatures settled into the 60s last week, so we could finally plant the basil, peppers, eggplant, and beans. My favorite kind of bean is the very thin French type, aka fillet beans, and we decided to try growing them last year. We planted the Maxibel variety of fillet beans and the plants sprouted just fine, then we agonized as two full rounds of bean seedlings were devoured by ravenous bunnies. We never got a single French bean (or snow pea or sugar snap pea or yellow bean), and the only bean plant they didn’t touch was the asparagus beans. This year we are better prepared after 99% bunny proofing the yard, but of course there’s always a flip side: the bunnies are now terrorizing our neighbors. Read more
Pesto Hummus
February 20, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers, Grow Your Own
Snow falls occasionally here in Northern Virginia, usually no more than about 4 or 5 inches at a time, and it’s a chance for fun followed by a quick melting, but we have more than our normal share of snow this winter. We still have plenty of snow on the ground leftover from the back-to-back blizzards two weeks ago, which dumped almost 30 inches on us. The DC area set a new record for winter snowfall, beating the previous record set in the winter of 1898-99, and our county has received over 75 inches this winter, far above our average of 23 inches. Read more
Popcorn with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Lemon
January 29, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Appetizers, Grow Your Own
Popcorn has always been one of my favorite snacks, and as a child I got excited when my dad brought out the vintage hammered Club Aluminum pot and poured in some kernels. Sometimes we had butter on top, but mostly we ate it with a simple sprinkling of salt or occasionally seasoned salt. I don’t think my parents have that old pot anymore, but as I reminisce about all the popcorn we ate together, I wish they still had it. Read more
Thai Basil Chicken (Kai Kraphao)
September 22, 2009 by Andrea
Filed under Asian, Grow Your Own, Poultry
This dish is the main reason we grow Thai basil in our herb garden. We’ve grown many kinds of basil over the years and seem to have settled into a routine of Genovese, Lemon (Sweet Dani or similar), and Thai (Sweet Thai or Queen of Siam) basil because they cover the spectrum of our uses. The Sweet Thai variety we grew this year produces plants with purple stems and gorgeous purple flowers. Like most basils, the flowers are also edible and add a punch of anise flavor to Asian dishes. Our basils will last a few more weeks, then it will be time for the final harvest of the season and a marathon session making pesto (basic and sun-dried) and basil ice cubes. Read more
Zucchini Risotto
September 10, 2009 by Andrea
Filed under Grow Your Own, Italian foods, Vegetables
Zucchini season will soon come to an end, but there’s still time to enjoy this icon of the summer garden. We’ve made salads, pasta, bread, gratins, and all sorts of things with zucchini, even though it was a sad zucchini year for us after losing all our zucchini plants to garden pests.
Risotto is comfort food for me anytime of the year no matter what I put into it, and this one with zucchini and our fresh homegrown basil and garlic does not disappoint. The Grana Padano cheese adds a slightly nutty yet delicate flavor that is worth the search, but you can also substitute Parmigiano Reggiano if you can’t find Grana Padano. The recipe is adapted from My Italian Garden, by Viana La Place (in my personal collection), a lovely little book Read more
