Mid-Atl: Winter Chore - Gather Recipes

I know you're probably busy looking at seed catalogs, but after you've placed your orders, there are other things you can do to prepare for your upcoming harvest.

Ron & Jennifer Kujawski in their book "Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook" suggest: Start saving recipes that call for the fruits and vegetables growing (or plan to grow?) in your garden.They have three or four favorite recipes for each crop in their garden which saves them the trouble of having to think much about how to prepare vegetables that they will harvest.

My suggestion is to get the All New Square Foot Gardening Cookbook - it's all in one place. Not only does Mel have some wonderful recipes, he organizes them by vegetable. There are also tips on when to harvest, signs the veggie is ready, when it's too late, how to harvest and expected yield. There are even tips and a Kid's Corner.

Another good book for using more of your harvest is Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld (wife of Jerry). She uses fruit & veggie purees to sneak extra veggies into her meals, but I think this would be a great way of USING more of your harvest.

For instance, she uses carrot & spinach puree in her brownies and beet puree in her pink pancakes and chocolate cake. Her grilled cheese sandwiches features Sweet potato or butternut squash puree, and her ranch dressing . . . mashed cooked navy beans. Even her deviled eggs hide cauliflower or carrot puree. I'll post some of these in the recipe section down the road.

So prepare now for that great harvest you KNOW you will get! Can't you just taste the wonderful grilled veggies now?


Cheers!

I love the idea of sneaking veggies into food. My kids, and husband too, are resistant to anything other than the standard fare. I'll check with our local library to see if either of these books are available. Thanks for the idea!

Well fortunately I don't have to cook for anyone but myself, so I don't have to "sneak" vegetables in (I wouldn't plant it if I didn't like it!)!

I played with a few different stir fry dishes last year early in the season with sugar snap peas that turned out well. Unfortunately, by the time my peppers were ripe, the second planting of peas had fallen victim to Irene, so I never did get a stir fry with peppers and peas! This year I'm hoping things will turn out differently.

I don't cook with a lot of recipes, per se. I'll look around at recipes, but I never follow them. I end up switching in and out ingredients based on my preferences and throwing together stuff at the last minute (again, living alone this is much easier than with a family).