All From the Garden

All from the garden:  Ratatouille.

Onion, green peppers, zucchini, eggplant, thyme, cherry tomatoes.  Final product was topped with finely chopped basil.

Oh, and a few lima beans on the back burner.

#gardentotable  #spiritofthelimabean

Bell Peppers: A Study in Red

Large Red Bell Pepper with Small Green Bell Pepper

Red Bell Pepper with Leaf

Red Bell Pepper, Harvested

Two pepper plants survived the winter in my California Garden.  One plant is a bell pepper plant; the other is a pimento pepper.  The colors are amazing as they are turning from green to red.

Ratatouille--The Perfect Harvest Recipe

As the garden produces, we are often overwhelmed by the variety and struggle with how to use everything on a timely basis. Ratatouille is a wonderful dish which incorporates many warm season vegetables--tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and eggplant.

This morning with about a pound of each of these veggies on hand, I went to the kitchen to create this wonderful, comforting dish.

I followed the recipe for Classic Ratatouille Recipe from the web site Easy French Food.  My adjustment would be to cube the eggplant.  Also, I would cook for less time, perhaps twenty minutes to keep the integrity of the vegetables in this dish intact.

Saute each item for five minutes 

Eggplant

Zucchini

Onion

 Add tomatoes to the sauteed onions.  Then the rest of the cooked vegetables.

Add tomatoes to the sauteed onion.

Cook for twenty to thirty minutes.

 Ready to eat.

Green Pepper

This little pepper was on the plant when I purchased it. Nevermind, it will still taste great.

Red Peppers in January

The peppers keep on coming. We have been away for about a week. Upon returning home, I found the garden had been very busy while we were gone. I did not remove several summer plants at the end of the season because they had set some late vegetables. Here is the yummy result--probably some of the best peppers I have ever grown. They are extremely heavy and have turned bright red. I have some small new peppers on the plant. I will probably leave them to mature as long as we are having such warm and inviting weather.