Garden Meal, Before & After.

The little veggie patch is going like gangbusters despite the past few days of temperatures hanging around 100. I returned from a long weekend in Chicago last weekend to find the sweetest, most adorable little baby rabbit living in with the lettuces. Of course, not being inclined to share, I chased the little guy out. In the interest of eating my veggies before the critters do (my beans have been obviously nibbled upon!) I went out and made a little harvest today and cobbled together some culinary experiments with it.

While the plate of food shown may not be the most balanced dinner you've ever seen, the majority of it WAS home-grown--by me, no less!
Clockwise from top:
-Beet "carpaccio" (raw, thinly sliced, sprinkled with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt) over wilted beet greens with crumbled aged cheddar. I did not make the cheese, balsamic vinegar, or olive oil. However I did grow the garlic tossed in with the beet greens myself. And the beets of course.
-Stuffed squash blossom fritters. I'm growing squash for the first time this year and just discovered the joy of stuffing them with a cheese, garlic, and chive mixture, beer-battering them and frying them up. Squash blossoms, garlic, and chives all picked about an hour before they were used. I also battered and fried som elittle baby squash slices, but they were eaten before the photo shoot.
-Raw sugar snap peas off the vine. One of my favorite snacks, and so easy to grow.
-Stir-fry of squash, snow peas, and "Alaska" peas. Normally, I find peas revolting (since I generally have been presented with them in various canned/frozen/otherwise mutilated forms) but these little guys are marvelous. And adorable.