Since I planted my garden late, I have not had the opportunity to harvest anything other than herbs so far this summer. Over this past weekend, my little plot spewed forth two tomatoes, two yellow squash, and a little cantaloupe. I continue to urge the green beans to do the same, but for this small amount I am very grateful!
The cantaloupe was very sweet and I can’t believe that these plants were the result of some volunteer plants, borne of seed from cantaloupe scraps tossed in the compost pile last fall which never properly “cooked”.
The yellow squash are tender and made a delicious side to the grilled tuna steaks over this past weekend.
And the tomatoes. I have been buying “local” tomatoes at the grocery store; they looked like those which are offered most of the year and tasted only marginally better. These, the tomatoes which I finally picked from my garden plants, are real tomatoes. What an incredibly delicious taste! For the first one, I made a simple salad dressed with white wine vinegar and olive oil. For the second, still not wanting to “mix it up” with too many other flavors, I made a couple of open-faced sandwiches.
No recipe involved here. I sprayed thick slices of rustic Italian bread with cooking spray and grilled until lightly toasted on one side. I removed them from the grill, flipped them over, spread with a thin layer of pesto, then placed a thick slice of tomato and a thin slice of mozzarella on the grilled side. These were then placed back on the grill until the cheese was melted, and torn pieces of fresh basil sprinkled over. These were sooooo good!
Since the grill was fired up, I cooked a couple of chicken and red pepper sausages which I had bought at Trader Joe’s and these were darn good, too.
Uh, would someone please remind me of this next May???
