Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Home-grown Food

I made up a recipe the other day, for breaded chicken. I wont hesitate to say it was delicious, so I will share it with you. It is definitely in the interests of a garden blog, because I picked all my herbs garden fresh, and the squash/courgettes were farmer's market. Of course there are many people out there that will have their own squash sooner or later ;)
I modified the squash recipe a few days later, adding peppers and tomatoes, and I use the Near East Whole Wheat Couscous brand, Garlic and Olive Oil flavour.

Breaded Chicken with Couscous and Squash medley.

Breaded Chicken

4 Chicken Breasts
1 C Whole-wheat Breadcrumbs (I used my homemade bread and crumbled it up, freezing it until needed)
2 T Fresh Thyme (1 T dried), chopped fine
2 T fresh Sage (1T dried), chopped fine
2 T Fresh Rosemary (1T dried), chopped fine (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste or Mrs. Dash to taste
1 egg, beaten.

Mix the seasonings with the breadcrumbs.
Dip the chicken breasts in the egg, then coat with the breadcrumbs.
Cook in a saute pan over medium high heat, until cooked through, turning halfway through.

While chicken is cooking, make the squash medley (recipe below) and couscous.

Squash Medley

1 T Olive oil or butter
2 Zucchini/Courgettes, washed and diced
2 Yellow Summer Squash, washed and diced
1 Poblano pepper, washed and diced
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloved, minced (optional)
1 tomato, diced (optional)

Saute the squash, onion, peppers and zucchini in the olive oil, over medium-high heat. Cook until tender, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and tomato if desired, and cook for 2 minutes, or until heated through.

The tomato is not entirely necessary, but does add a good deal of colour to the medley, as does the poblano pepper. I did not use garlic, but it would definitely give your meal a bit of 'zip'. The squash medley, mixed with some concentrated tomato puree (the kind in a tube) and a little sugar to sweeten it, makes a delicious pasta sauce. Serve it with whole-wheat pasta and some grated cheese on top... YUM!

Monday, July 02, 2007

And more to harvest

Yes, this weekend was a harvest weekend. My onions' tops had fallen over, so I pulled them. And some of my beets... and the rest of my turnips! I realise that most of these could have grown a little longer, but you can call me impatient. I ate them for the vegetable part of my lunch... beets and turnips roasted in a little olive oil and salt, with an onion (not mine, I am letting them dry out a little). Yes Mum, I ate the beets... fresh are definitely better ;) In fact, I ate the beets and the beet greens... after all, that's what Swiss Chard is. Only mine was the real deal!


Then there were these:

The neighbour found them underneath his porch, and we believe that they might be snake eggs. I kind of hope they are really turtle eggs! I can stand a box turtle!
Then there was the fox that ran across the road in front of us, less than a mile from our house! He was an American Grey Fox... and looked a whole lot like this picture... only running ;)


Cute isn't he? The kids were thrilled to see him, and M'Lady even drew a picture of him on the 'magnadoodle' thing we keep in the car for her.