Herb garlic bread with pesto pasta!

herb garlic mixture

I love to make garlic bread.  I can also eat garlic bread with any meal.  Recently I discovered a new way of making garlic bread that utilizes fresh herbs from the victory garden.  In the past I have made garlic bread with garlic powder, dried parsley, and butter. But now I use only fresh ingredients in place of the garlic powder and dried store bought herbs.  The end result is fantastic and your taste buds will be blown away.

Here is my garlic bread recipe along with a few vegan alternatives for those dairy-free individuals.

no butter and lots of herb garlic mixture

Ingredients:

• A loaf of bead.  I used half of a herb slab from Acme Bread Company. Acme's breads are delicious and freeze well.  I throw the unused half in a Ziploc bag and place it in the freezer. You can also find vegan bread in your area or you can make the bread yourself.  Here is a website that can help you hunt for vegan bread while shopping at your local grocery stores, http://happyherbivore.com/2012/03/looking-vegan-bread-ingredients/.
• 10 garlic cloves. You can use more or less depending on how strong you want your garlic bread. I love garlic and use at least 10 cloves.
• 1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves
• 1/4 cup sage leaves
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, softened. I sometimes omit this item if I am in a vegan mood or have guest who cannot consume dairy. If you are looking for a vegan alternative consider using a thin layer of soft or silken tofu in place of butter.
• Parmesan cheese, fresh or powdered.  You may also use soy cheese to keep your bread toppings vegan. It all depends on who is eating the dish and how you like it prepared.

half loaf used both fresh and powder Parmesan

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
2. Cut your loaf of bread in half, horizontally.  You can also slice the bread vertically if you want to make small individual slices. I prefer to have one big piece of herb garlic bread and let my guest cut off or rip apart the bread.
3. In a food processor mix garlic, parsley, and sage until creamy. I use my Magic Bullet in place of a large food processor.
4. Spread softened butter over the bread slices or loaf halves. Use soften or silken tofu for a vegan alternative.
5. Spread the garlic herb mixture over the butter.
6. Sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan cheese or a powder substitute. I sometimes use both since each type of Parmesan has a different flavor.
7. Bake the bread for 15 minutes or until you reach your crunch preference.  I have family members who love both soft and super-crunchy bread.  To match my family's variety of crunch preferences, I bake half of the garlic bread for 15 minutes and the second half for 25 minutes. I am left with a variety of soft and super crunchy garlic bread for all to enjoy.

whole wheat noodles, pesto, tomatoes, and herb garlic bread

I like to pair my herb garlic bread with my homemade pesto pasta and fresh grape tomatoes from the garden.  YUM! Hope you all enjoy this recipe.  Feel free to experiment with additional herbs too. Happy eating and don't forget those breath mints.

2012 MVG Harvest BBQ

This year the MVG Harvest BBQ was a hit with neighbors and friends. There was lasagna, beans, cupbread, and a big plum cobbler for everyone to nibble, munch, and devour. But let's follow the order in which my family and I cooked the vegetable filled mounds of food.

Morrison Victory Garden 2012

My first entree, VEGETABLE LASAGNA! Yum! I used the following steps when preparing and cooking the lasagna.

Golden on the top. This lasagna is done.

Ingredients: Green indicates items found and used from the victory garden

• 1 gallon Ziploc bag of frozen tomatoes (skin off)
• 4 tablespoons fresh chopped basil
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• 1 chopped sweet white onion
• 1 chopped bell pepper
• Salt and Peppers
• 3 medium zucchini thinly sliced the long way
• 3 large yellow squash thinly sliced
• eggplant thinly sliced (amount depends on size of fruit)
• big tub of ricotta cheese
• big bag of shredded mozzarella cheese or use a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar cheese

lasagna layers

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan, mix tomatoes, basil, oregano, garlic, bell pepper, onion, salt, and pepper.  Bring to boil and stir constantly until sauce becomes thick.
2. In a large casserole dish, lay down a layer of sauce at the bottom.  Follow with a layer of zucchini, ricotta, sauce, squash, mozzarella, sauce, eggplant, ricotta, sauce, zucchini, mozzarella, etc. Your final layer should be shredded cheese. You may insert lasagna noodles into the layers.  I found a box with four lasagna noodles in my pantry. I cooked the noodles and placed two on the bottom layer and two in the middle layer. The long zucchini slices can be used in place of the lasagna noodles too.  It all depends on what you want in your lasagna or have on hand.
3. Cover lasagna with tinfoil to keep the cheese from burning. Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove tinfoil and cook for additional 30 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.

Veggie lasagna is good!

The PLUM COBBLER was next on my cooking list.   I have never made cobbler but have watched my father make plum pie and cobber. I wanted to make sure I did not mess it up.  I searched online for a recipe that was easy and quick.  I found a recipe posted by Elise on Simply Recipes.

The outcome was fantastic. Many of my guests saved room for the cobbler or started the feast with a great fruit appetizer. I served the dish at room temperature since the day was warm and sunny.  During the winter months, I will heat up the cobbler and serve it with whip cream. I also think a scoop of vanilla ice cream is a great pairing with this dish.

Cobbler was sweet with a hint of tart. Yum!

Now time for the sides! A variety of beans from the garden were stir-fried and tossed with a lemon  herb mixture. I used the following steps when making the BEAN TOSS.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 cups of beans*, washed and cut into two-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest
• juice from a large lemon or 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 4-8 cloves of garlic (I like a lot of garlic and use the max)
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary
• 3 tablespoons fresh chopped Italian parsley
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt

Directions:

1. Bring salt and water to a boil.  Boil beans 5 minutes. Remove beans from water and run under cold water/place in ice bath.
2. Combine zest, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary and parsley in a bowl. Set aside.
3. In a wok, heat oil on medium heat.  Add beans and cook beans until tender.
4. Remove wok from heat.  Toss bean with lemon herb mixture.
5. Serve and enjoy!

*I used a mixture of Blue Lake, Burgundy, and Scarlet Emperor beans from the garden.

The ears of corn and pesto were the most consumed item at the MVG Harvest BBQ. I boiled the corn for 5 minutes.  Guests were given the choice of plain corn or Elote.  Elote calls for lime mayo, Cojita cheese and hot sauce. I personally love Elote but give my guess the option to try it or not.  To make Elote you do the following:

1. choose your ear of corn.
2. lather the corn with lime mayo.
3. roll the mayo covered corn in a plate of finely grated Cojita cheese
4. sprinkle or douse your ear of corn with hot sauce.
5. eat and enjoy!

I used a 8-oz. plastic freezer jam jar of frozen pesto and a thawed quart of whole Juliet tomatoes when making my PESTO PASTA. Read my Pesto. Pesto, Pesto! blog post for the pesto recipe. I cooked and drain one box of whole wheat spaghetti noodles. In a large bowl, I toss the noodles with the pesto, tomatoes, and a handful or two of pine nuts. I top the aromatic pile of noodles with a generous sprinkle of goat or feta cheese. If you like basil, mix fresh basil (leaves or roughly chopped) with the cheese before topping off the dish.

I also made zucchini squash bread using cupcake tins. I like to call the dish ZUCCHINI SQUASH CUPBREAD  This makes the bread easy to handle and easy to transport.  I like to send my guests home with goodie bags.  I always wrap a few in tinfoil and place them in the bags. I referred to my Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook when making these cupbread delights.  I followed the zucchini bread directions but made the following alterations:

• use 2 cups of thawed zucchini and squash shreds**, for every cup of zucchini requested
• add 50% more oil (if recipe requests a cup add an additional 1/2 cup of oil)
• add in dried fruit mixture chopped up into small pieces ( use anything from dried coconut to dried mango to dried plums)
• Cook cupcakes at recipe temperature for 15-18 minutes.
• an occasional combination - add in 1/2 cup of granola but follow recipe zucchini measurement when using the thawed zucchini squash shreds**.

** Last season I froze fresh (skin on) zucchini and squash shreds in the freezer.  I place 4 cups of fresh shreds in each Ziploc quart bag.  This season, I placed a bag on the counter to thaw. Once at room temperature, the water and shreds separate.  I drained the water from the shreds.  You now have 2 cups of shreds to add to your baking recipes.

We also had additional items to consume.  My mother made chili with our frozen tomatoes.  We served hot dogs and soy dogs to feature our zucchini relish, kosher pickles, dill pickles, and bread and butter pickles. I also made fresh Ginger-Spice Cucumbers with fresh cucumbers from the garden.

Fresh cut herbs make fragrant center pieces!

Bouquets of herbs were tied.  Food was eaten.  The Morrison Victory Garden was toured. Goodie bags were taken with full bellies and warm hearts.  The feast was a success!

My family and I had a great time with our friends and neighbors at this year's MVG Harvest BBQ. Thank you to everyone who came out to see our garden.  A big thanks to everyone who tried the variety of dishes on the tables.  I am getting better at cooking and hope to one day WOW you in the yummy tummy department.

This pie was gobbled up, mmmmmm.

A big thanks to Deloris for making a fabulous apple pie, with the apples from her apple tree! A big thanks to Esther for the ice cream and doggie treats!

Happy gardening, cooking and eating to all!

Let it rain CORN and BEANS!

The MVG is in full swing and the vertical gardening is proving to be well worth the time and energy to set up.  As you can see in the picture above there is lots of green leaves and plump veggies to harvest.  This week, in preparation for the annual Harvest BBQ, we had our bean and corn harvests!

The bean box has matured and is producing handfuls upon handfuls of long firm Burgundy beans.  These beans are great when eaten raw but also taste good when canned or used in casseroles.  I will be using all three types of beans, Burgundy, Blue Lake and Scarlet Emperor, to make a bean stir-fry for this year's Harvest BBQ.  Additionally, any beans not canned or eaten have been blanched and frozen.

Here is our bean breakdown for this season:

• 4 quarts blanched and frozen
• 2 pints of Bread and Butter beans

Our corn harvest occurred on a cool Wednesday morning.  The harvest went well but is very small when compared to our corn harvests in the past.  We reduced our number of corn rows and used the remaining years-old corn seed when planting this year's corn crop. This decrease in quantity and quality has brought forth a small corn harvest for the 2012 victory garden season.  Luckily we had a great harvest last year and have plenty in storage for the Harvest BBQ this year.  Elote! Horn Corn! Cheese Corn! Mayo Corn! It does not matter what you call the yummy corn dish but one this is for certain... corn, lime mayo, Cojita cheese and hot sauce will be on the 2012 Harvest BBQ menu.

Corn husked and ready to be blanched.

I decided to store only the corn kernels from this year's harvest.  Here is my step by step process for freezing corn kernels.

1. Blanch the ears of corn in boiling water for five minutes.
2. Immediately transfer the corn to a cold water bath to cool down.
3. Once the ears are cool, cut the corn kernels off and pack them in Ziploc freezer bags.

I was able to pack 5 quarts of corn.  It might not sound like much but to eat sweet corn in the dead of winter is sweet delight!