10/05/2023 three chef meal

Credit for fancy salad to Paula. The Chef made the bacon cheese chicken rounds and sautéed veggies. All of us and our guest rolled out potato gnocchi. The potato gnocchi is topped with pesto made with garden basil. the sunflowers are the ones from the garden from two days ago.

10/04/2023 big rain! Big max!

eight foot long plus sunflower branches arch over wet concrete, weighted down by bunches of wet yellow flowers.
We got a very sudden storm, with over two inches of rain.
A bouquet of small sunflowers foregrounds a gray table with a noodle veggie soup and a plate with three rows of handmade sushi.
We accidentally broke off a sunflower stem while putting the trash and recycling bins back behind them. The trimmed off flowers looked lovely with the dinner! Thanks Paula for trimming them to save them!
A tidy bouquet of small yellow sunflowers is framed by two decorative gourds, vaguely pumpkin shaped but with greenish stripes and a bumpy surface.
Paula added the fun pumpkins from last week’s farm share after the Chef rearranged the flowers a bit.

09/27/2023 Thai larb

A half empty bowl of steamed rice awaits lettuce and laab, piled on nearby dishes.
Paula and The Chef collaborated on tonight’s dinner. Larb (or laab) is a meat salad. We used the lettuce leaves as little scoops/wraps and put rice with each scoop. Very tasty. From the garden, the larb contained Chimayó peppers and mint. It was delicious.

09/02/2023 behind on peppers

A peeling white enameled metal colander full of red, orange, brown, and yellow peppers of various shapes and sizes.
I got very behind on the garden and the blog the last few weeks with my household humans on a trip. The cats said they needed feeding and it just kept happening! The long skinny peppers in the colander are Corbaci peppers. The upper left conical red one is an Apple Pepper (I assume it’s named for the shape). The lower left orange one was California Wonder bell. The lower right brown one is a Chocolate Bell.
Peppers seeds and a wrinkly whole red apple pepper in a white bowl with black stripes bordering the rim.
Some peppers, like these apple peppers, were at a stage where I’ve just extracted their seeds to save.
Tomato sauced bow tie pasta is heaped with veggies and feta cheese, with a side of buttered sourdough bread on a white plate with stripe and square black border.
Mom made a delicious dish of veggies, pasta, and beans for dinner during her and Dad’s visit! From the garden, it had apple peppers and California Wonder peppers (both sweet bell-ish types) in it, as well as fresh basil and oregano.

09/09/2023 dinner and a show

Paula made this Thai dish, rad nah. It has garden garlic in it. The chef made the broth from scratch, from chicken and turkey bones. He also provided Paula with the hearty noodles. It was delicious!
Earlier in the day, Shacks watched the herb garden for skinks and grasshoppers.

Recent dinners I hadn’t posted yet

Garden basil as an add-in for homemade pho (even broth from scratch).
Garden oregano (hiding in the meatballs)
Pesto has garden basil and the salad tomatoes are “Jennifer’s Arkansas”. Yum!