What to do with all that garden yield

     As some of you may recall (or maybe all of you, since you see my facebook uploads), I planted my first garden this spring.  Preparing the plot was a ton of work, and even after I'd transplanted my seedlings, I was unsure they would take to the soil.  I needn't have worried, because now my plants are so enormous, they're over-taking the entire garden--getting too big for their britches, so to speak.  In fact, I'd planted four pumpkin plants, and they began to grown into the zucchini and squash, so I (with a tear in my eyeball), dutifully dug out all but one.

Garden 2012

     So far, the harvest has been steady enough to keep up with.  Beans, peas, zucchini, radishes, squash, cucumbers, swiss chard, cherry tomatoes, and banana peppers have all made appearances in our diet these past few weeks.  Usually I opt for the simplest, most all-inclusive way to down the roughage: Garden Veg Stir-fry:

This is generally a dump-truck approach of whatever's in the produce drawer.

    Or, a family favorite of mine, frittata:

...with crumbled peppered bacon on top.  Ooooh, mama!

     Another *super* easy option is to chop everything up into bite-size pieces and glug some dressing & s&p over it for a salad.

     But, by far, the most challenging thing we've come across is, "what the hell to do with all of this zucchini?"

     So far, we've made (4 loaves of) zucchini bread, sausage-stuffed zucchini boats, fried zucchini, and zucchini frittata.  This is where my zuke repertoire concludes.  So last night we employed a recipe from Cooking Light entitled Zucchini & Caramelized Onion Quiche, which was like, out-of-this-world delicious (and waist-band safe at only 314 calories a slice [serves 6]!).  We paired it with a simple Tomato, Cucumber, & Red Onion salad dressed with s&p, olive oil, and red wine vinegar.

      Beyond that, it seems we've run out of ideas.  Luckily, the fabulous people over at Two Peas & Their Pod came up with a list of thirty-five glorious ways to enjoy your zucchini.  Personally, I'm extremely excited to try the zucchini sandwich cookies and grilled zucchini tacos (obvi).  We made their Zucchini Ribbon Salad as a side for steak tacos this week:

 
     Last weekend we used a bunch of Swiss chard sauteed up in some garlic, olive oil, and reconstituted porcini as a side for NY strips when my parents and brother were here:

Sorry that this is blurry/gross because I already took a bite of my steak when I realized I didn't take a picture of the plate.

     And for your viewing pleasure, I'll conclude with some shots of my poorly-planned, albeit successful garden (the light was just perfect this morning!):

Cherry tomato plants are getting dominant and lop-sided.

Two of four bean plants: two purple, one green, one yellow!

Squash flowers and one tiny guy on the bottom.

These banana peppers are sweet, so we throw them in guacamole for balance whenever the mood strikes us.

Ahh, my beautiful, plentiful, fruitful zucchini.