Last year I suffered a
lot of grief and stress at the hands/paws/talon-like feet of various woodland
creatures in my yard. They ravaged my
strawberries, tomatoes, squash, zucchini and sanity. The frustration of watching fruits and
vegetables nearly reach their pick time and then suddenly being stolen by animals in the dead of night is measurable only by being immeasurable. The only thing exposing their cowardly
crimes were the remnants left after the massacre…remnants that provided a visual to
haunt my nightmares. Finally, utterly
broken, at the end of the season, I put on my gardening corset, petticoat and bonnet,
I walked to my box gardens and shaking my parasol to the heavens made a vow to
stop the insanity and grow some freaking food.
It looked a bit like this…
This season, I have
honored that promise. I made a cage for
my tomatoes (click here for instructions) and hired 24 armed guards (armless guards can't shoot) to patrol
the area. The outcome has been amazing. We are having tomatoes with nearly everything…including
on our cereal in the morning. I’ve also
begun to share the fruits of my labor.
That is the great thing about gardeners, we share! One of my friends bought me lots of squash
from her mother’s garden. It is delicious. Here is a recipe I suggest you try if you are
looking for something different to make with squash.
Yellow Squash Stuffing
2 cups diced yellow
squash
2 cups crumbled
cornbread (I just used Betty Crocker Cornbread Mix and made six muffins)
½ cup margarine,
melted
2 teaspoons dried sage
1 (10.75 ounce) can
cream of mushroom soup
1 egg, beaten
1 large onion, chopped
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
Salt and pepper to
taste
¼ cup milk
Place squash in a pot
fitted with a steamer basket over boiling water, and steam 10 minutes, or until
tender.
Preheat oven to 350
degrees. Lightly grease a medium baking
dish.
In a bowl, mix the
squash, cornbread, margarine, sage, cream of mushroom soup, egg, onion, sugar,
salt and pepper, and milk. Transfer to
prepared baking dish.
Bake 30 minutes in the
preheated oven, or until lightly browned.
Tomatoes!!! |
I can't wait to make a cucumber salad with these guys. |
This actually is a red pepper. I may excitement pee in my pants when this pepper turns red! |
No comments:
Post a Comment