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I love square foot gardening (SFG). I’ve done it a few years now. And I just love it. It’s simple, easy…not terribly expensive to get started. And you get to grow lots of great goodies in a tiny space…with minimal time “working” the garden…watering, weeding, etc.

Boy’s Life has an easy to follow and understand tutorial for setting up a planter box!

There will be more gardening talk around here as we head into the spring…if you’ve never grown your own food, SFG is a great model to start with.

Happy Gardening!

So there hasn’t been much happening in my garden lately. After the squirrel attacks, not much was left

There is, however, Swiss chard, Kale and Brussel sprouts growing strong. It’s making a comeback as the weather has cooled off again!

I also noticed that there are a number of green tomatoes again on the plants out back…the squirrels must be full from them now. I don’t think they will get to the red stage at this point…so I’ll be pulling them off soon to make some fried green tomatoes!

Nom. Nom.

Anyone harvesting any late fall or winter fruits or vegetables yet?!

So this isn’t pumpkin…but it’s close!

We’ve been enjoying lots of butternut squash lately, after buying some at Kroger, then more at Aldi the next week for just $.59 each!

We’ve had this…a beef stew with butternut (recipe coming Monday on One Dish Dinners!)…and I made the same beef stew mix for the guys to enjoy while I’m out of town this week.

(And sorry about the lighting…it was already dark. And dark outside kitchen light does not bode well when photographing food! This is a peek inside the slow cooker, minutes after I took off the lid to serve dinner.)

(And I should add…I had grandiose plans for all the acorn squash that I had growing my little garden. That is, until the squirrels ate them. Sigh.)

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If you’d like to learn more about Square Foot Gardening, please check out the Square Foot Gardening books by Mel Bartholemew.

Do you have a recipe that uses Butternut, Acorn Squash or Pumpkin that you’d like to share this week?! Link ‘er up!

I’ve been a member of the Home Depot Garden Club for several years now. I really appreciate the tips for gardening in my region, as well as the coupons and offers too!

If you’d like to join the Garden Club, just click the banner and be on your way to savings and helpful gardening ideas!

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So I had every intention of making omelets with all the fixings you see here last night. Then I remembered that we had a makeup soccer game. So I scratched the omelet idea (because they take longer to make!) and went with a scramble instead. All the same ingredients…just as delicious outcome!

Perfect way to use some peppers from the garden or farmer’s market. I only used green pepper…but you could use red, yellow, orange, hot, mild…whatever floats your pepper boat.

Or whatever you have on hand or in the garden!

(Couple notes about this breakfast scrambles…I use 2 eggs per person when making scrambled eggs. My boys LOVE eggs…and this seems to be our “magic egg number.” Also, I cooked up a bag of dried black beans because I didn’t have any cans. And because it’s cheaper that way!)

If you’d like to learn more about Square Foot Gardening, please check out the Square Foot Gardening books by Mel Bartholemew.

Do you have a recipe using green peppers that you’d like to share?!? We’d love to check it out!

Broccoli Raisin Salad. Quite possibly my favorite “cold vegetable” salad.

When thinking about trying a new way to fix broccoli, I kept going back to my favorite cold version of broccoli raisin salad. But it didn’t sound right as I thought about it. Maybe it’s the chili weather, or mourning the loss of summer (yes, I am in mourning. Not a winter person here.), or all the rain. But, I felt a summer-like broccoli raisin salad wouldn’t sit right. It would make me feel funny…and thus make it taste funny. Even if I made it the same way I always do.

Then it occurred to me that a warm version would be entirely possible. And that it might actually be good. And that any leftovers could be turned into a cold version with a little sweet mayo dressing.

So that settled it.

Roasted Broccoli Raisin Salad it would be. Without the mayo part.

And it did not disappoint.

(So much so that I’m thinking about serving this with one of our holiday meals this year.)

If you’d like to learn more about Square Foot Gardening, please check out the Square Foot Gardening books by Mel Bartholemew.

Got a favorite broccoli recipe to share?! Leave a link below or in the comments.

This could be my most favorite flavor combination from this summer.

From the bold balsamic to the tangy feta to the sweet basil and the perfect taste of vine ripened tomatoes. It’s so raw. And fresh. And delicious!

A few weeks ago (before the squirrels took over), I made this recipe with the striped tigerella tomatoes…a new variety for me this year, thanks to my friend Lucy! We had these as a side with some grilled chicken. #nom

It’s fairly simple…slice, drizzle, sprinkle, let sit, eat…

Got a favorite recipe that calls for garden tomatoes?! We’d love to check it out!

imagine photo of half eaten mini acorn squash here

So I was our watering the other day. Could have been middle of last week…I have lost all sense of time as we have started back to school, back into a routine, back into life flying at warp speeds. Anyhoo, it was recently.

I soaked the planters on the patio (from the west side) because it has been hot and my plants are thirsty. And then as I was walking back out to the tomato patch (if you will.), I heard a very loud thud. It startled me…and I looked over and what do you know.

A half eaten green tomato had fallen from a tree.

SQQQQQUUUUIIIIIRRRREEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLL

What a pesky pesky pesk-pest!

We have 48 trees on our half acre lot. It makes for some amazing leaf piles in the fall. And it means we have lots and lots of squirrels. I did not have any problems with them eating my garden the past 2 years…but this year, I guess they couldn’t resist anymore.

So back to the watering.

I continued on watering the tomato patch, and walked around and looked more closely and didn’t see too many tomatoes left on any of the plants. And one of the tomato grates was tipped over…likely from the weight of the squirrel climbing all over it.

UGH!

So then I thought…I wonder if they’ve attacked the patio planters too. So I walked back over and took a closer look…and sure enough, a few of the acorn squash were gone and one was half eaten.

I decided that I needed to go grab my camera…and likely got distracted by one of the boys. And by the time I got back around to getting back out there to take a picture of this sad little half eaten mini acorn squash, it was gone! It’s like the squirrel KNEW! Pesky-pest!

Next year, I shall be more prepared!!!

On a positive note, I do still have my Brussels sprouts, some of my peppers and a little bit of chard and kale hanging in there…I’m letting it be to see if it starts up again as it gets cool this fall. We shall see…

So I wanna know what kinds of battles you are having in your garden right now?! Is it the heat, a blight, vermits?!?

As we head into this holiday weekend, I thought I’d leave you with a simple breakfast for dinner recipe. Or it would be perfect for breakfast this weekend, as you hang out with family and friends!

This may in fact be the most flavorful frittata that I’ve ever made. This is not to put a damper on the other frittata recipes featured here or in my Breakfast and Lunch cookbook. It’s to say that the flavors were full, rich and complimented each other beautifully.

The key to making this recipe work is the “salting” of the eggplant. If not salted and drained, the eggplant will have a very bitter undertone to it…and no one wants bitter in their frittata. (At least I don’t.)

To do this, you simple cut the eggplant up into little bite size pieces, or smaller, and the place it all into a colander.  Sprinkle some salt over it all and set the colander in the sink and let sit for at least 30 minutes. The salt draws out the bitter juices from the eggplant.  Then rinse with cold water and the eggplant is ready for the recipe.

Now for the rich, rich Tomato Eggplant Frittata…

If vegetables could taste like candy, these might be the Reese’s of all cooked vegetables. The oven roasting gives the green beans a bit of a caramelized flavor…and the boldness and sweetness from the roasted garlic…and it’s almost like they are candied vegetables. Almost.

(Even though that’s a ridiculous claim, you have to try them and decide for yourself.)

This recipe is very simple…toss it all together in a bowl. Place on foil lined baking sheet. Roast for 8 minutes.

The only thing you’ll be waiting on is the oven to preheat up to the roasting temp!

If you have a favorite green beans recipe on your blog, please share it with us! And feel free to drop links to your favorite green bean recipes in the comments too!