Mary Louise Eklund

Tag: peppers

  • A Recipe For Mike’s Garden

    A Recipe For Mike’s Garden

    peppers and tomatoes on the counter in front of a tv with Mike's elbow in the right corner

    One of the Summer things I look forward to is fresh Gazpacho made from Mike’s garden.  So far this year we’ve made and consumed gallons of the stuff.  It is WONDERFUL!  So here’s the basis of it.  I never cook by a recipe (much to my mother-in-law’s chagrin) I tend to cook by feel, taste, available ingredients, and health requirements.  So this is the source of my inspiration when making Gazpacho but the results always vary a bit depending on how many tomatoes, peppers, onion,  etc. are coming in from the garden.

    I peeled and chopped the pounds of tomatoes

    Gazpacho

     

    1 ½ pounds tomatoes peeled and diced

    1 medium white onion chopped

    1 medium cucumber peeled seeded chopped

    1 cup green bell pepper seeded chopped

    2 cups tomato juice

    ¼  cup extra virgin olive oil

    1/8 cup lime juice

    2 large cloves of garlic peeled and finely minced

    Seeded chopped jalapeno to taste

    ½ teaspoon of Nature’s Seasoning (or ¼ teaspoon each of salt and black pepper)

    Combine all ingredients in large bowl refrigerate for several hours before serving. Serve each bowl with 1 Tablespoon of fat free sour cream on top.

    10 servings  Each serving contains 83 Calories, 6g fat, 1g Protein, 8g Carbohydrates, 2g Fiber  Exchanges 11/2 Vegtable 1 Fat

    Mike's cutting board as he reaches for more peppers

    It’s a team effort to make it. There’s a lot of chopping and peeling and seeding involved.  Sometimes when there’s lots of tomatoes I puree tomatoes with salt and pepper to use for the tomato juice part. The nutrition information was estimated by my MasterCook program. I usually don’t use that much olive oil, about half that. I at times I add a bit more lime juice just so the color stays bright and I like the kick it adds. It’s really better if it sits in the fridge over night before eating. Then enjoy! It’s worth the effort!

    chunky gazpacho in a large metal bowl

  • Another Visit To Mike’s Garden

    Another Visit To Mike’s Garden

    A view of Mike's garden

    It’s that time of year in Wisconsin where the tomatoes and peppers flow!  Here it’s not like in the South where tomatoes come in from May to September.  They all roll in in a big juicy red & yellow flood.  Though we didn’t plant any yellow ones this year.  Peppers of all types are tumbling into the kitchen in plastic grocery bags full!

    Mike is freezing them daily.  I’m eating them so much I’ve got a mouth ulcer from the acid.  I LOVE them but I do wish we’d gotten some yellow ones since they have less acid.  We’ve made salsa, we’ve made gazpacho.  Mike’s hung peppers and chilies out to dry by the yards.  Still they roll in faster than two people can eat them.

    tomatoes and peppers from our garden on the kitchen counter

    We always have chili on Sundays in the Winter.  We feel good as we cuddle with bowl to watch NFL while the snow flies outside.  It’s extra good to know the goodness came from Mike’s garden that summer before.  He’s the chili master of the house from start to bowl.  I just have to persuade him one habanero per pot is enough sprinkle on dried  habanero if he wants it hotter.  I love spicy I don’t like painful! So our daily work with the garden harvest pays off all year long!

    rotting on the tree

    We have an apple tree in our yard. It bears every year but the apples have never been good. The squirrels love them except one year. That year the squirrels threw the apples at us. I’m not making that up of exaggerating. They’d sit on the awning over the back door and drop the tiny rock hard apples on us as we left. I think it was their way of protesting the bad harvest.

    This year the apples look good from a distance. Then when you get up close where they are apples and not just red peaking through the leaves they are spotty and deformed, not good at all. However the squirrels are enjoying them but dropping the rotting parts all over the yard, garden, garage, driveway, walk, and vehicles. I’m thinking of taking up throwing the rotten parts at the squirrel in protest. Turnabout is fair play right?

    unfurled bloom

    Flowers didn’t get much attention this year in the drought.  We don’t water grass and flowers.  We do water food bearing plants.  Some flowers get the over spray being just over the fence or path from the vegetable garden.  The morning glories benefited from that.

    A few more shots to enjoy the bounty of Mike’s gardens.

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