Long time no see...

Sorry to the 3 people who read my blog. I've had a busy past few months and never seemed to get around to updating things around here. I am going to try and do a little better now that my son's school has started and he's back into that routine.

Now for some garden stuff...

First off, for some inexplicable reason, my watermelons never grew to full size. The largest one was about the diameter of a basketball and thought it tasted good, it didn't have much edible flesh at all. Most of the others were very small and when I cut them they had already started to go bad.

My cucumbers did well and have already produced themselves out. Same thing for my yellow squash & zucchini. Though, the grey zucchini never worked out and seemed to come out of the ground with mosaic virus. I don't think I'll try that same seed again next year.

My cantelopes did well and produced quite a few, but it seemed they were all ripe at the same time, so a few ended up in the compost heap.

Now I have my tomatoes, bell peppers, hot and sweet banana peppers, zillions of eggplants, okra and all my herbs happily producing.

I have planted Alaska snow peas in my bare spots and they are already popping up everywhere. I also planted green onions and some lettuce (both from seed), hopefully those will work out.

Eggplants have been a wonder for me this year. Last year, the eggplant died in the first frost at the beginning of the season and I gave up on them. This year, they have grown and produced like mad. We have eggplant in nearly everything we eat these days.

Speaking of eggplant, did you know that Baba Ganoush was an eggplant dish? I've also tried this awesome recipe for Herbed Baby Eggplant last week that was a hit with everyone.

Herbed Baby Eggplant

2 - 3 lbs of eggplant Cut into bite sized peices
olive oil
garlic (I used granulated garlic because it sprinkles better and we all love garlic, so I used a ton)
1/2 cup red wine (or any left over wine you may have would probably taste just as good)
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil (dried will do if necessary)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Spread eggplant chunks on cookie sheet. Drizzle evenly over eggplant, then sprinkle liberally with garlic (use to your taste). Bake for about 7 - 8 mins and stir. If eggplant is soft, its ready, if not, cook for another 5 minutes or until nice and soft. Put soft eggplant into a large bowl, drizzle a little more olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and pour 1/2 cup of wine over whole mixture. Now sprinkle the basil over, toss the dish to spread everything evenly and serve warm.