garden update

Our garden is getting serious and so are we. And, again, let me clarify that when I say our garden I really mean the one Jorge tends to and takes care of with a whole lot of patience and curiosity. He takes me on garden tours every morning so I can see the progress and we talk about what we can make with what's available. That's the deal: he grows, I cook. And then I can say our garden without letting on that I'm actually too lazy and careless when it comes to figuring things out.


This became cilantro and basil pesto and pickled jalapenos.
I adapted this recipe from Adrienne Eats and it became more like tapenade because we were a little low on basil. Maybe even better than the pesto version.

basil
cilantro
1/3 c walnuts
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp miso
juice of 1 lemon
2 T  oil
pepper
several good runs in the Vitamix


Green beans, hardboiled eggs, and kalamata olives turned out to be the best summer meal so far.


Jorge's dad has fruit trees and patches of herbs and vegetables all over his back yard in Fontana. Now that we're getting more interested in growing and using food in different ways, we're finding out that in Mexico he used to can tomatoes in Coke bottles and make jam in bags. Essentially, it's in his blood. So at the beginning of summer J brought home bags of apricots from his dad's tree and we gave our first try at jam. It turned out more like fruit leather, probably because we stirred it for too long, me with the oven mitt on, standing as far away as possible from the bubbly concoction, stirring like a witch over her cauldron, saying it's ready, I think we're done, him saying, no the recipe says 30 minutes, me getting more and more tired, then switching and the same thing happening. We laughed a lot and came away with bigger biceps, but can only give away this first batch to people who really love us and will eat it even if it is super thick.

Yes, I may just be getting around to writing about it now that school started and I'm already planning work stuff for the fall, but here it is, the garden in all it's heat and glory.