This evening I ventured out in to the vegetable garden to gather dinner. What I found was slim pickings of lettuce (as I left it too long between succession planting), some delicious yellow tomatoes, basil, chilies and two eggs from the chickens.

We made a simple garden salad that didn’t include the chili or the eggs. But writing this makes me think that scrambled eggs with a hint of chili and chives could be a delicious breakfast tomorrow morning. To our salad we added store bought kale that we boiled in salted water before squeezing out all the moisture and leaving it to cool. There was also some store bought gourmet tomatoes thrown in.

The good news is that I found kale seeds today. So I will plant some in the garden this week and see how they go. Our last homegrown kale plant gave us lots of food. I’m hoping this time around will be just as successful.

Heirloom Varieties in The Garden

I’m very proud of my yellow tomatoes that I’ve grown from seed through a crazy season, weather and lifestyle wise. They are an heirloom variety from The Diggers Club and they taste amazing.

The best thing about this dinner was that Mark finally did something that I’ve been wanting to do for a few days now. He put Lara on the kitchen bench in her Mamas and Papas ‘snug’ whilst he was cooking so that Lara could be involved. She has always shown a great deal of interest being in the kitchen and garden. My baby is getting more and more interested in what I’m eating, to the point that she did enjoy mashed cauliflower with truffle, and custard on Christmas day. What can I say, our daughter has good taste.

Adventures With Kale

What are you looking at?

Whilst sitting up on the kitchen bench Lara seemed interested in the kale. So Mark gave her a branch, which she decided to taste.

Her reaction explains why we boiled it for ages and covered it in salt. Now I’m thinking that we should have blitzed it up and given her some to taste once it had been cooked and tasted yummy. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I think here Lara is saying “Ick, guys, this is gross! How hard is it to get the effing seasoning right?” in Gordon Ramsay’s voice.

My current goals is to incorporate something from the garden in every dinner. Wish me luck.

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