Thursday, July 10, 2014

Grilled Summer Squash and Zucchini...


OUR FIRST BABIES!!!!!

We're so excited. I can barely hold back the anticipation!!!!!

GRILLED SQUASH! FRESH!!!! AT LAST!!!!!

And the gecko??? Well, he's just along for the ride, LOL!

But first a word from the wall-building, garden-loving monster:

I love separating out gardens with stone walls....

And then I was inspired to buy more flowers.... and they had a $1/pot SALE GOING!!!! When you live in a short-summer climate, buying plants that are a little bigger isn't a dumb idea because they'll be gone all too soon!  So some of these went here:

And some here:



I've told you guys about the no cooking schedule, right? But that doesn't include not grilling veggies.

I love them. Dave loves them. They are to-die-for so these first four babies are part of our pork chop (Kav, SKIP THIS PART, HONEY!!!!) and veggie feast.

SIMPLE DIRECTIONS:

Cut smallish squash into spears. Ah, the gecko is a CARNIVORE!!!!! 


Drizzle with olive oil.


Sprinkle with your choice of seasonings:

I used pepper, garlic, salt and basil and Parmesan cheese....



Grill until they almost look too grilled.

Oh, my stars, delicious. Wonderful. MARVELOUS!!!!!

And then if you follow up with ice cream for dessert, you can be proud of your excellent veggie dish before the ice cream feast!!!!

Then I had to go get Dave out of the garden:


How cute is he?????

And monster summer squash and zucchini plants:


The perfect time to photograph them, before you start regular daily pickings and they get T-I-R-E-D!!!!

So that's the word from the little farm that grew lots of veggies and a bunch of eggs in upstate:


And my window boxes ended up with some of the flowers, too... Mandy and Paul made these for me a few years ago, the Best Christmas Present Ever....  besides Jesus, that is!!!!

They say for window boxes you need a chiller, thriller and spiller....  Well my thriller must be that Coleus.... the spiller is sweet potato vine.... and the chiller????  The red begonia????  Ach, who knows, I just know that it looks nice this year! I DIDN'T KILL IT!!!!

17 comments:

  1. Must grill my veggies. I never remember to do this!!! I only think up fattening recipes like breads and breaded and fried. Thanks for the reminder.

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    1. Tina, if it's too hot outside, we roast them in the oven because I have a room A/C in the kitchen. I love them grilled and roasted. Oh, yum!!!!

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  3. Sorry, stupid typos...

    HAHA! Dave looks like my husband... but much taller and paler. The man-in-garden-being-called-to-dinner pose is so familiar.

    Gorgeous plants! Our tomatillos are waist high, the corn is head high, and the squash is growing fast. We haven't had our first all-garden meal yet, but I feel it's coming soon.

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    1. Laughing at Dave being much taller because he and I are the runts of the litter! He's 5'7" so probably not much different from Cruz.... And we have two sons-in-law who are shorter than Dave (even though we requested height from the girls because we're already height-challenged here) but they both fell in love with cute, shorter guys. But Otto and Jon pushed Dave and Zach into the MIDDLE!!! They feel tall now! :)

      I love all-garden meals, and yours sound close! We've got bean blossoms and tiny cukes, but they'll be a while, yet. So that's why the squash is such a treat!

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  4. Whoa -- how long does it take you to pick all those veggies each day?! I miss having fresh picked veggies. I haven't planted any since my outdoor tap busted a few years ago and my landlord still hasn't fixed it. That means I can't water and veggies kind of need water. :-(

    Love the idea of grilled veggies. I never do that...mind you I don't have a barbecue either. But I do have an indoor grill. I should try it sometime.

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    1. Kav, roast 'em in the oven. They're lovely that way too, I promise!!!!

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  5. yum! I like to cut up squash, zucchini, onion, mushrooms and cook in olive oil then scramble eggs with them. would love them grilled but don't have a grill..
    Susanna

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    1. Oooohhhh, Susanna, you just solved my what will I have for lunch dilemma. Thank you!!!!

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    2. Susanna, yes, yes, yes!!!! I do veggie and cheese omelettes all the time. These are WONDERFUL!!!!

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  6. YUM!! I want to come live with you to enjoy your garden this summer!

    I love the photo bomb by the gecko!! LOL

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    1. My choices were Gecko or housefly.

      I chose wisely.

      :)

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  7. Am I the only one who didn't know how to grill vegies correctly? I've been trying to figure out what to dip them in before I grill them...now I know! Thanks! And your window boxes are perfection!

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    1. Donna!!!! It's so stinkin' easy, right????? AMAZING. And thank you for the window box compliment, the only thing I did different was buy the bigger plants and VOILA!!!! It looks decent! :)

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  8. I love grilled veggies!

    Especially when you've got steak on the other half of the grill :)

    And I have a gardening question for all of you with green thumbs.

    I usually don't have a problem growing things - except squash! The squash bugs devour the plants every time! Even the first year I planted them in the new garden. This year I didn't even try. We haven't had zucchini or summer squash for years. I'm dependent on my neighbor and Walmart.

    (That reminds me of an old joke: How do you someone doesn't have any friends? They buy their zucchini at the grocery store.)

    So, how do you control those pesky monsters????

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    1. Ooooh -- a reference question in the middle of the summer -- how fun! Check out this video:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT5exU7yEtU
      from a Victory Garden expert. It offers a bunch of solutions -- the funest one is dust bust 'em.

      And here's some tips from my favourite gardening book ever -- Carrots Love Tomatoes : Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening:

      plant 2 or three icicle radishes in each hill. Let the radishes grow and go to seed.

      Nasturtiums repel squash bugs

      Plant later in season - a late crop will usually avoid the bugs

      My squash pests are squirrels. They pick the blossoms off every single plant! Then they carry them around the garden. I kept wondering if they were going a courting and wanted to bring a flower to their lady loves.

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    2. Well we have acres of squash so we hit them with Sevin liquid about twice.... that's enough to deter the stupid bugs and it's amazing how they propagate. RIDICULOUS. Now there might be greener solutions, and we only spray when absolutely necessary (we use IPM, Integrated pest Management) because we're eatin' these things too.

      But the Sevin works.

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