Lazy summer days in the garden

It has been a lazy summer, we are staying mostly home and we are enjoying our garden as much as we can. I try to find a little time to work on the garden in the evening after work and after the little one goes to bed.

We are harvesting beautiful and delicious tomatoes. For lunch I made myself a fresh tomato salad with basil just a little bit of olive oil. It was perfect. 

Let me show you in pictures how days are here in our Philadelphia backyard. 

Tomatoes

Pretty zinnias

Giant sunflowers

We had a lot of concord grapes

A mix in our planters

Hollihocks

Bird bath and a garden fairy

Garden fairy 

The last of our peaches. We had so much I wasn't ready. I mostly ate them fresh and baked a couple crumbles ( mixed with blackberries ... delicious )

What about you ?

What is happening in your gardens ?

A simple and refreshing snack

I wanted to share with you a quick, easy and refreshing snack or hors d'oeuvres made with two of my favorite summer flavors. It's always a hit and perfect for summer parties and it's beautiful too. The recipe is simple but looks impressive.

Stack a cube of feta cheese on top of a cube of watermelon and top with a basil leaf. Hold together with a toothpick. Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

This combination is also delicious just tossed together in a salad with cucumber too!

Enjoy!

basil lime soda and a half-eaten tomato

when it's too hot to cook, one of my favorite ways to enjoy the season's bounty is homemade soda.  i think i got the idea a few years ago when i first heard of rhubarb soda.  since then, i've tried my hand at mint, raspberry, ginger, and sour cherry sodas.  they have all been delicious and i highly recommend making yourself some soda to enjoy on a hot summer afternoon.  last summer at our local farmer's market, one of my favorite food vendors was serving a basil lime soda.  after getting over the initial weirdness of drinking basil, i tried it and was hooked for the rest of the summer.

like amy, my basil is growing wild these days and i thought i'd try to make my own basil lime soda.  this spring i planted seeds from the "dolce vita blend" by botanical interests, so i currently have a variety of lime, lemon, cinnamon, purple petra, genovese, and mammoth basils.  i used a combination in this syrup recipe (though, i think the lime flavor is so overpowering that it's hard to tell which basils i used). once you've made the syrup, add as much as you like (approximately one tablespoon) to a glass and fill with soda water.  in the fridge, the syrup should keep for at least a few weeks.

-------------------------------------------
on an unrelated note, i found this on my balcony monday morning:

it seems to the work of a certain four-legged bushy-tailed critter.  last summer i lost almost all of the few tomatoes i had to squirrels and i was hoping to avoid that fate again this year.  any tips?  i've tried sprinkling cayenne pepper to deter rabbits, does it work for squirrels too? help! 

summer snack

the basil is really bushing out in the garden these days. to help encourage the basil to form new branches and leaves and to continue growing throughout the summer, i cut back to the top two leaves and try to remove flower buds immediately.

the basil prunings have been being put to good use around here to make a favorite summer snack.

basil popcorn

1/2 cup popcorn
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup basil leaves
parmesean cheese
sea salt
cracked black pepper

in a food processor mix the oil and basil leaves and set aside.
pop the corn.

pour basil-oil over popcorn and mix thoroughly.
sprinkle with parmesean, salt and pepper to your liking.
we like ours on the cheesy side.


pour yourself a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade and enjoy!