Garden Update

It never fails.  For about two months, the garden looks nice, neat and organized in the small patch of land we fenced off for it.  Then, boom!  The plants start to breach their confinement and it gets hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.  Once once small plants transform into a lush, green garden jungle of sorts.  It still surprises me, but at least everything is happy and healthy.

The tomatoes will be ripe for the picking soon, and we have been eating lettuce for some time.  There are little jalapeno peppers taking shape, and the cantaloupe is starting to flower.  Our cucumber plant started to take over the garden, so I had to move it over the side of the fence.  Though huge, it still hasn't produced any cucumbers, which concerns me.  Unfortunately, our pea plants were a bust; they just shriveled up for some reason.   It is an otherwise exciting time in the garden and I can't wait to see what the coming month will bring!

Cherry Tomato

Tomato

Lettuce

Jalapeno

Tomato Basil Pizza

I really like this time of year because the fresh tomato and basil pizzas come fast and furious.  I took advantage of our newly ripened cherry tomatoes and our two abundant basil plants and threw together a pizza featuring the two remarkable toppings. 

I have become a fan of what we call 'brick oven' pizza lately; meaning I bake the pizza on a stone in the oven.  More and more of my pizza cravings are leaning this way.  I used to only make deep dish pizzas that yielded a thicker, doughier crust, but I'm hooked on the brick oven variety at the moment.  The crispy, yet chewy crust of a pizza cooked on a stone is just remarkable.  Plus, the kids really like to watch me throw the pizza dough!

I am also in the habit of letting my pizza dough sit in the refrigerator overnight.  I started doing this out of necessity so I could still make pizza after work and have it ready at a reasonable hour.  I soon discovered that the overnight fermentation added a lot more flavor to the finished product.  It just goes to show, there's always something new to learn in the kitchen!

The freshness of the tomatoes and basil makes this a pizza like no other, and it is a perfect summertime treat.  The fact that I have the ingredients readily available in my garden make it even more special.  Not to mention that I am always looking for a good excuse to make pizza!

Brave the tomato plants!

I've been closely watching our cherry tomato plant as the little tomatoes slowly change to red, eagerly anticipating plucking them off one by one.  At last the day was here, and Ari picked the first tomatoes of the season! 

Our garden basically looks like a little vegetable jungle. It is apparent that I still have a few things to learn about how far apart to space out the plants, especially the tomatoes.  Nevertheless, there were tomato plants to be slain!

Undaunted, Ari plunged into the viney plant and snatched the first red tomato he saw!  He narrowly escaped the clutches of the artichoke plant to give his prized bounty to the fair maiden anxiously awaiting his return.

She gazed longingly at her cherished treasure, realizing that soon she would sink her teeth into its juicy flesh.

She held her prize in triumph knowing all will eat well this night!

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