Elle's Kitchen: Linguine With Garlic Scapes

A lovely early summer meal of linguine with

garlic scapes.  What are garlic scapes you may

ask?  They are the flower stems of a garlic bulb.

Garlic growers will remove this stem to produce

a larger bulb.

At our local Saturday morning Farmer's Market

there were many stalls selling scapes.  They seem

to be a hot item this year.  The farmer I bought them

from gave me this easy recipe.  This is the sort of  meal

that I imagine a little old European lady would make for

lunch after foraging in the fields in the early morning.

Ingredients:

Linguine

a handful of garlic scapes, chopped

Butter (I used 3 to 4 tbls.)

grated parmesan cheese

Cook the linguine according to package directions, drain.

Melt the butter in a pan and add scapes, saute for

a few minutes.  Place linguine in a large bowl and

add butter and scapes, add grated parm and toss.

Top with additional parm and serve.

We dined al fresco and with this as our view, it 

made the dinner even better.

Enjoy!

Elle's Kitchen: Garden Mish-Mash

Late July at my American Homestead means we

start to harvest veggies from the garden.  Here,

at Avalon, we have half of our back garden as a 

picturesque area with a pond, a butterfly garden,

perennial plantings and a gazebo.  The other half

of the garden is the working area, it has the clothes

line for drying clothes, the garden sheds and our

kitchen garden.

A few nights ago I pulled a few things out of the 

garden to make a vegetarian dish.  It is a bit

ratatouille-ish and a bit Shepherd's pie-ish but

I just called it Garden Mish Mash.

Ingredients:

1 zuchinni and 1 summer squash - quarted and sliced

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, pressed

olive oil

Hunt's fire-roasted diced tomatoes

mashed potatoes - we had some left over.

Heat some olive oil and saute onion until 

translucent, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add garlic, zucchini and summer squash,  cover

and simmer until squash is softened, about 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes and cover again and simmer for about

5 to 10 minutes.  You want the flavors to come together.

Place the mixture in individual ovenproof 

casseroles. (I bought these in the markets 

in Spain and I smile every time I use them.)

Top with the mashed potatoes,  (if using 

leftovers, microwave for a minute) swirl a fork

through the potatoes to make ridges, I 

sprinkled some smoked papkika on top for

added color.

Put them under the broiler until the potatoes

begin to brown.

I served mine with some fresh picked Emerite 

Filet pole beans (I highly recommend them) that 

I steamed, then tossed with some butter and lemon 

zest ~ perfection!