Grilled Eggplant & Chicken Parm Pizza

Take the classic flavor combination of eggplant parmigiana or chicken parmigiana and turn it into a pizza! This grilled pizza keeps the kitchen cool during the summer months.

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When I mention that eggplant is often one of the summer vegetables found in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box, I hear 'oh I love eggplant parm'.  So do I. However, I hate to bake a hearty casserole in the summer when the eggplant is ripe. I've had success this past winter with using frozen (but already grilled) eggplant in baked dishes, but that's a recipe for another time.

How to Dehydrate Garlic in an Oven

Garlic is ripe all at once. Put up your crop by dehydrating in an oven, then use your minced garlic year round. This tutorial shows you how.

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I started this blog (and most of my posts are for) people like me who eat locally and seasonally from a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. Every once in a while, though, I've got posts for backyard gardeners. We're an intrepid bunch, looking to grow our favorites each year as well as try new things.


Many gardeners I've known start with tomatoes, because nothing beats a homegrown summer tomato. With tomatoes as the gateway vegetable I find that peas, peppers, squash and melons aren't far behind. Growing garlic is the next level up, and I've lost count how many folks I've encouraged to give it a whirl.

Where I've grown garlic--places that have some snowfall--I've found if tulip and daffodil bulbs will grow, so will garlic. [Never mind if your local varmints eat your tulip bulbs. In my experience the varmints don't have a taste for garlic.] You plant garlic in the Fall, and--this is why I'm posting now--harvest it all at once in early summer.

Quick Crispy Sugar Snap Peas

A fast and flavorful side, these sugar snap peas are quickly sautéed with spring onions for a crunchy accompaniment to any meal.

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I plant peas each Spring, hoping to get a jump start on the edible goodies coming out of my back yard. I never seem to remember succession planting, though, so I mostly get just a handful of peas harvested at a time. An amount that generally gets snacked on as I walk back into the house.

It's rare for me to get a working amount of sugar snap peas.  Peas are so yummy raw, or dunked in hummus or our favorite Spiced Cottage Cheese Chip Dip that I tend to just eat them that way. In an effort to broaden the family's culinary horizons I've also made a Cold and Creamy Pea, Avocado and Mint Soup--but it turns out that chilled soups are not something the other household residents embrace. All the more for me.

Simon's interest put all my other meh photos of peas and pea blossoms to shame this morning.