From Peppers to Pesto

While half of the garden is finishing up in the summer heat, the other portion is still producing.  Peppers is one of those items.  We have several varieties going right now: Jalapenos.  These are probably my favorite, followed by Anaheims.  This year I planted a new variety (for us) called Shishito Peppers.  They are delicious, roasted and blistered.  I'll plant these from here on out.  We have a bunch of Banana Peppers that continue to produce.  We eat them raw.  We pickle a bunch of them, too.

There is a local meat market in our town called Cormier's Specialty Meats.  They sell boudin mixed with cream cheese for making poppers.  One afternoon last week I cut the banana peppers in half and seeded them.  Using a spoon, Tricia and I filled each pepper half with the boudin cream cheese and broiled in the oven.  Mighty good!

One of the other things we're making is pesto.  Plenty of pesto!  We have a lot of basil that popped up volunteer in the garden.  We've given away many seedlings and have a bunch more.  If you're in the area and would like some, get in touch and I'll pot one or two up for you.  We'll pick 8 cups of pesto leaves packed to make a big batch of pesto.  

We love to make pesto and freeze it in 16 ounce sour cream containers.  It makes the perfect lunch!  You simply start some pasta going on the stove, thaw out a container of pesto, drain your pasta and stir in the pesto and you have a delicious, easy meal.  The whole family loves it.  We even like to snack on it by spreading it on toast.  One word of warning:  Check your teeth before you go in public.  Pesto notoriously gets stuck between your teeth.  It's pretty embarrassing going out in town with big, green pieces of pesto in your teeth.  (That's experience speaking, right there!)

This week I planted a couple more rows of Purple Hull Peas and two rows of Black Turtle Beans.  Also, we got three varieties of pumpkins in the ground.  I got out my LSU Vegetable Planting Guide and looked at what I can begin planting in early August.  Time to get additional things in the ground!