Twisp of Fate

Yesterday we went up to the vegetable garden for a while, to weed and prune and harvest.  I pruned the tomato plants back a lot, as they were sprawling all over the place and in a tangled mess.  We came home with beets, chard, carrots, small narrow green (mystery) peppers, yellow crook-neck squash, lettuce, Walla Walla sweet onions, two kinds of potatoes, and a whole lot of green cherry tomatoes that I couldn’t bear to throw away (they were on the pruned-off branches).

So dinner last night was mostly vegetables, with a modest portion of left-over steak for a bit of protein.  I cooked the beets, cut them in wedges and added a simple vinaigrette while they were still warm (olive oil, red and balsamic vinegars, salt & pepper).  We will eat these for a couple of days, delicious as a side vegetable or addition to a green salad.  We had a couple of the freshly dug red potatoes – it still amazes me how something so humble as a potato can taste that much better when it is fresh!

But the fun thing was a vegetable saute.  I used one of the yellow squash cut into chunks, a small sweet onion, 4 of the little peppers (which turned out to have some heat to them, although they are not jalapeno – we got the plants from someone and I don’t know what they are).  Also chard stalks cut into large dice, and some of the green cherry tomatoes.  Seasonings were dried basil, fresh garlic, salt & pepper.  It was delicious!  The peppers gave it a little heat but not too much.  The green tomatoes were hot but not bursting, a little acidic,  juicy and somewhat sweet.  They really added a lot of interest to the mix and were pretty to boot.