ElainaA

Thanks for all the ideas! I have company here all weekend including a dinner party Saturday night so I will cook on Monday. Everything sounds really good - I am going to go with the first suggestions - @sartoric 's Chinese meal. It's the one that differs most from what we have been eating here this summer. I like to cook Asian food although I do not promise authenticity. I may follow the meal with @Thanks for the Crepes grilled peaches. I haven't done that for ages and I remember how good and simple it is. So, Sartoric, if you choose, you are up again.

I said to my husband "That's a pretty suggestive picture." He said."Yes, but I' not sure what it's suggesting. And I'm not sure I want to know."

A riff on salad nicoise with grilled fresh tuna. I always cook for 3 - my husband and I and his lunch the next day. He will probably eat this sitting on a overturned bucket at a construction site.

Thanks @sartoric Thanks for the recipe. As things have developed here I will not be able to cook from this thread until Sunday or Monday. So maybe there will be more suggestions? However the Chinese meal sounds very good.

This recipe makes about 3 quarts. I make the whole recipe to freeze (because of the peppers and low acid level it is not safe for canning unless you have a pressure canner). I also sometimes make 1/4 recipe which makes about 3 cups. I have thought of adding ground beef or sausage but it doesn't really need it - it is delicious as is. The recipe was posted on the Harvest forum on GardenWeb. Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce.pdf

Nice ideas! I would love to see the cucumber salad recipe.

I've made that sauce and really like it - and Marcella Hazan is one of my all time cooking gurus. My favorite tomato based pasta sauce is one with roasted peppers and roasted garlic. I make big batches and freeze it in quarts every year. The recipe is from the Harvest forum on GardenWeb. Let me know if you would like to have it.

@Okanagancook That looks lovely. I have that book. i would love to make that but all the blackberries that cover the hill behind our house have shriveled up in this dry summer. I may try it with blueberries.

OK - Here is my list. I could cook from this list on Thursday or not until Sunday due to other commitments. From the garden: Lots of green beans cabbage (green - the red is not ready yet) zucchini - gold or green a few small beets lots of basil cucumbers From the freezer: pork tenderloin 4 steelhead trout fillets (however I am planning on using most of this for a dinner party I am hosting on Saturday and I am not sure how much more I can get. I can commit 1 to this.) chicken thighs garlic scape pesto From a local farm stand: fresh corn good tomatoes fruit: peaches, plums, blueberries Did I go over the limit? oops. I do not have any of the appliances often discussed here - just a basic gas stove and an outdoor gas grill.

The Day of the First Ripe Garden Tomato! Not many yet and only cherries but the rest are coming along. (A typical, for me, somewhat blurry picture.) I also picked a few beans. And one cucumber, some basil, parsley and lettuce. I thinned out the carrots and decided these were big enough (barely) to keep. I pulled out the pea vines and planted some more beans today - I think they will have time to produce before frost. I really don't want to think about frost just now. Sadly, in a matter of days, my formerly beautiful winter squash plants have collapsed, infected with squash vine borers. The fruit look fine - i'm not sure if i should pick them now (they are not really quite as hard as I would like) or leave them on the dying vines.

Perfect timing - I just posted a picture on the dinner thread that includes it. It is a recipe that I got years ago from my brother. Shredded cabbage, sweet red pepper, onion (I usually use red onion) and grated carrot, all tossed together. The dressing is: 1 cup sugar, 1 t. salt, 1 t. dry mustard, 1 t. celery seed, 1 c. cider vinegar all combined in a pan and brought to a boil. Stir in 2/3 c. olive oil. Bring back to a boil, pour over vegetables and mix well. Chill. The amount of dressing is for a LARGE cabbage - I do half or sometimes less. Since my brother has almost totally unreadable hand writing this may, in fact, not be his recipe. In any case, I like it.

Grilled kielbasa, potato salad, cabbage slaw (my brother's recipe - cabbage, sweet red pepper, onion, grated carrot wilted with a hot dressing then chilled) and a small amount or corn sautéed with basil and onion then tossed with a little vinegar (because I had one ear of corn left over from Sunday's dinner.)

I would choose the chocolates over the cocktail.

This list hooked me. I see two options: 1. Ground pork burgers - either this one http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chipotle-pork-cheeseburgers-353670 with chipolte, avacado and tomatillo or this one: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/asian-style-pork-burgers with ginger, sesame oil and garlic. Also a cabbage slaw. - Maybe I thought of this because I just put a bowl of my brother's cabbage and sweet red pepper slaw with hot dressing into the refrigerator for tonight's dinner. And a side dish of sauteed corn with basil and scallion (or onions if you don't have scallions). 2. Similar to Sartoric's suggestion - a variation on Mark Bittman's Unstuffed cabbage from this NY Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/magazine/a-dozen-slawless-cabbage-recipes.html Sub the pork for the ground beef. Use your frozen tomatoes rather than canned. And whatever cabbage you have rather than insisting on savoy. I like to serve this over rice. I'd still make the corn and basil sauté to go with. If you have lots of time and feel ambitious you could grill the shrimp as a starter. No dessert?

I'm not much of a cocktail drinker (Wine, now, that's another story.) - I'm more interested in the chocolates in the background.

You know, one reason this site is so much fun is that we do not insult each other. I second @Okanagancook - look away.

I'll be tackling @Shelby 's marinated eggplant today. However, I would caution against storing it as long as stated in the recipe. According to many sites, vegetables preserved in oil are prime environments for botulism and should not be stored (refrigerated) more than 4 days. The advice on this site is typical: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/fch/sites/default/files/documents/sp_50_701_herbsandvegetablesinoil.pdf I'm a bit of a food safety fanatic. I know many people would disagree but at least you should be aware of the risks.

@Jacksoup Beautiful garden and produce. What are the preserves in the last picture?

Thanks ! It is. Equal amounts of flour, brown sugar, walnuts and oatmeal mixed with melted butter. Put on after the bread has been baking 15 minutes.

The finished pickles. I really like this recipe.

@cyalexa This is quite different, I think. Very rich. Lots of nuts and flavor from the applesauce. I love it.

Shelby that looks SOOOO good. I'm printing out the recipe immediately. I have no luck growing eggplant (in most years the flea beetles simply devour them) but, like @Okanagancook I can get lovely ones at the farmer's market.

The garlic harvest was yesterday. I'll let them hang and dry out for a a week or so , then clean and store them. Some are a good size but a lot are smaller than usual - I assume due to the dry weather. As usual, Arlo is helping.

Zucchini keftedes - zucchini fritters with grated zucchini, feta, scallions, dill, lemon zest, panko and an egg. Topped with yogurt and scallion greens. With the last of the garden peas with shallots and garlic and grilled mahi-mahi. This was the fourth night of my personal zucchini challenge and I must say it did not feel repetitive at all. But no zucchini tonight - just something very fast before we head out to the local summer stock theater for A Chorus Line.

It is looking like a banner year for winter squash here: (There are a lot more than shown in the pictures.) Gold Nugget: Sweet Mama: Sweet Dumpling: I also have 2 plants of Metro PMR - an extra small butternut from Johnny's but, while the vines look good, there are, as yet, no flowers. And I am still picking lettuce: Many, many green tomatoes but not one ripe one yet - soon I hope!