It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. It continues to be rainy and hot here, though we got a bit less rain last week. We’re getting plenty of the summer veggies, and still coming up with different ways to use them in the kitchen. It has been a great year for eggplant, and I have brought in over 30 pounds of them so far. I also got the first ripe sweet peppers last week from Jimmy Nardello’s and Sweetie Pie. The first hot peppers to ripen here have been jalapenos. It was nice to add peppers to the menu, even if only in small quantities.
Friday’s harvest
eggplant and first ripe sweet peppers
I made two pans of Slow-Roasted tomatoes last week with cherry tomatoes, using a mix of Sunpeach, Sun Sugar and Cherry Bomb. I drizzled some olive oil over the tomatoes before roasting in a 250°F over for about 3 hours. That was the last thing I baked before the oven went out, which is not a good thing at all! Thankfully the broiler still works, as do the range top burners. We also have a gas grill outdoors which sees a lot of use this time of year.
tomatoes for slow-roasting
I got a half dozen Garden Treasure tomatoes last week. I’ve been growing this University of Florida bred variety for several years now, and it always performs for me here. It has resisted splitting better than many of the slicing types I’m growing, no doubt due to having a somewhat thicker skin than many other tomatoes. These six weighed just over three pounds total.
Garden Treasure tomatoes
We also did another tasting of the Chef’s Choice Striped and Damsel varieties. The season for slicing tomatoes is all too short here, and I like to eat them as often as possible. I am quite happy eating a good vine ripened tomato every day, and they only need a little salt to suit my tastes!
sliced Chef’s Choice Striped and Damsel tomatoes
One of my favorite eggplant uses when we have lots of them is Baba Ganoush. Since the oven was out I roasted these on the gas grill, which gives them a slight smoky taste. I didn’t skimp on the tahini or olive oil, and served it with some of my toasted whole wheat pita bread. We also enjoyed some sautéed eggplant one day for lunch, which accompanied a BLT we made from the ripe slicing tomatoes.
baba ganoush with whole wheat pita bread
sauteed eggplant with BLT sandwich
I roasted up one of the Thelma Sanders acorn squashes while the oven was still working. I like to cut it into wedges and bake in a cast iron skillet, which caramelizes the squash and brings out the sweet, nutty flavor of this variety.
roasted Thelma Sanders squash
I also made Whole Wheat Cinnamon rolls last week, using my still-in-development recipe for Whole Wheat Cinnamon Swirl Bread. After baking I topped the rolls with a donut-style glaze I made from milk and powdered sugar, leaving a few unglazed for comparison. My wife and I tasted both the glazed and unglazed ones, and decided they really needed the glaze since the basic dough is not very sweet to start with. I froze most of them to keep me from eating them all up, which tells me the recipe is likely a keeper.
Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And please take a minute and check out what everyone is harvesting!
I really want one of those cinnamon rolls, it’s breakfast time here right now, even if it wasn’t i think i’d still want one. they look really good. Your selection of eggplant or aubergines are pretty amazing. I have one plant in the greenhouse that has yet to reward us, i know they will be nothing like yours, but still the pleasure of trying to grown your own is something i am grateful for. Baba Ghanoush always seems to be a blast from the past, i tend to snug my nose at it. Then i taste good Bab Ghanoush and this wow! Have a good week and as always thank you for continuing to host.
I don’t make Baba Ganoush often Shaheen, so we tend to enjoy it whenever I do make it.
Our tomatoes are ripening now so I’ve been making pasta sauce to freeze, The cinnamon buns look tasty. I hope that you soon get your oven sorted.
We do have other ways to cook Sue, but it seems everything I want to make calls for the oven!
Lots of good things there! Nice to have peppers ripening to go along with all your eggplant. I wonder if Garden Treasure was bred for Florida conditions, and if so, would it do well in my climate. Sorry about your oven; I know it’s hard to find appliances these days. Can it be fixed?
I replaced the oven igniter, which got it working again. But after 4 days it went out again. I suspect an electrical problem in the oven or control board and I doubt it would pay to fix it. So we are off to shop for one today! As you can imagine, we do use the oven and stovetop a lot here, especially this time of year. We are being creative with meal planning this week.
Slow roasted cherry tomatoes are so good. Hope I have enough this year to freeze for winter uses. We’re all admiring your cinnamon rolls!
We love the slow roasted tomatoes too. It concentrates the flavor, and I find they freeze well to use all season.