An eastern tiger swallowtail lapping up some nectar from wild bergamot, bee balm.
In the heat of the summer, we often find ourselves grazing on easy-to-make veggie centric meals. Instead of having a large main dish, we will have a few smaller dishes that are simple to prepare and often don't involve much cooking. I usually do things that require roasting in the oven on a weekend morning when the weather is not that hot. Here are a few things we did with our harvest - please share how you are enjoying your harvest by emailing me at lindadansbury@comcast.net and use Anchor Run in your subject line.
Eggplant, peppers, scallions, zucchini, basil - grilled all the veggies and when they came off the grill we drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper, basil and sprinkled some crumbled local feta cheese - a great summer meal. Had a salad on the side.
Zucchini - found a new, really simple recipe - the hardest part of it is cutting them up; you could use your zoodle maker too. It is called Quick Zucchini Saute.
Tomato, basil, (garlic) - summer tomatoes are so delicious and the season always seems too short, so nearly every evening we trade off between making bruschetta and a Caprese Salad, which is just a fancy way of saying tomatoes with mozzarella cheese. The key to both of these is a good quality olive oil and creamy mozzarella cheese. I also use a locally made bread for the bruschetta.
Cucumber, scallion - made an Indian street food dish called Spiced Cucumber Sticks. Simple, once you have the Chaat spice - available at Middle Eastern markets and on Amazon - it is simple to make. It calls for red onion, which would add a nice color balance, but I used scallions since it is what we have.