Enjoying the garden....

I hope everyone is having a good Wednesday.  When I was teaching, I was always glad to have a Wednesday.:-)  That meant we had only two more days left in the week!  I certainly looked forward to the week-end, just as the students did.:-)

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we have been enjoying the produce from our vegetable garden.  I believe I covered just about everything one could want with zucchini in it - and I still have more recipes using that vegetable!  Usually, yellow squash are ready at about the same time; however, this year our yellow squash just didn't perform as well as in the past.:-(  Nonetheless, we were able to have enough to prepare a couple of our favorite dishes. 

The following recipe is one that I made for the 4th of July.  Munchomom, Machoman, and the Munchkins stopped by for lunch on their way to visit City Girl, so I was busy with lunch preparations that morning.   This recipe appeared in the Youth Cookbook from my church over 30 years ago.

SUMMER SQUASH CASSEROLE

2 lb. sliced yellow squash
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 stick butter (I used half this amount).
1 can cream of chicken soup (I used cream of mushroom soup).
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup (or more) Pepperidge Farm flavored herb bread crumbs

- Cook squash in water until just tender; drain.  Cook onion in butter.  Add remaining ingredients except bread crumbs to squash and stir in onion and butter.
- Pour into casserole and sprinkle bread crumbs on top.  Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30-40 minutes, until browned and bubbly.  6-8 servings

I sometimes will add the chopped onion to the pan of squash while it is cooking, enabling me to skip the step of cooking the onion in butter.  This will cut some fat from the dish.  Also, I use Campbell's Healthy Request soup.

Ready for the oven!

The baking dish is by Longaberger and comes with a cover. 

Also, I have posted pictures showing the potatoes that The Husband dug from the garden.  We have been enjoying them in several ways - cooked with green beans, baked, roasted, mashed - and I'm sure you have your favorite recipes for potatoes the way you like them.  We have no problem deciding what to do with any leftovers.:-)   They are always good heated in the microwave another day.

A bowl of mashed potatoes!

Since I am a Lifetime Weight Watcher, I have arrived at a few adaptations of the usual mashed potatoes.  You will, of course, notice that there is no addition of butter on the top of these.  I will determine how many servings the potatoes will make, then measure the appropriate amount of olive oil in a small saucepan.  I then add garlic cloves which I simmer until soft in the oil.  This is added to the potatoes as they are being mashed and beaten.  Also, I use evaporated skimmed milk,  fat free half-and-half, or regular skim milk in them - no full-fat cream.

One thing I like to do with leftover mashed potatoes will be mix them with crumbled bacon (we use turkey bacon), put them in a baking dish, and cover them with shredded cheese.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F. for 20-30 minutes, until cheese is melted and potatoes are hot.

This has turned into a rather long post, but I do want to include something else that someone has mentioned - the recipe I use for deviled eggs.   There is no picture to go with this one.   It is found in that trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook from the sixties! 

DEVILED EGGS

6 hard-cooked eggs
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
3 Tablespoons mayonnaise or salad dressing

- Boil eggs, drain, cool, and peel.  Halve and slip out yolks with a spoon.  Mash yolks with other ingredients until desired creamy consistency is reached.  Replace cavity in egg halves with spoonful of egg yolk mixture.  You may sprinkle the tops with a little paprika, if desired.  12 halves

Little Munchkin LOVES these!  She ate four halves for lunch!:-)  Oh, if you use salad dressing, the flavor will probably be a little sweeter.  Some people mention adding vinegar or juice from pickles, but this is the way we like them, so I have never done any alteration of the recipe. 

There are still some other garden recipes, and they will be forthcoming.:-)  I hope you will come back!

Thank you for reading.  I really enjoy your comments.