Birthday Italian plum cake

Even though this summer was probably the busiest summer of my life because of the book I still managed to take time to cook. Earlier in the summer I posted Yard Fresh — with photos of all different foods I made when the garden was just starting to get fruitful. This is the second installment — foods cooked up from the front and backyard during the thick of summer which in my garden translates to lots and LOTS of tomatoes and then some. And if you don’t know from experience — this year has been a fantastic year for tomatoes.

I take a lot of photos of the foods I prepare and post them to the Portland-based site Culinate. If you haven’t checked out Culinate before you should. The “Fritters” on the homepage are really fun and a great source for local seasonal recipes and kitchen inspiration.

Here’s a bit of what I’ve been eating the past couple months…

Grilled lamb burgers stuffed with feta and mint, oregano and garlic from the yard with a pea shoot, green leaf salad with a miso citrus vinaigrette.

Hermiston canteloupe lime juice.

Spaghetti with a spicy, garlicky sweet pea tomato sauce. These are definitely the cutest tomatoes I've ever grown. They're tiny but pack a lot of flavor.

Lightly blackened salsa pureed with lime juice, chimayo and old wrinkled man chiles, and lots of garlic and cilantro.

Chickpea and red lentil curry with snap peas, basil and beet greens.

Crock fermented dills with lots of peppercorn.

Every summer I make as much hot sauce as possible. This batch blended kung pao chiles, tomatoes, garlic, lime juice, olive oil, ground mustard seed,a small plum and a splash of vinegar. Delicious.

You can also check out:
Yard Fresh
Yard Fresh Pt. 3