Home Garden | Summer Harvest and Backyard Dinner 🌱☀️ 🍅

Harvesting vegetables, herbs and fruits from our small urban backyard garden in Los Angeles, California.

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Watermelon

Summertime is for eating watermelons :-)

Mid-Summer Sunflower

I love sunflowers - they are bright, cheerful and warm as the mid-summer sun.

This one is blooming in our garden.

Grilled Chicken and Peaches

Tonight's dinner - grilled chicken, asparagus, potatoes and peaches. The water was infused with cucumber, strawberries and blueberries.

Flowers were picked from the backyard from butterfly bush and dill.

It's almost summertime!

Butterfly Sighting: The Red Admiral

I see them every time I go to our backyard – black wings with orange band and white spots. They almost look like monarchs from afar but a little smaller.

Today, I was able to take a photo of one feeding on the nectar-rich flowers of our butterfly bush.

Binomial name: Vanessa atalanta

Sunday Night

It was quite a busy day of gardening.  Spent a couple of hours watering the plants before church. Then after church we headed to the nursery to buy more vegetables.

First, I uprooted some tropical flowers on our side yard.  Not sure what they are called... palm-like wide leaves with bright red flowers.  They are very invasive. Then, I planted some zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant and moringa. Transplanted the mint and hibiscus and watered them generously.  I hope they survive (fingers crossed)... especially the hibiscus.

We squeezed in a nap on the grass then as soon as the sun disappeared on the horizon, we fired up the grill.

Dinner was a repeat of last night... chicken and beef kabob.  The ikra on the side was new.  The wine, red and white, were left-over from the other day.

Cheers to a wonderful week ahead!

Watermelon Picnic

Nothing says summer like a refreshing thirst-quenching watermelon. Let me back track a bit. Two months ago, I saw a huge box filled with watermelon at the grocery store where we shop. I grabbed one, but then, while walking out the door, I noticed on the receipt that it was $12+… 12 bucks for a watermelon, holy cow!  I walked back and returned it. When we got home, the Little Guy headed  to the backyard with a picnic blanket.  I asked, “are we having a picnic?” He said, yes, mommy, we got watermelon.” For him, watermelon equates to picnic.  So I told him that it was too expensive so I returned it. We did end up having a picnic that day, but we had yogurt instead.

Fast forward to today, watermelons are on sale everywhere.  Photo below shows the Little Guy enjoying a watermelon picnic.

                                                                                            

Nathan’s Hotdogs

A few years ago, we went to visit a colleague friend in Nuremberg, Germany.  We hopped on a train at Munich Hauptbahnhof then met her at Nuremberg train station.  We walked around old town, passing a bridge, a market and a church on our way to Schöner Brunnen to turn a ring and wish for a baby (that’s for another blog). 

From there, we walked up on the hill to the castle, then walked down to this lovely bratwurst place to have Nürnberger bratwurst, a small thin sausage grilled over a beechwood fire and eaten with sauerkraut.

Thinking of that meal makes my mouth water, so I drizzled oil on the pan and put some Nathan’s hot dog – yes, from the same place that sponsors the famous hot dog eating contest. 

I fried the hot dogs, constantly turning until they are cooked through and golden brown. A squirt of ketchup, a drip of mustard, some mayo and some sweet relish… yum!

Backyard Dinner

Summer has not officially arrived, but the grilling season in our house has officially opened a day before Memorial.  This is our third for the season.

The meat is from Alameda Market on Glenoaks Boulevard and East Alameda Avenue in Burbank... organic chicken and beef kabob... juicy and almost melt in your mouth. 

On the side, we had grilled tomatoes, green bell pepper and basmati rice with saffron.

Grilled peaches for dessert and a bottle of red from Italy.

The flowers, lantana, I cut from our front yard.

Candle light flickers while we watch the planet Venus shining bright next to the half moon up in the beautiful evening sky. 

Summer Friday

Prepared a colorful supper on my first Summer Friday off.. roasted pork marinated in mojo criollo sauce, potatoes, golden beets, red bell pepper, sauteed Swiss chard, cucumber and hard-boiled eggs.  

Ate outside while a mockingbird perched on its favorite spot serenades us from a distance. 

Souvlaki & Tzatziki

In the mood for some Greek food today.  On the table..

Souvlaki: chicken and beef marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, onion and some Greek herbs and seasoning

Tzatziki: yogurt with grated cucumber, lemon, olive oil, a dash of salt, some cracking of black pepper and dill from our herb garden.

Cherries!

The month of May is the start of cherry harvest season...

BBQ Time

Kicking off the BBQ season with chicken & shish kabob on lavash, shirazi salad, basmati rice, pickled eggplant and grilled vegetables.

Octopus and Capers Pizza

On my day off, the Little Guy and I made pizza with octopus and capers then enjoyed a leisurely lunch under the shade of a pistache tree.

Steak and Ratatouille

It’s a beautiful day to bring lunch in the backyard and eat under the shade of a tree.

I seared a rib-eye steak to medium and made ratatouille. Ratatouille is sautéed aubergine, red bell pepper, zucchini, tomatoes and herbs from our garden.

Summer Crops

Planting summer crops – beans, tomatoes, peppers, chard and bitter melon.

Summer Evening

On a balmy summer evening, I took our dinner to the garden, we listened to the calming trickles of the water flowing from the fountain and the mockingbird singing on the tree, while the sun goes down in our bubbles... cheers! 

On the 4th of July

A 4th of July early evening BBQ supper outside. Steak, asparagus, potatoes, peaches and glasses of refreshing sip... berry juice with floating blueberries for the Little Guy and French rosé wine for the grown-ups.

 

Grilled Snapper

... marinated in ponzu sauce, sprinkled with salt and pepper, then topped withs sliced lemon and fresh oregano from the garden is what we had for dinner on a lovely summer evening.

Beach Day

It's a beautiful day, in the high 70s, so we ventured out to the beach to play in the sand, soak up some rays with the scent of salt water and had a fun summer morning.