06 August 2008

Summer 2004

It's always interesting to go back to photos from the same month in past years and see what was different or the same compared to now. Here's an example of a picture I took on August 6, 2004, before I started blogging.

Summer food, August 2004

Now I wonder whether all these nice-looking vegetables came out of our garden that year. It was the first year we had a garden, having arrived here in 2003 too late to put one in. If the squash, peppers, and tomatoes did come out of our garden and not from the market, then our garden was far in advance compared to 2008.

The tomato, squash, and eggplant gratin after cooking for an hour

We did plant everything pretty late this year, and I suppose two or three weeks from now we will be getting produce like this — if the weather holds. The temperature today is supposed to hit 33ºC — that's over 90ºF — so it's time to get out and do some watering.

P.S. I just went back to some old e-mails and found this text with the pictures above: "This morning I made a recipe I got from Peter Hertzmann: « Tian de tomates, aubergines, courgettes » — all the ingredients came from the garden. It's a kind of ratatouille but baked. There's a layer of cooked onions on the bottom, and then the vegetables. I added slices of garlic. Spices are ground bay leaf, ground dry thyme, salt, and pepper. Olive oil too..."

So the veggies did come from our garden. Thanks to Peter H. for the recipe and to CHM for the nice cookware.

3 comments:

  1. It's so well worth the time! Not just to dump veggies in any old pot with indifference.

    The beauty of your photos and the artistic arrangement of the vegetables would inspire a poet and a painter.

    Bringing this flavourful casserole, from oven to table, would put music in one's heart.

    It's wonderful that you kept the glorious moment alive. When I was growing up, I often thought, with a bit of sadness, that my mother's culinary masterpieces disappeared much too fast. That's what she wanted she told me...

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  2. I have been following your delightful blog for some time, without identifying myself. There have been so many wonderful entries - but today's food inspired me to write and ask, please, may I have a more detailed recipe on how to prepare the vegetables? I live in Oregon and we are starting to get our garden produce.

    Merci beaucoup

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