This may be the highest number of participants in “Grow Your Own” history!
This edition of GYO features 61 different dishes from 8 different countries. The “Grow Your Own” food blog roundup, created by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes, features dishes using ingredients which have been raised in our own (or someone else’s) gardens or have been hunted or foraged. Why grow your own? Because it saves money and makes for better tasting food!
I am in awe of the variety of great food that’s being made in what is Winter for a majority of food bloggers out there. I’m also very thankful for the participants from Australia for showing off their homegrown produce. Check out the entire roundup below. Entries are posted in the order they were received.
Grow Your Own #38
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Cookbook author Sharlene Thomas runs the fascinating and useful Solar Cooking for Mainstream Cooks blog out of her home in Willow Spring, North Carolina. She used her solar oven to bake a chicken (outside, in 34*F weather!) while she made a risotto and stock inside using garden-grown onions, carrots and stevia. Amazing meal!
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Kristy from Atlanta, Georgia took her Urban Breadmachine into new territory when she used fresh rosemary to make a rosemary loaf for a New Years party. It was so popular with her friends, she made it again for another batch of friends! |
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Debra of The Other Woman Cooks in Chicopee, Massachusetts cooked a Perfect Sunday Supper: Peppercorn Pot Roast using garden tomatoes from last Summer’s bounty. Sometimes, the best meals are the simplest ones.
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Krissy and Daniel, The Food Addicts who are gardening in Norwalk, California, took some purple and green kale from their garden to make their version of the popular Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana. Oh, how I would love to get a bowl of that right now (the Food Addict version, that is!) |
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Trudy of Veggie Num Num blogs from somewhere in North Queensland, Australia. Her parents gave her a surplus of homegrown bananas, from which she baked a lovely, moist Tropical Banana Loaf.
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Amanda who has a South Sound Garden in South Puget Sound, Washington, took some Concord grape juice that they had canned last summer and boiled it down into a beautiful grape jelly. Doesn’t it just look delectable? |
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Aaron, an Unemployed Guy in Newburyport, Massachussets, roasted some of his wedding gifts – homegrown Cinderella pumpkins – to make his Wedding Pumpkin Pudding.
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Our good friend Carolyn Jung, the San Jose Food Gal, succeeded in growing Meyer lemons in her backyard. She took those lovely lemons and baked these incredible lemon squares. |
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Brett, the writer behind Trout Caviar in St. Paul, Minnesota, reminisces about an old college buddy and his distinctive conversational style known as “Chippanese”. In honor of that memory, Brett took leeks from his garden, plus other local ingredients, to make some “Crazy Bad Soupage”.
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Kathryn of The Eaten Word in Western Massachusetts paired a freshly made hummus sandwich with her homegrown and homemade dill, cucumber, garlic and serrano pepper pickles. Perfect combination! |
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Veggie Dad Cooks writer Steve, from Ben Lomond, California, harvested some homegrown broccoli crowns, which he simply salted and steamed. Can’t get any better than that!
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Gail, blogging at The Clayton’s Blog in the South Highlands, New South Wales, Australia, made this beautifully rich quiche. She used oven-roasted, home grown cherry tomatoes, home grown onions, and even made her own feta cheese. Wow! |
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Demien Repucci from New York City, New York, received a large bag of homegrown garlic from his dad. He decided to try his hand at pickling garlic, and came up with three different pickling preparations.
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Penny, an All-Natural Mama in Northwestern Illinois, used her homegrown, multicolored potatoes to first make oven fries. Then she smothered them in homemade chili and topped Wisconsin cheddar cheese to come up with her wonderful Oven Chili Cheese Fries. |
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Christie, blogging at the appropriately named Home Grown in Victoria, Australia, is “jammed up” with too much apricot. So she took some of her excess apricot and made some terrific apricot leather.
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Pierre took a trip to Bangkok on a whim and ended up starting a whole new life in the foodie Nirvana that is Thailand. He made a frittate, using scrounged up some goat cheese, and some rosemary snipped from his herb garden. |
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El of Fast Grow the Weeds in SouthWest Michigan harvested some leeks in the dead of winter. After an impromptu semaphore leek dance, they turned out a lovely leek galette.
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Here’s another Michigan blogger, Troy, who Refuses to Recede. He dries, crushes, and makes his own herb blend, which he used to season his Herb-Encrusted Pork Loin. |
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Homebrewer Peter, blogs from our former home of San Jose, California on the Better Beer Blog. He used his homegrown hops to make a Harvest 2009 Pale Ale. Awesome!
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Kristina is a Girl Gone Grits in Austin Texas. She had a huge harvest of Meyer lemons from her backyard (so jealous!) which she and her husband turned into Limoncello, Lemon Olive Oil Cake, Lemon Bars, and preserved lemons. |
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Bee and Jai are the fun couple behind Jugalbandi in NorthWest USA. Bee sprouted her own wheatgrass and used some of it to make her “Sagz-to-Sexy Wheatgrass Smoothie”. It’s so healthy, it’ll grow hair on your face!
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Kathy the Dinner Diva of Los Angeles, California, blogs about What James (her boyfriend) Had for Dinner. This particular night, James was lucky enough to have a slow-cooker soup of lentils, butternut squash, and homegrown, canned tomatoes. |
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PJPink, the blogger behind River City Food and Wine in Richmond, Virginia, made an extreme beef stew which called for 100 cloves of garlic! Among the seasonings were her homegrown dried basil and bay leaves.
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| Cathy, who is an Aficionado of food in Sydney, Australia, has a prolific cucumber patch in her garden. So she tried out two different cucumber pickle recipes. Perfect for nibbling on! | |
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Kimberly, a teacher in Sweet Home, Alabama (where the skies are so blue), made a Wholesome Chicken Dinner, complete with homegrown green beans. Perfect Southern meal!
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Baltimore, Maryland gardener 2 Green Acres took some volunteer pumpkins from her yard, roasted them and made a not so great pumpkin soup. Too bad it didn’t turn out, but at least she tried. |
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Reveling in the fruits of the Australian Summer, Gail from The Clayton’s Blog picked a bountiful harvest from her garden and turned it into pesto, then marinated peppers.
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Writing in from McAllister, Montana, Cindy the Petunia Girl showed off her bright-red Turkish eggplants that she grew in a pot over the Summer. They almost look like tomatoes! |
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Going back Down Under, Geri , who is Getting Re-Rooted in Melbourne, Australia, took some homegrown chile peppers and used them in a simmering sauce for her Chilli Pork Spare Ribs.
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Flying out to Perth on the West Coast of Australia, Mr Sparrow owner Anna spent an entire weekend cooking up things from homegrown ingredients. Here is her simply delicious bruschetta using cherry tomatoes and basil from her garden. |
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Julie from the Cambridge, Massachusetts blog “Grow. Cook. Eat” grew some brussels sprouts, which she then cooked up into Brussels Sprouts Carbonara using smoked chicken instead of bacon. Then she ate it.
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Kathleen, who is Cooking in Mexico (over on the West Coast) was faced with a mountain of homegrown bananas. She turned a few of them into href=”http://livingandgivinginmexico.blogspot.com/2010/01/easy-banana-ice-cream-no-ice-no-cream.html”>banana “ice cream”, except there was no cream or ice, only bananas! |
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Urban farmer Stacy, farming on the Fessenden Homestead in Washington, D.C., roasted some garden-grown green beans and garlic and served it alongside a homegrown zucchini and shallot quiche.
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Dee Dee from New Hope, Pennsylvania, enjoys being Everyday Frugal, Everyday Green. She took homegrown basil, canned tomatoes and other fresh ingredients, and made her own basic homemade tomato sauce. |
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Chennai, India-based Divya of Indulge in the Taste has too many lemons in her garden (wish I had that problem!). She used her Grand Pa’s basic recipe and cooked this absolutely drool-worthy Lemon Chilli Pickle. Yum!
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The Speeding Turtle, a 14-year old baker in Australia, gives us some Food for Torte with another lemon-based recipe. She took a few of her Great Grandma’s homegrown lemons and turned out this absolutely beautiful Lemon Meringue Pie. *APPLAUSE* |
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Only Recipes is the blog of Auckland, New Zealand-based Alessandra. She shows off her garden prowess by preparing a Purple-Green Bean Salad with Balsamic Red Onion. All the vegetables came from her garden!
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In a second entry from Alessandra, she made use of her abundant yellow and green zucchini plus other garden herbs to make a delicious Zucchini Antipasto dish. |
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Divya who blogs at Dil Se in Los Angeles, California, grows her own methi (fenugreek) in her garden. Instead of using the seeds, she added the leaves to create a wonderfully fragrant methi leaves and lima beans rice dish. |
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The Recollections of a Vagabonde who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, tells of how her neighbor gave her a cutting of a Brown Turkey fig tree to plant in her own yard. She has been reaping the harvest ever since. Here she shows us how to make her fig jam.
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Betsy, who has a Kitchen Garden in Oakland, California, pulled up the last of her beets from her garden and turned them into a healthy purple soup. |
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Portland, Oregon-based Linda, the author of Alice’s Kitchen, a Lebanese cookbook, has a perfect Winter soup. “Shourbat makhlouta” is basically a “clean out your pantry” soup which in this case included some beans she had dried from last Summer’s garden.
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Ross the Twice Cooked Duck of Bangalow, NSW, Australia, is enjoying a summer bounty of homegrown heirloom tomatoes. What could be better than the classic Insalata Caprese (no vinegar!) |
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Houston, Texas-based Evelyn’s Food Blog showcased her homemade ricotta cheese in a Lemon-Ricotta-Chard pizza, which also featured homegrown Meyer lemons from her aunt.
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Southern California’s Caveman Cooking received some homegrown avocadoes from the Cave-in-laws, which he (with the able assistance of his cave-kid) turned into a delicious Rockin Guac. |
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Helen, the owner of Funkbunny’s Kitchen Garden in Melbourne, Australia, grew her own ravioli. Well, she grew her own ravioli ingredients, that is.
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Doctor Grandma Joyce from Utah blogs her Foodland Chronicles, dispensing healthy eating advice. She brought in some Swiss chard from her garden to make a Basic Sauteed Swiss Chard. |
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Bev, blogging her Kainga Happenings in Au
stralia, faced a typical Summer conundrum – what to do with zucchini squash that grow before your eyes. She found two recipes for them, Zucchini Fritters, and Spiced Courgette Chocolate Cake. |
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Julie, mother of a Gluten-Free Vegan Family in Colorful Colorado, tried out a raw cauliflower pilaf. Her hubby contributed his sprouted lentils to their dish.
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James, who writes the Food Diary of an Average English Man in England, UK, was treated by his wife to a tea of cauliflower with cheese, roasted potatoes, and baked beans. The cauliflower was originally from his garden.
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Melbourne, Australia’s Under Gardener who writes for The Queen’s Scullery, celebrated Australia Day with a Peach Melba with his homegrown peaches. |
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Kanawinkie in Coff’s Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, made an absolutely beautiful Asian Beef Salad which included fresh herbs from her garden.
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Leonie from Canberra, Australia, writes at Voted with Our Forks. He grew his own edamame (soybeans) which became part of a japanese-style meal. |
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Rebecca, who writes for the Demo Garden Blog in Wichita, Kansas, used some beets given to her by her parents to make a beautiful Roasted Beet and Blood Orange Salad.
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Esmaa, who has a Sense of Things in the Colorado Rockies, grew her own corn over the Summer. She then dried it, ground it into cornmeal, and made the Best. Cornbread. Ever. I believe it! |
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Grow Your Own creator Andrea from Andrea’s Recipes contributed this Popcorn with Brown Butter, Rosemary and Lemon. The delicious combination used her own rosemary plants, which have survived the Virginia Winter.
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The aforementioned Voted With Our Forks gave Canberra-based “Still Thinking” blog some zucchini. After doing some research, they decided to fix some Pasta with Simple Zucchini Sauce. |
| Garden Gal Erin from the New Eden Garden in Newbury, Massachusetts left some brussels sprouts out in the garden over Winter. Unfortunately, they did not survive the thaw. Still, she salvaged what she could and created this Brussels Sprouts Supreme, which became one of her most requested recipes. |
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Fiona the Cottage Smallholder in Suffolk, England, UK made use of some homegrown raspberries to make an amazing raspberry vinegar. |
| Finally, our own entry to this month’s GYO roundup is the Rambutans that were given to us by one of our friends, picked from her brother’s tree in Tebekang, Sarawak, Malaysia. |
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Did I miss anyone?
With so many entries coming in, I may have missed one or two of you. If so, I apologize deeply. Just shoot me an email via the Contact Form and I’ll update the post.
I am again hosting GYO for the month of February (stay tuned for the announcement). But if anyone is interested in hosting during March and April, just contact me or Andrea
Aloha, Nate
@all – thanks for your comments!
@Andrea – you're welcome!
@Kathleen – yes, it is!
@Rachel – definitely something I haven't seen before, and a welcome addition!
@esmaa – thanks!
@Sharlene – thanks a lot for yours!
@Carolyn – hey, at least you got lemons!
@Divya – you're welcome!
@EmmCee – thanks! look forward to your post.
@Urban Breadmachine – I'm jealous of your rosemary bread!
@Troy – I read through all those recipes at least twice. Such an amazing diversity!
@Spiele – thanks!
@Alessandra – you're welcome!
@momgateway – I'll put your post in the next roundup, 'kay?
@Cooking Ninja – thanks for coming by ours!
@Speeding Turtle – and great having you!
@reanaclaire – welcome!
thank you, annie and nate, for the great job!
@bee – thanks for participating! Hope to see another entry from you this month.
What a beautiful job you have done! All those yummie meals and recipes sound so dee-lish. Looking forward to see what you do next. How fun!