Tag Archives: spinach

Garden Fresh Cottage Pie with Summer Squash and Zucchini

by stuporglue Posted on July 23, 2010

Squash time again!

The garden has been producing beans and peas like crazy. We have been able to keep up so far, but posting here has lagged with the work I’ve been doing. This post comes courtesy of a Denver to Salt Lake City flight. I’m headed out to Utah to meet my new boss, pick up a car from Caroline’s Grandpa (he can’t drive anymore) and then driving right back.

Cottage pie ingredients and the day's harvest
Cottage pie ingredients and the day's harvest

The squash and zucchini production has been steady: one or two per day, medium sized. Here’s what we did with them early last week. It’s a variation on cottage pie. I’m not sure what the dividing line is between cottage pie and a generic casarole, so perhaps this is more casarole than pie. Either way it was a huge hit.

Garden Fresh Cottage Pie with Summer Squash and Zucchini

There are four layers to this dish.

Ingredients

Layer 1 came straight from the garden

Layer one vegetables in cottage pie
Layer one: vegetables in cottage pie
  • 2 medium Turnips, diced
  • 1 small summer squash, sliced
  • 1/2 medium zucchini, sliced
  • 1/2 cup shelled peas
  • 1 cup green beans, chopped in 1/2 inch lengths

Layer 2

  • 1.5 cups Browned ground beef or turkey

Layer 3

The potatoes were flakes, the rest from the garden

  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 4 cups mashed potatoes (we used flakes, real would’ve been better)

Layer 4

  • 1/2 cup grated provolone cheese
  • 4 or 5 Crushed saltine crackers

Instructions

Dice the turnips and steam them in the microwave for about 10 minutes. I put them in a bowl with some water and covered it with plastic wrap.
Slice the zucchini and summer squash into very thin slices. They should bend when held horizontally.
Mix and spread all of the layer 1 vegetables across the bottom of the pan.
Spread a layer of ground beef or turkey across the vegetables

Cottage pie with summer squash layers
Cottage pie with summer squash layers

Chop the spinach and cilantro. Cook the mashed potatoes with the spinach and cilantro. and spread it over the other two layers.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes. This should be enough time to soften the vegetables on layer one and add a slight crust to the potatoes.

Crush the crackers and sprinkle across the potatoes and the proavalone cheese on top of that. Put the dish in the oven on low broil for about 5 minutes. When you pull it out, it should look something like this.

Cottage pie casarole in the pan
Cottage pie casarole in the pan

Serve and Enjoy!

Cottage pie with summer squash
Cottage pie with summer squash
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Garden Update : Free Tomatoes and Cucumbers, Peas, Spinach AND MUCH MUCH MORE

by stuporglue Posted on June 19, 2010

Despite the lack of updates, I have been busy in the garden and out. Work, Consulting, Scouts and Family have taken priority over blogging for some reason. Here’s what’s been growing on.

Free Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Cantaloupe!

A nice lady had about 35 free tomato plants listed on Craigslist. I was the lucky recipient! Several varieties of paste tomatoes and some good slicers. Most of the tomatoes should make it, although a few were small and are struggling with the transplanting. The new tomatoes made up for the many tomatoes that I killed.

The same lady also gave me two cantaloupe plants, so we’ll see how that goes!.

We managed to snag two free small cucumber plants from another person on Craigslist and found a place for them in our yard.

Sticks and String!

Some tomato plants are getting big and the peas are growing like crazy. Both were overdue for some support. Ryan and Calvin and I pruned the lilac trees and used the trunks and branches for tomato stakes and to build a pea trellis. Ryan (age 4) really did cut down two lilac trees all by himself with a two foot hand saw. I gave Calvin (age 2) a coping saw with the blade turned to the inside so that he couldn’t really cut with it. He eventually decided he wanted to help me push the bow saw back and forth, so he did.

Tomato Stakes
Tomato Stakes

The dirt was soft enough that I could just hold on tight to the stick and lean on it and I could get the stick in deep. Except on two of them where I hit a rock. Nothing too fancy, just sticks and twine.

Pea trellis
Pea trellis

The pea trellis is a bit fancier. There are two arches/x shapes with a cross beam,all lashed together. There is string zig-zagging up and down and across along the rows. The peas have been climbing it enthusiastically. If they keep going I might need to build it taller!

Hey Buddy!

This is the first flower bud I saw on any of my squash/pumpkin/cucumber type plants. I have since seen several more. I’m not sure if this is a squash or pumpkin. I love squash and pumpkins. We made our own pumpkin pie filling a few years ago and it was great. Now that we have a pressure canner, I plan on putting some away so we can have it all year long.

Pumpkin or Squash Bud
Pumpkin or Squash Bud

Harvest!

The spinach is up and being eaten. We take in just as much as we want at a time. Tonight we brought in just the handful show below to make some cracker spread.

The radishes are gone. We ate a lot of tops in salads, but the radishes never really plumped out so I took them out once they started getting tough rooted and flowering. I think I didn’t thin them soon enough.

The peas have started! Just a handful of pea pods tonight but everyone enjoyed them, even Mr. Picky himself (Calvin). We planted peas that are meant to be eaten as pods as well as regular eat-the-peas peas, but I’m not sure which variety this was. I think it was the eat-the-pods type.

Peas and Spinach
Peas and Spinach

The cilantro is about 2 inches tall and we have been snitching a leaf now and to eat on the spot, but not enough to call it harvesting.

That’s it for tonight!

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