Harvest time this year has brought much more produce that we could imagine. It seems like everything I've made in the kitchen lately has been an attempt to maximize the path between the garden and the dinner table - I must say it's made for some interesting pizza concoctions.


Having a lot more produce has also led to a recent salsa experiment. I've made plenty of fresh salsa before (which I love), but I've never tried any cooked salsa. If I didn't have all these tomatoes, I might have skipped it, but cooked salsa will keep much longer than the fresh stuff. Now that it's done, I plan on eating salsa from the garden throughout the winter. I also plan on using up many of those mystery peppers that came from the assorted pepper mix of seeds!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 30 or so smaller tomatoes


• 2 green peppers


• Assorted peppers (hot and otherwise)


• 1 large onion


• 1/4 cup vinegar


• 1/4 cup sugar


• 3 tablespoons of salt


• 4 cloves of garlic

Chop/dice all the veggies. Sautee onions and peppers with the garlic. Combine with the tomatoes, sugar, and vinegar in a large pot. Simmer anywhere from ten minutes to a half hour to thicken the salsa and let the flavors mix. Salt to taste, and enjoy!

There are all kinds of fun variations you can do with cooked salsa. You can add corn, beans, apples... it's up to you and your garden!

Ever been to Reno? Strange question to start the day with, but stick with me for a moment. Reno, which may not necessarily be talked about fondly outside the bowling or gambling circles, is home to favorite restaurant in the whole-wide world: the Pneumatic Diner.

I really wanted to call this the "Made-up Muffuletta Sandwich," because event though it's been a few years since I've been to Reno, I have fond memories of ordering the Muffuletta sandwich from the Pneumatic Diner. I googled Muffuletta and found that the real sandwich is nothing like what I ordered, so I decided to try to recreate my favorite sandwich on my own. And, as not to confuse other googlers, I don't feel like I can call this muffuletta. This is less about the bread and more about the insides of the sandwich.

With all those disclaimers out of the way, let's get started.

Gather your ingredients. You'll need some marinara sauce (extra points if you've made it from your own tomatoes) and some pesto (I get extra points here). Find some parmesan - our grocery has some great coarsely shredded parmesan in bulk. Grab some garlic and some salt for flavor. Pick up a baguette at your local bakery. And then... dash into your garden and pluck all those ready zukes, squash, eggplants, and onions out of their plots and bring them back in the kitchen.

Wash and chop the squash and zukes and garlic and, if you'd like, a yellow onion, and begin to stir fry with a little olive oil. Wash the eggplant and slice it thinly. Fry this separately so that you can get most the water to evaporate. The eggplant will crisp up nicely if you give it time.

Cut your baguette in sandwich size chunks and then slice them lengthwise. Toast it to your preference and spread with a generous portion of that storebought or homemade (pats self on back) pesto.



Once the squash and zukes are hot but not soggy, put your marinara sauce in the pan. How much marinara? Well, I used about two cups per one giant zuke and two small squash. It's really up to you - this is definitely a forgiving recipe. All the ingredients are add to taste.

Layer your eggplant on top of the pesto, then cover with the squash/zuke marinara. Sprinkle parmesan and some crisp purple onions on top.




Now, here's the tricky part - I made this a sandwich, but my memory is a little clearer now. The Pneumatic Diner served theirs open-faced, probably because all that yummy marinara squeezes out when you put the halves together. I'd recommend repeating these steps on the other half of your bread. It'll be twice as good, I guarantee it!