Enjoy cool antipasti and a garden tour

(Cold antipasti includes a tomato-mozzarella salad, clockwise from bottom, roasted baby zucchini, gorgonzola-stuffed green olives with fresh cherries, garden potatoes with garlic scape pesto and kalamata olives and marinated beet salad)

Whew! It's been hot, and when it's hot, who wants to cook?

Well, I have to admit, I recently turned on the oven when it was 97 degrees in the shade to bake a zucchini parmigiana, but, hey! I had to do something with all that garden zucchini, right?
That's not something I want to do all the time, especially during this hot, muggy spell we are experiencing here in the Hudson Valley.

So what to do when it's dinnertime? Enter the classic antipasti.

While a little cooking was involved for some things in the antipasti pictured above, it was minimal - a little grilling and steaming was all that was needed - and that was easily accomplished on the grill outside in the shade.
It's worth the effort to make these antipasti offerings, which got my family through a week of hot temps and eating light.

With the garden producing so much, it was easy to make grilled or steamed veggies and top them with vinaigrette or pesto. Paired with good Italian cheese and bread and a glass of wine, antipasti easily becomes a meal.

Freshly picked beets - chioggia, golden and Detroit Red - were steamed and dressed with a simple vinaigrette with thinly sliced red onion and a smattering of freshly minced dill, chives and parsley added.

Saffron squash and Fordhook zucchini are delicious grilled with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then topped with a bit of balsamic vinegar.

Freshly dug kennebec potatoes were steamed and tossed with some of the garlic scape pesto I made a while back. They were delicious served cold.

Of course, everything is better with garlic and an antipasti is not complete without a fresh tomato salad. I found some local hydroponic tomatoes in the supermarket which I used, but I can't wait for the first ripe one from the garden. The basil is ready and waiting for it as is the garlic, which is curing in baskets in the garage.

So use your imagination and what's available to suit your palate when the heat is on. Hey, it's summer, so go out and enjoy it. I love the long days and sounds of crickets at night when it's too hot to be inside.

And, of course, hot weather means things are growing in the garden.

So come on in the garden and let's see what's growing ...

Things are looking pretty good, especially given the lack of rain and high heat we've had lately in the Hudson Valley. The grass is still dry and brown, but a recent storm made it a bit better and there is more in the forecast this week.

Usually on a garden tour you can expect to be accompanied by at least one of the kitties. Carlos decided to come along on this one. He's checking out the pepper bed up front and hoping to snag a few grasshoppers to munch on.

The pepper plants are really taking off now, after that last rain. That's a Revolution bell plumping up and almost ready for picking.

I can't grow enough cherry peppers. They are our favorites, roasted and served with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a splash of Tamari and chopped garlic. I started more than two dozen plants from seed and they are looking good.

I find the pepper plants like to snuggle close together in the beds. They like it hot, too, and taste better when the season is on the dry side and hot, hot, hot! The epasote I planted last year is popping up all over the beds along with nicotiana, or flowering tobacco, which are both welcome volunteers.

Epasote is used in Mexican and Central American cooking, sort of like cilantro. While not a perennial, it vigorously reseeds and seems to like canoodling with the pepper plants. I'm going to use some the next time I make a batch of black beans and rice. Unlike cilantro, epasote is better when it is cooked in something, rather than using it raw like in a salsa.

The zucchini plants are producing loads of squash and there are plenty of blossoms to pick for special meals.

I love the name of the yellow variety - Saffron. It's tender and best picked young.

Yellow wax beans are coming in now. I try to make successive plantings every two weeks or so to keep the bean crop staggered.

The second planting of broccoli is thriving, despite the heat. Many of the braising greens are going to seed, which is why I get volunteers all over the place and which is also a good thing.

The cilantro is also flowering and going to seed. There is so much of it in the garden, along with calendulas, which I just love.

The cucumbers are growing up the fence and I can see the first little ones starting to form.

And dare I say it? The tomatoes are looking great! There are more than 60 plants, about 15 varieties I started from seed. I have all my fingers and toes crossed the blight does not hit this year. So far, so good. Last year this time I was bragging about them and then two weeks later - wham! The blight devastated the entire crop. (Please, dear tomato goddess, be kind to to us this year.) I've also used a copper fungicide safe soap to help that goddess along. It's supposed to help keep the blight at bay.

I have lots of plans for these beauties. These are the San Marzanos, which are great for sauce.

These are the Mountain Fresh, which are supposed to be disease resistant, abundant growers and good-tasting. Can't wait to sink my teeth into one of these, fresh from the vine, with salt shaker in hand.

These are the Roma tomatoes, which are also good for sauce and just plain eating.

There are lots of flowers along the borders and interspersed throughout the garden. One of my favorite flowers is the dahlia, which comes in all colors and sizes. This one is the color of chianti and is just starting to open multiple heads. I dig the tubers up each year in the fall and save them over the winter for replanting the next season.

Cleome is a lovely flower that looks great in close plantings. It also reseeds like crazy, which is fine with me.

So that's it for the tour for now. Giacomo decided to wait outside the garden to keep an eye on things. He's got a little spiritual help in the background, which we could all use now and then, right?