Seeing rainbows in the late summer garden

We arrived home from a weekend in St Louis to find a rainbow of veggies awaiting us in the garden. Dylan organized them by color, according to the artist's rainbow wheel, of course:

Red - radishes, tomatos, red peppers

Orange - sweet potatoes & more sweet potatoes

Yellow - Sunflowers and a sad melon that dropped too early

Green - okra, green beans, green peppers, green tomatoes for frying

Blue - peppermint flowers (which are more lavender than blue, really)

Violet - Japanese eggplant plus lots and lots of zinnias

While the sweet potatoes dried on a rack in the sunshine, we pickled the okra in a sweet vinegar brine (sugar and vinegar are in the same proportions as our sweet pickle recipe, but Dylan added 1 tsp pickling salt, 2 tsp pickling spice, 1 tsp dill seed for flavor). Then I prepped the other veggies for our lunch,

Rainbow Couscous:

1 box couscous, prepare according to package directions

1-1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 pat butter (I used Can't Believe it's Not Butter stick, which worked great. Be sure your substitute has oil as a first ingredient, NOT water)

1-2 small peppers, finely diced

1 small japanese eggplant, peeled, then sliced or cubed

1 clove garlic, finely diced

1 small sweet potato (mine was roasted already), sliced or cubed

1/4 cup real bacon bits

1/4 jalapeno, finely diced

1/4 cup scallions, chives, italian parsley, or cilantro for added color & texture, if desired

To prepare, heat oil on med-high heat in a large pan, add eggplant plus a dash of salt & pepper; sautee for a few minutes. Then add peppers, sautee for a few more minutes. Next add butter, garlic, sweet potato plus another dash of salt & pepper. After a few more minutes, toss in the bacon bits and jalapeno & turn off the heat. Place veggie mix on couscous and top with herbs, if desired.

It was such a yummy & quick lunch on this hot, summer day. I love that it doesn't even heat up my kitchen, since it cooks so quickly. Even my son LOVES it! A diced and sauteed portabella mushroom would be great in this, too.

For more detailed information on how to harvest and grow sweet potatoes, visit http://www.gardenguides.com/425-harvesting-sweet-potatoes.html

Tomorrow in the early AM, I'll roast most of my sweet potatoes and package them up for different recipes. I'll probably set aside the small guys for quartering and baking up as oven fries. I just use cooking spray and roast them at a high heat until crispy. Then toss in your favorite herbs, salt & pepper. They're great with cajun seasoning!

The roasted taters will either be mashed and stored, frozen, in 1/4 - 1/2 cup baggies for adding to biscuits, pancakes, pies, and breads or diced for soups & sautees. Plus, I'll have to sacrifice a few to my mother who came up with this yummy, hearty and quick dinner:

Ham with Pineapple and Sweet Potato

One slice bone-in ham

1 tbsp canola oil or butter

10 oz roasted sweet potatoes (or one can) with roasting liquid/can juices

10 oz can pineapple or equivilant fresh, with juice

Rice or butter noodles, prepared via package instructions

Scallions or chives, my addition for color and added flavor

To prepare, heat oil or butter in pan and add ham. Turn when it starts to curl up on the edges. Then add sweet potatoes and pineapple and heat through. Serve with rice or noodles. Top with herbs or scallions, if desired. Simple, yummy and SO nutritious!

Pulling out a few of the sweet potato plants should leave us room to seed spinach and lettuce tomorrow. I plan to use the sweet potato vines over mesh to shade the greens until it cools off next month. I'm hoping it will work. Keep your fingers crossed...