Freshly picked garlic from Loon Organics

8 More days until the Garlic Festival here in Hutch. It is all things garlic this month here at Clay Coyote. We will be featuring our tastiest garlic recipes prepared with our favorite Clay Coyote pieces. I will be creating my dishes from my weekly produce box from Loon Organics. I was inspired to create this dish after a recent discussion on different methods of preparing baba ghanoush. I thought, “Zucchini might be a tasty alternative to eggplant.” Mmm mmmmmm I was right!  I had previously roasted and then frozen multiple heads of garlic, so this recipe was prepared in less than 10 minutes.

Roasted Garlic Zucchini Dip
3 zucchini
1/2 head roasted garlic
1 Tablespoon tahini
Splash white wine vinegar
Squirt lemon juice
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Roast garlic in your Clay Coyote Garlic Roaster.  Peel zucchini, chop, and blend or process along with garlic and tahini. Add lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste. I have been snacking on this all week. First with carrots, then pita, crackers, and yesterday I scooped it up with summer squash. It will keep in your refrigerator for up to a week covered.

I have a trivia for you garlic and poetry lovers out there. Who said, “Eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.”?…

After a winter of grousing about winter (ours hasn’t been much worse than many parts of the country) we awoke to this … zero degrees, everything covered in soft fluffy down like snow, the clear, still air literally sparkling as moisture condensed and formed snow which didn’t fall, but just floated.

We get maybe one of these mornings a year, usually in late January or early February. You just stand there in the silence and marvel at them.

During the snow yesterday, about a foot of it, the wind howled into huge drifts around the gallery. This one’s nearly 5 feet deep.

Birds, especially pheasants, have really taken a hit this year because of the snow and cold. The songbirds often travel further south, but the pheasant are stuck. Early snow kept them out of their cattail cover and deep snow finally knocked out most of their food sources. On our west fence row we used to see 40 to 0 every morning. Now we see just a few stragglers.

and a week ago, we almost thought we were to have an early spring. Oops.

After a winter of grousing about winter (ours hasn’t been much worse than many parts of the country) we awoke to this … zero degrees, everything covered in soft fluffy down like snow, the clear, still air literally sparkling as moisture condensed and formed snow which didn’t fall, but just floated.

We get maybe one of these mornings a year, usually in late January or early February.  You just stand there in the silence and marvel at them.

During the snow yesterday, about a foot of it, the wind howled into huge drifts around the gallery.  This one’s nearly 5 feet deep.

Birds, especially pheasants, have really taken a hit this year because of the snow and cold.  The songbirds often travel further south, but the pheasant are stuck.  Early snow kept them out of their cattail cover and deep snow finally knocked out most of their food sources.  On our west fence row we used to see 40 to 0 every morning.  Now we see just a few stragglers.

and a week ago, we almost thought we were to have an early spring.  Oops.

Last night was the first frost here in Minnesota.  Not a hard one, but enough to turn the low spots white.  Now we can get on with Indian Summer.  How many of you remember the piece that used to run in the Chicago Tribune every fall?  “Injun Summer” by John T McCutcheon. Maybe not PC now, but it was a tradition until 1992.

We’ve had a beautiful fall and following earlier rain, trees are gorgeous.  If you want one of the following photos as a desktop photo email me (claypot(at)hutchtel.net) and I’ll send you a higher res version.

Lake Todd NE of Gallery

Lake Todd NorthWest of Gallery

Looking N from the Gallery

Last night was the first frost here in Minnesota.  Not a hard one, but enough to turn the low spots white.  Now we can get on with Indian Summer.  How many of you remember the piece that used to run in the Chicago Tribune every fall?  “Injun Summer” by John T McCutcheon. Maybe not PC now, but it was a tradition until 1992.

We’ve had a beautiful fall and following earlier rain, trees are gorgeous.  If you want one of the following photos as a desktop photo email me (claypot(at)hutchtel.net) and I’ll send you a higher res version.

Lake Todd NE of Gallery

Lake Todd NorthWest of Gallery

Looking N from the Gallery