Sadly, the garden is over for another year… It’s been a good year, with a record amount of tomatoes, cucumbers, galore, and some pretty hot peppers.

The eggplant didn’t do as well as it has in the past, and, neither did the hot peppers, although there are still a few out back. The peppers that did arrive came late. I’ll go out and get the last of them as soon as it stops raining. (Wishing I could send the rain west…)

The green and purple beans started out great and then withered away. No idea why. The beets were good, but also not really plentiful. We also harvested the last of the leeks and the fresh ginger.

It really was the year of the tomato – and, when we weren’t canning them, they seemed to go into almost everything we made.

A few nights ago, I made a throw-together andouille sausage and chicken stew, and then the following night, made a pot pie with the leftovers.

I laid thick slices of tomato on top of the filling before adding the top crust. It was a pretty good use of leftovers…

And then, after seeing a recipe from La Cucina Italiana – I made a bean soup with shrimp.

I didn’t even remotely follow their recipe. but I did take their idea.

I made a quick bean soup using canned cannellini beans, homemade tomato paste, garlic, leeks, and celery, along with white wine, chicken broth, and aleppo pepper. I used an immersion blender to smooth it all out and then added a final can of beans for texture.

I sauteed shrimp in butter and olive oil, lots of garlic, a squirt of lemon, and lots of parsley.  Put the soup in a bowl, added the shrimp on top, and drizzled the pan juices around. It was pretty darned good. I made garlic bread from the Italian Bread I had made earlier in the week

It was pretty good, too.

We probably have another weeks worth of tomatoes ripening and then it’s over until next year – and next year’s garden will be in California!