Backyard Supper

Our backyard garden contributed to a delicious supper this evening.  I have always longed for a sprawling back 40 that produces all or nearly all of our vegetable needs.  That said, I am no green thumb.  I am Charlie Brown and my attempt to grow a vegetable garden is Lucy with the football.  But this year, I have great hope.  (I'm quite sure I say that every year.)  My hope, I hope, is not unfounded.  This year Ben and our dear friend Danica built us the loveliest of raised beds.  We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapenos, and what has become a bumper crop of basil. 

The basil.  It's gone wild!  In the last couple of weeks I've harvested close to 10 cups off our plants.  I don't know how I'm going to keep up throughout the summer!  I need your basil recipes!  And lots of them!  I've made pesto, of course, and a simple lemon-basil syrup that I've been stirring into iced tea (Ben added it to a bit of bourbon), but that just isn't going to cut it.  I need basil recipes that require 10 and 12 cups of this lovely green stuff.

When I sat down to plan our meals for the week I did a bit of basil recipe googling and after reading many recipes for stuffed spinach shells, I decided to try my hand at a pesto spinach stuffed shell.  I'm happy to report that the experiment was successful and I worked my way through another couple of cups of basil.  A delicious supper, thanks in large part, to our luscious and thriving backyard.  Here's to hoping this is the first of many!