Dinner on the Last Night of Spring

Gardening is paying off! The work that began in February is now beginning to culminate. 3 quarts of yellow squash is the most obvious iteration, but there is much more as well!

For this post, I thought I'd go through recipes and how I made tonight's dinner with a hooray when appropriate to celebrate that an ingredient came from the garden:

Eye of round:
4 eye of round steaks, cut into strips and sprinkled with pepper and onion powder
1 sprig of fresh basil, chopped (HOORAY!)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 c. vinegar

Heat up lemon, basil, and vinegar to a boil, place steak strips into it and cook until done. Reserve the juice, as this is the basis for the gravy. Reserve the steak, as this goes into the green bean dish.

Green beans:
1 quart green beans (HOORAY!)
2T butter
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic, minced (I have garlic growing, it's just not ready yet)

Saute all until green beans are done. I added 1/2 cup of water at the end to steam the beans. Add the steak strips at the end and serve together.

Gravy:
Steak juice (see above)
1-2 T flour
1-2 cups milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Put flour into steak juice and whisk until hot and bubbly. Add milk and whisk until thick, about 10-15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Mashed Potatoes:
1 yellow potato per person
Milk, sour cream, butter, salt, and pepper to taste
Fresh garlic snips (the green bit off the garlic growing HOORAY!)

Cook potatoes, add other ingredients to taste. The snips give a mild garlic flavor that is delightful.

Roasted squash:
Zucchini (HOORAY!)
Yellow squash (HOORAY!)
Olive oil
black pepper, sea salt, and Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on it.

Roast at 425 on parchment paper on a baking sheet until it starts to brown on top. I put it in the oven to cook while everything else was going.

Believe it or not, there were no leftovers. Go figure.