Recipes from the Garden - #ChooseDreams Around the Family Table

Hi, I'm Chef Dennis Littley, and I'm here with Isabelle Lacy, and we're here today for Recipes Around the Garden from the Choose Dreams category of American Family Insurance, where we're doing Around the Family Table. And it's a pleasure to be here with you today for American Family, and we're excited to be bringing you some wonderful— well, we're bringing you one recipe today that we're going to do. We're going to bring you some tips from Jennifer, and Jennifer's— I'm going to introduce her in just a minute, let Isabelle do that. But we're going to get started and talk a little bit about why we're here today, and that's we want to bring you some wonderful recipes that are garden fresh from this bountiful produce that's in the markets right now. So Isabelle, I'd like you to take it away for a minute and tell the good people why we're here and introduce Jennifer.

Thanks so much, Dennis Littley. It's such a pleasure being here in your kitchen with you. This is just wonderful, and I'm so excited to be working with American Family. They have just great visions and really encourage us to choose dreams in what we do. And one way that we can do that as a family is by cooking together. And not only cooking together, but starting to grow together, starting a garden and really setting our families up to start eating and going down that healthy track as a family. So I'm going to introduce Jennifer. She is from Peanut Butter and Peppers. And, uh, She has a great story. She's a member of our Sunday Supper community and I just love her blog, so it was just a perfect fit to work with American Family. So without further ado, here's Jennifer.

Hi everyone, how are you? As Isabelle said, I'm Jennifer from Peanut Butter and Peppers. I'm a health food blogger that takes everyday food and tries to make it a little bit healthier without sacrificing the flavor or adding all those weird off ingredients to try to change it. I have a picky family who likes the typical meat and potatoes type of thing, so I got to kind of make it a little healthier, and that's kind of what I try to do, and that's what my blog's about.

Well, I'm glad you include peanut butter in the healthy part of that.

Well, it's funny that the peanut butter part— the whole reason I even started blogging was I went to Whole Foods, and they have one of those machines with the peanuts in it, and then you press it, and it comes out peanut butter. You don't even know. That was like I discovered gold. I was like, what? How did it do that? I loved it so much. I went home, and I tried making it in my food processor, and it worked. And I was like, oh my God. I was so excited. I started a blog because of that. And that's where the peanut butter came in, and I didn't know what else, and I like peppers, and that's kind of how it all went together. But that was the whole reason I even started blogging, is because I felt the world needed to know how to make peanut butter.

That's wonderful. And are you still making your own peanut butter?

Yes, actually I still do. It's one of my favorite things to make. I've gone through quite a few food processors to do it, but I still do it. Nothing beats it.

I guess not. Once you've tasted a real homemade peanut butter, it's like anything else. The commercial varieties fall really short, and you know, that's one of the reasons we're here today, to show you you can make things in your home really simply by using good healthy ingredients that are in your market. You don't have to buy things that have to go in the microwave or, you know, drive-through. So, uh, we're going to— Isabelle, we have a Sam today. You want to tell them what you're making?

Sure, absolutely. So my family loves sausage, peppers, and onions. And, you know, when you cook that, the whole house just smells amazing. And I really wanted to Tried to see what I could do with that, bring in some of those natural flavors of the peppers and onions, but make it a little bit healthier. So that's really the inspiration for this dish. We love salmon and this is one of those dishes that I could get home from work, the kids could get home from their sports, and we could whip up in literally less than half an hour, dinner's on the table. So how appropriate, guess what's in it? Jennifer? Peppers! Of course! I figured that would be really appropriate. So I'm just going to show you, we have a salmon fillet just sitting here, and I'm going to show you just how quick and easy you can whip up dinner. And all we do is take a little bit of olive oil and brush it on the salmon.

And you'll notice a nice little squeeze bottle. That's how I keep my oil. Makes it so easy to put on for sautéing or for putting small amounts on.

I love that. As you could tell, Dennis Littley is the chef. I'm the home cook, so he has all the great little tips and tricks. And then you're just going to take a little bit of garlic and brush the salmon with the garlic right over the olive oil, and that will just give it a really nice coating and flavor.

I can smell it now, oh my God, it's already smelling great.

Then we're going to take just a little bit of sea salt and sprinkle it on. At the end we'll also finish it with a little bit more sea salt, but you know, that just gets it really going and gets that taste and that smell. And then a little bit of red crushed pepper and sprinkle it on. Depending on how spicy your family likes it, you could go a little bit more, a little bit less. Then we're going to take our red onions that I've already sliced up and just place the onions on top of the salmon and go all the way through. And isn't it amazing, Dennis, just doing this, it smells so good already.

I know, I know, the juices are flowing already. I mean, that's the wonderful thing about preparing food is that, you know, it makes you want to eat it. And when you start making healthy food and you're really smell those vegetables in with whatever else you're cooking. It really gets the senses going.

Absolutely. So again, depending on how much you like onions, we like them quite a bit, especially when they're covered in olive oil and some peppers. And then just for fun, one of the things that— it's really fun to grow peppers, and it's even more fun if you do them in all different colors. Not only is it pleasing to the eyes, but It also tastes really good because each color tastes just a little bit different and adds just a little bit of a layer of flavor on top of the salmon. And again, I'm just placing those on there in no particular order, just, you know, fill it up and make it look pretty.

That's beautiful.

Yeah. We're going to just squeeze a little bit more olive oil on top just to make sure that we get those peppers nice and juicy and they don't dry up. A little more salt on top, a little bit more crushed pepper, and our dinner is ready to go in the oven. How quick was that?

That was pretty simple. Now, could you do this with any other fish?

Absolutely, absolutely. You could do it with any fish. And a lot of times I actually add additional vegetables. So this time I just want to leave it really traditional, how you would do it if you were doing it with the sausage, but you could add almost anything.

I was going to ask you that because we love mushrooms and I was thinking some mushroom caps with this, you know, sautéed up with them, or even maybe— well, potatoes would take a little too long. You'd have to par-cook them first.

I have done that and I will roast them first and then place the salmon on top and then the peppers and onions and place that in the oven, and that works great also. Yes, absolutely. And then add your chou-chou over it.

It just gets even more flavor.

Absolutely. And the best part about it is even if you're entertaining, so whether you're making this just for your family or you're making it for guests, this is such a beautiful presentation when it comes out of the oven. It's, you know, a whole beautiful piece of fish. All the vegetables look great. And, you know, it's perfect. You just slice it up and serve it however you'd like. So I'm going to go ahead and place this in the oven.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

You're welcome. And we're figuring about 20, 25 minutes should do it?

It should be no longer than 20 minutes, I don't think, yeah.

So we'll keep an eye on it. You know, this oven, my oven's a little different. I'm still testing it to try and figure out exactly where the temperature is on it, so we'll take a look at it around 18 or 20 and hope for the best and see what comes out. But now we're going to talk to Jennifer a little. Jennifer's got some tips for us, I think, on on gardening, or let's talk to Jennifer about what she does.

Absolutely. So I know for me, and it sounds funny, but the reason that I was really inspired to grow a garden was that we went to the library, and our library started a seed garden, and seeing how interested my boys were in all the different seeds and what we can do, we actually checked out books and thought, you know what, this is a great experiment. So Jennifer has been doing this for a lot longer than I have, and she has just some great tips on not only how to get started but how to get that garden going.

Sounds good. We're going to turn it over to you right now, then we're going to come back to some comments later. So let's talk about your gardening.

Okay, well, I started— I actually started gardening when we bought our house, which was about, gosh, like 7 years ago, because my whole life I've always lived in an apartment. So I've always had like container gardens with fresh herbs that I can pick and put in my cooking, but I've never really cooked any kind of herbs or grew any kind of vegetables. That's exactly how I was too.

I was the same way. I was comfortable with those herbs, but I was so scared to make that leap over to vegetables.

Yes, and I tried them in some containers, and some turned out okay, but they don't get the perfect— they turn out good, but when I dug them and put them into the ground, Oh my God, the first time I did tomatoes, which I always thought would be hard, they were the easiest thing to grow. They just grew huge. The fresh produce that you can grow yourself is nothing. I don't care what. It's nothing, even from the store at all. The stuff at the store is just like— once you taste something that you've grown yourself and then you compare it to from your local grocery store. It's just, it's totally different. So it's one of the reasons why I plant, like I grow, I try to do a vegetable garden every year. The one year last year I didn't have one because my dog was just obsessed with vegetables as I was, and unfortunately he ate pretty much the whole garden. But this year we changed it around and it went to the front yard. So we cleared out a big huge patch in the front yard this year, and so I got my tomato plants in there and I'm growing zucchini for the first time and cucumbers and of course I have the peppers and I do have a variety. So I'm really looking forward to all that. I already picked my first zucchini yesterday and I'm patiently waiting for the peppers so I'm thinking this weekend I may be able to get a few.

Excellent.

And one of the things that I love is, is there a better smell smell than when you first pick a tomato. To me, it is one of the most beautiful smells that you can absolutely smell. And many times when you buy them at your local grocer, they don't smell like anything. And I always think, what happened to the smell? Where's that beautiful smell from the fresh-picked tomatoes?

Yeah, I agree completely. I love that smell too. And you're right, it's not at the stores. So it's just another benefit and perk. Yeah, now I'm excited. Now I want— I can't wait till my tomatoes are done.

Absolutely.

Well, since we're speaking of tomatoes, I wanted to give you a tip about what I've learned. I've read so many gardening books and I try to take everything that I've learned and incorporate in my own way. And I have read, and it's proven to be true, that at least I think it is, is that when I'm planting tomato plants, I always plant basil near it, near the tomatoes, because for some reason Yeah, for some reason, you know, and it's actually a great idea if you wanted to make an Italian garden, you know, where you could have your tomatoes, you can have peppers, and you can have your basil and oregano and stuff and make a nice little Italian pizza type garden.

Absolutely, so what does that do? What is the reason that you want to plant the tomatoes near basil? Is there a reason?

There's something with it, I don't know how it does it, I don't know if it's through the root system or what it is, but there's something Something about when the basil is near the tomato, it actually makes the tomato smell and it's more of a robust flavor in the tomato. It's actually, it's so much better. I've tried it both without, and they're both equally good whether you have a basil plant or not, but with the basil, the color's a little bit more red and you get a little bit better flavor of the tomato. It's very strange, don't know how it happens, but It's companion cooking and companion planning and companion cooking. Tomato basil, throw in some mozzarella, and you have my favorite summertime meal.

Me too. I could eat that every day, I tell you, and come up with different variations to it all the time, whether it's just by itself, on a flatbread, on a sandwich. I could eat that every single day.

I agree. Throw in some balsamic vinegar or just even a little bit of olive oil and some pepper. I'm sold. I love the Caprese style anything.

Absolutely. So do you have a favorite tomato to grow, or just you like them all?

Well, you know what, I'm actually, I'm kind of boring, and I'm not really good with all the names, but I actually like plum tomatoes because they're my favorite, and I like cherry tomatoes. You know, I eat them, you know, you just pop them in your mouth. I have them for snacks, you know, cut them up and throw them in my salad. So I've always been just like a big fan of the cherry tomato. And I like the pop in the mouth too. I don't know, I just do.

And you know, that is a great tip because I have found that when we keep the little cherry tomatoes or the grape tomatoes just sitting on our front shelf in the refrigerator, my kids will literally, we could go through them, you know, a bowl every day because every time they open that fridge they just pop some in. And you know, that's such a great tip to just keep those easy fruits and vegetables right at eye level with the kids in your refrigerator, and you'll be amazed at how they'll reach for that before they reach for something else.

Yeah, you know, in the same way, because I'm one of those— I'm the boredom eater, you know. You come home from work and you're like, "Ah, I'll just grab pretzels, I'll just grab chips." But when you have something healthy, your fruits and your vegetables easy access right there, especially when you open their fridge, because you know you're going to reach for I'll just grab the vegetables and stuff. I always do. I always keep chopped vegetables in my fridge because yeah, I'm that snacker person. I think I'd rather snack than actually eat a whole meal.

I hear you. Absolutely. I'm the same way. And it's amazing to me how once we started doing that with our kids, whether it's a bowl of fresh-cut pineapple, a bowl of strawberries, or tomatoes, they will grab that if it's the first thing that they see. In the fridge.

Yeah, so it's so good for them, and it makes you feel good too, you know, being a mom and, you know, or dad and having your kids eating something healthy than having candy bars and whatever they get from school. So it's nice and good for them. Absolutely. You know, it's one of the great things is that with kids, getting them involved in eating that, is you should get them involved in growing in your garden too. I mean, it's funny, it actually kind of shocked me that my stepdaughter, her name is Jennifer also, so I call her Little Jenny. She used to go, when we first bought our house and stuff, she used to go with me to the nursery. She would go and walk around and take pictures with her cell phone. But I never really made anything of it. And she actually told me 2 weeks ago when we were driving, it was actually on Mother's Day, She goes, "Why don't we go to our nursery anymore? We don't go anymore." And I was like, "You liked going?" She goes, "Yeah, I loved doing that and picking out plants and helping you in that." I was almost, I almost fell over. And she's like, "I remember we did this and picked that." And you know how you think that they're not listening or paying attention? They really are. And so I think it's just— Absolutely.

I agree with you. And I find too that if children are growing the vegetables and part of the process of picking picking the seeds, they are so much more likely to try different vegetables that they probably would not if you just, you know, brought it home for them. They're a little more excited to, you know, see it come to life and when it first starts to sprout and as it grows. So it's a great way really to get the family involved all the way around.

Yeah, I completely agree. Anyhow, I— You know, the only ones they don't want involved are the dogs, but you know, I already told you that.

That's a great story about your dog, that he loved the garden as much as you did.

Oh my God, I'm telling you, he would eat everything, everything, crazy.

That's great, it was probably a very healthy dog, I would say.

Yes, he is, but he really eats everything. I don't know what he doesn't eat. But he goes for the tomato plants. And those ones— just another tip for anyone who does have pets. Tomato plants, not the tomato itself, I don't think, but I will tell you that the tomato plant in general is toxic to your dogs. So if you do have dogs that are like mine who just keep eating it, try to block it from them. This is something I learned from my vet, and I Googled it, of course. And it is true, so I was wondering why my dog, you know, I'm like, I don't know how he's still here because it really is that healthy for them. So just a little tip about tomato plants, keep them away from the dogs. Of course most animals smell, won't eat them, but mine does. Did you know that? I didn't know that.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, I had no idea.

I knew poinsettia was no good for them, but I had no idea tomatoes.

Strange little things in life.

We have some great comments coming in here. Melanie Hall is just saying she recently has been using grapeseed oil and loves it. Wants to know if I use it. I do not, but I've heard a lot of things about it, Melanie. Do you use any of that?

I have, and I love it. I agree with Melanie. It really is great. And the same thing, I mean, I love olive oil, and that's typically what I use, but when I tried it, really enjoyed it.

You have to give it a try.

Absolutely.

And we have, let's see, Cindy Kirschner is here, and Cindy says companion planting does work. Basil repels tomato insects like spider mites and aphids. Win-win. Awesome.

What a great tip, Cindy.

And here's Scott Scowcroft is here.

Yeah, great tip.

Thank you.

Great tip to place healthy nibbly foods at eye level, and not just for kids.

Ah, yes, absolutely.

Elena Bellamette is here from London. She's with us and she loves cherry tomatoes. Thanks for being here, Elena. We're happy to see you. Coach Moore is in the house. Kristen Drysdale is in the house. They love grapey grape tomatoes. I think everybody loves grapey grape tomatoes.

They're the best.

Renee Dobbs is here and she's saying, "Great tip, Christopher. I have a big problem with deer eating my plants." Christopher must have said something.

Oh, what is the tip?

There's Christopher Vogelman. Christopher Vogelman, thanks for being here. My favorite thing was to plant as much rosemary as possible around the yard. The garden kept many plants safe from the omnipresent deer. They hate rosemary.

Who knew?

Because a little rosemary on deer when you roast it is a wonderful thing.

That is very true. I have to say, my rosemary has grown into a rosemary bush. I have enough to give away to the entire neighborhood. Thank goodness we love it and cook with it all the time.

I tell you, this is the first year I planted mint, and my mint went berserk. It took over the whole thing. I had to pull it out. It was a mercy kill.

Don't be surprised if the mint comes back, because I did the same thing, and I pulled it up, and I'll tell you, my dog trampled the whole garden, but there's still mint there. It's still coming up.

Really?

That's okay. I saw it.

I saw one today, so you're absolutely right. I'm going, what the heck? I got rid of all that. And Nazim Beltram is here, and Nazim is in Milan, and it's about— gotta be close to midnight for Nazim. Wow. And he says, Elena, he loves caprese, and that was— we were talking about the basil, tomatoes, and then a little fresh mozzarella.

Oh my gosh, nothing quite like it. Absolutely the best.

Kathleen DeCosmo is in the house. She's in New York. We just discovered we love Brussels sprouts roasted with crushed garlic, balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil. That's the only way I'll eat them.

I agree. They are the best.

That's good to know. I know we had some other tips we were going to share, and they're going to put them up on the Pinterest board because we are having a little difficulties putting them on the event page right now. But we'll post links to them and they're going to be on the Pinterest board. Jennifer sent us some great tips. But if you want to talk about them, we have time to talk about them right now too.

I wish that everyone was here with us. Do you smell how good it's starting to smell in here? That's the only thing that Google+ could do better. If they had a smell button that everyone—

Let me tell you, I don't know if that would be a good thing or a bad thing because then people would really be drooling all over their keyboards. That might not be such a good thing. I hit my head all too often on the screen trying to get to what people are reading, so I don't know.

Absolutely, absolutely, but it does, it smells fantastic in here and I wish you were all here with us to just smell how good those peppers and onions smell on that salmon.

You're making me drool, I wish I was there. Ah, jealous. It's getting close to dinner time here.

We have plenty of room here, so you know, you're always welcome if you're whatever in the area.

Okay.

Where are you at, Jennifer? What part of the country are you in?

I'm actually near San Francisco. I'm about 35 miles east of San Francisco in the East Bay.

So what other tips do you have for us?

Let's see, well since we're talking about actually planting, I found actually, I actually found a really good that I started this year was I actually took my soil, just as a basic as I was going, I took my soil and I used, you know, like for fertilizer, I used the Miracle-Gro garden soil and kind of mended it in, and then I just took a little bit of plant food and stuck it in my, you know, when I dug the hole for my plants, I just put a little bit in there, and all I've done now for the past, it's been 2 months, my garden is huge, and all I've done is water it. I haven't had to update any of the of the feeding or anything, which kind of surprised me. So I think that's like really good, amend that soil with some good fertilizer and then put a little bit of plant food in with it. I love that.

I'm all about low maintenance, so I love that tip. That is wonderful because I want to just plant it and watch it grow. So that is perfect.

Well, I'm one of those people that I get so excited at the beginning of spring, And what happens is I start to fizzle out by mid-June, July, because I'm like, now it's hot out and I'm just like, eh. So I need to have it as easy as I can make it because it always starts off good and then it starts to fizzle. So I'm finding that using the soil and the fertilizer is just working out just perfect. I don't have to do anything.

Absolutely, I love that.

And one of the tips I wanted to give that I found actually works and I read is that plant marigolds around your garden everywhere. It prevents the, um, yeah, it prevents aphids from attacking your plants. And it just kind of attracts them. And I found, because we have a really bad issue with neighborhood cats, and they always were in this garden, and so I replowed it out and everything, and I'm finding that it is repelling the cats from going in the garden too because it's such a potent smell, but yet they're a pretty flower and they add a pop of color. And I'm finding marigolds are really beneficial to the garden. I haven't had any issues with any insects or anything this year. So I highly recommend using marigolds when you're planting anywhere in the garden. I love it. Yeah.

Especially if you have it in your front yard, right? I mean, your front yard must look beautiful. Beautiful. That is a fantastic—

Yeah, and I love it because in my garden, because being in California everything's kind of dry, we have lavender grows really well in the drier plants, but for some reason, tomato plants do well, and I like it because it's green, because everything around me turns brown, everything in California, and it's been a drought really bad this year, so everything, we kind of missed the spring this year, that nice green and everything is kind of tan and that, so it's kind of nice having a vegetable garden because it's kind of low maintenance a little bit. It doesn't take as much water as you need and it adds such a nice pop of color. And you know, I always thought having a vegetable garden in my front yard would be like, who does that? I tell you, it actually looks really nice and when I drive up my, when I come in and you know, when I'm driving in my driveway and I'm like, ah, look at it, and I get all excited and go and pluck and trim and get ready, so. I think you should plant a vegetable garden anywhere. It doesn't matter. If you have a little spot, you should just plant one. It just makes you feel good. It's just wonderful. All those fruits and vegetables, I'm just excited. I get just huge. When I learned how to do all this, and I've been doing this now for, like I said, I think it's been 8 years I've had my own garden. It's a feel-good thing to do, just to plant your own. And what's even better is that it's convenient, so you don't have to run to the store and just grab, you know, you can just go and snip and add it to your cooking. Absolutely.

I agree, and I love to add green onions to almost everything that I cook, and that's one of the things, I have it right outside my front door and they grow, and it's one of those things that a lot of people don't realize, you could just continue to replant them and they continue to grow and you just snip as you need. And use it for your dishes. My kids now do it all the time too. They love adding just a sprinkle of green onions on top of everything. But that is a great tip, and when you were saying that you literally could grow a vegetable garden almost anywhere, whether it's in small containers or a front yard, a lot of times we think, oh, if I had, you know, a large backyard, oh, if I lived on a farm, or You really don't need that. You know, almost anyone could grow their own garden, whether it's a container garden or just, you know, a tiny little spot out front or out back. So that's a great tip, Jennifer.

I saw a post today and they took a 2x2 section, but they kept layering them, and the guy planted potatoes, and he said you can get 100 pounds of potatoes out of this little 2x2 just by bringing it up each level higher. So I mean, I haven't even I never thought of that. So there's ways. They make those towers to grow herbs on. Absolutely. Even hydroponics now are getting simpler and simpler to do if you're up on Apaches.

Absolutely. And it's like we said, it's so much fun to do as a family.

We're getting a lot of talk on the marigolds here.

Oh! Let's see.

Susan Dorsey said that her mother-in-law used marigolds around around the perimeter of our large gardens. I use them with my tomatoes and they work 90% of the time. If you go to the local home improvement stores, they have them on their discount tables for 25 cents most of the time, and they just spring to life when you replant them.

Wow, that's awesome, Susan, thank you.

And actually, Kathleen DeCosmo had mentioned something about she's got a ton of lavender, and Renee posted a wonderful post here to check out her lavender poppy seed shortbread.

Oh yeah, oh my gosh, I love that recipe. Yes, I have seen Renee's recipe before. It's fantastic.

So I mean, you can do, you know, think outside the box with them, some of these things too, and some of these different herbs and what you can make with them. And you know, especially if you get kids involved too, if they're part of the process, that's when they really start to experiment and eat different things. I had bought some edible flowers one time to decorate at the school, and I had one girl there, I had to buy almost an extra box of them anytime I did something because she wanted to eat the flowers all the time. She had never known you could do that. I mean, you never know what they're going to eat when you show them where it comes from, how to grow them, and just really get in there with them and teach them.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm going to take a peek at our salmon.

I think it's pretty close.

Yeah, I think it's pretty close.

It's smelling like it.

I'm going to take a quick peek.

And we also had, let's see, Our friends at American Family had posted about the marigolds, and I lost it. Anyway, he had said that he uses them, I think, to get rid of deer as well. So let me help.

You alright with that? I'm good, I'm good. You keep the show going, I'm good.

Oh my gosh, that's It looks good.

But you know, this is just such a great example of how quickly you could get dinner on the table with fresh flavors from the garden that's healthy and something that the entire family will love. And it just, you know, like I said, I wish you all were here because it just smells so good. Usually I just take it right to the table like this and cut it into small portions. Large portions, let everyone help themselves, and then serve it many times. I serve it with potatoes or with rice. You all know how much I love Portuguese rice, perfect with this. And just, you know, very easy, and you have your veggies right there, great piece of fish that the entire family can enjoy.

Yeah, and it was so simple and in 20 minutes, so you could, I mean, you could actually set this up ahead of time, put it in the refrigerator, you could do it in the morning, and then when you come home at night—

Absolutely.

—turn the oven on, let it preheat, pop it in, take a shower, get dressed, or make a salad to go with it. By the time you get the salad done and maybe some rice in a rice cooker, it's ready to go on the table. It's really one of these meals that you can do so easily. I don't want to hear, "I don't have time." We're not showing you something that you need to prep for 3 days. We're showing you something that you're going to rinse a piece of fish off, put it on a platter, dress it up with anything that you like, make it your own. If you want to put Brussels sprouts on this, you could build a beautiful little cascade of different vegetables on this, roasted cauliflower.

Even broccoli. Many times I'll just put the broccoli along the side and it will roast perfectly at the exact same amount of time. It's one pot. You're not making a mess in the kitchen, and literally in 20 minutes it's perfect. You have dinner on the table and it's nutritious, delicious, and it looks pretty. And imagine how excited, you know, your kids are going to be about— if they've been part of the entire process, you know, planting, choosing even the colors of the peppers, they're going to be really excited to taste this meal because they were part of it throughout the entire process.

Salmon is also a healthy alternative. It's a good fish to eat. We have those oils in it that help us stay healthy. All around, it's a really healthy meal, and it's not as expensive as you might think. Not at all. If you went out to eat— I always tell people, learn to cook some of these dishes that you would get in a restaurant because it's going to cost you less than half. You got all that extra money to do whatever you want with, go to a movie, Absolutely.

Honestly, this wouldn't cost any more than chicken. No. You could do this with chicken also, come to think of it. I've done this, you know, substitute the salmon for some chicken and do the peppers and onions on top, and it's delicious. I'm a big believer that if you have garlic, olive oil, you can cook almost anything. I'm not kidding. You could cook chicken. As long as you have great fresh ingredients, you could cook cook almost anything in no time. It does not have to be a very long process.

You just change some of the herbs to give it some different flavor. Mediterranean cooking, I always tell people, I treat my seafood, meats, and vegetables almost all the same way. Olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. Then if I want to go off from there a little bit, I do, but that's the basic form.

Absolutely. Being Portuguese, that's how we cook, just good, fresh ingredients. Smells so good. It really does. It really does.

Yeah, we've had a couple comments—

I don't know if I'm making that. I don't know if I'm making that for dinner.

I just want to cut a slice and hand it over to you. Please! It's not fair that we're here and no one else is getting some of this.

I know, I know it is. Yeah, that's because Janice is just saying she's She's ready for dinner. When are you serving?

Join us, Janice.

And Renee, that's a good one. She can see olives on this.

Olives would be great. Absolutely. How about a little bit of capers? Oh, so you could keep on layering it, make it as fancy as you'd like or as simple as you'd like. Absolutely.

Elena mentioned, I think, a nice white wine is perfect for this dish. Absolutely.

Oh, yes.

We're getting a lot of really nice comments here. TR Crumbly is also saying a good white wine with this, super tasty with this, and maybe some nice crusty bread. Really, a nice salad would be wonderful with this because it's going to help break it. Eat a little bit like the Europeans do.

Absolutely, salad from the garden. Eat it afterwards.

That kind of breaks and that kind of helps you digest the good fresh vegetables. It doesn't have to be just Don't use iceberg lettuce, please. Use romaine. Use some of those fresh baby greens that they have. They're really wonderful, and if you can pick them yourself, even the better. Absolutely.

I have to tell you, so a lot of people eat their salad before their meal or after their meal. Being from Portugal, again, we eat— it's part of the meal. You do not eat your salad. You always eat it along with your main dish. Always. Always. So you eat your salad as a side dish. It's not before or after. It's just a side dish. So yeah, it's perfect.

Yeah, I like the idea of eating it after, but eating it with is even better.

Absolutely. It's funny, when we do go out to eat, I'll ask for it with my meal, and sometimes the waiters look at me like, "Oh, that's really odd." But not to me. I love it. It's a side dish.

That's too bad, we can both think it's hot. Oh, and here Nazim wants to know, he goes, "You're Portuguese?" No. Isabel Reis, they think, ah, what do you say, codfish heaven.

Oh yes, yes, bacalhau, right?

You had me on that one, I wasn't sure.

Absolutely, yeah, so the Portuguese version is the salted codfish, which is the bacalhau. Delicious, we'll leave that for another time. We're going to have to do that one maybe next time.

Well, you know, there are some wonderful seafood dishes from Portugal. And what kind of fresh vegetables? I mean, would they typically eat a lot of good fresh vegetables?

Yes, yes, absolutely. And that's why I was born in Portugal, and when I first came over, one of the things that I was so surprised at, coming from a small village that— of farmers, you know, we went out, we picked all our own vegetables. You decided what to make that day depending on what was growing. Growing in your garden, and I was just so surprised when I came over to the U.S. and that wasn't the norm in every home, so I didn't realize that the rest of the world didn't do that. So, you know, again, I think that's part of my love for, you know, growing things and just eating really good, healthy, simple meals.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, we've talked a lot about growing things from your garden. We had a photo event drew over 200 images of some delicious recipes, and that's posted for American Family as well. So, you know, there's a lot of great ideas. You should never fall short with, you know, things to do with fresh vegetables. And the important thing is just to go out and look for them. And, you know, you can always find something to do. Fresh corn in Florida right now, we've got a lot of corn companies. We had our own peaches, and I had never knew there were Florida peaches. So, I mean, all these wonderful Fruits and vegetables are just flooding the market now and will be for the next few months. Farmers markets. Absolutely.

Absolutely. What a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning, go to the farmers market. I have to tell you, the best farmers market that I have ever seen is in Madison, Wisconsin. Oh, I've heard. The home of American family. You have not witness a true farmers market until you have gone to the Madison farmers market. Unbelievable. Everything from Brussels sprouts to, of course, cheese, to just about every other vegetable. Just fantastic. And one of the things that I loved is it gets so crowded that you're only allowed to go one way all the way around the square. Yes. Just really, really fun. Wow.

Susan Finch just mentioned that iceberg can be refreshing. Yeah, it can be refreshing, and it's a good source of water on a hot day. And you know, we have that lovely iceberg salad that's blue cheese.

Yeah, tomato, that wedge with the onions and the tomatoes and the blue cheese.

It goes good on a burger too. You know, so there's a lot of uses for iceberg. We're not dissing iceberg. We're just saying when you eat a salad, bring out the other greens. You can always mix a little in if you like. Absolutely.

As long as you're eating a salad, I think you're all good no matter what kind of lettuce you're using. Yeah.

Very good. And some bitter greens. Tammy Forcier just says, "I'm with you, Layne Richardson.

I love adding spinach to the salad." Oh, I love spinach. Spinach is a And I would say my favorite is probably arugula. Arugula, yes.

Have you ever made an arugula pesto?

I have not, but that's a fantastic idea.

That is wonderful. I actually made one and I used pistachios instead of pine nuts. Oh, what a great idea. And it was really tasty.

Great inspiration. I'm going to have to try that for sure.

I am too. Baby greens are really big now. You see baby kale, and that's really tasty. There's so many other alternatives now to make things more interesting.

I agree with you. Absolutely. How about butter lettuce? Love it. Have you ever grown that, Jennifer?

No, actually I haven't experienced— I haven't done any of the lettuces yet. I'm still sticking to into the tomatoes and the cucumbers and the snap peas. That's what I've been growing. I think lettuce— I'm not sure. I think that's a fall— I think out here it's fall, so I would have to— after my garden goes, I think then I would start that. Since I have a nice clear plot, I think I'm actually this fall going to grow my own carrots. I did do potato. I did a sweet potato. One sweet potato was organic. I actually bought it from the store, and I forgot about it. And then it grew, like, um— I threw it in the ground, and sure enough, the one— it was actually Christmas Eve, and I saw my dog in the— of course, my dog— in the backyard chewing something. And I'm like, what is that? He had the center one, and I kid you not, the sweet potato was like that. So I started to follow it. And I ended up having about 15 sweet potatoes. Off of this one that I bought from the store because it rooted. Oh, from one? Yeah, so you can actually grow your own potatoes if you get an organic potato from the supermarket, let it get some of the roots on it, and just throw it in the ground. I threw it in the ground like this time of year, and by Christmas I had a ton of potatoes. And I didn't even do anything about it. I forgot about it.

That's something I'm going to have to try. That is a great tip.

Yeah, I know. We have American Family— oops, we're still there. American Family just posted where they can find all the tips from Jennifer. They're on the Pinterest board, and there is a link to the Pinterest board there, so you guys can go check there all the great tips that Jennifer has made for us on there. And you know, that's, that's really good to know about planting vegetables. And I guess, do you use any of your old stuff as mulch? Do you make any mulch? Are you using leftovers?

Actually, no, I'm not. I'm not the best person when it comes to mulch. I don't ever really use it. I just do my basics, you know, at the beginning, and then anything that's left over, it somehow, it kind of disappears, and I never actually have anything to throw out. I try to— well, I guess when the tomatoes are done, I'll get rid of those, but a lot of times a lot of my stuff comes back every year, so I just kind of let it kind of drop down itself, and I guess it kind of re— compost back into it, but I, like, every year my tomato plants come back. Very strange. It goes to seed. That's amazing.

Yeah. That's amazing. And one of the things, like I had said, that our library has a seed bank. One of the things that's so much fun is taking the seeds then from your peppers and your tomatoes and bringing them back to the library and letting someone else now try to use it. It's such a fantastic idea, and, you know, like books, there's no due date, but it's It's really fun to, you know, do that as a family and bring them back and let others try growing what you've done.

I know, I keep wanting to plant some zucchini just for the blossoms. I really don't want the zucchini, I just want the blossoms, and they should make seeds that just grow blossoms. That's what I'm hoping for.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I've seen this.

This year was my first year, and I saw the zucchini blossoms, and they're so pretty, and everyone is— I've had Some people suggest stuffing them and sautéing them, but I don't know how you do that because if I pull a blossom, I don't get a zucchini, right? Or I don't know how that works.

There's usually, I think it's the male ones, you want to leave the female blossoms, and there's generally 3 male to like every female, so 2 of the male blossoms, just like in life, are really not really necessary, and so you pick them and you stuff them. Nature's way of telling us something.

I have had fantastic stuffed blossoms though, especially with a little bit of ricotta cheese.

Oh my gosh, so good. I've actually stuffed them with cannoli filling and chocolate dipped them.

Really? Wow. I love that.

I was the blossom king one year.

Really? I have never thought to do that, but that sounds fantastic.

I stuffed them with butternut squash puree and then rolled them in some nuts and brown sugar. Wow. I was making Mexican blossoms, you know, you name it, I was stuffing them with anything I could find. But my favorite is the rigat.

Oh, so good. Absolutely, especially a little bit of sauce, mmm, perfect. Absolutely perfect.

All right, oh, here Kathleen is mentioning that pumpkin is easy to grow. Just throw out the Halloween pumpkin and you find a pumpkin patch. All right, that's good advice.

That is great advice, Kathleen, love it.

All right, and Rebecca says she loves the potato tip. Now I threw out a Lay's bag and planted it, and I was hoping that more potato chips would grow, but it didn't work.

Doesn't work that way.

Oh well, and Janice is growing butter lettuce in a container on her porch.

Really? Oh, Janice, you must leave us some of your tips.

Yeah, that would be nice. We could all do that, and that would be easy to grow. So I mean, we've really learned a lot today. Jennifer, you've given us a lot of great tips. Our audience has given us a lot of great tips, and it's been fun. We made this wonderful salmon with all these beautiful colorful vegetables. Vegetables. And you know, the colorful vegetables are where all the extra vitamins are always in, too. They always tell you, eat very colorful vegetables.

Absolutely, and it looks beautiful, as you can see. So great tips. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jennifer, and thank you to American Family. This was just so much fun. We enjoyed being here, and we hope to see everybody around the family table soon.

That's right. Absolutely. Come join us around our table. And if you're in Orlando or Tampa, come see us and we'll have you around our table. Alright, bye-bye.