Eating from the garden

My crop has been so bumper this year that I think I've used every tomato recipe I have. So I went searching through a gorgeous new book, "Rosalind Creasy's Recipes From the Garden (Tuttle Publishing, $34.95).

With 200 recipes and almost as many fabulous photos, it will definitely make you hungry. But it also ensures that you have no excuses for falling back on those old faithful recipes for tomatoes and other garden bounty, which begin to feel less than inspired at this point in the season.

Ros Creasy is the landscape designer/garden writer/photographer who has popularized edible landscaping. There's nothing old or tired -- or routine -- about her recipes. They're all so colorful that they almost seem to jump off the plate at you.

So far we've enjoyed the Golden Tomato Tart -- because I love yellow tomatoes and goat cheese, the two main ingredients -- two of the quick vegetable pizzas, and zucchini pancakes with tomato salsa. All perfectly delicious and easy to prepare.

Next up: Garden Celebration Salad, which puts to beautiful use so many of the veggies we're harvesting now -- from fresh beans to various colors of peppers, all layered in a glass bowl.

And I'm debating whether I'm going to try chrysanthemum tea. Will mums really taste good? I have my doubts, but we'll see.

One of the joys of  gardening is eating the fruits of your labors, and while it's fun to revisit old favorite ways to prepare them, it's also a pleasure to try fresh new ideas. This exciting cookbook has energized my cooking from the garden.

When I was searching for something different to do with zucchini, I found this article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Gad zukes! 25 easy zucchini recipes. It doesn't make my mouth water, as "Recipes From the Garden" does, but it sparked a bunch of ideas -- which is what I need right now.

But then I did find some more zucchini recipes from Ros on the OrganicToBe site. I think I'm all set now. At my house, we've got some great eating in store.