Bacon wrapped pimento cheese stuffed okra

I grew up mainly in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Because neither of my parents are Southern, I did not eat a lot of Southern cuisine when I was a kid. I probably would not have enjoyed much of it anyway because I was such a picky eater. I'm a quarter Italian and I did not even like spaghetti sauce for the longest time!

Over the years my palette has expanded greatly. One food item that I did not give a chance until a couple years ago was okra. It took living in California and having dinner with a friend from Washington state for me to try it. And it was delicious! Of course, it was the fried variety, so how could that not taste good?

Fast forward to moving back to the South... We have planted our vegetable garden and I included okra. It has been growing quite nicely lately and I have amassed a lot of okra from it. I did not realize the plant has such beautiful, delicate flowers.

Having never cooked it before, I searched Pinterest for some recipes. I found one that sounded perfect... bacon wrapped stuffed okra! The actual recipe calls for a shrimp filling. I'm still a picky eater; I don't eat seafood. But I was planning on making pimento cheese with our homegrown pimento peppers. Wouldn't that taste amazing stuffed inside a bacon wrapped piece of okra? I think so!

Fourth of July gave me the perfect opportunity to try this dish. It was easy to assemble and tasted FANTASTIC! It is just as good as fried okra...if not better.

For the pimento cheese, I kind of followed the recipe from Eleven Magnolia Lane. It's OK, but I've had better. I just have to find the recipe! Feel free to use your own favorite recipe or store bought (if you have to).

For the okra, I followed the instructions from I Heart Publix. The recipe suggests using regular bacon and not thick cut bacon. I happened to have thick cut and it worked out just fine.

Tending my garden

Growing up, my mom was always gardening. We moved just about every three years (unrelated to the military), so she had a lot of opportunities to start new gardens. And for the most part we always lived in new construction houses, so the yard was a clean slate to begin with. However, while I was younger did I have any interest in gardening? Of course not. That changed once we had our first town house in Ohio.

While renting, we were pretty limited in what we could do in the yard of each house we have lived in. We have planted several flowers and such in containers, but that is hit and miss with me.

When we moved here and bought our first house, I had my first real chance at a garden. This is a new construction house, so the yard was a clean slate. It came with grass and some plants in the front flower beds, but everything else was on us.

Being an environmentally-friendly person, I was most interested in creating a bee/butterfly/hummingbird garden. Bees are essential to our food production system. Pesticides and such are causing large amounts of casualties among bee communities, so planting bee friendly plants and flowers and avoiding pesticide use is super helpful. I made my list of plants and flowers to look out for and headed to Lowe's.

Chocolate mint

Citronella...my attempt to keep the mosquitoes at bay

More herbs

Lime basil and lemon balm both smell fantastic!

The cilantro (behind the salvia) has doubled in size over the past two weeks. I better start using it before it's taller than me.

We also wanted to plant some fruits and veggies. We had a tomato plant in California that did really well and we wanted to try a few other things.

Two apple trees and a magnolia tree

Strawberry flower

Okra

Broccoli

We planted three blueberry plants. Two are really tiny and we're hoping they grow nice and tall with lots of blueberries.

Watermelon! We attempted watermelon while in California, but it never really produced anything. Here's to attempt #2!

Special Broccoli

As promised, I am going to share the recipe for Broccoli with Pecan Brown Butter.

Ingredients:
Kosher salt
2 pounds broccoli, cut into florets
1 stick salted butter (I don't buy salted butter, so unsalted will have to do)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2/3 cup chopped toasted pecans
Salt and Pepper
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

(The original recipe also called for shallots and red pepper flakes...I'm not interested in those two things, so I have omitted them from the recipe).

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat and add broccoli. Blanch until tender-crisp and bright green, about three minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and pecans, and saute until the garlic is tender, about three to four minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep stirring until the butter begins to brown, another three minutes.

Add red pepper flakes, if desired, and broccoli. Using tongs, toss the broccoli with the butter and pecans. Cook, while tossing, until the broccoli is heated through, about five to six more minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.