Gifts That Keep on Giving

Recent birthday gifts have inspired several culinary undertakings over the last few weeks. 

This growing kit produced enough mushrooms for my visiting mother to make a stir fry that also included dried bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, carrots, and lotus root. 

My first shot at using my new mini-pie maker yielded four delicious gruyere and onion pies.  I mostly followed a recipe in “Mini Pies” by Abigail Johnson Dodge (included as part of the gift), but used fresh thyme from my container garden on the back deck. 

What’s great about both of these dishes is that I was able to use fresh ingredients straight from the garden (loosely defined)!  Inspired by Wendy at Greenish Thumb, see how she and others have been enjoying garden-to-table creations.