Sutton Foster Is Proud of Her Quarantine Garden, and All the New Recipes She's Tried Because of It

From Woman's Day

During quarantine, Sutton Foster has boldly gone where few New Yorkers have gone before: into the garden. The actress and Broadway star left New York City to quarantine at her lake house, finally giving her the opportunity to have her dream garden. "I've always wanted to grow a garden, but I live in New York City so it's a little tricky," Foster tells Woman's Day. "I've never had the time, and all of the sudden I'm like, oh my gosh, we've been here the whole summer, and we've grown carrots from seeds!"

And carrots aren't all Foster has been able to grow. "I have an herb garden, and chili peppers and jalape?os," she says. "And we had these random seeds that grew gourds, and we're growing a pumpkin that we're going to carve for Halloween. It's cool stuff like that where it's like, oh my gosh we grew a pumpkin!"

Though growing produce has been a major source of Foster's excitement, another reason she loves her garden is because of the cooking opportunities that come with it. And having grown everything from herbs to Brussels sprouts to squash, she's been able to up her game in the kitchen. "I love cooking," Foster says. "I'm making a lot of soups right now. I just made a chicken, mushroom, and rice stew, and it's great to have for lunch." As Foster begins rehearsals for The Music Man and filming for Younger, her plan is to make a new soup each week to take for lunch. "I've been doing a little bit of everything," she says. Up next: Pumpkin apple soup using the apples she and her family picked on a recent visit to an orchard.

Foster has enjoyed getting her 3-year-old daughter Emily involved in the kitchen, too. "One of the things we've been making recently are smoothies," Foster says. She has partnered with Lactaid milk to make a Cookie Monster smoothie bowl that her daughter loves. "My daughter is 3, so we drink a lot of milk around here," Foster says. "I love milk, too, but I have a sensitivity, so I love Lactaid because it's actually real milk it just doesn't have the lactose, so it doesn't upset my stomach. So we can use it in everything. We love to make the Cookie Monster smoothie bowl, and Emily likes to help make the googly eyes and the cookies. It's so cute."

Her daughter may be young, but Foster says Emily is an adventurous eater who loves a variety of foods from salmon to veggies to smoothies. "I make really great homemade french fries," Foster says. "And a Bolognese sauce made from tomatoes that I grew from my garden. That's what I'm most proud of, I think. I'm like, I grew tomatoes from the Earth!"

As Foster gets back to work, she's hoping to continue cooking with her family. These days that means a new soup each week among other fun recipes. And of course, waiting for her Brussels sprouts and carrots to be ready for her to pick from the garden, which serves as a reminder that despite the stressors of quarantine, there were certainly silver — or rather, green — linings.

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