Gardening · Recipe Roundup

Gardening Meals!

I love having a garden! I inherited some of that from both Grandpas and it was encouraged and fostered by my Mom. My Grandpa Ollie was a missionary Papua New Guinea who helped with agriculture. My Grandpa Ed was a fabulous gardener and I remember seeing his garden as a kid. I have very fond memories of gardening with Mom in the summer. Mmm… tomatoes fresh from the garden, pea pods off the vine, crunchy carrots, and raspberries! Now I have both garden plants and some very pretty flowers that I do absolutely nothing with. It’s a nice balance. The featured picture is our hydrangeas by our front door.

I have started to get some produce from the garden! I was getting worried, but went out to check and found some cherry tomatoes! I also have peppers to use in pico.

We’re talking about putting in another garden bed for next year, which I think will house the things with vines. I’ve gotten only two tiny baby zucchini this year from my plant. It doesn’t like being in a pot apparently.

Speaking of baby zukes, I had both of them sautéed in olive oil with some Sandwich Sprinkle with the rest of my garden haul tonight for dinner. We also had steak and mashed redskin potatoes.

It was delicious! I could have cooked the steak a tiny bit less, but I was distracted by apple recipes. I suddenly have a surplus, which will be turned into crockpot applesauce tomorrow.

I have officially used the Sandwich Sprinkle on a sandwich! I’ll give you a minute to absorb that information. 🙂 I even took a picture of it to prove it. It did add a bit of zing to the sandwich. I definitely need a bigger jar of it though!

I had fruit salad along with it. I’m a fruit monster in the summer and wanted all the fruit!

We had pizzas made with fancy things too. I used a pizza dough recipe that didn’t require a long rise time from The Kitchn. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-pizza-dough-recipe-221367

It did rise for a couple of hours at least. The Husband had mushroom and ham with fresh mozzarella. I had a lovely Margherita Pizza with fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella. The recipe was also from The Kitchn. https://www.thekitchn.com/easy-recipe-classic-margherita-pizza-recipes-from-the-kitchn-174103

They were both lovely! The crust for mine was baked on an upside down cookie sheet, which made it super crunchy. The Husband’s was also nice and crispy, but I used the pizza stone instead.

Here’s some pictures of the rest of the garden as well. Herbs, tomatoes, radishes, and carrots.

Oh! We have strawberries!

I’m excitedly waiting for them to turn red so we can get them before the squirrels! We don’t always have good luck with that. Things are growing pretty well. I have to re-stake some tomato plants. They’re falling over with the weight of the tomatoes. Next year, I will get some cages and will hopefully be better prepared.

For now though, I will leave you with this very relaxing picture of Fancy. I hope your night is as lovely as her nap was. Good night!

Gardening · Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Tuesday Treats

We’ve had some exciting new recipes lately and a few older favorites. With my schedule stabilizing, I have been able to do a bit more meal planning, along with adding an “on your own” day permanently into the rotation. That has been super helpful for Wednesdays or Thursdays. The Husband has been requesting more dishes too, which helps. Today we had chicken pot pie over noodles, which we haven’t had in a while. I was hungry, so forgot to take a full picture!

I loudly and snottily announced that I was going out to the garden to pick fresh herbs and the Husband laughed at me, but then told me that I should probably be Instagramming the whole experience. I was the one laughing then. Silly Husband! I was not Instagram dressed! They did look really pretty cooking down with the onions though.

The potpie was made with leftover chicken from this dinner:

Herb Butter Baked Chicken Breasts with Stovetop Stuffing and roasted carrots. I used the Sandwich Sprinkle on the carrots (seriously, I need a bigger jar of it) and fresh garden herbs for the butter.

Rosemary, thyme, sage, basil, and oregano were all included. I actually used some lemon thyme and basil in my strawberry shortcake, which we had for dessert.

This was the lemon thyme batch. It needed a little more herb in it, but it had a subtle lemony taste. The basil one came out much stronger, but basil is a stronger herb in general. I’ve been eating that one over yogurt too and it’s delicious!

So why all the strawberry things, you might ask? I dragged the Husband (yes, dragged, he doesn’t enjoy it) picking with me on Sunday after a panic moment of “what if they run out?!” We may have helped with that. We picked in between 12-13 pounds!

We tried a new farm, but didn’t like it as much, so will stick with the old one if we go together again. I might go on my own one more time, but I can also just pick some up from the farm market. I have a back quartered for eating or jam, and a batch left whole in the freezer. We have some to eat fresh in the fridge and some as shortcake. The shortcake ones will probably be made into jam, as they need to be used up quickly.

I also made this:

Is your mouth watering yet? No? Here, try this picture instead:

MMMMMMM! This recipe is soo good! I found it online at Pumpkin Inn Spice. https://www.pumpkinnspice.com/strawberry-pound-cake/. There were lots of delicious looking recipes, but this one said it was one bowl and that was good enough for me! I finally used the Bundt pan that Mom got me for Christmas.

I have a Strawberry Cheesecake Pie in the fridge that I’m super excited about too. I tasted the filling and man, oh man! I could have eaten it like a pudding! I’m looking forward to trying it tomorrow after it has set.

I’m still plotting what to do with the jam strawberries. I know I want to make Strawberry Rhubarb and I want to try an InstantPot Jam recipe too. We’ll see how ambitious I get.

We had a mental health professional game night this week and I forgot to get any pictures! We were having too much fun! I did make some things for it. We had a Caramelized Onion dip (https://pinchofyum.com/onion-dip) and pico. K brought a Chicken Bacon Ranch Dip. Of course, we had a veggie tray for the hummus, but no pickles. It wasn’t a formal party, Mom! I didn’t need the pickles! I made sure to tell everyone that I had some though, if they wanted them… 😉 I also made Chocolate Fondue for a dessert dip. We ended up just talking instead of playing the second game, which I think says a lot about the group of friends we have. 🙂

Oh, I did get a picture of the drink I made for the party the next day. I used the basil to make Basil Lemonade from Southern Living: Little Jars, Big Flavors. I have wanted to make that since I got the book, but my basil did not do well last year. You make a simple syrup infused with basil and then make up the lemonade.

It was deliciously tart and then mellowed over the course of the day. I will definitely be making more. You could taste the basil, but it wasn’t super overwhelming, which can happen with basil. It was so good!

We had cream sauce over pasta this week too. Since the Husband has convinced me that I can use up the half gallon of cream from Costco, I have been using it a lot more to be my go to meal.

Mine had asparagus added, but the Husband had the plain one mushrooms and the Sandwich Sprinkle. Gosh, I might need a spice intervention here! It’s just so useful! It has Italian herbs, salt, pepper, and garlic! Basically everything that runs in my cooking veins, I think. Eventually, I promise to use it on an actual sandwich! Knowing how things go, I’ll probably end up hating it in a sandwich. 🙂

I forgot to share this recipe, I think. Pardon me, if I have done so before. This is Balela Salad from Reluctant Entertainer. https://reluctantentertainer.com/balela-salad/

I had this first at Trader Joes and liked it so much that I decided to make my own. Lo and behold, I had actually pinned a recipe a long time ago! I used fresh parsley and basil in this. I didn’t have mint, so left it out. I had this at my sewing day with a friend and it was yummy! I would definitely make this again.

We had slow cooker BBQ flank steak tacos this week. I had them the second time as tostados, but I think I really wanted puffy tacos instead. For the leftovers, I added green enchilada sauce in a skillet and rewarmed it basically. We liked the meat. It was nice and tender. I was at work the first night, so only have a picture of the tostados. The Husband stuck with tacos.

I didn’t use a recipe for either dish, just threw things in the slow cooker or pan and added a few spices. Surprisingly, not the Sandwich Sprinkle! 😉

I think that’s all the foods since the last food post. Stay tuned for more strawberry recipes soon. I still have a bunch to use up!

With that, I’m off to dream strawberry dreams! Have a sweet night!

Canning and Preserving · Gardening · Monthly Review

Yearly Review- Canning and Gardening

Hello again! I thought I would separate out my canning list from my recipe list to try and make it not so long. I probably have one more review post and then it will be back to the normal posting schedule.

We were going to go to the zoo today, but I woke up with a sore neck and shoulder. Too much relentless partying! 🙂

Canning Review:

So I wanted to get more canning done than I actually was able to do. I still have the whole canning tomatoes in the freezer. I think I’ll just chop them up and use them whole.

Here is what I did get canned this year.

Apple sauce, two batches from The Ball Blue Book. I have no pictures of the second one for some reason. One batch of applesauce was canned and one is in the freezer. The Husband only likes the second one. The first one was too smooth. It works very well for cooking though and I like it, so all is not lost.

Tea Blends! I’m going to count these as canning because they are in canning jars. I made them for my vending event and when they didn’t sell, my craft ladies  happily snapped them up for Christmas. It was so much fun to put them together and I still have a bunch of the materials, so I would like to make some more up for me as well.

Pickles from The Art of Preserving. I didn’t like this recipe, but the ones with extra garlic went over very well. I will try more pickles with a different recipe for next year.

I also had my first burst jar in the canning pot. It was scary, but not as messy as it could have been.

Rhubarb marmalade from Taste of Home Canning 2012. This was delicious. I quite enjoy it on toast and on yogurt.

Strawberry Marmalade from Taste of Home 2012. This is also delicious and I like in lots of different ways.

Rhubarb BBQ sauce from the An Oregon Cottage website.   I liked this, but it’s possible the Husband is allerfic to rhubarb, so I haven’t used it since. This was a freezer recipe, it was too low of a PH level to safely can.

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate from Ball Canning online. This is lovely. I wanted to make some blackberry as well, but didn’t get to it. I have some blackberries in the freezer, so may try it. The Husband likes it with Sprite. He was excited to have our own lemonade.

Gardening Review:

My herbs did very well. I was able to move the rosemary plant inside even though it got caught in a snowstorm.  I was excited by how pretty this picture looked and it was also exciting to get to cut my own fresh herbs for foods. My only problem was keeping them watered enough. My work schedule was not conducive to watering schedules.

Strawberries! I waged a war with the squirrels and the ants to get some strawberries for us. We actually got a bunch this year and I’m hoping the plants will survive to be used next year. They are protected in the garage.

We got one zucchini! I brought it up with us when we went up to visit my parents and we had it sautéed with other veggies. Sadly, the plant didn’t survive much after this.  It was not happy in a pot.

Gardening Goals and What I Learned:

Next year we need to get the raised bed set. Now that we know how much work it will be, we’ll set aside a gardening weekend early. We’re thinking of putting raised planter boxes by the garage with berries in them. Perhaps the ants will not get them this year after all.

What I learned was that consistent watering needs to be a priority. Also, learning what is up with my tomatoes to stop end blossom rot would be good. I can’t stop it, it seems, but am hoping that when they are in an actual bed with tomato cages they will be less prone to it.

I am not good with cucumbers either. The only one I got this year was bitter and inedible. Blech.

Canning Goals: 

Try a pomegranate or wine jelly this winter. Put aside a few full weekends for canning. Prep everything one day and can the next.

Learning: Smaller goals? Make sure I have the time to properly deal with my produce.

I hope you enjoyed this review. It’s a good feeling to have these things prepared to use in the winter time.

 

Crafty · Gardening

Craftiness and Garden Update

How did it get to be Monday again? It seems like it was just Tuesday and now I need a weekend to recover from the weekend. We had friends over for a Driveway Movie Night, where we projected “Moana” on the garage door and watched it from lawn chairs in the driveway. Fancy got to see a dog friend again and did really well when the other dog was in the house. We were happy with that, as she can be territorial.

It’s pouring rain and thundering this morning; the perfect kind of day to stay home and do nothing. I don’t have that luxury, sadly, but do have French Onion soup in the crockpot for later which will be comforting.

Fancy had the right idea this morning. She hid under the bed and refused to come out. I was making chocolate ice cream, so bribed myself with that, otherwise, I would have been under there with her.

I was pretty crafty last week. Having to be in the basement with Fancy helped me get some more fabric cut up and organized. I had to start a new box for purple fat quarters, as I kept finding more of them. I also almost completely cleaned out a box with random fabric and crafty things in it. I also made 12 new tea wallets for Twinflower Fancies, or Hawthorne and Vine, a flower shop where they are also currently being sold.

When I sew these, I organize them in color groups based on what color thread they will be sewn with. I chain sew them as well. It doesn’t make sense to do them one at a time, as I would have to switch thread colors constantly. Normally, I wait until I have three or more in each color before I start sewing them up. I tried to expand my color range this time. I know I tend to stick to colors and patterns that I like by accident, but need to remember that it may not appeal to others as well.

Here are the green ones:

These three buttons were my favorites, I think, from the whole stack.

Here are the two black ones:

And the blue ones:

The octopus one might have to be my work tea wallet. I just love it and don’t know if I can give it up, despite already having a Red Riding Hood one in my purse. It’s just too cute.

It ws fun to go through the fabrics and remember what they were from as I was sewing them. This batch had a lot of familiar prints.

The owls are from a baby quilt for my cousin’s little girl. The dark green and vine print one is from a purse that I had tried to hand sew when I first started out. It was not a good idea and I finally got up the nerve to just rip it and reuse the fabric.

The geranium one and the holiday recipe one are both made from scraps of aprons that have been made for my Mom. When I bought the geranium fabric, the lady at the cutting table asked if I could adopt her too, she was jealous. 🙂

The gold treble clefs are from pillows I finally made the Husband this year after buying the fabric when we were dating. The blue and white waves with the boat is from one of the first skirts that I made.

All the other fabrics are from the stash. It’s nice to think if those special fabrics being used for something else too. That’s why I love scrap quilts so much too, there are a lot of memories in each of them.

Now for the gardening update:

I keep accidentally almost killing my lettuces. Plus, there are spiders living in them. Gross, hairy spiders, who have made a home in the lettuces themselves and in the pots. The Husband is going to have to cut them when, or if, they survive. I am not having spiders crawl on me. I think I’ll stick to farmer’s market lettuce next year. Any tips would be appreciated.

We have been getting some strawberries before the squirrel does!

These were all from yesterday and I found another one today. There are still a bunch of green ones on the plants too.

My peppers are looking good. The Mammoth Jalapeño has a pepper started. We’ll see how big it gets and if it lives up to its name. 🙂

The tomatoes all have some started. This one is the Roma, I believe and it had the most on it. I need to get some more stakes.

Here is the cucumber. This sucker is huge! It has a lot of flowers, but no starts yet. It keeps trying to escape into the yard.

My herbs are doing alright. The basil doesn’t look good. There has been a beetle that keeps eating it and it got very leggy and scraggly looking. It has yellow bottom leaves too, which I’m sure isn’t good. The oregano seems to have bolted. It keeps sending up flowers. I’m going to prune them off and see if I can get more out of it. Everything else seems to be growing well.

This week I have a few late nights, but most of my other days have a little more flex in them than usual. The weeks that my biweekly clients all come can get a little crazy, but it evens out with a few slower days occasionally. I’m hoping to get the fabric washed for the Rainbow Quilt and get it ties this weekend. Our friends are coming over this weekend for another sewing/video game day, so I can get some sewing done then too.

I also have a goal of canning three recipes, blackberry cinnamon tequila jam, nectarine orange marmalade, and dill pickles. I have some time tomorrow and a few other times this week.

I’m considering starting a “Simple Sunday” post which would be a quote or two, either funny or inspiring. I found my quote book from a while ago and was sad that the quotes I liked were just sitting in a book and not getting shared. It would be a good way to find out other quotes too, so I think that will start this Sunday.

Have a great Monday!

Canning and Preserving

Can All The Things!

The Husband was gone all day, so I set up the kitchen and canned three batches of things. I completely filled the dishwasher with jars and when I was done canning for the day, it looked like I hadn’t even made a dent. The Husband came home and told me that I needed to can more. 🙂 He’s right and it was kind of funny to be reminded about how many jars I actually have. This might be about half of them.

It felt so nice to be canning again. Last year I wasn’t able to get anything canned with our schedule and moving. This year I have plans for a handmade Christmas, so I’ve got a bunch more canning to do. I even have winter canning recipes, including a spicy honey wine jelly.

I used a new cooking magazine, a recipe from the Ball Canning Website, and an online version of another recipe from the magazine. I also made strawberries for strawberry shortcake and froze 1 1/2 gallon bags of berries for eating. This is the Husband’s shortcake. He loves berries like this.

I have berries still waiting to be made into jam in the fridge, but my other strawberry recipe is a strawberry peach jam and I don’t have peaches right now. I will be freezing them today, I think. I also won’t have time to can again for a week or two, at least not in a big batch.

So, on to the recipes.

1-Strawberry Marmalade from Taste of Home Canning and Preserving, 2012. Section: Jams, Jellies, and Preserves. 

Modifications: I used a little bit more fruit than it called for. I never change sugar ratios in canning, as it can mess with the jelling times and can mess with the preservation.  I would also always find a recipe for canning. I don’t want to take the chance of making someone sick. I have a bad mold allergy too, so I am very careful to make sure everything is clean and sterilized.

The recipe called for liquid pectin,which I’ve never used before. It was a very sticky liquid, kind if weird to work with.

I ended up getting 8 half pints out of the recipe. It said  I would get around 10, but I think I cooked it down a little more than it required. I misread the recipe and thought it only needed a half pouch of pectin, not half a box, so I had to boil it a second time. It is delicious, no matter how much it made.

2-Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate from the Ball Canning Website. https://www.freshpreserving.com/strawberry-lemonade-recipe-%7C-strawberry-lemonade-concentrate—ball-br1245.html

Modifications: None. Next time, I will figure out a different blade on my food processor or use the fruit and veggie grinder attachment for the mixer. It came out a little pulpy. This made 5 1/2 pints. The half pint is in my fridge and we’ve already been drinking it. It’s lovely. The suggested ratio is 1 part concentrate to 3 parts water. When we get raspberries, I want to make a raspberry one too and maybe a peach one.

3- Rhubarb BBQ Sauce from An Oregon Cottage. http://anoregoncottage.com/in-season-easy-rhubarb-barbecue-sauce/

Modifications: I was originally going to use the sauce recipe from the Taste of Home magazine, but it called for ketchup, which we don’t eat. When looking for a substitute, I found this recipe which was pretty much the same, but with no ketchup. I had to make my own mustard using dry mustard instead, but it was pretty easy.

This isn’t a canning safe recipe, so it went in the freezer in half pint jars. I suspect it might be okay, because of the level of acid, but don’t have a way to check the PH levels to know for sure. I would just go with the recipe on this one. It did use up all my rhubarb, except for a cup or so. I’ll need to get more to make the other two recipes I have for rhubarb.

I put it on my turkey breast for dinner and it was very good. Definitely a vinegary, tangy flavor. It made 6 half pints.

There are canning instructions and tips all over the web and in books, but my personal tips are to make sure everything is clean, read the recipe at least twice, have all your prep done first. Also, have multiple towels and a spoon rest available.

These recipes were all pretty simple. I made the two strawberry recipes first and the rhubarb last. I didn’t have everything I needed for the lemonade concentrate, so had to go get things in the morning and it made things take longer.

My potential canning list is still huge. I have a bunch of peach recipes, including peach butter, brandied peaches, the strawberry peach jam, and cardamom peach jam. They may not all get made, but it is fun to dream.

I have a couple of tea based jellies on my list to make before the tea making party in August. Apple Earl Grey, flower petal jelly, and jasmine tea jelly all sounded like a lot of fun. I’ll put them in the tiny jars for favors.

I also have some interesting savory things on my list, including Thai Sweet Hot Garlic Sauce, tomatoes and chilis, caramelized onions, and watermelon pickles.

Hopefully I will have some free time to get all these made. If you see me wild-eyed and talking to myself, I’m probably just in full canning mode. It is mildly addicting, considering I was looking through all my recipes at 10:30 pm last night going “I can just make the 5 Spice Cherries. I can stay up later. I’m sure it won’t take that long.” The Husband had to pry the magazines away from me and send me to bed.

If you do try these recipes, or any canning, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Now I have to pay attention to the poor puppers, who is waiting not so patiently  for me to play.

Recipe Roundup

Mini Recipe Roundup and Strawberries!

Our week was completely thrown off this week. The Husband was at play practice as part of the crew and I had late nights all week. We still had two new recipes though, which was my goal.

We had sandwiches a few of the nights and I made a pork loin for the Husband today for lunch. He’ll have good leftovers for lunches and quick dinners next week. It looks like his play schedule will be the same. He has been running home to change into shorts and then heads back out again quickly. I may try to make some new recipes for my lunch or have some veggie options during the week too because it will probably be just me.

I only took one picture of dinner during the week. We had the post roast when we had company over and somehow I didn’t get a picture of it.

Here are the two recipes that we used:

1- Mother’s Pot Roast with Vegetables from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook. Section: The Story of Meats.

Modifications: I left out the celery seeds and the MSG. I didn’t have either and would prefer to not have a side of migraine with my beef. I thought MSG didn’t affect me, but after getting a migraine from bad Chinese food, I have learned. Plus, it’s gross. I did add a tiny bit of seasoned salt to the pot roast along with a sprig of rosemary and a sprig of oregano. Both of the herbs were from the garden.

I completely forgot to add any veggies at all. I was too busy crafting and sewing with my friend. I did make noodles and we had salad, so it turned out alright. The pot roast was difficult to get out of the pan, it was so tender. It tasted wonderful too. Sadly, we did end up wasting a little bit of it. Both of our stomachs got a bit rumbly after eating it. It didn’t make us sick, but neither of us wanted to have rumbly bellies at work. I’m wondering if it was the red wine vinegar. It’s not an ingredient that I use a lot.

2- Hobo Meatball Stew from Taste of Home: The New Slow Cooker. Section: Soups and Stews

Modifications: I used ground elk instead of beef. I was feeling tired of ground beef. Elk is sweeter than beef, I think. Sweeter and richer. The Husband agreed with that assessment. I also used tomato sauce instead of ketchup and added garlic and onion powder to the meatballs. They would have been bland without it. Also, added garlic powder to the stew broth.

The stew is actually the cover recipe for the book. Mine did not look like that at all. I actually made this overnight. I knew we were both not going to be home for way longer than it needed to cook, so I set it going around 11 pm and turned it off when I go up at 6 am. It turned out delicious and it heats up well. I would make this again.

Today we went strawberry picking with a friend and got around 16 pounds of strawberries. I have a canning marathon planned for tomorrow, as the Husband is working on crew stuff from 2-10 pm. Fancy will be bored, I’m sure.

My canning list includes any of the following:

-Rhubarb Marmalade

-Strawberry Marmalade

-Rhubarb Butter

-Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate: need to get lemons, so this might not be tomorrow.

-Nectarine Orange Marmalade

-Orange Rhubarb Spread

-Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce

I am also going to freeze some berries for the winter. This year it will be super easy since we have an upright standing chest freezer. I can freeze more than one sheet pan at a time. One year our freezer was so small that I had to freeze things one cake pan at a time…

In strawberry picking, I am my mother’s daughter. Looking at my 16 pounds, I think I need some more. And I couldn’t stop picking them. There’s always just the one more! I might actually go back and get more, if I have time. It would be terrible to run out of strawberries before all my canning is done.

A batch of shortcake and some muffins or a fresh strawberry cake are also on the “to make” list. I’d better get up very early tomorrow. 🙂 I should probably start now, actually.

Fancy got a new toy to shred a few days ago too. She is now dubbed “Fancy of Star Command” and is dedicated to protecting her humans against an alien invasion. She takes her job very seriously, as you can see. 🙂 Hopefully you all feel very safe with her on the job!

Wordless Wednesdays

International Women’s Day/Almost Wordless Wednesday

I’m not terribly outgoing about politics and will probably not discuss it outright on this blog, but I will admit that the current political climate has given me much food for thought both personally and professionally. Although I do feel strongly for fighting for women’s rights and am grateful for those who fought to give me the rights I have today, I am not striking in protest (at least not intentionally, the weather is scary enough that I couldn’t get to my office and had to cancel).

As a counselor, it’s my job to help people, especially women and girls heal from the traumas they have been through. Skipping a day deprives them of a chance to receive help and that is against my personal and professional code of ethics. I am wearing red (as is the Husband) in solidarity; however, and this Wednesday post will feature red as well.

Last summer’s tomatoes

Summer berries

Wonky Log Cabin Wedding Quilt