Salsa, Baby

Tomatoes!!!

This year we were able to plant our first garden. It was a learning experience. There are a few things we will do differently next year. We had plenty of cucumbers and zucchini, a few melons, a few beans, and a few tomatoes. These tomatoes were generously given to us by a co-worker, who supplies me with beans, tomatoes, and other garden goodies throughout the summer and fall. We are so thankful to have such great people looking out for us!

Cherry Tomatoes

Salsa

Sealing

Awesome Freezer Jars, I am excited to use these. I am considering making frozen peaches with these. Thinking that it would be perfect for fruit in a packed lunch.

I am so thankful this year for our location. Our home is perfect. And our acre of land fits our needs. It is beautiful to look outside at our yard, our garden, our home. Sitting on the back porch watching the birds, or playing with Lex outside on a cool night... is my idea of perfect.

Dried Fruit

A few months ago, I came accross a great deal for a food dyhydrator. I've been wanting one to dry fruits and herbs in. Hopefully, Ben will take a likely to it and challenge himself to make beef jerky.

The first time I used it I dried apples. They make a great summer time, on the go snack.

Peel and cut apples.

Soak apples for 1-2 minutes in lemon juice to prevent discoloration when drying.

Apples drying. It took about 6-8 hours for the apples to dry. They are sweet and delicious.

I am anxious to try some other recipes. Including dried veggies, herbs, and I would love to try to make my own fruit roll ups! What a fun adventure!

Blueberry Flop turns to Herb Success

BLUEBERRY FLOP

A local blueberry farm has U-Pick days Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting in July. This Friday my father and I decided to go and pick. We had big plans for picking 10-20 pounds.

Unfortunately, there were NO ripe berries. We walked the fields just to check. We picked a few, and they were not even close to ripe. Hopefully, next Friday a new batch of berries will be ready to be picked. The already picked blueberries were significantly more, although delicious we decided it was not worth the $5/lb they were asking.

We will try again next Friday. Blueberry jam, blueberry pie, and blueberry pancakes sound just TOO good to pass up.

HERB SUCCESS

Our herbs grew out of control while I was on vacation throughout the summer. I hated to see them go to waste but needed to trim them back to allow the plants to continue to grow. I decided to dry them and store for future use. I have done this with our basil and stevia. I plan to also do it with the rosemary and oregano.

Basil: Cut off plant, lay on pan. I tried to have it on a wire rack however then it did not dry out quick enough and discolored. Instead, lay leaves directly on the pan. Turn oven on very low. The lowest setting on my oven is 170 degrees. Check frequently until all leaves are dry and crispy. When crispy take out. I broke them into small pieces that I can use for cooking. Easy and convenient way to save basil before it goes bad.

Stevia: To dry it out, I hung it in the pantry for a few days.

Continue to dry until leaves are crispy.

Pick the leaves off and place in food processor.

Final product. This will be great to add to iced tea or anything else that you would use sweetener for. Remember, Stevia is stronger than most sweeteners, so there is no need to use a lot.

Basil and Stevia. Ready to be used.

Zucchini Bread Recipe and Zucchini Ideas

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 baking powder
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 cup finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of loaf pan. In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients.
2. In another bowl combine the rest of the ingredients (not the nuts). Add this to the dry ingredients, stir until just moistened. Fold in nuts, spoon batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake for 50-55 minutes. Test with a toothpick. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to coll completely on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before serving.

It is delicious to add cream cheese as a topping. YUMM!!!

Other ideas for zucchini:
saute with yellow squash, onion, garlic and soy sauce
steam
zucchini crisp
zucchini cake
use drakes batter and fry the slices
add to vegetable soup or minestrone soup
add chocolate chips to the zucchini bread
take a large zucchini, cut and season grill it and eat it like a hamburger
use in casseroles

There are lots of creative things to do with zucchini. Enjoy fresh summer vegetables while we have them!!!

4th of July in the Nation's Captial

Check one thing off my Bucket List!

Last week, I was a chaperone on the Citizenship Washington Focus 4-H Trip. We bought 53 15-19 year old Ohio 4-H Teen Leaders to the nations capital. 9 other states also participated in CWF while we were there. On our first full day there we were able to celebrate the 4th of July.

We watched the fireworks from the National Mall. It is pretty amazing to take pictures and in every picture is the Washington Memorial.

The wind blew the smoke from the fireworks our direction. So the smoke ended up blocking some of the fireworks. Another great place to watch the fireworks was Iwo Jima Memorial. I highly recommend putting this on your bucket list and making it happen!

Beautiful, Washington Memorial

Capital Building

Korean Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Air Force Memorial

WWII Memorial

Please visit our Nation's Captial. It is full of history, meaning, educational experiences, and patriotism.

Edamame and Pasta with Feta

A few months back, Ben's grandmother sent us this recipe. I bought the ingredients for it and it wasn't for several weeks until I decided to make it.

The recipe was from Guideposts February 2011

Edamame and Pasta with Feta
Ingredients:
4 oz. uncooked whole-grain penne or rotini pasta
8 oz fresh or frozen shell edamame
1 1/2 cups sweet grape tomatoes, quartered
16 pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
2 T chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 t dried rosemary leaves, crumbled
1 medium clove of garlic, minced
1/8 t dried red pepper flakes
1 medium lemon, halved
2 oz. crumbled reduced-fat feta

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting any salt or fats and adding the edamame during the last two minutes of cooking time. In a small bowl, combine tomatoes, olives, basil, rosemary, garlic and pepper flakes. Toss to blend and set aside. Drain pasta and edamame in a colander, place on serving platter or in pasta bowl, squeeze lemon over all, top with feta, and mound the tomato mixture in the center. Serves 4.

I didn't remember to take the photo until after we had dug into one side of it.
It was a little more even before we started to eat.

It was a beautiful dish. I placed the pasta and edamame in the bowl, then topped with the tomato mixture, then topped the entire dish with the feta. It looked beautiful. The recipe got mixed results, my husband (not a veggie lover) wasn't crazy about it. My mom and sister enjoyed it. And my father didn't care for it until I told him it was very healthy, then he changed his mind. Overall, I would make it again for a light luncheon and depending on the type of ground I was bringing it to.

4th of July

4th of July Wreath--- Cannot wait till we renovate the front rooms and replace this door!

I have been busy trying to decorate the house with 4th of July decorations. This year I realized that I do not have ANY decorations for the 4th of July. The past two days I was on the search, unfortunately, its a little too late and I did not find much. I did find a table runner for our dining room table, I added a white lantern and red tea light and it is perfect. I also purchased two place mats for our kitchen table and two flags for our front porch.

I also purchased the materials needed to make a American Flag Toothpick Wreath. I had seen this a few years ago and thought I would give it a try.
Materials:
Styrofoam wreath

American Flag Toothpicks (I bought 700, and I used between 500-600)

Directions: It's simple. Stick toothpicks in all over the front of the wreath. I did not add it to the back. I also broke some of the toothpicks in half because they were crisscrossing and I couldn't push them in far enough. The more toothpicks you add the better it looks!!! Enjoy!

The wreath was $4.99, and each packet of toothpicks was $2.99. The toothpicks were 60% making them $1.20 X 7= $8.40. Then with my Teacher Discount at JoAnn's they took off another 15%. Making the total cost of this project about $12.00. I am sure you can find the styrofoam wreath for less, but I had the urge to complete the project and not shop around.