Another Acorn Squash Recipe

At the fruit market the other day I picked up these beautiful acorn squashes.  I wanted to make something a little different than acorn squash with brown sugar and butter.  I searched allrecipes.com and found this recipe.  I did a few modifications.

 I added chopped baby bella mushrooms and used brown rice instead of wild rice and dried cranberries instead of fresh cranberries.  I also used only a tablespoon of brown sugar.  I didn't want it to be too sweet, which it wasn't.

It was actually pretty good!

Pumpkin Carving Time

My husband and I carved our pumpkins today.  We let our dog Ruby carve one too.  She chose to do a self portrait.

Next year we grow our own pumpkins!

Holy Jalapeno!

Now that's a lot of jalapenos.  Any ideas on what I should do with them?

FREEZE WARNING

We got our first freeze warning of the fall season.

Time to bring the lemon tree inside.

Garden Journal

 So I was looking at my notes on my garden from this past season and I thought to myself there needs to be a better way.  I pulled out my laptop and began creating pages to organize my notes.  I printed it out, created a cute cover and headed over to my local office supply store.  There I had all my pages spiral bounded.  

I thought other gardeners would like a journal like this so I'm making some to sell on Etsy.

From now until December 25, 2012 I'm offering 20% off to my readers.  Just enter code myblog.

Fall is here!

I made my first autumn dish of the season.

acorn squash

I cut an acorn squash in half and cooked it cut side down in a 350º oven for 30 minutes.  Then I turned the squash over and added a pat of butter, a sprinkle of cinnamon and about a teaspoon of brown sugar.  I finished cooking it cut side up for another 20 minutes in the oven.

Delicious!  This was a big hit in my house.

Hydrating everyone!

Water flowers...check.

Water dog...check.

Salsa Verde...Yumm

Do you every wonder what to do with all those unripe green tomatoes?  How about making some salsa verde.  I used to think you need tomatillos but you don't.  Green tomatoes work just fine.

Check out this recipe for salsa verde I found.  I used 4 jalapeno peppers.  It wasn't spicy enough for me.  Next time I might use 8.

Awesome Book

So I bought this awesome canning book.  I can't wait to start making some recipes.

It's Almost Time

We are about 10 days away from having fresh lettuce.  Bye, bye salad in a bag.

Salsa Time

So I made three kinds of salsa with all my garden goodies; zesty, fiesta, and jalapeno salsa.

My favorite so far is Jalapeno Salsa.  It's a recipe I found in Ball's Blue Book Guide to Preserving.  

makes about 3 pints

3 cups chopped, seeded, peeled, cored tomatoes
3 cups chopped, jalapeno peppers
1 cup chopped onion
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
2 teaspoons oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 cup cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepot.  Bring mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process 15 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Do you have any good salsa recipes?  I love to hear them!

What's up Doc?

The carrots are done.  It took about 10 hours to harvest the carrots, clean them, cut them and then can them.

It went from this...

                         

 
  (And yes we know they don't look like normal carrots. I think this happened because we did not till the ground deep enough so they did not have room to grow.  They still taste the same!)

To this...

And here's the funny part...we don't really eat carrots.  I guess we'll have to start.  I'm thinking I'm going to make a lot of soup and some chicken pot pie this winter.  Any other ideas on how to use my canned carrots?

What To Do With All These Tomatoes??

We are just being bombarded with cherry tomatoes.  We can't eat them as fast as they are ripening.   Of course we give some away to friends and family and eat them in our salad every night for dinner but it's seems like they are growing exponentially.

Here are two of my favorite recipes that incorporate cherry tomatoes.

First is Sautéed Squash and Tomato with Basil
            Olive Oil
             1 Yellow Squash (preferably from your garden) quartered
             A handful of cherry tomatoes (again from your garden) cut in half
             Chopped fresh basil (hopefully from your garden) or dried basil works fine
     
            1.  Heat the olive oil in a frying pan.  Once heated add the squash.  Sauté for about 8-10 minutes until the squash is soft.  
            2.  Then add the halved tomatoes to the pan.  Continue sautéing the mixture for about 2 minutes.
            3.  Before taking it off the heat add the basil.  Once the basil is incorporated into the mixture you can remove it from the heat and serve.    

Another good recipe is Balsamic String Beans with Cherry Tomatoes
             Fresh Green Beans (12 oz to a pound from your garden if you have them)
             1 tablespoon minced garlic
             1 cup cherry tomatoes (from your garden) halved
             2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
             2 tablespoons olive oil

           
             1. Cook string beans.  Then add garlic, tomatoes, vinegar and olive oil.  Mix well and refrigerate.

 I would love to here how you use the tomatoes in your kitchen.

Fields of Gold

Maybe I'll plant some sunflowers next year.

How beautiful are these?  

I finally got around to drying out my leftover herbs.

I got these cute little jars from Williams-Sonoma's website.

Has anyone ever dried cilantro?  I did it and it smelled like feet.  

Garden Tour

Welcome to the vegetable garden.  This is where all the magic happens!

We have a variety of fruits and vegetables.  We have blueberries, strawberries and raspberries.  I love eating raspberries right off the bush.  They rarely ever make it into the house.

                                                           

On the left is brussels sprouts, 6 plants in all. On the right are 6 broccoli plants.  I just finished making 3 bags of frozen broccoli.

The cucumbers are really taking off.  Check back to see my adventures in canning.

Besides the fruits and vegetables mentioned above the garden also has carrots, lettuce, a variety of peppers, onions, potatoes, corn, tomatoes and squash.

From Garden to Glass...

The vegetable garden is in full swing.  Let's start cooking!  Before I could decide what to make I need a cocktail.  What better way to use my mint then in a refreshing mojito.  Mojitos bring back memories of my honeymoon in South Florida back in February 2012.

To make a great mojito you need a few ingredients.

12-14 Fresh Mint leaves

1/2 lime

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 shot of white rum

club soda

ice cubes

Add the mint and lime (cut into quarters) to a glass.  Use a muddler to break down the mint and lime.

Add the sugar and use the muddler again to mix the mint/lime mixture with the sugar.

Next add the Rum!!!

Then fill the glass with ice and club soda.

Finally enjoy!!!

Yummmmm...you can see my garden in the background.  I think my next post will be a tour of the garden!