ANYTHING but Homework!

Gardening is my new favorite hobby!

I am SUPPOSED to be working on my final project for Spanish, but as the world's most prolific procrastinator, I feel obliged to bang out a blog post instead! Besides, my project isn't due til midnight...=D

I tried some canning (thanks Farmer Lady for loaning me the canner!) and I felt over-all successful. Which is funny because after a couple of hours of  'doing it' (;P) I had 3 jars of salsa, which i forgot to put the lemon juice in =/
LOLOLOL well I hurled myself upon the couch and covered my face with a pillow, but eventually was able to laugh about it. I coulda opened the jars, put the lemon juice in, and then re-processed them, but I figgered we could easily eat 3 pints of salsa in a few weeks time!

The reason I considered this first foray into home preserving 'successful' is that I definitely got the hang of it, and it is NOT hard. Yes it is a bit time consuming to peel all the tomatoes and heat the GIANT pot of water, and I am not the best at timing everything (my salsa was ready to process by the time I remembered to put the canner on to boil hehehehe!) But I learned that they aren't kidding about how many tomatoes it will take to fill up a quart jar (ALOT)! Oh and it seemed like every pot and pan in my entire kitchen (plus large bowls, cutting boards and strainers!) was dirty afterward (lol for 3 pints of salsa hahahha!) and I won't lie, there are still some tomato seeds dried onto my coffeemaker and the toaster oven....

BUT all in all, it was very satisfying! And then Dave and I made a 4 quart batch of spaghetti sauce yesterday! Again, every pot in the house dirty, tomato seeds hanging from the light fixture, a couple marital disputes...

I see now why it is better to make a huge batch all at once than to mess around with little batches. The mess is basically equal, and I think the amount of time used is also about equal, so may as well get as many jars out of the deal as possible!

Next I am going to make PICKLES! Lol if I ever get enough cucumbers ALL AT ONCE hahaha! I may go over to the farmer's market today and see what I can find there, since now I have all the supplies and the basic know-how, I am really excited and want to make MORE messes in my kitchen, er, I mean jars of goodies!!!!!

I ALMOST made a batch of pickled watermelon rind, since I have always though what a waste watermelon rind is... but on further review, I couldn't find a recipe that sounded very tasty, and my mom said she never liked pickled watermelon rind, and I wonder why you can't just make it like cukes??? All the recipes i found for it called for cinnamon and sweeteners, which wasn't what I had in mind. Hmmmmmm... I'm still stewing about it though, i may end up trying something before the summer is through, stay tuned.

I have been thinking that I should talk more about the actual meals I am making, and less about my garden and marital disputes lol!

So here goes:
Last night for supper we had meatball subs. I made the meatballs with grass fed ground beef from the farm, shredded zucchini from the garden, various seasonings and herbs, plus bread crumbs, a free-range egg, and some milk, then pan fried them in smart balance oil. We used our home-made spaghetti sauce (tomatoes from the garden, onions from the farm, peppers from the garden, seasonings, herbs) and my home made raw-milk mozzarella. MMMMMMMmmmmmmm.... boy were they good!

For lunch we had burgers on the grill, the burgers from the farm.

The day before I grilled up some London broil, also grass-fed from the farm. We had purple baked potatoes from the farm, with butter and sour cream, plus corn on the cob (from a roadside farm stand) on the side.

For breakfast we have eggs pretty much every day, plus my home-made bread, and this week BACON =)from the farm. We often have farm fresh sausage with our breakfast, I will cook up a whole pound at the beginning of the week, then re-heat whatever someone wants. There was no sausage this week, but bacon makes up for anything lol! Oh and I make (ok, I order my kid to make) pancakes every week also, usually a double or triple batch, which we then keep the leftovers of in the fridge or freezer for the kids to re-heat for breakfast. Another common breakfast item I make is french toast. If I get alot of raisin or cinnamon bread from the csa I cut it all up and make a big batch of french toast out of it, and again, fridge or freeze the leftovers for convenient breakfasts.

Panzenella salad

Two days ago for lunch I made a panzenella salad out of tomatoes, cukes, and red onions (garden, garden, farm) and a can of black olives, plus a loaf of Italian bread from the farm, cut into cubes, tossed with olive oil and garlic, and toasted in the oven until lightly browned, and then some home-made mozz cut into smaller cubes. Then I tossed it all with a dressing made of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil and garlic, plus salt and pepper. Oh man, now my mouth is watering! It was soooooo gooooooddddddd!!!!!

Ummmm, really we grill alot of meat, because that is what growing boys and hard-working men like, and also because it is available! Chicken is in short supply, so mostly we grill pork chops and beef (our faves are flank, sirloin and london broil). I do alot of stuff in the crock-pot, pork roasts and beef roasts. My two favorites crock-pot dishes can be made with either beef or pork, otherwise are the same. One is '_____ & beans' (fill in either beef or pork lol) which is diced tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, oregano and a beans, any kind, I use a mix of whatever is handy, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, whatevs. We eat it in a bowl, or on tortillas, or on tortilla chips as nachos. Yum!

The other one is just the meat, onions, garlic and bbq sauce lol! Again, good in a bowl or on nachos, and makes great bbq sandwiches. I also do a crock-pot dish with a beef roast, garlic, onions, worchestershire sauce, potatoes and carrots if I have them ( I usually throw a little beef broth or stock in there if I have it).

I make every concievable thing with ground beef. We go through ALOT of ground beef here every week! Tacos are probably number one, because we can use the prepared meat on our home made tortillas, on nachos, on a salad or even by itself in a bowl! Plus it helps use up the masssive quantities of salsa I am constantly making! I use a bit of tomato paste, garlic, onions, bell peppers (or any peppers really, we have lots of jalapenos, banana and pablanos from the garden right now), cumin, salt and pepper to make the meat 'taco' style. It makes good leftovers that Dave or the kids can heat up and eat with anything, and is also a nice 'normal' food to have when the kids have friends over hehehe!
Also burgers are big, meatloaf, meatballs, stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage, all made with ground beef.

2 a DAY!

We eat tons of bread obviously (like 2 loaves a day people!), which I make with the wheat flour from the farm. Mostly with grilled cheese or pb & j sandwiches, and as toast with our eggs, and hot out of the oven with butter! And we usually make tortillas once a week.

I make a raw broccoli salad, which is cheddar (or any sharp cheese, grated) raw onions, fresh broccoli, bacon (if I have it, usually I don't) bell peppers, carrots, and peanuts or sunflower seeds, then a dressing of mayo and sour cream (yogurt if i have it) apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. It is DELICIOUS!
I also make alot of bruschetta, and tomato and cucumber salad (tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar),  and grilled marinated mushrooms and zucchini. We eat alot of potatoes, too, since that is what we have!

Ok, I know this has gone on and on (and on!) so I will stop. I will try to keep up on posting what meals we have, if we do anything exciting or new. We definitely eat alot! And well! Eating local/sustainable doesn't mean starving or denying yourself. It just means doing things and thinking about things a little differently. It is very fulfilling and gets easier every day.
Wish me luck in my canning endeavors, I hope to soon have rows and rows of sparkling jars.....

"There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Busy Busy Busy!

Potatoes, part deux

Well the job has been keeping me very busy, this is the first time all week I have managed to sit down at the computer! And only because my Spanish homework is due by midnight, and I have to go to work at 4!




I am not kidding, folks, this is EVERYDAY!

 SO! Yes, it has been a little hectic around here, but not impossible. SOOOOO many goodies from the garden, I feel guilty for even taking the time to write this when I know I have a ton of produce upstairs that needs cut, steamed and frozen, or sliced, sauteed and eaten, or chopped and hidden behind somethinbg else, to make room for more!


Dave has made a couple of batches of the MOST AMAZING spaghetti sauce and I am NOT exaggerating, no one was more surprised than ME! Well, maybe him... But it was sooooo goood! We froze it up for later, since I haven't had a chance to can anything yet. Although I have four days off in a row coming up, and I plan to make pickles and can tomatoes.


I have made several incredible batches of salsa, so good that I have literally been burping it up everyday for at least a week! ;p I am going to try to make some to can, but I have alot of plans and not alot of time lol!

my sweet pooch, on our way to the creek this morning

OOPS! That's my dog, aka the BEST dog in the world! Here's is what I meant to post:

A 6 & 1/2 incher!

I have been keeping up with bread making and cheese making, no surprise those are my favorite things eh?

Homemade bread and mozz with homegrown tomato

We brought in the rest of the potatoes the other day. We were hoping to start a second crop, but we couldn't find any second crop tubers. Turns out we shoulda bought extras in the spring, and stored them in the fridge til now. Next year we will know better!

Well truly this post has taken longer than I thought, I have to get going. Suffice it to say, July was a WONDERFUL month for local, sustainable eating! I believe August will be just as good, if not BETTER!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post any questions, I'm sure you have some! I will soon have a few days off and will have time to answer and post more jealousy-inducing pix of my garden's bounty bwahahhahahaha!

'Everything has its own perfection, be it higher or lower in the scale of things; and the perfection of one is not the perfection of another.'
                        --John Henry Newman