Corn

Here is the corn we got this year. It's not as much as last year, but we have about 15 bags left over in the freezer from last year so that helps some. We got 15 bags (3 cups per quart freezer bag) put up to add to what we have left over from last year.

I'm always SO thankful for all of the corn. It is wonderful to eat in the wintertime. Because it's blanced & then frozen, it still tastes like it's right out of the garden.

Cherry Tomatoes

We have a nice crop on cherry tomatoes this year. We just have one plant & we get plenty of tomatoes from it. They are so flavorful & sweet.
Here are a few tomatoes with some basil & chives from the herb garden.
I added a splash of olive oil & it made a nice basil tomato salad.

Truth be told, as much as I LOVED this little salad, these tomatoes are so sweet & delicious it's almost a sin to add anything to them. LOL
We usually just pick them, wash them, & eat them. :)

Basil Tomato Salad
Cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
a few basil leaves, chopped
a few chives, chopped
olive oil, just a drizzle
dash of salt

Add all ingredients together, stir & chill.

MORE Tomatoes! Homemade V8 Juice

I know that looks like the same picture from last week, but it's not. It's from Wednesday. My dh picked tomatoes right at dawn to avoid the heat, & he got another 11 bags! We canned 35 more quarts of tomato juice. I think we'll have one more big load to pick & can in about a week, & then the tomato canning will be done for the summer.
I had to take a picture of our daughter holding this tomato before I cut it up.

They day before we canned the second round of tomato juice, I picked one bag of tomatoes & canned a batch of Spicy V8 juice. I found the recipe on line after following links at Simply Recipes. Here is the link to the recipe. I changed just a few things. I added 1 large green pepper, a few sweet banana peppers, & some fresh herbs. Spicy V8 Juice

8 quarts water

4 pounds homegrown tomatoes, chopped

1 bunch celery, chopped

8 green jalapeno peppers, chopped

1 cup vinegar

3 bay leaves

2 Tbs oregano

1 large onion, chopped

1 head garlic, pressed

4 Tbs salt

4 Tbs sugar

In a large pot, combine all ingredients except the sugar, bring to a boil, and cook at a steady boil for 2 hours.
Remove from heat and strain through a colonder or food mill, making sure to express all the liquid you can.
Discard the pulp, return the liquid to the pot, and boil for another couple of hours, or until the liquid is reduced to roughly three quarts. Add four tablespoons of sugar, remove from heat, stir, and let cool.

I added:

another pound of tomatoes

1 green pepper

5 sweet banana peppers

a small handful of flat leaf parsley

about 10 basil leaves, rolled & chopped

5 or 6 sprigs of thyme

3 sage leaves

And one more thing. I did NOT let it cook down to about 3 quarts. It would have been way way way too thick. I had been worried about all of that water it called for (EIGHT QUARTS!!!). I never add water to my regular tomato jucie, so this much water was kind of freakin' me out. LOL That is why I did add about 4 or 5 more tomatoes (about another pound). I did cook the whole pot for at least 3 hours (before juicing it) so I know a lot of the water cooked out...but it was still a lot of water.

Once I put it through the colonder & put it back on the stove, I did let it simmer for about an hour. Then I could see that it was going to be much more than 3 quarts, & it was not watery at all. If I had simmered it down to 3 quarts, it would have been spicy tomato sauce or spicy tomato PASTE. Which I'm sure is very good in it's own right...LOL...but I wanted V8 Juice.

And we got it. :)

6 quarts of it. Well, actually 6 and a HALF quarts. So I processed the 6 quarts & chilled the half quart for a tasting party. It was really good. It was still a little thick for my own personal taste, but it does taste so good that I don't mind it really. Next time I'll not worry about cooking all of that water out.

It will be terrific in chili or vegetable soup! Or just to chill it & drink it!

Italian Herb Bread

This is probably one of my favorite breads. I used fresh herbs out of our herb garden, but if you'd like, you could use 1 T. dried basil & 1 T.oregano instead.

The first time I made it with fresh herbs, I did go a little overboard. I wanted to use everything I could! LOL In this picture you can see what I used:

parsley, basil, chives, sage, thyme, & even some cilantro. I probably should call this loaf "many herb loaf". LOL Now when I make it I don't use chives & cilantro. Those are good in bread, I just don't use them in this Ialian Herb Bread anymore.

I love how bread looks & smells when it's rising.

Italian Herb Bread

2 packages yeast (each package is 2 1/2 t. )

2 C. warm water

2 T. white sugar

1/4 C. olive oil

1 T. salt

1 T. dried basil

1 T. dried oregano

OR fresh herbs of your choice like basil, oregano, thyme, sage, etc...

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. onion powder

1/2 C. grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

6 C. bread flour.

Mix yeast, water, & sugar in bowl & set aside until foamy.

In a large bowl add all of the ingredients except a couple cups of flour. Add in the yeast mixture & stir well. Continue adding the rest of the flour. When it's too stiff to stir, turn out onto table & knead it. Knead for 5-10 minutes or until smooth & silky. Place in a bowl oiled with more olive oil, & turn dough to coat. Cover with towel & set in warm place to rise until double, about 60-90 minutes. Punch down dough to release air. Divide into thirds. Shape into 3 loaves & place into greased 9X5 bread pans. Cover with towel & allow to rise again, for 30-60 minutes until doubled.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Remove loaves from pans and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

I can NEVER wait, so I slice off the heal, butter it, & eat it while I'm waiting for that 15 minutes. LOL

My family really likes Texas Toast, so sometimes I slice this into thick slices, butter each side, & bake in the oven for 7-14 minutes (depending how dark you want it toasted, we like it toasted, but still soft in the middle), you can flip them half way if you like. Here it is as Texas Toast:

On this day, we had it with Johnny Marzetti & cottage cheese. Oh yum...

And a few days later, it really kicked up a bologna sandwich!

Wordless Wednesday...Father & Son have been out in the Garden

Tomatoes!

My dh picked this table full of tomatoes this morning. He cut them up while we were working on school.
Then in the afternoon Dh worked the colonder while I filled the jars with juice & put them in the pressure canner.
And this is the result: 44 quarts of tomato juice!
I didn't plan this picture, but there in the background on one of the high chairs, is an overflowing bag of green peppers. Dh & ds picked them this afternoon. I'd like to try to make green pepper jelly. Most of them I'll dice & freeze so I wont have to buy the hard waxy green peppers that they sell in the stores in the winter.

First Day of School!

We had our first day of school today.
It is really hard to believe that:

• we've been homeschooling for 12 years.
• our daughter is a SENIOR!
• our son is a KINDERGARTENER!

Wow...

When I got all of their books together a few weeks ago, I thought it would make a cute picture...
A stack of books for a senior next to a stack of books for a kindergartener. Of course the senior book stack also includes my teacher's keys, but it's still quite the stack without them. LOL

Friday Felicities

Welcome to Friday Felicities, a meme created by Nattie - now a resident of heaven. This meme is all about creating a list of things that make you happy and Nattie knew that when you concentrate on your blessings your sorrows are not as overwhelming. If you would like to participate please create your own blog post and go to Becky's site to link it with other Friday Felicities participants.

• God's Word
• Getting a free kindergarten desk, at the last minute.
• Anticipation of making homemade, hand cranked vanilla ice cream tonight
• Corn on the cob!
• HOME GROWN TOMATOES!!!!!
• The herb garden
• Having all of our school books & getting ready to start school
• At Home in Mitford. I loved it.
• FRIDAYS!

5 Minutes for Mom Give-a-way

5 Minutes for Mom is having a great Back to School give-a-way everyday through August 10.

Click over to see if there is something you would like to have a chance at winning.

Sliced Baked Potatoes & Herb Garden Update

I have had this recipe for a while, & just got around to making it a few days ago. I got it in a mailer with recipes on pretty cards, & they want you to buy the complete set to either put in their special recipe box or special binder. I never purchase these things, but I like to go through the recipes that they send you for free.

This Sliced Baked Potatoes recipe really caught my eye. It's pretty & tasty too.

Sliced Baked Potatoes

4 medium even potatoes (I used 6)

1 t. salt

olive oil

2-3 T. melter butter

2-3 T. chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, chives, thyme, or sage.

OR...2-3 t. dried herbs of your choice

4 T. grated Cheddar cheese

1 1/2 T. Parmesan cheese

1. Peel potatoes if the skin is tough, otherwise just scrub & rinse them.

2. Cut potatoes into thin slices but not all the way through. Use a handle of a spoon (I used a wooden spoon) to prevent the knife from cutting all the way through.

3. Put potatoes in a baking dish. Fan them slightly.

4. Rub each potato with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt & the herb you desire. Drizzle with melted butter.

5. Bake at 425 for about 50 minutes.

6. Remove from oven & sprinkle with the cheeses.

7. Bake potatoes for another 10-15 minutes until lightly browned, cheese are melted and potatoes are soft inside (check for doneness with fork).

We all really liked these potatoes. I had 2 left over & we ate them cold for lunch the next day. Really good!

When I re-discovered this recipe card while cleaning out a kitchen cabinet, I was thrilled to see it & happy to have another chance to use the herbs in my new herb garden. I used everything the recipe called for. It called for herbs such as parsley, chives, thyme or sage. I missed the OR in there, & I used them ALL. LOL

I do have parsley, chives, thyme, & sage in my garden, so I used them. LOL

I love going out to the herb garden & snipping a handfull of different herbs to use in my cooking, and it smells WONDERFUL. Actually, it smells pretty good when I'm sitting in it weeding it. I have really enjoyed having an herb garden & I will put one out every year, God willing. I have been making an herb bread that we all like that I need to post sometime soon. I need to figure out exactly how & when to harvest & start drying them. I've been picking the camomile flowers daily & setting them on a saucer to dry. When they get pretty dried, I put them into a small 1/2 pint jar that I am keeping the lid off for continued drying. I popped one dried flower into my hot tea this morning & it really flavored it nicely! Also, the dill & cilantro are past drying, I think, because they have flowered & are starting to produce their seeds. I'd like to harvest the dill seed & the corriander seeds, so I'll need to figure out how to do that.

The sage plant is huge, & the basil & parsley have really grown thick too. I got some small brown paper bags, & I'm planning on tying some sprigs together & hanging in these bags to dry. I think that's how you're supposed to do it anyway. LOL

I have a spice rack that I have within reach on the wall for when I'm cooking, but I think I'll store my garden herbs in pint or half pint jars.

Here's a current picture of the herb garden. The most current one I had was over a month old, so I ran out & snapped this picture. It's the only shot I got because the batteries went dead. You can see the dill has a few sprigs that are almost as tall as the corn. And the cilantro (corriander) is so full & heavy that it is falling over. Also, the lemon balm was not doing well at all in the hanging basket, so my dh planted it in the ground up by the house, & we hung a planter of impatients in it's place. You can't really see the thyme, but it's doing very well too.

I'd like to add garlic, & in this area I believe I'm to start plants in the fall, about 6 weeks before the first frost so we can harvest in the spring.

I have been so pleased with this new herb garden! It was really easy, & MOST of it was planted from seeds.

Wordless Wednesday

Bountiful Garden Lunch

I've been crazy busy & haven't been online for a while. I'm crazy tired too, but I resloved to stay up & post something so I could get that crazy picture of the frogs & flies to not be the first thing you see when you come here! LOL
So here's our lunch from Sunday. Everything was from the garden. We had:
Corn on the cob,
Steamed baby corn,
Steamed zucchini,
Sliced tomatoes,
Sliced cucumbers,
Cherry tomatoes,
And radishes!
And here is my plate. It was DELICIOUS!
I am so thankful to the LORD our Provider for all of this wonderful food!