Thankful for harvest

Just a few words to say how thankful I am for EVERYTHING God has blessed us with.
I am so thankful for my Lord & Savior. I can never say thank you enough times for the forgivness I have for all of my sins because of the sacrifice Christ Jesus made.
I am so thankful for my family.
And I am thankful for the bountiful harvest that God blessed us with.
We had a HUGE crop of zucchini, a nice large crop of tomatoes, a good crop of green peppers, green beans, broccoli & radishes. And a wonderful, bountiful crop of corn.
And here's a picture of some of the freezer corn.

It was so worth all this work & all this work!
It does not taste like it came out of the freezer. :)
It tastes like fresh, sweet corn right off the cob.
And easy cooking instructions!
Remove corn from freezer & open ziplock bag.
Microwave for 1 minute.
Pour into bowl & add 1 T. butter & some salt & pepper.
Microwave for another minute or 2.
Done!
We'll probably have this at least once a week & should have enough to last us through spring or early summer.
Thank you Lord our Provider!

GREEN TOMATOES

I picked a lot of green tomatoes on Saturday. I guessed the bags were about 10 pounds a piece so I decided to step on the scales. Sure enough, both bags added 21 pounds to my weight.

We've had a few frosts, but so far, believe it or not, it has missed what's left in the garden! One morning I looked out & there was frost all over in the neighbor's front grass field. But the tomato plants didn't have ANY on them. Knowing that freezing weather was coming this week, I picked the best of the green tomatoes. I can put them in brown bags & they will ripen up. Not as good as vine ripened, but still better than what we can get in the store. We probably have a week's worth of red ones left in the frig, then in a couple weeks these greens ones will ripen....& then that's it for the year. >sniff sniff<

Saturday evening we had steak sandwiches, & I couldn't not fix fried green tomatoes with it. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Smothered Chicken over noodles

This is one of my favorite crock pot recipes... and, one of my favorite chicken recipes.

Smothered Chicken over noodles
2 or 3 lbs. bonesless, skinless chicken
12 oz fresh mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can French onion soup
celery, chopped (optional)

Cut the chicken into stew size chunks. Add the chicken along with ther rest of the ingredients to a crockpot & cook on low for 6-8 hours. (mine is usually done in 6) When it is finished, I usually add a few T. of corn starch to a cup of cold water & stir it in to thicken it a little.
Then cook noodles using directions on package. I usually use "no-yolks" brand, but the brand in the green bag is good to. (can't remember the name) After draining the noodles, add to the crock pot & serve.
Here it is served with homemade Texas Toast, tomato & cucumber slices, & freezer corn.

*The origionl recipe I got for this said to saute the chicken then add rest of ingredients to the pot & simmer 1 hour, or cook all day in the crock pot. Can serve over rice, noodles, or potatoes.

I used to server it over baked potatoes, which is really good, but once I fixed it with noodles, that's how I always fix it. But this gives you some variety. :)

TOMATOES

TOMATOES!!!These are the tomatoes we picked Sunday afternoon. 11 bags!

I weighed 1 bag & it was 15 pounds. :)

Last Tuesday we had 5 bags & canned 25 quarts of tomato juice.

Sunday we picked these bags. We gave 1 bag away & canned the rest.

46 quarts! WOOT!

Here's some canning pics from Tuesday:

Steamed Baby Corn

This is so good & so easy.
I'm not sure about availability though. I've never seen baby corn in the store. (except in cans)

I bet they have it at farmers markets.

We get ours right off the stalk. There's always a bunch of baby corn when the regular corn is ready. This baby corn does not have time to grow into a full cob. So I pick it & shuck it all. We had a good crop actually, lol, I had 3 quart bags full.
I just steam them until tender, add lots of butter, & salt.

I laughed at the plate below & called it a garden plate, because everything was from the garden: baby corn, tomatoes, cucumber, & green beans. The picture didn't turn out that well though.

But the food did. :)

MORE CORN

I am so thankful for this crop!
It's waiting for me on my kitchen counter right now. Here's the veiw from the front. There's about half as much behind it!

Here's a side view, you can see the corn behind the front row. And in the very back is the baby corn we always find. It is delicious steamed & covered in butter & salt.

Here's Louie checking out the corn & zucchini.

I better go get busy! LOL

Another Zucchini Recipe

MOCK CRAB CAKES

2 C. zucchini, grated
1 lg. egg
1 c. fine bread crumbs
1 onion, diced small
2 t. old bay sea food seasoning
1 T. mayo

If too wet, add some more crumbs, if too dry (I doubt it, ya know how zucchini is...) add another egg.

Fry in oil in skillet, a few minutes on each side. 3 of the 4 of us love this.

Throw-together supper

More bounty from the garden:
We love steamed broccoli. My mom gave me a steamer that had been her mom's. I also got her small roasting pan. These are the only things I have from my grandma; I like using them.
I took the lid off for just a minute for this picture:

I didn't have anything planned for supper last evening, but knew I wanted to steam some fresh broccoli. Then I thought of throwing some oven fries in the oven.

Oven Fries:

Potatoes (I use 7 or 8 for family of 4)
1/3 cup olive or canola oil
salt & pepper
onion salt
garlic salt
season salt
parsley
Italian seasoning

Wash, peel, & cut potatoes into large fries. Stir in all ingredients. Bake at 425 for 25-35 minutes, stirring occasionally.

We LOVE these.

I needed a main dish. lol I looked through the freezer & found BBQ that I made in May & I froze the leftovers with my sealer thingy. BBQ was a boneless pork roast cooked in the crockpot all day. Then shredded & added 2 jars of K.C. Masterpiece BBQ sauce & put back in the crockpot for an hour. YUM...)

So here's our throw-together supper:

MORE ZUCCHINI

Do you think I have enough zucchini? ROTFLOL I had to find a place to put it all....
I love zucchini. I love it fried, escpecially as Deep Fried Zucchini Sticks

These are cut like big oven fries, dipped in egg, then dipped it Italian bread crumbs. They fry up in 2 or 3 minutes in the deep fryer., maybe that's part of why I like it this way so much...it's quick & easy & clean up isn't as bad as when you fry a few skillets full. lol

But here's the pie. I love this pie. :)

ZUCCHINI PIE

4 c. thinly slice zucchini

1 c. chopped onions

1/4 to 1/2 c margarine

1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley of 2 T. dried parsley

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1/4 t. garlic salt

1/4 t. basil

1/4 t. oregano

2 eggs, beaten

2 c. grated cheddar or jack cheese

Dijon mustard

Deep dish pie crust, frozen or homemade

Prepare homemade crust or allow frozen crust to thaw. Preheat oven to 375.

In a large skillet saute the zucchini & onions in the margarine for about 10 minutes or until softened . (I also added half of a green pepper, diced) Add the spices & stir well. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the eggs & cheese, mix well. (our favorite is cheddar cheese) Add the zucchini mixture & stir till well blended.

Use Dijon mustard to paint inside of crust. ( I used a thicker layer of dijon one time & did not like it. I use about 1 t. of it, but you can use more if you like it.) Fill the pie crust with the zucchini mixture & bake for 18-20 minutes. (I added another 5 minutes to lighlty brown on top) Allow to stand for 10 minutes before cutting & serving.

It is so good. I served it with tossed salad that had fresh broccoli out of the garden in it, & melons. Not a piece of meat to be found & I thought it was good!