Garden Explosion!

 

Everything came to halt for a few days.  The truck is fixed now thankfully.  The car has been delivered to the repair man (local man we used before).  There is no extreme cleaning going on right now, nor painting.

It's been impossible to focus on "one thing" and finish it, on a daily basis here.  Canning/freezing season is here, and with a bang.  I can't complain, but boy it's really putting me in a sour mood some days.   I hate that feeling of being overwhelmed.  I told my husband, I would gladly grow the garden and pay someone to can in.  He laughed.  Yeah, who has money for that, ha ha!

I've been taking advantage of the good weather days, and ,keeping the electric bill down.  I'm am retiring those crocheted rag rugs.  They will be moved to the garage for when my husband needs something to lay on under a vehicle.   The rugs have lasted about 12-13 years, but have faded in color and are ready to move on to another use.  I don't have time to make new ones, so I'm buying new ones on my next errand day.

Considering we did not get half of what we wanted planted in the garden this year, we are getting a lot for what we did plant.

We are getting enough rain, that I have not had to haul my 200 feet of garden house out to water the gardens.

I'm not freezing as much as I normally do, but some squash is going in the freezer.  We are trying to eat as much fresh.  I mostly add it to breakfast casseroles, but it made them "watery" (when thawed) so I will try adding them to pasta sauce and soups this winter.  Squash is mushy when frozen and thawed.  I do squeeze the water out of shredded zucchini before I freeze it.

Zucchini are still coming in too.  The nice part, is that I can slice it to use in place of pasta in a meal.  

I froze some more shredded zucchini, and at the same time made another round of zucchini hummus.  I have three different types of shredding/slicing devices for this.  It shreds the zucchini very easily.

Green beans are coming on.  First picking was 6.12# this year (it took an hour to pick them all).  I had so much going on in the kitchen that day, I had to put the bowl on a kitchen chair.  We are eating these almost daily as well now.  They are delicious!

Sweet pickle relish  and bread and butter pickles were canned.  I did not can sweet pickle relish last year, as we had some in the pantry.  I am super busy this year.  We use this to make homemade tartar sauce for fish, homemade thousand island dressing, and we add it to quick meals like tuna or chicken salad.  It can be used for a cold pasta salad or quinoa salad as well.

In the midst of it all, I purchased our yearly blueberries.  I am crazy to do it again, but I am putting up a 10# box, but sharing them with one daughter.

Apron Time! ~ Sweet Pickle Relish ~ Zucchini All Day!

My husband went back to work yesterday.  It's time to get back to cooking and baking and getting my kitchen in order.

First I had to put away a stack of clean dishes, then it was time to start chopping.

My first batch of sweet pickle relish was canned.  So thankful for the cucumbers and green pepper from the garden.  It was too early to dig up carrots, but they are growing.

Baked a zucchini breakfast casserole with garden zucchini. It was fantastic.  I used one from AllRecipes and used up some zucchini.  So good!

Baked a Chocolate zucchini cake, because we could all use some comfort food right now.  I thought about adding a glaze, but decided against it.  The reviews said it would be a very moist cake, and the glaze would make it softer too.  Boy is it good too.  I swapped out half the oil for home canned applesauce.

Dinner?  Meatballs with home canned hot pepper mustard sauce over quinoa and zucchini/corn off the cob saute.

Brought in 4.6# of jalapenos.  My job this morning - can most of them.  My tomatoes are not even ready yet, so no fresh salsa sadly.

As for the "order" in the kitchen?  I officially dirtied all the dishes in the entire kitchen.  Today is clean up day, because I just plain ran out of time (after I can today).

Busy Kitchen

I hit it hard Monday morning with canning.  Well sort of.  I ran out of sugar so it continued into Tuesday too.  There has been no weeding, as the rain keeps coming, but just enough to keep me indoors.   Last night it poured and we are due for more today.

I brought in one 5 oz dinky serving of green beans, and two dinky hot banana peppers.  No yellow squash yet.   Our harvesting days are pretty pathetic lately.

Peach jam got canned., along with sweet pickle relish, cinnamon-blueberry jam and corn relish.  Whew!

A few zucchini's made it sliced, blanched and into the freezer, but the blackberries are still red.  Also, so far of what we've tasted, the blackberries are sour this year.  I'm not sure what I will do with them if they are all sour

More blueberries made it to the freezer.

We have run into a small sna-foo with the camper.  Once we hooked it up, only the turn signals work.  Brake lights and hazard lights are not working for some reason.  I'm sure my smart husband can figure it out before we do go camping.

I lied.  Our peach tree gave us one very nice looking peach this year.

I finally got around to making stuffed shells again, and some went into the freezer for an easy meal on a future busy day.

As you can see no more greens have made their way into the freezer. I am hoping this rain provides us some.

My back was pretty sore and my entire body pretty tired, so after washing a boat load of dishes and putting them away, I took my handiwork to the porch.  

Rain arrived....

Humidity arrived.  Then rain arrived, which we needed. But we got too much.  I think we may get more rain today.

I took advantage of being indoors, and started a crock pot of  black beans with onion and garlic.  We use this for snacking, adding to a breakfast burrito, etc.  Once they are cooked, I mash them.  I have cut this recipe in half now.

Cucumbers continue to roll in. Despite some getting mold on at the wet end of the garden.

Using only the best ingredients.....

Relishing the Relish

It was such a good feeling to be standing at the sink, chopping vegetables for homemade canned sweet pickle relish - the difference between patience and convenience.  Although some days convenience wins me over.

I need more patience.

From Pile to File ~ Spring Prep

Do you have pickles in your pantry?   Do you grow green onions or chives in your herb garden?

If you do, you may enjoy using them for this new recipe we tried.  I've been talking about increasing our salmon, and clearing out my hoarded pile of recipes, so here is another adapted recipe that we are keeping.

More Cookin' from Storage

I pulled a bag of frozen blueberries yesterday, and baked the family a buttermilk-blueberry coffee cake.  Yum.  To top it off, I surprised them with a 4 lb. meatloaf (Hubby's favorite, and I don't make it that often) that was made with organic beef, and veggies.  I also made garlic mashed potatoes, and green beans.  I really miss my own potatoes.  I bought a bag (they now sell organic potatoes here), and about 3-4 of them were rotten only two days after buying them.   

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffeecake Recipe:
 I added cinnamon and nutmeg to the topping.
 

Freezer Meals ~ Clean Sweep ~ More Garden Bounty

While cleaning around the house, I found this 1963 cookbook.  This sounded like a great way to have sandwiches on hand.  I may have to try this recipe yet.  Although I'd make my own dressing for this.  I love the fact I can use own, canned sweet pickle relish.

Clean Sweep Updates: