Time is a tickin' ~ Boozy sauce topped pear pie ~ This is it . . .

Monday we woke up to lots of fog.  Although school was delayed, our youngest still had to be up at her school (33 minute drive) earlier than normal bus pick up time.  She was heading to her first hair show.  I'm gonna assume next year she'll be going and spending more money as she learns more.

The temps heated back up again, but it came with rain.  So frustrating as I cannot get in the garden to get the garlic planted.  I don't want to say it, but it may be the first fall we do not plant garlic.  This year has taught me that planting too late is just not worth the work followed by loss of harvest.

I remembered I had pears in the freezer, so those pie crust crumbles came in handy.  

It was my very first time to bake a pie using frozen fruit vs. fresh.  I thawed them completely, but they didn't look like the normal 2 1/2# fresh (meaning not enough).  I thawed 5# of frozen and drained them.

It turned out perfect.  Although the pears much softer, it was still delicious.

Of course I whipped up a batch of homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce to top it with too.

It was a busy day in the kitchen, whether I wanted it or not.  Things needed done - eggs boiled, breakfast scramble make with greens, and bake and flake some Michigan salmon. 

I had to refill my jars of nettle and oat straw, wash dishes, and whatnot. 

The rain gave me a ton of lemon balm, so more filled the dehydrator despite the temperature 94° outside. I'll have a post soon on the lemon balm.

This is it. . . 

. . . the green bell pepper harvest.  They will not be getting bigger and the blossoms that were on are off.  Pitiful harvest and disheartening.  The weather heated up, but the cool down (less than a week) is coming and they won't be in the garden much longer.  

Millet Stuffed Peppers

I don't know why I have never thought of millet vs. rice when I stuffed peppers to freeze last summer.   I'm very happy with the taste of my "thrown together" recipe too.  We had a so-so bell pepper year, so I had to (gulp!) buy these (organic of course).  They were pretty large, so I purchased 4, however the amount of filling I made, would have stuffed 5 large peppers.

Here is how I made them, and the next batch I make will be doubled and some frozen for winter.  I have never frozen cooked millet, but from what I have read, it will freeze well.  However to freeze these, I will blanch the peppers first, so the crunch won't be there.  When cooked with fresh peppers, you get a nice crunchy pepper.

Made with organic ingredients, home grown etc.  


Millet Stuffed Peppers
5 large bell peppers, cut in half, seeds removed
Set aside and continue:

1 cup millet, rinsed
3 cups broth (your choice, vegetable or chicken)
Cook millet per instructions.  My instructions said to bring it to a boil, cover, simmer 20 minutes or so until liquid is absorbed. 

I removed it from the pan and poured it into a mixing bowl and rinsed out my pot.

Add:
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 - 3 tomatoes, diced (thawed frozen, or fresh, or canned)
1 jalapeno (or 2, or hot pepper of your choice), optional
3/4 tsp. cumin (I may add more next time)
Fresh cilantro (I was lucky to have a handful in the herb garden) 

I poured 1 pint of homemade tomato sauce into the bottom of a glass baking dish and placed the stuffed peppers on top.  I baked it for 20 minutes or so, at 350°F.  The peppers will be crunchy, but delicious. 

We topped our peppers with the sauce, and some grated Parmesan cheese.  My vegetarian daughter was slobbering over hers, and saying she wanted my recipe for herself.  I had to laugh, because she's not been eating any of my vegetarian meals lately (she wants to be a grown up and buy her own groceries, but has realized she is too lazy to cook healthy).

When I tossed the mix together, I never measured the amount of cumin, so I am estimating.  I may had a bit more the next time I make them.

I want to try adding my homemade sausage to this for us meat eaters here too. 

I will still freeze some peppers using Mama Pea's recipe with beef and rice too.  I'm just tickled I found another way to incorporate millet into our diet and not have it taste so-so.

Millet is packed with B vitamins and other important nutrients.  Update:  The remaining millet filling was combined with scrambled eggs and eaten on tortillas for breakfast.  The taste?  Delicious!  The garlic brings out a good flavor. 

Bad Weather ~ Baking with Booze

Weather was nasty. School was canceled.  It's was a perfect excuse to bake a cake for dinner.  We woke up to ice, sleet, slush, then pouring down rain on a layer of half melted ice....then in the evening 55 mph winds.  We may have lost a pillow to the back porch swing (should have run out and collected them, but forgot about them).  It's too dark and early to tell.  When the sun is up, I'll go take a looksee.
 

I dug out my old, hand-me-down cake pan, and baked a maple-rum pound cake with maple-rum glaze.  It was a new recipe that had been floating around the kitchen.  I believe I tore it out of a King Flour magazine.

The results?

Beautiful Sunrise ~ Garlic ~ Me

Yesterday morning, the sunrise was just gorgeous.  I took this in the beginning.  Then I took this photo...

That was about the time the school bus came.  Then I was getting ready to do laundry, and another dog wanted to go out.

I ran back inside and grabbed my camera before that little bit of rainbow disappeared.  Do you see it?  In the center?  I heard it was a double rainbow, as one of my daughter's saw it going to class. 


A few months ago, I pre-ordered a 1/2 pound of Russian Giant garlic. I counted 29 cloves cloves. This is new to the garden.

Been a bit busy....

We woke up to thick fog Monday morning.  School was delayed 2 hours, then eventually closed.  As I took the dogs out, it started to rain.  Urghhh.  Rain.  Like we need anymore. 

 Tuesday the fog was bad again - another school delay.
 

However, some lovely green peppers were stuffed and

Breakfast Fun ~ Random Tidbits

I've been playing around with new breakfast recipes.  This one I printed from the internet, and is a diabetic friendly dish.  I like their recipes (Diabetic Living recipes online), because they are very healthy recipes.  This one won over.  Everyone liked it.  Some grocery stores sell non-gmo/organic hash browns in the organic freezer section, or you could make them from organic potatoes too.  If you google it, it's called "Sweet Pepper Hash Brown Baked Eggs."  It was sort of fun to make this too.

Black Walnut Dye ~ Home Canned Applesauce

There are so many versions of using walnuts for dye, including making a dye for stamping fabric.  I decided to soak some walnuts in water for 3 days  (slightly browned).  I ran the liquid through a strainer, lined to catch all the small stuff.