Recipes ~ Green pepper pesto ~ Link for Meatballs ~ Hot Banana Pepper Sauce

Green Pepper Pesto
2 green bell peppers, seeded, coarsely chopped

1. Steam blanch the peppers over boiling water for 3 minutes.  Place in food processor.

1 cup fresh basil
1/2 cup grated organic Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup organic olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced or chopped
2/3 cup salted/roasted pumpkin seeds, organic

Add the above ingredients to the food processor with the bell peppers, and process until smooth.

Freeze in portions or use some and freeze some.  Lasts up to 3 months in the freezer.

Homemade meatballs.  Here is the link for the recipe I use (uses oats vs. bread crumbs) - Homemade meatballs.

The other meatball recipe I make is with ground turkey and zucchini - Turkey Zucchini Meatballs.

The sauce in the above picture is a bit different.  It uses hot banana peppers, onion and garlic and other ingredients.  Here is the recipe for that sauce:

Hot Banana Pepper Tomato Sauce
In a skillet with a Tbsp. of olive oil, heat the following ingredients for 3-4 minutes:

1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped
1/2 cup hot banana peppers, chopped

Add:
1 Tbsp. minced garlic

Heat for another 2 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients together either in the skillet to use right away, or in a crock pot.

6 oz. organic tomato paste
1 qt. home canned tomato sauce
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 to 2/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1-2 tsp. sugar (optional)

If using sauce right away, heat for 30 minutes.

If you don't like it "chunky" simply use an immersion blender or leave as is.   I left it as "chunky" and heated for a short while in my crock pot.  We loved this!  Spicy, but not too spicy.

Garden Goodness and Struggles with a Drought

First up, I boiled some eggs (that I had to buy, grr!).  I needed something healthy available to eat.   I haven't been eating breakfast at all, and come dinner time, I am so drained I don't feel like eating.  The egg basket has zero after today.

I froze some cucumbers for the first time ever vs. canning.  I did this for recipes I would like to make in the winter.  The remaining will be put into canning recipes - pickles, whatever.

I froze more zucchini, and this time in smaller chunks for other recipes.

Froze more green/wax beans.

I put up the last of the corn we had, as the person never came to pick it up.  

I also had jalapenos to put in the freezer.  I am thankful for what we have been harvesting, but what a year it's been.  The hot peppers are doing great.  I'm only watering the last squash plants now, the cucumbers and the greens.  We are conserving the well water until we re-fill the rain barrels.

I pulled a few turnips to thin them out, praying we get rain and the rest plump up.  I chopped them up for a side dish.  They are definitely not big yet, but we have some time on root veggies.

When I said my plants are small and slow growing, here is a photo of my swiss chard and my russian kale.  Something is eating the kale, but the chard is getting bigger, just not big enough yet.


I'm getting some recipes ready to post tomorrow.