June Garden

In early June the Contender green beans were growing and filling in their planting area.

Later on, we picked about 12 pounds... and they're still blooming!

The many tomato plants are also growing with a few blooming. I have to keep reminding myself they are heirloom and will not produce as quickly nor as fast as hybrid varieties. sigh.

Fancy pumpkin leaves!

I planted and replanted okra in a new extended section of our back garden. The plants are still a bit scattered on the west end, but the east part of the 3 rows are flourishing. 

Below: Our son planted the rest of his sweet corn seed left from last year and is hopeful it will not get eaten by worms this time. (However the tiller was broken down at the prime weeding time and his watering has produced lovely tall weeds in between the rows.)

The rather large pea trellis/gate was overkill for the 3 piddly plants that made it to the top. It is going to be perfect for the many cucumber plants that are rapidly growing though.

 

Our family of 7 has quickly eaten spinach, lettuce, greens, chard, kale, basil, cilantro, parsley, and green beans out of the garden so far!

Produce harvested in June: 22 pounds

Produce harvested in May: 1 pound

Here's a peek at last year's garden in May and June.

Tacos, Salads, Pizza, Soup (New Recipes of the Week ~9)

Black Bean Chicken Tacos

Hot Pineapple Beef Salad

6 Tbsp soy sauce

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp sesame oil (or seeds)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound boneless beef sirloin steak (or venison)

4 large lettuce leaves

2 pounds pineapple, peeled and cored

1/3 c thinly sliced green onions (or diced onion)

Mix soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and garlic. Cut steak into 1/8" thick slices and coat with marinade. Place lettuce leaf on each plate, or on platter. Arrange pineapple on lettuce. Stir fry meat (and onion, if using regular) until browned, 3-5 minutes. Spoon equally over lettuce leaves. Sprinkle with green onions. Serve immediately

Quick and easy; simple and sweet. We all liked the pineapple and beef especially!

Thick-n-Chewy Pizza

Baking Day

Soft Pretzel sticks, Sourdough Mulberry muffins, and Pumpkin scones.

Kielbasa Bean Soup 

Tuna Pasta Salad

Those are the new recipes we've tried lately...only one keeper of the bunch, 

besides the baking day goodies!

Our Dad on Father's Day

He pleasantly poses with his unripe hand-strung sandplum necklace and watercolored sheetrock materpieces.

 Because he knows it blesses his 5 year old's generous, developing heart.

 He delights in bear hugging his girlies in unfeigned affirmation.

He blesses the family with pancakes for breakfast each Saturday morning.

Because he knows we like them.

And we like him.

Our daddy. 

husband. friend.

Because of what he does; because of who he is...

that motivates him to do what he does.

So we present him with a pom pom necklace, a hunk of chocolate, a jar of sand.

And treat him with black bottom cake.

on Father's Day.

Dips, Pasta, Chili, and Cookies (New Recipes of the Week ~ 8)

Dutch Babies/Ocean Cakes

These aren't a new recipe for our family, but we had never tried baking them in a jellyroll sheet instead of a 9x13 glass baking dish. I just love how these eggy pancakes puff up, so bubbly! The recipe didn't take as long to bake in a larger pan either. Dutch Babies are a kid favorite around this house.

Strawberry Dip

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese

2 T. honey

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced

graham crackers

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, honey and vanilla until smooth. Add strawberries; beat for 1 minute. Serve with graham crackers. Yield: 2 cups

This was served for breakfast on homemade sourdough English muffins. Everyone enjoyed the creamy fresh taste and the bowl was licked clean.

Hot Pastrami Spread

2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. sour cream

2 packages (2 1/2 oz each) thinly sliced, pastrami or pepperoni, chopped

1/2 c. finely chopped green pepper

1/3 c. chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

thinly sliced pumpernickel and light rye bread

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Add pastrami/pepperoni and green pepper; mix well. Transfer to a greased 1-qt. baking dish. Sprinkle with pecans if desired. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until heated through and edges are bubbly. Or put in pan and heat through on low. Serve pumpernickel bread with spread. Yield: about 3 1/2 cups.

Dips are my delight. I love all things creamy and cheesy, cold or hot. I remember devouring quite frequently the dried beef cheeseball my mom made often when I was growing up. This pastrami spread is very simple and tasty, if you don't mind having 2 packs of cream cheese get scarfed at one setting. (Cream cheese used to be on my expensive-do-not-buy-unless-necessary list). We used little rye cocktail breads (grocery mark-down) and more of those whole wheat sourdough English muffins to serve up the warm creaminess.

Turkey Tetrazinni

Pretty good, but still can't beat that creamy Alfredo chicken pasta!

Creamy Cilantro Dressing

After harvesting lettuce from the garden, I was in the mood for fajita salad. Since I didn't have a recipe, I looked online and found one with creamy cilantro lime dressing. That sounded pretty tasty, so we used up some of the profuse cilantro in the garden as well. We like a hint of fresh cilantro, but prefer the herb dried in more wintry recipes. This dressing was a bit strong to our liking. 

Beef-Cheese Spaghetti

This gourmet spaghetti with a cheesy garlic white sauce was a recipe I had tried and saved because it was good. It is good. It's just not as delicious as we once thought. So it gets weeded from the personal cookbook as well. Spaghetti with marinara is just as good and has fewer ingredients ($$) and has fewer calories (milk + cheese + butter = chubbers)!

Chipotle Chili

Using some chunked stew venison from the freezer, we ate chipotle chili with fried cornbread one evening for supper. The recipe was super easy and definitely edible, but I am a dump in and taste kind of chili girl. Plus I like more beans. Mostly beans. This recipe called for a piddly couple of cups of beans for TWO POUNDS of meat. 

Recipe rejected.

Chocolate Chip Cereal Cookies

3 1/2 c. flour

3 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

 1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. crushed cheerios

1 c. oatmeal

2 sticks margarine or butter

1 egg

1 T. milk

2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. oil (I use coconut oil)

12-oz. package chocolate chips

Sift dry ingredients. Add cheerios and oatmeal. Beat together remaining ingredients except oil and chocolate chips. Add alternately with oil to dry ingredients. Add chips. Bake at 350 for 6-10 minutes.

I have been thinking what a good idea it would be to have an assortment of cookie dough balls ready in the freezer to be baked for a short moment's notice...something easy for the girls to do in the kitchen.  Wouldn't they stay fresh longer? Wouldn't they not get snitched as much? Wouldn't that be an easy finger food or dessert for last minute company? Well. The unbaked balls are not hindering snacking. We still haven't had company since our latest remodel phase. And they certainly are not getting freezer burnt! But they sure are yummy to nibble as you're mixing up a batch or freshly baked from the oven. Mmmm. These have a little crunch and we like them.

Butchering Chickens

We bought the chicks weeks ago.

They were fed and watered well

by a teenage boy, sometimes slow

as he paused to just observe.

Animals have been his niche;

poultry in particular.

He even liked to skin them whole

hanging from the tractor.

Altogether twenty-two

Cornish Cross were butchered.

Four died, although a few;

too many to my liking.

Dad set it up, the meat bird center.

All the family gathered.

We'll enjoy the meat in winter,

with noodles in butter slathered.

Each one has his special part

in butcher assembly.

Girls while degutting found a heart

and lesson in biology.

Dad chopped off heads, son cut off feet.

We hosed off birds and table.

Got it done before the heat,

cut, weighed, and labeled.

130 pounds later

garage freezer stocked

$1.08 per pound is what

we calculated the cost.

But family-time cannot be measured

by cost per pound at least.

Learning times like these we treasure

and on the food we feast.