Enjoying the Summer Produce

We had a blast with our garden this summer;)

You won't know by looking at it right now, it's pathetic with weeds taking over and the tomatoes and bean plants dying back.

 In fact, Lydia and I almost cried when we saw our huge, luscious zucchini plants dying back a few weeks ago:(

All good things must come to an end... or at least the summer part of our summer garden.

We did get to "put away" some of the goods. I have 5 canned quarts of squash and a few baggies in the freezer. We canned tomatoes with friends and were given a lot of those quarts;) We have some corn "put up"... not much though:/

And somethings are just better fresh... like squash and zucchini:)

Chris and I were ready to try a very simplified version of Ratatouille. I sauteed the squash and zucchini in EVOO with some salt and pepper. Then layered the squash, zucchini and pepperoni slices. Finally we drizzled spaghetti sauce over the layers (sometimes the sauce was a meat sauce). Chris and I ate lots of Ratatouille this summer;)


The kids got to cut into a few little watermelon. They kept picking them too early.. or that's at least what we thought:)

love his expressions:) And it was edible:)

Even though I know very little about black eyed peas... we had plenty come up. I had two little "shell-ers".

We even got some corn in... awesome to eat the corn that we planted:)

And I have two fantastic corn shuckers;)

We are still getting some peppers and tomatoes... so fresh salsa right now;)

Anyway, it's been quite the experience and we've all learned a lot. Next year I am definitely investing in tomato cages and maybe planting a few less tomato plants... 48 was a bit much for us this year:) Although many people got to enjoy fresh Roma and Cherry tomatoes from the garden:)

Can you find Lydia in the picture to the right?? Those tomato plants were crazy!! I referred to them for most of the growing season as my "unruly teens"... they were just every where;)

I also hope to figure out a way to can at my house. I found out in the middle of the season that my nice flat glass top stove wasn't going to be suitable to can on... who knew:/ Anyway, we have a few possibilities so that we can get more canned next season and make our growing season last through the winter.

Can I also say that I stink at growing and harvesting beans... definitely going to work on that next year so we don't have to purchase them all year long at the grocery store;)

I'll be sharing our favorite zucchini recipe from this summer, soon:) Too good NOT to share;)

WFMW: Storing Blueberries;)

We took the family on a late afternoon blueberry "picking adventure" tonight!! Phew!! So now we're ready to store them!

My first year picking and freezing I called around to my "experts" and they were mixed....

Don't wash.

Wash, but dry.

So what have I done????

Well, I know how I am in the midst of preparing a meal or dessert.... usually RUSHED! So it's super nice to have the ingredients "ready to go"!

So I wash!! Well rinse really in a strainer.

And then I lay them out on a baking sheet (with sides) lined with a towel. By spreading them out to dry, I can pick through them getting out the rest of the leaves, stems and overripe berries.

I leave them to dry for a little while and moved them around to completely dry. And then I pack them into gallon bags.

The berries are right there ready to be quickly scooped out for any recipe I need them for. And in most of my recipes I can use them frozen:)

Good for my crew.... who are glad to share a patch of blueberry muffins at anytime;)

You can learn all sorts of simple and fun tricks at Works for me Wednesday at We Are that Family:)

WFMW : Summer Food Edition

The theme for this week is Summer Food recipes... if you're needing some inspiration or wanting to get out of the food-rut check out some of the other posts at Works for Me Wednesday.... I will be there, too!!


My criteria for "summer food" is simple, quick and doesn't heat-up the house:) So these are my favorite summer foods, even though we enjoy them year round:)

One of our favorite dinners is salad with chicken on top. So easy and pretty cheap in the summer with all the garden veggies! We are having salad with chicken tonight and it's soo affordable.... clearance salad mix at Piggly Wiggly I picked up this morning, chicken tenders I got SOO CHEAP during a Food Lion special, veggies on sale or given to us my friends and neighbors:) I cook the chicken on the George Foreman so there is NO oven on.

Salad dressing is the hardest part for us and salads! Brian really likes RANCH so he has to decide if he's willing to risk a reaction or not. Christopher likes the Ken's Salad Spritzers... many of which are milk, egg and peanut free! And Brian and I have gotten soo used to eating meals without cheese that we don't even miss the cheese on our salads anymore:)

My next favorite dish in the summer is FRUIT salad!! We do have it year round.... but in the summer there are more fresh fruits to choose from:) This salad was missing something.. thinking it was blueberries that I'm soo ready to pick:)

Finally, a summer must have (that we've limited to the weekends or with company) is sweet tea!! You've got to have sweet, cool drinks in the summer!! Once we've even put peach herbal tea bags and one regular one to make peach tea!! Oh, it was soo good!!

After the last Harris Teeter Super Doubles couponing EVENT (lol) we discovered V8 Splash! For 50 cents, we were willling to try out Mango Peach.... Chris, Brian and I have been drinking it down mixed with some water becasue it is SWEET! It would also make really yummy juice popsicles... but I don't think it will last that long:)

Wordless Wednesday: BIG Gourds

Brian went on Deacon visitation and came back with HUGE Squash!! HUGE... I have never seen such BIG Squash before!!! The one Anna is holding is as long as my forearm.... from my elbow to my fingertips.... just ONE would feed an army:)

Thanks to our sweet friends who generously shared their produce with us!!!

Now, I love squash cooked in the microwave with butter (oopps... I mean LITE, milk-free margarine), pepper and a little salt!! And Grandma taught me to make fried squash. Anyone got anymore kid-friendly, milk-free (or easily substituted) squash recipes:)

WFMW: Stretching the Strawberry Season

Check it out at WFMW, hosted by We Are THAT Family!

I LOVE picking fresh strawberries and having them in the house during strawberry season. But we've learned how to "stretch the season" by freezing!!!


My first year freezing, I washed, capped and dried each strawberry. I stored them in quart sized ziploc bags... but I barely used them!! I tried thawing them in order to cut them to put over pancakes, too mushy. I could MASH them to put into breads, but then it took forever for them to really be thawed (unless I thawed them in the fridge the night before... LOL... that takes planning).

Last year I spoke to many women who are "good freeze-ers":) Anyway, they all recommended freezing the strawberries the same way I would use them.... so I want them sliced in circles to put on top of pancakes and diced to put into muffins and breads:) So that is what we did...

And all winter we were able to have strawberries on top of our pancakes and strawberries easily added to our sweet breads:) Yummm... so that is what we'll be doing again THIS year!!

I'm just thankful for my helper!! Who likes to watch TV or a movie while he works... looks like a commercial in the pic... LOL!

Smoothies, strawberry pie. What do you use strawberries in the freezer for? Maybe you could give me a new use:)

You can also get a glimpse of my new dining room wall color... We have a couple of pieces to move around before I take my final pics:)