Sept 2025

 Well the kids are back to school.  I am working on bringing in and preserving the garden harvest.  Its apple season now. I totalled up the canning jars in the cupboard.  Here is the breakdown. 

3 jars of crushed tomatoes I did in the pressure canner 

12 jars of bread and butter pickles 

9  1-quart size jars of dill pickles 

8 strawberry jam

4 applesauce 

22 salsa

6 pickled Beets 

3 jars of dilly beans 

5 Rhubarb sauce

1 jars of zucchini relish

In the freezer I did

 6 medium ziplock bag of Houghs corn

Frozen Rhubarb 

Frozen zucchini 

Frozen tomatoes 

Frozen pizza sauce

Many bags of Frozen peeled and sliced apples 

What a satisfying feeling 

Dry garden and pesto supper

 We are in a drought.  I have to water the garden almost twice a day. Its very hot and we have been running the air conditioner in our bedrooms and the dining room.  The water that comes off the air-conditioning goes on the garden.  

I made salsa from frozen tomatoes Jen had. I used my own ingredients but Lori's garlic. I also canned spicy dill green beans with mine and Jen's yellow, green beans. 

I have tons of canning items for the winter.  Today i canned 5 jars of pickled Beets. 

I have been enjoying making meals from the garden.  Every morning I pick a carrot to eat. I have zucchini's ready.  Tonight for supper Emily and I made Cashew Pesto. It was good. I cooked chicken breast and zucchini with noodles and pesto.  It was full of flavor. 

https://therecipewell.com/easy-cashew-pesto/#recipe

Dill pickles

 https://dishnthekitchen.com/homemade-garlic-dill-pickles/

I made dill pickles. It was cucumbers I bought.  It was a lot of work.  I hope they are good.  They need to sit for 4 weeks now. 8 big jars and 2 -500ml jars. 

I also made green and yellow beans into dilly beans with a kick. I added dried jalapeños to the brine .

Now they have to rest 4 weeks. 

Potato salad

 6 large potatoes peeled and cut

Boil potatoes until pierce with a fork, drain add to a salad bowl with 3 tbsp of white vinegar . 

Cook 3 strips of bacon until crispy. Chop up and add to potatoes. Stir, Put in fridge to cool. I often chop up potatoes smaller if needed when cool.

Boil 5 eggs, hard boiled,  peel and loosely chopped. 

Add eggs, 1/2 cup of mayo. 1 tbsp of ranch dressing,  1tbsp of mustard.  Fresh dill chopped,  fresh chives chopped,  lots of pepper and salt

Chopped red or green pepper, chopped celery, diced 1/2 and onion or green onions 

Mix and cool. Let it sit for 2 hours.  Yum

Chicken gnocchi stew

 2 stalks of celery

1 small onion 

1 large carrot

Dice these ingredients and put in a soup pot

2 chicken breast chopped 

Saute these ingredients with 1 tbsp of oil. Once vegetables are tender, add 1 tbsp of butter melt in pot. Add two tablespoons of flour stir to incorporate flour. 

Add 8 cups of chicken broth,  I have used homemade turkey broth also

Add 1/2 tsp garlic salt, 1/2 tsp of dried oregano,  1 tsp basil, and pepper 

Stir and scrape bottom of pot to lift flour. Bring to a boil , lower to simmer.  Let cook 15 mins 

Add 1 can of coconut milk  400ml

Add gnocchi to pot 500grams 

I use 2 frozen balls of spinach, but you could use baby spinach or chopped frozen kale.

Cook 10 minutes with spinach and let sit for another 10 minutes.  The gnocchi keeps cooking and it will help thicken the stew.   Adjust seasoning if needed. 

May 6th

 

I'm so excited because our rhubarb is ready. I've made rhubarb muffins and rhubarb crisp. This means we will have our own produce soon. 

We had a surprise birthday party for Gary last Wed.  I over bought food. Costco sandwiches,  3 veggies trays. Lori brought cupcakes,  Jane did a cheese and crackers tray.  Debbie Batchilder did a fruit tray and a veggies tray.   The party was huge success.  

With leftover veggies I made cheese broccoli soup and tomato vegetables soup for my neighbors with rhubarb crisp. 

Today I made 2 Sheppard pie for my neighbors and greek pasta salad for both of us. A lasagna for us and a rhubarb crisp for supper.  I'm going to try a chicken tortellini broccoli Alfredo bake later this week. 

April Fools day!

 Today is Tuesday April 1st.  My girls LOVE a joke. I didn't want to let them down so even though it was 10:30pm I googled easy pranks and made red jello in cups and left them to set in the fridge overnight. 

Ashley and Emily thought it was funny. I told them it was fruit punch.

I'm still cooking. We had a huge bag of potatoes that weren't great.  So peeled and peeled.  I followed a website about making freezer hashbrowns. Peel potatoes and shred/grate.  Rinse in cold water, drain,  three times. Squeeze in a clean tea towel to get all moisture out.  Lay out in one layer on cookie sheets and freeze.

Gary gave me a vacume and seal device for Christmas.  I used it for the first time for my freezer hashbrowns.

I also made cream of potato soup with ham. (Yum)  and Mashed potatoes for Sheppard pie for supper.

Today I made 2 Sheppard pie for a friend. I got frozen tomatoes from jen and all the ingredients to can salsa. I figure if I feel like cooking I better keep doing it. When the weather is nicer I'll be outside gardening and not want to cook.