It sure has be a while!

Whoops, it's been nearly a year since my last post! Things get busy and so it goes! For my return I bring a new jam recipe, salad dressing and summer dinner. Oh, and a look at the summer garden's gifts! In the basket: banana peppers, miniature orange bell peppers, an eggplant, Rutgers heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and a few straggler onions.


Mixed Berry Jam
4 cups crushed mixed berries (I used blueberries and homegrown blackberries)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup honey (I used delicious wildflower honey harvested right here in the Apalachicola National Forest!)
2 tsp Pomona's Pectin
2 tsp calcium water (comes with Pomona's Pectin but must be made before hand)

As always, sanitize your jars, lids and rings. Crush berries and combine with lemon juice and calcium water, bring to a boil. Meanwhile, combine pectin and honey in a separate bowl. Add the honey/pectin mixture to the boiling berries and stir well. Allow the mixture to return to a boil for two minutes. Fill jars to 1/4 inch from the lip and seal in a water bath for five minutes. The beautiful thing about Pomona's Pectin is that you can use honey or lower amounts of sugar, as opposed to the six cups it takes to make traditional jam.


Quick Creamy Salad Dressing
1 1/2 tbs mayonaise
1 tbs coarse ground mustard
2 tsp red wine vinegar
Dash of olive oil
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar

Adjust to taste, these measurements are guesstimates. Yum!


Summer Veggie Pasta
1 small eggplant, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small bell pepper, sliced
1 tomato, cubed
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup pine nuts
Fresh basil
Olive oil
Salt/pepper to taste.

Saute the veggies lightly in olive oil, meanwhile toast the pine nuts at 350 degrees until lightly browned. Combine the cooked vegetables, pine nuts, and fresh basil and serve over pasta. So easy! All of these veggies, minus the mushrooms, came from the garden and could easily be substituted for whatever you have available.

A great many things

Hello there! Today's post is brought to you by summery goodness! There are some new garden pictures, more pickles and jalapeno jelly! 

First off, my adorable baby watermelons! Not only are they very cute, they're also yellow inside! Or at least they're supposed to be, they're still a few weeks away from harvest.



Here's a picture of the garden taken two or so weeks ago: yellow squash, tomatoes, lots of jalapenos, banana peppers, okra, and watermelon.

Sweet (but not too sweet) Refrigerator Pickles

6ish cups of cucumbers (speared, sliced, however you like them!)

1 cup vinegar

1.5 cups sugar

.5 cup water

1 cup sliced onions

1 cup sliced bell pepper

1 tbs salt

1 tsp mustard seed

1 tsp celery seed

1 tsp dill

Combine vinegar, sugar, water and spices in a pan and bring to a boil.  Boil long enough for sugar to dissolve.  Pour mixture over cucumbers, onions and bell peppers in sterilized canning jars. Keep in the fridge and enjoy! Note- some recipes use much more sugar than this, if you like your pickles extra sugary you may want to adjust the sugar content.  

Jalapeno Jelly (from the Ball Blue Book of Canning)

12 oz jalapenos (about 12 jalapenos, depending on size)

6 cups sugar

2 cups apple cider vinegar 

1 box Ball liquid pectin (two packets come in each box, you need both)

Green food coloring (if desired) 

Stem and seed the jalapenos, wearing gloves (trust me, you want to use gloves).  Process until finely chopped in food processor.  Add 1 cup vinegar to help blend.  At this point you can strain the mixture with cheese cloth for a clear jelly, or not.  I did not strain mine.  Bring the remaining vinegar and sugar to a boil, add pepper vinegar mixture and food coloring (if desired).  Stir frequently.  Boil approximately 10 minutes.  Sugar should be fully dissolved.  Add two pouches liquid pectin.  STIR STIR STIR.  Keep at a hard boil for one minute .  Note, I boiled mine for slightly longer about two minutes because it hadn't quite jelled enough.  Ladle the mixture into sterilized jars and seal in a hot water bath.  See my earlier posts on pickled peppers if you want more info on how to properly seal your jars.  The jelly is especially good on crackers with cream cheese, yum!    

Note- For something a little different try adding 1.5 tsp raspberry extract. Raspberry Jalapeno Jelly in no time! 

Flutterbye!

Remember those pretty purple flowers I posted a few weeks ago? Well a whole bunch of Gulf Fritillary caterpillars have been munching away at them, getting ready to turn into beautiful butterflies! Here are some pictures of the caterpillars and newly emerged butterflies!

Tour D'Yard

Hello there! Okay well, I didn't make these per say....but I grew them, so that counts a little, right? Here are some nice looking things from our yard! Hope you enjoy!


Purple Passion Flower/Maypop/Apricot Vine- Wild in the southeast, have an edible fruit, and a favorite of monarch butterflies.

Wild Gladiolus

Dunno, some kind of cute mushroom!

Ichiban Eggplant- Eat em up yum yum!

Dunno this one either, it's part of my butterfly garden.

Moonflower/Moonvine-Related to the morning glory, blooms in the evening and all night long.

Peter Piper Picked A Peck

Of these guys! Today I pickled a couple of batches of banana peppers. I used my Aunt Karen's recipe so they should be delish! Also, today I pulled out all my cucumber plans (they were mostly done producing) and put in okra and white eggplant. I also shifted around some of the herbs since it's getting quite crowded in the herb box. I'm planning on pickling some cucumbers later this week, since I have about a million (and we don't want them to go to waste!). So stay tuned for more canning, pickling and preserving!

Aunt Karen's Pickled Peppers
Lots of tasty peppers, I used banana peppers
4 cups vinegar
2 cups water
1 tsp salt per mason jar
1/4 tsp garlic powder per mason jar (I also added some fresh sliced garlic)
1/8 tsp alum

Sterilize your mason jars-I boiled them, though I know some people just run them through the dishwasher. Bring the vinegar and water to a boil. In the meantime, fill your jars with the peppers, salt, alum and garlic. Pour the vinegar mixture into the jars until there is only about a 1/4 inch from the top. Screw the lids on real tight and let the jars hang out on the counter. The lids should pop, letting you know they're sealed. It's okay if they don't pop, that just means you have to refridgerate them.

And here they are:


Tasty and delicious!

El Jardin

Cucumbers galore! We've got tons and tons and tons. Our garden is so very happy! Here are a few pictures:



Main bed: Cucumbers, onions, banana peppers, green bell peppers, cayenne peppers, and patio tomatoes


Herb garden: Valerian, sweet basil, mint, rosemary, greek oregano, lemon thyme, dill, chamomile, lemon balm and chives


The plant birthing room, currently seeding zinnias, flax, sunflowers and marigolds

This time it's not food!

Hey guys!

Boy, it sure has been a while! Well, here's what we've been up to. Joe and dad built a brand spankin' new raised bed garden! So in the main bed we have: white onions, cucumbers, banana peppers, sweet green peppers, french sorrell and oak leaf lettuce. In the adjacent herb/tea garden we have: chives, lemon thyme, rosemary, valerian and....one other thing that I can't remember. In the house I'm seeding dill, chamomile, mint, lavender and basil. So here are some pics of our new garden!