There’s not much that I’m not willing to try to grow in my vegetable garden. If it can even remotely survive in this climate then I will stick it in the ground. I’ve grown artichokes, eggplant, tomatillos and something called a cardoon. I will pack my rows full of tomatoes and peppers and zucchini, but I cannot stand growing cucumbers. Cucumber plants are too needy for me. ...
Canning/Preserving
Big Batch Turkey Meatballs
Everyone has a freezer. But the moment that you commit to a stand-alone deep freezer for your family home is the day that you open new doors of possibility!! With a deep freeze (or two) in your house you can take advantage of sales on meat, bread and butter. With a little extra frozen interior you can plan out and make meals more months in the future! You are only ...
Italian Stuffed Zucchini
As much as I don't want it to, the end of the Summer is here. Long lazy mornings have been replaced by 6:30AM wake up calls and a race to the door before the bus gets here. Late nights watching our favorite shows or movies have been over by showers and early bedtimes. Getting back on schedule is never fun or easy, but it is something we have to prepare for nonetheless. ...
10 Recipes for Fresh Strawberries!
Strawberries are the signal that Summer is nearly here. Sweet and juicy with a brilliant red color, strawberries are at their peak in May and June. My family has been celebrating the strawberry for as long as I can remember. Strawberries have woven their way into our mealtimes for generations. This springtime berry is much anticipated in and we use them as much as we can during ...
The 5 Best Seed Companies for Southern Gardens
The arrival of seed catalogs in the mailbox is the first sign of Spring in my book. They usually begin to arrive at the beginning of the year and I love nothing more than curling up with a hot cup of coffee, an ink pin, and some lofty goals for the new year's garden. While I am certainly not a master gardener, I do love to tend my little plot of land every year. Each year's ...
The 10 Must Have Staple Recipes to Stock Your Pantry
I am a HUGE fan of any recipes from scratch (if you hadn't figured that out by now). While the cost savings of making your own can be huge it's really the fact that I know EXACTLY what is going into my recipes. Also, when you live waaaayyyy out in the country you have to be creative and resourceful. And who doesn't love feeling self-sufficient? (Probably no one, but if there ...
Homemade Ketchup
I was standing at our local farmer’s market last week talking to David from Riversong Farms and lamenting about my glut of tomatoes and my lack of storage space for the dozens of quarts I had already put up when he made the most wonderful suggestion. “Make ketchup,” he said. ”It’s really good and pretty easy to make.” It was the most wonderful idea I had ever heard. Why ...
Garden Fresh Chow Chow
I love love love to can. If I loved cleaning as much as I love canning, my house would sparkle. It would look like all of those pictures on Pinterest where everything is neat and organized with cute little labels. So far, the only thing in the house with cute little labels is all of m canning projects. My new favorite canning project is this chow-chow. It's ...
Sauerkraut and how to make it
A large part of my mother's family was German so that meant that sauerkraut was a common site on the dinner table. I always loved that sour tang that always paired so well with meats and between my mother and I, we could eat our weight in the stuff. So when we finally moved back to the country last year, cabbage was high on the list of veggies to grow just so that I could try ...
Green Tomato Salsa Verde
My tomato plants have been good to me this year. While everyone else in town has been complaining about a horrible year for tomatoes, my 3 tomato plants have kept me and my family knee deep in juicy ripe tomatoes all Summer. So, now here it is October and the first frost is expected to come tonight and that means the end of my hard working tomato plants. It took me two trips to ...
Homemade Cucumber Relish
Thity-three quarts of green beans, 9 quarts of tomtoes, 7 pints, black eye peas, 8 pints of cucumber relish, 7 pints of kosher dill pickles and 2 gallons of sauerkraut fermenting in my utility room.Our stockpile shelves that have very sparse since we moved are now busting at the seams. I have been on a canning bender. I think I may have a "problem" because I just can't ...
Makin’ Bacon (Part 2)
As you may recall, my hubby Blaine has joined the blogging team. Here is the thrilling conclusion to the journey into making our own bacon. So you've spent the better part of a week staring into your refrigerator and obsessing over what you have done wrong to ruin your hard won pork belly. You have flipped it every other day just like you were supposed to, but you think there ...
Chicken Stock and Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken stock is one of those basic kitchen practices that everyone should know. It's probably THE kitchen practice to know. It is liquid gold. It's a thing of beauty. It's full of flavor and it's delicious. It's also dang near free if you make it yourself. With Thanksgiving coming up, you are going to need a lot of chicken stock. I bet the average American spends $10 - $15 ...
How to Make Homemade Strawberry Jam
I have a lot of childhood memories related to strawberry jam. My parents owned a business that involved suppling lots of factories with nuts and bolts and stuff. For Christmas, my mother and I would give all the workers a basket full of cookies, candies and strawberry preserves. They had lots of customers and during the summer, we made LOTS of preserves. 20-30 cases I think. We ...
The Money is in the Mixes – Homemade Mixes
When I go shopping, I shop mostly for items that are versatile and can be used in a variety of different recipes for a variety of different dishes ( except for the training pants I still buy, which are only good for one thing). I also try to spend as little as possible while still being reasonably healthy. But like most people in the world I am also busy ( or lazy on occasion) ...