Posted in Gardening, tagged garden, Gardening, peaches, peppers, spring gardening, zucchini on May 19, 2014| 6 Comments »
Yesterday was the first day I harvested something from our garden this season.
Zucchini!!!
Peppers!! Serranos, anaheims, and banana. Sorry, I forgot to get a photo of those.
I also picked three peaches in hopes that they will ripen off the tree. The squirrels are already competing for those. Grrrrr.
What is growing in you garden??
Sincerely, Emily
Posted in Gardening, Local Food, photography, tagged courgette, garden, harvest, last years harvest, photography, Photos, sunday photos, tomatillos, zucchini on April 14, 2013| 8 Comments »
As we get ready for the new growing season, it’s fun to look back at what you grew last year!
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Probably my (Alexandra) last year in my big garden has me thinking about what I’ll want to grow that I really use. Tomatoes, of course, but what about carrots (cheap to buy) and tomatillos (also have way more than I need).
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I (Chiot’s Run) was just thinking about this yesterday as well, looking through my old photos of delicious vegetables, dreaming of the wonderful bounty my larger gardens will produce this year. Here were some of my favorites from last year:
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I (Sincerely, Emily) loved all the peppers that came from last years garden, but there was one particular vegetable that I was the most thrilled about growing last year. The allusive zucchini (courgette.) For several years I had tried and tried, and struggled and struggled to grow zucchini. Last year was a HUGE success.
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What did you grow last year?
Posted in Baking, Family, Handmade Holidays, Make Your Own, REAL Holidays, Recipes, tagged baking, lattice-top pie, mahlzeit, mom, Pecan Pie Bars, pecans, pineapple pie, sweet treats, zucchini on December 9, 2012| 5 Comments »
You have an official pass to eat goodies– it’s Christmastime! But in January, you have to be good. Here are some of the yummies, we’re making:
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I (Xan) really just starting baking a few years ago. Baking is one of those things that one does with one’s mother, and since mine died right at the brink of my adulthood, I didn’t really feel confident in doing it. Plus, it made me sad. But when I changed my food buying habits and diet a few years ago, I had to learn to bake, or no bread. And I really did kinda figure it out. I’m slowly figuring out bread, am something of an expert now, or at least fairly fearless, at scones, and last year I taught myself to make pies (including the crust). Here is one them, and it fits in with last Tuesday’s post about baking with my mother.
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Well, I (Sincerely, Emily) had wonderful intentions of making some cookies over the past few days….  ahhhh, that just didn’t happen.
So, the only sweet treat you are going to see from me is in the post I did yesterday about the Pecan Pie Bars that I made. Oh, and there is the batch after batch of zucchini muffins and bread that I have been making over the past few montsh (and stashing in the freezer – and other people’s freezers too).
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What sweet treats have you been baking? Comment and add a link if you posted about them.
Posted in Canning, Cooking, Crafty, Creative Pursuits, Food Preservation, Frugality, Gardening, Handmade Holidays, Holidays, Make Your Own, REAL Holidays, Recipes, tagged food, Gifts, handmade, Homesteading in Maine, recipe, Recipes, rick bayless, salsa verde, tomatillos, what to do with zucchinis, zucchini, zucchini relish on December 2, 2012| 3 Comments »
Are you inspired by all the great handmade gifts our writers have been making? We like to cook things for the ones we love as well! Here’s some handmade recipes for holiday giving!
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Of course, sweets are the mainstay of homemade holidays, but this year I decided to go savory. Every year I grow tomatillos, make pints and pints of salsa verde, and then it sits on the shelf because no one eats it. Naturally, this year I decided I’ll make it in half-pint sizes, and then use it for gifts. I made 20 half-pints. When I went to check for this photo, I was down to 11; I think my husband has been eating it because of the nice small sizes. I used Rick Bayless’ wonderful recipe, and grew everything myself except the limes. By the way, this stuff is great on pizza!
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Well, Xan has me drooling over her salsa verde.
With the successful zucchini growing season this fall, I (Sincerely, Emily) knew exactly what some people were going to be getting this year for gifts! Zucchini Relish! I started making this recipe back in the fall of 2009 with a few zucchini from my garden (before the nasty borer got to it!) and more from the farmers market. Now I am thrilled I can use all of my own, homegrown zucchini for the recipe. I have not harvested my horseradish yet, or I would have used that too!) I found the recipe over at Homesteading in Maine and I also have the zucchini relish recipe posted (with permission) over at my blog too.
We love this relish on sandwiches in place of mayo.
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Posted in Cooking, Recipes, tagged Cooking, courgette, fritters, real food, Recipes, scratch cooking, what to do with zucchinis, zucchini, zucchini fritters, zucchini things on November 24, 2012| 5 Comments »
If you have been reading my personal blog, by now, you must realize my love for all things “Zucchini!” Even though I have only talked about the sweet treats I make with zucchini, I must admit I could could do without the sweet things all together and go all out for savory! By far, the easiest way for us to go through zucchini fast is to simply grill it.
Back when the zucchini were ready to harvest I was leaving town so I shredded the first few and stuck them in the freezer. Those bags still sit there waiting to be used. When I returned form my trip I started using the fresh zucchini and one of the first thing I made were these Zucchini “Things.” I have no idea what to call them, so “things” was the answer.
I used a recipe I have for Zucchini “Crab” Cakes (or zucchini fritters) and started playing around. What came out of that was Zucchini “Things.” I made a few batches of these and LOVED them every time. I am not big on measuring ingredients, so each batch tasted a bit different, but that was fine.
Here is the measurements of what I did (and I hope they turn out for you too!):
I filled the mini muffin cups full.
Bake at 350F for 17 minutes (in mini muffin tins.) You would have to vary the time if you used the regular size muffin tins. I also imagine you could forgo the muffin tin completely and just plop some scoops on a cookie sheet, flatten them a bit if you want to and bake that way.
Right now, for me, it is all about saving time, but I DO know that you can fry these in the fry pan on your stove top and have good results too. In your hands, you can form them in to small patties or just spoon some into fry pan and flatten with spatula. Depending on the length of time you fry them, you can get a crispy crust on them.
I posted about the Zucchini “Crab” Cakes yesterday on my personal log. Head over there to get the recipe.
Other Zucchini posts:
Sincerely, Emily
You can see what else I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily. The topics are varied, as I jump around from gardening to sewing to making bread or lotion and many things in between.
Posted in Food Preservation, Gardening, Happiness, tagged Food Preservation, grow, homegrown, preservation, preserving the harvest, zucchini on October 20, 2012| 16 Comments »
I have zucchini. This is happiness to me.
The story is, I can’t seem to grow zucchini at all. The dang squash vine borers are horrible. So I out smarted them and planted zucchini in my neighbors garden.
We watched the plant grown and develop beautiful leaves. Watched the flowers open and then the little zucchinis start to develop. In the blink of an eye – shazam – it was time to harvest (you know how sneaky that zucchini can be!) Â The plants are loaded and I had to leave town! No kidding. All that waiting. The thrill to watch the zucchini start to develop and grow… and I leave town. My neighbors aren’t interested in eating zucchini, in fact, they have never had it before, but they will pick and shred it for me while I am gone.
So, I promise to bake them zucchini bread. I promise to stir fry some for them. Promise Promise promise. It will be great (I love zucchini!) I picked the zucchini in the above photo the day before I left town. I shredded them and stashed it in the freezer.
I am dreaming of zucchini fritters or poor mans crab cakes. I am dreaming of zucchini in my spaghetti sauce. Oh, I am dreaming of zucchini bread.
How are you preserving your fall harvests? How about your zucchini… How do you preserve that so you can use it later?
Sincerely, Emily
This year we celebrated our Second Annual Real Food Challenge. Challenging ourselves and our readers to eat fewer processed foods and focus on eating Real Food for the entire month of March.
While the month of March is now over, we still plan to continue the Real Food Challenge by keeping in touch with our readers every few weeks. We want to support our community with advice, recipes, and even giveaways when possible so that all of us can live and eat healthier.
Whether you eat mostly fast food or already make just about everything at home, there's something for everyone in this challenge. We can all make a change whether small or large.
Join the challenge, check back often and give us your feedback - we're excited to hear how you're all doing in your quest to Eat REAL Food!
Not Dabbling In Normal 