Using up Our Garden Goodies!

Hello Family! So today our temps only reached into the high 70's. That's pretty great. We are having a lot of fires though so the air is pretty bad. We seem to have this happen every August. Sadly, many people have lost their homes. Makes you very grateful for your home I'll tell you.

For dinner tonight I found a great recipe for a potato soup without bacon. I know that bacon adds a great taste to the soup, but I can't rationalize paying the high price. Bacon runs over $4.00 for 12 ounces here. I call that highway robbery! Anyway, here's a recipe that makes a hearty and thick potato soup that tastes amazing! It's from the Taste of Home website and I highly recommend it:

Hearty Potato Soup

6 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced

2 carrots, chopped

6 celery ribs, chopped

8 cups water

1 onion, chopped

6 Tbls. flour

6 Tbls. margarine

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 1/2 cups milk

In a soup pot cook the potatoes, carrots and celery in water until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid and setting vegetables aside. In the soup pot saute onion in margarine until tender. Stir in the flour, salt and pepper. Then gradually add milk. Bring it all to a boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Gently pour in cooked veggies and then add as much of the reserved liquid as you need to bring it to your desired consistency. Yield about 8-10 servings. 

This was just wonderful and very filling. I used potatoes and onions from our garden. When I'm out of fresh potatoes and carrots I'll use some of our canned potatoes and carrots. 

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HARVEST TIME!

Fall is my absolute  favorite season! So much to do and never enough time to get it all done, but what fun to try! We went to our garden out at Grandma and Grandpa's on Monday and brought home lots of summer squash. I was able to freeze most of it and some I used up in a great recipe I found online. 

You layer sliced squash and sliced tomatoes in a shallow dish about 2 times or more if you have lots of people to feed. It was only dad and I so I only layered twice. Then I put sliced red onions on top. It called for green onions but I made do with what I had. Then I mixed about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and 4 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar along with salt and pepper. I poured this over my veggies and cooked in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes. It was great!

Well anyway, that's how I took care of the squash. Yesterday I went up to the 5-mile garden and brought home lots of tomatoes and 3 huge yellow and red onions. The red onions were the size of softballs! I made a tomato basil soup with 3 pounds of the tomatoes and it was delicious. I didn't have heavy cream but when I looked up a substitute it told me to mix butter and milk. Who knew? I had previously used up some tomatoes in a salsa recipe that I found online. Hoping it's good. 

I had book club last night and when I got home dad was just finishing up 3 pints of green beans that he got from our garden in the back yard! And he says there's lots more coming on! 

As I said, I love the fall and I love harvest time! Making do with what the Lord blesses us with is awesome!

Winner for dinner

Another winner for dinner!

A favorite blog that I follow is The Iowa Housewife. She always seems to have simple recipes that require ingredients that are usually found in my home! I like that. I did of course make some changes; I put in some ham for dad, some red peppers from the freezer and since I didn't have corn I just excluded it! I think you'll like it. A great vegetarian recipe that also tastes great!

Baby Potatoes with Tomato Saute'

12 ounces potatoes, peeled and quartered

1 Tbls olive oil

1 cup corn

1 1/2 tsp garlic

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp crushed red peppers

1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1 ounce Parmesan cheese

Boil potatoes in pan covered with water for 10-15 minutes or until tender; drain. Heat a large skillet over med-high heat and add olive oil. Add corn, garlic, salt and red peppers and saute' for 2 minutes. Add potatoes and tomatoes and cook for 1 minute more. Top with cheese. Serves 4!

Yes, it's that time of year again! Zucchini time!

Just a quick hello and I wanted to tell you about the dinner I made tonight! It was one I found by typing in 'easy zucchini lasagna' and it was great. I used our mandolin to slice one huge zucchini into strips. It took dad and I working together to get that big thing sliced! But then you add my canned tomato sauce, some added onions and peppers from the garden, frozen spinach from last year, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and just a little bit of cottage cheese to make it perfect! I do appreciate that your dad will try all my recipes without complaint but even he liked this one. And the calories were reduced substantially because there were no noodles or meat! It was great! I hope you are each trying something new with fresh veggies! One of my favorites with zucchini is to dip them in egg and then a bread crumb mixture and fry them up. A lot of calories but so delicious. Here's to eating well and frugally!