Eat Make Grow Thursday Blog Hop #5

Welcome to this week's Eat Make Grow Blog Hop where you share what you have been eating with your family, growing in your garden or making with all your creative impulses. Eat Make Grow is a collective link party that is shared across three blogs and runs every Thursday-Tuesday. Whichever blog that you choose to link up your post on, it will show up on all three sites! Eat Make Grow is a way to share with many people posts about your domestic doings, whether that’s growing veggies, hosting parties, sewing, mixing up cleaning supplies, or trying out a new recipe. We want to learn about it! Every week, we will feature the most popular link, and one chosen by the the host. This week, your host is Marigold.

Your Hosts 

Marigold from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!

Foy from Garden. Cook. Write. Repeat.

Miranda from Pocket Pause

We’re not big fans of rules so there are just two of them:

No big corporation or business advertising or promotional posts. Let’s not dilute Eat Make Grow with junky posts. We don’t mind helping out the little home grown businesses of independent bloggers or handmade merchants (Etsy, etc.). 

Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Eat Make Grow community by sending your readers to all of the other participant’s posts. We will feature two posts each week and we will only consider posts that have a link back. A text link is fine, or you can grab this button and put it anywhere on your blog:

<a href="http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/search?q=eat+make+grow/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRQLW8gfVLqmV2RWQZRmcgp7cvbbQXtcLC1AqPaZRIGod7aeXWdghJO2s1Kl5RBQPZR5RLbHF0rXrY-8eOmIyBEBHYQm0QU7pXoupGmR9WGyN98Uc8srsHdcEqkGksa1aFd8IqzshhgNT/s190/eatmakegrow125x125blue.foy.jpg"></a>

This week's most popular post came from Heather of The Not So Super Mama. This Mama is more super than she thinks, because she was Foy's choice last week for her perfect iced coffee post! This week, lots of you guys clicked on her post for Homemade Vitamin Water: 

Heather says:

I first made these flavored waters when I did a detox diet with my husband where no caffeine was allowed. It was not a pretty site around here for the first few days. I might have even scared myself. I hadn’t realized how addicted to caffeine I had become!

I did a similar real-food-only detox diet last spring: no caffeine, no sugar, no salt. Oy! It was tough. I drank a ton of water with a squeeze of lemon and unsweetened cranberry juice (blech!). I wish I had thought to add different varieties of fruit to my water! Heather offers a lot of yummy flavor suggestions. Hop on over to her post to see what they are!

And my choice for this week's Host's Pick comes from our very own Miranda of Pocket Pause! I agonized over whether or not it was totally kosher to share my co-host's link, but in the end I think this project is too fun and too sweet NOT to share.

Miranda recently hand made the invitations for her sister's baby shower. She says:

I wanted there to be a way for each invited person to send a special message to both my sister and her son that would last beyond the mailbox and guest list...What if I compiled a stack of banners with a personal blessing/sentiment from all of the invited guests and strung them on a long cord to hang at the shower and ultimately in the nursery?

I thought that this was such a cool idea and could be incorporated into any number of special events. Imagine doing this in place of a wedding guest book, or to celebrate a special anniversary. Hop over to Pocket Pause to see how she included the blessing banners in her invitations. She promises to show us more next week!

Is one of these featured posts yours? Grab our “Featured Blogger” button to post on your blog and show off how cool you are. You can also visit our Pinterest Eat Make Grow Featured Bloggers pin board to see some of our past favorites.

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9LfkOaqAop3L5znjZrI7jDkHehEnDWPu_L3cQC0kg3exeFZeZacf6hyphenhyphenQVF9liJsU_Shng6Qz9bHrjncbPMeMnnj3zKQ7ZHgnMMWeYhZk8n-OaIgR5hgencNEqXgJxJ8onX8E_G26Iaix/s1600/featured125x125.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9LfkOaqAop3L5znjZrI7jDkHehEnDWPu_L3cQC0kg3exeFZeZacf6hyphenhyphenQVF9liJsU_Shng6Qz9bHrjncbPMeMnnj3zKQ7ZHgnMMWeYhZk8n-OaIgR5hgencNEqXgJxJ8onX8E_G26Iaix/s1600/featured125x125.jpg"></a>

Show us what you've done this week!

Read More

Canning Pizza Sauce and Tomato Sauce - Recipe

We make pizza about once a week.  Normally I make my pizza sauce each time by sauteing onions and garlic, adding diced tomatoes and then sprinkling in the spices and cooking for 30 minutes.  All the while getting splatters of red sauce all over my stove and counters.  No more!  My goal was to can a pizza sauce that I could use straight out of the jar.

Behold my canned pizza sauce:

I bought a bushel of tomatoes at the farmer's market. A bushel of tomatoes is about 50 pounds!  I could barely lift it.  Actually, I couldn't lift it.  The guy who sold it to me had to hoist it up and then I could carry it to my open trunk.  Once I got home I transferred half of the tomatoes to a five gallon bucket so I could bring them into the house.  My excuses are I just had a baby... a couple months ago and that this photo doesn't do it justice.  That's a lot of tomatoes.

If you want a bushel of tomatoes stop by your local farmer's market or farm stand and ask the sellers if they will sell you a bushel of seconds or canners.  At my farmer's market I have to pay in advance for a bushel and then pick it up the next week.  Or I have to get their really early in the morning to just walk up and buy a basket.  Maybe once the season peaks it will be better.  Hopefully next year I'll have my at least part of the lawn turned into garden and I'll be canning my own.  

I use two pieces of equipment that make it easier to sauce: an immersion blender and a food mill.  They come in very handy so that I don't have to blanch the tomatoes or strain them.  

Here's how I made pizza sauce.  First I cleaned and took the stem off all the tomatoes that still had that part.  Then I cut out the top where the tomato attached to the stem and quartered it.  

What makes this more than just tomato sauce is the addition of Italian spices, onions and garlic.  I sauteed the garlic and onions until the onions were glassy.  Then I threw in as many tomatoes as I could and simmered for twenty minutes.  There is no need to add water the tomatoes will break down and become juicy quickly.  It was important to stir frequently to keep things cooking evenly.  

I wish I had a big pot for this step, but I had to settle for batching them in my two 8-quart pots.  Until I started canning I thought I would never need anything bigger than the 8-quart!  I'll have to keep a look out at garage sales and Good Will to see if I can find a huge pot for canning things like tomato and apple sauce.  It would also come in handy for making stock.

In the photo above you can see the quartered tomatoes waiting their turn in the pot.  I am pretty sure at this stage there were still uncut tomatoes waiting in the sink as well, but I had run out of containers to hold them.  After they simmered for 20 minutes, I took out the bay leaves and used the immersion blender to make a lovely tomato pulp.  If you don't have an immersion blender you could also batch in a blender or food processor.  Or I guess you could just run it through the food mill and you would just have to crank longer.  

Then I poured the pureed tomatoes into a food mill.  This was a most excellent gift from my mother!  She got it at an antique mall.  There are lots of kinds you can purchase like these on Amazon.  Before I had this I used my hands to press the liquid through a colander   

You can also see, in the picture above, the shelves my handy husband built for us to keep the jars of bulk food.  Hooray for not having to dig through the deep pantry shelves anymore! 

After smooshing all the tomato puree through the food mill, the seeds and skins were be left behind and I had a rather thick juice that goes back onto the stove.  I simmered it for most of the evening, stirring every so often to prevent burning. 

I should have reduced the volume by half.  I thought it was thick enough when I had reduced the volume by about one third, but it wasn't.  I should have kept going.  So I'm not calling what I made pizza sauce.  It will now be used for lasagna and spaghetti sauce.  I'll have to make some more and get it thick enough for pizza sauce.  It's no good when the sauce runs off the pizza.  

Then while the sauce was still hot I ladled it into jars and boiled it in the water bath canner for 35 minutes.  

I used about 45 lbs of tomatoes and came up with 18.5 pints of sauce.  A pint is about the perfect amount for two of our pizzas which is why I didn't do quarts.  I like not having to keep leftover sauce in the fridge where it could potentially go bad.  If I had reduced the sauce as much as I should have I would have yielded 14 pints.  

I am convinced this is a good recipe if I actually followed it.  I plan to put up another three bushels of tomatoes.  About 100 pounds as pizza sauce, 25 pounds as enchilada sauce and 25 as sun-dried tomatoes.  And if I can find more tomatoes I'll make some canned tomato soup.  And I'll probably still be buying tomatoes this winter for things like lentil soup and curry!  Crazy how much tomato we eat.  

Canned Pizza Sauce Recipe

 Yields 14 pints or 7 quarts

45-50 lbs of tomatoes (1 bushel)

6 cups onion, chopped

12 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup olive oil

4 tablespoons oregano

6 bay leaves

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons salt (optional)

1 jalapeno, minced (optional)

Bottled lemon juice

1. Sterilize the jars by boiling in the water-bath canner for 10 minutes and pouring boiling water over the lids, keep them upside down on a clean towel until ready to use.  
2. Clean and wash tomatoes.  Remove the top part where the tomato attaches to the stem and then quarter.  Set aside.  
3. Sautee the onions and garlic in a huge pot with the olive oil until the onions are glassy.  Add the quartered tomatoes, oregano, bay, pepper, honey, salt and jalapeno.  Simmer for twenty minutes.  
4. Remove the bay leaves and puree the tomatoes either with a stick blender in the pot or batching in a blender or food processor.  
5. Strain the pureed tomatoes through a food mill or colander to remove seeds and peels.
6. Cook the pulp on the stove uncovered, over medium-high heat stirring frequently until the volume is reduced by half.  You should have about 7 quarts.  
7. Add one tablespoon of lemon juice per pint or two tablespoons of lemon juice per quart then fill each jar leaving 1/2 inch head space.  Put on the cap and screw band.
8. Process in a water-bath canner for 35 minutes for pints and 40 minutes for quarts.

Open this sauce and pour directly on pizza crust and top with your favorite toppings and bake!  Might I suggest: spinach apple feta pizza, egg ramp goat cheese pizza or any of the other ideas here.  

Enjoy! Let me know if you give this recipe a whorl in the comments.  

Read More

Planning to Preserve Check In

This January I wrote a three part series of what I wanted to put up this growing season.  Let's see how I am doing.

I am absolutely certain that I am way behind.  I knew having a baby would complicate things but I didn't understand just how run down my body was going to feel.  Up until this my body could do everything I asked of it.  Even the couple really crappy long hikes in the rain while sick to get to out of a community to find transportation during Peace Corps were nothing compared with trying to weed in the garden while 38 weeks pregnant! My least favorite part of having a baby was the last month of pregnancy and the first six weeks postpartum. My physical abilities were so limited.  I completely missed strawberries and blueberry season.  The peach blossoms got zapped in a late frost so I'm not sure I'll find peaches this fall either.  I guess the only fruit I'm getting are apples! I'll have to see if I can find some pears too.


Here's my very ambitious goal sheet I made this winter:

Click the image to enlarge.

I did manage to collect all the jars I thought I would need.  Although, I'm almost out of pint jars!  I did meet a lovely elderly gal at the farmers market who sold me 50 quart jars for $12.50.  You can't beat that, so I think I'll have enough to make it through. Most of them are old glass mayo jars, which are fine for the refrigerator or water bath canner, but not so much for the pressure canner.  That's okay because I still don't have a pressure canner.

Another thing I don't have is a chest freezer.  I was counting on buying a freezer to store the frozen stuff and that hasn't happened.  Turns out a new house and birthing a baby are expensive and on a high deductible health savings account plan a baby counts as her own person and has her own deductible.  If I hadn't been moved to a hospital the babe wouldn't have had any cost. (I risked out after 24 hours of my water breaking when birth was not imminent at the birth center. Here's more info if you're curious.) So that cut into our savings.  All is well that ends well, right? Healthy baby, healthy mom; just no chest freezer.  Next year perhaps.  

For the record, the baby is only up on the counter for the picture.
She normally sits in her bouncy seat on the floor away from the stove.  :)  

What has been on track? Pickles! As you can see from the picture above, I've got all the pickles I planned to done.  We prefer refrigerator dill pickles so that's what I've got.  I also came across a recipe for pickled red onions and made a bunch of those.  They have replaced grilled or sauteed onions on our sandwiches and brats.  I'm even trying a quart of sauerkraut.  I'm two weeks into a six week ferment, so we'll see how that goes.

I've also got 50 of the 200 pounds of tomatoes done. I made pizza sauce.  I plan to share the recipe with you, but I think I need to tweek it a bit.  It's too thin, I should have boiled it down more.  The question is should I open all the jars and cook it down and then re-can?  I should, I just don't want to...

Then I saw this recipe for Home Canned Tomato Soup and now maybe I could use even more tomatoes!  We'll see what the availability is at the co-op this year or I might have to buy another couple bushels.

I tried dehydrating kale and beets and came to the conclusion that I just don't like them that well.  I'm now thinking I should blanch and freeze kale and Swiss chard in one pound bags to use for vegetarian lasagna and soups.  Again, it would be good to have more freezer space.

There are some things I can still get done this year like winter storage of garlic and winter squash.  I still have pesto and dehydrated tomatoes to make as well as grape jelly.  The season is anything but over, perhaps there is still time to get a chest freezer!

How's your home food preservation going?

Read More

Eat Make Grow Thursday Blog Hop #4

Welcome to the fourth Eat Make Grow Blog Hop. We've officially been doing this a month! I've learned so much from you guys and discovered some great new blogs! Thanks for reading and sharing.

Your Hosts:

Marigold from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!
Foy (That's me!) from Garden. Cook. Write. Repeat. (That's here.)
and Miranda from Pocket Pause

We’re not big fans of rules so there are just two of them:

1. No big corporation or business advertising or promotional posts. Let’s not dilute Eat Make Grow with junky posts. We don’t mind helping out the little home grown businesses of independent bloggers or handmade merchants (Etsy, etc.).

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs.This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Eat Make Grow community by sending your readers to all of the other participant’s posts. We will feature two posts each week and we will only consider posts that have a link back. A text link is fine, or you can grab this button and put it anywhere on your blog, linking back to this post:

<a href="http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/search?q=eat+make+grow/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRQLW8gfVLqmV2RWQZRmcgp7cvbbQXtcLC1AqPaZRIGod7aeXWdghJO2s1Kl5RBQPZR5RLbHF0rXrY-8eOmIyBEBHYQm0QU7pXoupGmR9WGyN98Uc8srsHdcEqkGksa1aFd8IqzshhgNT/s190/eatmakegrow125x125blue.foy.jpg"></a>

Each week we feature two links from the previous week. The one with the most clicks and one selected by this weeks host, Foy. Remember you can't be featured unless you link back to the hop!

Featured Posts:

Congratulations Barb from Frugal Local Kitchen your post of School Time Snack Roundup had the most clicks! And those snacks aren't just for kids, I'd go for some Whole Grain Cookies right now with iced coffee.

My pick is Heather at The Not So Super Mama for her Perfect Iced Coffee. I had to give this a try because she wrote "pretend like you’re at a coffee shop all alone. Take at least 5 minutes of quiet time, take some deep breaths, and prepare yourself to face the day." I love her beautiful photos and her simple trick for easy iced coffee that isn't bitter. I won't give it away, you'll have to click through and read it yourself.
 
Is one of these featured posts yours? Grab our “Featured Blogger” button to post on your blog and show off how cool you are. You can also visit our Pinterest Eat Make Grow Featured Bloggers pin board to see some of our favorites.

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9LfkOaqAop3L5znjZrI7jDkHehEnDWPu_L3cQC0kg3exeFZeZacf6hyphenhyphenQVF9liJsU_Shng6Qz9bHrjncbPMeMnnj3zKQ7ZHgnMMWeYhZk8n-OaIgR5hgencNEqXgJxJ8onX8E_G26Iaix/s1600/featured125x125.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9LfkOaqAop3L5znjZrI7jDkHehEnDWPu_L3cQC0kg3exeFZeZacf6hyphenhyphenQVF9liJsU_Shng6Qz9bHrjncbPMeMnnj3zKQ7ZHgnMMWeYhZk8n-OaIgR5hgencNEqXgJxJ8onX8E_G26Iaix/s1600/featured125x125.jpg"></a>

Everybody ready to link up?
Let's Hop!

Read More

Pickled Red Onions - Easy Quick Recipe

If you've ever had pickled red onions than you understand.  There is something about the crisp, sweet and sulfery taste that perfectly compliments a sandwich. If you love caramelized onions than these are their uncooked, summer time, brethren.

BLTs are even better with pickled red onion.  Served with a side of 'Sun Gold' cherry tomatoes and the last of this summer's blueberries.

If you've never had them I highly recommend you make yourself a jar pronto.  Then you too will understand.

Pickled red onions can also be served on salads, pizzas or eaten straight out of the jar.  They are addictive.  Consider yourself warned.

I had no idea how easy it is to make them either.  I saw a recipe for pickled red onions and pinned to to my How Does Your Garden (and Pantry) Grow? page.  I checked out the recipe and wasn't completely sold.  I didn't want a bunch of spices like ginger, cloves, anise and cinnamon muddling up the flavor of the onion.  So I did some searching and found these recipes to compare:

• Pommes de Amor - Tempura Green Beans & Cod Escabeche
• Closet Cooking - Pickled Red Onions (The one I followed the closest.)
• Simply Recipes - Pickled Red Onion (many of the recipes I found were this exact recipe)
• Use Real Butter - Pickled Red Onion (the one on my pinterest board)

There are a variety of spices and different types of vinegar used.  I decided to keep it simple and go with apple cider vinegar because the slight fruitiness adds some depth. I probably would have tried red wine vinegar if I had it on hand.

For spices I chose bay leaves and whole black pepper.  Although I'm not even sure if those are necessary.

Below's the recipe for what I came up with.  I have made it several times now because I keep finding an empty jar in the fridge.   And lucky me the co-op has red onion in the shares recently.

Aren't they pretty?  Two onions of a medium size are just right for one quart of pickles.

It's such an easy recipe.  All you have to do is slice the onions really thin like this:

You could use a mandolin if you have one.  I just used a chef knife.  

Then blanch the onions to halt any enzymes that are working to age your onions.  Blanching also makes them a little soft so you can cram more into the ball jar. By the way, you should sterilize the jar and lid.  One way to sterilize is pour boiling water over them.  

After blanching the onions look like this:

Use a wooden spoon or other blunt object to stuff all the onions in a jar.  Try not to be too brutal and bruise them as that diminishes the crunch factor.

Then heat the apple cider vinegar with the sugar and spices until just simmering.  (Don't let it cook too long or the water will start to evaporate and make the ratios all wonky.) Pour the hot vinegar solution into the jar until it covers all of the onions.  

Put a lid on it and let on your pickled red onions and let them cool on the counter before popping it in the fridge.  It takes a full day for the flavors to develop and the color to become a solid bright fuchsia.  And let's face it half the fun of these pickles are their lurid color.  

What do you want to eat your pickled red onions with?

Pickled Red Onion Recipe 

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1-2 bay leaves
2 large red onion (peeled and sliced thin)
1 pint or 2 half pints with lids

1. Sterilize your jar(s) by running through the dish washer, pouring boiling water over them, or submerging in boiling water for 10 minutes.
2. Blanch the onion slices by submerging them in boiling water for three minutes.  Then shock them in a cold water bath for 3 minutes so they don't over cook.  Then stuff them into your prepared jar. 
3. Meanwhile, heat the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, black pepper and bay leaf in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved and everything is just starting to simmer. Do not cook too long or evaporation will ruin your ratios. 
4. Pour the vinegar mixture over the onions in a jar.  If there is too much discard the extra, but pack the loose spices into the jar.  Let cool to room temperature on the counter.
5. Put in the refrigerator over night and they are ready to eat.
   
   Store in the fridge.

Read More

Eat Make Grow Thursday Blog Hop #3

Yipee, it's Thursday again! Now that we've gotten all our introductions out of the way, it's my (Miranda's) turn to host the hop. I had such fun reading all of your posts: from food preservation to adorable toddler-suspenders, it was tough to choose my favorites! This week has been a busy week in my kitchen, as well. I foraged and put up over 15 pounds of mini plums! That was a heck of a lot of cutting out seeds, but i'll be happily munching on jam this Winter. Foy, Marigold and myself can't wait to see what ideas you have for us this week, for the kitchen, craft room or garden.

Your Hosts:

Marigold from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!
Foy (That's me!) from Garden. Cook. Write. Repeat. (That's here.)
and Miranda from Pocket Pause

We’re not big fans of rules so there are just two of them:

1. No big corporation or business advertising or promotional posts. Let’s not dilute Eat Make Grow with junky posts. We don’t mind helping out the little home grown businesses of independent bloggers or handmade merchants (Etsy, etc.).

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs.This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Eat Make Grow community by sending your readers to all of the other participant’s posts. We will feature two posts each week and we will only consider posts that have a link back. A text link is fine, or you can grab this button and put it anywhere on your blog, linking back to this post:

<a href="http://www.pocketpause.COM" target="_blank"><img src="http://pocketpause.com/woofwoof/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/eatmakegrow125x125blue.pp_.jpg"></a>

Each week we’ll pick a few of our favorite posts and feature them right here! Here are this week’s featured posts. Is one of them yours? Grab our “Featured Blogger” button to post on your blog and show off how cool you are. You can also visit our Pinterest Eat Make Grow Featured Bloggers pin board to see some of our favorites. Let’s take a look at last week’s links.

How Much Money Can You Save by Making Food Yourself?

This week's most popular post came from Annemarie from Real Food Real Deals who had some great tips on saving money by cooking from scratch. I love that she showed us the proof in the 'made from scratch' pudding! Eat Real Food isn't just a catch phrase, it's a budget stretching technique! This post has lots of links to recipes for making your own snack foods and other tasty treats. Annamarie says:

I’ve gotten into the habit of making most of these items from scratch for two reasons. First, I can control what goes into our food and make sure I’m sticking to real food ingredients. Second, I can save a lot of money. 

Identifying And Harvesting Edible Weeds In The Garden

One of my favorite posts was from A Life Unprocessed. I love eating wild edibles including "weeds" that others might just pull and throw in the compost. This post has some great photos of edible weeds, as well as ideas for using them in the kitchen and first aid kit. I'm especially grateful that she included some photos of weeds NOT safe to eat.

These same weeds go for a few dollars a bunch from my CSA. Be resourceful: harvest your own weeds!

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9LfkOaqAop3L5znjZrI7jDkHehEnDWPu_L3cQC0kg3exeFZeZacf6hyphenhyphenQVF9liJsU_Shng6Qz9bHrjncbPMeMnnj3zKQ7ZHgnMMWeYhZk8n-OaIgR5hgencNEqXgJxJ8onX8E_G26Iaix/s1600/featured125x125.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt9LfkOaqAop3L5znjZrI7jDkHehEnDWPu_L3cQC0kg3exeFZeZacf6hyphenhyphenQVF9liJsU_Shng6Qz9bHrjncbPMeMnnj3zKQ7ZHgnMMWeYhZk8n-OaIgR5hgencNEqXgJxJ8onX8E_G26Iaix/s1600/featured125x125.jpg"></a>

And thanks so much to everyone who linked up and shared our hop with your readers last week. Don't forget to link back if you join this week's hop, and feel free to join the hop every day through next Tuesday. :)

Happy hopping!!

Read More

Easy Cucumber Tomato Salad - Summer Recipe

It's that time in the garden when there are tons of cucumbers and tomatoes.  I personally like the combination of tomato and cucumber hunks tossed with a spoonful of mayo.  However, Jeff isn't so fond of it.  I save that for my lunch.

Last week I made a simple salad of alternating slices of cucumber and tomato drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar - easy and elegant.  Paired with a cheese and potato frittata.  The acidic salad was a nice balance to the egg and cheese.

This meal was inspired by Lightly Crunchy's submission to the first Eat Make Grow Blog Hop!  Heidi's cucumber, tomato and basil salad has a couple more ingredients.  It sounds like she's harvesting the same things we are!

This is a wonderful seasonal salad. Give it a try if you have an abundance in your garden!

Cucumber Tomato Salad

1 cucumber
2 tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Wash your produce and if the cucumber has tough skin peel about 1/3 of it off.  Then slice the cucumber and tomato into 1/2 inch thick slices.  
2. Arrange the slices neatly on a plate.  I had a few 'Sun Cherry' tomatoes as well that I threw in the middle.  (You could skip this step if you aren't worried about pretty.)
3. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Drizzle over the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Add a little salt and pepper to your taste and your done!

You can make this recipe a couple hours ahead of you want.  The balsamic will be a little more pronounced.  

Read More

Eat Make Grow Thursday Blog Hop #2

It is Thursday (again! so soon!) and time for another Eat Make Grow Blog Hop! Marigold and I had a great inaugural hop last week, and this week we are welcoming a new host, Miranda from Pocket Pause. Whichever blog you choose to link your post up to, it will show up on all three sites! Share all of your DIY projects and the yummy food you've been growing and eating.

Your Hosts 

Foy from Garden. Cook. Write. Repeat.
Miranda from Pocket Pause
Marigold from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!

We’re not big fans of rules so there are just two of them:

No big corporation or business advertising or promotional posts. Let’s not dilute Eat Make Grow with junky posts. We don’t mind helping out the little home grown businesses of independent bloggers or handmade merchants (Etsy, etc.).

Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Eat Make Grow community by sending your readers to all of the other participant’s posts. We will feature two posts each week and we will only consider posts that have a link back. A text link is fine, or you can grab this button and put it anywhere on your blog:

<a href="http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/search?q=eat+make+grow/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRQLW8gfVLqmV2RWQZRmcgp7cvbbQXtcLC1AqPaZRIGod7aeXWdghJO2s1Kl5RBQPZR5RLbHF0rXrY-8eOmIyBEBHYQm0QU7pXoupGmR9WGyN98Uc8srsHdcEqkGksa1aFd8IqzshhgNT/s190/eatmakegrow125x125blue.foy.jpg"></a> Before we get to last week's links, I want to introduce you all to Miranda of Pocket Pause who will make our third hostess with the most-ess. Miranda is another gal from Savannah.  Marigold and I along with the rest of our SCAD group used to hang out at her house which she rented with a rotating cast of other masters students.  Miranda's a talented illustrator and makes lovely felted fiber friends for sale on etsy.  She also makes soap and other skin soothers which she sells here.  And she's looking for a small farm to call her own where her Corgi dog, Pocket, can herd goats and terrorize chickens.  I'm not sure how she has time for all that and being one of the wine tasting  ladies at an Oregon vineyard. Let's get back to the hop and take a look at last week's links. First of all, I want to say that we were so excited by the turn out for our first hop. We didn't do very much promotion for this, and were hoping to avoid embarrassment and get up to 20 links. Well, you came out in force and we were so excited to get over 75 posts linked up to the inaugural Eat Make Grow hop! Each week we will go through every single link that you guys are so kind to share with us, and we feature two. The first is the link that received the most clicks, and the second is a curated choice by this week's host. This was not an easy task! The most clicked on link was: What's THIS In My Garden? by Brenda of A Separate Path "At first, I thought that they were some kind of insect droppings, but that would be a pretty large insect! They look a little like green hand grenades!" Brenda found a critter in her garden and asks her readers to help her solve the mystery. Jump on over to A Separate Path to find out what was hanging out on Brenda's tomatoes! And my favorite project from last week's list was this:  DIY Zigzag Quilt by Jacquie of the blog At Home in Hope "I kept the quilting minimal in hopes that the quilt would remain wrappable and snuggle-up-able. Mission accomplished." It was so hard for me to choose a favorite, but in the end, I kept coming back to this project. Jacquie made this sweet baby blanket for her best friend's new little one. It's quiet colors and modern design are just perfect for a baby boy. Visit At Home in Hope to see more of the quilt. Featured Blogger Pinterest Page Thanks for linking up Brenda and Jacquie! We hope you'll proudly display the Eat Make Grow Featured Blogger button on your blog: And thanks so much to everyone who linked up and shared our hop with your readers. We are excited about watching this community grow and hope you'll continue to post your projects this week and every Thursday!

Read More

Herb Roasted Potatoes - Recipe

Harvesting Potatoes

I harvested potatoes for the first time last fall. I imagined digging potatoes to be back breaking work with a pitch fork. It wasn't like that at all. I used my hands and a soil knife to loosen the soil and pulled up Russet potatoes. It was so easy in the lovely soil which the Hawkin's family has been working to improve for years. All the straw heaped on top meant the potatoes were practically at soil level.

Apparently I'm not very good at harvesting potatoes yet because this spring Zack harvested some new potatoes when he went to put this years squash in the same bed. Well, you live you learn.

To harvest potatoes all you do is push the straw away from the base of the potato plant.  Then gently yank the plant out of the soil.  If you do it right you will see the seed potato the plant grew from.  It looks like and old chunk of potato.  You'll probably be able to see a couple potatoes too.  Grab those up and then dig around a bit to find any remaining.  The vast majority will be within the diameter of a basket ball at the base of the plant, but check in a three foot diameter just to be safe.

Brush the dirt off your potatoes, but don't wash them until they are ready to use.  They will keep longer that way.

I made herb roasted potatoes with my share from the CSA this week.  It's a filling side dish with tons of flavor. Talk about comfort food. I love sautéed onions and garlic then add some rosemary with a base of roasted potatoes and I don’t even need a protein. I suspect this potato recipe would go well with just about anything any time of the year.

Right now we are harvesting potatoes, onion and garlic at Hawkin’s Farm and there was enough rosemary to share. If you don’t have fresh rosemary, I could see thyme or sage also being delicious.

I served the herb roasted potatoes up with honey caramelized baby carrots and grilled salmon.  It was a filling and delicious meal after a long day working in the garden in the morning and processing produce in the afternoon.


Herb Roasted Potatoes

2 generous servings

2 pounds potatoes
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1 sprig fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Clean and cut the potatoes into one inch cubes. Slice the onion into half inch thick strips. Take the rosemary leaves off the branch. You should have about 2-4 tablespoons worth. Cut the garlic cloves in half or quarters depending on size.
    
2. In a large heavy bottomed skillet, cast iron would be ideal, add the butter over medium heat. Add in the potatoes, garlic and onion and toss to coat. Then arrange the potatoes in a single level. The onion and garlic can be on top or to the side or where ever in the skillet. Let the potatoes cook until brown. Add the rosemary. Then turn the potatoes and continue until brown on all sides. The onion and garlic should brown and caramelize at the same time.
    
3. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.
    

Frugal Days

Read More

Inaugural Eat Make Grow Blog Hop

Welcome to Eat Make Grow Thursday! My favorite day of the week where you share what you have been eating with your family, growing in your garden or making with all your creative impulses.Whichever blog that you choose to link up your post, it will show up on both sites! This blog hop is a way to share with many people posts about your domestic doings, whether that’s growing veggies, hosting parties, sewing, mixing up cleaning supplies, or trying out a new recipe.  We want to learn about it.

This is our first hop!  We are pretty excited.

Your Hosts

Marigold from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!

Foy from Garden. Cook. Write. Repeat. 

Meet Marigold! She's a mother, but not a mother to this child, that one's mine.  She's got two bouncing boys of her own.  She writes, crafts and photographs over at her blog Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky!.

Marigold throws her boys awesome birthday parties like this ping pong party and this Harry Potter party. Plus you'll find lots of tutorials and crafty ideas on her blog.  She's the one who inspired me to do the "Summer of No Pants".  I only wore skirts for a full summer and now they are a regular part of my wardrobe.  In fact, I am wearing one right now.

Marigold and I go way back.  Back to when our husbands were getting their masters in Savannah in 2005. We both had blogs. Not these blogs, we weren't as focused yet.  I admired Marigold's excellent turkey stuffing and her quirky sense of style.  She wears bright bold colors of lipstick effortlessly.  Then came graduation and I helped her pack their apartment up and move. Then we moved.  Seven years later we are in different states but our blogs have kept us connected.

Marigold and her family live in California.  Recently they visited us in Indiana. Marigold and I got to plotting about some sort of joint blog venture.  The fruit of the conversation is this spankin' new blog hop.  It's a combination of Marigold's love of sewing, hosting and crafting with my passion for food and garden.  We hope to discover lots of other bloggers with similar interest and learn about what you all are up to.  We want to invite you into our blogging neighborhood.  Come share with us!

We’re not big fans of rules so there are just two of them for this blog hop:

Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Eat Make Grow community by sending your readers to all of the other participant’s posts.  We will feature two posts each week from the following week. We will only consider posts that have a link back.

<a href="http://foyupdate.blogspot.com/search?q=eat+make+grow/" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJRQLW8gfVLqmV2RWQZRmcgp7cvbbQXtcLC1AqPaZRIGod7aeXWdghJO2s1Kl5RBQPZR5RLbHF0rXrY-8eOmIyBEBHYQm0QU7pXoupGmR9WGyN98Uc8srsHdcEqkGksa1aFd8IqzshhgNT/s190/eatmakegrow125x125blue.foy.jpg"></a>

No big corporation or business advertising or promotional posts.  Let’s not dilute Eat Make Grow with junky posts. We don’t mind helping out the little home grown businesses of independent bloggers or handmade merchants (Etsy, etc.).

Read More