Cooking with Fresh Veggies and a Recipe from Rachael!

As I was gathering veggies from my garden last night, it dawned on me that perhaps more people would grow their own herbs and vegetables if they knew what to do with them after they are "picked" and ready to take into the kitchen.

It's second nature to those of us who have either canned or opted to freeze garden goodies for years; however, I get a lot of comments from others who seem amazed at such "feats". You can grow herbs in a pot in your kitchen window; tomatoes, peppers and even beans can be grown in a window box outside your apartment door. Or, if you don't want to try your hand at gardening, you can always visit your local farmers market and buy fresh produce. You can buy enough for one meal, one recipe or enough to can. If you're new to canning, you'll probably discover that you don't save a lot of money the first year because you'll have to purchase jars and a canner. (Of course, there's always the option to freeze fresh veggies but you'll need room in your freezer.)

Before drying herbs, gather a small bunch and fasten together using a rubber band. That's a tip - the rubber band will tighten as the herbs dry, keeping your bundle together. A string or wire will not adjust to the drying, shrinking items and you'll end up trying to tighten the binding every day and bruising the herbs.

But back to cooking the veggies: Last night's dinner was a meal adapted from a Rachael Ray recipe. Click the link for the recipe, which is delicious!! Instead of using canned fire roasted tomatoes, I used tomatoes and banana peppers from our garden. The onion was also fresh from our garden (you didn't expect freshly pulled onions to be pretty, did you? LOL!) Oh, and I added some basil leaves. When you're cooking with herbs, be sure to add the herbs last so they won't look all black and yucky in the pot. Cutting onions and peppers are pretty much a no-brainer (just wash them really well, remove the pepper seeds and chop the onion and peppers up before you add them to the bacon. It's okay if you miss a few seeds, by the way.)

If you're adding fresh tomatoes to a recipe (other than a salad), you'll want to first remove the skin. Heat a pot of water to boiling and lower the tomatoes the pot. Use kitchen tongs to remove them after only about a minute. This will loosen the skin and will make peeling the tomatoes soo much easier! Be sure to cut out the stem and any "bad" (brown or bruised) areas. Cut the tomatoes (I like to dice mine) before adding them to the bacon and onion mixture. Sprinkle them with a little salt; the salt will make the tomatoes "sweat", therefore providing juice for the sauce.

Whether you try this particular recipe or another, I do hope you experiment with fresh fruits and vegetables in lieu of those canned by a manufacturer. The taste is more vibrant and fresh is healthier. Let me know how you do!

Another Recipe and a July Giftaway

Two posts in one day - unusual for me, I know, but the first one was the June blog winner announcement. Pretend that this is one continuous post, with the announcement being "1A" and this post being "1B", if you will. Before you ask, yes, there will be a July Giftaway.

The Monthly Giftaway is a regular feature of this blog; June's was special to celebrate three special birthdays of the men in my life, as my brother, son and husband all three were born in June.

This month, July, will be another special one as it is my birth month as well as two of my granddaughters, Haley and Chastity (who happen to both turn 12). The "rules" will be the same as last month. One comment during this month will get your name entered once; two comments, two entries, etc.

What is the prize package, you ask? (I'm shrugging my shoulders.) I haven't put it together yet. Okay, not all of it. You'll have to trust me, it will be a package as nice as June's.

That being said, I thought I'd share a recipe that I fixed for dinner tonight. I used these:

Fresh green veggies picked from our garden, but if your garden isn't yet ready for harvesting or if you don't have a garden, fresh beans from your favorite market will do just fine!

I cook these al dente so they remain somewhat crisp, which gives them an Oriental flair.

You'll need:

Fresh green beans, enough to serve your family Fresh green onions (I used a large green onion, per the photo; you may want to use three small green onions, depending on your own preference) Clove or two of garlic (again, per your taste) Extra virgin olive oil Beef buillion granules, enough to make 1 Cup buillion (You can use cubes if you want; I prefer the granules. Or, you can use a can of beef broth.)

1. Thoroughly wash the beans, snapping off the ends and removing the "strings". Cut out any "bad" or damaged spots. 2. Toss them in a pan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and heat them as you would to braise them 3. Cut the green onion (the entire onion, including the green top) in thin slices. Chop the garlic and stir both into the beans. 4. When the white part of the onion is looking transparent, add the buillion, cover and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. Remove the cover and allow the liquid to cook into the beans.

If you've visited many Oriental restaurants with buffets, you've probably seen similarly prepared green beans. I'd show you a picture but I forgot to photograph the process.

Our meal tonight included the beans, broasted potato slices and grilled ribeye. The ribeye was on sale at Kroger. Otherwise, we would have probably had grilled porkchops.

If you're wondering about the banana peppers in the photo: Those went to our parrots. They love peppers of all kinds. And yes, they are very spoiled birds.

The tutorial I'm doing on chair upholstery will (probably) continue tomorrow. I got a little sidetracked with our trip.

Later!

Cheap Sun Dresses, a Recipe and a Giftaway Winner!

Okay, yes, I'm late again with lots of stuff to catch up on. First, let me announce and congratulate the winner of last month's Giftaway, Irma's Rose Cottage! Irma, please email your snail mail info to me so I can get your Giftaway package in the mail to you!

Secondly, the reason for my absence: It hasn't been all computer problems. In fact, I can only blame the computer for a day and a half - at a stretch, possibly two days. It was just a life thing that I won't bore you with. (You know it has to be absolutely boring for me not to blog, since I blog about everything.) However, I was having a problem with Windows after my CCG (Cute Computer Guy) rebuilt my (formerly) emachines computer. He tweaked a few things for me and upgraded a couple things. I haven't had any problems since I've gotten it back. Do me a favor and, anytime you get a computer error message send it to me. If this computer runs as smoothly as I think it will, I'll need new excuses to look at him. It's an eye candy thing, Girls. LOL.

Need a simple sun dress? Here's a frugal tip: Wally World (and probably all places selling fabric) has bolts of fabric suitable for a one-seam top or sun dress. One side has been gathered in a smocking style. The instructions will be at the end of the bolt, with the price (usually under $13/yard). Don't pay attention to the instructions. Instead, wrap the gathered end around your chest and judge the amount of fabric that you'll need. I followed the instructions and bought too much fabric; I could have saved about $4 (roughly a third of a yard) if I had known to do this at that time. If your hips are larger than your bust, disregard this tip unless you plan on making a top. If you are making a dress, you may find it to be a little tight around the hips. This fabric is looong, ladies! It hit the floor with me. I originally intended to keep it long, didn't even hem it because the selvedged edge was on the bottom and this is something I wasn't planning to wear away from my back deck. I've since decided to cut the bottom to mid-knee length and put in a hem.

One of my neighbors was scheduled to have a back surgery yesterday morning. I volunteered to take her to the hospital; she needed to be there at 5:30 A.M. I waited in the lobby with her until she was called into the prep area, then sat and talked with her daughter-in-law for a few minutes longer before returning home.

Later in the afternoon I found out that she had been prepped for the surgery, given the anesthesia and taken into surgery before it was discovered that there was a major miscommunication between her doctor's office and the hospital. The hospital didn't have everything that was necessary for her operation. The surgeon ended up shooting some cortisone into her back and sent her home. The hospital personnel apologized profusely for the error and gave her a $10 gift certificate to Target. Can you imagine? My poor neighbor is still in major pain and has no idea when the surgery will be rescheduled. Plus, it will cost a minimum of $10 in gas to get to the nearest Target.

Recipe time! This is simple - the most time-consuming part is pre-frying a few strips of bacon. No measuring, either - it involves pasta and only you know how much your family will consume!

You'll need: Even number of Boneless chicken (breast or thigh) pieces, bacon, garlic salt, small onion, shell pasta (or penne, or even wide noodles or do as I did and mix the remains of open packages together), 1 can cream of chicken soup

You'll want to pre-fry and drain a few strips of bacon to avoid excess grease.

On half of your chicken pieces: Sprinkle a little garlic salt, some chopped onion and grated cheddar cheese. Place an untreated chicken piece on top and wrap a slice of pre-fried (not crispy) bacon around it. Secure with a toothpick. Bake at 350 for a half hour OR pop the chicken on the grill until it's done.

Meanwhile, cook and drain the pasta and stir in the cream of chicken soup. Fold this and the cooked chicken pieces together and serve with a side veggie (I chose peas).

As for now, I'm off to tackle today's task list. Be sure to check back soon for my June Giftaway prize package!

As always, keep grinnin' -

Sher

Old Family Recipe and a peek at the PRIZE

Here's something I've never done on my blog: Shared a recipe. This is a dish commonly served when we were growing up but, to my knowledge, has never before been published. (You saw it first HERE! LOL!) It wasn't unusual for my Dad and his friends to make up recipes, being in a new country and away from the familiar vegetables grown in the Philippines. This is one of them! It's tasty, colorful, and you can kind of make up whatever you want to add to it as you go along. We serve it over rice; no other side dishes are necessary. Ingredients: (Everything is an approximate measurement, by the way, and will serve about four or five people.) 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef small onion, chopped (you can also use several green onions, including the bulb and the green top) 1 can (or pint or quart - told you, everything is approximate) stewed tomatoes 1 can peas (or a cup or so of frozen peas) **** The items below can be included or omitted - I included them in last night's concoction: 1 small potato, diced 1 small to medium bell pepper (any color, sliced or diced) 2 or 3 carrots, sliced Brown the ground beef in a large skillet. Add in the chopped onion. Stir in everything else, cooking until any fresh veggies you added are cooked. Serve over a bed of rice. Add soy sauce to season to taste. Easy, huh? Let me know how you like it! And, here's a peek at the bottle that the winner of this month's drawing will receive: As usual, the winner will also receive several surprise goodies! And all you have to do to qualify is leave a comment on this blog! Good luck!