Summer Lovin'

So, I've been on a blogging hiatus for a while, mostly due to professional development and vacation. But I'm sooo glad to be back and enjoying all that home has to offer this summer! I wanted to share a bit with you about what culinary/gardening adventures I've been up to over the past week, in hopes that it might inspire you to make the most of the bountiful summer produce you find in your own garden or at the local farmer's market.

Last week, while visiting with my mom, I had the opportunity to visit a few gardens in the eastern part of the state. One thing that I've found with gardeners is that they are generally very willing to share both their knowledge and their plants. So, I came home with a back seat full of perennial flowers, ground covers, and a few herbs. Most of what I planted has survived, despite the continued heat wave (it took lots of watering). The most exciting thing for me in sharing with these gardeners was to learn from them. One prides herself on her organic vegetable garden, which is totally amazing, so that really helped me out with our veggie garden here. Another is a Master Gardener (see your local ag extension office if you don't know about that program), so she shared a lot with me about saving seeds and amending soils. The last was a family friend who has always had a love of garden and has inspired me to begin collecting stones from our travels to add to our flower gardens as another layer of textural interest and a unique trip down memory lane.

When I got back here, blackberry season was in full force, so we spent several hours picking berries (and climbing into thickets or up banks others might have deemed dangerous--anything in the name of fresh summer berries!). We also found a blueberry patch a friend told us about where you can pick a gallon for $5! (Do you realize you pay that much for 8 ounces at the grocery store! Ridiculous!) So, we picked a gallon of those last Tuesday evening. This all came together beautifully when a friend volunteered to help me learn to can home grown produce, so last Friday I made my very first batch of mixed berry jam! I haven't opened the first jar yet, but we're totally looking forward to it. I'm hoping to be able to make some apple jelly or butter this fall with our apples and give some of both as Christmas gifts.

The same friend who helped me with the canning (thanks, Michele!), also has an amazing vegetable garden. Like most gardeners, theirs seems to grow a bit every year, and it seems this year it grew a little too large... so large they can't keep up with eating all the produce! That means that we get to share in the bounty. :) They've offered us tons of yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and green beans. In addition to helping her can some of the cucumbers as pickle relish (another fun learning experience), I've experimented with some new recipes for squash and zucchini. Of course, we've steamed some in the microwave with our fresh herbs and some of the first peppers from our garden. I also discovered this zucchini tart recipe in the recent edition of the Rachel Ray magazine, which I tried on Sunday night. I'll warn you, it's labor intensive, so prepare yourself for a few hours in the kitchen. (I did use the food processor for slicing the zucchini and wouldn't hesitate to steam the zucchini first, rather than doing the salt soak thing to get the moisture out, since it's going to be cooked anyway. We also made a double batch, since we had the ingredients.) I'm also wanting to try a zucchini bread recipe, as well as a squash casserole. Does anyone have a fantastic squash casserole recipe you love?

One thing I've been doing with the abundance of fresh herbs I have is making herb butter to put in the freezer for winter, when I don't have those fresh herbs on hand. This is so easy to do and takes practically no time. First, I use room temp butter (this usually means I set it out the night before or sometime that morning to make an afternoon batch). You can use as much as you'd like, but I generally only soften one stick at a time so that I have a variety of flavors in the freezer. Then I chop my herbs (as much or little as your taste preference is). Some of my favorite flavor combos are parsley, chives, and cilantro; parsley, chives, and sage; parsley, chives, and basil; lemon balm and mint. Then, I just mix the butter and chopped herbs in a bowl with a fork or small spatula and place the blob on waxed paper. I make a roll with it inside the waxed paper, double wrap in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and label it. Then it goes in the freezer. This is a fantastic addition to any sauté you do in the winter, as well as great for adding to burger patties (we put about 1/2 tbs. in the center of each patty before grilling and love it!), meatloaf, or spreading onto bread for garlic bread.

I can't wait for the summer tomatoes to come in later this week! They're looking beautiful on the vines right now, but I am so ready to pop one in my mouth! There's just nothing quite like a home grown, vine ripened tomato.

So, how are you enjoying the love that nature has to offer in the veggie garden and farmer's market this summer? Are you finding, as I am, that your dollar goes further for better produce at the farmer's market than the grocery store, or is it a toss up to you? Here's to living and saving green on produce this summer! I'd love to hear from you!

PS
If you're into local food and farmer's markets the way I am and haven't read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I highly recommend it. I just started it and can hardly put it down!

Busy Summer

Just a quick note to let my dedicated readers know that I have a busy few weeks with professional development and will not be posting much again until mid-July. I'll let you know how I both lived and saved some green along the way in those pursuits then.

Hoping you're enjoying your summer and surviving the heat wave!

Summer Garden Goodness

This weekend I had the pleasure of using quite a few of our garden plants for various things around the house. Here's what we made:

Raspberry iced tea: We steeped the tea bags with the raspberries (in a strainer or tied up in a coffee filter works nicely) and some lemon balm. Then, we added the sugar while the concentrated tea was still warm so the sugar would melt. Finally, we added the appropriate amount of water to get two quarts and enjoyed some ice cold goodness!

We picked some blackberries and black raspberries from some of our bushes that have been thriving in the heat wave. We added them to cereal, yogurt, and just enjoyed them to munch on. Nothing like living off the land!

I added some fresh basil to a store bought pizza (of course purchased with a coupon that was doubled during super doubles at HT) and it really helped to perk up the flavor. I've also added chives or cilantro in the past and that's been yummy too.

Benny added some fresh cilantro to his enchilada casserole. This really brightened the flavor of all of the canned ingredients. It's also a nice pop of color in the dish.

Lastly, and this one I haven't gotten to yet, I plan to do a few cut flower arrangements with the herbs and flowers fresh from the garden. The calla lilies are blooming now, as are the Easter lilies I bought last year (after Easter for 75 cents a plant... score!), and I think these would be gorgeous in a small glass vase or floating the lilies in a shallow bowl. The lemon balm and mint would add some nice fragrance to wild flower arrangements on the mantle and in the kitchen window.

So, how does your garden grow this week? Are you enjoying any of the fruits of your labor? I'd love to hear from you! Here's to living and saving green in the summer garden.

Things I'm Loving

Today's post is all about things I'm loving, especially for outdoors this summer. I hope you enjoy the pictures and links and that they inspire you to think about how you can make your outdoor space more enjoyable.

Rain Barrel I'm loving this from Lowe's and think it might be the next purchase to improve our garden area. It will certainly make watering in front of the house easier and will help to recapture some rain water, rather than using our potable well water for watering the flowers.

This hammered spray paint from Rustoleum is helping us to transform some slightly rusted white iron outdoor furniture (thanks to wonderful kitchen diva Aunt Debbie and ranger Uncle David). The white would have been beautiful in the right setting, but this paint felt more in keeping with our colors and outdoor design. With some outdoor pillows, it will be perfect for relaxing on the deck in the evenings.

I'm loving having my fresh herbs this summer to use in the kitchen. The lemon balm is a great addition to cut flower arrangements. I'd love to have an herb basket, something with a nice handle and a low frame, to carry around the yard when I gather herbs and flowers to keep both hands free when I need them. I'm thinking something along these lines, with the hope that I can find one at Goodwill or a yard sale. This one came from an Etsy shop, Carol's Cupboard, but it's a bit out of my price range for a basket.

Along those lines, I'm loving our library's current collection of landscaping and gardening books. It's allowed us to get some great ideas for free, as well as providing me with resources on how to deal with some of the pruning details and soil amendments that I had questions about. I've also found some fantastic summer reads at the library, many of which come from the staff pick section, which is a nice way to pick up something quickly.

Lastly, I'm loving adding to our pottery mug collection. I found a cool one last weekend at Goodwill in Raleigh for $2.50... score! It's the perfect colors for our kitchen and living room and has a nice shape. I don't have any like this stoneware mug that I found on Etsy. I like the shape of this mug, and the handle seems to be large enough to suit our needs and taste.

So, what about you? What are you loving this summer? Had any fantastic Goodwill finds or ideas for your summer garden? Here's to living and saving green in your summer ventures!

Summer Batch Cooking

This summer, I'm exploring more of the idea of batch cooking. The idea has been rolling around for a while, but a conversation with a friend last week really helped to get the idea solidified.

First, I'm doing more crock pot batch cooking for us (whole chickens for shredded chicken for casseroles, soups, chicken salad, etc., pots of beans for three bean salad, beans and rice, baked beans, etc., and other recipes I come across), so that the freezer is always stocked with the essentials to put together an easy and healthy meal. This is really easy in the summer when produce is so abundant at home and at the farmer's market. (And I love to cook apples in the crock pot in the fall... yummy) I've also made quite a few vinegar based salads, which will keep in the fridge for a week or two. (I'll post my bean salad recipe later today, and maybe my kitchen diva aunt's squash salad recipe.)

But to take it a few steps further, Michele offered to teach me how to do some canning this summer. She has some great recipes for a squash relish and raspberry/blackberry jam, and if the tomatoes turn out great this summer, we might try making our own tomato sauce. I'm so excited about this! It will be great to have some of this summer's harvest on the pantry shelf for fall and winter, and will definitely save us some money in the food budget. (Not to mention the jam will make great Christmas gifts.)

We've also talked about creating a freezer supper club with people, so that we'll all have well stocked freezers with a variety of things. For example, one month, I might agree to make a lasagna, while Michele might make a soup and Beth might make a chicken casserole. We'd each triple the recipe and make one batch for each person, so that we'd all end up with one of each thing. I'm really hoping that this will take off, because I think it would truly simplify life for everyone and give us the chance to try some new recipes.

What are you enjoying making this summer in the kitchen? Have any great canning recipes you'd like to share? (It looks like we'll have an abundance of squash and peppers, so send those recipes my way!) Here's to living and saving green in the summer kitchen!

Community Living at it's Best

This summer we have the pleasure of having my cousin live with us. She's in grad school here in the High Country and needed a place to stay for the summer while she takes classes and has her first practicum experience at the speech and language clinic on campus. It's been a great time to get to know her better, since we kind of drifted apart during those high school and college years.

One thing that she's helped us to think about more is vegetarian cooking and eating. She's a vegetarian, primarily out of her love of animals, and has been for several years now. While we're not vegetarian, we do have an understanding of how many livestock animals are raised in this country and feel that we have a moral obligation to use our purchasing power to curtail this. So, for us, this means purchasing less meat overall. (Did you know that it takes a vast amount of petroleum resources and grain stock to raise a beef cow, than to support a vegetarian lifestyle?) Secondly, it means purchasing from reputable sources, such as the ones we find at our local farmer's market or Earth Fare. By simply doing these two things, we can feel much better about how our food is grown and raised, and it means that we have a smaller carbon footprint, since our meat doesn't have to travel as far or use as many petroleum based machines for processing.

With my cousin living here, we've also learned a lot about communal living, which is something our small group has explored for a while. We've shared several meals together, meaning that the work is less on all of us to prepare that meal. She's been able to enjoy having a dog around (which she always wanted as a kid, but couldn't have due to asthma in the family), and Lavender has learned to be much more social with one more person. She's helping to keep the upstairs part of the house neat and tidy, which means less work for us. And it means that while we're on vacation, she'll be here keeping an eye on things and making sure things go smoothly here at home, including the vegetable harvest.

Later this summer, we're hoping to add another friend to the communal living arrangement for a few weeks while his house is being finished. He's offered to help us with some major landscaping projects in exchange for the room, as well as lending a hand in the kitchen with his excellent culinary skills. And, since his family will be using our basement to store their things for the short term, it'll be incentive to clean out the basement.

We're hoping that this will better prepare us for the one-day basement apartment and sharing the house with a renter. It's also definitely helping us complete some projects that we might not otherwise get done, or would put off due to the time/cost investment.

What are your thoughts on sharing your space with someone else? Could you do it, or would it be too much? How could you make it work for everyone to provide a better quality of life? What would you learn from each other?

Here's to living and saving green, and spreading that beyond your household!

Let the Mercury Rise...

It's officially summer in the High Country... it hit the 80 degree mark inside yesterday. With summer comes a few tips for staying cool and making the most of a hot day at home (yay, school's out for summer!).

In the summer, I generally try to get up early still to make the most of the cooler morning temperatures. This is when I do any baking that needs to be done and I try to cook ahead for the evening. I use the crock pot a lot in the summer, since it doesn't heat the house up as much as the oven, and to get it ready for evening meal time, I need to get it going early in the day. For example, on Tuesday, I made a batch of turkey soup in the crock pot for friends who just had a new baby. It cooked all day and used way less energy than making it on the stove top. Yesterday, I baked a carrot cake (from scratch... used the recipe in the New Best Recipes Book from Cook's Illustrated... totally yum), early in the day so that I wasn't roasting in the afternoon. You can also keep things cool at meal time by cooking on the grill or having a no cook meal, like salad and sandwiches or antipasti (which I prefer to sandwiches, mostly).

After the baking and meal prep work is done, I move on to laundry, since I can hang this outside during the sunny day and be guaranteed that it's dry by dinner time or sooner. While the laundry goes, I might take the opportunity to work in the garden weeding or planting, so that the morning temps make it easier and the moisture from the dew helps the weed pulling go easier. I'm loving our veggie garden right now... tons of baby green tomatoes and today I spied our first baby bell pepper! (I'll post pics when I can snag Benny's phone to get some. They're so cute!)

I usually devote the afternoon to errands, since these are generally to air conditioned buildings, like the library and Post Office. When I don't have errands to run, I spend the time relaxing reading, watching a movie, or doing some other low key house thing (crafts, organizing a closet, etc.). I try to make sure the curtains are drawn during this part of the day, at least at the front of the house, so the heat of the sun doesn't pour in. (This does cut down on the natural light, but I still get plenty from the back windows.) This is also when we have the windows open wide and the ceiling fans on. We keep things this way throughout the evening until the sun starts to dip, and then the curtains open up again. We're loving the cross breeze we get with our new screen door across from the front windows and are hoping to install a screen door on the front door sometime this summer.

Summer time is also when the bed gets a makeover... the down duvet comes off and the lightweight quilt goes on. We transition from flannel or sateen sheets to cotton, and may use a lightweight blanket. This means that we can keep the window open wide and still stay warm enough when the evening chill hits, without roasting under the down comforter.

All in all, these things enable us to stay comfortable without running the air conditioning. (Although we may run it for a few weeks in August if it gets excessively hot and humid.) So, how about you? What do you do to stay cool in the summer? How do you keep those energy bills low (and save on fossil fuel use) when the mercury rises? Here's to living and saving green, even in the heat of summer!