Italian seasoning!

Tomatoes love heat!  But even this kinda heat is a bit much for tomatoes!  I had picked quite a bit the other day; my first big harvest of the year, actually.  I was so excited!  I was ready to make spaghetti sauce...as soon as I finished all those beans!  Well, the beans are done, for the moment.  Time to get ready for the tomatoes.  First things first, though.  I realized that I had used the last of my Italian seasoning, which is a MUST for spaghetti sauce.  I found some recipes on allrecipes.com to make my own ( I just hate spending excessive money on things that I can make myself! ) and had made a batch last year so I decided to try it again.  It is so simple, there must be a law against it! 

First, gather your spices.  You'll need oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, and crushed red pepper flakes.

Measure 2 tablespoons of each spice into a bowl.
Don't they look all pretty like that?

Pour it all into a food processor bowl and process until fine.

Once you are through processing, pour your mixture into a seal-able container and label (just so you don't forget what you mixed up!).  I used an empty Polaner's jam jar.  You can see how much it actually makes.  I put a label on the front and then put it in the freezer.
Now, how easy was that!  And, this will last a pretty long while.
So, next up, homemade spaghetti sauce.
See you next time!

Beans, beans, and MORE beans!

Just about every year, since moving to MS 20 years ago, I have had a garden.  However, I am usually a very busy person.  I also don't like getting up early in the morning.  I have also worked, at least part time, for most of the years, as well.  All that to say, my garden didn't always get the attention it deserved to produce what it could have. Or, if it did, I let the produce go bad before finding time to put it up in one way or another.  I know, I'm a really bad person!  This year, I was going to do better (yeah, I've said that before!).  I actually did this year.  I managed to keep most of the morning glories and other weeds at bay.  And, we had just the right amount of rain and just the right amount of warm weather to make a beautiful garden!

These are my 3 double 30' rows of Rattlesnake green beans.

Of course, there are other things like corn, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes, peppers, onions, watermelon, cantaloup and tomatoes.  (I'll get to the tomatoes later.)  And, like all good gardens, when the time was right, my cucumbers, zucchini and squash started coming in.  They were so beautiful!  I made pickles and grated zucchini for breads and sauteed squash.  

Well, we were going to a family reunion/mini-vacation to Gulf Shores 2 weeks ago.  I went to the garden that morning to pick the last few cucumbers, squash and zucchini that needed to be picked before leaving.  The last time I had checked the beans, there hadn't been anything yet, just some blooms, but I decided to look at them before heading back to the house.  Oh, no!!  There were beans!  Ready to be picked!!  And I was leaving in a few hours!!!  Why couldn't they have just waited one more week???  So instead of finishing packing, I picked beans...for 2 hours!!   This is just a small amount that I actually gave away!  I decided to

take the rest with me on vacation to cook.  Well, that didn't happen so I brought them back home.  Since I had kept them in the cooler or the fridge, they were still good.  Once we got home, I finally got them broken.  It seemed like I would go out every day and pick at least 2 plastic bags full of beans every evening.  Plus, I was still getting cucumbers, zucchini, squash and potatoes. 

I started canning beans.  I've canned 21 quarts so far.

I'm still picking beans and breaking beans.  Last night, I was up past midnight breaking beans.  Unfortunately, I had let many of them get too big (I don't like shellies) so they became food for the chickens!  I should have at least 7 more quarts or maybe even 10-12 from what I have in the fridge now.  They will be done first thing in the morning!

                                              But, I've got to get them done!  Tomatoes are a'waitin!

Making Taco and Sloppy Joe seasonings from scratch

I just hate buying seasoning mixes from the grocery store!  They are SO expensive for the small amount of seasoning that is packaged and, of course, you have to pay for that silly packaging as well!
A long time ago, I received a book called "Make Your Own Groceries".  I have used many of the recipes in this book over the years.  However, two of my favorite are the taco and sloppy joe seasoning mixes.  Since I like having them around so well, I thought I would share them.  They are extremely easy to prepare!

Sloppy Joe Mix:
1/3 cup instant minced onion          2-3 tsp. sugar      
2 TB salt                                           1 1/2 tsp. dry mustard                
2 TB cornstarch                               1 1/2 tsp. powdered celery seed
1 TB instance minced garlic            1/4 tsp. cayenne
2-3 tsp. chili powder

  Mix all the ingredients together.  Pour into a half-pint jelly jar and seal.

Taco Seasoning Mix:
1/4 cup instant minced onion                         3 TB chili powder
2 TB ground cumin                                         2 TB salt
1 TB crushed red pepper flakes                    1 TB instant minced garlic
1 TB cornstarch                                              2 tsp. oregano, crushed well

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl; pour into half-pint jelly jars just like the sloppy joe mix.

Voila! You have mixes for just pennies!

 For each of these recipes, the first time you  make them, it is best to measure out the amount of mix that you have as you put it into the jars.  Each recipe makes the equivalent of 6 envelopes.  I measured mine by 1/2 TB to give a pretty accurate amount.  Once I had the amount, I divided it by 6 to give me the amount needed per "envelope".  I then made a label for each of the jars with the name and the extra ingredients needed to make each.
For the Taco Mix, you would add the amount of your mix that would equal one envelope plus 1/2 c. water and 1 TB of ketchup to your ground beef.
For the Sloppy Joes, you would add 1 6-oz can of tomato paste and 1 1/4 cups of water plus the amount of your mix that equals one envelope to your ground beef.
For both of these, you would stir well and simmer uncovered until thickened to your liking, usually about 10 minutes.

These are such easy recipes; simple to  make and VERY inexpensive and great to have around when you need them!
Happy cooking!
 
                                   

How to Make Brown Sugar

This is so TOTALLY simple and awesome!!


How to Make Brown Sugar

Trip to northern MO

One of my favorite past times is riding with my husband, Richard, on our GoldWing motorcycle.  So, when deciding to go visit a good friend in northern MO, we thought riding the bike was a great idea!  We left early on Monday morning, May 2 and 12 1/2 hours later, we made it to Greg and Brenda Larson's farm in Mercer, MO.  They have an 80 acre farm where they are raising Icelandic sheep!

 
While we were there, we were fortunate to have some lambs born.  That was definitely one of the highlights of my time there!  Of course, spending time with Brenda was the best part!

One night, we had fish from the pond, mushrooms from the woods and a pie made from raspberries and apples growing on the farm and all the eggs used in preparation were fresh from their hens!  Now that's the way to have dinner! 

They also have Old English Sheepdogs, 3 in fact:  Millie, Sheba (the 2 girls) and Jock.  In case you didn't know, north MO has some pretty cold weather during the winter and the dogs grew a very warm coat to stay warm.  Now that warmer times are a'coming, they needed a hair cut.  Brenda had just gotten her clippers so she and Greg worked on Millie.  She had a LOT of hair and a good part of the cut hair landed on my fleece jacket!  When they were finished, poor Millie didn't even look like herself.  After we left, the other two finally got their hair cuts.

Our time on the farm was way too short for me.  The morning we left, there was a beautiful mist hanging over the large pond.  A great picture to remember as we headed home.