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!