Home Garden Notes June 2010

*CORRECTION: Even though I KNOW how to spell zucchini and never even need spell check for it --- I spelled it wrong in my personal journal --- the one I decided to save time with and share as it was written there, here. I don't think I can go through and edit the text on these photos so I'm sending anyway. Each and every one has zucchini spelled zuchinni! Only me! *

I have not kept up with photos or journaling as I hoped and planned. Hoping to do better from here on out!

We have been getting cucumbers, zucchini, one radish I’m not sure was ready and some green beans and sweet basil!

The sweet basil and cinnamon basil are both doing well even though the confederate rose is over shadowing them. Hopefully, they will thrive --- I really want to do a lot with them.

My roses have all four completely stopped blooming so I need to see why and give them more attention. I would like to use the rose petals.

I’m working on getting the kitchen fully cleaned again and sanitized for dehydrating, canning, freezing and preparing the harvest. We already have a lot of cucumbers so I am pickling those.

We had to find the boiling canner Blake put outside, get the rust off of the rack (Walmart didn’t have one to buy) … get some spices and canning supplies. Now, I have to get busy doing my first canning session alone and make sure nothing is wasted.

We’ve been snacking on cucumbers and adding slices to sandwiches, as sides on summer lunches, added to commercial pickle juice after the pickles are gone. Very good!
I stove top grilled (on cast iron grill) zucchini and added it to pasta with some parmesan shavings. We haven’t had a block of parmesan in SO long --- Blake surprised us with a wedge from the Whole Foods market!

Starting Summer

The weather is heating up and keeping the kitchen cool is getting harder to do. It is becoming increasingly needful to bake early mornings or late evenings.

I've made a variety of dishes and planned to share each one but they are scattered and scribbled all over the place! Some were my own recipes, others were from allrecipes.com and still more were cut or torn from printed sources.

Off the top of my head, I can share with you that we've had a recipe I've shared many times in the past. It is Chocolate Peanut Butter Whacky Cake or something like that. I didn't print the whole title this time but that is close, if not it.
The first time I made it in awhile was when our grown kids came for a meal and shared fellowship. We also had it today!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whacky Cake

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
powder
2 cups white sugar
10 tablespoons butter, melted 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and white sugar.
2. To the sifted ingredients, add the 10 tablespoons butter or margarine, vinegar, and warm water. Mix thoroughly, but do not beat. Pour batter into ungreased 9 x 13 inch pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove cake from oven, but keep it in the pan.
4. Cream together peanut butter, brown sugar, milk, and 1/4 cup butter or margarine. Spread icing onto cake. Place under broiler until brown and bubbly.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2010 Allrecipes.com Printed from Allrecipes.com 6/8/2010

The dinner I mentioned above with our oldest son, his wife and our three oldest grandbabies along with our next to oldest son, his wife and our youngest grandbaby turned out very well. We had:

Poppyseed Chicken

Mashed Potatoes with gravy

Fried potato peels (our second to oldest son shared this idea and it was such a hit that the platter didn't make it all the way around to everyone!)

Big tossed salad

The cake I just shared a recipe for

Sweet, iced tea
Water
Hot coffee with the cake

For the Poppyseed Chicken, I just mixed a large can of cream of chicken soup with a medium tub of sour cream and added a few tablespoons of poppy seeds and some shredded chicken. This was poured in a baking dish and then crushed Ritz crackers were spread to cover and melted butter was drizzled over the crackers. It was baked until bubbly.
It is just a quick and bigger version of almost every Poppyseed chicken recipe you'll find!

We've also had Jim Dandy grits with cheddar cheese, butter, or sauteed Vidalia onions. Once night, we had grits and little mounds of shredded cheddar, diced green chilis and sour cream adorned the top. Very tasty!

I'll write more when I can keep my eyes open --- either early, early in the morning after my Bible reading or late, late at night when everyone finally settles down!