With the garden flourishing, there is a lot of action in our summer kitchen.  Thank goodness for the cool temperatures that graced us last week!  It made the whole idea of standing over multiple pots of boiling liquid all day a lot more tolerable.

Grandpa Dit’s Bread and Butter Pickles were first on the to-do list.  One of my favorite canning goodies.

Preserving sweet peppers for winter.  I take the time now to dice the peppers, and then freeze them in plastic freezer bags.  Then in the winter I can just pull them out and add them to anything calling for some sweet pepper love.

A new one for us: Jalapeño Jam.  It sure smelled good while making it.  I guess we will see how it tastes in a few weeks.  Fingers crossed.

After harvesting our rhubarb, I chop it up and freeze it in freezer bags so we can enjoy this spring and summer treat all winter long.

Our tomatoes are finally starting to ripen.  I must say, our tomatoes are kind of lack luster this year, which is very disappointing because putting by tomatoes is my most favorite produce to preserve.  But here is one nice sized basket I was able to garner from the garden last week.  I made tomato sauce with this collection, and then froze it in our deep freeze for the winter months when throwing pasta in a pot and adding a jar of homemade tomato sauce is just what those little school girls want for dinner.

B.L.T.s  I would be hard pressed to find anyone who does not think this sandwich tops the list of greatest summertime foods.  The bread is from Banana Cherry Bakery, the bacon is from the hog we purchased from this farmer, the tomatoes are from our garden, and topped off with a touch of homemade mayo.  (I use Jamie Oliver’s mayonnaise recipe from this cookbook.)  Oh my.  Delicious.

And we all know that when you eat those salty B.L.T.s you need something sweet after, right?  We whipped up a batch of this amazing cinnamon sugar popcorn.  Wow. It has quickly become a staple at our snack times this week.

The makings of our dinner from last night, and breakfast this morning.  I love the fullness that this time of year brings.  Such garden abundance is truly a blessing.