August Action

August 29, 2013August 27, 2013 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

There has been a lot of action of late in our gardens. It is truly at its peak, and despite the near 100-degree temperatures this week, we find ourselves entwined in vines of all sorts, harvesting all this fabulous veg.

Tomatoes make an appearance at our dinner table each night, for I am not sure there is a better fresh vegetable on earth than a homegrown tomato. Herbs are being dried each day in order to preserve them for the winter months. Onions and beans are being diced and then destined for the freezer. And who could forget our school garden, from which we just reached the 100 pounds donated mark! Yup, the students of Cathedral of St. Peter School have donated 100 pounds of fresh produce to the Plant a Row for the Hungry program at our local food pantry.

So much wonderful August action in the garden right now. I hope all of you are finding yourselves in the midst of such garden greatness as well!

Our Summer Kitchen

August 20, 2013 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

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.

At This Moment

August 19, 2013August 18, 2013 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

At this moment, I am…

~labeling all kinds of school supplies. I still cannot believe school starts this week. Where has this summer gone? My stomach is churning as I think about it.

~harvesting rhubarb from our garden. I’m hoping to whip up some rhubarb squares later this afternoon. Yum.

~transforming a portion of our playroom into a library for my little book-lovers. More on this revamped space later this week.

~re-reading Catching Fire. Oh my. I forgot how much I love this book.

~loading up the van with needed supplies for the school garden. We are setting up an outdoor classroom space today, just in time for the start of the new school year.

~wishing we could add some more days (or weeks really) to this fleeting summer.

~hoping each of you has a wonderful start to your week.

From Scratch

July 31, 2013September 1, 2015 / makingofahome / 1 Comment

In our family’s attempt to make as much as we possibly can here in our home, there are those weeks that go by when we are in the midst of a creating whirlwind, and suddenly I look at the calendar and it’s Wednesday. This is one of those weeks. Oh boy.

There have been baskets and baskets of beans harvested from the garden, more than we could ever eat at this time. So, this weekend we rinsed, cut and froze most of our harvested beans to set aside for the winter months.

We are to that point in the growing season where some of our plants have gone to seed. So this weekend, entrenched in vines and leaves of green, we pulled out arugula and collected the seed pods for late fall planting. Then replanted carrots and beets for fall harvest.

I opened my linen closet last Friday to a cavernous black hole, completely void of any form of soap, lotion or shave oil. The girls and I got to work and rounded out the weekend with a fresh batch of lotion (I use the recipe from this book.) and shave oil (my recipe can be found here), and a new eczema-friendly soap concoction. (The recipe for this soap to come soon.)

And last but not least, there is the fermentation frenzy that has taken over our house the last two weeks. I don’t often become overly obsessed with much, but oh my, I think I may just be in love with Sandor Katz, his book The Art of Fermentation, and all of the nutritional benefits fermenting has to offer. I gave this book to my husband last summer for his birthday, to aid him in his beer-making endeavors. But I now find myself huddled with my morning coffee, spilling over the pages of this book, completely enraptured by the content.

Amidst the fermenting madness is fresh made yogurt, milk kefir, water kefir, and kombucha. The constant growing process of it all is just amazing, and the wonderful probiotics offered naturally in these foods is simply mind boggling. I have so much more to learn, but I am sure enjoying the entire process along the way.

I hope all of you are enjoying a wonderful start to your week!

This Week in my Garden

July 25, 2013July 24, 2013 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

It’s crazy what can happen to a garden in a matter of weeks. For so much of the summer, our garden is green. Lettuce, kale, arugula, Swiss chard, peas, beans, carrot tops, etc. But now…now is when the real fun begins. Color.

The raspberries are starting to produce juicy crimson fruits, tomatoes are moving from green to a pale red, and blood red beets pop from beneath the surface of the soil.

Join me today for a walk through our garden…

Just Peachy

July 24, 2013July 22, 2013 / makingofahome / 6 Comments

The time has arrived again. My favorite food time of the year. Peach season. There is nothing that ignites more excitement in my taste buds than those handheld orbs of deliciousness. We are extremely fortunate that my in-laws have a beautiful peach tree on their property that has produced a record number of peaches this year.

So, it has been all things peaches in these parts, my favorite of all being peach pie. If you are interested in my Grandma Dit’s peach pie recipe, you can find it here. Enjoy!

Beans, Beans Everywhere

July 17, 2013July 15, 2013 / makingofahome / Leave a comment

One thing is for sure, we have a LOT of beans coming through our kitchen door these days. So many beans in fact that there is no feasible way to eat them all. Enter “Operation Dilly Bean.” If you have never eaten a pickled bean, a.k.a. dilly bean, you must make it your duty to eat one this year. A dilly bean earns a solid ranking in the top 3 list of pickled veg in my book. Yum.

This past Sunday found me hovering over the kitchen island chopping beans and breathing in vinegar fumes, with visions of dilly beans dancing in my head. The past few years I used a dilly bean recipe from this book, but this year I decided to mix things up a bit and try something new. I used the basic pickling recipe from this cookbook, and based on how great Miss English’s other recipes are, I’m sure this one will not disappoint.

All Things Garden

July 15, 2013 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

With July now well under way, we find ourselves amidst the heart of our growing season, with a list of chores longer than we could ever hope to complete in a day. Although I can sometimes get frustrated by this endless to-do list, I am reminded that the jobs of a garden are never actually done, so therefore I need just to work through each day, doing what I can to tend to this growing space of ours.

In honor of this height of garden productivity, I’ve decided to designate this week as “Garden Week” here on my blog 🙂 I hope you all enjoy this fun little adventure through our week of gardening bliss.

To start things off for the week, I wanted to give you a little taste of just what our garden is looking like. Off we go…

In Gratitude

July 8, 2013July 7, 2013 / makingofahome / 2 Comments

This Monday morning I am grateful for…

~a wonderful vacation to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. (Lots more to come in tomorrow’s post.)

~those family members and close friends who pitched in to help keep the Fagan suburban homestead running in our absence 🙂

~Downton Abbey. Oh my. I have recently discovered this show, and have been devouring the DVDs ever since. It’s like a great British novel brought to life. What could be better?

~the leader of our book club for choosing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for our next read. I am thoroughly enjoying being transported to the isle of Guernsey in the 1940’s each and every time I unfurl the pages of this novel.

~peas and beans just bursting in our home garden.

~a first hand learning experience for my girls. We plan to head to the local food pantry this week with our first donation from our school garden.

~the Mason jars strewn across my countertop, just waiting to be filled with all kinds of canned deliciousness.

~the fermentation frenzy that is about to begin this week…woohoo! Kombucha, yogurt and kraut oh my!

~all of you gathered here today! Wishing you all much happiness and health this week!

School Garden Update: First Week of July

July 3, 2013June 30, 2013 / makingofahome / 3 Comments

It dawned on me the other day that I haven’t given you a proper update on the school garden at my daughters’ school, The Cathedral of St. Peter School, since May. What a travesty I tell you! So, slip into your spiffiest garden shoes, and come along with us on a tour through the school garden…