food

Tomato Time

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Sorry for stepping away for a day, but my garden work kept me detained a bit longer than I thought when I was writing on Monday morning.  The tomatoes are in full swing  and I seemed to have gotten lost amongst the vines for a very long time before resurfacing and realizing that most of my day had passed me by.

This is the first year that we have not planted any slicing tomatoes.  We planted only small cherry-type tomatoes (Juliets and Mexican Midgets) for the girls to snack on, and paste tomatoes (Viva Italias, Speckled Romans and Amish Pastes) to use for tomato sauces and salsas.  What I didn’t realize about these types of plants is how many more fruits they produce compared to slicing tomatoes.  Oh my.  On Monday afternoon while I was picking, I found 4-6 ripe tomatoes, 6-8 I’m-almost-ready tomatoes, and about 20 addition green tomatoes just waiting to get ripe.  That is also not factoring in that each plant still has about 20-30 blossoms.  Apparently the tomatoes have done just fine with all of this heat.

So what to do with all of these lovely tomatoes?  Tomato sauce it is!  I love, love, love making tomato sauce.  I have no idea why I cherish this activity so very much, maybe its my Italian roots, but I look forward to this activity come late July each and every year.

Yesterday I woke up early to begin this favorite task of mine.  I went out to the herb garden, enjoyed the cool damp air from the rain the night before, and spent some time in meditation just picking oregano and basil.  It was a great start to my morning.  Then with coffee at the ready, and ingredients laid out, I went to work.  And what lovely work it was, in the quite of the morning before anyone else awoke to begin their day.  Ah.

My Tomato Sauce

I kind of fly by the seat of my pants with this recipe as (much like with my pesto). I first put a good amount of olive oil in the bottom of a stock pot.  I then add garlic and onion (chopped) and I cook that down until the onions become translucent, but not brown.

I then add my chopped tomatoes and my fresh oregano and basil.  I add a bit of salt and pepper at this point, cover the pot and let it cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes.  I then remove the lid and allow to cook for another hour or so.

At this point, I run a hand blender through the sauce (I don’t strain my seeds.  I know all the Nanas out there may turn their nose at this 🙂 )  Add more salt and pepper to taste.  Then I bring the sauce down to a simmer and leave it for several hours.  I stir it every once in a while to keep the bottom from sticking.  At the very end I add a bit of butter to cut the acidy taste.

I freeze my sauce as opposed to canning it because I find it hard to stick to an exact recipe, which is so very important to do if you are canning.  I normally freeze my sauce in wide-mouth glass quart jars filled about 2 inches from the top of the jar (to allow for expansion during freezing.)

At This Moment

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At this moment I am…

~glancing out my kitchen window at the garden and all of the weeds that need to be picked today.

~preparing for yet another garden extension after being inspired at this past weekend’s Heritage Garden Festival.  (Check out this link:  Our family was photographed for our local newspaper when we were attending the festival 🙂 )

~mustering up some motivation to do quite a bit of laundry today.  The pile seems extremely tall and overwhelming on this Monday morning.

~thankful for the crisp morning air.  Something we have not felt in a very, very long time.

~planning activities for the last few weeks of summer.  Where did it go?

~priming the kitchen for a day of tomato sauce making.  Our tomatoes are coming out in full force right now.

~wishing you all a wonderful week filled with fabulous memories!

Grandma Dit’s Carrot Cake

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There is something about old recipe cards that I just adore.  Maybe it’s the handwriting of those who have gone before us. Or maybe it’s the tiny notations scribbled in the corners of the cards, making note of adaptations to the recipe that worked or did not work for the previous maker of this recipe.  No matter what the reason though, I adore making recipes from these small pieces of paper dotted with vanilla stains and creased corners.

Last night for our family’s weekly Tuesday Night Dinner, I rifled through my mom’s recipe box for the coveted carrot cake recipe that my Grandma Dietmeier was famous for.  I made a few adjustments of my own to this fabulous recipe and came out with a yummy little cake that was a big hit at the gathering last night.

(This is the secret to Grandma’s carrot cake recipe:  2 jars of carrot baby food!  It makes the cake extra moist, and adds even more great carrot flavor.)

Grandma Dit’s Carrot Cake

Mix together in a large bowl:

1 1/2 cups oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 cups shredded fresh carrots

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 small jars of carrot baby food

In a separate bowl, mix together:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

Add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Mix well.  Pour batter into a 9 X 13 inch baking dish.  Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cream Cheese Frosting:  Cream together 8 oz cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 4 cups powdered sugar.  Frost the cake once it is cooled.

Enjoy!

Friendship

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This morning when my alarm woke me at 5 am, I was shocked to hear the sound of rain pounding down upon the roof above me.  Wonderful precious rain, finally.  So instead of leaping immediately out of bed to start my day, I decided to lie there a bit longer, thanking God for this storm that He has brought us.  From this place of gratitude, my mind began to wander to the fabulous weekend my family and I just shared with a wonderful group of friends.

It is amazing to me how strange, small circumstances, brought us all together nearly 13 years ago.   And those seemingly meaningless situations have carried us to this point of true friendship.  These women are people I have worked with, learned with, and lived with.  I have shared my passions and fears with them.  So many times we place so much emphasis on our family, those people that are related to us biologically through the blood we share.  But the bonds of friendship can be just as strong as those familial ties, and that line then blurs between family and friend.

We have now added so many beautiful children to the mix, and it is always amazing to me that at these gatherings, despite the fact that many of them have not seen each other in over a year, they seem to have a shared bond.  It is a miracle to watch these tiny people, mold lifelong friendships through their play.  Their reckless abandon and ease in which they interact with one another is breathtaking.  There is no awkward point where they are shy or uncomfortable, like so many adults often are upon first meeting or after not seeing someone for an extended period of time.  Instead, they fall instantly in step with one another as if this is something they do each and every day.

True friendship is so difficult to come upon, and this weekend brought this concept back into the light for me.  I am so very thankful for these women, their husbands, and their babies.  Our family.

At This Moment

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At this moment I am…

~thankful for a wonderful weekend filled with old friends, lots of children, wonderful chaos and lots of laughter.

~excited to watch my little ones at their swimming lessons again this week.

~creating my new “sewing nook.”

~praying for rain.  We need rainfall so very, very badly these days.

~preparing for the influx of tomatoes about to come to fruition this week.

~looking out my kitchen window at my garden, and willing myself to become motivated to weed today.

~excited (for some strange reason) to clean the house today.  Maybe it’s the new vacuum I just bought.  It’s the little things in life right 🙂

~wishing you all a wonderful week filled with wonderful moments!

Putting Food By: Pesto

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“Would you say your pesto is the besto?” ~Friends

Each and every time I watched Friends in college, snuggled up on the couch with my roomies, and heard Phoebe say this line, I roared with laughter.  Well, let’s face it, I pretty much laughed like crazy any time I watched that show.  But looking back, the funniest part is when I was in college, I had no idea what pesto even was!

Now that I have discovered the wonderful world of pesto, I definitely would not say my pesto is the besto, but by golly it is pretty darn tasty.  I love, love, love making pesto in giant batches and freezing it for use in the winter months.  It helps to bring that lovely basil taste that reminds me so much of summer to the table when the heat is on and the snow is falling outside.

The particular batch I made this weekend had toasted walnuts, basil, swiss chard, garlic, Parmesan cheese, olive oil and salt.  But the great thing about pesto is you can use a wide variety of nuts and/or greens and the pesto will turn out great.

When I freeze my pesto, I put it in 8oz, freezer safe, glass jelly jars.  I fill each jar to 1 inch from the top (to allow for expansion in the freezer).  It freezes beautifully this way, defrosts easily and allows for easy preparation when you pop it out of the freezer at a later date.

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Some of our favorite home preservation books are:

Putting Food By by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughan

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (There are some great canning recipes scattered throughout the piece.)

The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest by Carol W. Costenbader

Putting Food By: Dilly Beans

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We have a few little friends who have again found an entry point into our garden:  the rabbits.  So before they could reek havoc over too much of the garden space, I picked what I could from our bean patch because that seems to be their vegetable of choice right now.  I was shocked to find, that despite this incessant heat we have been experiencing, I was able to harvest quite a hefty bean crop.  In fact, I was able to gather so much that I needed to find something to do with some of them.  Enter dilly beans.

For those of you that have never had dilly beans, they are just plain yummy.  A little hot from the chilli peppers, a little sour from the vinegar and a little spicy from the garlic…what more could a girl ask for?

This year I found a great recipe in Putting Food By (listed below with a link), which only required a hot water bath canning method.  There were very few ingredients required and the entire process did not take long at all.  Now we have some more great summer veg ready to go for the winter.

What do you do with your surplus of green beans?  Leave a comment and share ideas with others.

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Some of our favorite home preservation books are:

Putting Food By by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg and Beatrice Vaughan

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (There are some great canning recipes scattered throughout the piece.)

The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest by Carol W. Costenbader

Drought

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Despite the best watering efforts of my sister while we were away last week, we came home to a garden completely ill equipped to deal with a week of temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.  These extreme temperatures withered our plants and brought out a volume of insects that I have never before experienced.

These conditions are reminders of just how fragile life is, that without rainfall, nothing can survive.  I try to push these ideas from my mind as I quietly tend to my plants, watering them from the city water that we are blessed to have at our disposal during the worst drought this area has faced since 1988.  But as the days pass, clouds loom overhead, but not a drop of rain falls, and these thoughts become more and more difficult to cast aside.

I pray for an end to this dryness, and for the heavens to open up and give the earth some much needed nourishment.

If you have a suggestion for Japanese beetle removal, I would greatly appreciate it!  Feel free to leave a comment on this post for all to see.  I have the traps set up along the far perimeter of our property, but the sheer number of these insects is staggering.

Retreat

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It seems like ages since I have visited this space to share with all of you the goings on of our little family.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Independence Day and are staying cool, despite the incessant heat.

This past week, we spent our days immersed in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.  Every time we begin our journey five and a half hours north, our stresses seem to melt along the expanse of highway.  When we finally arrive in Manitowish Waters, we find ourselves already a little lighter, less burdened and receptive to the fun times that lie ahead of us.  This place is our sanctuary.  Our retreat.  Our place of reconnecting with nature and all that this beautiful earth has to offer us.

I think this wonderful journey of ours is best shared through images that I will forever hold in my mind from this trip.  Enjoy.