Watermelon Salsa

Today, we have been enjoying the first day of Fall.  What a beauty it was!!  The sky was such a lovely shade of blue, the air was crisp, the breeze was light and the temps were mild.  The windows were open to capture the fresh scent of the new season, and I was out and about on the bike path that runs through our little town.  All-in-all, it was a wonderful day.  :)

When I got back from my late afternoon bike ride, I made an unusual,  Watermelon Salsa for a little treat.  I used this recipe from the Eating Well site.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was such an unexpected spin on salsa.  It was really nice with chips, but I think it would be a perfect topping for grilled chicken or pork, too.

Later on, just before the sun was almost ready to set, as I was working on tonight's blog post, I kept hearing the sounds of hot air balloons overhead.  Since we live just a block off the lake, we often see and hear balloons going by in the summer evenings...but this time, they sounded somehow CLOSER.  I glanced out my bedroom window and this time I was almost eye-to-eye with one.  These balloons were REALLY close ~ like not very much higher than our 2-story house ~ close.  I swear I could have almost touched them. (OK, maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but not much!)  So, I had to include the pics of the pretty balloons.  We weren't the only neighbors outside watching the balloons go by...and hoping that they made it over the high power lines.  I'm sure they were up a lot higher than they seemed, but hanging out my upstairs window to take pictures, they seemed not much higher up than I was.  :)   

This shot was taken about 5 minutes after I took the photo above.  The balloon on the far left was the last one to go by; there is another one hiding just out of site behind one of the big trees & the far right balloon was climbing fast.  I'm guessing they were getting down close to the water on the lake & going back up.  Sorta like touch-&-goes.  The way the high power tension lines and the balloons were set up, it looked almost like notes on a page of sheet music.   :)  What a way to usher in the first day of Fall!

Happy Autumn!

Homegrown goodies from Cheryl's garden ~ Meatless Monday

Our neighbor, Cheryl, has been kind enough to share the bounty of their backyard garden with us.  She gave me a few bags of homegrown veggies the other day, and I copied how she prepares them.

   

Cheryl likes to take whatever veggies are ripe and turn them into a ~ Fresh Chopped Salad ~ tossed with Italian dressing.  Sometimes her husband, Bill, will find a salad dressing recipe online that sounds appealing and he will made her a homemade salad dressing to use instead.

She also sometimes likes to simply cook the green beans in a little water, with onions and a few spices until they are just tender, and then toss them in a little butter. YUM!  Super quick, super simple and super tasty.

Add your favorite meatless protein, some homegrown veggie side dishes, some buttered noodles and you've got the perfect Meatless Monday summertime meal!

Homemade Strawberry Shortcake ~ from our homegrown strawberries...

Our spring has been lackluster and the garden has suffered for it.   The last time I had checked the strawberry bed, the little berries were small and green.  I had (quite frankly) forgotten about them, so imagine my surprise when my son & his friend came into the house with two big, red strawberries.  The kids said there were lots more out there.  When did this happen??  So, I gave them some bowls to pick whatever ripe strawberries they could find.  I was very pleased when they brought back enough to make a dessert ~ Nice!

I looked around and found this recipe for (a healthier) strawberry shortcake.  It called for basic ingredients which I always have on hand and the recipe was easy to make/follow ~ even for this challenged baker.  :)   I did try using the pastry blender to  combine the butter and flour, but got frustrated pretty quick and ended up just using my fingers.  (soooo much simpler!)  I made a few changes to the original recipe ~ I added an extra teaspoon of sugar to the shortcake batter, as well as a teaspoon of vanilla extract; I used fat free Greek yogurt and sweetened it with honey instead of sugar and used a splash of vanilla extract instead of the lemon zest (my guys like vanilla flavor more than lemon flavor).  I made the shortcakes bigger, so came up with three instead of four.  What a marvelous, light, rich and tasty shortcake.  More real-time baking in my kitchen tonight.  :)

School is now out for the summer ~ Let the games begin!

Homegrown Radishes & Radish Greens ~ simple, clean-eating at its best!

Our neighbor, (the same 'gentleman farmer' that I wrote this post about last year) was kind enough to bring over some of his first of the season's produce yesterday.  It was a robust bunch of radishes ~ I love homegrown radishes!  For some reason I have not had any luck growing them here, luckily for us, we now know someone who does.  :)

I decided to enjoy the radishes simply, with just a sprinkle of some of the ~ Spanish rosemary infused gourmet sea salt ~ that my friend, Anne, sent me for Christmas.  If you've never tried flavored sea salt, I HIGHLY recommend it! I absolutely adore my cherry wood smoked flavor, it smells and tastes divine.

After I had my fill of radishes, I kept thinking the radish greens just looked too healthy and vibrant to let them go to waste.  So, I searched the web and discovered you can eat radish leaves!  I never knew that...but thinking of how sorry looking the radish greens are in the market, it's not surprising that I'd never thought to eat them before.  Now I know ~ homegrown and fresh is the only way to go with radish greens! 

   

I threw in a few of the baby radish leaves into my dinner salad ~ it was outstanding!  The radish leaves have a little, sharp/spicy kick and were a nice compliment  to the romaine and Parmesan cheese.  Simple, clean-eating at its best!  Thanks so much for sharing the radishes with us, Brett!

Green Tomato Brownie Cake ~ an easy & tasty way to use up some of those green tomatoes...

Green Tomato Brownie Cake ~ What a perfect way to use up some of those green tomatoes hanging around in your garden.

Cold nights have brought an end to a rather lackluster growing season.  All the tender vegetables are long gone and the tomato vines had just about given up the ghost.  (Halloween pun, couldn't resist - sorry :)  On Wednesday, I picked about 10 pounds of semi-ripe & green tomatoes, trying to get the dying vines out to the curb before the trash man came.   Now, I've got lots of green tomatoes to ~ ripen, use as-is & to freeze.

One of my favorite ways to use green tomatoes (besides eating them in my Fried Green Tomatoes recipe) is to bake them in a chocolate cake.  I've got a really old recipe that I've used in the past (a copy of that recipe is at the end of the post), but this year I wanted to see if I could make the cake a bit lower in fat calories.  For inspiration, I looked to recipes from ~ Crescent Dragonwagon's - Passionate Vegetarian - (Sweet Harvest Applesauce Breakfast Bundt Cake), from my old copy/recipe for Green Tomato Chocolate Cake & from just plain ol' winging-it.

When all was said and done, the cake smelled wonderful as it was baking & it tasted great!  It sorta reminded me of a cross between a cake & a brownie, so, I'm calling this my ~ Green Tomato Brownie Cake.  The recipe I came up with only used 1/4 cup oil & while it was good, next time I make it, I think I'll increase the oil to 1/3 or 1/2 cup, so it will be just a tad more moist.  Of course, maybe I baked the cake a bit too long... that's the problem with being a challenged baker... sometimes, you just never know.  :)

Green Tomato Brownie Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• 3 Tbsp chopped walnuts

• 1 tsp instant coffee
• 2 tsp water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup pureed green tomatoes (about 1 1/3 cup chopped, then pureed in blender until smooth)
• cooking spray/Pam
• Confectioners' sugar for dusting the finished cake

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.  Spray a bundt pan or pan of choice with cooking spray, until well coated. (or prepare how you would normally would if you're a real baker :)

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda & cinnamon together, into a large bowl.  Toss the raisins, chocolate chips & walnuts in the flour mixture, making sure they are well coated.

Puree the chopped green tomatoes in a blender, until nice & smooth. Set aside.
  
Mix the instant coffee with the water, in another bowl.  Add in the sugars, egg, oil, vanilla & the pureed green tomatoes.  Combine until well mixed.

Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, then pour into the prepared pan of choice.

Bake until the cake tests clean with a toothpick - about 30 minutes or so.  Remove from oven when finished baking & let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.  Then turn cake out of pan & allow to cool completely on a wire rack.  Serve sprinkled with Confectioners' sugar (or your favorite glaze/icing)  Store in a covered container.
 

I have no idea who gave me the following recipe for ~ Green Tomato Chocolate Cake ~ or when, but I've used it in the past and enjoyed it.

Green Tomato Chocolate Cake ~ This old photocopied recipe has been in my recipe box for decades.  I've long forgotten who gave me this recipe, but ~ Thank You!

Fresh from the Community Garden this growing season...

The Community Garden that I posted about a while back, (the one that's just down the street) is winding down for the season.  About all that's left now is a row of tomatoes, some chili plants & a few green bean plants.  Considering the severe drought we had this summer, we are lucky that we had any veggies to harvest at all.  Even though the harvest was less than stellar this year,  I was able to take some cool pictures of what was ready for harvest during the growing season, so I thought I'd share the photos & a couple of things I made with the goodies.

Easy Pickled Garden Veggies ~ I found this recipe on how to make easy pickled garden veggies, just using hot water, vinegar & a few other ingredients.  I made a jar full of pickled green beans, okra & mini pickles.  Can't wait to try them out!

Air Dried Chili Peppers ~ This recipe has to be the easiest & prettiest way to dry chili peppers.  They make me happy every time I see them.  The chilis keep getting redder & redder as the days go by.  There will be lots of chilis for cooking, all winter long.  :)

                                       

Almost all the colors of the rainbow!

This batch of veggies turned into ~ Oven Roasted Ratatouille with Balsamic Vinegar Glaze.  I'll be posting that recipe soon.  It turned out sooo good!

Until next year, Community Garden.  Thanks so much for sharing your bounty with all of us!

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes ~ easy 'sun dried' tomatoes

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes ~ Making your own 'sun dried tomatoes' is easy when you use your oven.

Yellow & Red Roma Tomatoes

This summer, we've been enjoying lots of different varieties of homegrown tomatoes ~ in lots of different ways.  We've been picking the tomatoes from our garden, our neighbors have shared some of their tomato bounty with us & we've harvested veggies over at the Community Garden.  Some of the many ways we've been enjoying these tasty veggies (botanically speaking, they're fruits, but I always think of them as veggies) is to ~ simply add them to our garden salads; throw them into the juicer; and by slow-roasting them in the oven.  Homemade 'sun-dried tomatoes', if you will.

I've found this easy Slow-Roasted Tomato recipe over at Smitten Kitchen & it's a treat!  So easy to make & so very tasty.  So far, I've added the Slow-Roasted Tomatoes to ~ warm salads; slipped them into sandwiches; enjoyed them on French bread with cheese; and munched on them, as-is.  They make such a delightful morsel & when they are prepared this way, it perfectly heightens the robust flavors of homegrown, summer tomatoes!

I like removing the seeds before I slow-roast my tomatoes ~ it's easy to do...

Tomatoes are all prepped and ready to go into the oven...

A couple of hours later, you've got Slow-Roasted Tomatoes ~ Ahh! The perfect condensed flavor of summer!

Slow-Roasted Tomatoes & Ratatouille over a bed of Quinoa ~ Oven roasting really brings out the full flavors in these homegrown veggies!

Black Bean Salsa with Sweet Corn

Black Bean Salsa with Sweet Corn ~ Homegrown tomatoes, onion & fresh-from-the field corn (literally from just across the street) make for a perfect way to enjoy the end of summer garden bounty.

The last of our sweet corn is now gone.  We've enjoyed having some of the freshest picked corn available.  I mean, how could it get any fresher?  When it gets handed to you, fresh picked from the stalk, it's awesome!  With this last of the season sweet corn, I made a ~ Black Bean Salsa with Sweet Corn ~ including some homegrown tomatoes and onion, too.  This is the perfect end of summer treat!  If you don't have any fresh sweet corn, just use canned corn, or thawed out frozen corn will work fine, too.  Hope you are enjoying these last few days of summer as much as we are!


Black Bean Salsa with Sweet Corn
makes a bowlful

Ingredients

• 1 cup lightly cooked sweet corn kernels 
• 1 can black beans ~ drained & rinsed
• 1 cup fresh chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 1/2 jalapeno, minced ~ or more, to taste (optional)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
• 2 tsp cumin
• salt & pepper, to taste

 

Directions 
 
Quickly cook a few fresh ears of corn, in boiling water & cut the kernels off.  Allow to cool while assembling all the other ingredients. 

Mix together all of the above, in a large bowl,  when the corn has cooled.  For best flavor, allow the salsa to marinate in the fridge, for at least an hour or overnight.  (but, if you just can't wait, have at it :)  Serve with your favorite chips.  Enjoy!

Homegrown Sweet Corn ~ there's so many ways to enjoy...

Sweet 'Creamed' Corn with Greek Yogurt ~ I cooked the corn on the cob, cut off the kernels & tossed them with a couple of tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt, a little butter, salt/pepper & a sprinkling of  Parmesan cheese.  This side dish tasted like an upscale version of Creamed Corn.  I'll definitely be making it this way again! 

Corn Soup & Veggies

You've seen the two places where we've gotten our fresh-from-the-field corn ~ on the post I did on our local Community Garden  AND  on the post I did showing our neighbor's corn field. 

Now, the time for harvesting the fresh corn is just about at an end.  As a matter of fact, our neighbor's field is now almost completely mown over.  We did find a few final ears sitting on our front porch this afternoon ~ what a nice surprise!  Thank You!!  :)   It's been such a wonderful season for sweet corn & we've enjoyed eating them so many different ways.  Here are few of the highlights... 

Fajita Steak Salad with Sweet Corn ~ The sweet corn was so tender, we just cooked it for a couple of  minutes, cut if off the cob & sprinkled it over our salads.

I also made a ~ Corn Soup with Summer Vegetables ~ from the recipe in the book ~ American Grown.  I simplified the recipe a bit; I didn't strain the corn after puréeing it & I used some homemade roasted ratatouille that I already had on hand for the summer veggie garnish.

The corn was so sweet & tender, sometimes we didn't even cook it before we added it to our salads.

We're all looking forward to next years crop of sweet corn.  Sleep tight little corn field, you've earned your rest.  You've had a marvelous first year!

 

Fresh Picked Sweet Corn ~ eating local, real local

Fresh Picked Sweet Corn~ Simply prepared.  Just boiled quickly & spread with butter ~ a little sprinkling of salt & pepper is all it needs.  Sometimes the simple things in life ~ and in the kitchen ~ are the best!

Living in a semi-rural area has its advantages.  We're still close (about 15 minutes) to all the things a larger town has to offer, while still having the advantages of living in a quiet, small town.  Take, for example, fresh summer veggies.  I've already posted about the Community Garden that is just up the road from us & how we can harvest from it whenever we like.  Now, I want to show you another cool thing that is just across the street & down a little ways from our house.  It's so close I can see it from my upstairs window...

One of our neighbors is a Gentleman-Farmer.  He & his family have a small crop of sweet corn that is producing the most amazingly tender, sweet corn I've ever had. It's such a treat to be able to know exactly where your food is coming from & how well it's cared for. 

Talk about a low carbon footprint, how about no footprint ~ except for a barefoot one... We've had the fresh picked corn delivered by the 'farmer's daughter', pulled in her wagon. We've walked over & bought it from the 'honor' table that's setup in front of the field.  Sometimes, we buy it 5 minutes after it's been picked & it's on the dinner table within the hour.  Talk about fast food!   J & I have even gone over & helped with the picking & shucking.  It's hard work pickin' corn & taking a break is all part of it.  :) 

I was going to do a bunch of posts on corn recipes, but to be honest, I like it best cooked simply.  This corn is so very sweet & tender, it seems a shame to do anything to it but give it a quick dunk in boiling water & then eat it on the cob, with a nice coating of butter & a little salt and pepper.  It's wonderful, just the way it is.  Why mess with perfection?

I'll come up with some fresh sweet corn recipes to share ~ but not today.  Today, I'm savoring the simple joy of eating simply prepared food, in our quiet, semi-rural Midwest town.  :)