Summertime Cocktail

I came across a wonderful daiquiri recipe recently...did a few modifications and served it this past weekend to family. They just loved it. I know it's the end of summer, but I think this cocktail could be served any time. Enjoy!

Peach Mango Daiquiris

1 - 12 oz. bag of frozen mango
1/2 - 12 oz. bag of frozen peaches
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup simple syrup (see note below)
1/2 cup dark rum

(You may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender). Place the mango and peaches with lime juice into your blender and process until it is smooth. Add the simple syrup and rum. Add 1 - 2 cups of ice (if your mango and peaches are frozen when you begin - you will use less ice than if they are thawed) and continue to process until smooth and thick. I made a double batch which fit nicely in a glass pitcher.

Note: to make simple syrup - combine 1 cup of water with 1 cup of sugar in a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cool to room temperature.

To make this "Family friendly" skip the rum. And to make it even better, instead of ice add vanilla ice cream - how great is that!!

Enjoy!!

French Apple Tart

Last weekend I went to see the movie Julia & Julie with Vanessa. What a great movie! The movie is about Julie who decided to cook her way through Julia Child's French Cooking cookbook and keep a blog on her progress (sound like someone you may know...lol). Her goal was to cook the 500+ recipes in 1 year (365 days). The movie also told the story of how Julia Child, while in France, found her passion for cooking and teaching food, attended the famous Cordon Blu and wrote the cookbook with 2 other friends.

I was so inspired by the story of these two ladies, which by the way are both true, to start trying some new recipes that I usually shy away from because I perceive they may be difficult. Tonight we have some wonderful friends come over for dinner, with my new found courage I decided to try Ina Garten's French Apple Tart for our dessert. I opted to use the puffed pastry, as she suggested I could, instead of make my own pastry. I have to say it was pretty easy. And what do you think of the results? Good enough to eat?

Stewed Tomatoes

I tried something new and made homemade stewed tomatoes. When I went to the farmers market on Wednesday, I found a half bushel of tomatoes (man, do you know how many tomatoes that is!) along with green peppers. I picked up everything else I needed from Meijers.

I found a recipe which uses a quart of tomatoes. Since I had 10 pint jars, I tried to adapted the recipe (which would be equal to 5 quarts of tomatoes). It worked out ok for how I use stewed tomatoes (in soups and sauces), but it was too much celery, green peppers and onions to eat as a traditional stewed tomatoes. I also learned to have more jars ready than what I think I will need. I ended up with 10 pint jars and 1 quart (because I did not have 2 more pint jars ready) plus a little that I could use right away. For lunch I had tomato soup with 3 heaping tablespoons of stewed tomatoes in it...yummmmm.

Here is the recipe as it is for 1 quart of tomatoes:

Stewed Tomato Ingredients:
1 quart peeled and cut up tomatoes
1 green pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
One small onion, peeled and lightly chopped.
1 clove of garlic, peeled and lightly chopped.
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Sprig of parsley
Salt or celery salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

Preparation Directions:
Put cut up tomatoes into a 2 quart sauce pan.
Add diced green pepper and celery.
Add chopped onion and garlic.
Add the sugar.
Chop parsley leaves and add to the pan.
Cook on low heat.
Cook until celery has softened.
Serve with salt or celery salt, and black pepper to taste.

Well, now I still have a ton of tomatoes left, so I will be doing more canning.

Cabbage

Here is an example of too much rain, and me not picking in time. I lost two of my four cabbages. With all the water we have had in August and I trying to get bigger cabbage by letting the cabbage grow too much, they split right open and the bugs started working on them. I am so disappointed. I also lost my beans to too much rain. My beans were standing in water a little too much, they became water logged, turned yellow and now dead. I will be adding them to my compost bin latter this week.

I'm making a note of the problems so I can work to correct them for next year. I think we are going to keep the area we have for the beans and corn, I am just going to add more dirt and peat and compost to lift it up and aid in drainage.

I also want to build another raised bed to the front of the garden so I can add more items to the garden. I've hinted to Bill that I want to expand the garden - not sure if he it totally grasping my vision yet. I'm sure once I lay it out, he will see what I'm trying to do. I keep joking that eventually I want to take over the entire back yard - haha!

I found this year my peppers should not be in the same raised bed as the tomatoes. They have completely been over grown by the tomatoes - they are struggling to produce (I did pick a couple of peppers yesterday), but I think if they have had more room they would do better. I would also like to grow some beets and onions.

I canned 5 more quarts of tomatoes yesterday, and now my tomato bushes are all stripped of red tomatoes - there are still a ton of green tomatoes, but it will be a week before I have more to can. So, I'm off today to the farmer's market to see if I can find a bushel of tomatoes and ingredients to make stewed tomatoes for canning. I love stewed tomatoes (they always take me back to my Catholic school days where we had mac and cheese with stewed tomatoes every Friday - they did sneak in fish sticks once in a while...lol), but I also like to add stewed tomatoes to my chili and soups.

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

Vanessa and I was off on another mini-adventure this last weekend. Vanessa came up to Michigan for our annual August "Girl's Weekend" and it happened to land on the same weekend as my birthday - how lucking was that. In the past we have visited Saugatuck, Holland, and Frankenmuth (all in Michigan) where we've enjoyed days of shopping, dinning and site seeing.

This year I could see that the weather was not going to be very cooperative (they were calling for it to very cool and rainy) and so we decided to stay close to my home. We enjoyed the Rivertown Mall, dinner and a movie on Friday. Then on Saturday we visited the Frederik Meijer Gardens. The gardens are made up of 132 acres of wetland, woodlands, meadows and garden designs. There are a few small greenhouses and one large tropical conservatory under roof, and then several large outside garden areas to roam around.

One of the great advantages of having such a large garden practically at my back door, is that I can draw from ideas and plants that I see are working well for them. I also can solis in the fact that some of the problems that I am struggling with, I see they too have not had a good year with - we have had so much rain this year (not that I am complaining) and it's been a little cooler than normal (again, Lord - not that I am complaining at all - I have enjoyed the cooler weather!) - it is hard on some of the plants.

As you might have guessed by the huge amount of pictures we took in Italy, we like to use and experiment with our cameras....lol. So, you can be assured we took many lovely pictures of all the flowers and sculptures we came across in the park. Here is just a sampling of my pictures...enjoy!

And the next time you are in Grand Rapids, Michigan, please plan to stop by the Gardens - I promise you, it is amazing!

Canning Tomatoes

Today I canned my first 4 quarts of tomatoes. With what is still on the vines, I think I should have enough for another 4-5 quarts by the end of the week.

There is such a feeling of pride and satisfaction associated with it. I know I can easily run to Meijers and pick up a can of tomatoes for about $1. But by canning my own, I know what is in my quart jar, I know that outside of a teaspoon of salt, the only thing in my quart is tomatoes, and I know how those tomatoes were grown. I also feel there is also this connection with the past. I was raised in a family where you had a kitchen garden, and you put away for your family for the winter. I am connected to all the women who came before me who did this simple task. And I know come winter, it will taste wonderful when I add these tomatoes to a chili, a spaghetti sauce or a soup.

My New Compost Bin

I was successful at "sweet talking" Bill into creating my new compost bin...lol We followed the directions at the link I posted before. The bin is made up of 5 layers which allow for air to flow between each layer. Bill cut pine and screw it together in squares. The bin was finished off with a wood preservative.

Composting is the most natural way of providing your gardens with fertilizers. All natural ingredients are allowed to decompose into a rich composition which provides important nutrients. Small gardeners like my self really need to add nutrients into our gardening areas since we tend to not have the space to rotate our crops a great deal each year. Yard waste such as grass clippings and leaves will really help. I will also add weeds that I've pulled (and have not developed seed heads) and kitchen vegetable scraps (no meat products). A small amount of newspaper is also ok. The compost will need to be turned every now and then to keep the material from matting together and ensure even decomposing - the final product is called Humus.

Picture 1 is Bill building the bin (notice that I was able to sneak in a picture of my Ohio State banner in the background - Go Bucks!...lol). In pic 2 we see the first 2 layers. Dean gives his "Cat Approval" in pic 3 (I hope he was not thinking this would make a "cool" kitty litter box). And finally we see the finished product in pic 4. We placed the completed bin on the back side of my potting shed. It is close to the garden and out of site from the house.

Thanks sweetie for building my bin!!

Vegie Garden Update

Hi friends! I have not blogged recently on my garden and wanted to give you an update on the gardening progress. In all modesty, (haha) I must say that my garden is going like gang busters! I absolutely can not believe it.

I have tomatoes as big as my hand (I sliced one for BLTs this last Sunday - and it was like Heaven!), I should be canning very soon. The tomatoes have spilled out of their tomato cages and are hanging out of the raised bed (see pic 2).

I have a few pumpkins too (see pic 1). You may remember I collected the seeds from pumpkins I bought last year for decorations - one heirloom and one a white pumpkin. I forgot which one I planted where - so it's going to be a true surprise. I believe this one in the pic is an heirloom. I have another pumpkin growing off of the other hill, but it is under a lot of leaves and not a good photo op.

I've picked one of the cabbages to make cabbage rolls (yum! - and Bill said they passed the "Polish" test - ha!), and see the others are ready to harvest too. As you can see in pic 3, the corn is all tasseled out, and I have ears growing - not quite ready - but getting very close. And the sunflowers behind the corn are huge! I think the one on the far right is close to 12' tall! They are not in bloom, I am hoping for next week.

Zucchini Bread

I've had some questions on how I like to cook Zucchini, so I thought I would give you some basic recipes. To begin I wanted to share with you one of my favorite uses for Zucchini, Zucchini Bread.

Preparing the Zucchini:

I had this huge Zucchini, which is too big to fry, but perfect to use to make Zucchini Bread.

I started by cutting the squash into large chunks. Because of the size this squash had large seeds, so I scooped them out and discarded. If your zucchini is small, you do not need to clean out the seeds.




And then I grated the Zucchini. I have this small version of a food processor, you can also use a box grater.

I had more than I needed for my recipe, I packaged 2 freezer bags with 2 cups each grated Zucchini - this winter I will be able to pull a bag out of the freezer and bake up some fresh Zucchini Bread.

The recipe I use is a basic Zucchini Bread recipe. I add a couple of extra spices to make it my own.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

I add: 2 teaspoon ground clove

1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/2 cups white sugar

3 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Grease and flour 2 8x4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and the spices in to a bowl.

Beat eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Enjoy!

The Duomo and Baptistery - Florence

No mater where you go in Florence, you can not help but notice the Duomo. This massive structure can be seen from all over the city. It is a gathering place for the people of Florence. We experienced artisans, locals and tourists. Some hastily making their way across the square, while others can be seen taken up by the wonders of this structure.

The Duomo (Cathedral) is known to be the 4th largest church in the world. Our hotel was located about a block from this immense, beautiful church. It provided us a lovely picture each morning from the breakfast terrace (picture 1) of the hotel. The Duomo was so big, it was impossible for us to take a picture the whole structure in one shot. Picture 2 is a closer detail of one of the sides of the church. Picture 3 is a close up of the fresco above the main entrance. I zoomed in for picture 3 to get a closer look at the dome.

We move inside in the next 4 pictures. There are lovely frescos inside the dome. The clock is a 24 hour clock on a painted background.

The church is built upon the foundation of an earlier cathedral (The Cathedral of Saint Reparata). Under the church we were able to see where they have excavated some of the foundation. They have found sarcophagus - picture 7. Picture 8 gives you a feel of what the area looks like today. Picture 9 is the relics of an unknown saint.

The Baptistery is separate structure (picture 10). It is octagon shape with the same green and white marble on the outside. The massive doors were created by three different artist. But the true treasure is found inside. It absolutely took my breath away. When first walking in, it appears as a lovely chapel. But one only needs to look up to see a wondrous site. The ceiling is covered with a gold mosaic. Pictures 11 and 12 are a sampling of the beautiful images.