It wasn't until about 5 years ago that I remember tasting my first from scratch pumpkin pie.  My neighbor brought us over a pie and it was the best pumpkin pie I had ever eaten.  I quickly asked for the recipie and that's when I learned...it was all about the pumpkin.  

I was initially reluctant to make a pie from the actual pumpkin as I was just sure it was next to impossible...boy was I wrong.  And...it is so worth it!  So last year I began asking my kiddos to please not carve up those pumpkins, painting them would be even better so that I could use them for pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies...you get the idea.  

It seemed like the perfect day to do this as a chill was in the air and I had not yet tasted a fresh pumpkin pie this year.  So, here goes...First I started with a pumpkin like what you see on the left.  I cut it in half and scooped the seeds out.  Then I put it cut side down in a 9 x 13 pan and added about 1/2 water.  I baked the pumpkin at 350 for about an hour.

I knew the pumpkin was done when I can easily slide a fork into the pumpkin like it is butter.  Then my daughter helped me peel off the skin and stem and we put the cooked pumpkin flesh into the blender for a quick whirl.

So thats the hard part that I shyed away from for so long...really?  I love my Betty crocker Cookbook so I use the basic recipies for most standards from there.  I used the pumpkin pie recipe and just put fresh pumpkin in for the canned.  You would not believe the taste difference!!!

Good ol' Betty says to use the following for your pie filling:

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2  3/4 cup pumpkin (this is where you use the real stuff)
2 1/4 cup evaporated milk


Mix all together and pour into a prepared pie shell.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 for an additional 45-50 minutes.


Happy Fall, Ya'll!

I showed you the GIGANTIC bag of apples I picked up on our recent trip to Michigan and after canning 20 Quart Jars of applesauce I decided to mix things up a bit and make some dried apples.  I filled my food dehydrator and then decided I wanted to compare what would happen if I also put some on a cookie sheet in the oven on 200 overnight.  We decided that they were both very tasty but I think I liked the cookie sheet ones for thier apple chip crunch. 

 How did I do it?  Very simple.

I have an apple peeler, corer, slicer that I bought years ago at a pampered chef party and I love this little piece of kitchen equipment.  I don't usually peel my apples but since I don't think these were pesticide free apples I just opted to get rid of the peel to help offset anything we would be ingesting that I wasn't aware of.  So first I peeled, cored and sliced the apples into rings (a process that takes about 30 seconds with this lovely little gadget.

after peeling, coring and slicing the apples I soaked them in 1 part lemon juice and 2 parts water to keep them from browning too much.

I put half of the apple rings into my food dehydrator and the other half I used a cookie drying rack on top of my cookie pan so that the apples were not laying flat on the pan and had air circulating under them to dry them out quicker.  I left these in the oven overnight at 200 degrees and they were ready in the morning.

Like I mentioned, I liked the oven apple rings the best because they were crunchy, the ones I put in the food dehydrator were leathery.  Both were delicious and a great snack, I just like the crunch the best.  But, alas, for all the work it was to make these, they literally lasted 1 day at our house.  As I write this these are all that is left out of about 10 apples worth...my kids sure did snack well today!

I am a fan of the crockpot.  There I said it.  There are just some days that a girl needs a little extra help in the kitchen and I have a bit of a love affair going with my crockpot.  Several years ago my grandmother told me that I could just put my frozen meat in the crockpot and cook whatever I was making without even thawing the meat first...Score!!!  So, here is what's on the menu.  Crockpot Beef and homemade noodles.  This is super nutritious and homemade and pretty easy, what's not to love?

Ingredients:

any kind of beef roast (mine was frozen)
water
salt & pepper
garlic powder
if desired, a healthy dash of Worcestershire sauce

Homemade noodles recipe click here

All I do is drop in the frozen roast, add about 2 cups of water, sprinkle the roast with salt, pepper, garlic powder and maybe 1-2 T of Wocestershire sauce if I have some and then turn on the crock pot and let her do her magic for about 8-10 hours.  I do this so that the meat becomes very tender then when it is easily shredable with a fork I shred the meat, add some more water or beef broth if needed and then add the cooked noodles.  Voila!  I usually serve this over mashed potatoes or with a side of green beans and some sort of bread.

What to do on a cold day when you are running out of lunch ideas and no time to make soup?  How about a quick alfredo sauce and some farm fresh sundried tomatoes?  What...you wouldn't think of that as a go-to quick lunch?  I assure you it is simpler than you might think.

This happens to be one of my children's favorite lunches, and for my little one with the milk allergy we just use red pasta sauce on his noodles.

I really don't even measure my ingredients anymore and in fact I forgot to add garlic in this picture of the ingredients, but it is such an easy sauce that I really don't have to be exact in measurements.

My Alfredo Recipe:
1/4 cup real butter
1/4 package cream cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan or Parmesan and Romano Blend
1/4 - 1/2 cup milk (depending on desired consistancy)
2-3 cloves fresh pressed garlic (you can sub garlic powder)

I start off by melting the butter in a saucepan over medium low heat, then I add the milk and cream cheese and begin to whisk until the cream cheese starts to melt.  I add in the Parmesan and garlic at this point and pretty much whisk constantly until the chunks of cream cheese are smooth. You can add in salt and more garlic powder to taste as you go and if it gets too thick, I just add more milk.

It was about this point that I rememberd the sun dried tomatoes I had in the freezer from the garden, I tell how I did that in this post here.  Also, don't forget to boil noodles for your sauce!  We love angel hair pasta for this dish.

You can see they are still frosty from being pulled right out of the freezer but they warmed to room temperature quickly and I tossed them on top of my alfredo sauce and pasta for a super yummy mommy lunch.

There is nothing like fresh from the oven homemade biscuits.  Especially when topped with real butter and some homemade jam or peach butter.  Years ago when I was still a working mama I used to buy those pillsbury pop open cans of biscuits thinking I was rounding out a meal but they have nothing on some quick homemade biscuits and if you read the ingredients on them like I finally did...maybe like me you will think twice about eating those.

So many people are intimidated by homemade breads and biscuits but they are really not hard at all and once you get the hang of it you can whip them up in under 10 minutes.  But they will go fast!!!

Here is my go-to recipe:

Baking Powder Biscuits:
1/2 cup shortening (butter, crisco, or lard)
2 cups flour
1 T sugar
1T baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk

bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes

First I put all ingredients except for the milk into a bowl.  Then I use a pastry cutter (see below) to mix the dry ingredients with the shortening until I get fine crumbles.

see my crumbles?

I forgot to take a picture of adding the milk but that is the next step.  Your dough should be soft but not too sticky, sprinkle a bit more flour on the biscuits before pressing out if dough is too sticky.

Now here is where you gauge your time, if I am in a super big hurry I just make drop biscuits as below...you litterally just drop them like cookie dough

Honestly though a few extra minutes and my family likes them better this way.  I smoosh (is that a word?) the biscuits out and then cut them with a small glass or cup.

Ready to bake:

Here is the pure delicious-ness!!!  We gobbled these up and at this point I am making a double batch for my family as one batch is only about 10 biscuits and we like seconds!

Around here one of my favorite go-to breakfasts for a healthy start to the day is Baked Oatmeal.  It goes very fast in this house and all of the kids love it, plus its healthy and isn't hard to make up.  Even the leftovers are great the following morning.

I am actually at the point where I double the recipe when I make it because it is never enough!  I also add pear or applesauce to the recipie (In addition to the oil) when I make it as it is extra moist that way...and tasty!  

Don't be thrown off by some of the ingredients I have below, I use Almond Milk in place of regular milk only because we have a child with a milk allergy.  I actually prefer it with cows milk but this is a decent substitute.

Just look at this yumminess!  I don't have a milk allergy so I really like to add a pat of butter.  Healthy and yummy too!

Homemade potato skins are absolutely one of my favorite appetizers EVER!  This last week when I was running out of lunch ideas for my hungry crowd I decided to start a number of potatoes baking in the oven after breakfast and serve up this yumminess.

Amazingly these are so easy, I wonder why I don't make them more often.  I just take the potatoes, wash and pierce once or twice with a fork before setting on a cookie sheet in the oven on 375 for about 1-2 hours (until the potatoes are tender to the touch).  Then I pull them out and let them cool until I can handle them without burning myself.

When they have cooled a bit I slice them lengthwise and scoop out the insides (I put all of those in a tupperware container in the fridge for fried potatoes in the skillet at another meal)  You can see in the picture on the right that I accidentally scooped part of the skin away at the end of the potato, don't do that, just make little boats by scooping the flesh out.

Then I put the hollowed out skins back on a cookie sheet and put them under the broiler in my oven for about 5-6 minutes, watch them closely though as you do not want them to burn! (I forgot to take a picture of this step).

Meanwhile I was frying some bacon strips which I crumbled to add to the potato skins.

And I ran to the garden for some chives to chop up and add also.

So after the second round of cooking the potato skins under the broiler I pulled them out, topped them with cheese, bacon and chives and then put the oven back on bake from broil (very important step) and bake them at 350 for another 5-10 minutes, just until the cheese melts.

served with sour cream and some salt...YUM!

Let me start by saying if you can find a local source of farm fresh eggs, you need to get on the bandwagon.  Farm fresh eggs are so infinately superior to store bought (in this farm girl's opinion) and if you don't believe me...try this little experiment.  Get yourself a farm fresh egg and a storebought white one and crack them next to one and other in a skillet.  You will first notice a distinct difference in the yolks with farm eggs being very dark yellow and usually larger than the pale yellow comparison from the store.  The white of the egg from the store bought one is usually very watery and cooks up very thin as compared to the farm fresh.  Should you decide to scramble the eggs separately you will see a distinct color difference with the farm eggs being a very dark yellow and the store variety a pale pastel.

With all that said when we first started with our hens I must say I so missed egg salad, deviled eggs and hard boiled eggs...why you ask?  Because with farm fresh eggs being so well, FRESH, you cannot peel them when you cook them.  (Just think how easy the storebought variety peels, and if you leave a farm fresh egg in your fridge for 3 weeks or more it will peel fine...hmmm...what does that say about the freshness of storebought?)  The shell just really wants to hang on and you end up pulling off most of the white of the egg just to get the shell off.  So, what is a farm girl to do?  Experiment of course, so here it is, I finally found the secret!

I tap my eggs (large side down) on the counter before putting them in the water to boil.  Just a hairline fracture is all you need (you don't want the egg smashed all over the counter of course.  If you look in the pan you can see the hairline fracture/dent on some of the egg bottoms.  This allows air to get into the space between the shell and the egg membrane while you boil the eggs and thus creates the ability to peel the eggs after boiling.  Then, for a foolproof extra, I toss in a teaspoon of baking soda into the water before boiling, I cannot explain the science behind why this works to help the process, but it does.

then just boil the eggs for a standard 20 minutes and enjoy!

What is Kefir anyway???  Kefir is a fermented milk drink that is high in good bacteria and probiotics.  It is basically like a super hopped up version of what you get when you consume yogurt, but way better.  I am new to this whole Kefir thing, all because I asked a friend what in the world she was doing with milk sitting out on her counter.  Her reply?  Making Kefir, want to try a smoothie?  I did and I was hooked!  Ever since I have been making Kefir smoothies every day and the kids love it too.  Plus, I really think it does wonders for a person's digestive tract, all that good probiotic stuff.

My friend was so gracious as to share some of her Kefir grains with me and tell me what to do, so this is her wisdom not mine originally.  Kefir grains are not really grains at all, they look like cottage cheese, don't really smell, and are essential to making Kefir.  From everything I have read you cannot make your own you actually have to get a start from someone who has Kefir grains and then you are set as long as you keep feeding your Kefir.

This is what the grains look like, cottage cheesy right?  Doesn't taste like cottage cheese at all though.  

My friend started me out with a mason jar just like this.  This is about how it looked the day she gave it to me.  Just looked like milk in a jar.  You can secure a paper towel on the top of the jar by either a mason jar ring or a rubber band but the idea is that you want the Kefir to be able to kinda breathe without danger of something falling into your jar.  I was told to just leave it alone for 24 hours sitting out on the counter in my kitchen, which I did.

The next morning when I woke the substance in the jar looked like this.

Looks kinda funky huh?  It doesn't smell as I was wondering if my kitchen was going to take on a certain spoiled milk smell, it didn't.  So, then I stir to incorporate the watery and chunky masses and then strain to keep the Kefir grains while using the Kefir milk in that every yummy smoothie!

My friend (ingenious as she is) used a grain sprouting lid as a strainer.  Again, brilliant because my first attempt at straining out the grains resulted in a whole lot of kefir milk all over my counter.  Wanna know how cool my friend is?  She then heard that story and gave me her own sprouting lid to use!

I used the strainer type lid to pour the thickened Kefir milk into my blender to make a delicious smoothie (I am now addicted).  Then I put the Kefir grains into a small plastic bowl while I washed out the mason jar to start the process all over again.

For the large mason jar I am using (quart jar) it takes about 2 T of Kefir grains to get the probiotic thing going and turn it into Kefir milk.  I am passing some grains to a friend so I filled a pint jar with 1 T of Kefir grains to share with her.  Kefir does grow so sharing with friends is fantastic or you can just keep proliferating your Kefir milk.  You can also mix the grains into your smoothie or just part them out and get rid of them.

Here is my clean jar with my grains plopped back in. Then it is so simple, just add milk to the top of the jar, cover with a paper towel secured by a lid band or rubberband.  Then I just leave this sit on the counter for 24 hours until my next batch of Kefir milk is ready for another super-probiotic awesome smoothie.

This mornings batch for breakfast.  We added frozen blueberries, frozen peaches, and some honey to sweeten things up a bit.

Yummilicious!!!

I love sun-dried tomatoes.  I love them on pizza, in pasta, on bread.  However, they are very pricy to purchase at the store so several years ago I started making my own sun-dried tomatoes.  The problem is that if you truly try to dry them in the sun you have to deal with bugs...yuck.  So drying them in the oven keeps things more sanitary and I believe yields the same taste. 

 I have found that the most important thing is to pick the right breed of tomato.  While any tomato can be used, the typical tomato used (and the type that is used in store bought varieties of sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil) is the Roma or Amish paste.  I have always grown Roma tomatoes but this year tried the Amish Paste tomato as well.  Below you see a mix of the two varieties, very similar in look but the Romas are more perfectly cylindrical.

The main difference that I have found is what is inside when you slice open the Amish Paste.  There is very little tomato pulp or wetness as compared to the Roma...why is this a big deal?  Because the less moisture there is the more quickly the tomato will dry out for you.  Also, I really like these tomatoes for making pasta sauce as it dramatically reduces the time it takes to reduce the sauce from watery to pulpy.

So after washing and slicing I laid all of the tomatoes on a baking rack (the kind you cool cookies on) and then placed it on a cookie sheet.  In hindsight I probably would not use the baking rack as for some reason it seemed to take longer for the tomatoes to dry out when they were not directly touching the pan.

I put the tomatoes in the oven at 200 degrees overnight and at about the 15 hour mark (after turning them over once) I had "sun" dried tomatoes!

My little is growing so fast and is eating sooo much!  I need to once again pad my storage of baby food so this time the garden fresh menu item is butternut squash.  If you do not grow this veggie it is easy to find in most upscale grocery stores or health food stores and makes quite a bit of baby food from the purchase of just one squash.  When it is not in season and I have had to purchase one, it usually costs under $3 for the 10-15 servings of baby food I get from it that is a cost of 20 cents per serving for my organic all natural baby food! 

So here is what I do...I took a super lazy approach to the squash this time as I am a busy mama.  I just rinsed it off and put it directly into a 9 x 13 dish and put it in the oven at 375.  Yup, that's it for the first step.  No oil, no water, nothing just squash and pan.  I baked it for about 1 1/2 hours (give or take) I was busy running around doing other things.  When I came back to check on it I wanted to be sure that a fork would pierce the skin easily (If you try this before cooking it is VERY difficult).  Yup, fork pierced so now it is easy to cut and I pulled it out of the oven and sliced it in half lengthwise and used a spoon just to scrape out the seeds so I didn't have to later.  I then added about 1/2 cup of water and put both sides face down to cook a bit longer (I am guessing I left it in another 45min- 1 hour till super squishy).

When all is said and done and your squash is squishy I then scraped the orange flesh out and put it in my Baby Bullet (a kitchen staple which I love) but you can use a food processor or a blender if that is what you have.  Add a bit of water depending on how thin your baby likes his or her food and blend away! Then I pour into small containers or ice cube trays and freeze for baby food!  yum and easy!

   I have always loved mexican food.  I really enjoy enchiladas verdes, you know the chicken enchiladas with a green tangy sauce poured over the top of them.  So, I wondered how to grow tomatillos.  The tomatillo is a cousin of the tomato but will not cross pollinate with tomatoes.  It also doesn't really taste like a tomato at all though it looks like a small green tomato when ripe.  And no, you cannot substitute green tomatoes for tomatillos in verde sauce.

  First things first, I tried to grow the tomatillos from seed....didn't work so well.  So, I ended up buying the plants from an heirloom organic grower.  They are really cool little plants that have paper lantern type bells that form and then the tomatillo fruit grows inside until it reaches maturity and splits the paper-like casing.

   Here is about 1 1/2 pounds of the ripe tomatillos.  They have a kind of sticky substance between the paper casing and the tomatillo so it makes your fingers really sticky.

   All I did was wash and quarter the tomatillos and put into a casserole dish with a drizzle of olive oil to keep it from sticking.

I added 1 diced up onion, 1 jalapeno, 2-3 cloves of garlic, and a fist full of cilantro.  I then put it in the oven at 350 until it roasts and bakes down to something like you will see in the next picture.  This took about 45 minutes to an hour.

  The final step was to scrape out the roasted concoction and pulse it in a food processor.  Excuse my dinosaur of a food processor, but it still works!

The result was a tangy, slightly spicy verde sauce that worked very well on our enchiladas.  It was way better than the store bought stuff I usually use.  Next go round I am going to freeze some like I do my chicken broth (see how here) and maybe try canning some too.

   Our cucumbers are in full swing but we eat them so quickly there is hardly enough to even think about canning.  Here is one of the adult's favorite things to do with them.  Fresh Cucumber salad.  Sometimes I use tomatoes in it, sometimes not, just depending on what I have available. I use the following:
     2-3 cucumbers
     1 sliced onion
     salt & pepper
     cider vinegar (you can use regular if you don't have cider vinegar)
     water
this time I also used dill seeds.

    In the spirit of my other series, "The way grandma used to..." That I post on fridays, I wanted to include a post for homemade chicken broth or bone broth.  This is so easy to make and when done this way it is why our grandmothers used to say that Chicken soup was good for sickness, but only when the bone marrow is in the broth like as with a method such as this.

   First I take a chicken that has been well enjoyed...We had baked chicken for dinner the other night and this is all that was left after we vultures were done!

   If this is not a project you want to do immediately after dinner you can refrigerate it until the following day to start.  I take the bones and then some carrots, onions and celery (I have actually made it without the veggie trio and it is still fine but tastes better with them) and chop the veggies.

   I then take the chicken bones, the chopped veggies and put them in a large stock pot with at least 15-20 cups of water.  I add a generous helping of salt and pepper, and then I bring the brew to a rolling boil and then turn to a simmer and cover.  I do this for 24-36 hours and just let the pot simmer on the back burner all that time until the bone breaks down and is really soft which is where all the good stuff comes from.  NOTE: just be sure to check your broth every little bit to be sure it still has plenty of water, if not, add more and salt and pepper as needed.

   After at least 24 hours pull out a strainer and a bowl and prepare to strain the bones/mushy veggies out of the liquid.

   Then I freeze the broth and use as needed, You can use quart ziplock bags or plastic containers, even glass mason jars will work.  But, hands down my favorite method is to use my silicone mini loaf pan and make chicken broth cubes.

After several hours you have nice chicken broth cubes.  I like that they stack well in a freezer bag and I can pull 1-2 out to use as needed!

     No, I am not referring to the movie, but the southern delicacy that everyone was talking about afterwards.  I honestly had not tried fried green tomatoes until about 6 years ago, just really wasn't quite sure what to do.  But, now I am hooked and every tomato season we have this delicious dish a few times before the tomatoes start to ripen to that ruby red.  
    It really doesn't matter what tomato breed you use but I would suggest using a very large and firm breed (ie no Romas or Cherry tomatoes here).

   For this recipe you need:
     Green Tomatoes
     Olive oil
     Flour (add a dash of salt & pepper)
     Corn meal (optional- I was currently out)
     Milk (just a splash)
     Eggs

Simply start by slicing the firm green tomato.  Ideally, the tomato should be firm, but not rock hard.

Next put your flour in a bowl (I don't measure but I guess it is  1-2 cups.  If you are also using cornmeal (makes them crunchier) I would use 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 cup cornmeal.  Add your dash of salt & pepper.

   Set the tomatoes in and fry 1-3 minutes per side.  Pull them out and... Viola!  It's crispy, tangy, and definately southern.

Enjoy!

   I picked just shy of a pound of jalapenos this afternoon and needed a quick and easy appetizer for some dinner guests. This is one of those easy recipies that is a go-to when the jalapenos start ripening (and let me just say...they are prolific!)
   With just 3 ingredients this is fast and easy and delish.  You need jalapenos, bacon, and cream cheese. Unfortunately, farm fresh pork goes fast at our house so I had to buy the bacon this time.

you slice the jalapeno open lengthwise to start.

I usually scoop out the seeds and veins (the hottest parts) and then rinse the jalapenos, as I like warm... but not devil-spit hot peppers.

Next I kinda smear some cream cheese on the jalapeno halves using a butter knife.

Then take your bacon strips and cut in half then wrap around the jalapenos.  The bacon just kinda sticks onto itself.  You can then either grill them or bake them (bake at 375 until bacon crisps up).

So this may be hard to believe but I do not have a picture of the finished product as we dove into them and gobbled them up before I remembered I had one more shot to snap.  I promise though they were REALLY good!

If you try this leave me a comment, I would love to hear how you liked them!

I have a dear friend who kindly brings me back a load of peaches 1-2 times a year when she travels south.  They are by far the best, sweetest, juiciest peaches and I cannot get anything nearly as good at the grocery store.  The only problem?  We can't eat them all fast enough so I have to preserve them.  Normally I freeze them but this year (as you may have read in my previous posts) I am seeing how close I can get to the way grandma used to do it so I am canning them.

For Acidic fruits and veggies (think tomato, pickle, strawberry, etc) you can use a hot water bath to process and seal the jars.  A hot water bath is nothing more than a large pot that you fill with boiling water and add canning jars to.  You then process the food you are canning to specs designed to destroy bad bacteria in that particular food (different for all) and the jars seal themselves and are shelf ready with a shelf life that can last a few years.

You really only need a few supplies to hot water bath.  The first is a supply of mason jars. (If you have a big lots or dollar general these are the most economical locations for new jars).  If you peruse garage sales though, you can often find them and everything is re-useable except the lid.  Being that they are glass, they are completely sterilize-able (did I just make up a word?)  Then a large pot and a jar lifter.  (the funnel pictured is actually optional).  I also highly recommend this book: The ball blue book of Canning.  Literally has everything you need to know about canning.

so to recap:
Jars (with lids and rings of course)
Big pot
Jar lifter.

Your jars must be clean and it is best to run them through the dishwasher or heat in the boiling water for 5-10 minutes to ensure they are sterile. 

Now lets start by blanching the peaches.  This basically makes the skin of the peach slip off.  All you do is boil water.  Drop in peaches. Remove peaches and dunk in ice water.  The skins then just kinda slip off.

Next you will be cutting or chopping the peaches. (Your choice) and I splashed a bit of lemon juice over mine while they sat to keep them from browning.

You next make a simple syrup (did you read my earlier post about lemonade with simple syrup?  Same basic idea.  This is where you get to make things as sweet or less sweet as you want.  But, though it is healthier to not add sugar it will affect the appearance of your peaches.  When you opt to not use sugar in your simple syrup, and instead pack in water your peaches will turn brown regardless of the lemon juice additive.  

For this batch I put 10 cups of water and 3 cups of sugar.  It was not overly sweet but there was way more liquid than I needed.

Heat up your lids (not boiling but just hot) This makes the rubber part of the lid more pliable so it seals easily.

Pack your jars and pour on the simple syrup.  You need to be neat here as spilled syrup will cause a huge pain in the rear when you go to open your jars later, they get stuck.  So keep it tidy here.

Now boil and process in your hot water bath.  The larger jars here needed 25 minutes so I just let the smaller ones continue to process past thier 20 minute time frame to leave them all together until the 25 mark.

Aren't they pretty?

Its about time for me to start getting food lined up for wee one.  I don't know why, but for the first 3 of our 5 children I did not make my own baby food.  I think I was kind of intimidated by the process.  After baby #4, and our continued move towards more natural and frugal living I took up making my own baby food. I was shocked at just how easy, and cheap it was!  I was a fool for so long but now... I got this!

As a gift for the birth of our 4th baby my mother gave us a Baby Bullet.  I LOVE IT.  You can easily do all of your baby food in a food processor or even a blender, but I really love my Baby Bullet.  The jars are super cute, but since I couldn't buy more (kinda costly) I opted to pick up a few tiny plastic containers at the Dollar General (only $1) to freeze my baby food in.

You can either blanch (toss in hot boiling water for 30-45 seconds and then submerge in ice water) your peaches to make the skin slip off, or you can just cut the skin off.  I just cut it off of these.  You make a slice all around the diameter of the peach and then twist and pull apart. I should mention that these are freestone peaches which basically means that the pit comes out without "clinging" as in a "cling" peach.  I prefer freestones for canning and preserving because I find them much easier to work with. 

Peel and chop your peaches (I used 3 peaches) and then put them in a saucepan with approx 1/4 cup of water (more or less depending on how thick or thin you want your baby food).  Cook until just before boiling or until a fork will easily squish the fruit.

Then blend, and store.  See how easy that was!  I now have 8 all natural, no sugar added, ready to go peach babyfood nuggets to add to the freezer.  You got this!

I have an abundance of Basil growing in containers on my deck as well as in various spots in other flower beds and I was looking to make a delicious pesto, however, finding a recipe that pleased me was difficult as I don't like pinenuts in my pesto.  I did a google search and found this recipe here. WOW!  I will forever grow basil now.  Especially since coming up with my tortilla pizza recipe.  

I actually think I have eaten the pizza for 75% of my lunches since discovering it..YUM!

This is the finished product that I ate for lunch today.  It was so good I wish I could share!
But, how did I get to this here?  Read on for instructions:

I first made the pesto I mentioned above.  Here is a picture of my fresh basil growing in garden pots on my deck.

I picked and washed the leaves. The best flavor comes from the young tender ones towards the bottom.

Then follow the recipe that I found here

 which is as follows:

3 cups fresh basil leaves
2-3 cloves garlic
About 1/4 cup quality parmesan cheese, grated
Splash of fresh lemon juice
About 1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a food processor or blender, chop up the garlic until it is minced.
2. Add in the basil and cheese  (I bought my cheese at Aldi) and start to blend. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while the machine is running. Blend until smooth.
3. Squeeze in a little lemon juice and add salt and pepper to taste.

NOTE: fresh garlic is a must in this recipe, it makes all the difference.  Also, make sure that you use the grated parmesan cheese kept in the refrigerated section (the kind that actually looks like shredded cheese in a plastic container not the powdered kind.

When you are done with the pesto recipe you have this to store in the fridge, or to make your pizza!

This amount of pesto will make you a number of pizzas so just refrigerate and enjoy for a week or two!  Now, for the pizza...

You will need:
 1 flour tortilla (per pizza)
1 T. pesto
sliced tomato
sprinkle of mozzarella cheese
dash of salt
1-2 T. Olive oil.

First heat the olive oil on medium high in your skillet and fry the tortilla (you cold skip this step if you are trying to make a healthier version, you would just brown the tortilla on both sides in a non-stick skillet)  but, trust me, it is worth the calories to do it the original way.  Fry both sides till slightly browned and kinda crunchy.

Next (after browning both sides of the tortilla) add your 1 T. (more or less to taste) of pesto and smear it around with a spoon while your tortilla is still in the pan.

Next chop your tomato (so bummed I had to buy this one because mine are still green).

Add tomato to the top of your tortilla.

Top with shredded Mozzarella...

Then I turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid or plate for about 2 minutes to melt the cheese...Get ready and VIOLA!!!

Your tastebuds with thank me!!!
 Please let me know in the comments section what you think... after you dance around the kitchen in epic gluttony.

Way back when this farmgirl wasn't so savvy on extreme frugality and healthier options (well as healthy as a sugar-laden treat can be) I used to buy Countrytime Lemonade by the case.  Okay, maybe not by the case as I only had 2 or 3 children back then, but I did buy it often.  It was quick, easy and could satisfy some thirsty kiddos in a pinch.  However, I have a better option, still laden with sugar but only 3 ingredients and at least no added dyes or anti-caking preservatives.

Here it is, simple lemonade.  If you can use fresh squeezed lemons, all the better, but I often opt for the simpler method of using a bottle of lemon juice, the end result is pretty close to fresh squeezed and honestly, it is much easier.

My recipe is 1.5 cups sugar, 1 cup lemon juice and approximately 7 cups of water. I told you it was simple!

The only trick that I employ to avoid the sugar sludge of mixing sugar and water together, two items that when not heated don't love one and other and tend not to dissolve, is that I make a simple syrup.  Simple syrup is...simply put, water and sugar that when heated creates a clear liquid that has dissolved particles of sugar in it.  You simply take your 1.5 cups of sugar, add about 2 cups of water and stir over medium heat until dissolved.  You then can let it cool, add your lemon juice and water and you are all set!  

Go enjoy the porch time with your delicious beverage!