Peaches and Blueberries!

Eric, Lucas and I went and picked our own peaches and blueberries at Bush N Vine Farm in York, SC last weekend. Lucas was a surprisingly good helper. We told him just to get the big blue berries and he actually did! At one point I turned around to tell him to stop throwing blueberries out of our bucket, but he was actually getting rid of some reddish ones Eric had picked too soon.

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, and we took home a half gallon of blueberries and a half bushel of peaches for just $18!  To put that into perspective, the blueberries were $7 a half gallon, while their pre-picked berries were $16 a half gallon. Big difference! I never liked blueberries because I thought the skin was too tough and tasted gross.... then I had one of these. What a difference it makes when they haven't been shipped and sitting in a grocery store!

Besides snacking on some and sharing some with friends and neighbors, we canned the peaches and made a quart of blueberry syrup.  We gave away quite a few peaches, but we were still able to can 10 pints and 2 quarts.  Both making the syrup and canning the peaches were surprisingly easy!  I got my blueberry syrup recipe from SimpleBites.com. It turned out every bit as delicious as the article promises, and it keeps in the fridge for up to 6 months.

Do you have yummy recipes for canned peaches? Please share! Now that we have so much, I'm going to need the help!

{Snack Time!} Roasted Kale Chips

Snacks are one of the biggest adjustments we are making right now. I realize now how dependent upon processed snack foods we are/were... especially when it comes to Lucas. I'm not fooling myself... I'm going to have to continue to buy grocery store snacks for the kiddo. Even if I learned how to make homemade goldfish, cheese crackers, and ritz bits, there is no way I could keep up with his snacking without quitting my job and becoming a full-time baker. Not going to happen. But I have switched to organic crackers and snacks when I do have to buy them, and GASP! I expect Lucas to eat more fruits and veggies than he has been. The goal is to find homemade, do-able snack recipes that he (and Eric) will actually eat.

I think I found one today...


Roasted Kale Chips (from the blog, Family Fresh Cooking)

(Photos from FamilyFreshCooking.com)

I made two batches... one seasoned with Garlic Powder and one with Bacon Salt. This is my absolute first experience with kale, and after one taste test I realized that I could totally eat these chips with nothing on them. After just five minutes in the oven, I was shocked at how amazing it smelled in my kitchen. It was overwhelmingly delicious. 

My only note for this recipes is that it took longer than the 10-15 minutes indicated. Just keep an eye on them and cook until crunchy. If they don't cook all the way, they just end up kinda chewy. Delicious... but chewy. 

This make a salty snack you don't have to feel bad about. Can't wait to serve them with cheeseburgers! 

Happy Snacking!

Happy Meatless Monday #3!

 No recipe tonight. I don't have a lot in the house at the moment and it was just Lucas and I for dinner so I decided to just throw something together with what I had. This is what I started with - a handful of green beans, 2 zucchinis and a package of homemade brown n serve garlic cheese biscuits - all from my farmer's market trip on Saturday.

 And here's what I ended up with - stuffed zucchini, green beans with feta and the biscuits.

First, I washed the zucchini, cut the ends off and cut them in half. Then I boiled them in an inch of water for about 7 minutes. Once they cooled a bit, I cut them in half lengthwise and scooped out the inside. I chopped up what I just scooped out and mixed it with a handful of breadcrumbs, a smaller handful of Parmesan cheese, one egg, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. No exact science, I just did a dash here and a pinch there based on the flavors I like. I piled the mixture into the zucchini shells, put a tiny dot of butter on each, and baked them at 350 for 30 minutes. 

Once that was in the oven, I snapped the ends off the beans and washed them. Then I sauted them in a little olive oil until tender. I let the green beans cool a bit then tossed in some feta from the farmers market last week. So yummy! I've been lucky lately with these "no recipe" cooking experiments. Crossing my fingers that the trend sticks...

Happy Meatless Monday!

Veggie Lettuce Wraps

We totally threw this together with what we had in the house. No recipe, so I was scared it would be disgusting. What a happy surprise when it turned out to be delicious! Even my friend Kerry, who admitted this wasn't really her kind of thing, thought it was really good!

Shredded Cabbage
Asparagus
Shitake Mushrooms
1 can water chestnuts
Bean Sprouts
Equal parts Soy Sauce, vegetarian Oyster Sauce, and Chinese Chile Sauce (a couple tbsps each... depends on how many veggies you throw in)
Handful crushed Peanuts
Lettuce leaves

Throw everything except the peanuts in a wok or large frying pan and stir fry until tender. I waited to add the mushrooms and bean sprouts until after the other veggies had a chance to cook a bit. Stir in peanuts at the last minute. Wrap in a lettuce leaf... we had Butter Leaf on hand and it was yummy.

Try out different veggies and play with the sauce to get the flavor you want. Maybe even make some extra for dipping. Happy Experimenting!

The First of Many Meatless Mondays!

Every Monday we are going MEATLESS!



I know what you're thinking...
Why Meatless?

I've added the Meatless Monday recipe widget to the left sidebar, and I will be sharing my and Eric's favorite meatless recipes.

This week, nothing too difficult and not much of a recipe... Leftovers! Eric and Lucas had homemade pizza with feta cheese, artichokes and baby portobellos. Everyone can make pizza, and it's such an easy meatless fix! Portobello mushrooms have lots of protein so they're a great topping for Meatless Mondays!

I had Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells and asparagus. Super simple. Once you boil the shells about 15 minutes and let them cool a bit, you stuff them with whatever cheese and veggie mixture you want. I've used broccoli before and it was delicious. As for the cheese, I follow the advice of my friend Jason and use 5 cheeses. He wasn't specific about what kinds... just that there be 5. This time I threw together ricotta, cottage cheese, whatever cream cheese I had left in the fridge, parmesan and mozzarella. Cover them in sauce and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, melt some extra mozzarella over the top. This was so good, I got a text from Eric at lunch about how great the leftover shells he brought to work were. Yes... that good.

It's Strawberry Season!

One of the problems that Eric and I have run into with shopping at farmers markets is that too much tends to go to waste. The fruits and veggies go bad before we can eat them all. I don't know why I haven't thought of it before, but as I was browsing PickYourOwn.org, I found our answer: Freezing! I'm way too lazy at the moment to try to figure out canning (though we will try that out someday), plus we would have to buy all the equipment. Freezing is the perfect, simple solution.

Today Lucas and I went to the Hall Family Farm in Charlotte to get strawberries. I'm making my Grandma Pat's version of Strawberry Shortcake for Easter brunch, plus I wanted to try my hand at freezing my all-time favorite fruit. With the weird weather we've been having, the strawberries are ripening quickly so I was able to buy a 10lb pre-picked flat for $25 (found that deal on their Facebook page). It was rainy and wet anyways, so picking them myself whilst chasing a two-year-old out of mud puddles was out of the question.

Instead, we checked out the chickens.

Lots of berries to pick! We'll definitely go back when it's nicer outside!

Really sweet and not a bad one in the box! Here's what we went home with:

Resisting the temptation to eat a ton now, I spent the afternoon getting the strawberries ready to freeze or be turned into Strawberry Shortcake. It's super easy. First your wash them:

Then you let them sit in the strainer for 10 minutes:

Next, cut the tops off the strawberries and put them in pans that will fit in your freezer. Leave them in there over night, or at least long enough to freeze.

That's where I'm at now... waiting for them to freeze so I can bag them up in Ziplocs and leave them in the freezer. Amazing strawberries from the farm all year long!

Here are a ton of ways to use up your strawberries: An entire website devoted to strawberries!

I definitely want to try out the strawberry bread, and the strawberry soup.

Orange Strawberry Jupiters

What You Need:
3 cups of fresh squeezed orange juice
1 cup fresh strawberries
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup dry powdered milk (Eric and I want to try it with Vanilla yogurt instead too...)
10 ice cubes

Put it all in the blender and blend until the ice is crushed. Easy! Makes 3-4 servings.


This is a great way to use up your fruit, and it's a healthy snack or dessert. When we made them last night we didn't have enough oranges so we threw two apples in the juicer to make up the difference. Don't expect a smoothie... these are more like thick, fancy juice.