Bless My Heart I Married A Yankee

CHOCOLATE CHERRY JAM

I love my zoodle addiction.  I love the fact that it is helping me to become healthier and keep my new lifestyle easy.  I am seriously bad to work myself half to death and totally not make time to eat.  I have always been this way.  I like getting my stuff done early in the day so I know that after all is done I have the rest of the day for myself.  However, this is not healthy when it comes to your eating habits.  Especially if you are wanting to change your eating lifestyle. Making zoodles are super quick and easy.  They are delicious and you can seriously add just about anything per your desire to them.  My love affair with zucchini started years ago and it has not faded any.  Here are a few of the ingredients. If you have a spiralizer making zoodles can be done in a snap.  I used one medium zucchini. Make sure you dab the zoodles with a paper towel to remove as much liquid as possible. Open a jar of black beans and rinse well.  I actually used some Cuban

If you have been keeping up with me this week you know since Saturday I have a new not so guilty obsession.  I am totally and 100% addicted to zucchini zoodles.  Oh (sigh a little bit), my not so guilty conscience is clear to have this off my chest. I can not explain it but I have a thing for zucchini.  I love it.  AND NOW that I know I can have it as a substitute for pasta I am beyond happy.  I mean I have seen zoodles in the grocery stores but being my frugal self I surely was not going to waste money on a small pack of zoodles that is upwards of $5!!!   A couple of weeks ago I was at the lake with my friend Karen and her daughter Brittany and granddaughter Kinsley.  I did not eat them but I saw Karen making zoodles with a julienne slicer/peeler.  Seeing how easy it was to make them I decided that I would give them a try soon.   I have been using my julienne peeler but I had a spiralizer that I have purchased some time back but had not taken out of the box.  Then la

Talk about a labor of love, well this sure was.  I hurt my shoulder a while back and since I have had issues with my hand on my right side becoming numb.  I have to admit I have made it with a food processor many times but I can tell a difference in using the mortar and pestle. I always have an herb garden each year and have tons of basil.  Not only do I make pesto, but I will also flavor oils with basil, I love to have dried basil from my own garden, and our rabbits love the basil.   For this recipe, I chose to use pine nuts.  I toasted them in a #3 cast iron skillet just until they got a bit of color. I prefer to use fresh garlic.  Peel them and give them a rough chop. Add the garlic and a small amount of sea salt to your mortar. Now the fun part begins.  You get to beat the garlic and salt silly.   You want the garlic to be like a paste. Make sure you have cleaned your basil well.  I mean really well.  Bugs love to hide in the le

We have had a few raspberry bushes/briars for 3 years now.  I had to talk Scott into allowing me to have raspberries.  Raspberries do not grow well in our area so he gave in and we planted 6 of them.  Last year they barely produced anything and Scott told me if they did nothing the next year (this year) he was pulling them and replacing them with blackberries.  Well, they gave me enough this year to make a small batch of raspberry jam.  Yay, that means I get to keep them. I have never made raspberry jam before.  BUT I have made plenty of other jams or jellies.  So, how hard could it be?  I looked up several recipes but decided to pretty much go by the box of sure-gel I had to make this recipe.   I took 4 cups of raspberries and put them in my large enamel-lined dutch oven.  I allowed them to come to a boil slowly.  I did not want them to burn.  As they were warming up I mashed them a bit as you can see in the picture below. Next, I added 3 cups of sugar. Allow t