Bless My Heart I Married A Yankee

There are all kinds of reasons to save seeds from year to year.  Cost - You save money by saving your seeds each year.  Go and look at the price of seeds.  They are expensive.  A small pack can cost $5 and you may only get a dozen seeds.  Then just how many will actually germinate? Flavor - Yes, the taste of a vegetable is important.  Why else do you eat a vegetable but for the flavor?  Saving seeds from a tasty vegetable will help to ensure that you will have that plant next year.  Saving seeds from a good healthy strong heirloom plant is essential for flavor next year.   Increase in self-reliance. You do not have to rely on a store having the seeds you want from year to year. Create memories with your family. Establish a sense of knowledge of plant's cycle. Teaching people how to provide for themselves. Learn more about your area. Brings you slower to nature. Experience the wonder of being outside. Believe me...

Butternut squash is such a nice squash to have with your dinner. The flavor is similar to a sweet potato but not really.  You can do so many things with one.  That is part of the reason we normally grow them.  Plus it is awesome that you can keep them in a cool dark place and they will last almost all winter.   One of my favorite ways to eat one is cooked.  I like it plainly cooked.  Add a bit of butter and you have a really delicious side dish.  Well, I have been known to eat half of one for lunch before.  If you want to sweeten it up you can add some brown sugar.  It really is similar to a sweet potato in goodness but entirely a vegetable that holds its own. Let us be serious here.  There are times that our lives just are too busy to do good ole cooking.  You know, down-home cooking. The kind that takes a bit of time.  That is why it is nice to have a microwave.  My life is extremely busy and there are day...

I needed to make some granola today and I decided to play around and try to cut some of the sugar from the normal  granola I make that happened to come from my dear friend Pam.  That is why it is named Pam's Granola.  Do not get me wrong her recipe is to die for and I have been making it since I posted the recipe but Scott and I have been trying to cut more sugar from our diets. Granola is super easy to make and only takes about 30 to 40 minutes to finish and most of that is time in the oven.  It only takes a few ingredients too.  It is a fun thing to make and kids love to help make it.  One of my friends precious little girl loves to come over to my house and help me cook.  So, Miss Abby, next time you come we need to make this for you to take home.   I have been sick off and on for about 2 weeks and I kept on putting off making this.  I always forget how quick and simple it is to toss together.   Start by getting...

I think I mentioned in a previous blog entry that we messed up when it came to germinating our pepper seeds this year.  The first round did not go well.  Next round went some better but the picture above is of my pepper plants I did all on my own.  I did not do our normal procedure, all I did was stick the seeds in a peat pod and water then until some grew.   What I have pictured are the ones Scott really wanted to make sure we had growing.  I just re-potted them this morning.  MOA (on the red solo cups) stands for Minster of Agriculture Scotch Bonnet .  They were seeds we ordered about 3 or 4 years ago and are suppose to be certified coming from Jamaica true Scotch Bonnet peppers. A scotch bonnet peppers is a stable for the Carribean people.  It is between 100,000 and 350,000 on the scoville scale, which means it is about 12 to 140 times hotter than your average jalapeno. This is the tradition pepper used in a lot of Car...

My friend Anna shared this recipe with me several years back and I have been using it ever since because I normally have so many peppers that I just do not know what to do with all of them.  While I love to can  Candied Jalapenos  this is another great recipe to use.  I use it with peppers that have a bit of heat such as hot banana peppers or jalapenos you could def use a sweet pepper in this recipe.  The original recipe called for banana peppers and one jalapeno.  I pretty much just use whatever peppers I have on hand because my pepper plants are very prolific.  In the next week, we should be putting in our garden.  I started my tomato plants, jalapenos and bell pepper plants about 8 weeks ago.  We  keep our seeds  each year so we do not have to go buy seeds.  Yes, again the frugal side of me is shining through.  Normally we have more peppers started but those seeds did not work out this year....

I found out how to do this last year and boy was I disappointed that I did not know it before.  I have wasted so much that I could have used.  I despise waste.  Some people laugh at Scott and me because we try to use everything we can.  Well, let me tell you that is your right but we think you are the one that is weird for wasting stuff that could be used.  I mean seriously, folks, we grow our own stuff as much as possible.  We try to be organic in all we do which is so much better for you and your body.   This year we have been using the food mill to take the seeds and skins out when I have been making marinara, tomato soup, or tomato sauce.  I go by what I need most as to what I can first.  I have canned the salsa I needed and I hope to be done with that but now I am working on canning up some tasty  marinara .  Using the food mill will separate the sauce and will leave the skins and seeds in the mill. ...

Have you gotten on the bandwagon with sriracha?  Most people have.  If you notice in the grocery store sriracha is added to all kinds of products.  You have sriracha mayo. sriracha ketchup, sriracha salsa, sriracha chips, sriracha peanuts and even sriracha bloody mary mix.  I think you get what I am saying that sriracha has really hit it big with people.  Sriracha is a yummy spicy red sauce that you can add to almost anything when you are cooking.  One summer I had so many peppers I did not know what to do with them. In my research, I found a recipe for sriracha.  You know me, I thought why not.  Plus have you ever looked at the price of sriracha?  It is pricey for a small bottle, so why not make it at home where you know what you are putting in your condiment.  If you grow your own peppers you will know if they are organic or not.  We garden with no pesticides so everything we grow is organic.  It really ...

I thought I might have a normal ordinary day.  I have no clue why the heck I would think any day of mine would be normal.   You know a day where you can get stuff done but not be rushed or have anything in particular to do.  Alas, that was not to happen for me.  Instead, I decided to work on some those onions I was gifted a month or so back.  A while back one of my friends mentioned a beer pickled onions recipe that I found very intriguing.  I normally can stuff but this one was not a canning recipe but one that goes in the fridge.  That held me off for a while but I decided to try it this morning.   Since I had a stout beer left from one of the  apple relish  I made I decided to make the beer pickled onions with the leftover beer.  I mean why not, right?  I have onions, a good beer, and all the other ingredients.  It really was a spur of the moment for me to do this recipe.  I do not know why I ke...