This is just another iteration of one of the most popular recipes on the blog, Refrigerator Garlic Dill Pickles. Just like the original, it makes fast work of an otherwise more time consuming chore - and I maintain, with better results. Our hot pepper plants have been quite generous this year, providing us with a steady stream of Hungarian wax peppers, jalapenos, red cherry peppers and pepperoncini, plus another kind, for which I can't find the seed packet, but they look like jalapeno's taller ... Read More about Refrigerator Pickled Hot Peppers
Recipes
Sweet Zucchini Cornbread
If you spend any time on this blog at all, you are probably already aware of my extreme affection for cornbread. In the winter months, we have it often, alongside chili, stew and soups. This version though, for us anyway, is strictly a garden season version. I refuse to buy summer squash at the market, because I am spoiled rotten by the flavor of zucchini, pattypans and yellow crooknecks that have been off the vine only 10 minutes before we eat them. Nothing else compares, and I would rather do ... Read More about Sweet Zucchini Cornbread
Tomato Jalapeno Jam
This was inspired by Mark Bittman’s recipe in the New York Times back some time ago. We found his version a bit too sweet for us, but liked it enough that I decided to see if I could alter it sufficiently to suit our taste. It’s not like I have a shortage of tomatoes for experimenting. In order to achieve a truly jam like consistency, you can’t reduce the sugar very much, because sugar is what gives jams and jellies their texture. Without it, this will just end up as a spicy tomato sauce. So ... Read More about Tomato Jalapeno Jam
Creamy Tomato Bacon Soup
It has been one heck of a summer to be a gardener. To say the weather hasn't cooperated would be an understatement. Cold late, then no rain for weeks, then way too much rain, then cold early, bugs in Biblical sized mobs, and finally, blight on our tomatoes. We are more fortunate than a lot of people though, because we are just now seeing it, and we will get all the tomatoes we need. I have to credit our blight battling strategies for this, because some people started seeing a month ago. But, it ... Read More about Creamy Tomato Bacon Soup
Summer Squash Gingerbread Loaf
The best of summer veggies combined with fall baking! This Summer Squash Gingerbread Loaf was conceived from a conversation. Though I live in a rural area, I am very fortunate to have a group of blogging friends to hang out with. These are other people who actually understand what it's like to work from home. How to be your own boss, but also to slave for hours over a post. To work forever to get your photos to tell the story, or to wrestle a sentence into submission, no matter how long it ... Read More about Summer Squash Gingerbread Loaf
Orzo Stuffed Zucchini
Orzo Stuffed Zucchini I think in a good growing year, every gardener experiences "the zucchini that ate Manhattan" syndrome. You know - you go out there and pick your squash every day, because you know, to get more nice little squashes, you have to make sure you don't have any gargantuan squashes. Letting summer squash get too big signals to the plant that it's time to make sure that the squashes they have are all that they can be - they put their energy into growing canoe hulls instead of ... Read More about Orzo Stuffed Zucchini
Crispy Zucchini Fritters
When we are having family over to eat in the summer time, Crispy Zucchini Fritters are the number one thing that they request. I've been making them for years, so it's not surprising that people wondered why I hadn't ever put the recipe on my blog. I finally got it on the old blog a couple years ago, and now I'm told I need to put on this one too, lest I keel over at an early age, and it be lost to all humankind, forever. We can't have that. Making these takes me back to the years when the girls ... Read More about Crispy Zucchini Fritters
Blueberry Preserves {no pectin recipe}
It seems to be another amazing year for blueberries here in the northeast. The bushes are packed with berries, and they are sweet and juicy. Even if you aren't blessed to live next door to the family farm where 20 gargantuan blueberry bushes reside, you are still going to find great prices at the U-pick places, as well as at Farmer's Markets. We eat a LOT of blueberries when they are ripening, and we get a considerable number of them into the freezer for use in baking through the winter ... Read More about Blueberry Preserves {no pectin recipe}
Almond Brownies
Brownies. Really, there are few things in life that are more sublime than a really nice batch of fudgy, rich brownies. it is one of the first things I ever remember baking on my own, using my Mom's stained recipe card to guide me. Mom was a bit of a chocolate freak, so this recipe had been used many times. This was quite a long time ago, when box mixes were in their infancy, and pretty terrible. Mom held them in very low esteem, and I have to say that I agree with her about that. Particularly ... Read More about Almond Brownies
Green Beans with Crispy Leeks
I know this is almost downright un-American, but I have to confess that I am not at all a fan of Green Bean Casserole. That's a bit of an understatement actually, but I hesitate to state my dislike in any stronger terms, lest I cause some real trouble among my friends here on the blog. Some people have such affection for this dish, that to insult it in any way, is akin to making a disparaging comments about someone's religious beliefs, or to insult their favorite politician. And, indeed, with it ... Read More about Green Beans with Crispy Leeks
Cherry Limeade Cupcakes
I know I have mentioned my terrible addiction to you before. It’s one that I share with my spouse and we are a very bad influence on each other when it comes to this particular obsession. Cherries are irresistible to both of us and I don't think we are interested in rehab. If one of us resolves that we have gone over the top, the other says “No! We haven’t gone far enough!” – and runs to the store, to buy more cherries. For about 6 glorious weeks, we gorge ourselves on them. It would be nothing ... Read More about Cherry Limeade Cupcakes
Double Blueberry Ice Cream
Double Blueberry ice Cream? Isn’t just the regular kind good enough for most people? Why do you need to have double blueberries? Because I am fiendishly clever, that is why, and once you give this a try, you will be thanking me for my fiendish ways. I tried a couple of different recipes last year, and ended up not posting them, because I just wasn’t getting the flavor I was looking for. It's an insider secret to the incredibly interesting world of a food blogger that when you have to test each ... Read More about Double Blueberry Ice Cream