Stuffed peppers and Florence!

Well the bell peppers were adding up in the fridge and another batch of tomato's were ready to be cooked so what else would you make other than stuffed peppers.  What? No ground beef.  Well I made my with chicken.  I made mine with a Italian twist because I just love cooking with my fresh sweet basil, oregano parsley and garlic out of my garden.  Nothing better than fresh greens.

Looks good, right?  Well if you want my recipe, you will just have to comment on my blog!  I will be happy to give it to you!

I made enough for 3 meals for Tadd and I, so here is what I did with the left overs.  Ready for the freezer.

What about Florence.  Just another little scrapbook page I did with our Florence paper pack from Close to my Heart.  These are some pictures from a trip I took with a good friend years ago. Tahquamenon Falls in the upper peninsula Michigan!

Enjoy your weekend!

Florence paper pack and the August Stamp set of the month!

Well August is nearing an end.  This makes me sad.  But September is a beautiful month too!  Today I am showing a few things I have made this month!

This stamp set and paper are only available until August 31.  Check out my website and get yours before they are gone.  paperdivas.ctmh.com

I hope you enjoy the rest of the month!

Ronda's Garden veggie tomato soup!

                                                     Ronda's garden veggie tomato soup


Ingredient's

6 cups fresh tomato juice
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 sweet medium red pepper, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
4 table spoons butter
3 table spoons flour
1 small container heavy cream
about 3 tablespoons of sugar
salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley

sauté all chopped veggies in butter, just until tender

remove 2/3 of the cooked veggies and puree with a cup of the juice and the heavy cream.

add flour to the remaining veggies in pan and cook for about 1 minute.

add in the rest of the tomato juice, stir for a couple minutes and then add in the pureed mix.

add sugar to desired taste

Add in spices to your desire and the chopped parsley and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy, it is so good.

Canning and composting!!!

Happy Monday!

Yesterday I canned dill pickle relish for the first time.  I kind of made up my own recipe but followed the instructions from the ball book.  My husband and I just love the dill relish on hot dogs.  I don't like the stuff in the stores.  Next weekend I am going to give  sweet relish a try.

I have been making a lot of stuff with tomatoes and will can salsa today!  I will talk about those in a later post.


What do you do with all your veggie scraps?  Well I would hope you are putting them back in the garden.  By using a compost bin and putting all of my fruit and veggie scraps along with coffee grounds filters and egg shells! I get healthy fertilizer back.  I also get surprise plants.  This year I got some beautiful red skinned potatoes growing right out of the bin.  I also have a wonderful acorn quash plant that I have 7 of them growing.  As well as parsley and a couple tomato plants and a cantaloupe.

This is my indoor pail that I put my scraps in!

 This is the compost bin.

 This is the acorn squash plant.

 Here is the cantaloupe.

 And of course this is the first acorn squash I picked!

I love the mystery plants.  I also put my shredded paper in it as well as some of the lawn clippings and dead plants and leaves.  Make sure you water it every now and again and stir it up occasionally

Happy Gardening!.

Good morning!

I am going to do a series of posts about preserving the veggies we grow and composting the parts we don't use.

Today's post is about garlic.  I'm starting with the spring plants.  The green will grow to about 18- 24 inches tall.  In early summer they will start to grow scapes on top.  I don't have a picture of this but it will be a long curly sprout coming out the top with a seed on the end.  You want to cut this off as early as possible where it comes out of the plant.  This will help grow nice big bulbs.  These scapes are edible and taste best when you clip them early.  You can eat them raw but I prefer to sauté them with other veggies.  They are really yummy in fried potatoes.  Then when they are ready to pull up (when the greens are dying), brush off the dirt around the bulb and put them in a bunch and hang in a cool place for about 30 days!  Cut off the stems and roots and any left over dirt and put them in a bag on a shelf in the basement.  Check them throughout the year.  If they are getting too soft, slice them up and put them in a 250 degree oven until kind of crispy and throw them in a coffee grinder for garlic powder.  If you want course ground then use a food processor.

Now, in the fall take some nice cloves and dig a couple of rows in your garden or herb area about 4 inches deep.  place the cloves about 6 inches apart with the root side down.  Each little clove has a sprout top and a root bottom.  Look closely and you will see.  Make sure you use a nice big clove that is not soft or drying.  Cover with dirt and some mulch or leaves and water.  Keep semi moist until winter.  In the spring, take off mulch and watch them grow.  They probably will start growing before snow flies.

The best part......never buy garlic again.  And it taste so much better then the stuff you buy at a store!

Stay tuned tomorrow for what I do with tomatoes!

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since I have made a post on here.  My Step daughter (Renee) was here with her family.  We had a lot of fun at the E. Lansing aquatic center one day.  We went to celebrate Mom's La Dukes 99th birthday.  Renee is her only Grandchild so she wanted to be here for her birthday!  We went to Chicago for two days and went to Shedd's aquarium and the Field Museum.  Both were amazing.  We spent 8 hours at the Field Museum.  It was a lot of fun being able to do something like this with our Grandkids.  They live in Kansas so we don't get to see them very often.  Here are a few pics.

and here is one more of Zach and Renee!

and now tonight I am off to my 40th class reunion!  Have a great weekend everyone!!!