Happy 1st Day of Spring

At long last, my favorite season has arrived ... SPRING!  


So many things run thru my mind ... getting ready to go buy seeds to start growing for my garden, planning my canning ideas for the spring / summer.  Planning my trips ... I just feel so much more alive during the spring / summer / fall.  Not a huge fan of summer heat, but with it comes fresh produce from my garden and canning yummy stuff.  So I will survive. 


Looking forward to buying a pressure canner this year and really get going on canning other things besides what I can do in the water bath.


Hubs is going to enter the Tomato Basil Jam in the county fair this year.  Since he "stole" my recipe guess I'll find something else to enter.


Doing a little spring cleaning, laundry and catching up on the Chew today.  Might make some Cowboy Candy today and making chicken fried steak, mashed taters, gravy and cheesy bacon squash for dinner tonight.


Make it a great day, open those windows and let spring in.


Happy Day!

Just call me a slacker

How did the  months pass without any postings ... I feel like such a slacker.

It's been a busy fall / winter as I'm sure it was for most of my readers.  With all the holidays, and my oldest daughter and her husband, brother in law and 2 dogs moved in, a new granddaughter was born and of course working.  Time flies.

Although I am posting no recipes today, I will not slack any longer.

So saying hi and will be regularly posting from here on in.

HAPPY SPRING!

Catch Up

Hard to believe it's been a month since I've blogged anything ... my apologies.  


You know the old saying "Life Get's in the Way" ... I'm here to say how true that is.  Unfortunately there are not enough hours in the day.


Besides the usual working and working a lot of extra hours while I can, my oldest daughter Stefanee and her husband moved from Missouri to our home.  They are going to remodel the basement into an apartment.  


My youngest child Brianna and her husband Matt and their 3 year old son welcomed a new addition on October 25 ... Raigyn Leigh Johnson, 7 lbs. 19 inches.  What a beauty, looks like her big brother did when he was born.  


We are still in process of remodeling the bathroom.  Thought it'd be a 3 day project ... boy was I wrong.  Going on 2 weeks.  There's been more curse words flying in my house then I ever thought possible.  But yesterday Robert finally got the cement backer board all up.  Now we have to tape, mud and tile ... I doubt that bathroom will be ready by Thanksgiving as I don't have a day off until Thanksgiving.  Patience ... I know it's a virtue, I know this.  


Am excited to have Thanksgiving off.  It will be just the 4 of us, although we did invite a friend over whose husband is on the road.  Was so hoping my sister Brenda and her husband Ken would be here, but it looks like that may not be.


We'll be making the usual fare ... Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Candied Sweet Potatoes, Dinner Rolls, Cranberry Sauce ... canned because my husband likes it (YUCK) and fresh because they taste better LOL!!!!  Stefanee is making a carrot cake and I hope to make a caramel apple pie.  


I am going to try this yummy sounding Cranberry Sauce recipe found on Savory Sweet Life.  It is as follows:

{Simple & Amazing} Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2 Cups

INGREDIENTS

12 oz bag fresh cranberries

3/4 cup orange juice

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

OPTIONAL: 2 oz gold rum

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place all ingredients in a sauce pan and cool on medium high heat for 15-20 minutes or until most of the liquid has reduced - stirring occasionally.  You'll hear the cranberries popping - don't worry, that's what you want them to do.  Remove from heat and serve.  Cranberry sauce can be made days ahead and brought to room temperature or slightly heated before serving.  

The knob off our oven has come off so I'm hoping things cook okay.  Need to find a replacement knob and fast.  


Here's wishing each and everyone of you a Blessed and Thankful Thanksgiving and hope you get to spend it with the ones you love.  I'm thankful for the family that will be here and so wishing Monique, Matt, Brianna, Jacoby and Raigyn could be here as well.  


Blessings!!!!

Pumpkin Puree

Fall ... love this time of year.  The smells, the cool weather, burning leaves, pumpkins, goblins and ghosts.  


Had a free morning on Monday and had 2 pumpkins still looking at me ... begging me really to do something with them before they turned into shriveled mounds of orange flesh.  

I googled and discovered how to roast and puree a pumpkin.  So that I did.  I cut them in quarters, sprayed nonstick spray on the cut edges and put cut side down in a large baking dish with 1/2 inch of water.  450 oven for about an hour until a fork stabbed in the flesh was soft.

I let it cool for a bit and then cut into smaller pieces, peeled / cut the flesh out and put in a bowl.  It was nice and soft.  

When I finished doing that, threw batches in my food processor and processed as much as I could ... then when everything was in a bowl I used my immersion blender and processed it smooth.  I packed into  bags, 2 cups per bag and ended up with 5 bags of pureed pumpkin.  Now onto the 2nd pumpkin on my day off.  Day off ... hmmm what's that. 

I also proceeded to pick the last of the garden and pronounced it dead until Spring, did the cross sign and told it I'd see it next year.  Pulled some squash blossoms out and want to fry those and see how they taste.  Been told they are great. 

On this note, I will say goodbye as I need to get back to work.  


Make it a good day.

Time Slips Away

How fast time slips away this past week.  I apologize for my blog neglect.  Trying to get a lot of things done.  


Last Saturday we went, in the midst of rain, sleet and some snow to a place in Platteville, CO called Miller Farms and donned trash bags and gloves as they took us around the farm (and no we weren't the only idiots out there freezing to death.)


For 15.00 per person we were allowed to pick 5 bags of produce.  We stocked up on freshly dug potatoes, corn on the cob, green beans, kohlrabi, golden beets, onions.  They gave us a pumpkin each and we spent another $50.00 for 2 big boxes of tomatoes for more tomato basil jam.  Yes we were frozen by the time we left, but it was fun, I had a ball.  


Here's some of our take:

 Robert getting ready to head out in the sleet

 On the way back home, donned in our lovely black trash bags LOL!

 The Goods!

 And more yet.

 Green Kohlrabi

 Golden Beets

Purple Kohlrabi

So on Sunday we put up 8 bags of blanched fresh corn (5 per bag) and about 7 bags of blanced green beans.  

Made a Stew Bag ... in which I cut up onions, carrots, celery and freeze them.  When ready to do stew just throw it in and add the remainder of things you want.  So easy for early mornings or late nights and you want to do crock pot cooking. 

The 2 pumpkins I will cut tonight and bake until soft then puree the pumpkin and freeze it.  

The Kohlrabi and Beets will blanch and cube and freeze for soups, stews, stir frys.  

The Potatoes, from what I could gather, fresh potatoes need to "cure" in a cool, dark place for 30 days, so they are in the cool basement and when "cured" will shred, cube, slice ... blanch, cool down and freeze those as well.  

There is some sense of contentment knowing that you are filling up your freezer with healthy, fresh foods for yourself and your family.  Truly after eating a fresh green bean, do those canned mushy things taste good?  Nope!  

Hopefully we will work fervently throughout the week and this weekend and get those tomatoes all made into jam ... and maybe another pasta sauce or two, but don't have a food mill, that is definetely on the to get list next year as well as a pressure canner.  

Oh and I must add ... my precious little grandson Jacoby turned 3 on Monday the 10th.  I couldn't be in Missouri to celebrate, but I am going to share his adorable little face on here.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOBY WE LOVE & MISS YOU!

Here's hoping each and every one of you have a terrific day.  

Colorado Fall Colors and BURNT Zucchini Bread

Yep you read it here ... I burnt a loaf of zucchini bread ... and I am sooo bummed.  The darn knob fell off the oven and I guess I put it back wrong because the middle is liquid and the outside burned.  Really .... Oh well.  


I did, however, get up this morning and make twice baked for dinner tonight.  Was put on call, so doing anything keeps me wondering if the phone will ring in the middle of something.  


I researched and baked the potatoes the way Texas Roadhouse Does.  I had fried up some bacon pieces for the middle of the potatoes, so I rolled the washed potatoes in bacon fat (everything is better with bacon) and then rolled in sea salt and baked them without foil so I'd have a crispier skin and stability to stuff. 


Once they cooled just a bit I mixed the potatoes with 1/2 stick butter, a few Tbsp of sour cream, cream cheese, monterey jack cheese, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder and stirred, it still needed some liquid so I poured in a couple of Tbsp of Bacon Ranch dressing.  PERFECT!  Stuffed them and put some shredded mild cheddar on top.  They are waiting for the rib eyes with dinner tonight.  

The ribeyes were sprayed with olive oil (I love my Misto) and then used McCormick Spicy Steak seasoning, garlic powder and a touch more of cracked black pepper.  

 And now ... the after ..... 

This is the loaded baked cheesy bacon potato that has bacon Ranch over the top ... everything is better with bacon right?

We spent the weekend in Casrbondale, CO, outside of Aspen.  The beautiful fall colors are in full bloom.  Sharing some below.  

And this peeps, is the reason we love Colorado.  Not the dirty city, not the drudgery of work but because of God's beautiful creations.

Raving on the RAV House (Again)

So it's becoming one of my lunchtime favorites ... good food at a good price ... and if any of my readers work where I work you know how cruddy the cafeteria can be as well as the prices being outrageous for a total lack of quality and taste.  You can find them at The RAVHouse .


So today I had the Bierock (Big surprise) but this time got a picture.  Also she had me taste the Fried Eggplant ... it was cold but so good so I got a couple of them to go as well (and they are huge).  I also ate them cold and they were good.  

These are the Bierocks, stuffed with ground beef and cabbage!

The yummy fried eggplant.  It was good cold, imagine fantastic warmed up.

Then because I love love love Creamy Italian and can never find anything that I like, bought Sue's dry seasoning for the Italian Dressing, you can either make oil and vinegary or mayonnaise.  Can't wait to try it.

Still trying to have the Fish Taco's ... hoping to get off work early to make them tonight.  Usually by the time I have been getting home Robert has eaten ... oh well, they will be made eventually.  


Haven't really been in the kitchen a lot, on a work stretch, you know how that goes.