Andrea

I've been dumping it on my salads and using it as dressing! YUMMY! I use a fresh recipe though. I'll look up the Ball recipe, that might be a fun thing to have on hand during the winter months.

We mostly fall in the "thrifty" to "Low Cost" plan, but I also include toiletries, pet products, and paper and cleaning products in our food budget.

If you can't find white wine vinegar, I would feel confident substituting red wine vinegar, although they are sold side by side at most grocery. I made a batch of brushetta last night. Thanks for the inspiration! It's perfect for hot summer evenings and makes a great salad dressing!

I would use the recipe as given. Wine and vinegar are related but are not interchangeable. I would avoid the Kraft substitution as well, and go for the balsamic vinegar. If you don't have any balsamic, you could substitute apple cider vinegar but it would change the flavor.

HAPPY HAPPY DAY!!!

HAPPY, HAPPY DAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

National Raspberry Cream Pie Day?!? I had no idea, but I think it's one we need to start celebrating!

Thanks Snowmom!

Been busy with elderberries. I just have two batches of jelly to make tomorrow (they're already juiced and ready to go!) and then I'm done with them for the year. Good thing too, my 2nd crop of figs and my peaches are getting closer to being ready to pick! My step ladder sure does get around the yard!

I've picked 4 more tomatoes, a couple of zuch's, and juiced some aloe and stirred it into my morning smoothie. I've been snipping celery seeds and need to find some time to sit down and separate them out. I'd like to collect enough to use for seasoning this year. I always save celery seed to plant in the Fall but for the past several years, I haven't needed to. This celery reseeds itself all over my yard - it's almost as bad as lemon balm! I wish I could remember the variety but I'm guessing it's an heirloom since this is it's 5th or 6th year of planting itself without looking any different. If anything, it seems to be getting bigger each year. And there's one plant in a shady part of the yard (I didn't put it there!) that hasn't gone to seed yet, so I need to go and pick & dehydrate the leaves for flavoring. There's always something!

Happy gardening!

I AM BEAT. The last batch of berries are in the dehydrator. This should give me about 4 cups of dried (stemless) berries which will make 8 batches of sambucol-like syrup, or if I'm lazy, I can just throw them in with my herbal tea. I also made 9 1/2 pints of jam, and I have enough juice in the fridge for two batches of elderberry jelly (14 1/2 pints). I'll throw that together tomorrow but I've already sterilized the jars and cleaned the kitchen so I just need to get up and get it done!

For a while, it looked like I had dissected Barney in my kitchen. There was purple juice everywhere!

I don't normally buy chicken this way, but I had two bags in my freezer that I sent camping with my dd. They must have cooked it all the way through because no one got sick. But geez, this is at least the third outbreak of this in our area FF Plant. They were talking about closing our location down because of all the problems. This would be a HUGE hit to our economy.

Ugh, I'm only halfway through my elderberries for the season. I'm tired of all of those pesky little stems! I've also got to get my herbs into the dehydrators. Everything is ready at once and preserving it takes so much time. But I've committed myself to doing a better job of preserving what I grow for future use, but it is so much repetitious work. How do you alleviate the tediousness of de-stemming gallons of elderberries?

All I can say is that I wish there were more seasons of Dr. Who! We have Amazon Prime so I've been streaming Dr. Who on my kindle in the kitchen. How do you motivate yourself?

http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/06/making-your-own-fertilizer/?ext=FB_GC_PP_Registrations_blog_making-your-own-fertilizer1_2014-07-02_2100&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social%20Engagement&utm_campaign=Gardening%20Club-Registrations&initialPage=true

I need to stop "buying" these! I've got so many books right now, that they're hard to find on my Kindle!

Thanks for all of your hard work!

(((Momo)))

Or, as the case is with Con Agra foods here in Central Cali, the makers of Marie Callendar frozen products, most of the ingredients are grown here, shipped to China for processing and packaging, and then shipped back here. China doesn't have the environmental restrictions and the labor laws that California has. Even with shipping, it's far more cost effective to send everything over there for processing.

But I know what you mean, Momo. My MIL likes to shop at Raley's, the expensive store in town. And since she's 89 and no longer drives, I take her shopping there once a week. I spent a long time in one of FIVE freezer aisles myself. It was kind of cool though, I found a brand of potstickers that don't contain things I'm allergic to! They cost a pretty penny, but they were potstickers!!! (and they were good!)

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

So, my painted mountain corn has already germinated. I need to get out there with some sluggo until the plants are too big to be affected by snails. I'm going to send dh up the ladder to harvest some more elderberries when he gets home from work and I have several zucchini that are waiting to be picked for tomorrow night's dinner. I'm a bit behind on the dehydrating. I injured my shoulder somehow and have been taking it easy.

Hope your gardens are growing well!

(Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I picked my first tomato and ate it out in the garden where no one could see . . . )

Wow, so glad you're safe!

@ CGA

Posted 16 August 2004 - 11:59 AM

Adding this here. It's on the menu this week!

http://www.5dollardinners.com/aleas-vegetarian-enchilada-stuffed-zucchini/

I picked some zucchini today to be made into bread for my dd's camping trip and filled the dehydrator up with horehound. I also discovered that I am out of dried oregano, so that will go into the dehydrator tomorrow. The only thing I'm eating out of the garden today are some onions and fresh oregano that I used to season my spanish rice. (storage food dinner tonight - rice and bean burritos)

I have some tomatoes that are orangish! Woohoo! I also thinned out the walking onions and planted a bunch among the squash plants. And I threw in a load of finished compost into the purple potato bed and planted some heirloom corn that I picked up at the Bountiful Gardens store called Painted Mountain Corn.

 

 

Painted Mountain contains every shade of color known to corn. Vivid oranges, golds, reds, and purples make the brightest fall harvest decorations. The 4-5 foot stalks bear up to 2 narrow, 7 inch long cobs. Can be eaten fresh. If dried, the grain can be ground into flour, boiled into hominy, or parched.

Sounds fun if I can get it to grow in my 4'X6', 3' deep raised garden beds!

I need to rescue one of my beds from the New Zealand Spinach and get it ready for Fall. It will probably take us that long to eat that much of it! LOL