Eeewwwwwww Weeeeeeeeeee ! It is raining here finally and we are getting so much thunder it sounds like the "Tater Wagon" has dumped over as we were told as kids growing up when it thundered really loud. I'm sure we all heard a lot of different sayings growing up as kids, some are repeatable and some aren't...LOL. We sure aren't complaining about the rain because we haven't had any in a long time and we sure needed it. Of course our garden is gone for the year, but while we were still getting good veggies out of it, we had to water everyday because it was so dry. Considering the fact we didn't have much rain at all this Spring and Summer, we still got a lot of good veggies! I did a lot of canning and freezing of veggies and made a lot of jellies, jams and preserves. Most of the things I canned came right from our garden, but we were fortunate enough to get some good veggies like cucumbers from good friends too. I have to admit, before Fred and I married I didn't have much experience when it came to gardening and even less when it came to growing veggies. Growing up the closest thing to gardening I did was shelling peas with my Mama. But when Fred and I married 5 1/2 yrs ago, it didn't take me long to learn about gardening. He has always been a big gardener and loved to work in the yard with plants and flowers too. So with a lot of watching, listening and learning from him along with a lot of research on the internet I've become a gardener. Not a professional gardener by any means, but much more than I was when I started.
We canned a lot of tomatoes and those sure come in handy. We even canned some of them with Basil and Oregano and those were great for spaghetti, lasagna, soups etc. I quickly found out though although it looks like a whole lot of tomatoes, once you start cooking them down to can them, it isn't as much as you thought it was. But hey...I'll take anything I can get out of them. I also made some Dill and Bread and Butter Pickles too. This was only the second time I had made pickles and these batches turned out much better than the first ones I made. I don't know if any of you have ever made pickles and what type of spices you used, but I found a great "Pickling Spice" that is called "Mrs. Wage's Pickling Mix". This brand not only has dill pickle spices, but spices for the bread and butter pickles too. It is a great seasoning mix and the pickles really turned out good. So I highly reccomend the Mrs. Wage's pickling mix. I made both pickle spears and sliced pickles and then made the pickle spices for the bread and butter. I also made some sweet and dill relish from the cucumber and used the same pickling spices for the dill. For the sweet relish, I found a great recipe for that on the internet. I use the pickle relishes for cooking such as for deviled eggs, potato salad, macaroni salad etc. You know how expensive some of those relishes can be, so making my own was the way to go!
We were also fortunate enough to get some plums, pears and peaches too. So, I made a lot of jellies, jams and preserves. A couple of years ago I came up with a new recipe by mistake ! Everyone liked it so well that I just continued to make my "mistake jam". In my freezer I had an assortment of different berries, such as raspberries, black berries, blue berries, strawberries etc. Not enough of any one of them to make that one kind of jelly or jam, so I just threw them all together in the pot and made a batch of jam. Since it had so many types of berries, I really didn't know what to call it, so I just named it "Razzle Dazzle Jam". Like I said, everyone that ate it, loved it so my mistake turned into a hit! As I was making my plum jelly, I wanted to make something different than the plain plum jelly. While I was researching on line for different jelly recipes, I found one for "Plum Butter". I think we all have eaten Apple Butter, so I just used my plums for "Plum Butter", but I added different spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves etc. I ended up calling it "Spiced Plum Butter" and again, thorugh a mistake or trial and error, I ended up with a pretty good recipe again. I also made a new jelly I called my "Sunshine Jelly". Again, I used the plums and added cinnamon, orange rind and even threw in what they call "pumkin pie spice", just a mixture of different spices for pumpkin pies. That too was a good mistake. Over the years I have come up with all kinds of recipes just by experimenting or making a mistake. That came about a lot of the time because I didn't have a certain spice or seasoning I needed for a dish. And to be truthful with you, there were many times in my life as a young mother and wife that I could not afford certain spices (you know how expensive spices are!). So, I always said that sometimes "creativity comes out of poverty!"...LOL. You do what you have to do to make it work !
OK...now where was I when I got to talking about this garden and all the veggies, jams, jellies and preserves?? Who knows ! As usual, I just start talking and get carried away. And when it comes to talking about food, recipes etc., I can go on forever ! But there is one thing that has been brought to my attention about my blog that I would like to address. A sweet friend of mine that has been reading my blog sent me a message saying that she didn't realize that when I posted the "Recipe of the Day", I changed it everyday and she didn't take the time to write it down thinking it would be there the next day or when she had time to do it. I decided I would add one or two recipes everyday. So that meant when I deleted the "old" recipe it wasn't saved and replaced with the "new" one on my blog anywhere. As I told you, this blog thing is new to me and I'm still learning how to use the site. There are all kinds of features on here you can use, but there are a lot of these features that I have NO clue as how to use them. But, I'm trying to figure out how I can save these "Recipes of the Day" to a seperate page, so yall can go back to check them out if you don't get them the day I post them. Just bear with me as I try to figure out how to do this. In the mean time, if I post a recipe and you don't get it that day, just send me a message or comment on the blog and I'll be happy to send it to you. This site seemed to be fairly simple to use in the beginning, but I'm finding out that there are some things about it that sure are confusing for my poor little warped brain sometimes...LOL. I'll do my best to figure this thing out so it will be easy for all of us to use and understand.
Yesterday when I made my Smothered Pork Chops, as usual I cooked too dadgum much ! I ended up having a lot of that and the Baked Potato Casserole left. We will either have those leftovers for supper tonight or I'll come up with something else. Like I've told yall before, we aren't fancy people so we don't mind leftovers at all. In fact, a lot of times I end up with so many leftovers in the fridge, I have to either freeze them or eat them !
Also, after I figure out how to use this blog to my advantage, I am going to try and start putting together a Holiday Recipe Page. So I would love to start hearing from yall and collecting recipes for the holidays. This does not mean we only want to collect "sweets", "desserts" etc. As much as we all love those things, we do have to eat something at our meals other than just the desserts! So, please start thinking about what recipes you would like to share with the rest of us. In the mean time I'm going to try and figure out how to make this "Holiday Recipe Page". So start sending those recipes !!
I hope you all have a great day and a marvelous week ! "Happy Eating", my friends !
Muahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ♥
German Chocolate Cake
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