PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 10/17/2008

More garden stuff...
This is how I make one of our favorite foods!

A box of collard greens sitting on my counter waiting for attention.


The center spines have been cut out, and several leaves are stacked ready to be rolled up for slicing.


Making thin slices...


Stir-frying the leaves with some seasoned hamburger...


Simmering with tomato sauce! Shall we have some with rice for supper?

And here's what I do with the leftovers...Now I am ready for some winter day when I just don't want to cook!

(I only showed you one pot, but I made two of them at the same time. That's why there are so many leftovers!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/29/2008

I've missed a few days of posting because of the fact that I actually need a little sleep now and then! My day job is medical transcription... Did I say "day job?" Pardon me! What I really meant is my all-times-of-the-day-and-night job! The last two weeks have been my busiest ever with that, and then into that scenario we mix the fact that the vegetables in the garden are ready to be processed and frozen for the winter, Coral had a neurology appointment and ongoing med experimentation, and our elderly friend Warren has many problems to overcome as he rehabs from a broken leg.

Before I get some of the above-mentioned sleep, I am going to open a window on my day today and imagine you peeking in! I buzzed through the work from two doctors, and then went out to the garden to pick some corn.Here is L.C. (Lap Cat) checking out the remains after I shucked the corn.

In the sink, ready to be washed...

Bubbling on the stove, with the timer set for 4 minutes....

Dunking the cobs in cold water to stop the cooking process and cool them quickly for handling...

Letting the cobs dry so that there will be no water mixed with the kernels when I cut them off...

Cutting ALL that corn off of ALL those cobs...

Ready for the freezer!

I froze 10 bags in all today, and each bag had the kernels from 6 to 8 cobs in it.
(Some of the cobs were really young, so they made an extra-special tender bag!)

Like I said, I actually need a little sleep now and then... and I think it better be now!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/23/2008

My pot of ratatouille!
(not to be confused with Ratatouille, the movie!)

This was on my stove this afternoon, simmering and filling the house with delightful fresh garden scents! I know that ratatouille is usually just vegetables, but I also know that my husband loves his meat, so I started some ground beef browning with my favorite seasonings. Then I chopped up zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and onions to add, freshly picked from the garden. Our tomatoes are not ripe yet, so I settled for canned ones and let it bubble a bit longer until it looked like this.... Mmmmm, absolutely the best served over rice!

So now I have ratatouille in the freezer, and on some snowy day in winter I will start the rice cooker going and pull out one or two of those containers, and we will have us a scrumptious meal!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/31/2008

Fresh beans from our garden

Today I finished up all my medical transcription work, and then I went out to the garden to pick beans. Here is one of the bowls of beans waiting to be frozen.
We had some of them for supper. If you don't like green beans, then you have not had the ones from our garden! Crisp yet tender...just perfect!

Now I am off to wash, snap, blanch, cool in cold water, pat dry, put in Ziplocs, and stick in the freezer. It's a lot of work now, but there is no replacement for the treat we will have later!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 07/28/2008

Our garden

Barry is rototilling to keep the weeds under control. He can get that thing going, and then he walks along by it keeping one hand on it to make it go straight. This end has the corn, and then on the other side there are beans, zucchini, onions, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, eggplant, collard greens, and cucumbers. We also have a patio planter (one of those ones that has some of the plants growing upside down) with peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant, as well as one section along the side of the garden where we have strawberry plants.

The beans are ready to pick, and today I got green onions and peppers for lunch. Soon the corn will be ready, too, and then it will be time to freeze beans and corn for the winter. If we have more than we can eat now, I also like to make ratatouille to freeze ready to heat and serve with rice.

There is loads of weeding to be done right now. Who can come over and help?