Remember Ladies...

"always practice safe salsa". These were the words of my trusty OSU extension food preservations teacher at a tomato processing class I recently took! I loved the line and was so excited to get my salsa on! So I did what any canning loving girl would do... I called up my mother and told her it was time to put up or shut up! Luckily for me, she chose the put up and hustled her hiney up to Portland for a Saturday spent at the Cozy Little Cottage.

Upon her arrival I had all the goodies we would need for the day set out and ready to go!

We diced and diced and diced!

We cooked it up a bit, per the recipe's directions

While waiting for the jars to process, my mom partook in one of her favorite past times... copying my recipes! We both giggle at this often, years and years were spent with me as the novice, her as my teacher... what fun it is to switch roles sometimes!

Hmmm... this seems to be the only shot of the finished product. How time flies when you are putting up the harvest!

I pay in platter lunches. This one was accompanied by eggplant caponata as well (to top those little toast squares of course!) Not only do I pay in lunches, but I believe my mother may have made away with a jar of salsa (of course) and a bar of homemade soap!

What a day we had! Saturdays at home are my favorite kind and to be in the kitchen with loved ones, oh, all the better! Here's to wishing you a happy harvest as well!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

Menu Plan: 9.9- 9.14

Back to school here I come! During the school year I try very hard to make, make, make on the weekend, in hopes that the week will be smooth sailing... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I so love my time spent in the kitchen on Sundays.

Thursday 9.8- Left Over Mac & Cheese or Left Over Curried Chicken Salad

Friday 9.9- Date Night Out!

Saturday 9.12- BBQ with David's Co-Workers (I am planning to make a green salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries and sunflower seed. I'll toss the salad with homemade raspberry vinaigrette)

Sunday 9.13- Herb Seasoned Pork Chops, Roasted Eggplant
                      * Make Roasted Tomato Sauce and freeze
                      * Make Pesto and freeze
                      * Mix Tea Blend

Monday 9.14- Curried Carrot Soup, Cheese Toast... hmm, two curry dishes in one week...

Tuesday 9.15- Cucumber Boats filled with Tuna Salad

Wednesday 9.16- Greek Orzo Salad

Millions of Peaches...

Oh those Presidents of the United States of America had it right... we really are going to eat a lot of peaches.

Yesterday on my way home from setting up my classroom I stopped by Grandma's Place and quickly picked a little over 20 pounds of peaches (they are my favorite to pick... so quick!) At a dollar a pound I could hardly stop myself from picking more... around these parts a dollar a pound is a screaming deal!

Our favorite way to preserve peaches for the colder months to come is dip them in a water bath for about 30 seconds, plunge in cold water, peel, slice and freeze. I always try to put up as many peaches as I can because they are our favorite treat; we want to enjoy them all year long! Throughout the year these peaches will grace our kefir smoothies, top our oatmeal (I do half oat groats and half steel cut oats in the slow-cooker over night and then we wake up to a warm breakfast!) and we will for sure be feasting on our favorite peach/raspberry crisp on some cold winter evenings as well!

When freezing I always think about how we will be using said food in the future. I like to freeze in amounts that are called for in recipes that I use often (well, for me, more like cooking patterns I like to follow... I rarely follow recipes, but love to read cookbooks to get ideas for flavor combinations). For things that will be used over a number of days, like fruit in smoothies, I like to think about how much we will use in a week, that way I can pull everything from the freezer on Sunday... it's like grocery shopping in your own garage!

And all those peelings and pits? Well this year I am going to try my hand at peach honey... we'll see how it goes?

Oh and, lest us not forget about another wonderful peach song, thank you Steve Miller Band! Any other peachy songs out there that I forgot?

{this moment}

Picnic in the park... with gin and tonics, of course!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

Menu Plan: 8.25- 8.31

It has been quite some time since I have posted a menu plan, but oh don't you worry, I have still been planning (just not posting!) and we have still been eating like kings and queens around here... at least that is what we think :)

Thursday- Squash Pancakes (think potato pancakes!), Roasted Eggplant on Toast

Friday- Date Night, we have been wanting to try the new Little Big Burger in the Pearl... maybe this will be our night!

Saturday- Celebrating the end of a wonderful summer... D says he is taking me to dinner at Thistle, how fun! And, two nights out in a row! We really are wild!

Sunday- Beef Short Ribs, Caprese Salad

Monday- Chicken Enchilada Casserole, Corn on the Cob (this is our first day back to school, just teachers... but still, it's nice to have something quick for dinner... the casserole is in the freezer and will be the perfect quick fix!)

Tuesday- Breakfast for Dinner: Sausage, Eggs and Potato Hash

Wednesday- Cucumber and Hummus Sandwiches

Our Tortillas

Start with freshly ground flour

Add sourdough starter, use this recipe and let it rest for the night

In the morning, the dough will have risen quit a bit!

I divide one batch into about 36 pieces

Press with tortilla press, not necessary... I could roll them out, but this way is so fun and fast!

The recipe call to fry in oil, however, I put the dough in a dry skillet and never have a problem

Et Voila! A little over 3 dozen tortillas! I bundle them by the dozen and freeze... enchiladas, quesadillas,  and tacos, oh my!

the apples are in...

As if it were planned, the apple tree in our backyard, planted before we moved in, is of the variety that is ready for harvest very early in the season... just what a teacher needs! Like clockwork, right before school starts each year, our little tree lets me know it is ready for me to start processing apples!

Juicer for the cider/juice and the food processor helps me slice those apple rings quickly

A quick water dip before sliced and diced!

The previous owner of our little cottage once told me the variety is Chahalem, although I have never had that confirmed... maybe I should take an apple to the extension booth at the market!

Apple rings ready to be dried, I dip them in a lemon juice/water mix to keep them from browning

Our apples are green and tart, much like a granny smith. This year the Mr. and I decided that while we love fresh applesauce, the canned variety isn't really our favorite. However, we do love us some apple leather, dried apple rings and fresh apple juice!  So, needless to say, our little one-bun kitchen has been full, full, full of apples!

Apples ready for a few months of cold storage in our garage refrigerator 

Fresh apple juice. I freeze it in quart containers... warm apple cider all winter long!

AND, remember this? What fun! We are lucky enough to live in an area where apples grow wonderfully! Here's to another fall full of apples!

3 years...

David and I recently celebrated our 3rd anniversary in style... on a tandem bike of course!

Last week we were lucky enough to be able to get away for a few days and head to one of our favorite spots, Sunriver. While there we enjoyed lots of bike riding, jamaica tea margaritas (we lived on jamaica tea on our honeymoon, so what a treat it was to find a restaurant serving jamaica while celebrating our anniversary!), a few great hikes around Century Drive and lots of laughs... we had a great time!

The night before we left we had a quiet celebration dinner at home. I quickly whipped up one of our favorite platter dinners and we settled in for the evening.

Herbed Brie, Baguette, Olympic Provisions Salami, Home Pickled Asparagus and Sardines... yummm!

The past two years David and I have gifted each other traditional anniversary gifts... remember this for cotton? Well, this year we decided not to exchange gifts, but someone had a little trick up his sleeve! The traditional gift for year three is leather and for the past few weeks David has been working, with lots of help from his mother, on this wonderful album. It is filled with pictures from our rehearsal dinner and our wedding day... what a treat, I love it!

The Story of a Half Gallon of Milk

We purchase our milk directly from one of our favorite little farms. I make the wonderful drive out to the middle of the countryside once a month and purchase our milk and eggs for the month. I always pick up a half gallon of fresh milk for that week and frozen milk for the following weeks of that month. Since neither of us drink milk by the glass, the frozen milk works wonderfully for us!

Once home, I put all the frozen milk into our big freezer in the garage and set the fresh milk in the fridge to separate for a couple of hours.

Once the cream has risen to the top, I ladle it into another little jar... viola, our coffee cream for the week! (I do the same thing with the frozen milk, after letting it defrost in the fridge for a couple of days)

Then, throughout the week I make kefir from the remaining half gallon of milk. This kefir will turn into all sorts of goodies, depending on the week. Some weeks it may be used in our morning smoothies. Or, I may strain it to use as sour cream or cream cheese... and sometimes after I have strained it, I even mix it up with herbs to make flavored cream cheese or dip for veggies!

I love getting our milk this way. It's so wholesome, I can make almost all our dairy products from it (I haven't ventured into cheese, yet!) and we are supporting a wonderful family who is living out our farming dream!

So, you want fresh, local food do you?

... Well then you may just have to head out and dig for your own clams!

Saturday found David and I at a little bay right outside of Tillamook. We were there taking a class on clam digging and it was awesome! We gained a wonderful amount of knowledge, met some really sweet people and came home with our max of 40 clams (20 each)!

Lunch was at The Schooner, a darling little fish shack on the Netarts Bay. We enjoyed fish and chips and awesome clam chowder, along with a cold beer of course!

Our lunch-time view

Once home, we moved our clams from their chilly cooler to a colander, covered by a wet towel and some ice... all ready to be steamed and then cleaned!

Beautiful right?!

All Clean!

Our sauce of clam juice, white wine, garlic, parsley and onion

What a day! The weather couldn't have been better; cool, no rain and the sun peeking out later in the day. We came home exhausted from our early start (we needed to meet the other students who were taking the class at 6:30 in Tillamook!) and in need of a nap! After a little shut eye, we enjoyed the quiet job of cleaning up our haul and doing our little kitchen dance... that we do so well, if I do say so myself! David and I love cooking together and cooking up something that we caught together earlier in the day only makes it that much more fun!

Berries, Syrup and Jam... Oh My!

It was picking day, a now 4 year tradition that has morphed into not only a once or twice a season event, but a weekly event as Brittany and I try to fill up our pantries for the winter! We usually head out to a pre-determined farm on Wednesdays, but two weeks ago our chosen day was Thursday. When planning on heading out on another day of the week I thought, "oh, sure, I can do that... I am flexible" HA! Justin Bieber says Never Say Never... but here it is, ladies: Never go picking on CSA day!

Blueberries, Raspberries and Marionberries...

I came home from picking with not one, not two, but three different kinds of berries... three flats full of berries and soon a 15 gallon tub of produce was to show up! Needless to say our little "one bun" kitchen was full, full, full! So, I did what any good house holder would do...

Blueberries straining for blueberry syrup

Blueberries ready for the freezer... yes, those are little ramekins that I use to make a shelf... brilliant, right?

Raspberry jam in the making

Raspberries ready to head into the freezer (I freeze these in single layer on cookie sheets before they head into those little plastic tubs)

Blueberry syrup ready to head into the pantry for pancakes and ice cream topping!

What happened to those Marionberries you ask? Well, a girl can only take so much! The Marionberries waited patiently for me in our extra fridge out in the garage. I thought I would send them straight to the freezer, but the next morning I felt guilty and quickly whipped up a batch of marionberry jam before freezing the remainder of the flat :)

A few things that did not make it into the pictures were a raspberry infused vodka and a marionberry infused vinegar... hopefully those turn out as wonderful as they sound!