Recipe: Blueberry Crisp

This recipe is a family favorite when the blueberries come in. It's fast and easy what's not to like?

3 C blueberries
21 oz of blueberry pie filling
⅔ C flour
⅔ C brown sugar
½ C quick cooking oats
½ t cinnamon
½ C mayo

In 8x8 dish arrange blueberries and pie filling. Mix flour, sugar, oats and cinnamon. Stir in mayo. Using fingers gently squeeze dough to form crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs over blueberries. Bake 30 min at 375˚ until topping is golden.

Yield: 8 servings

Spinach and Strawberrys

Since it's strawberry season AND we are growing lettuce and spinach in our garden I thought I'd post a recipe but before I do a quick word on how to harvest your lettuce/spinach.

To harvest lettuce and spinach pick the leaves from the outside. As lettuce/spinach grows the new leaves come up from the middle pushing the older bigger leaves to the outside. Make sure to wash the lettuce then let it sit in water for 5 minutes-that kills any lurking bugs that like to hang out on the lettuce. A row of lettuce picked correctly usaully lasts me about 2-3 weeks of eating. Make sure to NOT cut the lettuce/spinach back to the ground, doing that cuts the new leaves making it longer before you get more leaves. To have lettuce all summer long try planting new rows every 2-3 weeks. As the summer gets hotter you'll need to plant lettuce under another plant to keep it cooler. I just planted some new rows under my tomato plants so they will give my lettuce/spinach shade.

Spinach & Strawberry Salad
1 lb spinach, washed, trimmed, torn into bite size pieces
2¼ C fresh strawberries, stemmed & sliced
⅔ C sliced pecans
2 T unsalted butter

For the salad melt butter in a small skillet and sauté pecans until lightly browned and toasted. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. In a large bowl combine spinach and strawberries.

Dressing
2 T lightly toasted sesame seeds
1 T poppy seeds
½ C sugar
2 t minced red onion
¼ t paprika
¼ C cider vinegar
¼ C white vinegar
½ C vegetable oil

For the dressing, toast the sesame seeds by shaking them over medium heat in a dry skillet until lightly browned. In a “dressing” jar combine the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, onion, paprika, vinegars, and oil. Shake well.

To serve, place 1½ C of spinach-strawberry salad on each plate and sprinkle with a T of pecans. Spoon the dressing over top and serve immediately.

Yield: 10 Servings
Nutritional Information
Calories: 210 Total Fat: 6g Cholesterol: 5mg Sodium: 109mg Total Carbs: 36g Protein: 5g

Sweet Potato Bread

Each fall our family looks forward to gleaning sweet potatoes from the local farmers' fields. Last October I was introduced to sweet potato bread and have been making it since. Sweet potatoes are easy to grow or glean but there's one step that must be done in both cases - You need to CURE the sweet potatoes. They do not come out of the ground sweet. Who knew right?

Now some of you might be asking what is gleaning a sweet potato field. The answer is.... picking leftover sweet potatoes out of farmer's fields. When sweet potatoes are ready farmers will till the land bringing the sweet potatoes to the surface. Dump trucks and workers then come and pick all the big sweet potatoes. To glean a field all you need to do is watch the field. After the dump trucks and workers are done with a field (thus don't return for 2-3 days) then it's safe to glean it. Local farmers don't mind people gleaning because they want the sweet potatoes out of the field they just want to pick their sweet potatoes first. If you glean don't go in before the farmers it will ruin it for the rest of us when they close down their field.

After collecting sweet potatoes either by gleaning or growing you need to cure them. They do not come out of the ground sweet. To cure them you need a cool dark place (I used a 5 gal bucket last year). Alternate layers of newspapers and sweet potatoes ending with newspaper on top. Wait 7-10 days. This past year I just stuck my bucket out on the porch, out of the elements and kept it there until I needed potatoes. Worked just fine. You can also freeze sweet potatoes that have been cooked and mashed. Now that you have sweet potatoes it's time to make bread.

Sweet Potato Bread
3 C sugar
4 eggs
1 C vegetable
3 ½ C flour
2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
½ t salt
1 t nutmeg
⅔ C water
2 C sweet potato – cooked, mashed

Combine sugar, eggs and vegetable oil in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Add the 2 bowls together. Add ⅓ C water and 1 C sweet potato to the flour mixture and stir. Add remaining water and sweet potato to flour mixture and stir. If desired add 1 C nuts here. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake 350˚ for 1 hour. Bread is done when toothpick comes out clean.

Yield: 24 Servings (12 per loaf)
Nutritional Information
Calories: 272 Total Fat: 10.2g Cholesterol: 35mg Sodium: 172mg Total Carbs: 43g Protein: 3.3g

Baked Zucchini Chips - 5 star recipe

Ingredients
2 Medium Zucchini
2 Eggs
2 T Water
1 C Italian Breadcrumbs
2 T Grated Parmesan Cheese (we like cheese so I threw in extra)
1/8 t Cajun Seasoning (to taste)

Instructions

-Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
-Cut zucchini into thin slices
-Mix egg with water in a small bowl and set aside.
-Combine breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and Cajun Seasoning on a plate.
-Dip zucchini into egg mixture then dredge through breadcrumb mixture and place on a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
-Bake each side approx. 5-10 minutes or until brown and crispy.

Sorry about the white stuff that "floated" into the picture.

Zucchini Bread

Here's the zucchini bread recipe I use with my zukes. Hope you enjoy.

Wet ingredients
3 eggs
2C sugar
3t vanilla
1C cooking oil
2C zucchini shredded/grated


Dry ingredients
3C flour
1t salt
1t baking soda
3t cinnamon
1C nuts (optional)


Mix wet ingredients in 1 bowl. Mix dry ingredients in another bowl. Add the bowls together (I put dry into wet - makes it easier to stir). Pour into 2 greased bread/loaf pans.


Bake 350 for 50-60 minutes


Below is a picture of my zucchini from the freezer. I shred it and freeze it in 2C or 5C bags for future recipes.
2nd picture is the finished product.

Squash Muffins

I keep forgetting to post updates on our garden. Below are pictures our our first squash and what we did with them. Yummy. This is our kids favorite way to eat squash and I have to admit it tastes good to.
Picture 1 is cut up squash.
Picture 2 is cooked squash.
Picture 3 is muffin mixture and
Picture 4 is the finished product.
Here's the recipe:
1lb squash, cut into slices (approx 2-3)
1/2 C butter melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C sugar
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Boil 1 in water; add squash. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and mash. Stir in butter and egg.
In a bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in squash mixture til moistened.
Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 375 for 20-25 min til toothpick is clean. Yield: 1 dozen