A First for Everything - Boiled Beets!

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I know that this post is a bit very late...  but I wanted to share this super simple beet recipe anyway!
Our last CSA delivery for the year came with beets. 

Beets is another vegetable avenue that I have NOT explored in the past. 

My only memory of beets is my mom trying to force me to eat them once as a child.... I'm still sure I didn't finish them <enter dog?>! Well... I also knew that they turn your pee a different colour... (TMI?)

But since I paid for them, and since I'm supposedly an adult now, I thought I could try them again. 

The recipe came from my mother-in-law and was actually VERY easy. 

Ingredients:

Beets (I used 6 medium sized ones)

1/4 cup vinegar

2 tbsps. of butter

1/2 small onion

Directions: 

1. Cut off stems and boil beets with skins on. 

2. Once boiled for 15 minutes (approx. or until soft). Remove beets and scrape off skin - should slide off easily). 

3. Slice beets into slivered pieces

4. Sauté beets with vinegar, onion, and butter for a few minutes until well mixed.

I was pleasantly surprised by the taste (honestly I was skeptical the whole time! lol).

I would definitely make them again! 

This might be the last of our vegetable adventures for awhile, since out CSA share is done for the year. Time to start buying my own veggies from the store again *sigh*. 

(Except of course for the plethora of potatoes, onions, and carrots from my garden!)

Enjoy!

{xoxo}

Garden Carrot Spiced Muffins

Still have garden carrots waiting to be used?

We did! So I made muffins :) 

Delicious muffins with some whole wheat flour, oats, and a hint of spice.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup rolled oats (plus a bit more for topping)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1 cup milk

3/4 cup applesauce

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups grated carrot

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease 12 cup muffin pan (or use cupcake wrappers).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, applesauce, brown sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla. 
4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and whisk until all ingredients are mixed. Stir in the carrots. 
5. Divide the mixture between the muffin cups. Cups should be filled almost to the top. top with a sprinkle of oats.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until muffin tops spring back when poked and a toothpick comes out clean. 

{xoxo}

Winterizing the Garden

Nothing like a cool October evening to motivate you to clean up the garden. 

Luckily we didn't have too much to clean up. 

Mostly because we didn't actually plant too much this year... (whoops!)

Step One: Baskets

All the flowers in here were dead anyway (I may have given up on watering them....). 

We had filled the baskets in the Spring with annuals, so all I had to do this fall was clean out the roots, and spread the remaining dirt over some low spots in our gardens. 

Easy peasy.

Step Two: Front Garden. 

Still blooming and looking lovely, but if I want to be able to plant the calla lillies again next year, I needed to save the bulbs before the ground froze! 

One skiff of snow a couple weeks ago (that's right... I've already seen snow this year!! Welcome to northern Alberta!), was enough to convince me that the bulbs needed to come out pronto.

Bending down in the garden was not as easy as it use to be! 

<imagine crazy-pressure-on-your-abdomen-as-you-try-to-bend here>

This baby is really starting to get in my way... but I'm not complaining :)

We also cut down the other plants so that they'd be ready for the spring next year too :)

*sigh* this may mean that winter and coldness are really on their way... 

At least we're ready for the winter now... not that I'm inviting it to come or anything...

The bulbs are safely stored in a cool area of the basement, so hopefully they will survive our long winter and be willing to grow again next year! They were really beautiful throughout the summer and I'd love to see them regrow!

This marks the end of my gardening posts for 2013. 

More to come in 2014 (dispersed between adorable baby pictures & posts!).

{xoxo}

Spaghetti Squash Pasta and Zucchini Salad

Remember these veggies?? 

Well we got more of them! 

I made some new meals and side dishes with them already, but this time wanted to try something new again. 

First stop: Zucchini Parmesan Salad.

Ingredients:

1 medium zucchini

zest and juice from 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoon olive oil

pinch salt and freshly cracked black pepper

a dash of basil (or a handful of fresh leaves if you have them!)

a block of parmesan cheese (And Don’t worry, I am not going to use the whole block)

 

Directions:

1. Make the lemon vinaigrette- in a mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, and extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

2. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the zucchini into ribbons. You should stop the peeling when you see the “core” and “seeds” of the zucchini. Place the zucchini ribbons in the mixing bowl; toss them with the lemon vinaigrette gently.

3. Add basil and mix them with the zucchini. Top with shaved Parmesan cheese and some more freshly cracked black pepper. Serve. Enjoy!!

Then came time for spaghetti squash pasta! 

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash

pasta sauce of your choice

parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Bake the spaghetti squash. I have a weak wrist that doesn't enjoy cutting large uncooked veggies, so I poked holes all over the squash and put it on a baking sheet in the oven at 350F for approx. an hour.

2. Add pasta sauce. I usually make my own (the hour of baking would provide ample time for this!), but this time I just added a pre-made one.

3. When spaghetti squash is baked (should be soft to the touch with a fork), cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds and discard them. Then scoop up the delicious spaghetti squash noodles! Serve with sauce. Sprinkle parmesan on top. Enjoy!!

This made for another delicious fresh garden meal!
The spaghetti was actually SUPER filling too - I was surprised and definitely unable to eat my whole meal. 

I think everyone (except me) may have eaten this before, but if not, give it a try!

{yumm}

Adventures in Canning: Green Bean Edition

Our plentiful garden is overflowing with vegetables these days. 

Waaaay more than we are capable of eating! 

Some will stay good forever, if kept in a cool (not freezing) environment such as potatoes, carrots, onions. 

Seriously, I only finished eating potatoes from mom's 2012 garden this summer.

But some things, like tomatoes and green beans, don't keep so well. 

Our solution: canning!

This is definitely something that I did not expect to start doing.. well... ever. But it's actually fairly straight forward, and truthfully results in the best green beans you've ever tasted. 

I would share the whole process with you... but that would take a LOT of blog posts. 

I may have pages of notes written on my iPad so that I can attempt to replicate mom's methods one day... 

But here are some pics so that you can feel like you were part of the fun:

That was just one of 4 or 5 batches. 

Lots of green beans for the whole year! 

{yumm}

Last Garden Update (maybe...)

As summer winds down (*tear*) our gardening days are winding down as well. 

Soon the frost will be here in full force so my mother-in-law has been working hard to make sure that none of our beautiful veggies go to waste. 

Mom is stilling pulling up green beans, and we've spent a few days digging out the potatoes now too!

We actually have around 3 barrels full of potatoes like this one below :)

Although there are a few red tomatoes, there is also an abundance of green ones! 

Luckily we've had a really beautiful and warm September so far in Grande Prairie, which is encouraging my lovely tomatoes to keep growing and ripening. 

Hopefully all of this green will turn to red before the cold weather comes!

I am by no means an expert in gardening, but I have learned a LOT this year!
Hopefully all of that knowledge doesn't fade away over the long, cold GP winter.
Next year I plan on gardening again, with the baby on a nice blanket outside, enjoying the sun while I work :)

{grow}

More Vegetable Experiments {baking}

Veggies! 

Since I still had an abundant supply of veggies following all my cooking experiments, I decided to try my hand at baking some of them :)

I've never baked with Zucchini before so I decided to start with something that had a very high likelihood of tasting delicious when it was done. 

Zucchini chocolate chip muffins were my recipe of choice. 

And they were de-li-cious! 

Honestly, my husband and I had to give some away to make sure we didn't devour them all in one day! 

Super easy to make, and well worth it. 

Why have I not jumped on this bandwagon before?!? 

Then I found a link on Pinterest for delicious looking zucchini and cheddar biscuits. 

I thought, "I could make that!". And I did.

Here's a link to that recipe :) 

And here are the pics of my creation:

This banana bread wasn't made with any veggies at all... I just had bananas that were turning brown. 

Plus, it's a classic in my kitchen. 

Good old wholesome banana bread - good for any meal or snack!

I'm very much enjoying my experimenting in the kitchen this year. 

Maybe this will give you some good ideas for your own summer veggies! 

{yumm}

More Vegetable Experiments {cooking}

Veggies! 

These days I have vegetables overflowing from my kitchen. 

Either from our CSA shares, from my own veggie garden, or from friends. 

The spaghetti squash and zucchinis below came from my sister-in-law's garden. 

(the phone is there so you can really see how massive they are!)

I have never cooked spaghetti squash before!

[sidenote: this year seems to be jam-packed with new things for me!]

I scoured facebook for suggestions of how to eat it :)

What we ended up doing was baking the spaghetti squash until it was tender, scooping out the insides and mixing it with butter, brown sugar, salt and pepper.

Since I also had these massive zucchini's I was looking for new ways to bake them. 

The classics for me are always to roast them with other veggies, eat them raw, or toss them in salad. 

This suggestion to grill zucchini with garlic butter and parmesan cheese was right up my alley!

Both creations were delicious :)

And then there was Swiss Chard.... another vegetable that I have not dared to cook before.

I looked for a simple side dish to make with this.
I came across these simple sauteed swiss chard recipes frequently, so I thought this was a good place to start. The veggie looks a lot like Kale and I figured it would taste somewhat similar when sauteed.
Here are some pics from a simple recipe with garlic and parmesan:

Long story short: it tasted gross.
Mr. A ate it all, but I didn't. I was not a fan!
Anyone have any other swiss chard recipes for me??
This one was a flop!

Oh well... 2/3 ain't bad!

{yumm}