Gingersnaps

Ginger Snaps

1/4 c butter
1/2 c sugar - cream together

1 egg
1/2 c molasses - add to butter/sugar mix

Mix the following dry ingredients in a separate bowl:
1 tsp baking soda
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter/molasses mix. It will be a bit sticky. Make small round balls (quarter sized) and roll each in sugar - covering well. Place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Bake at 400 for 9-10 minutes

Homemade Lunch Bag - reuasable lunchbox

For Christmas I made my sister and sister in-law a reusable lunch bag. They are both students and I thought it would be something fun for them to carry their lunch in.


This is an insulated bag with the help of Jo Ann Fabric's, warm and natural batting. The inside is also covered with waterproof fabric in case something spills. Velcro closure and easy to carry handle.


Now my husband wants one! A "brown" one, he says :) I'm excited to keep making and gifting these original, fun lunch bags. Perhaps little B will have one when he starts school.

Visit my Esty Shop!! These bags are now listed.

What to do with Zucchini . . .

This garden season has been just as plentiful as last year. I can't get enough of our fresh produce! One vegetable in particular always has a bounteous crop: zucchini! I've done all I can think of to do with zucchini:

- bread
- saute
- breaded zucchini
- added to sauces
-topping for pizza's
-cooked on top of pasta
- shred and add to green smoothies
- and FREEZE (discussed here)

I purposely let a few of our zucchini's get rather large. When they're big they have more seeds inside and they aren't as tasty. I like to make bread with the large ones. But this week I've been breaded out. Instead, I grate the zucchini up and freeze it for later use.

Slice zucchini into more manageable chunks for grating.

Grate and measure into 4 cup bags.

Freeze (in the past my zucchini has lasted for close to a year - until the next season).

My zucchini bread recipe calls for 2 cups of grated zucchini. When you freeze it grated you loose a lot of the liquid once it's thawed. Because of this I freeze 4 cups in one bag hoping that it will be closer to 2 cups when it's thawed. Sometimes it is still a bit less, in which case I will use 2 frozen bags and add a bit more floor (if it goes over the 2 cups).

Zucchini Bread Recipe I use:
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar

- Mix the above -

2 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini

- Add

1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

- Add above all at once

3 cups floor
1/4 tsp baking power

- Mix in last two ingredients

Bake at 325 degree's for 1 hour in two 9x4 pans, test with knife to make sure it's cooked all the way through.

How to make Sun Dried Tomatoes

I love the summer months because of our garden! I don't like the heat of the summer, but I love what the heat does for plants. And tomatoes sure love the heat! We've harvested a lot of tomatoes already, but there are tons more outside we're waiting to turn red.

My husband will go out and pick the tomatoes that are just starting to turn red and let them ripen inside. That way, the don't split because of the heat and bugs and other elements don't get to them before we do. I'm still just waiting for all the green ones to turn red . . . there are so many of them, they are weighing the branches down!!

One thing I love is sun dried tomatoes. I love pastas and sauces with sun dried tomatoes included. These are not "sun" dried, we used our dehydrator. It didn't take much longer than a day of drying and they were done.

They need a good 6 or 7 hours (perhaps longer if it's humid) - check them periodically and add time if not dried all the way. They shouldn't be too crispy. There can be a little pliability in them, but if they are too wet, you can run the risk of mold with storage. I set the temperature gauge at about 135-140 degrees.

Slice the tomatoes 1/4 - 1/3 inch thick and put them on the tray. They don't need anything on top. They will turn out perfect and full of flavor just the way they are.

Enjoy!

DIRECTIONS:
Slice tomatoes 1/4-1/2 inch thick
Place on dehydrator tray spread out

Adjust temperature to 135-140

Dry for 6-7 hours - checking periodically for texture

Take off tray and store in zip lock bag

***We store and use ours over the whole year. I know you will find varying information about storage time. We didn't have a problem with the taste or them going back. They may even store for over a year?***

Most of the tomatoes I've done so far have been the Roma variety. They were ready on the vine first. We enjoy them fresh as long as we can, but inevitably we have to do something when the supply becomes too great for us. I don't have canning supplies and don't especially love canned tomatoes.

Garden Tomatoes

I've been super busy lately with my teething son and our plentiful garden. Not much time to sew. . . :(

I am going to do a post on what I've been doing with all of our tomatoes later today. And no, it's not canning! It's what we did last year and they lasted all year long.

Oh how I love our garden!

Pesto recipe - revisted

My morning has been consumed with PESTO! I know I made a post a little while ago about dried basil and pesto, but I wanted to revisit it again today.

I went out early to pick some basil from my garden. I washed each leaf and took the stems off. I made a quick trip to the grocery store to buy the pine nuts and Parmesan. When back home, pulled out all the necessary dishes/tools I would need and began!

Basil, Oil, Pine nuts, Garlic, and Parmesan cheese (I also use mozzarella).

Small grating.

Measuring everything out.

I put the oil, nuts, garlic, and cheese in before the basil.

Mix and create Pesto!

I made 3 batches this morning and put 1/2 cup in each zip-lock bag. I freeze the bags and use them all year!

Again, here's the recipe:

Pesto Recipe:
3 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
3-4 cloves of garlic
1/2-3/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese (we did half mozzarella to cut the cost)
1/4 cup pine nuts (we also did some with almonds)
optional: 1/2 cup fresh parsley - we didn't add this

Mix in food processor or blender until pureed.

Unless you have an endless supply of basil, pesto can be a bit expensive. Paying lots of money at the store for a small portion of basil is out of the question. Pine nuts were $16 a pound!! and the parmesan was $5 for 8 oz. Olive oil is also not as cheap as canola oil. I am grateful for my garden and the mounds of basil it produces :) My husband and I love pesto so much, it's worth the cost and trouble of making big batches to enjoy the hole year - conveniently by reaching into the freezer!

Dried Basil and Pesto

My garden has lots of basil. We pretty much have a 2 basil bushes, there's so much!

Last summer we made lots of pesto to freeze in zip lock bags.


Pesto Recipe:
3 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
3-4 cloves of garlic
1/2-3/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese (we did half mozzarella to cut the cost)
1/4 cup pine nuts (we also did some with almonds)
optional: 1/2 cup fresh parsley - we didn't add this

Mix in food processor or blender until pureed.


This summer we will also make pesto, but we've chosen to dry a bunch as well. My husband rigged up this nice string to hang each bunch of basil on. We left for 2 weeks and when we came home it was ready to break apart and put in our empty basil shaker.



For more specifics, check out my other post here. There are more pictures and how to Pesto!