In the morning (and sometimes the night before) I make plans for what I should accomplish that day. Today I planned to clean downstairs where the spare bedroom and bathroom are, because on Saturday DD#2 and her two children (16 and 12) are arriving for a visit. We look forward so much to this as all our children and grandchildren live at least a day's drive or an airplane ride away. I am blessed to see them once a year!
But after my friend M. and I did our 2 1/2 mile walk this morning she gave me some zucchini. This year we have no zucchini in the garden--so my friends can "unload" some of their extra on us. You always have extra zucchini when you have any in your garden!
I remember the first time we grew zucchini. We had no idea! We planted three long rows. The harvest amounted to a few tons. We finally used them for "green" fertilizer.
So I came home from the walk and started slicing and sautéing zucchini--for about an hour. Then I added a can of diced tomatoes--we are all out of our own canned and frozen tomatoes--onions, garlic, loose-fried ground beef, oregano, basil and a little seasoned salt. Together with a few ears of delicious fresh corn from the garden, it made a very lovely dinner for us.
In the meantime S. had been picking the last bucket of raspberries. There will be more, but no more bucketsful. The rest we'll eat as they come. That was enough for 2 1/2 quarts of freezer raspberry jam, bringing the total to 17 quarts. That might be enough. I gave away a large container of it on Saturday to the young couple who moved into the north house across the road as a "welcome to the neighbourhood" present. They'll surely enjoy that.
Have you ever made freezer raspberry jam? For four cups of crushed raspberries, put one and a half cups of sugar in a measuring cup, mix in one package of freezer jam jelling powder, add the sugar/jelling powder to the crushed raspberries and stir for 3 minutes. It's ready! Put it into containers and freeze it--makes about 6 cups, or just put it in the fridge and spread it on your breakfast toast. DELICIOUS!!! It tastes very different from cooked jam--a much "brighter" flavour, slightly on the tart side. YUM!
Then she picked 3 ice-cream pails of Nanking cherries. There's only one quart of cherry juice left from last year. They went into the steam juicer and here's the result:
But after my friend M. and I did our 2 1/2 mile walk this morning she gave me some zucchini. This year we have no zucchini in the garden--so my friends can "unload" some of their extra on us. You always have extra zucchini when you have any in your garden!
I remember the first time we grew zucchini. We had no idea! We planted three long rows. The harvest amounted to a few tons. We finally used them for "green" fertilizer.
So I came home from the walk and started slicing and sautéing zucchini--for about an hour. Then I added a can of diced tomatoes--we are all out of our own canned and frozen tomatoes--onions, garlic, loose-fried ground beef, oregano, basil and a little seasoned salt. Together with a few ears of delicious fresh corn from the garden, it made a very lovely dinner for us.
In the meantime S. had been picking the last bucket of raspberries. There will be more, but no more bucketsful. The rest we'll eat as they come. That was enough for 2 1/2 quarts of freezer raspberry jam, bringing the total to 17 quarts. That might be enough. I gave away a large container of it on Saturday to the young couple who moved into the north house across the road as a "welcome to the neighbourhood" present. They'll surely enjoy that.
Have you ever made freezer raspberry jam? For four cups of crushed raspberries, put one and a half cups of sugar in a measuring cup, mix in one package of freezer jam jelling powder, add the sugar/jelling powder to the crushed raspberries and stir for 3 minutes. It's ready! Put it into containers and freeze it--makes about 6 cups, or just put it in the fridge and spread it on your breakfast toast. DELICIOUS!!! It tastes very different from cooked jam--a much "brighter" flavour, slightly on the tart side. YUM!
Then she picked 3 ice-cream pails of Nanking cherries. There's only one quart of cherry juice left from last year. They went into the steam juicer and here's the result:
Six jars of ruby red cherry juice, all set to make syrup or jelly, or just use as juice. YUM again!
Tomorrow, hopefully, there will be more picking and more juice making, storing up the summer's goodness to enjoy throughout the year.
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