Category: gardening

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

One large spaghetti squash
one pound mozzarella
sixteen ounces ricotta cheese
four ounces butter
garlic cloves to taste
one pound boneless skinless chicken
four ounces Italian dressing
basil cubes to taste

Heat the oven to four hundred degrees
Split the squash in half and remove the seeds
clean and crush the garlic cloves place them and a couple pats of butter on a cookie sheet with the halves of squash open side down over the garlic and butter. Cook for one hour.

When the squash is close to having been in the oven for one hour take the chicken and dice it up in a pan on the stove top. Brown the chicken and add the Italian dressing and cubes of basil letting it all blend together.

Once the squash has cooked for an hour remove it from the oven and flip them over. Add a layer of ricotta cheese then the browned chicken and last a layer of mozzarella into the squash. Put this back in the over at four hundred and cook for another twenty minutes or until the mozzarella starts to brown.

Remove form the oven and let sit for about five minutes, serves four to six people with left overs.

I like to add a diced up tomato or mushrooms into the squash with the chicken, ricotta, and mozzarella. You could add anything you like to give it a little more something.

Basil Cubes
Harvest the fresh basil from the garden and puree it into a mush add a little olive oil and dump these in an ice cube tray. Freeze and save the basil for later use, long after your basil has all frozen outside.

I got some great spaghetti squash this year from the Suzy Dan team, thanks guys we had a great dinner Sunday.

Pickles

I harvested garlic and dill this week. With a short trip to Argersinger Rd to visit an Amish farm we scored a box of pickling cucumbers for ten bucks. Garlic from Lincoln Rd and Dill from right outside in the garden.

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I made a few jars up of garlic and dill pickles. Mom wanted bread and butter pickles so we started slicing and let these sit for twelve hours before I mixed up the spices and vinegar. Then I canned them while Kirsten and Mom were at the fair.

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A dozen quarts of whole dill pickles, nineteen half pints and five pints of bread and butter Pickles.

canning
photo 2

 

 

 

 

Mushrooms in the woods

Can anyone identify these for me and tell me what they are? I think they might be chicken of the woods but they are growing on a downed log that might be hickory or some hemlock.
A quick glance through Cornell returned this link, which indicates to avoid them if it is growing on an evergreen. “Be wary of Chickens growing on conifers (in the Northeast) as they are a different species and can cause poisoning. Chicken of the Woods can make a fine chicken substitute as long as you make sure to fully cook the mushroom.” I am in the Northeast, so I suppose I need to go back and see what these were growing on.

Rigorous Ten Point Quality Control

I’m making some spaghetti sauce with the last of the tomatoes from the garden. For quality control I’m following a rigorous inspection process. I inspect the tomato and then I check my cider, then tomatoes and a bite from a cider donut.
Sauce came out pretty good for my first try, but I didn’t make enough and ended up eating it all pretty quickly. Nothing frozen or canned.
Looks like we’ll need to plant a few more tomatoes next year for sauce.

2013 Garden

It’s winter and I’m starting to gear up on the garden already.
Qty Ordered Item Number Item Description
2 08489 BLUEBERRY JERSEY JUMBO planted 4/7
4 13323 BUTTERNUT 1- 1 1/2′ planted 4/5
2 79728 HONEYBERRY ‘WILD HONEY’ planted 4/7
2 79729 HONEYBERRY ‘HONEY SWEET’ planted 4/7
4 08501 NANKING BUSH CHERRY 18-24″ planted 4/5
4 08509 HANSEN’S BUSH CHERRY 12-18″ planted 4/5
4 08517 CURRANT RED LAKE #1 planted 4/5
1 83409 CUCUMBER PICKLING SASSY HYB. PKT.
1 14513 CUCUMBER HYBRID BUSH PICKLE
20 Colorado Blue Spruce
20 Frasier Fir
20 Lilacs
Then I went into Big Lots and they had the seeds out already. I blew about ten bucks in there on tomatoes and herbs.
I already planted a bed of garlic here on October 20th.
Watermelon