Category: gardening

Savory Slow Cooker Chicken and Butternut Squash

Yield – 4 servings
Preparation Time – 10 minutes
Cooking Time – 8 hours in slow cooker
Ingredients
3 small chicken breasts (about 1 1/3 lb.)
2 tsps red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
1/2 bag baby carrots, or 4-5 peeled carrots sticks
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced
2 tsp Italian seasonings

Directions
Place the chicken breasts in the base of the slow cooker and splash the vinegar over the top. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the baby carrots and butternut squash around and on top of the chicken. Season with the Italian seasonings and more salt and pepper if you like.
Set the slow cooker on low for 8 hours.
Prepare bread or toast.
Serve Savory Slow Cooker Chicken and Butternut Squash with carrots and toast.

More at $5.00 dinners

Fresh carrots from the garden and butternut squash from someone up at the church.

2012 Garden

5688 Vegetable Sampler, (Reg. 1 for $11.99) 1 $5.99 Beans and peas did well.
6835 Luffa Sponge, Packet 1 $1.00 Yield 0
6298 Peach, Vine, Packet 1 $0.90 Hundreds of little melons, not much flavor.
6603 Pumpkin, Dill’s Atlantic Giant, Packet 1 $2.50 Yield 0
3375 Gourd, Bushel, Packet 1 $1.39 Yield 0

Spaghetti squash 20 medium sized squash.
Zucchini only planted four yielded two or three every couple of days for about two months.
Corn planted four kinds and none of them did well.
Cherry tomatoes two plants although they did look sickly yielded a good crop. $3.50
Yellow tomatoes produced like mad, ended up growing to about four feet tall. Ate a bunch and gave away a bunch. $3.50 each
Roma tomatoes six plants bought these from Beth Ann on closeout after mid July, made pickled tomatoes.
Black Krim two plants tasted great and came in after the yellows, also bought from Beth Ann.
Assorted red tomatoes four plants $3.50 each I got a couple of tomatoes not worth the effort.
Broccoli did very well and I froze some, used the last of them in December.
Brussels Sprouts season wasn’t long enough and I got nothing.
Planted thirty Asparagus they all survived the summer hope to get something to eat from them in 2013.

Cucumbers planted one package in the lower garden all were eaten before producing anything.
Cucumbers after the first batch were eaten tried to plant more in mid July. To late in the season and frost got them before I got any cucumbers, but the plats did very well and were not eaten.
Potatoes
1. Russian blue pathetic puny and not worth the effort.
2. Red did well and I got about five pounds to eat.
3. Yukon gold got a pound or so but only planted less than half.
4. White never planted these wasted my money.

I’m going to pickle a few tomatoes in the morning

I picked most of the green tomatoes that are left in the garden and plan to make some pickles with them.

I don’t think I should have drained the tomato and onion mix and I left out the celery, I could have replaced that with some garlic. These made a very sweat pickle and I’m enjoying a jar of them already.

I got a decent looking recipe from the Internet.

1 gallon green tomatoes
6 large onions
3 cups brown sugar
1/2 lemon
1 small whole hot red pepper (for each jar – optional)
3 red bell peppers
1 pint vinegar
1 pint water
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon allspice
1 tablespoon crushed celery seed
1 tablespoon whole mustard seed
1 tablespoon dry ground mustard
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
Wash and thinly slice the tomatoes and onions. Discard any with blemishes.

Sprinkle over the vegetables, one half cup of canning salt. Let stand overnight in a stainless steel or enamel pan or crock.

Tie the pepper, cloves, allspice and celery seed in a square of cheesecloth; fasten with cotton string. Slice the lemon and chop two peppers very finely.
Drain the tomato and onion well. Add all the seasoning except one of the pepper pods to the vinegar, then add the tomato and onion. Cook for 1/2 hour, stirring gently at intervals to prevent burning.
Remove spice bag to prevent darkening.
Pack in pint jars and garnish with slender strip of red bell pepper and 1 small hot pepper per jar (near the outer edge as decoration). Ladle hot vinegar mixture over jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
Adjust lids. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.

 

Vine Peach Melon Recipes

From Jul 4, 2012 Garden

VINE PEACH
CAKE INGREDIENTS
4 eggs
150g sugar
6 vine peaches
225g flour
5g baking powder
150g cooled melted butter
1dl full fatmilk
 Make the cake. Mix the flour and the baking powder. Add the milk, eggs, the sugar and the melted butter. Mix well. Skin the vine peaches, remove the stones and dice. Throw into the mixture and mix in well. Grease and flour a loaf tin. Tip the mixture into the tin and bake it at 180°C for 60 minutes. 

To get conversions see Diana’s Desserts.

****************** 
 PEACH CREAM PIE 
 6 ripe peaches peeled and sliced into small wedges 
1/2 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon of salt 
1 – 9 inch deep dish unbake pie crust shell 
3 tablespoons of all purpose flour 
3/4 cup of whip cream In a bowl combine sugar, 
salt, flour and stir in the cream until smooth. 
Place and layer your sliced peaches in the unbaked pie crust. Pour over the mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until filling has set. Serve warm or cold and refrigerate leftovers.


This is also supposed to be good in salsa or relish and as a substitute for any fruit in a bread. Judging by the number of flowers i have I could have a few chances to try different things.

A weekend in June

It’s Sunday night and I’m sitting on the deck uploading photos. It has been a productive weekend,
I got the new down spout in place to capture water in the 275 gallon tote that I picked up off Craig’s List.

From Garden Pictures June 17th
I sprayed the broccoli  last week for catepillars and I’m hoping they will spring back from the damage that was done, they already look better.

From Garden Pictures June 17th

Garden Review

So I planted a small garden this year. I’ve started to lose track of everything I’ve planted this year so here’s a list.
Pole Beans Did well.
Bush Beans Did well.
Broccoli Did well.
Brussels Sprouts A bust
Zucchini Bush Green Planted four and did well.
Zucchini Black Saved for next year.
Squash Yellow Saved for next year.
Sweet Corn A bust.
Pop Corn A bust.
Tomatoes 2 Yellow, 2 Cherry, 2 Roma, 3 unknown Did well.
Asparagus 30 crowns two given away and eighteen came up. Note to self no purple passion next time. Wait change in plans the purple passion came up this week, it just took a lot longer than the others. These are all going great.
Carrots Did well.
Spinach black and New Zealand Did well.
Lettuce Did well.
Peas Did well.
Vine Peach Melons, a cantaloupe that I am going to try and trellis. Did okay don’t bother with them again.
Cucumbers Straight Eight, and Pickling Eaten by a citter.
Watermelon A bust.
Potatoes Red, White, Blue, and Yukon Gold
Russian blue, a bust.
Red did well.
White and Yukon gold never got planted.
Raspberries kind of pathetic but still there.
Black Berries One plant of two survived.
Dill did well.
Oregano did well.
Cilantro A bust.
Parsley A bust.
Basil did well.

And a few flowering plants
Adirondack Roses Doing well.
Lilacs Doing well.
Zinnia Did well.
Marigolds Did well.
Sun Flowers Did very well.