Zucchini & Bell Pepper Medley With Feta Cheese

My Medley Dish

I found a recipe on Martha Stewart which became the basis of this dish. I liked the idea behind Martha's recipe but it used Eggplant (which I'm allergic to) and Bell Peppers. 

So I decided to do some tweaking, make some changes and see if I could come up with a dish I liked.  Hubs, who isn't fond of zucchini, really liked this!

Zucchini - you need about one per person

Bell Peppers - orange, red and yellow. I used only orange for this photo. One pepper will do for 2 people.

Feta Cheese - I used Italian Flavoured Feta Cheese so it had some really nice Italian seasoning in it. You need approximately 1/2 cup for 4 people

Marinade: Kosher Salt & Olive Oil


Topping: Fresh or Home-Grown Dried Marjoram, Lemon Juice, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil


Method for 4 Servings: Slice 4 zucchini into rounds. Put the slices into a plastic bag with a bit of olive oil (about 1/3 cup) and some kosher salt and shake. Make sure the zucchini is coated on both sides. Remove from bag and place on grill or rack for broiling.

Core two peppers and remove seeds. Slice each pepper into 8 strips. Coat those in the bag of olive oil and kosher salt. Add more oil and salt if needed. Place on grill or rack for broiling.

Grill or broil the vegetables for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned and tender. I broiled mine but they didn't brown up as much as I wanted so I finished them in a skillet.

When the vegetables are ready, place the zucchini on a platter, then arrange the pepper strips on top. Top everything with the crumbled Italian flavoured Feta Cheese.

Next combine 1/4 cup Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and juice from one lemon. Drizzle it over top of the zucchini, peppers and Feta Cheese. Fresh marjoram finishes the dish off.

Serve this warm (not hot) as a side dish. We tried it at room temperature too but prefer it warm. We liked this dish so much that I'm going to serve it at my annual Family Christmas Dinner which I'm hosting in January.

Healthy Hearty Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup ready to eat!

I love Minestrone Soup, but haven't made it in years. Recently I found a new recipe for this yummy and hearty soup, so after trying it and making changes as I always do, here it is for my readers.

This is amazing soup, so thick and healthy and scrumptious that I know you're going to love it. I serve it with homemade biscuits for a really filling lunch or supper.

I like to prepare this soup in stages. I usually prep everything first, sometimes I do that a day ahead so that I can start cooking first thing the next morning.

Ingredients List
1 cup red or white kidney beans. I use canned which I drain.
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 chicken bouillion cube and 8 cups leftover vegetable water or 8 cups chicken stock
1/4 package of bacon, cut into small pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 onions, coarse chopped
2 carrots, cut diagonally
2 stalks celery, cut diagonally
2 zucchini, coarse chopped
1 can lentils, drained. You can mash them or leave them whole, your choice
half a small cabbage, either shredded or coarse chopped
1 28-oz can tomatoes, mashed (I use the ones with Italian spices added)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp fine herbes
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup rotini
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

First Stage

Vegetable Water with Chicken Bouillion Powder

Make the chicken stock if you don't have any in your freezer.  I use my saved and frozen leftover vegetable water and 1 to 2 chicken bouillion cubes.

Your vegetable water doesn't have to be completely defrosted. Here you see that I have partially defrosted mine in my microwaves and then I toss it into my soup pot along with an evelope of chicken bouillion powder

Onion and Bacon in frypan

Second Stage

Saute the bacon and onions in the olive oil until the onions are soft - about 5 minutes.

Add to the 8 cups of stock.

Add the drained kidney beans to stock.

Bring to boil and simmer for about one hour.









Third Stage

End of Stage 2, Ready for Stage 3

Add the chopped cabbage, carrots, celery, zucchini, drained lentils, bay leaf, all spices, and tomatoes. Bring to boil and simmer another 20-30 minutes.

Fourth Stage

Now you have to decide how much, if any, you are going to freeze. Put what you want to freeze in your freezer containers and mark on them that you still need to add the pasta and cook for another 10 minutes.

Any that you are going to eat right away, you can now add your pasta and simmer for another 10 minutes.

When ready, dish up in bowls and shake about 1 tsp parmesan cheese on top. Serve with garlic bread, rolls or biscuits.

Stage 3 is ready to simmer

Spaghetti Squash Casserole a la Ollie

Spaghetti Squash Casserole a la Ollie

A Facebook friend, Melissa Corley, has a blog called Freezer Full which I enjoy reading. She made a spaghetti squash casserole a few days ago and it got me thinking about how I might create a recipe that hubs and I could eat and that would use up some leftovers.

Missy's sounded yummy but it had pesto sauce which can't eat and zebra tomatoes which hubs hates. So I came up with a version that used up some leftover goat's milk cheese in my fridge, and had ingredients hubs will eat and I'm not allergic to.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole a la Ollie

Take one spaghetti squash and poke it with holes then microwave it on high for 15 minutes or until it is soft. Let it sit another 5 or 10 minutes.

Then cut it in half, scoop out the seeds (discard them) and the insides.

Put the insides in a small oven proof casserole dish and sprinkle with salt, pepper and fresh basil.

Seeds have been discarded

Squash Innards in Casserole Dish

Saute garlic, Zucchini and carrots

Next prepare one zucchini by slicing it in very thin rounds.

Prepare 2 carrots - peel then cut them in julienne strips.

Peel and finely chop 2 garlic cloves.

Put 2 Tbsp margarine or oil in a skillet and saute the garlic and carrots for 2 minutes.

Add the zucchini and saute another 3 minutes.

Add 1/4 cup white wine and simmer for 5 minutes.

Layering in the casserole dish

Then pour the mixture on top of the zucchini squash. Add another bit of salt, pepper and fresh basil

Put 1/2 to 3/4 cup goats milk cheese on top, then add 8 Tbsp. of chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned) plus a bit of the liquid if canned.

Put another bit of salt pepper and fresh basil then cover and bake at 350' for 30 minutes.

Uncover and add 1/2 cup parmesan cheese and bake another 12-15 minutes until bubbly.

Add the Goat's Milk Cheese

x

Parmesan Cheese added, ready for the oven

Ready to Eat!

 Serve as a side dish with a chicken breast or veal if desired, or as your main meal.

Go WIld With Applesauce

Washing our wild apples in sink

I recently discovered the joys of homemade applesauce made with wild apples.

I'm allergic to apple skins so rarely eat apples as I'm too lazy to peel them! And store bought applesauce makes my mouth itchy. There are probably bits of skin in it and so I react.

So for me, applesauce wasn't a treat. Until now

We have about 20 wild apple trees on our hobby farm. This year hubs picked some and showed me how big and red they were. I couldn't bear to see them go to the piglets, so I hunted for applesauce recipes. I finally found one that was pretty good although far too sweet for our taste.

Hubs picks apples

Now mind you, the end product varies depending on the type of apples on the tree, so I can't blame the recipe. In any case I tweaked it slightly (much less sugar, a bit more water) and we love the final product.

Because we have so many apples this year, I froze some and made applesauce with the rest. Well, actually I'm not done yet.

One tree is Golden Delicious and it doesn't freeze well (too mushy) and likewise doesn't make the best applesauce. Hubs will probably just eat those. The rest are great for applesauce but I learned not to mix the apples from different trees. It's too difficult to get the sugar ratio just right!

Here's the tweaked recipe for applesauce, but if you use it, err with less sugar as you can always add more.  One little tip I learned was to dip the peeled and cut apples into Fruit Fresh to keep them from going brown. Otherwise by the time you are part-way through the peeling and chopping, the apples are brownish.

Peeling, coring, chopping apples

Oh, and at first we did all this by hand - what a chore!


Ingredients

16 wild apples (about 16 cups) peeled and cubed
2 1/4 cups water
3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Progressive Apple Peeler

Toss this all together in a pot on the stove, bring to boil and simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Mash with potato masher when cool. I froze mine in small containers and it's delicious. It yields just over 4 cups of applesauce.

Then I bought a Progressive International Apple Peeler and Corer from Amazon.com which also cores and slices.

It clamps to our harvest table and this afternoon we prepared about a dozen apples in less than 10 minutes. Wow! What a time-saver.

Applesauce!

 And here's the final product - yummy applesauce from our wild apple trees.

Apples in freezer

To freeze the rest of the apples, I peeled them and cut them into thin wedges then put them in single layers on cookie sheets to freeze for about an hour.

Then I slid them off and put them in ziplock baggies. I plan to make apple pie, apple crumble and other yummy apple treats throughout the winter.

Carrot Zucchini Pasta

Carrot Zucchini Pasta

If you like a light meal with no meat, this is for you. If you like a little side dish with nutritional and great-tasting vegetables and pasta, this is for you. If you're struggling to meet the nutritional rule-of-thumb "Eat something green and something orange at every meal" this is for you!

This is Carrot Zucchini Pasta - easy to make and super nutritious.

You are going to need the following:

4 cups sliced zucchini (mine are fresh from my garden)
3-4 cups sliced carrots. I like mine julienne but you don't have to cut yours that way
1 cup vegetable broth. I didn't have homemade so I made mine with water and a vegetable broth cube
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2-3 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped (optional)
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
fresh basil and parsley

3 cups Julienne Sliced Carrots

4 cup zucchini

First step is to slice the carrots and zucchini.

I like my garlic sliced or chopped, not grated but you can suit yourself.  Get that ready too.

Put 2 Tbsp. of olive oil in a deep skillet and put on medium heat.

Saute the onion and garlic for about 2 minutes.

Add the carrots and saute another 3 minutes.

Add zucchini and keep sauteeing for another 2 minutes.

Chopped Garlic

Vegetable Stock

Then add the 1 cup of vegetable broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes

While the mixture is simmering, measure out 4 cups of uncooked pasta. I used rotini but you could use shells or bow-ties.

Put a pot of salted water on to boil then add the pasta and reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes. Then drain the pasta from the water and set aside.

Saute carrots

Zucchini added to skillet

After your vegetable mix has simmered for the full time (8-12 minutes) add the drained pasta and mix well.


Then add Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and mix again.
Mix well and add some freshly cut basil and parsley. You're ready to eat!

The original recipe was in  Canadian Living's Best Pasta cookbook

'Tis the Season to Dry Herbs

Herb Drying Rack on kitchen north wall

 Well, my herbs are drying nicely on their various drying racks in the kitchen. I ran out of room on my first rack (the one with umbrella like arms that swing up and out when in use).

So far I've hung Basil, Lemon Basil, Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, and Sage. I added one sprig of parsley even though parsley doesn't dry well. I will leave it a few days until there's no moisture and then I'll freeze it in plastic ziplock bags.

Since I have many more herbs ready to harvest, this morning I had hubs pull two of our antique hook racks out of storage and hang them for me in the kitchen. There's not a lot of room on them but I can get almost a dozen more bunches of herbs up using them. 

Herb drying rack on kitchen west wall

I can hardly wait to store these for use all winter long.  I keep my dried herbs in green glass containers in a dark pantry so they don't lose any potency or flavour.

My coriander has flowered now I just have to wait for the flowers to turn brown. Then I can shake the fruit off and store that too. I've never dried coriander before so this is new for me.

I can't get cilantro plants where I live so I bought a bunch of fresh cilantro in the grocery store. I know I can chop the leaves and freeze them in ice cube trays for use.

I love cilantro and have begun using it a lot in my cooking. It's wonderful with tomato-based dishes, eggs, avacado... and much more.

But I can never use the entire bunch you have to buy! In fact I use about 1/100th of it and the rest gets thrown out. What a shame! So I'm going to try the ice-cube tray method and see if I like it. Unfortunately I have no ice cube trays so I'm using small cream cheese containers with lids. Fingers crossed!

Chopped Cilantro in Water

Just chop the cilantro and put one portion (I used a tablespoon) in an ice cube tray or small container, then add enough cold water to just cover the leaves. Freeze and when you are ready to use the cilantro in a recipe, toss the whole thing in, water and all!

Barbeque Foods at a Family Reunion

Every summer we hold a Family Fun Day at our home. Since we have a hobby farm, we've got lots of room for games, scavenger hunts and outdoor cooking.

Making an Outdoor Corn Cooker

One of the traditional foods we cook is corn on the cob. Our twist is that we cook this outside over an open fire. Hubs and I took an old child's swing set and removed the swings leaving only the frame. Then we took an old water pressure tank, cut a chunk off to make a pot about 2 feet in diameter and 2 1/2 feet high.

Next hubs drilled 3 holes at the top of the tank and inserted chains which meet to merge into one chain. The tank hangs on the swing set frame from that one chain. We now have a very nice corn roasting pot! Just fill the pot with water, build the fire under it and start it up.

Water Pressure Tank

Finished Corn Cooker

It takes about an hour from start to finish depending on how big a fire you build and how close the pot is to the fire.  If you hang the pot too close to the flames you get ashes falling into the cooking water.

Garden Grabber aka Corn Picker Upper

Last year hubs bought a tool called Garden Grabber. It's for picking up leaves - it looks a rake on a long pole but the hand grabs the leaves. Hubs uses it to grab the corn out of the boiling water.

The first year we cooked corn outside over an open fire, he taped a wire basket to an old broom handle to get the corn out of the boiling water. Not the best method so that's why he bought the Grabber last year. It works perfectly!




Barbeque Chicken

Barbeque Chicken

The other traditional food I make for the reunion is barbeque chicken. It's easy. I just buy chicken thighs (sometimes I add a few drumsticks for variety) and pre-cook them for about 20 minutes in my oven.

Then I baste them with barbeque sauce and grill them outside on the barbeque for about 10 minutes each side. I like chipotle style barbeque sauce but you can use any kind you prefer.








 Sausages or Hot Dogs

The third food item I like to make for a Family Fun Day is something I know the children will like - either hot dogs or sausages on the barbeque. Of course we have the standard buns plus all the fixings - relishes, mustards, ketchup, pickles, chopped onion, cheese and horseradish. Yep that's right - horseradish. It's yummy on a sausage in a bun!

I like to put a small container of saurkraut on the picnic table too, and a variety of mustards such as French, Dijon and whatever other kind appeals.

Family and friends who come to the Reunion bring desserts and salads so our summer feast is complete!