Category Archives: Preparing

Great zucchini recipe

I found this recipe while searching for something to do with all of the zucchini that I have been harvesting. It sounded pretty good since I like chili, and I really want to use as much of the zucchini as I can. We made it this evening (with the added garbanzo beans) and it was awesome! The next batch will have a little more spice, but this was good none-the-less!

Canning part 2

I canned some salsa, green beans, and more pickles this weekend. For the pickles, I used the same recipe as before. For the salsa, I used a recipe from the Ball website. I like salsa that is mostly vegetables. Basically, I won’t make any with a recipe that calls for sugar or anything extra other than spices. I found the bean recipe from a Costco magazine. It contains essentially the same thing as dill cucumber pickles with cayenne pepper added. I can’t wait to try these in a few weeks!

More canned goods

More canned goods

Canned some stuff

I attempted to can some of the cucumbers and zucchini last weekend. I followed the instructions exactly, but am still leery. The top are still down, so that is a good sign. I guess we’ll see if I am still alive in a few weeks when I get to open one and give it a try. The blueberry jam was made from berries picked at a pick-your-own farm in Iowa City.

Grape Jelly and Dill Pickles

First attempt at canning.

What do I do with all this?

There are some vegetables where I have never ventured past the canned versions (like green beans). So having a pound of freshly picked ones forced me to find something to do with them. Obviously, I went to google to figure this out. This recipe was one of the first in the results and sounded good to me. Like it says, you can’t go wrong with bacon and potatoes. I substituted green onions for the red ones since I have so many, but otherwise made it exactly as shown. My wife and I both thought it was wonderful. I was especially excited because every vegetable in it was grown in my back yard. I paired it with grilled zucchini because, as everyone knows, one zucchini plant will produce enough to feed a small town, and I had plenty. I made grilled paprika chicken (also a spur-of-the-moment google find) that was also quite tasty. I liked it so much that will probably make this same meal again in the next few weeks.