Cookin' :-)

Hello Everyone!

Mom has been busy planning out monthly baking and freezing, and we have had so much fun buying things in bulk and making huge batches of pancakes, muffins, etc. Our garden also is abundantly producing garden fresh veggies.  Here are some pictures...

 Yum- garden fresh broccoli!

 (Left to Right) Banana Peppers, Zucchini, Cukes, Green Beans, Wax Beans, Purple Beans, Peas in Ziplock

 Peppers! 

 Our tomatoes are now starting to ripen! We've had them in one of our favorite salads: black bean and corn salad :-) 

 What is THAT?

 More Broccoli!

 Tert and I set up our potatoes. We did them a little bit late this year, but a lady from our church said that if you start your potatoes later then the bugs aren't as bad. ;-)

 We discovered the simplest way in the world to grow potatoes! All we did was lay down newspaper on a patch of grass (doesn't even need to be tilled) and then we put the potatoes (buds/eyes up) on the newspaper and covered them with hay. Then we just water them frequently.  So simple!

 Our garden!

 Fresh blueberries, picked at the lake 

 Tert pickin' beans and peas...

 Tert and Stella picking broccoli :-)

Yum!

 Here are Mom's yogurt containers full to the brim of homemade spaghetti sauce. MMM!

Mom also makes turkey stock.  She gets about 8 quarts of turkey stock plus 4 meals worth of chopped turkey.  We store the stock in yogurt containers and the turkey in quart ziplock bags.

 Here is a pan of (not baked yet :P ) "Mom is Great Breakfast Cake!" It is so yummy and so easy to just throw together and pop into the oven:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup buttermilk (or regular milk)
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups oats
3/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup raisins, dried fruit or, (our favorite!) chocolate chips
Stir together butter, milk, flour, and oats in a bowl.  Cover with a cloth and allow the grains to soak on your counter overnight or at least 8 hours.
Stir honey, eggs, salt, baking soda, and vanilla. Fold in raisins, choc. chips or fruit.  Pour into a buttered 9x9in. baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Enjoy! (We add some real maple syrup, as the cake is really not that sweet)

 Our fresh picked blueberries equaled 6 1/2 cups! We were so excited!  It made about several batches of muffins and 12 batches of pancakes.

 I make 9 batches of pancakes at a time. We use the Betty Crocker Recipe and substitute King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour.

I make the batter and then bake the pancakes. I usually get about 40. I make three bags of 11-12 and freeze them and we have the rest for lunch.

 Rus' 'Leaning Tower of Pancakes'

Finally we make granola and freeze it. We usually make about 4 batches at a time of this and put it over cereal, or mixed in with some yogurt. While we have the ingredients out for the granola, we also make 6 batches of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. 

Here is a spoonful of something called 'Chia Seed.' It is really healthy, so we put it in practically everything, sprinkled over oatmeal, thrown into muffin or pancake batter, you name it! The seeds are so tiny that you don't even taste them!

 I'll end with a picture of 'Eggs Benedict.' Rus wanted me to make sure that I put it on the blog :-)

I hope that you enjoyed some of our pictures and tips. We'll post more soon... ;-)