Garden's Bounty

I am thrilled with how our garden has done so far this year.

Jet wanted to pose with our most recent garden picture.

 

I'm also thrilled with what we've done with what our garden has produced. 

I cut a bouquet of basil and made homemade pesto (a couple times). The recipe came from Shelf Cooking 101 by Jordan Page.

Some I froze to be used later. Some I used to make pesto alfredo. Oh, that's yummy.

We've used banana peppers in sandwiches and in salads.

 

We ate one cucumber and have more to use. We're still figuring out cucumbers.

 

We've used jalapenos for various things including mini jalapeno popper egg rolls, which I love so much, but didn't get a picture this time because they didn't last long and got all gobbled up. 

 

We used zucchini to make zucchini bread- LOTS of zucchini bread. 

This year since we actually grew zucchini early enough, I took some of that zucchini and on August 8, I baked zucchini bread. Then I put some bread on a friend's porch and sent her a message saying, "Happy Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night. Look on your porch." I didn't actually want the zucchini bread to sit there all night and it was fine that she knew it was us. She likes my zucchini bread so I like to give her some when I bake enough.

 

We also harvested enough tomatoes (and basil) to make homemade spaghetti sauce, which we used in more slow cooker beef lasagna (from Six Sisters' Stuff). 

I am so happy with our garden this year. 

More Recipes from Six Sisters' Stuff

July 29 was National Lasagna Day. In order to beat the heat and not turn on the oven but still celebrate the holiday, I tried another new recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff.

Easy Slow Cooker Beef Lasagna

I had ground turkey available so I used that instead of beef (and cottage cheese instead of ricotta). It turned out well and tasted good.  

Another day as a last minute dinner because I didn't have anything on the menu plan, I pulled out Instant Cooking by Six Sisters' Stuff and threw Bacon-Ranch Potatoes in the Instant Pot. It was a hit with most of us and I needed to use up potatoes anyway. I need to remember the next time I make it to double it. We could have happily eaten more or enjoyed leftovers later.

 

Six Sisters' Stuff have been great lately for making meals without having to use the oven.  

Pacific Northwest Trip 2026- part 3

June 19 was Garfield the Cat Day. We were so busy that day, we celebrated it observed the next day with lasagna.  

 

Later that evening, we made s'mores on the last day of Spring.

Goodbye, Spring. Hello, Summer.

After toasting marshmallows over coals, the fire was used to burn some other things so the flames grew. 

Jet: Whoa. There's fire in there now. 

 

Jr. and Nichole had fun taking some artistic pictures. 

Jr. calls this his Balrog picture:

Do you see it?

It's fun to see shapes in things. 

National Cooler Day

May 22 I was too busy getting ready for a trip to celebrate well so I told people this is what you get. I didn't even have time to cut up the watermelon. Nichole did. Happy National Cooler Day.

Jeremy did suggest while he was still at work that one of the kids take a frozen Costco lasagna and cook it in the oven. Oh yeah. That was a good idea. So they did. Happy Don't Fry Day.

The kids did help in some ways with getting ready for the trip. Besides taking care of food because I wasn't up to it, and gathering things, some of them also helped clean out the van so we could travel more comfortably the next day. Happy National Road Trip Day. 

Catching Up on July Holidays

OK. Here we go. Sigh.

July 25 was National Chili Dog Day and National Refreshment Day. We had chili dogs (with homemade chili) and refreshments. Done. Blogged.

July 26 was Talk in an Elevator Day. A few of us got a picture of us talking in an elevator the day before. So we celebrated it observed. Done. Blogged.

 

July 27 was National Sleepyhead Day (in Finland). I totally missed it this year even though I was thinking about it just the day before. Sigh. Told you we were busy. Check out how we've celebrated that one in the past, though (starting with last year's celebration while we were in Washington). Done. Blogged.

July 28 was Milk Chocolate Day. We had chocolate milk. Done. Blogged.

July 29 was National Lasagna Day. We had lasagna. And I learned how to do "baked" mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3. Done. Blogged.

July 30 there were a lot of holidays I didn't celebrate but I should have. Paperback Book Day. International Day of Friendship. Father-in-Law Day. National Cheesecake Day. Sigh. I must not have been feeling well that day because someone made me breakfast and Jr. helped make dinner that night. 

He decided to gather all the ingredients needed for the dish in a bowl before making it. Heh Heh. Done. Blogged.

July 31 was National Avocado Day. We had avocados in our salad (yet another recipe from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page) as well as cucumbers. 

Jr. took the bowl of cucumbers I had just cut up and made this comment:

"Man, this cereal's the best."

He doesn't particularly care for cucumbers so we talked about other ways to use cucumbers besides eating them like cereal (though I love eating cucumbers). Done. Blogged.

And just like that, I'm caught up on the rest of July holidays. Go me.

Done. Blogged.

More Celebrating in January

January 16 was Fig Newton Day. We ate fig newtons. Do you remember the commercial way back that said, "It's not a cookie. It's a newton"? I looked at the packaging for fig newtons and it calls them cookies. Ha.

It was also Appreciate a Dragon Day. Dad did some writing about dragons.

January 17 was Museum Selfie Day. Jeremy had some stuff to do at the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point so he made sure to celebrate the holiday while there.

It was also Popeye Day. I sang Popeye cartoon theme music over and over to the kids while we ate Popeye spinach.

It was also Hot Heads Chili Day. Let me tell you how I did some shelf cooking those two days, following "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volume 1.

I was thinking of making some spicy chili on Hot Heads Chili Day and the day before I was going to make lasagna soup with garlic bruschetta. Well, Jr. wasn't feeling the greatest that first day and said Ogre Stew sounded good to him. Ogre Stew is kind of like a white bean chili and it was a bit spicy so we had it for Hot Heads Chili Day Observed. 

The garlic bruschetta was supposed to use fresh tomatoes but we were out so I took a can of diced tomatoes, added the other ingredients, and cooked them up to make a sauce. Then I took my homemade baguettes (The Food Nanny recipe), cut them in rounds, and made them into garlic bread to put the sauce on top. It worked.

So the next day I made the lasagna soup to go with spinach salad. I also made cornbread muffins which were suggested in the book but I used a recipe I always use instead of the one from the book. That's another thing about shelf cooking. If I have a tried and true recipe why look for something else?

 

Lucky very nicely took pictures then edited them to make me green like spinach.