Baked Herb Fries - So Easy!

Whether the main dish is fish, chicken, steak or grilled eggplant - these herb fries are the best and so easy.

Adjust the quantity to your number of diners. For four, I peel four large yukon gold potatoes, and two sweet potatoes, then chop them into long French fries. Place them in a bowl and drizzle with your best olive oil. I  buy one from our local wine center, where I can take the bottle back and refill it for about ten dollars - it's an excellent extra virgin olive oil and a great price for this tall bottle. Use around 1/4 a cup--but just make sure you coat them all.

Take a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary, and chop up the rosemary leaves. You could also use fresh parsley or fresh dill. Toss the rosemary in with the potatoes. Then spread the fries onto two baking sheets so that they can be baked in one layer for the best result. Just the aroma of fresh rosemary gives you energy--so it's great to cook with when you're tired at the end of the day and still need to make dinner. I always keep a pot of rosemary growing year-round. Use rosemary in breads, chicken, and these baked fries.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 35 minutes. So easy, delicious, and almost as fast as the bags of frozen fries! Much fresher too!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

Homemade Aloe Vera Gel

If you cook, if you love the sunshine, and if you like soft skin, you probably need an Aloe Vera plant.

Some people call Aloe Vera the cook's plant, because if you put pure, fresh aloe on one of those little burns from the stove or oven, it simply will never hurt, and will heal so much faster. This works for little burns from the iron too.

We also use fresh aloe for sunburns, bug bites, and skin softening.

Many people think Aloe Vera is like a miracle plant and holds a myriad of health benefits.

In that light, I thought I'd share this Aloe Vera gel recipe you can make from your own plants. It keeps in the fridge for several months.

ALOE VERA GEL
Place a few long Aloe Vera stems vertically in a tall glass or jar to drain any dark resin--takes a few minutes.
Wash the stems and remove the aloe gel.
Place the aloe gel in a blender with a few drops of vitamin E oil or grapefruit seed extract. This helps preserve the gel.
Blend and pour into a sterilized Ball jar. The foam at the top will settle down. Refrigerate.

If you have a little kitchen burn or a sunburn, the cold fresh Aloe Vera gel will feel so good on your skin. Enjoy!

If you want to read a little story about my past Aloe Vera drama, click here.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Relax

Slow Cooking - Cool Kitchen

There are some summer days when turning on the oven to roast a chicken for two hours is just not an option. That's when you break out the crockpot and get dinner going early!

My family loves slow-cooked chicken--the aromas fill the house all day, and although you sacrifice the crispy browned skin, the meat is very juicy.

Use your fresh garden herbs for this dinner while you have them! Stuff a roasting chicken with a bunch of fresh rosemary--you can also use thyme, or both--and a few cloves of garlic, half an onion, and a lemon cut in halves. Run the lemon over the skin of the chicken, then rub the chicken with olive oil and salt it. I set my crockpot on high for six hours. I have one of those crockpots that switches over to "warm" automatically when it's done, which is nice if you're working all day or out shopping, or aren't sure exactly what time you'll be home. Cheddar dill biscuits are perfect for this meal--just whip up some Bisquik biscuits and add in an extra splash of milk, a cup of shredded cheese, and 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh dill.

Enjoy eating fresh from the garden while you can!

Garden in a Jar and Spanish Rice Rollups

I heart garden tomatoes. We wait for them all year, and now that they are in abundance, we eat fresh every day. I have to admit, though, when we are harvesting dozens every day, I feel the pressure to capture this goodness so that we can enjoy it all year long. I don't want these jewels to go to waste!

To make things a little easier, I can my tomatoes in small batches, just six pint jars at a time, usually. I prefer the pint, wide-mouth jars for canning tomatoes, because they are recipe ready, and if I need to chop them up for a recipe, like the Spanish Rice Rollups recipe below, the wide-mouth jar makes it easier just to stick my knife in there and run it around for a quick chop.

I simply peel and core enough tomatoes for the six jars. It's usually about 5 to 6 medium tomatoes per jar. One tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt also go into each jar. The jars are processed in a waterbath canner according to current recommendations from the Ball Blue Book, and as of now, that is 85 minutes with the lid on, and then letting them sit in the waterbath for 5 additional minutes with the lid off before lifting out and waiting for that beautiful "pop!" of the lid. Check each lid and make sure it is sealed tight before storing.

Your own canned tomatoes are an amazing ingredient; every time you open a jar you can smell the garden, and the taste is incredible. I use them in the middle of winter in chili, casseroles, and this Spanish Rice Rollup:

Brown 1-lb. ground beef or turkey with 1/2-cup chopped onion and drain.

Continue cooking and add in 1 pint jar tomatoes, chopped, 1 can beans drained, 1 package of taco seasoning, 1 1/2 cups water and 2 cups instant brown rice. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 5 minutes. Enjoy rolled up in tortillas with your favorite toppings.

Just a little extra work makes for some good eating all year long.

Spaghetti Squash Touched by Tuscany

I love it when dinner starts and ends in the garden. Fresh spaghetti squash topped with garden-fresh tomatoes, and basil is set off by a little saute in olive oil with baby portobello mushrooms and a good sprinkling of Italian four-cheese blend. So yummy! Who needs meat? Just add a nice crusty bread with roasted garlic.

First, for about a medium-size spaghetti squash, you can boil it for around 30 minutes. My squash had grown to about the size of a barn, so it took a good 50 minutes to make it fork tender.

When it is tender, split the squash open, take out the seeds, and use a fork to shred it and get the "spaghetti strands." Be careful, it will be hot.

Have a saute pan ready and heated, coated with about a tablespoon of olive oil, and saute sliced baby portobello mushrooms and the squash. As you toss, salt and pepper to taste. Add two or three fresh chopped tomatoes, snip in a few leaves of fresh basil, and top with a nice Italian shredded cheese.

 My fave is the Mario Batalli four-cheese blend.

Take your crusty garlic bread out of the oven and spread with roasted garlic and sprinkle with fresh-chopped garlic chives. Get your table set up in the garden, with candles and jars of wild flowers and enjoy your feast!

I'm so happy right now. I just finished my first full-length play! Time to celebrate with this amazing dinner and my happy dance. 

Eat, write, dream, stitch!

Dilly Dally Cheddar Bread

Homemade bread! We love those words around our house. Homemade bread is a meal. Homemade bread makes a meal. Your own homemade bread brings a satisfying goodness to the table that reaches back in time.

But knead time equals lead time--you don't always have hours to work with dough and let it rise. Enter: quick bread! Better yet: herb and cheddar cheese quick bread that simply goes great with everything and offers happy eats by the slice. Dilly Dally Cheddar Bread is a breeze to make and bake. Dill is my favorite herb to use in this bread, but I've also made it with rosemary and thyme. If I ran a bed and breakfast, I'd serve it every day.

 
Dilly Dally Cheddar Bread
1/2 stick butter
1-1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons fresh chopped dill (also works with rosemary or thyme)
3/4 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg
In a large mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the cold butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Add the dill and cheese, and incorporate into the butter and flour mixture. Stir the egg into the milk, pour into the bowl all at once and stir quickly until all the ingredients are just mixed. Do not over-stir so that the bread will be tender. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy some Dilly Dally Cheddar Bread today, write a little somethin' somethin' in your journal, dream up a bit of creativity, get a few stitches in, and enjoy life.

[picture on the right: one of my favorite things about summer--a Ball jar of fresh herbs gathered daily. Here is a bunch of fresh dill, basil and thyme.]

Make and Take Garden Pasta Salad

The first crisp, sweet bell pepper from the garden this week inspired the making of a big bowl of creamy garden-fresh pasta salad! It uses three garden favorites: green bell pepper, tomato, and basil. A little fresh dill tossed in is pretty good too. Fresh Garden Pasta Salad is a meal by itself, great for picnics, and very popular at pot lucks and barbecues.

Ingredients:

20 ounces cooked pasta shells or large macaroni -- after cooling, toss the pasta in a tablespoon of Italian dressing

1/2 red onion - chopped

5 slices turkey bacon cooked crisp and crumbled

4 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped

1 large fresh bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup low-fat mayonnaise

1/2 cup low-fat Ranch salad dressing

Several leaves of fresh basil, snipped or chopped

Fresh dill, chopped

Toss all the ingredients together, and save some basil leaves to snip on the top for a garden-fresh presentation. Enjoy eating something good today!

Lemongrass is one of my favorite Fiestaware colors--

Fiesta 6-1/4-Ounce Fruit Bowl, Lemongrass