Salsa Making Day

We've been chopping and freezing peppers, onions, and tomatoes all summer getting ready for Salsa Day. This allows me to wait until I have the time to put it all together and also keeps any produce from going to waste since the garden produce is never ready all at the same time.

Garden Green Beans

We are harvesting the last few weeks of garden produce. We always miss the fresh grown-in-the-backyard flavor during the winter months. I thought I'd share one of our favorite ways to prepare garden green beans.

Blackberry Pie Filling

We are growing blackberries. Our patch is now 4 years old and doing very well. Our berries are huge! I have been picking and freezing every few days until I have enough to do something significant with them. It's tricky to save very many each picking though because we have quite a few berry snitchers who just want to eat one more before they are put away FOREVER.

Tomatoes Galore!

We just picked all of these today. It's our first big picking. "What shall we do with all of these?" the children ask.

"I have plans," I asure them.

We will be chopping most of them up in the food processor and freezing for later. They will turn into

Fat-free Smoothie Popsicles

Pour yougurt smoothie into a popsicle mold and freeze. It is that simple! By making your yogurt out of powdered milk you will save lots of money and it will be fat-free. We have been eating these up all summer long!

Bacon-wrapped Chicken Skewers

This is the all-time favorite skewer dinner at our house! I'm not claiming it to be the healthiest recipe out there since it does contain bacon, but oh, it is soooo good. We end up having it a few times each summer and sometimes in the winter. It is often requested for birthdays and other special occasions.

Homemade Apricot Fruit Rolls

We've started the harvest season in our neck of the woods. I've been busy these last few weeks picking cherries to make pie filling, picking raspberries to make freezer jam, and picking apricots to make fruit rolls. My kids love to eat the fresh apricots, but they are not big fans of  apricot jam or bottled apricots. They LOVE the fruit rolls though!