Homegrown Veggie Medley Recipe

Having a garden can be work, but it is oh so rewarding when the harvest starts!

All of the vegetables & herbs in this dish came from our garden {with the exception of the mushrooms}.  It was super quick and delicious.  After grilling chicken for dinner, Sew Daddy just put this in his handy-dandy saute' pan for the grill.  In a few minutes, we had the most divine side dish EV-AH!!!  For those who refrain from eating meat, this would be a delicious vegetarian dish too.

If you don't have your own garden, the local farmers market has everything you need to create your own medley to grill AND the farmers will appreciate your business!  You can put together your own combination, but I'll share what we used.

Nothing was measured in this creation.  Use as much or as little as you like!  :)

Grilled Garden Veggie Medley
4-5 garden fresh yellow squash
1 garden fresh Japanese eggplant
1/2 garden fresh Zucchini-zilla {or a couple of regular zukes}
1 handful garden fresh grape tomatoes, whole or cut in half
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms {portabellos would be delicious here too}
6-8 leaves garden fresh basil, cut into a chiffonade
garden fresh thyme, as much as you like
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
kosher salt
fresh cracked black pepper
extra virgin olive oil

Cut the squash, eggplant, & zukes into slices about 1/2" thick.  In a bowl, combine veggies with tomatoes, herbs & garlic.  Add salt & pepper to taste. Drizzle with olive oil, not to much; just enough to coat everything well.  Grill until desired doneness & enjoy!

If you don't have a grill, you may also roast the veggies in a 350' oven for 20-30 minutes or until they reach your desired state of doneness.

It Bears Repeating : Blackberry Cobbler Recipe

Some things just bear repeating. It's so good the first time, you have to try it again.

This post is one of those things. It was originally posted in June of 2008, but it is one of the most visited links on my blog so I decided to share it again. I went to the Farmers Market again this week and found beautiful, FRESH, locally grown blackberries. Once again, pristine and plump.

Dessert tomorrow, for Father's Day, will be Blackberry Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream. It doesn't get much better than that. I thought YOU might need a recipe for your Dad's Day dinner, so here ya go! Hope you and your Dad enjoy!!!!


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{originally blogged June 20, 2008}

This week, a trip to the local farmers market yielded these beautiful blackberries. They were PERFECT! No blemishes, no bad berries, no mushy spots. We've plan to shop at our farmers market more this year. The local farmers need our support, plus the produce is literally fresh from the field.


After eating a few fresh berries I started craving blackberry cobbler. I don't know why. I've never been a big cobbler eater, but these were just begging to be in a cobbler. I went on the hunt for a quick, easy recipe and found this one, originally from Southern Living, at >recipezaar.com :

Quick & Easy Blackberry Cobber

• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup self-rising flour (see note below if you have all purpose flour)*
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 cups blackberries

Whisk together 1 cup of the sugar with flour & milk. Add melted butter and whisk until just blended. Pour batter into a greased 8x12 baking dish. Sprinkle blackberries & remaining 1/4 sugar over the batter. Bake at 350' for about an hour or until the crust is golden brown. You MUST serve this with vanilla ice cream. ;)

When you bake this, the berries drop to the bottom so the crust turns golden brown.

I will share a few variations I had to make on the recipe. I used an 8x8 pan. The 8x12 pan would have yielded a thinner crust. I didn't have self-rising flour so I used the standard substitute. *Take one cup of plain flour and add 1-1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I also didn't have stick butter so I used squeeze Parkay that I melted in the microwave. I also didn't have quite 2 cups of berries (all that snacking on the fresh berries took care of that). The cobbler would have been juicier with more berries.

Can you tell, like many good Southern cooks, I only use a recipe loosely. ;-)

It must have been good anyway. I didn't get any pictures of the finished cobber! The family beat me to it with spoons and vanilla ice cream in hand.

If you run across some beautiful berries of any kind, this would be a great way to enjoy them with your family! :-)

THE Easiest Coconut Cake Recipe in the World

So, you've gotta take a dessert for Thanksgiving Dinner. What to do? Time's-a-wastin' and who has time to get into some involved recipe for the big day at this late hour?

Sew Gracious to the rescue!

THE Easiest Coconut Cake Recipe in the World!

1 boxed yellow cake mix; any brand

1 can cream of coconut {found in the baking aisle or with the booze mixers}

1 bag shredded coconut

1 small tub Cool Whip; thawed

Prepare cake mix according to package directions & bake in a 9x13 pan. After removing the cake from the oven, let it cool for about 5 minutes. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes in the cake; all over. Pour the cream of coconut over the cake so that it soaks in. Frost with Cool Whip and sprinkle with shredded coconut. Chill for about an hour or until ready to serve.

Your guests will rave. You'll be the family's new "Martha Stewart" and it was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Perfect Peach Cobbler Recipe

You're a Peach : That's Just Peachy
I really love your peaches [ok . . . enough of that one. Thanks Steve Miller ;-) ]

Fresh peaches are abundant right now. What better way to enjoy them than
FRESH PEACH COBBLER

This, warm from with oven, topped with vanilla ice cream . . . mm mm good!

FRESH PEACH COBBLER

Prepare the peaches:

• 2 cups fresh peaches, peeled & cut into pieces


• 1 cup sugar


• 1 cup water

In a sauce pan, combine the peaches, sugar & water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-high and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir often to make sure the sugar has dissolved and doesn't scorch.

Then you will need:

• 1 stick butter or margarine


• 1 cup sugar


• 3/4 cup self-rising flour


• 3/4 cup milk (skim or reduced fat is fine)


• dash of cinnamon (optional)


• prepared peaches (you can substitute a large can of peaches, undrained, if you're doing this in the dead of winter)

Preheat oven to 350' F. Put the butter in a 9" round baking dish. Place the dish in the heated oven, allowing the butter to melt completely. Once the butter has melted, remove the dish from the oven and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix sugar & flour completely. Slowly add milk; whisking to combine well so there are lumps. Pour the batter over the melted butter, but DO NOT STIR. Gently pour the peaches on top of the batter, then pour the remainder of the peach syrup into the dish. DO NOT STIR.

Return the dish to the oven and bake at 350' for 35-45 minutes or until the crust has risen to the top and turned golden brown. Serve immediately with vanilla ice cream and ENJOY!

This recipe will also work with other fresh fruits : berries, apples, etc. Be creative!

Fresh Tomato Pasta Recipe : Easy Dinner

We are blessed with a local farmers market. All of the produce is grown in our county by local people. There are no huge commercial operations; just regular folks, working hard to make a living and provide fresh products for our little community. I've gotten so much good food there this year: tomatoes, squash, blackberries, peaches . . . all grown right here. It feels great to buy fresh food from local people.

I found these gorgeous tomatoes at our local market. I'm not food stylist. I just put these beauties in a glass bowl, but look how beautiful they are!!! [and they were delicious too!] Because I had SO many tomatoes and we had eaten SO MANY BLTs, I decided to put together a simple dinner; using what I had on hand. The result . . . FRESH TOMATO PASTA.

I started with Southern Living pictorial - Food TV-worthy tomatoes, grown by a local farmer.




I picked fresh basil & thyme from my herb garden; conveniently right outside my back door. Sorry, not trying to brag, it's just the nicest little "good thing" . . . fresh herbs literally at my fingertips.





I pulled the thyme from the stems and did a chiffonade on the basil. Chiffonade simply means thinly sliced or cut into ribbons. To chiffonade, stack & tightly roll the basil leaves like a cigar. Then cut slices, as thin as you can get them.


The basil will look like this:


Good Olive Oil is a must. I really should have been Italian. Good wine & good olive oil are some of the finer necessities in life! ;-)

To make this dish; simply dice the fresh tomatoes and put them in a large bowl. Season with a little salt & pepper. In the meantime, boil some water for the pasta. Be sure to salt the water before it boils and add a little olive oil to the boiling water before adding your pasta so that the pasta doesn't stick together. Cook the pasta until it is al dente.

I used linquine, but if you prefer another kind of pasta; give it a try. Angel hair might be a bit too fine, but spaghetti, fettucine or even penne would be good alternatives, if you like. Whole wheat noodles will be fine too, if that's what you like best.

When the pasta has cooked, drain well and put in the large bowl with the fresh tomatoes. Add the basil & thyme. Drizzle with olive oil and toss well. The heat from the pasta will slightly warm the tomatoes; making a light, delicious dish.

Plate up your wonderful, fresh dinner and top with some fresh grated parmesan cheese. [I took my pics before I added the cheese, but it was the perfect accent in this dish]. It is delicious, as it, but we had some leftover grilled chicken so put that on the side. If you have some cooked shrimp, that would be a good addition too. Serve with some crusty bread or garlic bread and a nice glass of wine.IF there are any leftovers, this is wonderful as a cold salad for lunch the next day.

buon appetito

Cook It. Blog It!

Do you like to cook?
Do you like to blog?
Do you need ideas for dinner?

Patty, of Mod Kid Boutique, has started a great new cooking club on her blog! Cook It. Blog It! is a way for those of us who blog to share some great recipes & ideas with each other. The cooking club is open to anyone! Click here for some more information, plus Patty's recipe for Key Lime Pie.

Just go to the Blog Roll and leave a comment so that your blog can be added to the list. Patty has also created a Flickr group for those who would like to share pics that way too. Take a peek at the Blog Roll list. You'll see lots of names you know. With ladies this creative, you know the recipes will be great!

HAPPY COOKING & BLOGGING!

Easy Blackberry Cobbler

This week, a trip to the local farmers market yielded these beautiful blackberries. They were PERFECT! No blemishes, no bad berries, no mushy spots. We've plan to shop at our farmers market more this year. The local farmers need our support, plus the produce is literally fresh from the field.

After eating a few fresh berries I started craving blackberry cobbler. I don't know why. I've never been a big cobbler eater, but these were just begging to be in a cobbler. I went on the hunt for a quick, easy recipe and found this one, originally from Southern Living, at recipezaar.com :

Quick & Easy Blackberry Cobber

• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup self-rising flour (see note below if you have all purpose flour)*
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 cups blackberries

Whisk together 1 cup of the sugar with flour & milk. Add melted butter and whisk until just blended. Pour batter into a greased 8x12 baking dish. Sprinkle blackberries & remaining 1/4 sugar over the batter. Bake at 350' for about an hour or until the crust is golden brown. You MUST serve this with vanilla ice cream.

When you bake this, the berries drop to the bottom so the crust turns golden brown.

I will share a few variations I had to make on the recipe. I used an 8x8 pan. The 8x12 pan would have yielded a thinner crust. I didn't have self-rising flour so I used the standard substitute. *Take one cup of plain flour and add 1-1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I also didn't have stick butter so I used squeeze Parkay that I melted in the microwave. I also didn't have quite 2 cups of berries (all that snacking on the fresh berries took care of that). The cobbler would have been juicier with more berries.

Can you tell, like many good Southern cooks, I only use a recipe loosely. ;-)

It must have been good anyway. I didn't get any pictures of the finished cobber! The family beat me to it with spoons and vanilla ice cream in hand.

If you run across some beautiful berries of any kind, this would be a great way to enjoy them with your family! :-)