Homemade Jalapeno Mint Jelly

When mint grows it can take over a garden. One little plant turns into a monster in a matter of weeks and then you're left scratching your head over what to do with the abundance of mint that has suddenly appeared. Everyone loves fresh mint hot/iced tea, but what about something that will bring the taste of fresh mint into the fall and winter months.

Welcome to the world of mint jelly. Mint jelly is delicious and great with crackers and cream cheese for parties or with lamb for savory dishes. Plus there are so many varieties that can be made and enjoyed, making it a fun type of jelly to experiment with flavor profiles. One such flavor combination is Jalapeno Mint Jelly.

Jalapeno Mint Jelly is a great way to use garden herbs and peppers. If you're like me and your mint and jalapeno plant have exploded this recipe is a nice way to use the overabundance of both. Just don't do what I did and wipe your eye after mincing jalapenos, bad plan. Garden jalapenos can be a lot spicier than store bought so I would suggest wearing disposable gloves, or at least avoid touching your face. The burn takes a long time to go away, I promise.

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Jalapeno Mint Jelly

by Foodie in WV August-16-2015

This is a great way to use garden herbs and peppers and enjoy their flavors in the fall and winter.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup small mint sprigs
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
• One 3 ounce pouch liquid pectin
• 1 drop green food coloring

Instructions

1. Combine sugar and mint in a large non-reactive pot, crushing mint as you stir. 2. Add vinegar and water and over a high heat bring to a boil, stirring to prevent burning. 3. Boil under sugar melts (approximately 3 minutes). 4. Add minced jalapenos and boil hard for 3 minutes. 5. Add pectin and food coloring (if using) and boil hard for 1 minutes. 6. Over a heat proof bowl, strain jelly. 7. Pour jelly into sterilized jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space. 8. Pop any bubbles using a knife or straw. 9. Wipe rims and close jars. 10. Place jars in a boiling water bath canner, bring back to a boil, and process for 10 minutes.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 30 mins Total time: 1 hour Yield: 4 half pints

Tips:

• Sterilize jars for 10 minutes, keep lids and rings in a pot of water over simmer. Don't boil the lids as it can damage the seal. 
• Make sure to wipe the jar rims before placing lids on. Jam left on the rim can make the jar not seal. 
• If you like your jelly a darker green add another drop of food coloring. 
• I've had great luck with getting this jelly to set. It sets easily and doesn't take a long time to get to the jelly temp. I always use a candy thermometer to double check. The plate and spoon tests I seem to fail at, I'm great at many things, but my thermometer is my friend. 

I haven't had much time to post in the last week. School started for my kids and I decided to tackle a big painting project in our house. Needless to say I didn't have much time to post, hopefully next week will be calmer. I am planning a few posts on how to store fresh herbs and a recipe for candied jalapenos, stay tuned! 

How to Use Coffee Grounds in Your Garden

Having grown up in Seattle coffee has always been a part of my life. I've had every type of coffee making gizmo you can imagine and have a very particular way that I like my coffee. All this coffee has led to a lot of used coffee grounds. Now I am one of those people who hates to throw anything out. I literally try to reuse or recycle everything. It's a major part of the reason that I cook from scratch. Not only does it save money, but it greatly reduces the amount of waste and trash that my family goes through. So I also reuse my coffee grounds. That's right instead of throwing my used coffee grounds out I use them in my garden.

Any of you that garden flowers, fruits, or vegetables know that certain plants like higher or lower amounts of various nutrients. The soil in the area that I live in is full of clay. It holds moisture and drains horribly. Additionally my soil is very alkaline. I have to reduce the pH for pretty much anything to grow, especially my azaleas and acid loving plants. My neighbors have all decided I'm pretty much nuts as I take my pH/moisture meter out everyday and test my soil.

In order to amend my soil and make it more favorable for my various plants I compost and use natural fertilizers. One of the various items I add to my less than stellar base soil is used coffee grounds. Now there are a couple of ways this can be done.

• Add used coffee grounds around the base of plants. Dig into the soil a couple of inches and add in the grounds then re-cover with soil.
• Make a compost tea. Place coffee grounds into a bucket of water, let sit overnight and then water your plants. My tomatoes and peppers love compost tea. 
• Use grounds to deter snails and slugs. I have a horrible slug problem in the beginning of most summers due to torrential thunderstorms each year. While beer is the best solution, it isn't always feasible when it rains all the time. The coffee grounds are a nice deterrent for pests, just add a ring around your plants. 
• Research goes back and forth on how effective coffee grounds are on changing soil pH, but most agree that coffee is rich in nitrogen, magnesium, and potassium. If your plants need a little boost coffee grounds are a nice option. My tomatoes and peppers love coffee grounds and do great when they are added to the soil
• Seedlings also love a dose of coffee grounds at planting time. I use it every year and they love the extra boost of nitrogen

That's it. Coffee grounds can be great for your garden and save on your trash. Plus it gives you a great excuse to have that afternoon cup! 

Fresh Garden Mint Iced Tea

It's August and that means most gardens are overflowing with fruits, vegetables, and herbs. After having spent months tending to our plants, our gardens are finally producing a wonderful bounty. Now what to do with all the excess. What started out as one small mint plant by August can turn into an entire bed being run over by this aggressive weed/herb. One can only make so many jars of jelly (I will be posting a few recipes for mint jellies in the coming weeks), so what else can be done with huge amounts of mint. Ice tea of course!

So this year I planted one small mint plant that my mother in law bought at the Charleston Farmer's Market. Well, this one little plant went a little crazy with the fish fertilizer that I fed it (tip: use fish fertilizer, it's awesome and one of the best gardening tips my mother ever gave me growing up) and has had to be moved to larger pots twice this summer. I have made jellies, cakes, muffins, all using mint and I still have a huge, huge plant. So about a month back I decided I would add mint to iced tea for my kids. That one pitcher has turned into hundreds, they love it. The following is the recipe I use for Fresh Garden Mint Iced Tea.

Fresh Garden Mint Iced Tea

by Ann Jones August-12-2015

This is a great way to use garden mint, especially since mint grows so well and you end up with a ton!

Ingredients

• 12 Tea Bags
• 8 cups Water
• 1/2-1 cup Sugar/Sugar Substitute
• 5-10 Sprigs Garden Mint

Instructions

1. Cut 5-10 sprigs fresh garden mint 2. Place 12 tea bags in a heat proof bowl 3. Wash mint and place in bowl with tea bags4. Add 8 cups boiling water to the bowl 5. Let steep 20 minutes 6. Place strainer over heat proof pitcher and strain tea into pitcher 7. Add sweetener of your choice and stir 8. Let tea chill in refrigerator until cold

Prep time: 30 mins Total time: 1 hour 30 mins Yield: 8 cups 

• I have made this recipe with a variety of different teas. The best is a watermelon lime tea my husband bought me. It makes great iced tea! Regardless is works with pretty much any type of green or black tea
• How much sugar/sweetener is really a personal choice. If you like McDonald's sweet tea add a whole cup. If you like to sweeten at the glass, don't add any
• I use stevia for my drinks. It's my sweetener of choice, I limit the amount of granulated sugar we consume since my oldest has ADHD and sugar makes him bounce off the walls. However, this recipe would work with sugar, splenda, you name it. I haven't tried it with honey so I can't speak for how much to add (I would love to hear if you experiment and find out though!)
• This makes strong tea. My family likes their iced tea to taste like tea, not water. If you like your tea weaker, reduce the amount of tea bags to 8-9
• A sprig of mint is 6-8 leaves, so 10 sprigs would be about 60-80 leaves. You can use one really long sprig of you want. It doesn't have to be 10 small sprigs. 

How to Freeze Fresh Garden Tomatoes

Winter tomatoes can be a huge letdown. They are more often than not lacking in flavor and can cost over twice as much as canned. However, you don't have to sacrifice the delicious taste of fresh tomatoes in the middle of the colder months, you just have to plan ahead.

Freezing fresh garden tomatoes is easy and only takes minutes. Depending on your preference, the tomatoes can be frozen whole and then peeled, or they can be blanched and kept whole or diced. Either method is simple and make it possible to enjoy the taste of fresh tomatoes throughout the winter.

The following are the two methods to freeze tomatoes:

Freezing Tomatoes Whole With Skins

• Wash and pat tomatoes dry
• Lay tomatoes flat on a metal jelly pan or baking sheet
• Place the baking sheet in the freezer and allow tomatoes to freeze (you want the tomatoes to not be completely frozen, just frozen to the point that the skin can be peeled-normally 1-2 hours)
• Once the tomatoes are frozen, remove sheet and tomatoes from freezer, skin the tomatoes, and place tomatoes in a freezer proof container. Tomatoes will be good 6-12 months

Freezing Tomatoes Without Skins

• Wash and pat tomatoes dry
• Bring a pot of water to a boil
• Place tomatoes in boiling water and blanch 45-60 seconds
• Place tomatoes in an ice water bath to cool
• Peel skins off tomatoes
• You can either keep the tomatoes whole and follow the last 4 steps in the first method above or dice the tomatoes (and seed if you prefer) and place in a freezer safe container

Since frozen tomatoes have a tendency to become mushy I recommend using frozen tomatoes in soups, stews, and chili. They also work for homemade pasta sauce or any dish in which the tomatoes will be cooked down to the point that the texture won't matter.

That's it, very simple and a great way to enjoy garden tomatoes throughout the fall and winter.
 
Tomorrow's post will be a recipe for iced tea using fresh garden mint, stay tuned. 

How to Dry Fresh Garden Herbs

My garden every year can be a series of near disasters. I love gardening, but there is a lot of work that goes into beautiful looking vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Last year I lost all my tomatoes to blight. I almost cried after spending months babying my heirlooms and then within days they were completely gone. This year has been a much better year. It hasn't been without its near disasters, but I know now that it takes near obsession for a great and abundant garden. I have also accepted the fact that my neighbors are probably wondering about my mental sanity as I take a PH meter around my garden and talk to my plants about their needs for the day. I hate to admit that these oddities are things that I do on a daily basis, but it is what it is, my plants love a good pep talk and I like giving one. Come August there is nothing better than looking outside and seeing all the fruits of your labor come to fruition.

Now comes the part of what to do with all the herbs, fruits, and vegetables that come from your stellar garden. The easy answer to that is that you dry, preserve, and dehydrate. Today is the first in a series of posts on how to enjoy the bounty of your garden year round. First up is drying fresh garden herbs.

If your anything like me you plant every herb you can find at the nursery and if you have a great garden year you are swimming in herbs come August. Now herbs love to be cut. I'm not talking a little here or there, I'm taking you can cut thyme, oregano, and rosemary almost back to the ground and they will grow up twice as big. So don't be dainty with the scissors, go for it, any of the long leggy growths that are pouring over the side need to be cut back.

Basil, sage, parsley, dill, and cilantro also love to be cut back. However, they are preserved and stored slightly differently. I only dry dill seed and use parsley, cilantro, and basil fresh. The flavor really does not dry adequately on these herbs. Oregano, thyme, and rosemary dry very well and taste great dried. The following is the method I use to dry fresh herbs for storage.

• Cut back fresh rosemary, oregano, or thyme. You want to cut long stems that have adequate growth and stem length to be bundled. I normally do one huge cutback in late August where I cut my herbs almost down to the ground and then dry them. 

• Wash the herbs making sure to remove all dirt and dead or discolored leaves. Strip bottom leaves off stems so there is an inch or two of bare stem at the bottom of each herb bunch. 

• Allow the herbs to completely dry before placing in bag. Placing wet herbs in bags will result in moldy dried herbs.

• Bunch herbs into groups of 6-8 stems and tie together with kitchen twine. Take a lunch size brown paper bag and cut smalls holes in it for ventilation. Place herbs in bag with stems facing out of the top. 

• Tie twine around top of bag (and herbs stems), make a knot in order that the bag stays put and tie the herbs/bags upside down in a cool dry place for one to two weeks, or until leaves have completely dried out.

Dried Herbs

Recipe Type: Spice

Summary:

An easy way to dry fresh herbs from your garden to enjoy year round.

Preparation Time: 0h, 15m

Basil Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

I wish that the internet would turn into a more grown-up version of its current self. As many of you may have noticed I have taken a little time away from blogging. The last year blogging has lost some of the charm it had when I first started (which was a while ago now). My kids were younger when I started, my youngest still took naps, and my oldest hadn't yet started school. I also feel that the internet has changed dramatically. While I love to talk about certain aspects of my life, I am a little burnt out of the over sharing and general debate nature that the internet and social media in particular have taken on. I really hate controversy. When possible I avoid it because 99 percent of the time I have vastly different opinions than everyone else. I grew up in Seattle in a very liberal household, went to a beyond liberal arts school (the same school k-12 with only 300 students), paid my own way through undergraduate and graduate school, and became the first person in my family to graduate college. I grew up very poor, we stood in line at the church food bank most weeks and my father worked his whole life in jobs that barely paid enough to survive. My opinions are a little crazy according to my husband, I rarely agree with any political party and would be perfectly happy avoiding contact with people with overzealous opinions (debating other people rarely leads to any kind of change of opinions). So the internet and I have had to have less contact. I honestly find social media and the internet a little tiring these days. I wish that people could learn the fine act of knowing when to keep their opinions to themselves, not everything has to be made into an argument or debate. Sometimes a simple 'Have a nice day' is just that and nothing more. I guess I am waiting for the internet to grow up, I'm too old to deal with all the drama.

My garden has been growing like crazy and I am swimming in fresh herbs. While I love basil, I get tried of making pesto over and over again so I decided to try a dessert recipe using the abundance of fresh garden basil I currently possess. I came up with the following recipe for Chocolate Basil Cake with Buttercream Frosting. Enjoy!

Basil Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Recipe Type: Dessert

Preparation Time: 0h, 15m

Cooking Time: 0h, 25m

Total Time: 0h, 40m

Yield: Serves 9

Adapted from The Food Network and Powerhungry.com

Basil Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (or gluten free replacement)
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Cooking Directions

1. Grease a 9 inch cake pan.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. In a food processor chop the basil and sugar until finely chopped.
4. Combine the basil/sugar mixture, melted butter, and cocoa powder until blended. Add the eggs one at a time, and whisk until smooth.
5. Add the vanilla.
6. In another bowl whisk the baking soda, salt and flour until blended.
7. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
8. Add hot water and stir just until combined (do not over stir or your cake will be flat).
9. Pour batter into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.
10. After the cake has cooled make frosting.
11. In a standing mixer whisk butter and sugar together on low speed until blended. Turn up speed to medium and mix another 3 minutes.
12. Add cream and vanilla, beat for another 1-2 minutes on medium. Add more cream if consistency is too thick to spread.
13. Spread cake with frosting and enjoy!

My boys both start school in a week and a half so for the first time in 9 years I will have the house to myself for at least a couple of hours a day. I should have more frequent posts in the next couple of months I promise. 

Savory Rosemary Sage Bread

I have a habit of buying clearanced appliances.. Most of the time I use them, the ones I don't I give as gifts, a few sit for a few years before I get around to using them. Then there are the appliances that I get from someone else. About 5 years ago my mother-in-law gave me a bread maker. It sat on the shelf for a couple of months and then I used it non-stop for a year. Later it broke and I made bread from scratch for years. Until I found a bread maker marked down to 15 dollars (from 80!), so of course I had to buy it. Honestly, this summer it has been my best friend. It has kept my house cool when the weather is 95 and humid, which is seems to be frequently this year. My herb garden has also been crazy so I have been trying to combine my love of making fresh bread with the over abundance of fresh herbs I have in my garden. I discovered a recipe for Rosemary Sage Bread a couple of weeks back and I love it! The recipe is as follows.

Adapted from Recipe 4 Living
Rosemary Sage Bread

A savory bread that is a great way to use garden herbs. Works well made in both the bread maker and in the oven.

Yield: 2 loaves 16 slices each

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons finely diced fresh rosemary
• 2 tablespoons finely diced fresh sage
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
• 3 cups bread flour

Cooking Directions

1. If making in the bread maker add ingredients in order suggested by the manufacturer of your bread maker.
2. If you are making the bread from scratch use the following instructions.
3. In the one cup of warm water dissolve the sugar and then mix in the yeast.
4. After 5 minutes (when the yeast is foamy) add the butter, sage, and rosemary.
5. In a separate bowl combine the bread flour and salt.
6. Add the wet mixture and then knead by hand for 10-12 minutes (alternately you may use a mixer for this step).
7. Rub the inside of a plastic bowl with oil.
8. Place dough in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and rise for 1 hour or until doubled.
9. Punch down dough, and divide into two balls.
10. Grease the inside of two loaf pans, shape the two pieces of dough into loaves and place in loaf pans.
11. Cover top of pans with plastic wrap and allow loaves to rise for one hour or until doubled in size.
12. While the dough is on the last rise preheat oven to 375 degrees.
13. Bake the loaves in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and sound hollow when tapped (total time will depend on your oven, if they brown too quickly tent with foil. A bread thermometer is helpful-when the bread temps 190-200 it is ready to pull out.
14. Allow cool for 30 minutes in pan and an additional 30 minutes before slicing.

This bread is nice as a side with soup. It also makes great savory toast, my kids loved it with goat cheese (my kids have adult tastes). You can adjust the amount of herbs based on your tastes. Some people might like more or less rosemary/sage. It would also work with other herbs if you have an over abundance of thyme, dill, etc. 

Rosemary Sage Bread

Summary:

A savory bread that is a great way to use garden herbs. Works well made in both the bread maker and in the oven.

Preparation Time: 2h, 20m

Cooking Time: 0h, 20m

Yield: 32 Slices

Homemade Mint Iced Tea

I am a horrible food stylist. It seems to be a talent that many food bloggers have. They spend lots of time shopping for the perfect plates, utensils, and tableware in order to take gorgeous photos. I have to admit I hate shopping for photo props. While I love the second hand store, I don't like shopping for vintage tableware, or linens just to make my photos pop. Plus, with overly propped photos I never know if I am supposed to be looking at the food. I get distracted by the beautiful colors, tableware, plates etc. and more often than not the food becomes the prop instead of the focal point of the recipe that it is supposed to be representing. Honestly I am also a little bit jealous. I wish that I had the patience, time, and follow through to be able to spend hours putting together my photos. Most days I am lucky if the food gets on the plate and the photo taken. One thing I do love is angles. I spend more time finding the right angle for my photos than the worrying about the props. After preping, cooking, and plating my food I just want the angle of the photo to represent my food in the best light and hope that maybe no one will notice that I didn't spend hours finding the perfect vintage table linen for my shot.

Today's recipe is an example of my less than stellar food styling abilities. When I had time to take the photo the mint had all been used and I had no leaves left for photo props. So I am sad to admit that my mint iced tea photos have no actual mint in the picture. Oh well, without further ado here is the breakdown of the recipe I tried today from the Food Network for Mint Iced Tea.

This recipe has 6 ingredients. It takes 2 hours and 20 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active, and makes 4 servings. I only made a few small changes to the original recipe. First, I doubled the recipe to use the large amount of fresh mint that has exploded in my garden the last couple of day. Second, I used half sugar and half stevia. Whenever possible I try to reduce the amount of sugar in drink recipes since my kids are hyper enough without a ton of extra sugar added to their diet.

My youngest son fell in love with this recipe. He drank half of the pitcher this afternoon and insisted on drinking it with a sliced lemon on his glass, it was pretty cute. If you aren't a huge fan of mint you can take out the mint after a couple of hours and the tea will be more lemony than mint tasting. On the flip side if you are like my family and love mint, let the mint steep in the fridge for most of the day and the tea will have a nice crisp flavor.

For the recipe go to Mint Iced Tea.

Leftover Herb Pesto

Leftover Herb Pesto

It seems to be bug season in my back yard. I made the mistake of going out to trim my tomatoes this evening. Very bad idea. I literally came in and had to take a benadryl since I had so many bites. Cicadas are the other fun visitor my yard now has. They arrived a couple of weeks back. In previous years they have arrived earlier, but this year they didn't arrive until August. Growing up in Seattle I had no idea what a cicada was when I moved here. The first night I tried to fall asleep in my new apartment I was driven crazy by a deafening noise. I had a giant tree outside my window and between the train that went through at 2 am and the cicadas I decided I would never sleep again. Over the years I have gotten used to their deafening noise, but they still aren't my favorite summer sound. Apparently we aren't even supposed to have cicadas this year, wrong. They are in my front yard and they are huge. Plus I don't trust any insect that is part of a horde. It just sounds wrong. So I am avoiding my yard for a couple of days until the bugs leave me alone. Yesterday I had to venture into my yard to cut back my herb garden. It has gone crazy in the last week and I am swimming in basil, so time to make pesto. I tried a new recipe for Leftover-Herb Pesto from Martha Stewart Living.

Virginia Point Park, Kenova, WV

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 5 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 3/4 cup of pesto. For the pesto I used basil and tarragon from my garden, pine nuts for the nuts and an extra clove of garlic. I prefer my pesto to have a pretty strong garlic taste. I also added part of the cheese to the food processor and then added the other half to the finished pesto. I prefer the texture with this method. Plus the flavor of the cheese come through better.

View From Virginia Point Park, Kenova, WV

I love making quick and easy recipes. Pesto is a great way to use herbs that you have leftover in your fridge or garden and the taste can be easily adapted based on what ingredients you have on hand. In addition to serving with pasta, this recipe would be great with chicken or fish. I love using pesto with grilled salmon, it's wonderful.

For the recipe go to (video form) Leftover Herb Pesto.

Leftover Herb Pesto

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A very simple 7 ingredient pesto recipe. Can be made with any leftover green vegetable in your fridge and a variety of nuts.

Preparation Time: 0h, 5m

Total Time: 0h, 5m

Yield: 3/4 cup

Heirloom Tomato Pizza Sauce

Heirloom Tomato Pizza Sauce and Homemade Pizza Crust

According to my husband I am mean. Not mean to people's faces, but the fact that my expectations of how other people should behave is too high. All of this came to mind today when I picked up my two boys from their last day of day camp at our local library. I was raised that you bring a small card and gift at the end of the school year to thank the teacher for taking care of (dealing with) your children. So I stopped and bought a card and a small gift card to give to their teacher for the week. My kids were very excited to give the card and thank their teacher. There was only one other child and her grandmother that thanked the teacher. I was a little miffed, but I let it go. Then when I was walking down the stairs I had two teenagers run past me without saying a word. They brushed me and I had to grab the rail. Maybe I am old school, but even at the grocery store when I walk in front of someone I say excuse me. I am beginning to worry that the generations under me seem to have lost respect. Then again maybe my husband is right and I am just too mean. The highlight of the last two days for me has been that my heirloom tomatoes are finally ripe. Since I have had an abundance of tomatoes I decided to make homemade pizza sauce. Here is the recipe I came up with:

• 6 heirloom tomatoes (Mr. Stripey and Mortgage Lifters)
• 3 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 sweet onion, minced
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh minced basil
• 1 teaspoon fresh minced oregano
• Pizza crust (I made mine from scratch)

Blanch the tomatoes to remove the skins. Place tomatoes in a food processor or blender and liquefy. You may remove the seeds if you wish, I keep them in. Add the olive oil to a pan and heat over medium heat. Add onion and let slightly brown. Add garlic and let cook for approximately 30 seconds. Take the pureed tomatoes and add to the onion and garlic. Make sure that you use a pan with a large surface area. It helps to make the sauce reduce. Turn the stove down to low. Allow the tomato sauce to cook until thickened, approximately an hour to 1 1/2. The sauce should be very thick and have reduced a great deal. Salt.

Heirloom Tomato Pizza Sauce

After the sauce is done make your pizza! I cook my pizza on a pizza stone at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Of course I make a gluten free version for myself, since I can't have regular pizza crust :) That's it, it has a great sweet taste that is perfect for pizza.

Cooking with Fresh Herbs: Fresh Rosemary Muffins

Gluten Free Fresh Rosemary Muffins

My oldest son only has three weeks left of summer vacation. He has been great about working on his workbooks and is more than ready to start second grade. My youngest is ready for his older brother to go back to school so he can have his days back to being just him and I. With only one child at home it is much easier to go places during the day and the pace of my house is more mellow. The only problem is that my oldest is very nervous about starting second grade. He is worried that all of his friends will be in other classes, he won't like his teacher and that the work will be too hard. I felt so bad when he came to me the other day in tears with all of his fears. I know he will be fine after the first day, he just needs to get through the next 3 weeks. In the meantime I have been baking foods that he likes. Yesterday I tried a new recipe for Fresh Rosemary Muffins from Southern Living magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 muffins. I did make a few changes. First I substituted gluten free all-purpose flour for the regular wheat flour. Secondly, I was unable to find currants at my local store so I doubled the amount of raisins. Since I made the muffins gluten free I added 2 eggs instead of 1. I often increase the amount of egg when I convert baking recipes to being gluten free. I ended up with a total of 11 muffins which took just barely 20 minutes to bake.

These muffins have a nice sweet taste that blends well with the savory goat cheese. They made a great breakfast with scrambled eggs. My husband thought they were a little sweet for anything other than a dessert or snack, but my kids loved them like I did for breakfast. Overall this was a nice way to use fresh rosemary and worked well being converted to being gluten free.

For the recipe go to Fresh Rosemary Muffins.

Looking for a Use For Fresh Zucchini? Try Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake

My first tomatoes were finally ripe enough to eat this morning. So for breakfast I had a sliced heirloom tomato and an omelet with fresh basil from my herb garden. There is something about food that comes from your garden that always tastes so much better. Heirloom tomatoes are one of my favorite foods, they are sweet and delicious. Of course my kids woke up and eat half of the breakfast I had prepared for myself, but who could blame them, it was pretty on the plate and yummy. They also ate the majority of the heirloom cherry tomatoes that are going crazy right now. There are at least 50 of them about to be ripe enough to eat. I love growing fruits and vegetables in my garden and eating the results. This week I had a number of zucchini to use so I turned to dessert recipes. I tried a new recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Cake from the July/August 2013 issue of the Food Network Magazine.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 6 to 8 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First I used gluten free all purpose flour instead of wheat all-purpose flour. I left out the salt since the flour I use already has it in it. For the spice I used nutmeg. Make sure to squeeze all the water out of the zucchini it really does make a difference on how the finished cake turns out. I use paper towels and wring the water out over the sink. Finally, instead of using a 9 inch square pan I baked the cake in a round 9 inch pan. I prefer being able to serve cake as slices instead of squares.

The chocolate flavor in this cake really comes through. You really can't even taste the zucchini so it's a nice way to use zucchini without feeling like the entire recipe tastes like it came out of the garden. My kids loved this recipe and ate the majority of the cake by themselves. The texture is denser than many cakes, more like a dessert bread or torte. To me the texture was perfect.  It was nice with a cup of coffee for an afternoon snack or would also be nice for a dinner party.

For the recipe go to Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

A Delicious Combination: Apple Sage Cake

Gluten Free Apple Sage Cake

There are few household chores that I really hate. The one exception is ironing. My husband has to wear dress shirts to work everyday which means that every Sunday I spend my evening ironing. I don't mind washing dishes, laundry or any other household duties. However, there is something mind numbingly boring about ironing. I just can't enjoy it, even after 10 years of marriage. Many Sundays I put off the ironing forcing myself to have to wake up at 5:30 Monday morning to iron shirts for the week. It's a little better if I do the ironing while watching TV, but only slightly. I try to treat myself to a food I like after finishing my ironing for the week. It makes the whole experience seem better. Tonight I tried a new recipe for Apple Sage Cake from Martha Stewart Living.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe.  First since I eat gluten free I replaced the all purpose flour with gluten free. I mixed the dry and wet ingredients separately and then combined them. The recipes does it all in one bowl, but I prefer doing them one at a time. The edges and the top of the cake brown quickly so if they start to over-brown put a piece of foil over the top.

The granny smith apples in this recipe work really well. The sage is mild and blends nicely with the apples. This cake would be perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. My youngest didn't even notice that the cake had fresh herbs, so don't be intimated by using them.

For the recipe go to Apple Sage Cake.

Is Your Herb Garden Overflowing? Try Homemade Tarragon Vinegar

Homemade Tarragon Vinegar

I have been recruited into making dinner for the 4th of July. Normally I plan far ahead, this year is a little different. The 4th of July is my mother-in-laws birthday and I honestly forgot that it was already July this week. This summer seems to be flying by. So I spent yesterday afternoon brainstorming and finding recipes. My husband spent his time going to the store to find supplies to fix the rust on his big charcoal grill. Hopefully I don't end up having to finish his project, he has a habit of starting projects and then I end up finishing them. That's why I have a fall back plan of making ribs in the slow cooker, so even if the grill doesn't work out we still will have a delicious meal. My kids are more excited about the baked beans and macaroni and cheese for sides. They are big fans of southern comfort foods. In preparation for all the cooking I am doing this week I spent last week doing a little prep work. In preparation for making potatoes and potato salad I made homemade Tarragon Vinegar from Taste of Home.

This recipe has two ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 32 servings. I made this recipe exactly as written. The only difference I did was to use an old wine bottle for the vinegar. I let the bottle sterilize in a water bath for 10 minutes and then made the vinegar. In order for the vinegar to pour easily I topped the wine bottle with a vinegar spout.

 I love having homemade vinegars on hand. They are great for adding flavor to potato salad, roasted veggies or any recipe calling for savory vinegar. This recipe with only two ingredients is beyond easy. The flavor turned out great and will make delicious potato salad later in the week.

For the recipe go to Tarragon Vinegar.