Garden Harvest 2013

Our little garden did quite well this year.

The one thing that I wish did a little better was the zucchini, but I still got all sorts of zucchini salsa and ate way too much zucchini bread and zucchini brownies...SO YUMMY!

 

The apple tree made up for last year and was bursting with apples.  Last year we had a warm week in March causing it to blossom early, then frost came and killed the blossoms.  We think there were maybe 10 apples on the tree. :-/

 The kids loved climbing the ladder and finding the best apples to make applesauce out of.  We canned about 8 pints.  I think the tree could have given us hundreds of pints-LOL!

These are the tomatoes we had when we cleaned out our garden.  It felt so good to have the garden cleaned out, but the amount of tomatoes from just 9 plants was beyond overwhelming!  My sister ended up with most of them because I had canned all the salsa, tomatoes and spaghetti sauce that I had wanted.  We gave more away to my dad and my mother-in-law, but ended up throwing out the rest.

 We planted about the same number of potatoes this year, but they flourished in our cooler, wet summer!  I bet we had double to triple the potatoes and they were HUGE!  They'll last us most of the winter and we'll replant what's left.

These pumpkins started off so cute!  The kids really wanted to carve them and I thought I'd probably cook up one or two.  Unfortunately, when we set them out as decorations, the chickens decided they looked tasty and pecked away at them. At least the fed and made the chickens happy. ;-)

The end of the day we cleaned out (most of) the garden.  Our picnic table is quite big and it was FULL!

Morgan and Blake are awesome helpers when it comes to picking and husking the Indian popcorn!  This is a small portion of what we got.

It's currently hanging up in the mudroom to dry.  It's all across the sliding glass doors and the window.  We'll shell it soon and then have some tasty popcorn to eat through the winter.

We also planted 2 sweet potato plants that produced more than we could have imagined.

They turned out quite big.  From our experience last year, the big ones didn't have as much flavor, but I hope that's not true this year...

 ...we have A LOT of them! :-)

 I'd say I can't wait for next year's garden but, to be honest, I'm glad...ecstatic actually...to be done for the year.  The work from the garden in the Spring, Summer and Fall sure makes me look forward to winter!  ;-)

Making Gardening Fun for Kids: Plant Potatoes!

Potatoes are a surprisingly fun vegetable to grow in your garden.  We've grown basic white potatoes and sweet potatoes and they're equally fun to harvest in the fall.

 

1. Work together: We've figured out a system over the years to harvest the potatoes as a family. We each have a job: Dad digs, Mom carries the dead plants to the compost and the kids take turns spotting and carrying potatoes to the container.  It's a good way to feel close as a family when everyone is working well together. :-)

2. Dig for treasure: Whether the kids are watching as someone else digs, or they're digging themselves, it's exciting to find the 'treasure' (potatoes) and it never gets old!  Each time they spot more potatoes they light up and shout as if they've found gold.

3. Play in the dirt:  I've mentioned the joy kids get out of playing in the dirt before, but it's worth mentioning again.  Allow them to get dirty, find worms and bugs and maybe even make little worm and bug families!

4. Size differences:  Kids like going through and finding the BIGGEST potato and the itsy bitsy baby potato.  It's not only fun, but learning how to sort sizes is educational too! :-)

 

5. Fun food: Potatoes make all sorts of fun foods, but the kids' favorite would have to be French Fries!  It's easy to make them healthy just by baking them instead of frying.  Baked Sweet Potato Fries are THE BEST! :-)

 



This is the third installment of my "Making Gardening Fun for Kids" series. Click here to visit the previous posts.

St. Patrick's Day Fun #6: St. Pat's Potato Candy

I was a little leery in doing this, thinking it was going to taste more like potato than candy, but boy was I wrong! I found this at Disney Family Fun magazine's website. (They have a TON of fun ideas there!)

St. Pat's Potato Candy

• 1 large potato


• Pinch of salt


• 2 tablespoons butter


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 4 to 5 cups confectioners' sugar


• 5 cups sweetened coconut flakes

1. Peel the potato and boil it in water until soft. In a mixing bowl, mash the cooked potato with the salt and butter. Then -- this is key -- let it cool completely, or else it will melt the sugar when you add it.
2. Mix in the vanilla extract and 4 cups of sugar. At this point, the mixture should be stiff. If it isn't, add more sugar.
3. Sprinkle half of the coconut onto a waxed-paper-covered surface and turn the potato mixture onto it. Roll the batter until all of the coconut has been mixed in, then shape teaspoonfuls into small balls.
4. Roll the balls individually in the remaining coconut. Chill the finished candies until you're ready to serve them. Makes about 4 dozen.

I had talked to my mom about these before making them and, no surprise, she had made them before! Not only had she made them, but she also added a very special ingredient.....

CHOCOLATE! I used 12 ounces of chocolate chips and melted it in the microwave with 1 Tbsp of shortening to make dipping chocolate. They taste just like Mounds bars! DELICIOUS! And dangerous! I have to try to give these things away! ;-)

St. Patrick's Day Fun #2: Irish Potato Farls

I had some leftover mashed potatoes about a week ago that I wanted to find something new to use them for and I came up with these Irish Potato Farls on allrecipes.com. They are a griddle bread that you roll out in a big circle then cut them in 4 quarters. It was interesting to read the word 'farl' actually originates from the Gaelic word 'fardel' meaning 'four parts'. It's always fun to learn something new while I'm cooking! :-)

Irish Potato Farls

• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and halved
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 tablespoon melted butter

1. In a pot, cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer on medium-high heat until the center of the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork, about 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Drain, return potatoes to pot and allow to completely dry out over remaining heat. Mash with a potato masher until smooth.

2. Place warm mashed potato in medium bowl. Stir in flour, salt and melted butter. Mix lightly until dough forms.

3. On a well floured surface, knead the dough lightly. The dough will be sticky. Use a floured rolling pin to flatten into a 9 inch circle about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into quarters using a floured knife.

4. Sprinkle a little flour into the base of the skillet and cook the farls for 3 minutes on each side or until evenly browned. Season with a little salt and serve straight away.

They were pretty good with ketchup, but were a little bland on their own. If I were to do them again, I think I'd add some garlic or onion for flavor.

Our Final Days of Summer

It's hard to believe that summer is already over and today is the first day of fall. This summer has been SO busy, but it's been a ton of fun...especially for the kids. We packed a lot in these last few weeks before the autumn leaves started flying-take a look!

Pine River Nature Center

That was the first time we'd been to the nature center and we loved it! They had all sorts of hands on ways for the kids to learn about wildlife, plus trails and an awesome treehouse! :-)

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The Garage Sale

I helped with what was my first garage sale. I couldn't believe how time consuming it was, but we were able to get rid of a bunch of stuff while making a little money. (The pictures are from Morgan's point of view. The sweet woman waving is Morgan's great grandma and the others are friends of the family and Buck, Grandma's dog.)

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Diggin' Up Potatoes

We dug up our potatoes about a week and a half ago and got all sorts! We'll be eating good for the next few months! We all had fun with it too. It was like digging for burried treasure! ;-)

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The Detroit Zoo

The arctic exhibit was my personal favorite. It was set up so neat! There was an area where the seals swam over us and the polar bears played in the water right next to us-a truly amazing experience! (I wish I could have gotten better pictures-they didn't turn out well.)

These are pictures of the butterfly house and some of the birds we experienced. The kids and I really got a kick out of the duck-she was trying to eat the stroller! LOL!

Just a few more of our favorite animals to see at the zoo. Morgan's favorite was the hippo, even though he just slept and I always think the giraffes and zebras are really neat. The other picture is of the kids looking at the buffalo.

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The 2009 Michigan Firemen's Memorial Festival

The festival was very nice this year. With the exception of the mornings being in the mid 30's, the weather was beautiful! This was also the first year that Rich, along with a a few other local firefighters, competed in the Search & Rescue competition. They had 15 minutes to get their gear on and find 2 'victims' in a building full of smoke. Even though they didn't win, they learned from it and are anxious to do it again next year!
*Please excuse the music in the video. It was getting late while I was searching for music, so I settled on a song that just had the word 'fire' in it, instead of trying to find one that fit better.

Cheddar Taters

I'm at it again! I tried a new recipe from my new cookbook again. Here it is:


Cheddar Taters

• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 package (32 oz.) frozen Tater Tots
• 1-1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup crushed potato chips

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Gently stir in the Tater Tots. Transfer to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese and potato chips. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly. Yield:8-10 servings.


I made a couple small changes to the recipe when I made it. I used garlic salt and onion salt instead of garlic powder and onion powder. (I didn't have any.) I also only used 1 serving of potato chips and only 1 cup of cheddar cheese to cut back on calories a bit. I divided it into about 10 servings and it still ended up being nearly 400 calories a serving, but it is worth it! Rich and I both agreed that it was delicious and the kids both ate it and like it! :-) It tastes a lot like cheesy potatoes, but even more flavorful! The only thing I didn't like was I didn't plan anything else to go with it and it isn't much of a meal. It would be a great dish to take to a potluck, though!

I haven't been giving credit to my great new cookbook like I should be. The Onion Cheese Biscuits, the Pepperoni Pizza Muffins and this recipe all came from Taste of Home's 2004 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes cookbook. Thank you Taste of Home for the great recipes!

German Food: Potatoes and Soup

I don't usually think of Germany when I think of potatoes and soup. Ireland probably comes to mind a bit more, but Germany had some really interesting potato and soup dishes that I thought were really good!

When we were in Trier's Christmas Market, we kept seeing people walk by with what turned out to be potato pancakes, or Kartoffelpuffer (pictured). The same man who recommended the bratwurst that I tried in Trier, also suggested that we try these potato pancakes. They reminded me of a doughy hash brown, like at McDonald's, and just as greasy! They served the pancakes with applesauce, which really didn't sound too good to me, but I tried it. The applesauce turned out to be great with them-almost like it cut back on the greasiness!

I also had other potato dishes, but they weren't much different than what we can get here in the U.S. I had some french fries, which they call 'pommes' that came with my schnitzel and I also had American fries, which I mentioned in my previous 'German Food: Sausages' post.

The soups I tried while in Germany were nothing like what I expected! The first soup I had was in Munich while we were at the Hofbrauhaus. I ordered a potato soup, which was quite different than what I would usually order in the U.S. The U.S. potato soups are usually creamy and have bacon, cheese and chives on top. The potato soup there had a thick broth with potatoes and wasn't nearly as flavorful, but it was still good.

The other soup I had was a goulash soup, which I had in Rothenburg. I had never heard of goulash soup before or, if I had, I never thought anything of it. The goulash soup was very tasty and had potatoes and pieces of what I'm assuming was beef in it. I had thought there would be pasta in it, since I associate goulash with pasta, but there wasn't any. It was definitely a great soup to have to warm up, since it was also very spicy (for me at least).