Peach Salsa

We were blessed with a couple of bushels of peaches recently.And what a delicious blessing it was! I turned a bunch of the peaches into jam, which is my family's number 1 favorite jam. (Blackberry follows a close second.)

And today, I made this amazingly fresh, sweet and spicy salsa. I liked it so much that I made another batch and canned it.

Here's the recipe:

 

5 cups of diced peaches

1 cup of diced tomatoes

1 diced bell pepper

1 cup diced onion

3 jalapenos, minced

3-4 cloves garlic, minced*

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

2 Tbs honey

 

*Be sure to use freshly minced garlic. That jarred stuff just doesn't pack enough punch!

 

Combine everything and enjoy! You could eat this with chips, over grilled meat, or with a spoon like me!

 

If you do wish to can this, just ladle it into hot sterile jars and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. Makes 3 pints.

Pink Lemonade Sherbet

I have Sugar Baby (my 12 yr old dd) to thank for discovering this yummy treat! Lucky for us - she loves trying new recipes.

She found this one on allrecipes. It is pretty, creamy & delicious! I'm sure we'll be having this a lot this summer when the temperature goes up. And as pretty as it is, I could easily see it being served at a Mother's Day brunch or something like that...

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 (.13 ounce) envelope unsweetened orange soft drink mix or flavor of your choice [she used a .23oz packet of pink lemonaid flavored Koolaid]
  
• 3 cups milk

Directions

1. In a bowl, stir sugar, soft drink mix and milk until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a shallow freezer container; cover and freeze for 1 hour or until slightly thickened. Transfer to a mixing bowl, beat until smooth. Return to freezer container; cover and freeze until firm. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Taco Seasoning

I like to triple or even quadruple this recipe so that I always have it on hand. It's very tasty and convenient!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Stir all of the ingredients together & stir in an air-tight container until you're ready to use it!

Pierogis!

There's something about this time of the year makes me want to make things like pierogis or egg rolls. One or two (or three or four!) of the kids usually help out, so it makes for a pleasant afternoon in the kitchen, mixing, rolling, stuffing and chatting. These are some of my favorite times.

First, make a batch of mashed potatoes with butter, salt & milk like you normally do (or better yet, use leftovers!)- you will need about 4 cups & will probably have some leftover. Add cooked crumbled bacon, sauteed onions, sharp cheddar, and a little sour cream until you have a really deliciously savory filling. Just taste it & add more until it tastes like you like it. (Personally, I think minced jalapenos would be a very tasty addition!)

Make the dough. Here's how:

Ingredients:

4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter

Mix the flour & salt together. Cut in the butter until it's crumbly. Stir in the eggs & sour cream. Knead until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap & refrigerate for at least an hour. The dough will be a little sticky. Only work with a handful at a time, while keeping the rest refrigerated.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface until about 1/4" thick. Cut into 3" circles (I used a plastic drinking cup for this).

Put a rounded teaspoon of the filling onto the middle of each circle. Fold the circle in half and then wet the edges and fold them in to seal them. Once folded, dip a fork in flour and press the edges to make sure they're sealed and to make them look pretty.

Now you can freeze them for later use or go ahead & cook them. To freeze them, lay them on wax paper on a baking sheet with a little space in between. Place a sheet of wax paper between each layer so they don't stick together. Once they're frozen, you can put them all together in ziplock bags.

To cook them, drop several at a time into boiling water. You can boil them for several minutes & serve them this way, but I like to scoop them out of the water once they've risen to the surface, let them drain and then fry them in a little oil until they're golden. Serve with sour cream, salsa or ketchup! Makes about 4 dozen.

Octopus & Seaweed

I know this isn't a real recipe, but it's such a fun & cute idea that I just had to post it here. I first read about it several years ago, but hadn't made it for my younger set of kidlets. So, if you aren't philosophically opposed to feeding hotdogs & ramen to your children, here's how ya do it:

Get a hot dog & cut legs all the way up to within an inch of one end. (Mine only had 6 legs, but only a couple of my kids noticed.) Boil the hotdogs for a couple of minutes, and their legs will magically open up and they will become Octopi. (Design their faces with mustard.) Serve over a bed of ramen, which you can tint with green food coloring if you want it to be more realistic, that is, of course if you aren't opposed to feeding your kids even more chemicals. :P

Pizza Roll

Pizza. One of the best inventions ever known to man. Tasty. Portable. Easy. Fairly cheap. And it contains all of the food groups, right?

We eat pizza at least once a week in one form or another. This recipe is a tasty changeup from the ordinary version. It also allows the eater to control the amount of sauce, which is a big plus if you have people in your family who don't like sauce.

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cup flour
1 pkg yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs oil
1 1/2 cups warm water

2 cups mozzarella
4 Tbs grated parmesan
8 ounces pepperoni

pizza sauce, for dipping


Make dough with the first 6 ingredients. Let it rise for 1 hour. Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Roll each half into a large rectangle, about 1/2-3/4" thick. Spread with pepperoni & sprinkle with the cheeses. Starting with a long side, roll the dough and pinch the seams to seal. Bake at 350F on a greased baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, or until golden. Serve with warm sauce, for dipping.

Note:
You can use almost anything for filling - like salami, or turkey & swiss, olives, spinach, etc... Or make it a breakfast roll, by using cooked sausage and cheddar in place of the pepperoni and mozzarella.

Our favorite pickles

We grow a lot of veggies around here, and therefore do a lot of canning. This is our favorite way to eat cucumbers. The kids love them because they are very sweet and tangy. I like them piled on a big, juicy burger!

This recipe makes a lot & can easily be halved or fourthed (is that a word?).

Ingredients:

8 cups white vinegar

9 cups sugar

3 Tbs pickling spice

about 3 dozen 5" cucumbers, washed & sliced

Bring vinegar, sugar & spice to a boil in a large pot. Add cukes. Pack into hot, sterile jars & process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. Makes about 10 pints.

*You could add other yummy ingredients like sliced onions & peppers, but if I did, I'm afraid it would result in anarchy.

P.S. Pickling spice can be found in the spice aisle & it looks like this: