Dehyrated Apples with a twist!!

One of my Families FAVORITE snacks over the Holidays were these dehydrated Apples......  My friend Anita brought some for us at our annual Friend party this year, they were AMAZING!!!  As a matter of fact she is amazing--  here is how she made them.

 Peel, core & slice your apples- I love to use my handy dandy apple slicer/peeler/corer from pampered chief. It does everything all at once with the twist of a handle.  Then simply dip each slice into your favorite jell-o flavor and put in your food dehydrator- and you will LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!  And besides tasting wonderful- look how festive they are too!! ~Karen    

How to Freeze spinach & kale for smoothies

HELLO!!!  I feel like I have been gone for a month!  Life has been crazy this last 3 weeks, and it isn't getting any slower for the next little while- I have a lot of things to share with you, but first since it's the first of a new year... if you are like most of us, you are thinking " I need to lose a few pounds and start eating better.'  We make green smoothies almost everyday.  I have posted about how to store your spinach so it lasts longer, but even using it everyday in smoothies I still have a hard time using it all before it goes bad.  This is what I did today.... 

First- this last time I was in Costo they had baby kale in the big bags like the spinach... so I bought some to put in the smoothies.  But like the spinach it was going bad before we could use it.

So I took the kale & the spinach and added a little bit of water in the blendtec, blended them up

and put about 1/4 of a cup into the snack size baggies and froze them.  Then in the mornings they will be ready to toss into the blender with the other ingredients : carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, oranges, bananas, grape juice protein powder- or whatever you like--- - and no waste!!  And I think it might be a little faster too!  Love the green smoothies!  ~ Karen

Storing Potatoes

I just went and bought some potatoes & onions from a local farmer-- we stock up on them every winter. Right now they are still in the bags in the garage, but soon I will take them out of the bags and pour them into lrg. plastic milk crates- I like to store them this way because the crates have holes in them to allow air flow & you can stack them 2 or 3 high.  Here is a trick to help keep potatoes from budding- just place a couple of apples in with them- it works like magic!  

Happy Tuesday... if you have any great tips, please share... I would love to post them for others to use!!

How to store Tomatoes

With the cold weather comming... we picked everything out of the garden over the week-end.  There were still alot of tomatoes!!!  I wish I had kept track of how many bushels we had picked this year, it was a LOT!!

 So it looks like I have a little bit of work to do with the ripe tomatoes, but today I wanted to share with you something I learned from my Dad.   He would pick the GREEN tomatoes too!

He would take the green tomatoes-- wrap them in newspaper and place them in a box. They will ripen, and taste just like vine picked tomatoes.  We keep ours in the 4th level where it's a little cooler.  Then you can unwrap one or two every couple of days and enjoy garden fresh tomatoes for weeks after they have been picked. 

Freezer Corn

I love HARVEST time... after planting the garden, watering, weeding, & weeding.... comes the harvest!!  But along with the YUMMY produce to eat- comes the WORK!   Freezing corn can be quite the process. 

When I was first married I did it like my Mother had taught me..... husking, washing, blanching in a pot of boiling water, putting it into a sink of ice water, cutting it off of the HOT ears, bagging & freezing!  Whew..

Then I started doing it a much easier way.... and I have been doing it like this for 30 years.

First you need fresh corn!!

then cut each ear of corn at both ends like this... it makes it easier to peel the husks off.  This is a great job for the kids to do.

Now this is the TIP of the day.... cut the kernals of corn off  BEFORE blanching it. I know this picture looks a little dangerous, but when you are taking a picture of yourself cutting corn off you have to stage it. I held the cob upright, stuck the knife in the cob & took the picture with the other hand.  Making it look like I was about to cut my thumb off. LOL  I just wanted you to be able to see I cut it with a knife

because the corn isn't cooked it can be a little messy when you cut it off, so if you cut the bottom inch off on a cutting board first

then put the cob inside the bowl you are using it falls into the bowl = less mess to clean up.  I use the large tupperware bowl and it's perfect.  After you have cut the corn off of the cobs- measure the corn into your bowl (I use the tupperware bowl again)  Usually 1 dozen ears will give you about 11 cups of corn.  Pour 1/2 cup water into the bowl of corn & put it in the microwave.  Cook it 1 minute per cup/  So if you have 11 cups cook 11 minutes.

then bag up the blanched corn into bags and freeze.  I have a food saver, so I put 2 cups per bag and seal them.  But before I had a foodsaver I just put the corn into Ziplock freezer bags and flattened them so they stacked into the freezer better.   If you have never froze corn before.... you have NO idea how much easier this is!!  I will never go back to the old way of doing it.  So there is your Tip for Tuesday!!

Dried Apricots

I am still swimming in Apricots.... so the other night one of my sons friends was here, and I asked him how his Mom dried Apricots- She is famous for her amazing apricots, she dips them into jell-o.  Here's what Max told me to do....

 first wash & split open the apricots, remove the seed



then turn them inside out like this



dip them into any flavor of Jell-o



and layer them on the dehydrator racks. He didn't know exactly how long they took before they were done, so I'm on my own there.  I figure at least 10 hrs. rotate the racks as they start to dry. 

I found it was easier to half & pit a few apricots all at once & then it went faster to flip them inside out & dip them into the Jell-o.  I used cherry, but I really want to try Orange.  :) YUM!

Apricot Nectar

I'm not a big fan of Apricots, but I do like to make Apricot Nectar.  It's really good mixed with sprite, or I prefer to just mix it with other juices- like orange or apple juice.  In fact we had some this morning with apple juice & oh my... I had forgot how yummy it is.  I hadn't made it for a while, since the boys were young and all I could remember was that I used to add a can of pineapple to it.  So I decided since Jamie had given me some Apricots- I would give it a go.  It's easy here's all you need.

29 heaping cups of fruit- that has been washed, pitted, and cut in half.  I leave the peeling on, just cut out any bad spots.

Open one lrg. can of pineapple and blend it until it is liquid-
then pour it into a large pot on the stove.
Next take your Apricots and blend them up really well too......

stir the apricots with the pineapple and add 3 cups of sugar to the mixture- it will be a little thick
Bring everything to a boil.   I boiled it for a minute at a low rolling boil to make sure all the sugar gets dissolved.

pour in into your washed jars and put your boiled lids & rings on them... process them for 20 minutes-- and thats it!  You will get 5 quarts per batch.  It is so good added to sprite or juices for a quick yummy drink.
* Note:  I have canned for a long time & after reading this post- I realize that if you don't can very much - I haven't given very detailed instructions. I'm sorry, so I thought I would add a couple of things-  after filling your jars always wipe the top of the jar (the part where the lid goes) so that they are clean or the lids wont seal.  Fill a sm. pan with a little bit of water, place the canning lids into the water and boil them for a minute or so before putting them on the jars & tightening them with the rings. This will help to get a good seal on the jar.  Also a note- I did another batch this morning & didn't measure the Apricots I just filled a large tupperware bowl brimming full.  I ended up getting 6 1/2 quarts, it tastes sweet enough still and so you can add a few more apricots if you have them & it will still be fine.  I hope that helps. 

Growing and Freezing Basil

First let me just say that I am NOT a master gardener... but I have learned a few things over the years, and that is all I am sharing with you today-- some tips that work for me.  So with that being said- here are some things that have helped me when it comes to growing Basil.

I LOVE to use basil in my cooking, nothing tastes better than fresh basil.  I went out to the garden a few nights ago, and one of my plants was going crazy.  This is what it looked like--- I will show you in these pictures how to prune a Basil plant so that it continues to produce for you the whole summer.

I know it is hard to use that much basil everyday.. but you want to prune the plant because then it will keep producing more. (for every leaf you cut- 2 more will grow)  So I am also going to show you how to freeze it so that you can use it all year.

you don't want to let flowers grow on the plant, because then the flavor isn't as strong- so clip them off before they bloom.

the plants have a lot of stems, that look like this- you want to always keep at least 2-3 leaves on each stem.  Just grab a leaf and cut it off- continue doing this on the whole plant

see this is where I had cut a leaf off before and now you can see that there are 2 growing back.  By pruning  you will cause the plant to bush out instead of growing straight up.

and this is a picture of the same plant after I had pruned it back... I could still cut a few more off, but I like to keep some on there so I can cut fresh off to use in between cuttings.  I wish I knew how to post the first picture & this one side by side so that you can see the difference- sorry you're going to have to just scroll up to see the before and after effect.

 After you have pruned the plant, wash the leaves and cut the stems off of them- you can see I haven't done that yet in this picture, the stems are still quite long.    Once you have done that you can either use them now or put a few in a container in the fridge to use in the next few days.   
If you want to freeze the basil, this is the best way I have found to do it.  I know there are a few different ways to freeze basil, this way just works for me.

First take 20 leaves ( I figure lrg. leaves, so if there are a few smaller ones count 2 as 1 leaf)  I have always done 20 leaves because that's the amount I use for my Tomatoe Basil Soup and it's a good amount to add to sauces and things when your're cooking.  Put the basil leaves into your food processor and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, chop it up

then scoop it into a snack size baggie-- it fits perfect!  I have sealed them in my food saver bags before, but I couldn't tell a difference - so now I just use the baggies, try to squeeze out as much air as you can.



Then I put the bags of basil into one of these plastic containers in the freezer- they are the ones you can get for $ 1.00 at the dollar store or walmart.  And yes it looks like I need to defrost the freezer-- it's the job I dislike the most, so it's not happening today!!  :)   Put a label on you boxes so you know what is in each one.

I wanted to show you how beautiful it looks after being in the freezer for a year.... the one on the top is a bag from last year, and the one on the bottom is the one I did today.   The olive oil helps it keep it's vibrant green color -- You can make the best basil pesto ever!!  I hope this has been helpful, and if you've never tried to freeze herbs I hope you will give it a shot!!  You'll be surprised how easy it is.   



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