My Most Favorite Meatless Meal Ever

Today is your lucky day.  I'm going to share my most favorite meatless meal ever!  I've been making this for years -even before I was interested in eating less meat. So, you might ask, what qualifies it for the best meatless meal ever in my book?  I will tell you.
1- It involves pasta, which I dearly love.
2- It's healthy.
3- It takes about fifteen minutes, tops, to prepare.  I can manage this one when I'm too tired to do anything else.
4- It can be made with pantry or fresh ingredients, which means I can make it year around, which I do.
5- It has feta cheese in it.  I heart feta...a lot.
6- It's super easy, yet tastes great!  Everyone I've ever served this to loved it, which takes me to #7.
7- It can be dressed up for company. (Although this changes it's meatless status).
8- It makes your house smell great! (it's the garlic and oregano)
9- It's a one pot meal.
10- It instantly transports me back to Greece, where I took a little trip once upon a time and fell in love with  all things Greek.  Any place that sells feta cheese in huge chunks from wooden barrels and has olive oil on every table is my kind of place.  Add to that ,a few sheep grazing on green hillsides, the bluest water you'll ever see and ancient ruins around each corner.  I'm telling you that place is amazing . See, just thinking about this recipe takes me back to Greece.

Now, are you in the mood for a little Greek food?

Start with tomatoes.  If it's summer and your kitchen counter looks anything like mine,

you'll definitely want to use fresh tomatoes.  This recipe is really the very best when you use fresh tomatoes.  But if it's not tomato season, you can sure get by with a couple cans of diced tomatoes, well drained.  The rest of the ingredient list is as follows: lemon juice, green onions, feta cheese, oregano, olive oil and fresh garlic. 

Today I decided to use some cherry tomatoes.  I halved those, chopped my garlic, green onions and parsley.  It's important to have everything chopped and ready to go before you turn on the heat in your skillet. This cooks in a flash.  

As soon as my pasta is almost done, I start the sauce on the stovetop.  In a skillet, I heat a couple T. of olive oil and then add my garlic and oregano.  This is when your house begins to smell really good.  Stir and watch closely that the garlic doesn't brown.  Browned garlic will ruin the recipe, so you might as well throw it out and start over if it happens.  I speak from a bit of experience here.  If you look closely, you'll see I almost messed up this time, but it turned out ok.

After a couple of minutes, add juice from a lemon, chopped scallions, chunks of feta cheese and at the very end, scatter fresh parsley over the top.  Stir and after a minute or two, turn off the heat.  You don't want the tomatoes to get mushy or all the cheese to melt.   And that is it.  I've been known to throw a few capers and kalamata olives in this sauce and even a handful of fresh spinach if I have it, but it's delicious without those things too.

Now if you want to dress this up, you can add peeled and cleaned shrimp at the end and cook a couple minutes longer until shrimp is pink.  Shrimp cooks really fast, so the sauce will still taste fresh when it's done.   Of course, it loses it's meatless status at this point, but it's mighty tasty and elevates the meal a notch or two.

Served over your choice of pasta - angel hair, spaghetti, linguine or even penne - it's ready in fifteen minutes flat.  Best meatless meal ever.  Go ahead and enjoy a little taste of Greece tonight!

Ugly Bread

Six months ago, I started making our bread. It was time to start using some of that wheat I've had in storage for years.  It's become a healthy habit and we love it.  Week after week I've been grinding wheat, mixing dough and baking bread that looks like this.  Not too bad, huh?  It's possible that I might, just might, have started to feel a little "puffed up" about my bread.

 I'd just begun to think I had this recipe mastered when a few days ago, my bread came out of the oven looking like this.  Same exact recipe, but something was definitely amiss.  I have no idea what happened.

I've been humbled.

Some People Do the Nicest Things!

Whenever I see the Fed Ex truck climbing my driveway, I quickly ask myself, "what did I order" and try to remember if I should get excited or not.  Bee equipment?  Shoes?  Books?  Usually it's something good, so I'm happy to see the Fed Ex man.  But even better than that, is when the Fed Ex man brings you something you didn't even know about, an unexpected gift.  I love presents!!!   And I've decided the best kind of present is the one you receive for no special reason at all.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  I like those Birthday and Christmas presents just fine, but when someone gives you a present, "just because I'm thinking about you and love you", well that's about as good as it gets.   And I got one of those last week!

Isn't that the cutest?  How did she know I loved that quote?  It's on my Pinterest "Quotes I Love" board.  Well, I did just as she suggested and put it in my laundry room and whenever I'm doing laundry, I see it and smile and think about how thoughtful she was to make it for me. And I feel loved!  And I feel a little old.  It doesn't seem that long ago when Jessica looked like this.

  Don't you love that spunky little face?  And here she is with her little sister all dressed up for Easter.

These girls and I have made some fun memories over the years. We've shared  birthdays, holidays, vacations and even "cousin's camp" at Aunt Melissa's.   And now....she's all grown up and the mother of two little ones of her own.  She's an entrepreneurial, stay at home mom with her own Etsy shop.  When does she have time to craft?  I have no idea, I'm not sure she sleeps, but you should check out her shop here.  You'll see lots of cute things like this:

Somehow she also finds the time to blog about her family's life here.  And I kid you not when I say the girl can make some seriously good salsa!  Go here to get her recipe.  I'm telling you.  It. Is. Awesome.  I just made it last night.  

So I guess you can tell, I love this girl to pieces.  I'm so grateful she is my niece and that we are friends, even though she is all grown up now and I'm more grown up.  Love you Jessica!  Oh, and maybe we could consider this your thank you note for the great gift, since I've not written it yet?  Is that tacky?

A Sunday Morning Drive

Yesterday morning I left bright and early to attend church in Murphy.  It's a two and a half hour drive from my home, but oh, what a lovely drive it is.  All I needed were a few snacks and my lunch, a water bottle and five new CD's to listen to and I was ready to hit the road.  Inspiring and praiseworthy, my play list included everything from Natalie Grant, Hillary Weeks, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, David Nevue, Paul Cardall, Darlene Zschech, Jenny Phillips and even a little Reliant K.  Oh, and I just got a new CD that I love by Mark Geslison and Geoff Groberg entitled Abide with Me. Their version of hymns played on traditional instruments were perfect to listen to in this mountain setting.  If you had been driving along beside me, you just might have caught me cranking the volume and singing my heart out.  I drove in a misty fog for the first half hour,

but then the mountains came into view and how can you not sing praises when surrounded by this kind of beauty?

Even with multiple stops to take pictures, I still made it to church on time!   I enjoyed a wonderful Sacrament service, followed by time in Primary with the children and the most amazing leaders.  When I visit the units, I tell them to put me to work and usually they do.  Yesterday, I was able to play with the little ones in Nursery and attend a Valiant class.  What a blessed Sabbath day!  Next time I visit Murphy, I'll be glad to take you along with me.  The branch would love to have you visit and we could plan time to get out and do some hiking in these mountains.

Yes, this forest is begging to be explored...by me.

What To Do With All The Squash

Why did I plant four squash plants?  This is the question that I've been asking myself the past few weeks.  Those little innocent plants that I put in the ground the first of May have been churning out the squash.  Wow, if everything would grow the way this vegetable grows, gardening would be a breeze.  Even with a squash dish on the menu every couple of days, I've had to find other things to do with the abundance.  At first friends were happy to take some off my hands, but now they see me coming and turn the other way.  They don't want any more of my squash.  I've taken bags to the homeless shelter and thankfully they haven't turned me down.  I've learned from experience that squash doesn't freeze well and I can only imagine that canned squash would end up being mush. What can I do with all this squash?  When lamenting about this to my friend Betsy, she said she had found a recipe for a squash casserole that freezes well. She used a mixture of squash and zucchini when she had both, but if not, she just used squash.  She made up lots of them last summer, stuck them in the freezer and they enjoyed them all winter.  Betsy froze hers in freezer bags and when ready to bake, took out a bag, emptied the contents into a greased casserole dish, covered with foil and baked. She also made individual portions by baking them in muffin tins. Now this was something I was interested in trying for myself. 

I've made a number of squash casseroles and I like them all, but her recipe was different from any I'd tried in the past.  Unlike other recipes, it didn't have eggs or sour cream in it, but it did have cornbread.  And I think that's what makes it so delicious!  When describing this to a friend a few days ago, she said, "oh, it sounds delicious, almost like a dressing"  And she's right!  That must be why I like it so much.  The dressing has always been my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal.   So I've been making plenty of these casseroles and we eat some and I freeze some. I've been using small foil casserole pans for the freezer that will be just the right amount for two people.  We really like it.  If you have squash, maybe you'll want to try it for yourself.   

You could make your own cornbread from scratch, but I've been using this mix and it's working out just fine.   Following the directions on the package, I bake the cornbread in a square dish, let it cool and then break it up in pieces and put it in a big bowl.

While the cornbread is baking, I chop up the squash in pretty big chunks.  It cooks down quite a bit and I like to bite into squash when I'm eating the casserole.  I put it in a pot with a little water and cook for a few minutes until the squash is almost tender.  Then drain it (reserving about a cup of water) and press down on the squash as much as possible to get out the liquid.

 In a skillet, I melt 1/4 stick of butter and about 1/4 cup olive oil. Then I chop some onion, garlic and fresh herbs.  I've been using thyme and parsley.  Of course you could use some dried herbs too.

I saute all that together until the onions are tender and add a couple of teaspoons of granulated chicken bouillon.  All of this goes into the bowl with the crumbled cornbread and cooked squash.

In that same bowl goes an eight ounce bag of shredded cheese, salt and pepper and some of the liquid you cooked the squash in.  Mix everything together and pour into casserole dishes.  

Bake at 350, covered with foil until bubbly. After about thirty minutes take off the foil so the casserole can brown for a few minutes.  I put the unbaked casseroles in the freezer for another day.  When I'm ready to eat them, I'll just pull them out and bake.

Good idea, huh?  

Thanks, Betsy! These pictures make me want some right now.

Betsy's Squash Casserole

4 1/2 cups zucchini, diced

4 1/2 cups yellow squash, diced

1 cup liquid from drained squash

1 cup chopped yellow onions

1 9x9 pan cornbread, cooked and crumbled

1/4 cup butter 

1/4 cup olive oil

1 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

2 t. granulated chicken bouillon

1 t. minced garlic

8 oz. grated cheddar cheese

1/2 t. thyme

1 T. parsley

Prepare cornbread from scratch or using boxed mix.  Place squash in saucepan and add just

enough water to cover.  Cook on low heat just until tender.  Remove from heat.  Drain squash,

reserve 1 cup of squash liquid.  On medium low temperature, place butter and oil in skillet.  Saute

the onions until they turn clear. Add salt, pepper, thyme, parsley.  Add granulated chicken bouillon

and garlic to onions. Stir.  Crumble cornbread in bowl and pour in reserved squash broth.  Add squash and cheese and stir all together.  Pour into greased casserole dishes and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.  Cover for first thirty minutes of cooking time.

I Dig Potatoes

Okay, you can go ahead and roll your eyes, but that title was the first thing that came to my mind and I'm sticking with it!  If I didn't grow anything else in my garden, with the exception of tomatoes of course, I would grow potatoes.  Who would've thought it could be so fun?  I can remember as a little girl, running in the garden behind my grandpa's tractor when he was turning the potatoes and excitedly picking them up and putting them in baskets.  But that is the extent of my experience with potatoes coming from any place other than the grocery store.  I knew absolutely nothing about planting them or how to take care of them once they were in the ground.  It's taken me a few years to get over my fear of "messing up" with gardening, but as of late I've adopted the "let's just put it in the ground and see what happens" mentality and that seems to be serving me well.  So what if it doesn't work, there's always next year to try again.  But I've learned that potatoes are really easy to grow. You can even grow them in containers if you don't have garden space.  You can read how to do that here.  What a great gardening project for kids, because they grow fast and everyone loves potatoes, right?  I planted mine in the area of my garden with the worst soil and they still rewarded me generously.  Back in March I picked up three varieties of seed potatoes from the local Feed and Seed - yukon gold, kennebec and red bliss.  I cut the potatoes in small pieces with at least one sprouting eye on each section, left them to cure for a few days and then planted three rows of each and waited.   After they started growing, I hilled the dirt up and put plenty of straw around them.  The turkeys and chickens thought I had put that straw there for them to scratch around in and I had to keep pulling it back up around the plants.  The potato beetles that I had to hand pick off my plants last year, never made an appearance this year.  Oh how glad I was about that!

By the end of June they looked like this and taking my cue from the wild turkeys (who had begun to dig them up), I decided they were ready to harvest.  Speaking of turkeys, they have been a huge pest to my gardening efforts.  They have no respect whatsoever for fences.  Here they are - inside the fenced raised bed areas

and they even fly into the chicken coop.

I enlisted Kenzie to help me dig the potatoes, promising her it would be a lot of fun.  Sounding more like work and less like fun, she was skeptical, but I knew after we dug the first plant she would be hooked.  Because digging potatoes is soooooo fun!

It always surprises me how you can plant one small little piece of potato and from it will grow a hill of four of five full size potatoes.

It's like unearthing a present each time you turn over the garden fork and you just can't help but get excited.

These beautiful potatoes came from that one little seed.

It's totally addicting and once we started digging, we didn't want to stop, until we had  pulled up every last plant.  I was so pleased with our little crop and we've been enjoying potatoes in every form you can imagine.  I love the little ones cooked with a pot of green beans.  I don't think I've ever tasted a potato salad that was as good as the one I made with potatoes that had been out of the ground for less than thirty minutes and barely had the dirt washed off of them. My favorite method this week is oven roasting with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, sprinkled with fresh dill and a tad of butter before serving.  Obviously we can't eat all these potatoes right away, so you know what that means don't you?   Honey, I need a root cellar...

Life in July - Daybook Entry

Outside my window...the sun is shining after days of rain.  I'm not complaining mind you, I've been praying for that rain.

I am wearing... jeans and polo shirt the color of an orange creamsicle.  Love that color!  My Asics running shoes- I hate wearing 
these all the time, but as much as I love my flip flops, my feet are rebelling.  Where are the cute summer shoes with good arch 
supports?  I need them.  

I am listening to...the washer and dryer, the "popping" sounds of lids on quarts of green beans recently pulled out of the canner.

I am thankful for... rainy days, food from the garden, black eye susans, long walks on my mountain and SC peaches.

Around the house...just trying to keep up with the basics as I'm spending a lot of time in the garden and kitchen.

I am loving...  traditions.  I picked peaches with Tara at "our favorite orchard" and we ate hamburgers at the little cafe where we

always stop on the way home.  It doesn't matter if it's only 10:30 in the morning, we still eat those fantastic hamburgers and fries.

This year we were joined by McKenna and had a wonderful time.  It's the little things, like picking peaches at an orchard, that

happens year after year that make the memories of a lifetime.  I'm also looking forward to our family reunion, another tradition

we've established that builds family unity and lots of memories.

I am hoping....to get the freezer and food storage rooms cleaned out in the next few weeks. I've got lots of food that needs to go

in both places.

I am reading.... Uncle Tom's Cabin.  I started this last month and am still working on it.  It's sad.  I knew it would be, but I'm glad

I'm reading it.  I'm also reading Sabbath .  Love this!  This morning I picked this book up again and started rereading it as my

"breakfast book".  I like to have something thought provoking and encouraging to read over breakfast, to take me into the day. 

This one fits the bill.  In my quest to read Children's Classics, I finished Pollyanna this week.  How wonderfully sweet and inspiring
this book is.  Written in a gentler time, it is a breath of fresh air.  I've caught myself being "glad" about everything lately.  If that 
makes no sense to you - you need to read the book.

I am creating...a pantry full of rows of canned fruits, jams and vegetables.  My husband tells me this is art.  

I am pondering... 

"Sabbath is not dependent upon our readiness to stop.  We do not stop when we are finished. We

do not stop when we complete our phone calls, finish our project, get through this stack of messages,

or get out this report that is due tomorrow.  We stop because it is time to stop.  Sabbath requires surrender.

If we only stop when we are finished with all our work, we will never stop - because our work is never

done.  With every accomplishment there arises a new responsibility.  Every swept floor invites another

sweeping, every child bathed invites another bathing.  When all life moves in such cycles, what is ever

finished?  If we refuse rest until we are finished, we will never rest until we die.  Sabbath dissolves

the artificial urgency of our days, because it liberates us from the need to be finished."

Wayne Muller 

I'm mulling over  many thoughts about honoring a true Sabbath and how that might look in my life.  I know I need it desperately

and a person with my personality profile has a hard time stopping, because there's always something screaming to be done.  Could 

I really get off that "production treadmill" and receive the rest that the Lord is trying to give me?  Just one blessed day a week?  And 

is this a joke for a member of a lay church who sometimes works harder on Sunday than other day of the week?  Pondering, pondering.

I am learning... that bees don't wait until you have time to work with them and this is not a hobby for procrastinators.  Last night 

at 10:00, Mark was putting new supers on three of the hives, because the bees were getting crowded and making us nervous about 

swarming.  We have four strong hives and they are making honey like crazy.  That's a good thing, but it's hard to keep up with what

we should be doing. Don't ever let anyone tell you that beekeeping is a low maintenance hobby.  Totally, not true. 
I've also learned that running up hills can cause tendinosis in your Achille's tendon.  Once again, I've had to stop training for the 5K
and go back to walking.  I'm frustrated by this, but what can you do?  Gotta take care of the body.

From the kitchen... lots of garden meals.  Diners may be getting tired of having a report at each meal about how much of the 
food on their plate was grown by me.  Oh, well...hazards of eating at my house!  We've had squash in every way imaginable, 
warm green bean salad with cherry tomatoes and pancetta, dilled potato salad, BLT's, caprese salad, oven roasted beets, peach 
crumble, corn on the cob,and so forth.  The eating is good!

Living my faith by... enjoying scripture study as I read each primary lesson from Sunbeams to Valiants along with the Sharing 
Time message for each Sunday, so that I'm prepared when I walk into Primary (wherever it may be) to contribute.  In the past
month I've conducted two sharing times (one that I had prepared in advance for and one that I just chipped in and handled 
on the spur of the moment, because someone was sick and didn't show up.  I didn't even panic, because I had studied it during
the week.  See how good this works out!) and spoke in Sacrament meeting.  The gospel really is easy enough for a child to learn, 
but can stretch even the oldest adult if we are seeking ways to grow and learn.   For example, last week I studied passages that 
focused on reverence, how to show love to my family members by strengthening family relationships, remembering to show
gratitude to others for their acts of kindness to me, learning how to put on the whole armor of God against evil.  I read scriptures
in Exodus, Luke, Doctrine and Covenants,  Ephesians and Alma.  I challenged myself  each day by asking and seeking answers 
to such questions as:

*How can I show reverence each day?  In church?  In nature?  In my family?

*What can I do this week to build relationships in my family?  In my extended family?

*How many times can I use the word "thank you" this week?  How many ways can I show thankfulness?

*What are the evils I have to face each day?  What specific things can I do to put on my spiritual armor?

*What are things I've heard in the last General Conference that are words of warning?  What have I been taught

    that I should be doing, but am not?

I'm learning more than you can imagine working in Primary.  The things that come out of the mouth of babes will amaze you!

One of my favorite things... Mario Badescu facial products.  Just discovered these herbal cleansers, masks and moisturizers.  I
will be switching over as soon as I use up everything I have now.  Sorry, Clinique.

In the garden...so much squash, green beans, potatoes and basil.  I'm fighting a battle with my tomatoes.  If it's not blight that's 

getting them, it's animals.  I've had some heartbreaking moments as I've walked through and seen pecks and bites on every tomato 

that's almost ready to eat.   Animals are biting into my squashes too - lost my only hubbard to something.  It makes me mad enough
to cuss - but so far, I've bit my tongue. I've had plenty of blueberries to eat and freeze and the butternut squash is starting to ripen.  

Around the farm... gardening and trying to manage bees takes up most of the time. 

A few plans for the rest of the week... can green beans and pepperoncinis,  visit teach, vote in the runoff Primary, take photos
at youth conference, visit primary leaders and children in Murphy. 

A picture thought...

Lunch

Walk to the garden and pick tomatoes and basil.

Slice tomato and place on plate.

Arrange basil leaves on tomato slices.

Slice fresh mozzarella.

Place on basil leaves.

Slice a few cherry tomatoes.  Scatter on top.

Drizzle with olive oil.

Add freshly ground pepper and salt.

Lunch is served.

Enjoy, while making "mmmm" sounds and

marveling at how easy and delicious this salad

was to prepare and how you would have spent

at least eight dollars for it in a nice restaurant.

This is why I garden!