The Green Beans Are In!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Yes, that sounds a little odd. Those who have had a garden - any kind, any size - can understand the excitement, satisfaction and relief that something is finally being produced, after all the work you put into it.

So the green bean crop has come in, as have the sugar ann peas. It was the second planting - the birds ate most of the seeds from the first one, and the deer polished off what was left. That was before we expanded to fence around the garden to six feet high - which my husband now calls "The Gulag". :o) It's been a really late crop year in this neighborhood (we're in upstate New York). Everything's about a month late, and I'm sure it's due to the late frost we had two days after Memorial Day weekend. That's when I lost my 6-week-old pumpkins and cucumbers.

But enough griping! In about a month, I'll have about 50 more tomatoes, and about 30 more hot peppers! More than enough for chili and sauce, and of course, more Crazy Hot Salsa. When we get to that point, I'll post more recipes (unless my hubby beats me to it - he's a great cook). The only problem with both sauce and chili, and salsa for that matter, is that the recipe changes based on what you have available, especially if you're using whatever you've grown that year.

For the record, here's my preferred method of cooking: have a certain flavor in mind, and keep adding stuff until you get to that flavor. Yeah, it's really seat-of-your-pants, but it's fun. Unfortunately, it makes it really challenging to share my recipes!

I do have an easy green bean dish, a la my hubby - steam the beans; saute some pressed garlic in olive oil; throw the beans in when they are mostly cooked, but still crunchy. It's tasty and healthy, and the garlic makes the house smell yummy. Hubby's good at throwing things together and coming up with amazing dishes, some of which he'll probably post on his own blog. I'm more the baker of the family, although this week I'm the "preserves and jelly maker" - blackberry and white grape, respectively.

I'm definitely Suzie Homemaker this week!

My Crazy Hot Fresh Salsa

Thursday, August 14, 2008

OK, it doesn't have to be crazy hot, we just like it that way. We have the hot peppers ready in our garden now, and will have tomatoes to go with them soon too. This is the stuff I made last weekend, for gaming food. (Hmmm, gaming food. That will have to be another post. :) )

Ingredients:

4 medium sized tomatoes (pick a juicy kind - save the Romas for sauce)
1/4 each of a yellow, red and green bell pepper
1/4 medium sized onion
1/2 lime
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1/8 tsp dried cilantro

Hot Peppers: for Crazy Hot Salsa, last week I used 1 large red Portugal, 1 small red Cayenne, and 1 medium sized Jalapeno. (There was no reason for this combination in particular - it was what was ready in the garden at the time.) For tamer tastes, just use 2 Jalapenos.

This all makes about 4 cups of salsa - enough for 4 hungry people to polish off in one sitting.

Most of your veggies should be chopped into 1/4 inch pieces - small enough to fit into a "scoop". Chop up your tomatoes, onion and sweet peppers; add vinegars; squeeze out the lime right into the bowl (get the pulp too - use your fingers! Get messy! Woo!). Pulp your hot peppers in a processor, and add judiciously to the mixture. Keep tasting - when your eyes water, it's just about right.

Let your salsa sit out at room temp for about a 1/2 hour, to let the vinegar do its thing - then enjoy!

Nothing Profound, Just Hey, How Ya Doin'?

Thursday, August 7, 2008

I suppose it's what every blogger does - their first post is usually the icebreaker/introduction. To all my friends who read this, none of this stuff is news, but to all potential new friends and well-wishers, it makes sense to have an idea of who I am and why I feel the need to blog about my hobbies and life in general.

There really is no why - I just thought it would be fun.

So about me in general: I am a stay-at-home mom to a 3 year old beautiful girl, and a housewife to a wonderful hubby. Sounds like the classic Donna Reed thing, right? It is pretty cool, I'll be honest. Not that I'm old fashioned (or hopelessly brainwashed into the 50's mold), but being at home and raising my daughter seems like the right thing to be doing. We made the choice to have a child, and my responsibility is to raise her. It's an opportunity my husband and I have made for ourselves, and not without sacrifice.

Wow, didn't know I had a soapbox on that one. I guess I have an issue. As with all posts here, please feel free to comment. My husband and I both have that "discussion is always a good thing" mentality - for a detailed explanation of this, and a really good blog, visit his at http://thefrankspot.blogspot.com/. (It's in my fave blogs in the sidebar.)

OK, more about me, and what you can expect to find here: I'm a musician (rock & roll, baby); a gamer (PC - not console. I hate controllers. I was an Atari child, then an Apple lle user, back in the day.); an RPG player (fantasy and sci-fi); and a military history nut. Among other things. I also do some girlie stuff: Counted cross stitch, crochet, baking, gardening...and mom stuff. So this is kind of a kitchen sink blog. You may also find a few references to Wicca and paganism, politics, "greening", and other various global issues to name a few.

So, my friends, here I am! This is Reenie's Space, for opining, sharing and just plain hanging out.

Glad you're here!