Mary's Green Beans, Bacon and Leeks

My husband and I meet up with my husband's sister Mary and her husband Ed every September for a camping trip to Pennsylvania. We have our breakfast and dinners pre-planned and we eat at our campsites, one day Mary cooks, and the next I cook. 

And usually, we throw in a night of eating out. 

Mary served us these amazing green beans with dinner one year, yum-yum! So of course I just had to have her recipe. 

Roasted Asparagus with Feta Cheese

Asparagus is believed to have been cultivated for thousands of years.

It is native to Europe and Asia and is theorize that it grew wild near the sea in sand dunes.  I find it interesting that Asparagus is a member of the Lily family, which also includes onions, leeks and garlic.

Asparagus is a nutrient-dense food, high in Folic Acid and is a good source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin.

Asparagus also has No Fat, No Cholesterol and is low in Sodium. Yea!

I wasn’t always a fan of asparagus but have in recent years grown quite fond it.  And last week, while visiting Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello I learned that asparagus was cultivated it in his gardens.

I have a small patch of asparagus in my garden but I also buy bundles of it when in season at the grocery store.

Italian Meatballs

Delicious Homemade Meatballs

When you need to serve dinner to a crowd, spaghetti and meatballs is one of the easiest dishes that come to mind.  Why?  Because except for cooking the pasta, it’s a meal that can be made ahead or whipped up on short notice.

Add a tossed salad, bottle of wine and garlic bread and you have an Italian Dinner Party!

I have been making homemade meatballs for some time, well since discovering that commercially made are either bland or have a “frozen” taste, are really small and usually full of preservatives.    I wanted a hearty, tender, flavorful more natural meatball!
I have tried many recipes, all making the “typical” meatball and have also been experimenting by adding different spices, using bread crumb or crackers, with milk and without. 

Growing Your Own Garlic

Growing, Harvesting and Storing Garlic

It’s the end of March and I have the worst case of cabin fever I have ever experienced. We've had an unusually hard long winter here in Ohio, and all across the Midwest, with temperatures remaining well below freezing and even well below zero for long extended periods of time, ugh.  Usually our snow melts after a few days, but not this year. 

Gardening and seed catalogs are arriving in my mailbox nearly every week.  But most days, it’s almost too cold to walk down the lane to the mail box!

I am already planning the lay out of the vegetable garden and what I need to plant, one of which is garlic. We love garlic and I use it in many recipes and dishes.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Delicious Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup.
It is indisputable that the mushroom is a strong contender for the #1 spot as a Super Food! The mushroom provides tons of health benefits and is maybe even better than most vegetables.  Mushrooms are different than vegetables because they provide nutrients in amounts not usually found in vegetables.  For instance,  a single serving of mushrooms provides more than 20% of the daily needs for six essential nutrients: riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, copper and selenium.

We cook with mushrooms a lot and really love Mushroom Soup on cold Ohio afternoons.  Most recipes
I've tried make small single serving batches and most just didn't have that strong earthy mushroom taste I love.

Cucumbers into Pickles

Easy Homemade Garlic Dill Pickles

I'm always thrilled to find an easy way to make something my family loves.  Pickles were always difficult to get correct because of the whole brine thing.

But now I'm in pickle heaven, with this easy to follow recipe and method.  I have made several batches of pickles since discovering the Ball Kosher Dill Pickle Mix.  I changed the recipe just a little because we like strong dill and garlic flavored pickles like the Deli style Claussen pickle.  The end result is amazing.