Honey - Cilantro Chicken Kabobs

This is one of my most requested recipes.  Not only is it flavorful and delicious, it's also easy to make and very versatile. You can add any additional veggies or fruits you like, but the kabobs are perfect just following this recipe.

I sometimes add quartered peaches and red bell pepper or whatever is in season from my garden.

Shrimp BLT Sandwich

My son Daniel is always looking for new and unique recipes for me to make.  Recently he picked up a magazine from the grocery store and marked a few recipes to try and this one for a Shrimp BLT sandwich was at the top of his list. 

My husband Bill and I had just gotten back from visiting Historical Jamestown and Assateague Island along the coast of Virginia and enjoyed fresh seafood for 4 days straight.  Right now, anything with seafood sounds really good to me.

Canning Carrots

We love carrots and eat them in many different ways.  There is nothing better than raw carrots dipped in Ranch dressing! I put carrots in just about all my homemade soups, chicken pot pie and we love them steamed or candied (brown sugar and butter).

I try to grow a crop of carrots every year, but some years I only get enough to eat fresh and not enough to can.  
This summer Ohio was reported to be the wettest in history, so I'm having a pretty poor crop harvest, and that goes for vegetables such as onions, garlic, and green beans too, ugh. 

Canning Whole Kernel Corn

It's summer and along with many other warm-weather activities, canning the vegetables that are ripe and in season is something I do every year.

When corn first comes in, it can be a little expensive but as the weeks pass the price per dozen is greatly reduced.

When buying sweet corn in the husk, look for bright green color snug husks and dark brown silk.

Sweet corn is a low acid food so must be pressure canned to avoid food poisoning and botulism.

Blackberry Cobbler (or One Cup Cobbler)

This is a really quick and easy dessert, and it quickly becomes nearly everyone’s favorite.  
You will get repeated requests for this dessert! 

A berry cobbler is a very homey comfort food. It's a dessert that’s not really fancy but gets the same reaction every time:  Dessert Heaven!

Blackberry is our favorite berry to use but just about any fruit works well.  Our next favorite fruits to use are peach and cherry.  

Black Bean, Tomato and Corn Salsa

We love salsa and pica de Galla and eat both year-round.  

I have a favorite Honey Lime Chicken Kabob recipe that's grilled and needed a new side dish to complement that recipe.

 
Salsa of course came to mind, and although I make different kinds of salsa, like strawberry and peach, I decided to try a new version. 

This is way easy and super delicious!  We ended up eating nearly half of it with tortilla chips before dinner was even ready.

Toinette's Limoncello

I met Toinette, (Antoinette) through our friend Larry whom Toinette was dating.  Not only is she a great cook, but she’s fun to be around and a good conversationalist.  We used to meet for lunch once or twice a month. And oh, did I mention smart?  

She was a college professor at a local college here in central Ohio but took a position in back in her home state. 

 

I do have a few of Toinette’s recipes, like her Shrimp Salsa, (a fav) but I never got a chance to ask her for her Limoncello recipe.  Toinette makes beautiful little bottles of this delicious adult citrus beverage to give out as gifts during the Christmas holidays.

Recently because the weather is finally improving and summer is right around the corner, I started thinking of a drink we could enjoy on hot summer days after a hard sweaty day working in the garden and around our little farm.

Strawberry Jam (No Canning Required)

Strawberry Freezer Jam in 30 Minutes

Strawberries are ripe here in central Ohio around the first week in June. 
I started making Strawberry Freezer Jam in the early 1990s and now my kids will not eat (or even like) commercially produced jam. Every year we go to a “Pick Your Own” farm to pick the strawberries fresh. 

When choosing strawberries, homegrown or farm fresh strawberries produce the best jam.  Store purchased lack the intense sweet strawberry flavor. 

I have also made cooked strawberry jam and it’s great for shelf life but there is just no comparison with Strawberry Freezer Jam for flavor. 

Dry Rub Mix

While searching the Internet a few years back for a good homemade dry rub mix I came across this recipe on The Yummy Life Blog. 

I decided to give it a try and I was not disappointed.  Turns out it’s great on chicken, beef, and pork and I have even used it on fish or when grilling shrimp.

Most of the spices I already had on hand and only had to purchase one or two.  I love spices and when I find one we like I usually purchase an extra. 

This dry rub mix took me back to long ago memories of my sister Debra and her wonderful recipes and spicy cooking.  One summer weekend years ago, she even spent the day showing my husband Bill and me how to make homemade barbecue sauce.   I lost my sister a few years back, but this dry rub mix encouraged me to try to reproduce her barbecue sauce. And I have to say, it turned out wonderful!

Quick and Easy Strawberry Cake

This is an easy sheet cake or layer cake that's ready in no time using a pre-packaged cake mix and frozen strawberries. 

We pick our strawberries at a nearby farm every year around the first week of June to make our own natural Homemade Strawberry Jam.  And I always buy extra strawberries to chop and freeze to use with desserts, on ice cream, or in salads.  

There is nothing like the taste of summer fresh strawberries!  

Well It's January and June is quickly approaching so I decided to use up some of last summer's strawberries to bake a cake for my husband Bill’s birthday.

This cake is also perfect if you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day dessert.  Or bookmark or Pin this recipe for summer and use fresh garden strawberries.  Great to serve at outdoor barbecues and summer dinner parties too!

Lemon Ice Box Pie

An old-timey favorite, simple to make and simply delicious. This is a great summer dessert to share at BBQs and gatherings.    

Fluffy and creamy smooth with a refreshing hint of lemon and the tropics, this will become one of your summer time favorites.

Lemon Ice Box Pie is considered by many to be a southern dish, but I can remember my mother making the most wonderful Lemon pies when I was little in central Ohio.  

Ice boxes date back to the days of ice harvesting which ran from the mid-19th century to the 1930s, or until refrigerators were introduced into the home. The Ice box had hollow walls and were packed with blocks of ice to keep food cold. It is most likely this pie recipe was created around that time.

Debra's Stuffed Peppers

My sister Debra passed away three years ago. Her Birthday is in September so in honor of her I decided to share one of my favorite summer recipes. 

She was a fantastic cook, but didn't write down her recipes, so all were lost when we lost her. Although I did not have a copy of Debra’s recipe,  I created this one to copy the peppers she would bring to our parties and family gatherings.  She used Anaheim peppers which are a little on the hot side.  

Summer Tomato Sandwich

These are wonderful summer sandwiches,  extremely easy to throw together and oh so delicious.

My husband's friend Roger gave us this recipe. 
During the autumn months Bill and Roger sometimes watch a few football games together on Saturdays,  but during the summer months they sit outside at Roger's Antique store. 

While sitting in the beautiful gardens Roger built, the two of them solve all the world problems, and work up quite an appetite. Roger usually whips them up a couple of these.

I have been hooked ever since Bill showed me how Roger makes them.

Pickle Relish

With an overabundance of cucumbers this year I'm making relish.
This is a hot dog style pickle relish but can be used on anything, it’s that good.  As for hot dogs, we usually don't eat them, unless we find the all-meat, nitrate free ones, which are delicious I have to say.  Did I mention this relish won a 1st Place Blue Ribbon at our County Fair?

About the ingredients:

The results are best if you use fresh from your garden produce or from a local farm market.  Store purchased is bland compared to home grown and fresh, which will affect the flavor of the relish.

And because of that, summer is the best time to make enough pickle relish to last through the winter. I use mostly red bell peppers in this recipe as I find green bell peppers have an overpowering flavor. 

You may want to use half red and half green.  

Use a mixture of red and sweet onions, not only for flavor but also for color.

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.

Good Old Fashion Dinner Party

A Women's Only Formal Dinner Party
Women are unique, special, intelligent and gifted.
But a lot of the time, all our time is taken up with work, kids, husbands, partners, housework and lots of stress, leaving very little time to ourselves.

My daughter Alexis, my son’s girlfriend Jennica and I decided to host a girls only night.
Another friend we consulted, Heidi, suggested we make it a formal dinner party and all of us dress up.
What a great idea that turned out to be! We had such a fun time admiring each other’s outfits and the SHOES! Each lady had on just a fantastic pair of heels, all to die for!
Jennica put together a playlist for background music which included lots of love and romance songs (of course) and also songs about woman empowerment.

Jennica, Alexis and I spent an evening shopping for a new tablecloth, something feminine and with a summer feel, and kicked around ideas for the menu.

Woman Sisterhood

Wow, it's been a busy summer!  I have been so busy with the yard, garden, chickens, and family that haven't had much time to be online.

I'm in the middle of planning a girls only dinner party and came across this quote I really like:

"What liberation of women has given us all, is not forcing us down a particular road.
Instead, it has given us a choice. We have a choice to have our families and run them as we want.
We may marry, we may not. We may have children, we may not. 
We may work, we may not.
But never, ever should what each of us do be devalued and denigrated in the eyes of others – especially by us women.
We are a powerful, purposeful sisterhood, and – differences or not – long may we all remember it."

~ Marilyn Stowe Blog