Roasted Purple Asparagus

I hate asparagus. 

I love this asparagus!

Purple asparagus from my Dad's garden.

It's the only asparagus I will eat.  I cooked it at 400 F for 15 mins.  First I coated it with olive oil, sprinkled it with salt and lime powder.  Roasted to perfection!

I'm not sure if it is the lime powder or the salt that makes the little red pokadots, but it's cute!  And yummy :)

Leaning Tower Salad

Of all the things on my menu, this item raised the most questions.

They are very simple to make, but a bit time intensive.

I think it took me an hour to make all of the salads.

Thank goodness for food processors!

~

I first put 2 tsp. of zesty vinaigrette in the bottom of each glass.

Zesty vinaigrette is made by a friend of mine - Wishbone.

Then I added layers of finely chopped vegetables.

From the bottom up:

Tomato, celery, potato salad, hard boiled eggs, broccoli, carrots, red cabbage, feta cheese, red and orange peppers.

I served the salads with the crabcakes and charon sauce.

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup

For a period of time, when I was a toddler, I would only eat Progresso Minestrone soup.

My mom would feed it to me and tell me the name of each bean and vegetable on the spoon.

It's still a family joke every time we eat minestrone soup.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, Progresso Soup changed their soup recipe.

The broth is way too thick and garlicky.

It's NOT the same soup, so now my souping mission is to find the perfect minestrone soup.

~

This is my latest effort.

First I started with several pounds of red tomatoes from my garden.

I cored them and then blended them up in the food processor, skin, seeds and all.

Then I cooked them down for about 10 hours until they were thick and saucy.

I used 6 cups of this tomato broth.

The rest of the tomato broth was used in Chocolate Black Beans.


Then saute 2 cups chopped onions (about 2 med)
in 2 Tbs of olive oil, until the onion is soft and slightly golden.
Turn off heat, to prevent the garlic from becoming bitter, and add 3 finely minced garlic cloves.



Roughly chopped 2 cups greens beans
and 3 cups roughly chopped carrots.

Add 2 cups chopped swiss chard or other green (kale, beet greens or cabbage) to the onions and garlic in the pan.

Plus 1 cup chopped celery.

1 can of butter beans.

Add 2 cups roughly chopped summer squash.

To the vegetables add 6 cups tomato broth.

You will need to add more broth to make it soupy.

This is what I do, but feel free to use canned broth -

I take 8 cups of water, boil it and add 1 or 2 bouillon cubes or 1 Tbs. Better Than Bouillon

Then I add the broth to the soup.

Now to season and can:

To season add (to taste) salt, pepper, fresh or dry basil, oregano, thyme, savory and a bay leaf.

Simmer for 10 to 15 mins.

Add more broth if needed.

Ladle hot soup into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace.

Remove air bubbles.

Adjust 2 piece caps.

Process pints 55 mins and

quarts 1 hour and 25 mins, at 10 pounds pressure in a steam-pressure canner.

Roasted Golden Beets

Yum!

One of the best flavors of Fall.

I'm not a big fan of red beets, simply because I

don't favor the pink teeth and urine look.

But golden beets are amazing!

Their seeds don't germinate very well, so they are

a little tricky to grow, however they are

well worth the effort.

Sliced, and roasted in a covered dish with 1 cup of water at 350 degrees.



Once cooked, the beet's skins slip off easily.
I eat them without any accoutrement,
but they are delicious with a little butter and salt.

Update On the Dill Crock

I canned my dill crock today.

First, I strained the brine.

While the brine warmed up to a boil, I packed the veggies into hot jars.

All canned up.
I think it looks very pretty.

County Fair

I won 3 red ribbons!

For my special events, buildings and birds entries.

I wish I could figure out what the judge was looking for, so I will know what to enter next year.

The grand prize winners are in the upper left hand corner.

Not really sure why she picked them for grand prize.

The Lumberjack show!

Lots of vegetable entries.

The biggest vegetable entries.

Mom and Dad checking out the flower entries.

Check out this HUGE sunflower!

Cute goaties!

If I could, I would love to have a goat.

They are so sweet!

Dad and a friendly goat.

Pretty Belgian horse and its baby.