Other beverages will pale in comparison to a Pear Blueberry Kompot. Before the day began, I had no idea that I would be googling "What to do with pear peels" and going down a rabbit hole learning the history of kompots. The pears were getting past the point of no return. I planned to preserve them canned in water but ended up making a batch of pear butter and pear blueberry kompot. That's life when you don't want to waste any of the harvest goodness. I have a hard time looking at the peels … [Read more...]
Meat Lovers Zucchini Lasagna
We are not vegetarians. Never even entered our minds. Meat Lovers Zucchini Lasagna is a perfect blend of hearty meat dish and garden fresh goodness. We like hearty meals and when I have tried to serve my family a meatless dinner, well, lets just say it was not met with rave reviews. When I was visiting my daughter, she said that we would be having her zucchini lasagna recipe for dinner. I was surprised because her husband is a fan of eating meat for dinner. It sounded good to me, though so I … [Read more...]
Quick Healthy Dinner Recipes
Quick healthy dinner recipes are essential to planning meals for a busy homestead family. Even if the family is a downsized family of two! Dinner brings us together for a connection. Sharing the food we grow and prepare at home or purchase locally gives us nourishment to do our work. It's no mystery that as our family's grow and change direction, our meals need to adapt. If we don't adapt we can find ourselves staring at an empty oven at 6 PM, wondering how to salvage dinner … [Read more...]
PEAR APPLE JAM for a Delicious Combo Spread
Gathering the fruit for the pear apple jam was easy. Our local market had some delicious looking pears and I had been wanting to make a pear jam. I purchased five pounds of the fruit, but I am not sure how much was left when I went to make the jam! Fortunately I did have enough for two cups of finely chopped pears called for in the recipe. I searched for a pear jam recipe and came across this one for PEAR APPLE JAM. It is from Recipe4Living.com. Great! I still had apples … [Read more...]
Canning Green Beans from the Harvest
Canning green beans brings back memories of long summer days and warm sun. Listen for the fresh snap as you prepare the beans for canning, right from harvest. Every speck of work needed for canning green beans will be worth it when you eat fresh all winter long. First, let's review some of the basics of preparing vegetables for canning recipes. Vegetables almost always need to be pressure canned. The hot water bath canner that is used to as a food preservation method for many fruits … [Read more...]