Yummy Garden Goodness

If I hold these babies up, they are over 8 feet tall.  No joke!

Toasted bread, with fresh grape tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil then broiled.  When tomatoes are gooey, add fresh basil and mozeralla cheese with either fresh garlic or garlic powder.

Remember my Abundance post.  Yes, my children have resorted to playing with their veggies!

Yooper 2012

My sweetie and I have loved the UP of Michigan for years.  As I have said before.  Numerous times.  I LOVE the fact my parents now have a place there.  Here are some fun photos from our latest visit.  Bewarned, a lot of the pictures are of fishing.  :)

Grandma caught the fish using his pole (northern pike), therefor the fish became HIS fish....

celebrating the northern pike

Dad's hold up his fish

Lunch on a beach.  We were the only people on the lake

MY bass... and yes, there aren't any photos of me anywhere.

Papa relaxing.  Well deserved too!

And this is where you would have found me as a kid.  Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Abundance

After years of battling shade and acidic soil (from our 25 odd pine trees on our lot) and dreaming of garden boxes ~ I finally got some this year!  But it has been rough going.  We had an attack of the squash borer bugs which took out the three plants I most wanted to grow: zucchini, summer squash and pie pumpkins.  I had to totally rip them out.  So bummed.  Then dear Mr. and Mrs. Bunny Wabbit took out my broccoli, snap peas, and peas.  Grrr....

My cucumber and pepper plants are just sitting in the soil.  Along with the watermelon.  Not. Doing. Anything.  Really?  Great soil, sun, water?  What gives plants?

But to my shock in such a dismal season, my bitty rows of green beans and my few tomato plants are overwhelming me.  Abundance.

We can't eat the green beans fast enough.  The tomatoes are coming in so fast I am just throwing them in baggies and freezing them.  (hopefully to to something marvelous with them this fall? Right?)

When I was getting ready to cook green beans this week, my kids cried (now they love green beans, but we have been eating and eating them... see this post for how they deal with it)... So I decided to blanch and freeze them.  They turned out super!

Here's how I did it:

Assemble:
pot of boiling water
slotted spoon
ice water
dish to put blanched veggies in

clean and prep your veggies

boiling pot o' water

Ice water~ note I froze water in my bowl then added cold water, see the ice at the bottom?

clean container for freezing said veggies

add veggies to boiling water, bring back to a boil,

boil veggies for 3 minutes

remove veggies from boiling water and add to ice water, let sit in ice water for 3 minutes

put in container and let cool to room temperature and then freeze

That's it my friends, simple and easy.  If you can boil water and use a timer you can do this.  So stock up at the farmer's market or use your own.  And let me know how your garden is going.

I shared this post on GNOWFGLINS, click on the image below to check them out!