Every summer as our garden starts hitting it’s peak in producing vegetables, I always wish I knew a few more recipes to use up those items we have so many of. We try harder in the summer to eat our vegetables as our main dish and just have the meat on the side, but that means those veggies have got to have some excitement.
This is a great recipe we learned last summer, and today walking through the grocery store, my KIDS pointed out the zucchini and yellow squash, begging for us to buy it because they couldn’t wait until ours was coming out of the garden. I figured if my picky little veggie eaters loved it that much, I should pass it on.
From our table to yours ~ a favorite summer dish.
4 zucchini or yellow squash, cubed into large, bite-sized chunks ~ our favorite is a combination of both squashes.
Heat your frying pan with a few tablespoons oil (olive oil tastes great here!). Make sure it is nice and hot before dropping in your squash pieces; you want them toasty on the outside without being soggy inside. Add 1-2 Tbls dry oregano, and fry 6-7 minutes.
Remove from frying pan and place on serving dish. Top with salt and ground pepper,
fresh parsley (we use cilantro sometimes for an extra zip in flavor) and crumbled feta cheese.
Feta cheeses to try :
You can substitute the soft curd cottage cheese taught in the milk class to reduce the cost on this recipe, season it with lemon and basil.
Greek Style – has a nice lemony fresh flavor.
French Style – has a more mild, creamy flavor.
Bulgarian – rather tangy flavor.
This is generally served as the main dish, since no one
wants meat when they have this option.
Another fun summer item to have on hand is a jar of your favorite potato salad dressing. We use 1 cup mayo, 4 Tbls red wine vinegar, ¼ cup chopped red onion or green onion, salt and pepper with a little cilantro. Keep it on hand and when you need a potato salad, all you need to do is boil some chopped potatoes, and your done! We also use this dressing in pasta salads and mashed potatoes.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
My neighbor gave me a laundry detergent making lesson recently and although I have not been making it very long, I have been impressed with it so far (it's cleaned wet sheets and camping dirt very well) and wanted to share it with you all - it works great, is easy to make and is so, so, SO cheap. I can't claim to be an expert, but I will share all that I have found through my experience and a fair amount of research online from others who have used it for years and still love it.
All the ingredients you need are shown in this picture above. I purchased all of these at my local grocery store and Macey's carries these items also. The last I checked, they did not have Borax, I'm not sure if they were out, or didn't carry it. The clerk did not seem to know either, so you might want to call ahead. All of these ingredients were on the laundry detergent isle.
Fels-Naptha Bar (full bar) - this is just a good, stain-fighting, bar of soap. You can also use any other soap that you have found to be good on stains.
Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (1 cup) - different from Baking Soda - but cleans and de-odorizes.
Borax (1 cup) - 20 Mule Team is the brand and is a laundry booster - it helps keep your clothing bright and ordorless.
Here is my Fels-Naptha Soap bar all grated up and on the stove. You can use a cheese grater - I used my little quisenart food processor and chopped it up. I have the tiny one, so I cut it up into 3 chunks and did them one at a time.
Add a little water (I did 4 cups) and warm it until the soap is all melted. Remember you are already using something a little foamy, so if you get it too hot, it will boil and get very foamy, very fast. This took about 15 minutes with minimal stirring to get it all melted.
Add 1 cup of the Borax and 1 cup of the Arm & Hammer and heat until dissolved. About 5-10 minutes.
This is my mixture of all 3 ingredients after everything is dissolved and melted. The color will be the same as the soap you used.
Pour your soap mixture into a 5 gallon bucket and add water until you are about 2 inches from the top.
The first 4 cups of water you add, you will want very hot to keep your soap liquid until it is not so concentrated. You can add cooler water towards the end. Let it sit for 24 hours, stirring every few hours to keep it well mixed. As it sits, it will become a thicker liquid. The less water you add - the higher the concentrate, but it will also be a thicker gel. The more water you add, the larger the portion you will use for each batch and it will be a thinner gel, more like the consistency of egg drop soup.
This is what mine looks like after 24 hours. I use between 1/2 to 1 cup per load, depending on how dirty the clothes are.
Like I said, I have not done this a lot yet, but here are some things I found online:
A few websites use only 2/3 a bar of soap to the 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup Arm & Hammer. The soap makes the biggest difference in your stain-fighting power, so I went ahead with the larger amount I found on other websites since my kids play outside all day.
You can store it in smaller containers so it is easier to shake up - I am using milk jugs, but if you have old laundry detergent bottles you can use those too.
So how cheap is this deal? Here's my breakdown for the cost:
Borax - I paid $3.99 - used 1 cup, the box holds about 6 cups (I am guessing, it may be more).
A&H - I paid $2.99 - used 1 cup, the box holds about 4 cups (guessing again, probably more).
Fels-Naptha Bar - I paid $0.99.
Macey's Price: Fels-Naptha 1.09, A&H 3.19.
The math for one 5 gal batch:
.99 (soap) + 0.67 (Borax) + .75 (A&H) = $2.41 for 5 gallons of detergent. 5 gallons = 160 1/2 cup loads = $0.015 per load!!! One and a half pennies per 1/2 cup!!! For a really dirty load I use a full cup, because for $0.03/load, go ahead and splurge!
Compare to tide - $10.00/31 loads = $0.33/load.
I use this in my front loading HE washer and it's been great. My favorite part? You can store a 2 year supply of laundry detergent in a bannana box!
If your family needs "scented" laundry detergent, add 1 tsp of essential oil during any mixing stage. Lemon, Orange or Lavender are some popular choices.
Rosemary Garlic Rub
This is a marinade that you would pay around $5/bottle at the grocery store. Make it yourself for about $1.00.
Rosemary is a fun herb to use but for a beginner to herbs it is generally overlooked. Here is a very simple way to use your fresh rosemary - put it in a rub that can be used on just about any meat. It can be made several days in advance and stored in the
refrigerator until you need to use it, or rub it into your meat and then freeze it so your meats are marinated coming out of the freezer.
Step One: You can harvest your own rosemary from your garden, or purchase it at the store. If you are buying rosemary, just use what you need when it is fresh and dry the rest (details at the end of this recipe).
Wash and pat dry your rosemary and remove it from the stem. One stem like shown in the video equals about 1 tsp.
You can chop rosemary
coarsely or very fine depending on your tastes. I chop mine very fine so my picky little eaters can't pick it out. I also do not prefer to get a chewy little rosemary stuck in my teeth - I find the flavor a little too strong that way - but if you really love the flavor, you may want to chop a bit more
coarsely.
Step Two: Peel and cut the end off of 6 cloves garlic. You can use a garlic press, which is much quicker, but when I have time I will mince it by hand because I like the larger
pieces of garlic.
Take your knife, lying it on the side across the top of your garlic and smash each clove. This releases the garlic oil and will give a stronger flavor. Sprinkle your garlic with a bit of salt to help keep it together and it minces much faster.
Get your garlic nice and fine - depending on if you did this by hand, you may not need to add any salt to the recipe at the end.
Mix your 4 tsp rosemary and 6 cloves garlic together to make a thick paste and add 6 tablespoons of olive oil (you can use any cooking oil, but if you are looking to use healthier oils, this is one you can use your olive oil in and it adds a nice flavor to your rub), 1 1/2 tsp salt (this may be less if you added it while chopping your
garlic), 1 tsp black pepper.
Spoon a small amount (about 1 tsp) on each side of your meat - we love this on pork chops - and rub it in well. If you are rubbing this on a full chicken, you may want to stuff the inside of the chicken with lemon wedges and a full stem of rosemary to get the flavor all the way through.
Tip for that extra rosemary!
When you are done using what you want, you can dry the rest and put it in a jar so it's not wasted and it will be much more flavorful (not to mention cheaper!) than the dried rosemary from the store. To dry it, wash and pat dry, take it off it's stem and lay it out in a dark place - room temp - and wait 7-10 days. When it feels nice and dry, it's ready to store. I place mine on a plate in my pantry to dry.
How to can your own butter:
One of the tricks to food storage is to get food that will keep you full and healthy, while keeping it tasting great! Canned butter will last for 3 years (a friend of mine has canned it has used it as far as 5 years old).
When you find a great deal on butter, stock up and can it so you have it on hand all year long.
1. Use any butter that is on sale. Lesser quality butter requires more shaking (see #5 below), but the results are the same as with the expensive brands.
2. Heat clean pint jars in a 250 degree oven for 20 minutes, without rings or seals. One pound of butter slightly more than fills one pint jar, so if you melt 11 pounds of butter, heat 12 pint jars. A roasting pan works well for holding the pint jars while in the oven.
3. While the jars are heating, melt butter slowly until it comes to a slow boil. Using a large spatula, stir the bottom of the pot often to keep the butter from
scorching. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes at least: a good simmer time will lessen the amount of shaking required (see #5 below). Place the lids in a small pot and bring to a boil, leaving the lids in simmering water until needed.
4. Stirring the melted butter from the bottom to the top with a soup ladle or small pot with a handle, pour the melted butter carefully into heated jars
through a canning jar funnel. Leave 3/4" of head space in the jar, which allows room for the shaking process.
5. Carefully wipe off the top of the jars, then get a hot lid from the simmering water, add the lid and ring and tighten securely, Lids will seal as they cool,. Once a few lids "ping", shake while the jars are still warm, but cool enough to handle easily, because the butter will separate and become foamy on top and white on the bottom. In a few minutes, shake again, and repeat until the butter retains the same consistency throughout the jar.
6. At this point, while still slightly warm, put the jars into a refrigerator. While cooling and hardening, shake again, and the melted butter will then look like butter and become firm. This final shaking is very important! Check every 5 minutes and give the jars a little shake until they are hardened in the jar! Leave in the refrigerator for an hour.
7. Canned butter should store for 3 years or longer on a cool, dark shelf. (The lady I learned this from has just used up the last of the butter she canned in 1999 and it was fine after 5 years.) Canned butter does not "melt" again when opened, so it does not need to be refrigerated upon opening, provided it is used within a reasonable length of time. She has canned over 75 pints of butter in the past year. Buy butter on sale, then keep it frozen until you have enough for canning 2 or 3 batches of a dozen jars each.
***Note - there is some controversy over canning butter. Please do your own research on canned butter to decide for yourself how you feel about canning it, you can follow the links below (some people will pressure cook it for added saftey):
