Joy in the Kitchen!

Still using up cucumbers! My dill is finally coming on, so I did 5 quarts of dill pickles and then had enough cucumbers left to do these yummy pickles. These sweet Bread and Butter Pickles are a little more time consuming than a quick dill pickle, but are easy to do and tasty to eat.  They are a lot like the Refrigerator Pickles I posted about last week, but these are easily bottled to use through the year. (and save fridge space)  Bread and Butter Pickles are meant to be used on sandwiches or as an accompaniment to a main dish.  My favorite way to eat them is with tender roast beef.  Yummy!  This is my Mom's recipe.  I don't know where she got the recipe, but she was making these before I was born.  (back in the day of the dinosaur if you ask my younger kids lol ) Mom's Bread & Butter Pickles 6 quarts of sliced pickling cucumbers (about 1/8 inch thick) 2 quarts of sliced onion 4 peppers, sliced (green, red, or a combination of both) 1/2 C. salt ice cubes Layer the v

If you are like me right now, and looking for lots of ways to hide, ummm... I mean cook zucchini and other summer squash, this recipe is a delicious option.  All of my kids will eat this dish, which moves it up to the top of the list on menu's right now anyway!  Right now we are picking squash every other day.  There seems to be something about zucchini that makes it just a little too small to pick one day, and the size of your forearm the next!  One of natures miracles for sure!  LOL    All of the veggies I used are available in the garden right now, as well as the grocery store or a farmers market if you have one close to you. If you haven't tried patty pan squash, the taste and texture are very similar to zucchini.  I think they're almost too cute to eat.  I forgot to take a picture before we demolished this dish yesterday... but rather than wait until I make it again, I decided to post now anyway. :)  Be sure you add or omit whatever veggies are available to you to mak

My Mother-in-law is a great cook!  She has always done a lot of canning as well.  This sweet pickle recipe is one that Dave requested I learn to make soon after we were married.  It's SO easy!   I'm more of a dill pickle person, but I like these with roast beef, and since my fresh dill isn't ready yet, these will help use up those first cucumbers.  They taste similar to bread and butter pickles.  These are not brined or canned.  You just slice up your veggies, fill a gallon sized GLASS jar, and pour the heated vinegar solution over it.  Easy peasy! Shirley's Sweet Refrigerator Pickles 4 C. apple cider vinegar 4 C. sugar 1/4 C. salt 1 1/3 tsp. turmeric 1 1/3 tsp. mustard seed 1 1/3 tsp. celery seed Heat (not boil) until sugar dissolves.  Pack sliced cucumbers and sliced onions into gallon sized glass jar.  Pour hot vinegar syrup over the vegetables.  Cover jar with plastic wrap and then foil or a lid.  When cooled, place in refrigerator.  Pickles are ready to star

This cake is super easy to make and tastes wonderful!  Jaylyn (who is 10) made this cake at a friends house early this summer and has had so much fun making it a couple of times a week ever since!  We've had fun changing the cake mix and pudding flavors.  (in case you're wondering - banana pudding and chocolate cake mix was NOT that great! lol ) I found a recipe online that is similar to what Jaylyn makes - only we add 1 C. of sour cream and increase the oil to 1/2 Cup.   You can find that recipe HERE. We prefer just a dusting of powdered sugar on this.  It is rich enough without frosting. We love eating this warm out of the oven .... and if there's any left, it stays moist and delicious for a few days afterward.   I'm thinking this would freeze well but haven't had a chance to have any left to try it.   Enjoy!

We've had an abundance of raspberries offered to us this year!  Dad and Mom let us have 2 large pickings from their patch.  I thought I'd NEVER finish picking the first time... move a branch or turn a leaf and MORE BERRIES!   So far I've bottled 21 quarts, frozen 21 quarts, made 2 batches of raspberry freezer jam, mashed up and froze enough berries for 2 more batches of jam, and we've eaten raspberries fresh until we're almost pink from the inside out!  :)    We're in Raspberry Heaven! We've been enjoying homemade ice cream quite a bit this summer.  We've mainly made vanilla and chocolate.  We started wondering how we'd enjoy fresh raspberry ice cream.... and tonight we found that we LOVE it!   We used a 4 quart ice cream freezer that is pretty much like THIS and approximately these ingredients: Raspberry Ice Cream 1 quart of cream  (I used regular but heavy cream would have been even better) part of a quart of half and half  (probably about

We've been planting and tending our garden for the past 2 months waiting for harvest time.  It's HERE!   :)  In the past week we've been busy, busy, busy canning and freezing!   Dad and Mom were amazing and let me have a picking off their raspberry patch a few days ago.  5 hours picking those berries!  I'm not sure how many berries are in a traditional flat, but I'd venture to guess we got at least 4 or more flats.  Those ruby red jars of raspberries sure look beautiful on my pantry shelf!  (it might be hard to let people eat them!) In the last week we have: frozen 12 cups of peas bottled 14 quarts of raspberries frozen 9 quarts of raspberries made 3 batches of raspberry freezer jam bottled 16 quarts and 17 pints of green beans We are eating fresh: summer squash (crookneck and zucchini) green beans peas red potatoes onions swiss chard lettuce Cucumbers are starting to come on and I notice there are two nice sized eggplant that are ready to use. Today I pick