Cooking and Gardening

Two of my favorite things...cooking and gardening. Here are a couple of the yummy meals we've had recently.

This is grilled pork, applesauce I had made and canned, kale "chips" (kale with olive oil and salt on it and then baked until crispy) and a roasted sweet potato, potato and butternut squash medley. The butternut squash was from our garden.

Michael and I both love Thai and Indian food so I combined both one night. I made chicken pad thai (which Katelyn loved also) and curried sweet potato filled samosas that I baked instead of fried. Yummy!!

The butternut squash just started growing in our garden. We had tilled our compost pile into the soil in the spring and this was came up. I've harvested 20 squash from about three separate plants. I've got them put up and we'll use them all winter to roast and I'll bake, puree and freeze some to use later in soups and breads. This was a fun surprise this year and one we're loving!

Before the frost hit I harvested all the tomatoes that I could. They are currently laid out all over the counter. I got a big batch of ripe tomatoes before this one and I canned 12 pints of diced tomatoes. We canned and used LOTS of tomatoes this year and they all came from the 50 cent half dead plants I bought at Lowes on clearance. We got a whole lot out of the $4 we spent on tomato plants! What a blessing!!!!

More tomatoes!!! (Really they're everywhere around here.)

Today it was in the mid sixties. A beautiful day for sure. We got some rain earlier this week and so the soil was soft. Before it gets really cold out we decided to have a productive day in the yard getting ready for winter. We pulled everything out of the gardens, raked all the leaves into the compost pile, weeded out old planters on the porch and threw the dirt into the raised bed (and finally threw out all of our old porch containers...new ones to come in the spring), put up the patio furniture, hosed down the patio and put the hose in the garage. We need to mow one more time and rake in the front yard but other than that, the yardwork is done until spring!!! (Good thing because this pregnant mama is about done being able to do all this stuff!) Katelyn was very helpful though. She collected tomatoes that had fallen and she found a worm that kept her busy for a VERY long time. :) She said...."Oh, I love bugs." She was FILTHY by the end of yardwork day.

A productive fall day for sure. I feel so much better!! There is much to do inside now before the baby gets here....Let the nesting continue!