I was busy over the weekend with several little projects.  Among them was that I brought home the season's first tiny apples from the  (long forgotten) old apple tree at my mon's house... and then my kids brought home the season's first cold.  JOY!  Inevitably a house full of little kids is going to be full of bugs and this year I'm going to fight back with homemade Fire Cider!   Fire Cider is a traditional remedy for colds and flu with congestion and calls for all organic (EXPENSIVE) ingredients, including Apple Cider Vinegar with "the mother" in it.

I had a pile of apples that I wanted to make sauce with, so I peeled them and used the peels and cores to start a batch of my own homemade Apple Cider Vinegar.  I'm gonna need it now that I've poured most of the contents of that $8 bottle of my organic storebought stuff into my (amazing) jar of Fire Cider.  HAH!

I'll start with the recipe for making your own Apple Cider Vinegar, because it's really, exceptionally easy.

The humungous zucchini that they were giving away at our butcher shop last weekend was just screaming for my attention.  So, I brought one home.  We made salsa, zucchini bread, and breaded/fried zucchini "steaks".

Big as a baby...

Day 2
 Start a waterbath (Bring water to a rolling boil) in a large pot to process your salsa once it is in the Mason Jars.


Remove the bowl from the refrigerator.  Rinse and drain the veggies.  Put the veggies in a large pot and add the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

While the salsa is simmering, prepare 2 quart canning jars with caps and rings by washing them with hot soapy water. Fill the jars with the salsa when it is done cooking.

Cap the jars and put them in the waterbath.  Boil for 15 minutes.  Remove jars and let them cool on the counter.  They should seal themselves fairly quickly after being removed from the boiling water.

Enjoy!   Or keeps for up to 1 year on the shelf.

The local bell peppers have finally  shown up at the grocery store and I wasted no time making this classic family favorite.

We have been watching my Mom's mini-farm while she's been on vacation, and guess who got into the carrot patch?! :-D  Don't worry Mom, I left some for you too!

These beauties were quickly made into lacto-fermented ginger carrots because the cucumber version that we made a couple weeks ago were SO good I couldn't help but try another variety (probably several varities when it's all said and done) of veggie using this method of preservation.

AND I used the greens in a cooked vegetarian greens and beans side-dish last night.  Did you know you can eat carrot greens?  YEP!   Don't waste 'em, they're delicious and the feathery part cooks up just like any other cooking green.  I'll be using the stalks as part of my next veggie stock when I get around to it.

Despite all the rain we've been having  lately, we've been grilling outside quite a bit. To go along with the Grilled Eggplant with Tomato and Basil, we tried our hand at making grilled salmon on a cedar plank.  It was quite a treat for us and rounded out our Sunday dinner rather well last weekend.

We ate ours as a side with salmon that we also cooked on the grill.

I was gifted with another LARGE cucumber from Mom's garden the other day, so I decided to try something a little different.  This is another Ur Oma recipe and can best be described as a fresh, not overly sweet relish, OR a shredded cucumber salad.  We love it as a side by itself, on salads, or on sandwiches with coldcuts or with a nice slab of fresh tomato and black pepper.

Ur Oma informed me that when she was growing up, all salads were made in this fashion because there wasn't such a thing as store bought salad dressing... honestly, I'd choose this over store-bought any day.  This is also one of those recipes that isn't exact and is 100% to taste made according to what you have on hand.  I had this HUGE cucumber, and a large sweet onion so I went from there.  I'll include the approximate measurements for how I prefer it this salad to  my own taste preferences.

We had a family get-together at our place last weekend and I decided I wanted to include eggplant in the menu.  Everything else on the menu required space on the grill, so I decided to go ahead and roast the veggies in the oven.  These were great served hot from the oven, and equally great served cold the next day on dinner salads. 

Cucumbers have been making their way into our kitchen by the bagful and I'm loving every second of it.  Over the last week, I've made another double batch of lacto-fermented dills, and a couple quarts of beautiful tiny refrigerator dills (actually, my youngest daughter played a big part in putting these together).  One of the bags of cukes that we got were overripe and HUGE.  I chopped 4 of them up and made traditional style sweet (bread and butter) pickles, and tried my hand at yet another recipe passed down from Oma.  "Geschmorte Gurken" is a braised stuffed cucumber recipe where you hollow out the seeds and use the cukes as little bowls to stuff with savory (Paleo-friendly!) filling.  And we still have more cukes so we aren't quite done yet!


Lets start with a little project I did with my 2-year-old daughter while her sister was at camp.  She was so excited to help (EAT) the little cucumbers that I had gotten specifically for pickling that I thought it was wise to just let her immerse herself in the process.  She did great and now we have 2 quarts of beautiful refrigerator dills to snack on. 

Baking up a storm over here and one random day during the week, cranberry scones appeared!  Love them with tea (of course) or by themselves.  They're best hot out of the oven, but also freeze and re-heat well.

Growing up we had thin pancakes quite often when we visited our Oma's house.
They are crepe-like, but not to be confused with their more-demanding cousin.  No blender or chilling or resting is required with these pancakes and they taste BETTER than crepes in my own very humble opinion.  We made ours on our electric lefse grill (a must, as hubby is a Swede), but they can just as easily be made in a skillet on the stove like Oma continues to do to this day for her great-grandchildren.

Serve with preserves, maple syrup, powdered sugar, or savory fillings (really nice with roasted veggies in the middle at lunchtime).

The summer heat is still present outside, but  we've officially hit the season of grain harvest!   My husband's favorite thing to bake is Challah bread, so I thought it'd be fitting to share the recipe and pictures in honor of this year's grain harvest.

The instructions I provided are for 1 large loaf, but the recipe can be make into 2 or 3 smaller loaves as well... which is what Mark chose to do in this picture.  Just reduce the cooking time to 20-25 minutes.

As of 2 weeks ago, the storms have started.  This usually marks a turbulent time for changing weather and seasons.  The crows (which seem to disappear every spring when the migratory birds arrive) are making their presence known and the geese are flocking together into noisy airborne groups.  I've been picking blackcaps in our backyard for the last month and they stopped producing this week.  I ended up with about 3 gallons (full ziploc bags) of berries that I put  daily in the freezer to keep.  


I took out the frozen berries and made them into black cap wine, and jam.

Black cap wine is something that I made for the first time last season and it turned out fantastic.  Deep red, sweet, and wonderful chilled in a pretty glass.

Summer 2013 Blackcap wine

Enjoy!   And Happy Harvest!