Cooking: Well Planned Dinner = Better Breakfast

This summer my teenage boy discovered he loves breakfast burritos.  I'm pleased as punch with this culinary revelation since a breakfast burrito is a great way to get grain, protein and veggies in one convenient hand-held meal.  So when I mentioned that they keep well in the freezer, my son requested that I make some to have on hand for a quick breakfast before school.  Nice idea, but since he's the main consumer - I flipped the request back around to him and suggested he make it for dinner one night.  So on his night to cook, he made a really big batch of breakfast burrito components.

Since we only made a small dent with what we ate at dinner, we cleared the table and set the leftovers up on the kitchen counter - ready for some assembly-line action.  Here's how it went:

1. Grab a tortilla
2. Add some scrambled eggs
3. Add some hashbrowns
4. Add some sausage crumbles
5. Add some cheese
6. Salsa is an optional ingredient as well
7. Roll up burrito style (tucking in edges as you roll up)
8. Wrap in aluminum foil

As you can see - he ended up with a grundle of breakfast burritos.  We placed them in freezer-ziptop bags and he pulls one out once or twice a week for breakfast or even for an after-school or late-night snack.  Preparing one dinner ended up feeding him for a long time.  Hopefully he'll remember that when he's off on his own. 

Canning: I Heard It Through the Grapevine

I was helping a neighbor pick grapes, and since they grow on a fence between yards, the neighbor in back wasn't going to use any of the grapes on their side.  So I enlisted the aid of my daughter and we picked and picked and picked. 

Those vines were loaded - mother nature's abundance never ceases to amaze me!  I ended up juicing six or seven batches and burned through an entire tank of propane (I always can outside using the burner on the side of my grill).  I made lots of quarts of grape juice, then the rest as grape jelly - using the reduced sugar pectin (so you get more fruit flavor instead of colorful sweet).

I ended up layering the last little bit of the white and concord grape jelly that didn't fit into jars.  Homemade tastes so much better!

Although it takes a long time to juice - it is easy as pie and requires very little work and attention.  I tossed all the grape mash onto the garden to be tilled in later. 
Now for my real canning epiphany.  I don't have a water softener, and my water-bath canner always has that hard-water residue. 

The residue doesn't show up that well here - but trust me - it's an unsightly pain!

This doesn't pose any real problem with quality, but my jars always come out with a chalky coating and you have to wipe down every jar and polish it off.  So, I decided to add a couple "glugs" of vinegar to the water this time - and viola! - no residue. 

Just a couple "glugs" (maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cup) to the water solved any hard-water residue problems.

I'm sure everyone else knew this trick already - but it was welcome news to me.  Now my jars come out sparkling clean on the outside so you can see the gorgeous fruit on the inside!

I know I've said it two or three times this fall, but I really think that I'm done canning for sure this year.  Now I've just got to find a place to store it all. . . off to organize!

Gardening: Cultivating an appreciation for the unusual

The beauty of gardening is that Mother Nature is full of curve-balls.  That may be part of what frustrates those with green thumbs, but it is also what keeps us coming back.  Pointing out some of natures spectacular displays may just help awaken the green thumb in our kids as well.  If not, your kids will at least think you are a garden-geek and that is pretty amusing as well.  Here are some of the latest garden oddities that I chose to bring to my kids attention:

Ok, you may not think that a dying house-plant leaf isn't a spectacular display, but really - who can deny it is has a gorgeous way of dying?  Nature may just be trying to teach us that aging can be beautiful in itself.

My parent discovered a planter covered in alien-looking vines.  Turns out it was a dodder, or a parasitic plant.

Although it may be a real blight in some areas of the country, it's pretty rare around here and I found it fascinating.  No connection to the soil, but it was thriving like no other.

Here's what it looks like after we untangled it all from the poor planter-victims. 

Ok - this is one of my favorite gardens ever!  On Crockett Avenue in Logan, Utah, a man named Bruce Bugbee creates a stunning garden display. 

This year's theme was the Wizard of Oz - complete with a yellow brick road.

I love the tin man!

The whimsical sign that describes the garden quotes the book/movie: "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto."  Love it!

Eating Autumnal Blooms

Ok, so I am not a huge plain cake with shortening-based frosting fan.  They are fun to make whimsical and pretty, but not always so tasty.  However, there are a few homemade recipes for frosted layer cakes that really get my taste-buds excited.  This time of year chrysanthemums are blooming their hardy, little hearts out.  Did you know that they are edible?  So here's my version of a sunflower cake using chrysanthemum (pesticide-free) petals and mint leaves.  Chocolate chips make up the seeds in the flower's center.  It is a fun and tasty way to say goodbye to summer and hello to fall.  I really love the liniment cake recipe from the Anne of Green Gables cookbook and I found this link to it online: http://www.food.com/recipe/annes-liniment-cake-anne-of-green-gables-362236 and my favorite frosting comes from the same cookbook: http://www.food.com/recipe/annes-chocolate-fudge-frosting-61886

While you're at it, you might as well make some raspberry cordial and call it a tea party!