Hard Boiled Eggs Tip

Getting eggs from my chickens every day can make differentiating hard boiled eggs from not hard boiled eggs a bit tricky in the fridge. I usually have 2 or 3 egg cartons floating in there at any given time. One day I stumbled upon a technique that was easy, chemical-free, and didn't alter the flavor of the eggs. Simply add a handfull of dry onion skins to the pot of boiling water with your eggs.

The onion skins dye the egg shells a light brown

Top - eggs boiled with onion skins, bottom - fresh eggs

Super Easy Green Onions

Have you ever bought a package of green onions and after cutting them up just threw the bottom roots away? Yea me too, but not anymore! I may not even be buying green onions at all in the near future. That's because they are super easy to grow by just planting the root end. I experimented by planting a 1"  long stem with roots and one that was a couple inches tall. Both are growing well, but it seems the smaller one actually has a little more growth. The rest of the green onions that were in the package were looking a bit wilt-ish, so I placed them in a cup with a little water and even they perked right up.

A couple days after I stuck them in soil

A week after the previous photo was taken

Happy green onions in a bit of water

The Highlight of Summer

My favorite part about my garden in the summer is being able to make sun dried tomatoes. Okay... so while not technically "sun" dried, my dehydrator does an admirable job. I sprinkle some salt and Italian seasoning on the tomatoes. I then let the dehydrator run all night and most of the day, depending on how packed it is. I use a Nesco 700-Watt Food Dehydrator

This year I experimented with some "green" tomatoes- they aren't just unripe tomatoes, they are still green even when totally ripe. They didn't come out very good though.

Perfect Centerpiece

Who needs flower centerpieces when you can have something much more useful and tasty?? Dinner lacking a bit of flavor? Just pick some leaves off and add it to the meal yourself. I enjoy having vases/glasses of basil around my kitchen. My basil will last up to 3 days until it starts wilting. 

Insalata Caprese makes a perfect summer snack when the tomatoes start flowing. Lately, I've been making a super simple version of it on rosemary Triscuit crackers with a small slice of tomato, a basil leaf, and a bit of mozzarella cheese. When the evenings start getting cooler it can be nice to put it in the toaster oven to melt the cheese a bit. Mmmm.... tasty!

Blackberry Goodness

It's just about the end of blackberry season, but I wanted to share a bit about my blackberries. I have 5 acres of mostly grass. At one end of the property there's a whole hillside covered with blackberry bushes. Last year I led my chickens over there (it's a bit of a walk and took some coaxing) but once they got there, it was happy chicken day. Picking wild blackberries is a bit of an arduous task necessitating the use of jeans or thick clothing and treading carefully. It seems no matter how careful I am at picking the plumpest, darkest blackberries, I always come home with a lot of bitter ones. The more bitter the blackberries, the more sugar that must be added to the recipe to balance it out.

Easy, Sweet Rice

I usually make this as a guilty breakfast food, but it is very well suited for a desert as well.  Note that this is not rice pudding.

Sweet Rice paired with a slice of homemade cinnamon swirl raisin bread

All measurements are approximate. If I have company over I just make the rice and put the rest of the ingredients on the table so they can make it as they wish. Some people like it nice and creamy, others like it extra sweet while light on the cream. 

Robyn's Sweet Rice

Ingredients (makes about 4 small batches)

• 1 cup white rice
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dark raisins

Not Your Kids' Grilled Cheese

In celebration of National Grilled Cheese Day, I'm going to share my delicious recipe.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (serves two)

Ingredients

• 4 thick slices of white bread
• Margarine
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
• Parmesan
• Italian Seasoning
• Garlic Powder
• Lawry's Seasoning Salt
• Approx. 1 1/2 cups of Cheese (Muenster or Cheddar work well)
• 1 cup of Broccoli (optional)

Best Small Appliance in the Kitchen

If you love bread, you would absolutely love having a bread machine!! I thought I was fine occasionally making my bread by hand, but then I received a bread machine as a gift. Let me tell you it's so much more enjoyable and now there is always delicious bread in the house. It's so easy too!

Simply add the ingredients to the pan, usually wet ingredients first

Apple Skin Use

After peeling the apples for my apple sauce, I felt guilty wasting all that good skin. I remember when I was younger, having apple chips. Figured I could just dehydrate the peels over the stove or in the oven and sprinkle it with some cinnamon and sugar. I spread the skins over one of my metal cooling racks and placed it next to my wood stove. I left the skins for a couple hours until they were nice and crispy. The peels were sweet enough that I didn't even bother adding anything to them.

Cooking Applesauce on the Wood Stove

I love to save energy where I can. That's another reason why I love my wood stove. Not only does it make it warm and cozy inside, but I can also cook on it. Having a cast iron pot or pan will be necessary because it's better at dealing with the high temperatures than regular pans. Having an infrared thermometer is also helpful to know how hot the top of the stove is. I explained the benefits of this nifty little gadget here: Infrared Thermometers

This is an easy applesauce recipe, instead of cooking it on the regular stove, I used the wood stove. The temperature on top of the stove was a bit cool - 270 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, just remember if there's a roaring fire in the stove, it will take much less time to cook.

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 3 cups of rinsed, packed mint leaves
• 2 cups milk (can use 2% instead)
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 drops green food coloring (optional)
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips or 1 cup shaved milk chocolate

Tasty Blueberry Pancakes

The other day I got a bag of blueberries from a gardening friend of mine. Usually on one of Alex's days off, I make pancakes. Well, since I had some yummy blueberries, I decided to make some blueberry pancakes.

This is the recipe I always use for my regular pancakes from allrecipes.com user kris- just add blueberries:

Making Fresh Pasta (picture heavy)

Fresh pasta is easier to make than one would think. That is, if you have a pasta machine. I tried making fresh pasta by hand, its not too fun. So when I told my mom about my experience, she decided to get me a machine for my birthday. If you're planning on making pasta often, I would definitely suggest a machine. The machine rolls out the dough for you and makes it thin. It also cuts the dough into strips for you, depending on your model. My machine came with two cut options: fettuccine and spaghetti. This is the model I have and it works great:

CucinaPro Imperia Pasta Machine 

When using a machine, make sure to use lots of flour so the dough doesn't stick to any of the rollers. Also, don't wash the machine. A quick pass with a dry cloth to get rid of the excess flour will suffice.

This is the recipe I use, I found it on Allrecipes.com and altered it to my liking: