Category — Recipes

We first made raspberry daiquiris a couple summers ago, after a neighbor mentioned that that is what they did with their black raspberries. As fond as we are of pie, we decided we could sacrifice some of our berries to try out their recipe.
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The biggest bonus of growing berries in the garden, in our case black raspberries, is having enough to make a pie! I find it difficult to justify using fresh berries purchased from the store to make a pie when the cost is so astronomical. Berries from the garden, however, are like free gifts! And our plants produce enough to have provided the opportunity for me, over time, to perfect a black raspberry pie.
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We scooted out of town yesterday on a 4-day jaunt to Cincinnati. Although we first planned the trip 9 months ago, we were almost caught unaware by the sudden arrival of our departure date. We hastily made arrangements for a friend to pick up mail, another friend to pick up our daughter when she gets back to town ahead of us, and a car to be repaired whilst we were gone.

We left the garden to its own devices.
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A lovage seedling followed us home from the garden center years ago. We were looking for perennial herbs to fill out the garden bed we’d set aside for herbs and we thought we’d give the tiny lovage plant a try.

Our lovage did not stay little for long. [Read more →]

Today was a gloriously sunny day so decided to “fire up” the ol’ box-style solar cooker while we worked around the garden.

The first round was a batch of “Solar Granola Bars” and a broccoli cheese “Solar Soufflée.” This first round cooked in roughly 3 hours (11:30 - 2:30) Janice has posted the recipe for the Granola Bars elsewhere on the site — and frankly, I think they taste a bit too good to be saddled with such a depressingly healthy name. To me, they’re some kind of brownie. The soufflée contains three eggs whipped with a bit of shredded cheese and some chopped up broccoli leftover from dinner last night. This batch also had a generous addition of fresh garlic. Coat the cooking vessel with something to keep it from sticking (a spray of Pam, a bit of olive oil, butter…) The great thing about solar eggs is that they fluff as they cook so their texture is quite wonderful.

As we were eating our eggs, our daughter tasted them and wanted some for herself so she made another batch. Since the cooker was going to be tended, I quartered a couple potatoes and halved two small onions and drizzled them with oil. These “Solar Roasted” vegetables will be a great start on hash browns for tomorrow. The really nice thing about the box cooker I built is its capacity. We could have easily had another pot in there.

It’s supposed to nice most of the weekend. I wonder what we’ll make tomorrow.