This dish is easy and quick to make. Within 20 minutes from fridge to table, this meal makes easily 5 adult sized servings, and can easily make more by cooking more pasta. This salmon scampi was made to emphasize and compliment the natural flavors of these ingredients. The dish tastes as it sounds, the pasta like pasta, and the green beans like green beans. All is held together by the subtle garlic oil and the powerful salmon flakes in every bite.
1. Fill large sauce pan 2/3 with water. Place over medium-high heat. Once boiling, add spaghetti and green beans. Cook according to directions on box.
2. With only 10 minutes left on your pasta, begin heating your frying pan on medium-high. Add oil and garlic, then once garlic starts to fry, add your salmon. Cook 4 minutes per side, then break into 1 inch chunks once cooked. Remove from heat.
3. Strain your pasta and green beans, then return to pan. Top with salmon scampi sauce. Stir, then plate and top with parmesan. Serve and enjoy!
Curry is a dish you can order out or eat at home. Curry is most common in Asian countries so it is layered with Asian spices. You can buy curry sauce or curry paste that has been simmered for hours, or you can make some at home like I did in the recipe below. Usually curry is also made with a piece of meat with a lot of fat to it, however, if you want to make a cheaper curry, you can just use some ground beef from the freezer. This is not authentic curry, however it’s still curry and can be made with what you can find at home. If you want extra heat in your curry you could add some peppers or some hot sauce. This recipe makes 6-8 Adult sized servings.
1. Heat the dutch oven over medium high heat. Add beef, onion, and garlic. Break up meat and stir until fully cooked. Add spices, tomato paste, water, and bouillons. Stir and cook until thickened.
2. Once thick, add frozen veggies. Break up, and stir into curry. Cook until mixture is boiling. Remove from heat. Serve about 1/2 cup of rice with about 1/2 cup of curry.
A cold front moved through the area this weekend, and boy was it cold. Causing our first frost to come 2 weeks early, we needed something to warm us up from all the things we were doing before winter. This recipe is a twist on the American classic Chicken and Dumplings. You can make this dish with chicken, and the recipe below allows you to do that, but I used turkey and turkey stock. Last thanksgiving, I saved all my leftover meat and froze it. I also made stock from the bones to have stock for this year. I used frozen and canned vegetables, and I made everything else according to the recipe below. This recipe was very good, and I will make this dish again in the future. Dumplings are surprisingly easy to make. This recipe makes 5-6 adult sized servings.
Heat your dutch oven/stock pot over medium high heat. Add your butter and flour. Stir constantly until mixture turns golden.
Add your vegetables and 1/4 cup stock, then cook for 5 minutes. Add your remaining stock and spices, then bring to a boil and stir occasionally.
While Soup is heating, Mix together dry dumpling ingredients into a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly, then add milk. Mix.
Add shredded meat to your soup and return to a boil. Once boiling, add batter a spoonful at a time to boiling soup. Once all batter balls are added, sprinkle with thyme, then cover and boil for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat, and let cool 15 minutes before eating.
As a first year gardener, I don’t know much about gardening. As a result, I do lots of research and planning, and even still it seems with gardening you just have to learn from your mistakes. The first frost is coming this weekend and I’ve already retired most of my garden. There are a few radishes in the ground still forming, green tomatoes sitting on the vine, and the lettuce flowers beginning to open. The only color that remains in my garden is three marigolds that are still thriving despite the temperatures. My house plants will be coming inside tonight to prepare for the frost, and soon my husband and will be struggling to find enough room to keep them for another winter.
There are so many things I wanted to do in the garden still, but yet the first frost is nearly here. I was able to amend one raised bed. I added manure and peat moss. I mixed it into the top few inches, and covered it with another thin layer of mulch. I had planned to plant garlic this fall, but with the first frost among us, it is likely too late. I may still try to get it in the ground, but we will have to see if it will warm back up at night after this frost. And to protect it from the frost, we’ll likely use hay bales to protect from frost. We’ll have to see when it comes.
I have a small patch of dill growing that I planted this fall. My tomatoes and lettuce will also be adversely affected by the frost. Once they are done, we will amend that bed too with more manure and peat moss. My biggest lesson this year was to keep healthy soil. My tomatoes performed poorly in comparison to most everyone, and though I want to blame the very dry and hot summer, I am sure the poor quality soil played the largest part in that. We also learned our lesson with netting, and that chicken wire is superior to a plastic net that can still let in all sorts of critters.
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Much thought has been going into a garden for next growing season as well. I am researching when to pull crops and when to plant new, when to start seedlings inside, and what crops do well in the spot of another crop. The plans have become more finalized, and I think I found a setup I prefer. Researching, I found a new way to string up beans/peas. It includes making a wooden frame, then using 100% cotton string as the trellis. This is a huge improvement from the plastic and metal my beans grew through this year. Pulling my beans took so long because of all the tangling and growing into the plastic. So this way of trellising will be an improvement and pulling the plants will be way easier too, and the string 100% cotton can be composted, unlike plastics or other artificial materials.
If I do get my garlic soon, I will do a post about that, but otherwise, my garden is just about done for the year. Thank you to everyone who has been seeing and checking up on my progress. Gardening has been a lot of fun and I am very excited to see what next year holds!
After revisiting this recipe from January, I felt the need to readdress it, improve it, and publish it with new photos and better flavor. Using fresh onions is much better than using dried minced onion. Onion powder is necessary to enhance the ranch flavor. Garlic powder is also better than fresh garlic because it can also disperse better. I added fresh green beans from my last fall harvest, and they were delicious and added great texture to this side dish. You could also add diced bell peppers if you want more excitement. I increased the amount of dressing that was made, and I increased the pasta amount to make 4-5 side portions for this recipe.
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