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.
Garlic bread is a delicious side for any Italian meal. I believe no garlic is too much garlic, and garlic and butter are one of the best toppings for bread. This simple recipe can be used with any bread. I used a whole grain bread and it was quite delicious. If you would rather take a few extra minutes, you could also melt the butter in a small frying pan with the garlic and cook it for 10 minutes on low until the garlic is soft enough to become a paste. If you dice the garlic up finely, it will help cook it faster. This recipe is enough for 4 side servings. I used a 6 inch loaf cut into quarters.
Place Minced garlic and butter into a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir butter until melted. Brush butter over bread and add garlic evenly over bread. Place bread on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes
Remove bread and top each slice with a sprinkle of garlic powder. Serve as a side.
We had an old fire pit in our backyard that was here when we bought the house this summer. It had minor rust, but it was still good enough to use. We left it out this winter, and to no surprise, most of the bowl had rusted out. We did one fire earlier this summer, but we lost not only ash out the bottom of the fire pit, but flaming coals as well! It was decided we needed to do something to update it. My In-law’s family has unlimited supply of oil barrels, and that was our source. First, we cut off the bottom 2 feet of the barrel using an angle grinder. We smoothed out the edge to make it less hazardous. Second, we disassembled the old fire pit. I really liked the mosaic ring, so my husband used the ring to hold the legs together as a rim, and welded it to the barrel to prevent our cover from falling in. He drilled several drainage holes in the bottom and air holes down the sides, we washed it out, put it in place, then added the stone ring. For our first fire it did very well. A barrel is pretty big for a fire pit, so if you plan to do the same, be sure to keep the fire small and contained. This fire pit also got extremely hot. The metal barrel was over 700 F, and the ground around it reached over 350 F with just 2 hours of use.
We cooked our packets over this fire pit. The grate we have is an old shelf from an oven, and was unphased after being licked by the flames. 15 minutes was long enough over our fire, but with even a smaller fire, 20 minutes should be more than enough. Everything was delicious, and there were no complaints. This recipe makes 2 packets, enough for 2 adult sized servings.
Place pieces of foil on the counter. Add Potatoes. onion, pepper, garlic, and oil evenly between foil pieces. Add tilapia on top. Add Italian seasoning, then seal up foil packet. (Optional) Add extra foil for extra strength.
Build a nice large fire. Place grate over fire. Adjust fire so flames don’t touch the grate. Carefully, add packets over fire. Cook for 15 minutes. Move grate if fire jumps up to touch foil consistently, or if fire goes out under a packet.
Transfer to a thick plate. Carefully open packets, and let cool for 5 minutes before eating.
Chicken Cacciatore is a classic Italian dish, but who knew it was so easy to make a home? With a little prep, this dish is incredibly hands off, and makes enough to feed a large family. With the only limiting factor being how much chicken you use, this recipe easily makes 6-7 adult sized servings. I decided to make this dish fresh because everything is in season where I am right now, and anything I didn’t grow, I could get at my local farmer’s market. Though this dish is typically made with chicken thighs, I usually only have white chicken meat, so I decided to butterfly and fry a large chicken breast instead. The chicken breast I used was about 1 pound on it’s own, and easily formed a nice brown crust after 5 minutes. This is a healthy and delicious meal I highly recommend you try!
1 Chicken Breast, Butterflied or 3-4 Chicken Thighs
1/4 Cup Oil
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Dried Oregano
1 Tbsp Dried Basil
Directions
In a large dutch oven, add peppers, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, and tomato sauce. Heat over medium heat and cover.
In a large frying pan, heat over medium heat. Add oil and chicken. Turn down heat if necessary, and cook on face for about 5 minutes undisturbed until a brown crust forms. Flip and repeat browning on second side.
Transfer chicken to dutch oven. Cover with sauce and veggies. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, then simmer covered for 40-50 minutes, or until internal temperature of 165 F is reached. Serve over pasta.
August was an eventful month in the garden. In the beginning of the month, I pulled a tomato plant because of fungus. On the 27th, I pulled my cucumbers from the fabric pots. They began forming very misshapen fruits, and the leaves were dying off rather fast. I also planted radish seeds that day in the two open fabric pots and in the free rows of the raised beds. They already have decent sized sprouts, and the rainy weather helps too. I noticed several of my tomatoes had blossom end rot, but I added some crushed egg shells and with lots of rain in the forecast, it had only happened to 3 tomatoes. Finally, I also ordered garlic to be planted beginning to mid-October. I tried to grow garlic last winter, but I really had no idea what I was doing, so they didn’t make it through the freeze. Finally, I’ve also begun trying to root a pineapple top. And, I found a volunteer pumpkin vine by the house.
I’ve also been thinking extensively about the garden for next Spring, Summer, and Fall. Josh and I plan to build 2 more 8X3 or 4 beds. We plan on placing them by our baby peach tree and we plan to place lower maintenance plants there, though I check on my garden at least once a day. Beans grew really well for us this year, so we plan to grow more green beans. We bought heirloom garlic from MI Gardener, so we plan to grow 3 varieties. We didn’t have much luck at all with tomatoes this summer, so though I’ll be more careful next year to water more often and soak them, I plan to up our quantity to 10 tomato plants with 2 heirloom varieties. I’d like to grow bell and banana peppers next year, potatoes and sweet potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, and more onions, but this time from seed. And, once garlic in harvested in July, we’ll wait about a month or so, and plant some peas. We are ambitious, but this summer has been such a blessing to us that we’d love to have even more fresh veggies next year! We would plant zucchini, yellow squash, or eggplant, but my in-laws always grow lots, so we help absorb some of their excess. Finally, we contemplated more carrots, growing celery, and beets, but we’d like to grow the garden in increments that won’t overwhelm me, and hopefully doubling in size won’t be too much.
This summer we also got quite a bit of seed from our garden. The radish seed pods below is about 1/2 the quantity I got from about 4-5 plants I let go to seed. It took me about 3 hours to break and filter out the seed, and I easily have 100-200 seeds. I also got 3 onion flowers from my sets this year. They formed seeds, but I want at least one other variety, so I will also be buying a packet of seeds. Finally, as I mentioned, my green beans have been doing great. We were harvesting once a week, but just Monday when I was harvesting, I found about 3 pods that were drying. So, I also got 12 new seeds from that, and I will now be harvesting beans twice a week until they slow down. I also am letting my lettuce go to seed, though we’ll see how far they get before I turn my beds.
Our Lustron Home 