Tag: Pepper

New Fire Pit and Tilapia Foil Packet Dinner

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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.

Tilapia Foil Packet Dinner Recipe CardDownload

What You Will Need

  • 2 Potatoes, cleaned and diced
  • 1 Medium Onion, halved and sliced
  • 1/2 Green Pepper, sliced
  • 2 Garlic cloves, peeled and minced
  • 4 Tbsp Oil
  • 2 Tilapia fillets
  • 2 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
  • 2 Aluminum foil segments

Directions

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Transfer to a thick plate. Carefully open packets, and let cool for 5 minutes before eating.
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Chicken Cacciatore

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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!

Chicken Cacciatore Recipe CardDownload

What You Will Need

  • 1 Green Pepper, Cored and Sliced
  • 1 Medium Onion, Diced
  • 3 Large Diced Tomatoes with Juice (14 Oz)
  • 1 Cup (8 Oz) Tomato Sauce
  • 1 Can (4 oz) Sliced Mushrooms, Strained
  • 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

  1. In a large dutch oven, add peppers, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, and tomato sauce. Heat over medium heat and cover.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
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August 2020 Garden Update

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.

August 18

August 27

September 1

Plants Outside the Garden

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Canning Thousand Island Pickles

I’ve been sitting on this post for a couple days now. This is at least my great-grandmother’s recipe, however it may be older, and I was feeling a bit iffy about sharing. Because this is a family recipe, it may not be approved my canning regulations, however my family has been canning these pickles for several generations and no one has gotten botulism. Before you can, make sure you are familiar with the process of canning. You have to make sure you get every step otherwise the jar may not seal and you’ll have lots of pickles to eat in such a short time. But when you do follow the steps, most jars do seal. To tell if a jar sealed, you check to see if the lid pops when you push the center of it.

These are sweet pickles due to the sugar in the mixture. When canning, I recommend using 2 of one color pepper and 1 of the other color bell pepper. The red and yellow add more color to the mixture and they don’t taste any different then the green. When you are heating the mixture, it can be helpful to use a fork to try the cucumbers. This will help in being able to identify when the pickles are done and need to be remove from the heat. You don’t want the pickles too crisp or too soggy. I did a double batch and ended up getting 16 1/2 jars, with 15 jars sealed. One jar was dropped when being removed from the canner and the top broke off when it hit the counter. The counter was clean so we could salvage the pickles, but you can’t re-can, so they joined the 1/2 can in the fridge.

  1. Quarter and slice 8 medium cucumbers. Core and dice 3 red/yellow bell peppers. Dice 4 medium onions. Add all diced veggies into a large stockpot.
  2. In the stockpot, add 1 tsp ground mustard, 2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp turmeric, 4 tsp salt, 3 cups sugar, and 2 cups apple cider vinegar.
  3. Place over medium high heat. Stir often and heat to a boil, but do not boil. Fill a large water bath canner 1/2 with water and heat over high heat. In a small saucepan, add your lids and place over medium high heat.
  4. Place mixture into heated and sterile jars. Leave 1/2 inch heat space. remove bubbles by running a metal knife around the outer edge. Wipe off the lip and threads of the jar. Add warmed lid on lip, then hand tighten jar rings.
  5. Place filled and sealed jars into your water bath canner. Drop into boiling water, cover with lid, and let can for 10 minutes.
  6. Lift jars out of hot water. Remove hot jars and place on 2 kitchen towels. Let cool until room temperature. Remove rings, label jars, check to make sure jars are sealed, and store sealed jar in cellar or cool dark area. If jar didn’t seal, place in fridge and eat within a week.
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Grilled Lemon Pepper Tilapia

A healthy option for your cookout is grilled tilapia. Tilapia is a fragile fish, so it should be cooked in a foil packet. Thicker fillets of fish can be cooked on the grill, but they usually require skin and very thick cuts, such as tuna or salmon. I used lemon pepper as my seasoning for this dish. I’ve used it with tilapia in the past and it is very good. If you use an acid in your foil packet, I do recommend adding something to cancel some of the acidity, such as a little sugar or baking soda.

  1. Heat a grill on high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce half the grill to low, close the lid and heat grill to 400 F.
  2. Get a 12 x 12 inch piece of aluminum foil. Place thawed tilapia on the foil and cover with pepper. Seal up and roll the ends. Leave the center open, add 2 Tbsp lemon juice and a pinch of sugar. Roll the center closed.
  3. Place the packet over a mild heat area, between the high heat and the low area. Cook for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
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