Eggplant is a difficult vegetable.
For one thing, it’s difficult to interest my husband in anything involving eggplant. For another, any dish that features eggplant seems to involve a ton of prep work – you have to salt the eggplant, fry the eggplant, and make all the accompanying elements designed to hide the… Continue reading
Eggplant Caponata ingredients from my garden
The garden fruits of summer are still going strong in September in Iowa, and with ingredients like these in my garden, my thoughts turn to Eggplant Caponata.
Caponata is a Sicilian eggplant relish that combines salty, sweet and tangy elements into one delicious stewy spread. I like it… Continue reading
On the menu: Grilled pork chop with cantaloupe salsa over summer garden succotash
Last night was one of those nights when pretty much everything on the dinner plate, except for the meat, was raised in our own backyard. Even the rub… Continue reading
This gallery contains 6 photos.
My personal philosophy around food, gardening, raising chickens, cooking and eating is captured in one simple motto: Food should be sustainably grown, lovingly prepared, and joyfully eaten. By now I’ve shared with you my five reasons to grow your own food and … Continue reading
Here are about two dozen reasons to raise backyard chickens.
It seems that everybody is jumping on the backyard chicken bandwagon these days. If you don’t raise chickens yourself, I bet you know someone who does. And if you don’t know anyone personally, here… Continue reading
This gallery contains 9 photos.
Took a day off today to make our annual pilgrimage the world famous Iowa State Fair. Here are a few photos from the day. In the category of “Are these signs really necessary?” Continue reading
Last week I taught you how to freeze zucchini to use in cooking and baking during the winter months. One good use for that frozen zucchini is zucchini bread. Of course, if you don’t mind turning on the oven in August, you don’t have to wait until winter to enjoy home-baked zucchini bread. It’s even better when the zucchini is fresh out of the garden. And, if you grow… Continue reading
Last weekend was spent at one of our favorite summer getaways: the campground on the old family farm where my husband’s grandfather grew up. And when we camp, it’s old school. We sleep in a tent on a queen-size air mattress that we share with the dog. There’s no electricity or running water, the toilet is an outhouse with a hole in the ground, and we cook over an open… Continue reading
This time of year, many home gardeners find they have more zucchini and summer squash than they can possibly eat. Seriously, it’s amazing how much squash just one plant can produce. So what can one do with all of that surplus zucchini, short of leaving it on the… Continue reading
Today’s recipe post was inspired by a recent blog post from national real estate search site Estately, which reported the results of a 50-state survey of internet search histories. According to Estately, Iowans search on the following two terms more than people in any other state: bacon and corn. Hardly a shocking result, since Iowa ranks number one in the nation in both pork and corn production, but… Continue reading