Freezing Peaches--Need Your Input!

Missy Tippens


Well, I picked up another produce box and other products from Georgia Grown To Go  yesterday! And, yay! I didn't embarrass myself this time with car doors that wouldn't unlock. :) (Still can't figure out why they didn't work last time.)

It's fun to see the different produce that comes a few weeks later. This time, the box included corn, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, Vidalia onions, green peppers, cantaloupe, and...a bag of jalapeño peppers! I believe Mindy once shared a jalapeño popper recipe, so I plan to look that up.

So we had our first of the year cantaloupe last night. It was soo good!! Perfectly ripe.

This time they also offered shiitake mushrooms grown not too far from here (up in the mountains in apple country). I roasted them for dinner along with the squash and green peppers and onions.

I also ordered a huge box of Georgia peaches. I'm so excited about these! I plan to freeze some and will be making a cobbler soon.

I'm looking for recommendations for how to freeze the peaches. I think I will do a flash dip in boiling water to help the peel come off. I wanted to see what y'all recommend to keep them from browning. Do you use lemon juice and sugar (that's one recipe I found)? What do y'all think? I plan to freeze them in bags (not canned).

I look forward to hearing from all of you!


www.missytippens.com

Cranberry Apricot Scones with orange sauce

Hello, everybody! Mary Jane here with a repost recipe. I'm so bummed because I just spent the last hour trying to get my pictures to upload and... nada! Zilch!! It's a no-go. I'm not sure what the problem is. 

WE participated in a Farmer's Market in a town near us and had a great time (even thought it was close to 100F- yuck). The kids made so many cool crafts, cookies, brownies, paintings, and I brought my books. We met a lot of great people!

We also made cranberry- apricot scones and they were a big hit! So... I guess I'll repost that recipe here. They were just as good as they were in 2015!

Preheat the oven to 375F

The ingredients for the scones:

2 cups flour

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbs orange zest

5 tbs chilled butter

1.5 cups cranberries

1/2 cup dried apricots

1 cup whipping cream

The orange drizzle:

3 tbs butter

1.5 cup powdered sugar

3 tbs orange juice

So, as I said... cranberries. Delicious and packed full of antioxidants, and are high in fiber,vitamin C and K. Mine were frozen and a lot easier to chop.

 MMM. Dried apricots. I sent my teens to the store to get dried apricots but didn't specify how much. Instead of calling, they returned with two giant bags. YUMMY. I could hardly be mad, since they were so delicious. We snacked on them for a few days, completely ignoring our apples and pears.

 Mix the cranberries and apricots together.

 Add dry ingredients and cut in the chilled butter.

 Add the cream to the fruit.

 Looks terrible. I have faith this will be great! If it's not... I shall cry lots of tears.

 Mix in the dry ingredients with the fruit. I think we over stirred because it turned pink!

 Make 1 inch think disks.

 Hmmm... It smells delicious but I wasn't sure how this was going to taste.

 Cut it like a pizza.

 Lay out several inches apart.

 Crossing my fingers! Into the oven they go. Bake for 15 minutes. I checked them at ten and them seemed done, but I wanted to make sure they didn't fall to pieces, so I gave them another few minutes.

 With the orange drizzle...

 AMAZING! Even the pickiest eaters enjoyed these. My husband, who doesn't like sweets, thought they were really good. I think scones are more like pan dulce or the sweet bread he's used to. Also, the dried fruit gave it such a satisfying texture. Scones are soft and buttery, and the dried fruit was a great counterpoint.

So, that's all for now! Be sure to visit my authors pages at Virginia Carmichael or Mary Jane Hathaway to find all my latest book news! 

When you don't have a garden, garden anyway!

It's that weird time at the farmers markets here.  Between cold weather veggies and too early for tomatoes, green beans and all the things I really look forward to during the summer.

It's a weird time at my house too. I can't put in flowers or veggies this year because of a huge remodel we are taking on. So, I'm spending my time back in WWII England and reading about British Victory gardens. I knew plenty about what was going on in the USA but not in England. 

My grandparents, actually my grandfather, had the green thumb and his victory garden grew well. When I was little, he was still out there on the acre and a half, planting. I loved my grandfather's garden. Spent so much time there, accidently spearing potatoes, avoiding Black Widow spiders in the corn, and picking zinnias. My grandfather's garden was so special I commissioned paintings made from the memories I have.

We really regret not having our own family farm to take the grandkidlets to see. So we take the grandkidlets down the road to the local farm and produce stand.

And I might try making a chair garden like this one I saw at a local antique fair. But I don't know that I could replicate the beauty of this one. I'm having not-buying remorse.

So, do you have a garden, veggie or flower? Have you tried to garden and failed? Or had great success with containers? Do you rely on the local farm near by for educating the children in your life?  

Hakuna matata, baby!

Helloooo, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back! Our Farmer's Market opens tomorrow and I'm SOOOOO excited! Fresh, local food! FINALLY!!

Maria and Jose Martinez always have a great crop of sweet onions, garlic, and beets.

                                Fehrenbacher Farms has lamb meat and wool.

 Our Daily Bread bakery and Zerba Farms have the bread and honey covered...

I'm so ready for some fresh, local food. It seems like this winter  has been extra, extra long. We try to eat locally as much as possible after I read a book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" (the web site is here).

 

This book changed the way I saw my family's eating habits, the way we planted our garden, what we bought at the grocery store, and made me aware of how my own eating choices changed the world around me.
  So, YES, Farmer's Market, here we come!! But first... one last random dish. Locally grown chicken. Some spices. Some canned tomatoes. You know... DINNER.

Tikka Masala (I can't say it without thinking of the Lion King song and if you want to have it stuck in your head, go ahead and click the video link. :)

Ingredients. Lots of jars and processed foods and *gasp* white rice. But that's okay, because the FARMER'S MARKET is tomorrow!! (In case anybody forgot and needed reminding.)

So, mix in a heated skillet
2 TBS olive oil
2 tsp garlic, chopped
1/2 an onion
MMMMMMMMMMMM! Smelling good!
Add

Chopped chicken breast into the skillet. Brown.

Mix in 1 tsp  Garam Masala seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
2TBS lemon juice
Now it's REALLY smelling YUMMY!

One large can of tomato sauce, simmer and stir constantly for about five minutes so all the spices are mixed well.

Turn up the heat and add 2 cups rice and 2 cups water. Get it to a rolling boil, then turn it down to a simmer. You can either let the rice cook without the lid, or put on the lid. I prefer the lid-less method because I tend to forget about the food and it burns. Yuck.

Serve with fresh lettuce and tomatoes. That black stuff sprinkled on top? Red pepper. This is hubby's plate and it just won't have any flavor without some red pepper.

All right everybody! I can't wait to see what we find tomorrow. Something fresh, delicious, LOCAL. MMMMMM!
 Stay tuned!

Until then, you can gaze at this lovely picture of one of my little guys. He was drinking hot chocolate and gave himself a uni-brow. I think it's quite charming. I might give myself the coffee version. I can be a literary Frida Kahlo.

 

You know she did a lot of her painting laying in bed? I think I'll start writing in bed. But I'm afraid my eyes will be closed most of the time, which might defeat the purpose.

Until next time!