Squash Out the Wazoo

I love that our garden is giving us an abundance of produce but, let’s face it, it can be pretty boring eating the same ol’ veggies all the time.  I finally decided to blanch and freeze some of it before it went bad, but I also don’t want to be limited to a specific way of preparing them since they can get mushy once frozen. 

It seems I was in the same quandry last year, and sure enough, I had bookmarked a whole bunch of ideas for using up Summer squash and zucchini.  I thought I’d share just in case some of you are looking for some fresh ideas…

For the Love of Cooking’s Vegetable Tian

Curious Country Cook’s Zucchini Tots

Kayotic Kitchen’s Stuffed Zucchini

Cooking.com’s Oven-Fried Zucchini Sticks

Etsy’s Spicy Zucchini Pickles

Martha Stewart’s Zucchini-Scallion Fritters

Cooking With My Kid’s Squash Blossom Quesadillas

Lick the Bowl Good’s Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Simple Bite’s Wheat Zucchini Bread with Cinnamon & Dark Chocolate Chunks

What are some of your favorite ways to prepare squash? 

Flower Child

Our patch of daisies is in bloom yet again, and June marks our annual Flower Child photo shoot.  The polka dot “dress” from Auntie Laura still fits Gwen as a top!

It started off as a kind of posed photo shoot, but then Gwen started getting playful, frolicking and fooling around with Josiah.  In a matter of minutes she was pretending her curly red head away, and I caught some exuberant jumps in the air.  My little sprite! 

 

2011

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She knows how sad Mommy is that she’s getting bigger, and she doesn’t miss an opportunity to rub it in. “Mommy, my legs are getting longer… are you sad?”

Expanding the Garden

I love the idea of being self-sustaining – growing and raising our own food, living off the land so we’re eating the freshest, healthiest foods and not answering to someone else’s standard of living.  We’re still contemplating raising chickens, maybe even goats for milk one day, but we’re not ready for that yet.  Baby steps. 

Last year we had three raised beds, and while we thoroughly enjoyed the resulting crops, we didn’t get enough to put any produce away.  We pretty much ate it as it ripened, although we did give some of it away here and there. 

This year Phil built five more raised beds making two rows of four; though I believe he really just wanted to borrow his friend’s backhoe as an excuse to play around and tear up the yard.  The kiddos drove around with him in that thing for over an hour! 

Our side yard looks completely different now.  A big tree was cut down, a side garden uprooted and transplanted (we haven’t really committed to flower gardens yet since we know we’re not done with the yard), and the beds added.  The kiddos were a big help raking the dirt.

 

There are always folks around here with manure for the taking so we scored a load and got to work mixing it in with the soil.  As you can see, Josiah is Daddy’s Big Helper.  I had to laugh when I saw the two of them; apparently, Phil had taken off his shirt while he was working and Josiah promptly followed suit. 

 

Another trip to get some free (I love free!) mulch and we filled in the ground between the beds. 

One day last month Phil told me we should be able to start planting soon.  Not two days later he said we’d better hurry up, his mother already had her garden planted!  I didn’t realize it was a competition. :)  So he got his butt in gear, printed out a planting schedule, and we got to work with a first planting of spinach, lettuce and peas. 

On the left you can see the beginnings of what is now our new compost pile and on the right is our camper, next to which we have a nice section of rhubarb, complements of my grandmother’s old garden.  The kids were very excited to help plant the seeds and bulbs and it provides such a great learning experience for them.

 

 

Whenever I tell them we’re eating fresh food from our garden, it’s one of the best feelings in the world.  And when we ate the first of the asparagus – ohmigoodness, the stuff in the stores just doesn’t compare!  I swear all vegetables are sweet when freshly picked.  I can’t wait to try bacon-wrapped asparagus…

 

Poking their heads up we’ve got the asparagus, two types of lettuce, spinach and peas.  This year we also hope to have tomatoes (a couple different kinds – I think plum and some sort of hot for salsa), squash (summer, butternut and zucchini), peppers, potatoes, onions and garlic.  After last year’s carrots I’m not too keen on growing them again, but Phil said we might as well try.  I feel the same way about broccoli. 

My sister-in-law gave me Canning for a New Generation for my birthday last year and I’m excited to try some of the recipes.  I’m already looking forward to filling in the fruit gaps picking peaches and blueberries this summer, too.

Preschool: Easter Week

The week of Easter was pretty relaxed since I didn’t pick anything overtly “educational.”  Along with Benjamin’s Box and our resurrection eggs, we based many of our activities on 2 Teaching Mommies’ 12 Days of Easter unit.  Since I forgot to actually start twelve days ahead of time, we had to double up on some of the days, which was fine because it gave us more things to do. 

Our Bible story was about Jesus’ death and resurrection – the whole reason we celebrate Easter!  I kept our Palm Sunday verse on the board from the previous week of preschool and added 1 John 3 :16 – This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

We started each day with a page from Benjamin’s Box; there’s a story to go along with each of the twelve resurrection eggs.  We have this little wooden box that Phil made a number of years ago which has since become Benjamin’s treasure box, storing the contents from each of the eggs.  It really adds an element of wonder and excitement, physically holding the pieces that are represented in the resurrection story.   

 

The 12 Days of Easter unit has suggested activities to go along with the lessons, and we took advantage of some of these ideas.  For day one, we talked about Palm Sunday when Jesus rode on the donkey, I told them about the legend of the donkey’s cross and we colored a picture. 

When we talked about the thirty pieces of silver that Judas received for betraying Jesus for day two, I filled an empty muslin bag with 30 pennies and had Gwen count them. 

I tried to explain the concept of betrayal, doing things that aren’t nice to someone who is supposed to be your friend, but I’m not sure how much of it sank in.     

Inside the resurrection egg for day three is a little wooden cup that my parents brought back from Israel.  We talked about the last supper that Jesus had with disciples and how we celebrate communion, which symbolizes Jesus’ blood and body that was shed and broken for us.  We used the boy and girl printables from the unit; I put them in page protectors and had Gwen and Josiah think of naughty (I explained what “sin” is and how nobody is perfect) things they might do and draw them on the page - scowling, hitting, etc. 

 

They got pretty marked up!  Afterwards, I had them wipe them away, just like Jesus’ blood makes us clean when we ask for forgiveness.

We got to break out the bubbles for day four!  The kids enjoyed “blowing bubbles to heaven” to illustrate what happens to our prayers when we talk to God and ask for forgiveness. 

 

The happy part of Easter is talking about Jesus being raised from the dead, but you can’t skip the part where Jesus was whipped and beaten, a crown of thorns put on his head and nailed to a cross.  Day five reveals the whip that was used on Jesus’ back in the resurrection egg, and to illustrate we used white pieces of construction paper and drew lines for all the bad things we might do. 

 

We talked about how Jesus died to forgive all the bad things – called “sin” - so that we might live in heaven with Him one day. 

Gwendolyn agreed that the crown of thorns from day six must have really hurt.  We combined a couple craft ideas – playdough Easter mountain and a playdough crown of thorns, which the kids enjoyed putting together. 

 

 

There’s a small nail in the resurrection egg for day seven, but when Daddy showed Gwen a really long, thick nail that was more realistic to the type used for crucifixion, she got very quiet.  I like the idea from the unit for explaining how love held Jesus on the cross; he could have ended it whenever He wanted but He chose to stay and give His life for us.  I wrote “love” on a wooden heart and we each hammered a nail in. 

 

There’s a game die in the egg for day eight, symbolizing when the soldiers gambled for Jesus’ clothing.  Despite everything, Jesus forgave them.  We got our the white pieces of construction paper that had been marked up and painted over it with white paint to show how Jesus forgives us when we ask.

 

We didn’t have lesson-specific activities for the remaining unit days, but we continued to read the stories, including Bible Story Printable’s resurrection minibook and Happy Home Fairy’s Easter story cards.

We made a colorful mess with bits of tissue paper making stained glass crosses to hang in the window.  Note to self: use real contact paper next time, not removable (it doesn’t stick!).  They’re taped to the window, just underneath our crayon shaving hearts that are still up from Valentine’s Day.  In fact, I’m thinking crayon shaving crosses is a neat idea!  

The kiddos did a little Easter egg hunt coloring page…

…and since we didn’t do an official Easter egg hunt this year I decided to put snacks in the eggs and have the kiddos search for their Easter egg lunch.  It was a huge hit! 

 

 

Since it was such a beautiful day outside, we took advantage and went on a spring scavenger hunt using a printable from Nature Detectives.  Gwendolyn is demonstrating that soft pine needles are, indeed, “tickly.”

  

Since the weather has gotten nicer we’ve been spending a lot more time outdoors – including adding to and planting the gardens!  The kiddos are a huge help and I can only imagine what they’re learning from all of it.

 

Both Gwen and Josiah helped me in the kitchen making goodies.  It brings back memories of my mother teaching me to cook and bake at a young age, teaching me things like “clean up as you go” so there’s less work at the end, and get out all of your ingredients ahead of time.  They love to pour, so I let them use the measuring spoons and cups, telling them how much we’re adding of a particular ingredient.  

Lucky for me, Josiah loves to help with the cleanup (although he usually ends up making more of a mess in the process). 

 

Gwen helped me make birds nest cookies.

  

We’re not big on dyeing eggs, but we love deviled eggs so this year we tried Easter deviled eggs and colored the whites.  I let the kiddos pick the colors and help me dye the water.

You gotta have some jelly beans for Easter!  I had originally intended on having the kiddos help me make colors-of-faith jelly bean bracelets, but it was really hard to string them.  Instead they helped me separate them into colors and we put them into little baggies, attaching the cross printable that says the meaning of each color.

 

We handed these out to the cousins on Easter after a scavenger hunt the kiddos’ Meme planned for them.

 

We didn’t get any family pictures for Easter, but I did manage to get a few acceptable ones of Josiah sporting the skinny tie that I made for him with some of the tractor fabric leftover from his crayon roll.

In the kiddos’ Easter baskets:

  

How-to links: homemade bubbles & wands |  fabric eggs | crayon rolls | bunny bags    
Not pictured, in the treat bags: licorice nests | cross necklaces

For more ideas see my Easter Pinterest board.

Book Basket
Easter Mice!
A Year Full of Holidays
Happy Easter Little Critter
The Berenstain Bears and the Real Easter Eggs
The Colt and the King
FancyNancy’s Elegant Easter
DVD Winnie the Pooh – Springtime with Roo

The Garden Experiment

In the past Phil and I have done a tiny garden, tomatoes in a pot, container herbs… but this year is the Garden Experiment.  We decided to build three raised beds with a variety of vegetables (mostly from seed) and see how they fare. 

 
 

The kids quickly decided this was their new playground/sandbox.  What fun it was trying to keep ‘em out once we actually planted seeds.  Especially Josiah, whose main goal in life is to get as dirty as possible. 

 

Phil rigged some metal fencing as climbing posts for the eventual squash plants – but the kiddos saw its true potential.  They love tunnels.  A good ol’ cushion and blanket tunnel will keep them happily occupied while I do the laundry.  Or the dishes. 

Now I don’t have much of a green thumb, so just getting green shoots to come out of the ground is sweet victory to me. 

Sweet Victory…

 

Early on we enjoyed spinach and lettuce greens, and a couple weeks ago I was thrilled to notice some peas ready for the pickin’.  I hadn’t noticed them because they blend right into the greenery or hide behind the leaves.   

 
 

We enjoyed them straight from the vine, and I’m afraid the plant has since been picked clean. We love fresh peas!  I excitedly started checking the other plants, and found a whole slew of baby veggies which are getting bigger and bigger each day.  Just like the kiddos! *sniff sniff*  Many of the veggies have beautiful flowers that bloom before the veggies grow, and I love the little curly vines that – which just a little coaxing – hang onto the trellis for support. 

 
 
 

I’ve been very anxious at the state of my rainbow carrots, but every time I take a peek underneath the soil they’re still so tiny, despite a plethora of carrot greens growing above-ground.  We finally decided to thin them out yesterday so they would have more room to grow.  Some of them are so small, they can’t even be considered baby carrots.  I call them fetal carrots.  So sad, I hope they survive.  We did find one good-sized, beautiful red carrot.  It was delicious, but I was disappointed that the inside is orange like a traditional carrot.

 

In addition to the greens and peas, we’ve also picked some beans, potatoes, and onions.  It feels so good to be grow food from seed, take care of it, and enjoy its bounty.  Talk about health food!  I try to imagine what it was like when living off the land was the norm for people. 

So far, the verdict is that we need more garden space, so we’ll probably add three to four more raised beds next year.  This is a learning process for me, from deciding what, when, and how to plant, to taking care of the plants and deciding how to harvest them (pick from the bottom, top, pinch off the top before it flowers?).  In the beginning I was picking the spinach and lettuce while still small, but decided to leave them alone for a while and see if they thrived.  Now, the spinach is tall but I’m not sure how much more I’ll get from it and the lettuce is in abundance, but the bigger it gets the more bitter it tastes.  I need to find a happy medium!

I’m excited see what ripens next.  Besides adding fresh produce to our meals, I hope to try some new recipes for canning and freezing.  Put ‘em Up!, a canning and preserving book I got from the library, has some excellent ideas that I hope to try - including rhubarb pickles, of all things.  I’ll probably end up making salsa, ketchup, and sauce with the tomatoes, and pickles from the cukes.  And I’m dying to try zucchini relish, but need to get the recipe from a friend.  Do you have any favorite canning/preserving recipes?  Do share.  

While I was in the yard yesterday, I happened upon this butterfly enjoying the flower gardens.