Spanish Musica pole beans...

Thanks to Wardeh from Gnowfglins, a couple of years ago I started growing  Spanish Musica pole beans.   I love these beans!  They are extremely productive.  I have just 4 bean towers devoted to them, and today, at the first picking, I have enough beans to can about 25 quarts.  Amazing!  They never get stringy, no matter how big they are.  They taste so nice and will continue to produce for a long time yet.  I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of sharing this year.  They can also be used as a shell-out bean, and I save my own seed now, as this is an heirloom variety.  Here are a few picture so you can see what they are like in my garden.

Lasagna without pasta!

We don't eat pasta anymore, as I don't believe it is a healthy food.  But I ADORE my homemade spaghetti sauce, so thanks to an idea I got from a friend recently, I made this lasagna.

Lasagna Without Pasta

Sauce
 
1 # ground meat.  I used venison, but I am sure others would work as well.
1 medium onion, diced
2 Tablespoons bacon grease (or lard, butter or coconut oil)
1 quart canned tomatoes, drained
1 small can tomato paste
1 Tablespoon dried Italian Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

Cheeses

1/2 # grated cheese of your choice.  I used homemade farmhouse cheddar
1/2 # cottage cheese
grated Parmesan to serve with the lasagna, if desired 

"Pasta"

Cabbage leaves, steamed 15 minutes and then rinsed in cold water (I can't tell you how many)
1 medium zucchini  squash, sliced with a julienne peeler (see below)  Do not slice beyond where the seeds grow.  Just use the outside parts.

Melt bacon grease in a heavy frying pan, add the onion and saute until partially cooked.
Add the meat, and chop it up and cook it until it is all browned.
Add  the drained tomatoes, tomato paste, Italian Seasoning and salt.  Simmer, stirring often while you prepare the vegetables and grate the cheese.

I use a julienne peeler to prepare my zucchini and then saute it for a little while in some olive oil.  Here is the peeler:

And here is the zucchini after being sauteed.  I can't tell you how long to cook it.  Do it on medium/low heat, and stir a lot until it gets kind of limp:

Then, in a 9 inch square glass baking pan, which has been well buttered, place the steamed cabbage leaves, about 2 deep.  Add 1/3 of the sauce, 1/3 of the cheese, 1/3 of the cottage cheese.  Then, spread out the zucchini.  Then as before, the sauce, cheese and cottage cheese.  The last layer will be more cabbage, sauce cottage cheese and cheese.  

You will need to gauge how much of everything so as to not overflow the dish.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  Allow to set for 15 minutes before serving.  There will be some juice, but not a lot.

You can sprinkle on Parmesan if you wish.

Very yummy and even my husband likes it!  :)

Today's harvest...

I love this time of year...

Canning peaches with no sugar and conquering fruit flies...

If you are currently, or will soon be canning peaches, please check out my previous posts about doing it without sugar.  These have been VERY popular.

1.  Canning peaches is easy! (no sugar)

2. Sugar-free home canned peaches

3. Canning cling stone peaches without sugar - whew!

Here are some that I canned 2 days ago.  I stopped into Walmart to pick up one small item, and they had these lovely, freestone, fully ripe peaches for 50 cents a pound!  I bought 60 pounds, went home and canned most of them.  It was not what I was planning to do that day, but at that price, I couldn't afford NOT to get them!

Where we live, fruit flies are always a problem this time of year.  I keep a bucket for compost on the kitchen counter, and even though I empty and wash it often, opening it reminds me of Pandora's box!  Here is a way to "win" the battle with fruit flies!

 

The most wonderful soap dish in the world!!!

I don't buy liquid hand soap.  I did for a while, but since I make soap, it just seemed silly and wasteful.  So, I've been on the lookout for a good soap dish that Really Works for decades.  At last, I have found it!  Remember not long ago I posted about my Stainless Steel dish drainer?  The same company, "Rolling Acres Housewares," has this fabulous soap dish in their catalog.

Here it is on my kitchen sink.

It is made from heavy, smooth plastic.  Super-easy to clean. Drains away all of the water immediately.  Saves the soap!  I have tried several different soap dishes through the years, and none of them really worked.  This does.

I ordered two.  I am very very happy.

Here is the other one, in the bathroom.

Highly recommended! Check out that other post if you would like to get a catalog from Rolling Acres Housewares.

Eggplant for breakfast...

I spent a little time picking things for a salad in the vegetable garden yesterday.  AND, I found two sweet little eggplant (s)!!  I texted my daughter and asked her if she thought eggplant would be good in a salad.  No, we decided. Cut up, they oxidize quickly and turn an ugly, mottled brown.  Ewww... but since they were shiny and ready to pick, I picked them.  She suggested I fry them in butter with onion and salt and pepper. 

 So, that's what I did.  I thinly sliced 1/2 of a medium onion, peeled an eggplant and cut it into thin little quarter-slices, sauteed all of it in a couple Tablespoons of butter (eggplant will absorb a lot of fat) until it was getting a little brown.  Then I added Realsalt and freshly ground black pepper.

Then I ate it for breakfast!  You can also see my glass of goat milk and a small glass of milk kefir there.

Ahhh...  Perfect!

Stainless Steel Drain Board!!!

Finally!  At last I found a source for a Stainless Steel dish drainer board.  I LOVE this thing.  If you are a hand dish washer, like me, you know how it is... no matter how hard you try to keep your dish drainer board clean and nice... well, it just doesn't really work very well.  I have washed, and scoured, and poured boiling water, and it still ends us looking icky.

THOSE DAYS ARE OVER

I bought this item from:

Rolling Acres Housewares
31640 State Road 643
Fresno, OH  43824

They do not have an email address, telephone number or a website.  If you would like to get one of their catalogs, just write to them and enclose a check or cash in the amount of $3.  It's a wonderful catalog full of all kinds of things: sturdy egg beaters, kitchen equipment and dishes, aprons, ice cream freezers, canning supplies and other hard to find items.  I buy canning lids, in bulk, from them at a considerable savings.  Their customer service is excellent and they even sent a refund on some of the money I sent them for shipping!  I highly recommend this company.

And, I am thrilled with the stainless drain board.  I don't have an automatic dishwasher, but I can honestly say, I would rather have this drain board.  It may sound silly, but it's true.