Put some South in yo' mouth!

Today I went and checked on my garden.  My corn hasn't been looking that great and I decided to take a peek.  As I began to peel back the silk on one corn ear after the other, I became broken-hearted to discover that ants like Silver Queen Corn too.  Chalk it up to another gardening fail.  Check out the little buggers.

No sense in keeping it around...when I get mad, I start ripping stuff out of the ground.  Maybe I need a little gardening anger management.

Refusing to let the corn get me down, I went to the grocery store and purchased 18 ears of corn.  I was determined to put up some corn this year (not sure what happened, but 2 yellow ears wanted to play).

After shucking the corn on my back deck (which totally made me feel like an awesome Southern girl!), I boiled the ears for 10 minutes.

I learned this nifty little trick online.  Using a bundt pan to secure the corn cob while cutting all of the corn off...all the corn falls neatly (well, almost) into the pan.  Nice!

I ended up with 4 quarts...I wish I would have made more!  I will probably get more corn this week.

Tonight for dinner, we had an ultimate Southern meal.  Purple Hull Peas from Smith Farms, greens, creamed corn, macaroni and cheese, and cornbread.  Mmmm Mmmm.

Lastly, I have to show off my cute little dog, Stoli.  He just got a haircut!  Happy Weekend!

My favorite tomato

Before starting my garden, I only knew of a couple of types of tomatoes:  cherry, roma, and regular (ha!).  Now that I have been gardening, I've gotten to try a couple of heirloom tomato varieties and I have a new favorite...the German Johnson heirloom tomato.  They are pink tomatoes with green tops, but they make the best tomato sandwiches!!

This week I stopped by my friend Julie's house and was gifted a big bag of basil!  I have always wanted to make my own pesto (I am behind the curve on this one), and figured I'd go for it.  Oh my word!  It is soooo good!  I broke out my mini-food processor, added the basil leaves, some toasted pine nuts, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and EVOO.  I am definitely going to make this again!  I just tossed it into some hot cooked bowtie pasta and it was perfect.  Thanks Julie!!!  

This weekend I wanted to cook a few thinks for Kevin and I to enjoy.  Paula Deen's recipes have been rockin' my world lately.  I wanted to try her cornbread salad recipe.  I changed it up a little by making my own ranch (bottled ranch is grodie), using cucumbers instead of bell pepper (because I found it in the garden), and just making my regular ole cornbread.  It was really good and very pretty layered...the ranch kinda ruined the layered look, but since it tastes awesome we'll be ok.

 

Up next, something sweet.  I have been wanting to make banana bread for awhile.  I have a small issue with banana bread though...letting bananas get that ripe makes me gag even thinking about it.  Ask anyone I know, I eat my bananas practically green!  I decided that I should just try it anyway with kinda ripe bananas.  This is as ripe as I can go (I still gagged, but I am proud of myself anyway)...

I made three 5x9 loaves of Banana Sour Cream Bread and it is tasty!! 

Vegetable Adventures

Ok, this is the second post in one day but the first post had nothing to do with the garden.  I decided I had to do something with my rogue pumpkins.  I cooked them, pureed them, and put it in the freezer.  Then, I roasted the pumpkin seeds.  All in all, I think this took more effort than it was really worth.  Maybe I'll appreciate it in November.

The massacre.  

One potential bummer, it's not as orange as I expected and it didn't really smell pumpkiny (new word).  It may have been wasted effort.  I ended up with 2 quarts.

This is for my dear friend Julie - I made these pumpkin seeds for you...but I keep eating them!!!!  It's the thought that counts, right?

Because I have a never-ending supply of squash, I looked for the ultimate squash casserole recipe.  Ms. Deen never disappoints, check this out.  I went back for thirds.  It is AWESOME!

I am not the only busy garden girl today.  My wonderful friend Melina has spent the day canning tomatoes with her mom.  She dropped this jar off on my front porch.  I am so excited!  I have really been enjoying giving (and receiving) the gift of food.  I can't wait to try to do some tomatoes myself.  Canning rocks!

I love long holiday weekends!

This weekend was action packed, but lots of fun!  First, I took off Friday to make a cake for Andrew's 1st birthday (Melina's son).  One year ago I was in the room when he was born...he is growing up so quick!  Slow down Andrew!!

Yesterday, Kevin and I celebrated July 4th with a canoe trip down the Elk River in Tennessee.  We had so much fun!  We saw a snake, a muskrat-looking animal, turtles, gar, huge vulture-type birds, Canadian geese, etc.  We didn't really swim (the water is a chilly 50 degrees), but we got our feet wet and paddled for about 3.5 hours (9 mile trip).  Check out some pics!