Showing posts with label Self Sufficiency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Self Sufficiency. Show all posts

9/16/13

Roasted Tomato Marinara & Cheesy Quinoa Bites

Phew! What a crazy week it's been! So much was going on and then to make it more crazy, my computer , which has been on it's last leg for a while, finally bit the dust. It was time to retire the old model and now I'm back with a sleek new machine ready for sharing more of the things that I've been up to. I hope you all had a wonderful week!

This post is specifically for a sister of mine who posed a question on Facebook the other day, "If you had lots of ripe tomatoes, what would you make?" I was one of several people who answered with ideas and when I mentioned "cheesy quinoa bites", I had a few requests for the recipe. So, here it is! Plus, I threw in one of my favorite ways to use lots of ripe tomatoes as well: roasted tomato marinara, which just happens to go extremely well with the quinoa bites. I love that most of the ingredients to these came right out of my garden! Even the egg is from our ducks! I love having a garden!
I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as my family has! We've eaten this twice in the past 4 days!
Roasted Tomato Marinara:
This recipe takes a little time, but is simple and easily adaptable. I'm sorry to say that this is one of those annoying recipes without clear measurements. The fact is, I have never stopped to measure how many tomatoes I use and it varies a lot since I'm using a variety of shapes and sizes right out of my garden. I just chop enough to fill my glass casserole dish. I hope that doesn't throw anyone off. The secret ingredient to this delicious sauce is a tiny bit of 100% pure oregano essential oil. Wow! After making it using the oil, I will never go back! The flavor is superb and it only uses a very small amount of the oil. A little goes a long way, so don't over do it.
Add to a 2 QT glass casserole dish:
1/2 medium onion chopped (more if you really like onions!)
Ripe tomatoes, chopped (Enough to evenly fill the dish)
Drizzle with olive oil
Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper

Stir to evenly distribute the olive oil. Roast, uncovered at 350F for approx. 45 minutes or until everything is bubbly and a few tomato skins are beginning to darken. Drain away the liquid. The more liquid you drain, the thicker your sauce will be. Freeze the left over liquid to use in other recipes later if you'd like. That's what I did! Let tomatoes and onions cool.

In a food processor blend well:
tomato and onion mixture
A handful of fresh basil
1 or 2 drops of  pure oregano essential oil (It's very strong, so start with one!)
Enjoy immediately, or store short term in the fridge, or long term in the freezer. I love freezing a batch in ice cube trays (then transferring to a big freezer bag). It's easier to use that way and very handy if you need just a little bit of sauce. I use this for a multitude of uses including: dipping sauce, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, etc.

Cheesy Quinoa Bites:
This recipe has actual measurements! It is so easy to make and I am regularly mixing it up with different add-ins. With the marinara sauce, I wanted something that would compliment, but not over power. These are perfect! I like to munch them plain as well. They make a tasty snack!

Heaping 1/2 C finely chopped sweet peppers. I used both red and green
1 sprig fresh basil chopped
1 egg
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 1/2 C cooked and cooked quinoa

Mix everything together until well incorporated. Arrange spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. You can also put them into mini cupcake pans, but I prefer the cookie sheet method. Bake in the oven at 350F for approximately 20 minutes or until browned on the edges. Serve warm.

Linking up to these great blogs:
Super Sunday at Who Needs a Cape
Manic Monday at Serendipity & Spice
Monday Funday at Lines Across
Mostly Homemade Mondays at Homegrown & Healthy
What'd You Do This Weekend at The Tumbleweed Contessa
The Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage
Rock N Share at the Shady Porch
The Backyard Farming Connection
Tuesdays With a Twist at Stone Cottage Adventures
Allergy Free Wednesdays at Tessa The Domestic Diva
Gluten Free Wednesdays at Gluten Free Homemaker
Down Home Blog Hop at Tilly's Nest
Waste Not Want Not Wednesday at Poor And Gluten Free
Home & Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life
Treasure Hunt Thursday at From my Front Porch to Yours
HomeAcre Hop at Black Fox Homestead
Lovely Ladies Linky at Life With The Crust Cut Off
Farm Girl Friday at The Dandelion House
Gluten Free Fridays at Vegetarian Mama
Feature Friday at Blissful and Domestic
From the Farm Blog Hop at Sunny Simple Life
Simply Natural Saturdays at The Pistachio Project

Featured Here:
18 comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

9/5/13

First Duck Egg & Garden Highlights

We got our first duck egg from our Cayugas yesterday and I just had to share! Cayugas reportedly lay eggs that are dark at the beginning of the laying season and then get lighter as the season goes on. We've been curious to see what they would look like. They are pretty cool! Kind of a charcoal color. We're pretty excited!
 I also thought I'd share a few lovely pictures from my garden. Fall may be on it's way, but there are still many flowers blooming. Here are a few that caught my eye recently.
First, I thought this Nicotiana looked so pretty against the red brick background. I love these flowers in my garden because they smell so delicious on a late summer evening and I love spending time outside at that time of day. These are right outside my back door, so every time I pass by as I'm doing my evening chores, I can smell them.
On the other side of the house, near the front door, I have several vines of Grandpa Ott's annual morning glory. I love stepping out on my front porch first thing in the morning, to see how many of them are in bloom. They are gorgeous! What a glorious way to start the morning!
And of course, I love the sunflowers that are all around my yard! I love seeing the wildlife that they attract to my yard. I was lucky enough to capture a couple of these visitors in photos: A little goldfinch and a regal monarch butterfly. So awesome! Have a wonderful day and If you haven't already, check out some reasons why I love sunflowers in my post:
Shared at these great blogs:
32 comments:
Labels: , ,

8/12/13

Oregon Coast Wild Berry Sauce

Recently, I spent some time at the Oregon coast. I grew up in Northwestern Oregon and lived very near the coast for several years, so it's nice to go back sometimes. While I was there, I couldn't resist spending some time in the woods picking a variety of edible wild berries. I've really missed the berries since moving away. Most of them were devoured as soon as they were picked, but I kept a few to bring back home with me.
Beautiful red huckleberry bushes loaded with tasty berries!
I brought back some salal berries and two different varieties of huckleberry: Red huckleberries (Vaccinium parvifolium) and Evergreen huckleberries (Vaccinium ovatum). Salal berries (Gaultheria shallon) are native to western North America and plentiful in the coastal forests of Oregon. They are a lesser known, but delicious edible berry. I also brought back some blackberries, but I'll talk about them later... Today I'm sharing what I made with my huckleberries and salal berries.


Oregon Coast Berry Sauce:
1 cup wild berries (I used a mix of salal and huckleberry)
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 TB honey
1 tsp water
1/2 tsp lemon juice


In a small sauce pan, add berries, sprinkle with cornstarch and stir until they are evenly coated. drizzle with honey, add water and lemon juice. Stir well. Heat berries over medium heat stirring constantly. Smash some of the berries as they cook. Simmer 2-4 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken and berries are smashed to your desired consistency (you can smash them all, or just a few. It's up to you!). Serve warm or cold on pancakes, ice cream, Greek yogurt etc. Store in the fridge for up to a week or freeze to use later. This is really simple, but really tasty! You can use whatever berries you want, so it's super versatile. I hope you enjoy it!

You guys, the Oregon coast is gorgeous! If you've never spent time there, you should! And if you want suggestions of neat places to explore, I know some; I'm happy to share! I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer!
 Linked up at these great blogs:
7 comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

8/3/13

Duck Update


Remember the Cayuga ducklings I posted about HERE? I thought I'd give you all a little update on how they are doing.

So far, we are loving these jewel-feathered ducks. And we aren't the only ones! I think I may be the only person alive whose ducks have a social life. In fact their social life might rival mine, but then that's actually not saying much. The neighborhood where I live is full of awesome people. They are regularly wanting to stop by to visit the ducks. I love it! It has given me a chance to get to know my neighbors a little better and it's been a lot of fun.

Cayuga ducks are known for their calm and friendly disposition and we have definitely noticed this to be true. With consistent handling they have become very tame. They don't appreciate being snuggled or anything, but they will come right up and eat out of our hands and are truly excited to see us coming outside with treats. They watch me while I work in the yard and if they see me doing any weeding they start begging for treats. Grasshoppers are one of their favorite treats and they gladly forage for any bugs and grubs they can get at, but they are also fond fruit and veggie scraps and any edible weeds that I pull up from my garden.

One of the reasons we were interested in this breed of duck was because they are generally quieter. The females have the characteristic belly-laugh style quack. Their voices do seem to be slightly quieter in volume than other duck breeds, but not much. Their quietness varies with their personality. We have one girl who is very talkative. Male Cayugas, like other male ducks, have a very quiet voice. When I hear them quack it makes me laugh, sounds like they have laryngitis!

We started with 5 ducklings which ended up being 1 male and 4 females. The male and his favorite girl went to a new home with some magpie ducks (which are pretty cool ducks too!).  So now we have three lovely lady-ducks hanging out at our place.


6 comments:
Labels: ,

4/8/13

Cayuga Ducks

 Introducing the newest additions to our home: cute fluffy ducklings!

Cayuga ducks get their name from Cayuga Lake in New York state where they were first made popular. They are listed as threatened by the American Livestock Conservancy and considered a sustainable heritage duck breed. Adult ducks are a beautiful black with an iridescent green sheen to their feathers.

We are excited about them because of the qualities that make them an excellent backyard duck. They are known as very active foragers that love to eat snails, slugs, and other insects (My garden is going to love that!). They are known for their calm and docile temperament and can become quite tame if consistently handled. They are characteristically much quieter than some of the other duck breeds, such as the Pekin. They are one of the hardiest domestic ducks and can tolerate harsh winter conditions. And they also lay a decent amount of eggs, which are black and progressively get lighter through the season until they are white. Cool!
1 comment:
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Blogging tips