Nutritious, Delicious, Gorgeous {Purple Veggies}

PURPLE!

It's the color of royalty. 

It's bright, fun, radiant, mysterious, luscious, lovely.

Nobody does purple quite like Mother Nature.

Eating purple veggies makes you feel royal, like you're dining on something that not many others do. They're pretty, and good for you, too!

~ Kohlrabi ~

~ Asparagus ~

~ Purple Basil ~

~ Brussels Sprouts ~

~ Purple Potatoes ~

~ Purple Carrots ~ 
Purple on the outside, orange in the middle.
Beautiful!

Zucchini Costata Romanesco

It’s zucchini time!

This is the first year I have grown zucchini in my little garden. I have been hesitant to grow zucchini because it does take up a lot of space and once it starts growing it’s very prolific and EVERYONE is giving away their over-abundant crop. Sometimes people just can’t give it away. I want to be one of those people! 

But I read about a zucchini that is a little bit different from the plant that is typically grown in most gardens: It’s the traditional Italian heirloom, zucchini costata romanesco. According to Johnny’s Select Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com), “This distinctive zucchini is medium gray-green, with pale green flecks and prominent ribs. Big, large-leafed bush with only about half the yield of hybrids, but much better flavor; clearly better textured, nutty, and delicious, raw or cooked. Also a good producer of heavy male blossom buds for cooking.” Sounds like my kind of zucchini...

I prepared my 8 x 8 garden plot for planting and put the seeds in the ground in early May. For quite a while there nothing happened, then a few sprouts popped out of the dirt and that’s what was there for a couple weeks. Then the rains came and the zucchini jungle flourished! 

Zucchini costata is delicious and versatile...ways to use it are endless and as it’s going right now, so is my crop of zucchini!

Summer Lettuce

I grew up eating home grown lettuce in the summertime. Leaf lettuce grew abundantly in my parents’ and grandparents’ gardens. As a kid, I wanted to eat iceberg lettuce because all of my friends did; not the stuff that was fresh picked out of a garden. But now, my tastes have grown up...give me fresh garden lettuce any day!

When we ate garden lettuce salads, we did not use bottled dressings. Mom always dressed the fresh leaf lettuce salad with a very simple dressing made of cream or 1/2 and Half, sugar and cider vinegar. Add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and it was done. She would always mix the dressing right in the salad bowl and the amount of cream, vinegar and sugar would depend on the amount of lettuce that she had. It was one of those recipes where she eyeballed the quantities.

It’s the perfect dressing for fresh garden lettuce: light, sweet but tangy, and refreshing.

This recipe makes 1 1/2 cups of dressing. Go to your garden or favorite farmers market and enjoy fresh leaf lettuce. It is one of summer's delights!

1 c. heavy cream or 1/2 and Half

1/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. cider vinegar

1 t. salt

1 t. pepper

Put ingredients in a jar and shake. Use appropriate amount over lettuce.

Thanking my Lucky Stars and Stripes {Part 2}

The whole inspiration of our life as a nation flows out from the waving folds of this banner.

~ Author Unknown

We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity, representing our liberty.

~ attributed to George Washington

I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this nation.  My stars and my stripes are your dream and your labors.  They are bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you have made them so out of your heart.  For you are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory in the making.  ~ Franklin Knight Lane

Brought to you courtesy of the red, white and blue ~

God bless America...USA!

237 years and going strong.

Thanking My Lucky Stars and Stripes {4th of July}

Old Glory, the Stars and Stripes, the Red, White and Blue, the Star-Spangled Banner...

the American flag ~ 

The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights.  It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life.  It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history.  Woodrow Wilson

Cheers for the sailors that fought on the wave for it,

                                     Cheers for the soldiers that always were brave for it, 

Tears for the men that went down to the grave for it, 

Here comes the flag! 

~ Arthur Macy, The Flag

The red and white and starry blue

Is freedom's shield and hope.

~ John Philip Sousa

Summer Treats {Ranier Cherries}

The stone fruits are here! The stone fruits are here!

Peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, bing cherries, Ranier cherries...sweet, juicy tastes of summer.

With shopping list in hand, I went to Kroger. Even though there was no produce on the list, I passed through the produce department anyway. And my eyes fell on the bags of Ranier cherries, those sweet, tasty orbs, yellow and blushing with red, so sweet that they can be dessert all on their own.

I grabbed a bag.

Going through the self-checkout line, I punched in the Ranier cherry code, and 1 1/2 pounds of cherries rang in at $9.40. What? Did I type in the wrong code? Nope. These sweet gems of summer are $5.99/pound. This price is the "pits!"

Off to a good start!

Big Dog in a Small Car {Sugarcreek Metro Park}

Monday was a very sad day for my family. We said goodbye to our 15-year old chocolate Lab. He was our first family dog. He was my first ever dog.

On Tuesday, my other dog and I needed to get out of the house and out of the neighborhood. Dayton has beautiful metro parks and we hit the trail at one of our favorites, Sugarcreek. Sugarcreek MetroPark is home to the Three (now two) Sisters, which are 550-year old oak trees, a tall grass prairie, woodlands, some steep trails, and of course Sugar Creek.

Hunter gets so excited when he sees me put on my tennis shoes and then go to the closet for his leash. He knows what's coming up. Right now my son has my Tahoe, so that leaves me with my small car and a 90-pound dog. It's quite a picture!

What I didn't think about was that it rained a lot on Monday. 

Rain + dirt trails = lots of mud. 

At first I tried to navigate around the muddy areas on the trail but that turned into quite a joke and it was stressful. We came here to get rid of stress. Shoes can be washed, dogs can be washed, cars can be washed. Our hearts needed some healing from the pain of losing our long-time dear pet. We walked through the mud, we splashed in the creek, we had a marvelous time!

A wish and a prayer for our dear old dog ~

Prairie flowers

Steep enough for you?

Sugar Creek

Hunter and the woodlands

Muddy, muddy, muddy!