Thursday, June 3, 2010

Experiments from the Garden & All New Recipe of the Day!

Posted by MandaMac at 12:32 PM

Hello again! This afternoon, I'm going to try my hand at making some lemon balm jelly(gotta do SOMETHING with all that balm in the garden!). I've never made jelly before, so this is going to be a new experience for me. I'd like to get it right though, and I'd rather experiment with yummy stuff from my own garden than stuff I'll have to buy....thank goodness I've got tons of jars and lids! sooner or later, I want to try this recipe for Lavender-Lemon jelly, so I've got to get some practice in. I'll let you all know how it goes in tomorrow's blog.
My bee balm is starting to bloom for the first time, and I'm excited. I seem to have a couple colors: the regular purple and a pale, pale pink I've never seen before. It all looks so beautiful waving in the wind next to my walk and front door. It cheers me up every time I enter or leave the house. 
This fall, I need to divide and move my lemon balm. The lady I got it from said it would spread, but she never mentioned it would be THIS aggressive! It's starting to crowd out my lavender...can't have that! I think I'm going to go on a treasure hunt for a large container to plant it in. We'll see if I can find something cool at the local junk shop. Like a washtub or something.
 I was browsing Etsy today, and I came upon these really cool glass tumblers by BottleHood made from recycled wine bottles.

Now I just have to find a way to convince the hubby that we can fit them into the budget(Everyone wish me luck! LOL). They're so pretty! And clever.


So, I've decided that every day, I'm going to have a "Recipe of the Day". All of these come from my personal collection; some are family recipes, and some are from various cookbooks or magazines that I've clipped and saved. Since it's summer, I decided I would kick things off with a good summer side dish(actually, Mopsie served it all year `round, but it seemed like a good choice).




Baked Squash
3 pounds summer(crookneck, yellow)squash
1/3 cup chopped white onion
1/2 cup cracker meal or bread crumbs
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 eggs
1 stick of butter, divided
1 tbsp sugar 
1tsp salt
1/4 cup cracker meal


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
Wash and cut up squash. Place in a large saucepan over high heat. Boil until tender. Once cooked, drain squash thoroughly. In a large bowl, mash the cooked squash. Add onion, cracker meal or bread crumbs, pepper, eggs, 1/2 the stick of butter, sugar and salt. Mix thoroughly and pour mixture into a baking dish. Melt remaining butter. Pour over the top of casserole and sprinkle with cracker meal. Bake for 55-60 minutes.


Enjoy!




Ok, I just had to add to today's post. I just finished my trial run of lemon balm jelly, and I'm so excited!
It tastes so good....I licked the spoon...very delicate, not too sweet lemony-herby flavor. And such a pretty yellow! I used the water bath canning method, and all four sealed properly, so I guess I did it right. Oooh, I'm so excited! Now I just want to go out and find other stuff to make jelly out of, lol.

 

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