Pickled Asparagus

Pickled Asparagus is excellent added to all salads; fruit, vegetable, potato, and pasta.  Good lightly sautéed or grilled as a side dish.

Makes about 15 pints

• 10 pounds diced or sliced asparagus ends (does not include tender tip)
• 2 pounds peeled and sliced carrots
• 1/2 can red pimento pepper

Mix the above ingredients together evenly in a separate container.  Pack into mason pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.

For the Brine:

• 4 cups white vinegar (5% acidity)
• 12 cups water
• 3/4 cups pickling salt

Bring the brine mixture to a boil and pour hot into packed jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Cap and process in boiling water bath for 12 minutes.  Cool and check for seal.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkins are popping up around us and the kids are overflowing with creative ideas for decorating these festive gourds.  But for those of us who love to go deeper, filling our cheeks with crunchy, fresh roasted pumpkin seeds is just the beginning to savoring Autumn’s fruits.

Let’s get to thrashing a pumpkin for its seeds.

First, cut out the top of pumpkin.  Look at the stringy, web-like action going on in there.  This is where I discover another place God is so COOL! Look at that beautiful creamy orange color. The center mass looks like an explosion and the seeds are just hangin’ out on the sides.  There are so many hidden places where God tucks His coolest artwork.

Fill a large bowl with water and give the seeds a good swishin’ around.  The stringy stuff sinks to the bottom and the seeds float.  Proceed to skim the seeds off the top with your hands and move them to a cookie sheet.  Allow them to dry just a bit and they’ll become sticky.

Now salt the heck out of them! I use good ol’ table salt. Much of the extra salt falls off during the roasting process, so don’t be afeard to be generous with the salt.

Heat the oven to 350F degrees.
Bake.  Stir.  Bake.  Golden brown, done.  Cool.  Eat.

Simple and very accurate.  It doesn’t sound like enough information, but it doesn’t take any time at all to roast pumpkin seeds.  It might take 7 to 10 minutes and 10 minutes is pushing it.  I set the timer for 5 minutes, then come back to stir them.  They tan up mighty quick.  I give them one stir with a spatula then stand there a couple of minutes and voila!  Done.

I immediately move the seeds off the sheet and allow them to cool.

Farmers’ Market Veggie Nachos

Simple and quick recipes are always a first choice when throwing together a hot lunch. My family would eat nachos everyday, if I’d let them. I like that they’re similar to salads, minus the greens. We can throw just about any vegetable, legume, meat, fruit, salsa, and of course, wonderful cheeses on top of a bed a chips. Slide’em into the oven for less than 10-minutes and then we’re ready to chow down. Any combination of our favorite toppings always seems to work out into a fun & filling lunch.

Better still, making nachos is a great way to clean out the frig of all those half-cut bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc. Leftover grilled meats, cuts of cheese that are too small for a recipe, fresh herbs on their last day can be used to make fabulous nachos.

HERE’S A GOOD COMBINATION

• green bell pepper. diced small
• red bell pepper, diced small
• yellow onion, sliced thin
• tomato, seeded, diced small
• black beans, drained and rinsed
• fresh cilantro
• Monterey cheese, grated
• Cheddar cheese, grated
• Habanero Smoked Cheese, grated (from Love at First Slice)
• tortilla chips
• sour cream for dipping
• your favorite salsa for dipping

Heat oven to 375ºF. Use a cookie sheet lined with foil for easy cleanup, or not. Make a layer of chips on the sheet. Arrange the toppings as you like them. Cover lightly with grated cheeses. Bake 7 to 10 minutes.

mmm…hot, veggie nachos

Campfire Roasted Potatoes and Onions with Garlic

Patsy Yates has been selling the cutest little New Potatoes at the Main Street Farmers’ Market.  Their size makes them perfect for cooking with a bunch of green beans.  I couldn’t help take them along on a camping trip to Lake Bob Sandlin and roast them over our campfire.

HERE’S ALL IT TAKES

• as many New Potatoes as you want to eat, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• small yellow onions, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• garlic cloves, halved
• oil for coating vegetables, 1 to 2 tablespoons
• 1/2- to 1-teaspoon dried parsley
• course salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
• heavy duty aluminum foil

Pile the sliced vegetables onto a large sheet of aluminum foil.  Drizzle with oil and season with parsley, salt and pepper.  Make a foil packet.  Bring the longest sides up and fold together to make a sealed top.  Fold in each end well enough to prevent oil and steam from leaking out of foil packet.

Lay foil packet carefully over medium high fire on grill grid or lay over gray coals on the side of the fire, and cook for 25 to 30 minutes.

CAMP COOK:  Cook up extra potatoes and you can have savory potatoes with scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Keep the foil packet in good shape and reheat the leftovers the next morning.

The creaminess of the potatoes tastes wonderful with the sweetness of the onions and garlic.  Of course, you don’t have to go camping to enjoy this dish.  You can easily pop the foil packet in 425ºF oven and cook for 25 to 30 minutes.

Texas Peach Pie

It looks like a cobbler but has all the yummy fun of pie.  Before the season is done, pick up a basket of fresh picked peaches from the Main Street Farmers’ Market and make this incredible dessert. And instead of a pie plate, pull out the 13-inch by 9-inch casserole dish and serve this up Texas size.  Your friends and neighbors will love helping you eat it up.

HERE’S ALL IT TAKES

Pie Crust

• 1 cup or 2 sticks COLD butter, cut into tablespoon slices
• 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt, (if you use salted butter, then do not add this extra salt)
• 7 to 8 tablespoons ice cold water

In a food processor, pulse and cut butter into flour and salt until mixture makes small pea size crumbs.  With the processor on, add ice cold water through the top until all the flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of the bowl.

Gather pastry into a ball; shape into flattened round. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.  When you’re ready to assemble the pie, then divide dough in half.  Roll out each half onto a lightly floured surface to the size of your baking dish.  Lay the pressed dough over the rolling pin to help pick up and move the dough to the buttered dish.

Texas Peach filling

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 6 to 8 cups fresh sliced peaches (about 7 to 10 peaches)
• 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons butter

HEAT OVEN 425ºF.

After slicing all those peaches, make sure there will be enough to fill the casserole dish before prepping the dish for baking.  You may need extra peaches or you may have too many, it’s good to check before going further.

Mix the sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla.  Stir in the measured peaches and lemon juice.

Prepare bottom layer of pastry and lay into bottom of the buttered 13-inch by 9-inch casserole dish. Don’t worry about it being pretty, no one will notice the bottom.  Pour peach mixture into pastry-lined dish. Dot with 3 tablespoons of butter.  Cover with top crust that has slits cut in it; seal and decorate to your fancy.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes, until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.  Allow to cool so the peach filling has time to solidify, otherwise it will run out and fall apart as you try to move it to your plate.  Trust me on this one.

Sweet Tomato and Feta Salad

This tomato and feta salad is full of flavors. It’s perfect with roasted chicken, grilled burgers or steaks, particularly when you need to replace that serving of potatoes with something lighter.  It works very well just as a appetizer with crackers

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED

• 1 pint grape tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped purple onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (4 oz.) package Basil & Tomato crumbled Feta cheese

Cut grape tomatoes in half and place them in a medium bowl. Toss in all remaining ingredients, except feta. Make sure your salad has enough salt and pepper to taste and you’re finish tossing, then add feta in last toss. Eat right away or served chilled. This salad is best eaten the same day it’s made.

Southwest Salsa Recipe

This simple salsa recipe comes from Annette P. of Webb’s Farm Fresh Produce.

• 1 (15 oz.) can black beans
• 1 (15 oz.) can black-eyed Peas W/ Jalapenos
• 1 (11 oz.) can shoe peg corn
• 2 (14-oz.) cans diced tomato w/juice
• 1 cup chopped green onion
• 1 cup chopped green bell  pepper
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic or McCormicks’ California Style Minced Garlic
• 1 tablespoon course-ground black pepper
• 1 cup jalapenos, chopped with juice
• 1 cup Zesty Italian dressing

Drain and rinse the beans, peas, and corn. Add the tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, cilantro, jalapenos, and spices. marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Drain excess liquid and serve with tortilla chips.

The original recipe came from ”The Rains Co. Leader”…it is credited to Taylor Young  of the Rains Co. 4-H club.

Fresh Okra Gumbo

Okra is in season around these parts of Texas and what’s tastier than okra gumbo?

HERE’S ALL IT TAKES

• 1 pint fresh okra, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes with liquid
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup diced yellow onion
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Add all the ingredients to a medium sauce pan, cook over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until onions are soften and okra is tender.

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Italian Vegetable Soup

Inspired by a wonder Italian cookbook, this recipe is perfect to make ahead for work lunches.  It freezes very well, too.

• 2 tablespoons each, butter & olive oil
• 1 small onion thinly sliced
• 2 celery stalks, finely diced
• 5 small carrots, finely diced
• 1 large zucchini, diced
• 1/2 cup parboiled rice
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 (15oz) can chick peas/garbanzo beans
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon curry
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

In a medium soup pot on medium heat, cook onions, celery, and carrots in butter and oil, until carrots are tender. Add zucchini and rice, pinch of salt and pepper, stir and cook for about 5 minutes, until the zucchini softens and the rice turns a light golden color.

Pour in chicken broth and chick peas with their liquid, 1/2 teaspoon salt & pepper. Bring to a boil, cover, then reduce heat for a low simmer. Cook for 20 minutes until rice is tender. Topping it with freshly grated Romano or crumbled goat cheese makes it even better!

COOK’S NOTES
If you’re planning to make ahead for work or school lunches to go, cook the zucchini only 2 to 3 minutes in the soup pot.  When it comes time to thaw or reheat the soup, the zucchini will finish cooking then.

Blackberry Cobbler

With all these huge and sweet blackberries coming into season, we had to bake up an incredible & easy, easy Blackberry Cobbler.

• 4 cups fresh blackberries
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons melted butter

HEAT oven to 375ºF.

Grease 8 x 8-inch square pan.  Layer berries in pan and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice.  In a medium bowl, stir together egg, sugar and flour until it resembles a course meal.  Sprinkle over fruit.  Drizzle butter over the top.
BAKE 35 minutes, until lightly brown & bubbly.  Allow to cool 10 minutes then serve warm with whipped cream.

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If you had the pleasure of tasting this recipe when Jill from SimpleDailyRecipes.com baked it up for the cooking demonstration, please leave your review here to let others know about this recipe.

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