Update on the watermelon, etc....

Yes, these watermelon came from our garden--my husband brought them in last night because there was an expected freeze. (The first expected freeze, even though last week we got, from one neighbor's account, 5 inches of heavy, wet snow. I can't verify the five inches (have to say I believe my neighbor) but I can verify the wet, heavy part-- from when the children and I cleaned off the driveway :) Anyway, yay, we grew watermelon in Idaho! Don't know how it will taste, but there is a certain happiness in having seen it get bigger and bigger.

Bigger and bigger, but not exactly huge. When the above picture was sent to relatives, an e-mail was returned asking about size, because it was hard to judge from the picture. So, the following e-mail was sent out:





Yeah, my husband's hand gives you a point of reference. Hope they taste as good as they look, and as to the size, you're always supposed to leave people wanting more, right? :)

We got a lot of carrots, our zucchini thrived, and we got a lot of peas from our garden this year. We had more ears of corn, but we waited too long to pick them. Our pumpkins are still out there, and looking good--how did your garden do this year? Hope everyone had/is having a great harvest...

A new recipe tried, and the importance of good utensils...

I got a message in my comments recently about a new food blog called My Food Storage Cookbook. You gotta love food storage recipes that include the actual directions for using things like powdered milk/eggs, etc. So, one of my children and I tried out the German Spaetzle recipe today...

And that's where the importance of good utensils come in. Those, or at least expect to need a lot of practice if you're going to attempt to use the alternative method of preparation. We used powdered milk, powdered eggs, followed the excellent directions, and everything went well, including the test tablespoon in the boiling water. I loved the fact that the directions included the option of using a food storage bag with a corner stripped off to make the noodles if you don't happen to have a pastry bag handy.

Just turns out that I'm not that proficient of forming noodles via food storage bag. Yet.

The flavor of our version of the German Spaetzle was great, it's just that I had short, stubby "noodles". I'm sure that a pastry bag would have worked better--as sure as I can be, considering that I haven't used one that much. But my guess is that if I practice these some more, which I am planning to do, I will get better at the food storage bag alternative, or at the pastry bag method, if that's the route I choose to go. Can't underestimate the importance of practice...

Anyway, saw a couple more recipes over there I'm looking to try in the future, among them the Creamy Chicken Enchilada Recipe (which I will wait to try until it gets cooler, since it needs to bake for an hour) and the Italian Chicken Recipe, which looks like it would be a good option any time of the year. And that's only a couple of many recipes, with the author supplying sources, and a great way to organize your preparation efforts. There's a lot to check out if you are interested, so you might want to check it out. I know I'll probably head back for more info soon...

Hope that everyone is having a great summer, and that your garden is going well--in ours the radishes have done well, and there is great hope for the carrots. Looking forward to our raspberries ripening. Take care, and if you are in an area that is hot, hot, hot, try to stay cool, cool, cool..... :)