A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

recipe

Tasty Meals in July

By Leave a Comment

Woot woot!  I made tasty meals in July!!  I originally planned to do one of these posts every month.  You’ve seem my posts for January. February. March and April completed, but life hit! Life got busy with gardening, managing COVID requirements, and my bunny business.  It’s been a little hectic!  Maybe it’s been like that for you too?  

Anyways, perhaps I can make life a little easier for you.  I made lots of tasty meals this month and I wanted to share them with you. 

tasty meals in July

Meatless dishes

Vegetarian pasta. I ran across this recipe on a blog share post and thought it looked interesting.  I didn’t have all the ingredients so left out the cucumber and changed out the dressing, but otherwise made it as is.  It was a hit with everyone but my son who said “It looks like too much work to eat”.   Go figure eh? 

This next meal I made on a Sunday afternoon when I was in the mood for some beans and cheese and it looked interesting.  Mexican Layered Bean Casserole.  I didn’t have corn tortillas so used some regular ones, and changed out the Monteray Jack cheese with some jalapeno cheddar and havarti.  My homemade salsa worked really well in this recipe.  It was a hit with ALL members of the household, including our tenant.    We plan to have it again, but are thinking of using corn chips in place of the corn tortillas, don’t you think that would be a good option?

Black Bean Quinoa Salad was a dish enjoyed by hubby and I but it didn’t have longevity.  It is really best fresh or next day. It made too much to eat in one day or two.  I’ll make it again, but only a half-recipe. 

meatless meals July

Zucchini Recipes

Oh, zucchini … I have zucchini coming out of my ears it feels like!  🙂  I’ve had the joy of passing some along to neighbours and friends as well.  It’s so good to do that. 

I’ve made quite a few new to me recipes this year. 

Lemon Zucchini Cake.  REALLY good, I messed up a bit on the glaze.  But this was a solidly good coffee cake.  I used yellow zucchini instead of green so it was a very light in colour cake. 

Lemon Zucchini Bread.  Nice bread.  A good change from the zucchini chocolate chip bread I normally make.  A drier loaf so it keeps nicer in the hot weather we’ve been having. It’s also a bread where it’s easy to slice very thin slices which means no over-indulging!  🙂 

Zucchini Bites.  My word these disappeared so fast I only had six and I made a double recipe!  I was stunned at how fast they were gone. Very good, each a single mouthful.  Just very good, a nice dry bite.  MAKE THEM!

Zucchini Cakes/Patties.  Best same day, they don’t keep well.  Not only enjoyed by my family, but also by our tenant and her son.  “wow, zucchini can taste good even if it’s not in bread!” Her son exclaimed.  Good to surprise a 19-year-old isn’t it?  🙂

I have plans to make zucchini boats and bowls, some regular zucchini bread, chili, and muffins too.  But I’ll share those in August if all goes as planned. 

Oh, I made this really good quick stir fry for hubby and I when the lad was off for a couple of days with roasted veggies fried up with fresh zucchini.  Solidly good meal. 

Zucchini recipes

Meat Dishes

I work at the foodbank here in town and this week they said “Take home a turkey we had tons”.  So Thursday I cooked up a plain turkey, no stuffing as I’d be predominately using the meat for other meals.  We had turkey for lunch, and then I made a really good Turkey Shepherd’s pie.  Peas, corn, carrots, mashed taters, mushroom soup, onion soup and some slower cooker spices.  Along with turkey of course.  REALLY good, the fellows want me to try to make it again sometime.   I have loads in the freezer for making stews, casseroles and soups.  All the trimmings will go to the cats.

Turkey Shepherd's Pie

Hearty Baked Beans was a huge hit with my man.  A very simple meal to make with beans and ground beef.  Fits into a small crockpot easily. My son helped me throw it together adding the sugar, ketchup and mustard. 

hearty baked beans

I confused my family by making rabbit wings.  They were all “rabbits don’t have wings”.  I just grinned at them.  They aren’t keen on rabbit but I like it so it gives me free range to do nibbly food when I’m in the mood.  These were very simply made with shake n bake. 

rabbit wings

Other Meals Made

My son wasn’t keen on this currant loaf I threw together, but hubby and I found it delightfully different.  A nice taste to it. 

I made some zucchini cookies but I don’t remember what recipe I used.  They were a fairly moist cookie that my son and hubby devoured.  My tenant kept asking “Do you mind if I have one?”   Makes my heart smile.

Red Currant Scones were devoured by my hubby over the course of three nights.  When he was finished enjoying them he promptly decided that minding his calories would be a good thing.  I don’t know if there is a connection between the two.  🙂 

currant based desserts

More Tasty Meals in July

I made quite a few other tasty meals in July but I think this post is long enough to intrigue you.  No links for most of these, I either made them out of my head, or they got lost when I reset my tablet. 

  • Swedish meatballs on noodles – disappeared so fast….
  • baked fish and fries – lemon and fresh dill from my garden – good!
  • Sausage and potato stovetop casserole – I enjoyed this immensely
  • Mixed rice with fish – the rice was great, the fish rather meh
  • Meatballs with fresh slicing beans from the garden – totally yum
  • Gooseberry jam which turned out more of a sauce
  • roasted veggies – will do this again Sunday coming

Candied Hot Peppers

By 4 Comments

Sometimes, in the course of living one’s life with a life partner (aka my darling hubby) you are called upon to do things you REALLY don’t want to do.

Enter in Candied Hot Peppers. 

THIS is hubby’s thing.  He likes them.  Loves the smell of them and doesn’t mind the tang of their taste in his nose and mouth.

I, on the other hand, very much DO NOT.

But (and mind the shock value) he did this to his finger at work.

stitches in fingerThis means NO doing up hot peppers as putting on nitrile gloves is a bit of a challenge and not one he’s up to when he doesn’t HAVE to do.   So it fell to me (his long-suffering wife) to do it for him.

Candied Hot Peppers

Instructions:

Have I mentioned how much I dislike hot peppers?   I barely stand sweet peppers, but hot peppers are just a No.

BUT I found this recipe for cowboy candy.   I pretty much made it as is except we had no cayenne pepper (guessing you know why that might be).  🙂

So you take your mess of hot peppers, try to have them be firm and nicely ripe.  Wear gloves.  Seriously.. wear them.   Cut off the icky bit (the hard stem) and toss that into your compost. Then slice the good part into even slices about 1/8- 1/4 inch thick.  Cut them about even, but WEAR GLOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Our mess of peppers consisted of 85% jalepeno peppers 10% hot peppers and 5% we’re not sure of what they were peppers.   The recipe called for three pounds, I had more than that so just jiggled with the recipe a bit.

Once you have them cut set them aside.

In a big pot I put in 

3 cups cider vinegar
9 cups granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon turmeric
3/4 teaspoon celery seed
5 teaspoons granulated garlic

Boil that together until the sugar is nicely melted.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the pepper slices and simmer for exactly 4 minutes. I may have messed up this part a bit as I was washing up the jars while it cooked a bit. 

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the peppers, loading into clean, sterile canning jars to within 1/4 inch of the upper rim of the jar.
Turn heat up under the pot with the syrup and bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 6 minutes.  (aced this part)
Use a ladle to pour the boiling syrup into the jars over the jalapeno slices. Insert a cooking chopstick to the bottom of the jar two or three times to release any trapped pockets of air. (I didn’t have to do this part as I didn’t pack them very tight) Adjust the level of the syrup if necessary. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, damp paper towel and fix on new, two-piece lids to finger-tip tightness.

Then put it through your canner for 10 minutes and let them cool.  

The original recipe said to keep the leftover sauce as it’s good over meats and what not.  Hubby dear said “just toss it lovey, and thanks for doing them up for me”.    (wasn’t that nice of him?)

——-

Was it completely horrible?   Well… I survived!   Disliked the cutting and cooking and getting the smell in my nose.  I didn’t mind the canning steps.  AND I loved that my sweetheart then cooked up pizzas for supper.   Box pizza, but still a pain to open with a sore hand, but I didn’t have to cook!  🙂

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

By Leave a Comment

So I have all this zucchini that needs to be used up eh?   I’ve been making zucchini muffins but wanted to do something different and I’d heard someone talking about how good chocolate zucchini cake is.  I thought I would give it a whirl.  What can I say… GO MAKE IT.  It disappeared literally overnight.  Very moist and yummy.  The recipe I used came from here.  I made some minor modifications.

chocolate zucchini cake

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 cups  sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups  vegetable oil
  • 3.5 cups zucchini grated
  • 2 cups  all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cups  unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp  baking powder
  • chocolate syrup
  • raspberry syrup

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

  2. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, eggs, vanilla, vegetable oil. Add in flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder.  Mix well.  

  3. Fold in zucchini until it is evenly distributed. 

  4. Pour mixture into a prepared 9×13 pan

  5. Bake 40-50 minutes

  6. Remove from oven, pierce with a fork, and drizzle about syrups over top.   My son did this and varied how he did the syrups.  The raspberry syrup added an interesting touch that I’d happily do again.

Our Thoughts:

Our Student: yummy, yummy, is so good, I like chocolate.

Son: I ONLY GOT ONE PIECE!  Why did you finish it all on me?  DAD!!!!!

Dad: I like this, it was good.  You can make this again.  Sorry son….

Mom: I have two zucchinis left to use, I’ll use one for this cake.

Fair Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Leave a Comment

You may recall my post this week about the Kirkton Fair and my lad’s success with winning with the cookies he made.   We need to keep that recipe because in November he needs to make them again and compete for best cookie in all the fairs.  🙂

The recipe we originally found here and made some minor adjustments.

chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (113 g) butter
1/2 cup (99 g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (54 g) brown sugar packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups (210 g) all-purpose flour*
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (170 g) semisweet chocolate chips —  we found we had 1/4 cup leftover and this was with stuffing all we could into them, 3/4 of a cup would be sufficient.

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
  2. Microwave the butter for about 40 seconds. Butter should be completely melted but shouldn’t be hot.
  3. In a large bowl, mix butter with the sugars until well-combined.
  4. Stir in vanilla and egg until incorporated.
  5. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined. Dough should be soft and a little sticky but not overly sticky.
  6. Stir in chocolate chips.
  7. Scoop out 1.5 tablespoons of dough (medium cookie scoop) and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until cookies are set. They will be puffy and still look a little underbaked in the middle. This is if you want a soft cookie.  A wee bit more gives you a harder cookie.  You may need to play around with it a little. 

recipe link up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Homemade Hot Pockets

By Leave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to find a way to replicate hot pockets… those pizza type pockets you can get?

So anyways, this was my just wing it attempt.

Homemade Hot Pockets

You’ll need:

1 package crescent rolls.  Unless you have a recipe for a thin bread coating you can wrap around the filling.

Grated cheese. 

The filling

Ground beef … oh.. a pound maybe, probably a light pound.
Brown this in a pan with some diced onion 3/4 medium and one sweet pepper.
Seasoning… I used a taco mix… about 1.5 tbsp.
Good handful bacon bits (the real kind)
Spaghetti sauce leftovers.. enough to make it saucy but not too liquid
Let it all cook together for a bit in your fry pan.

Assembly

Take your crescent rolls out of the package. DO NOT UNROLL THEM.
Divide into 8 sections that you will then roll flat into a squarish circle. Roll them fairly thin but not too thin. (yes, there is a learning curve)
Put some cheese in the middle.. I did a mix of cheddar and mozzarella
Top with meat mix.
Pull up the sides and kinda make them stick together and then put the stuck together sides down on the baking sheet.
Repeat until you have all eight sections done.

Cook in oven like you would for crescent rolls.

Enjoy.

The results:

NOTE:

I liked them day one, son said “something is missing”.  

Day two reheated I LOVED them, and son said (after he added a layer of cheese and splash of salt “can we make them again?”.  Hubby tried them day two and said “good first attempt” but not quite what he’d want for work. He said “You need to play around with them a bit yet, but overall for a hot meat bun it wasn’t half bad”.  Part of my goal is to make something he wouldn’t mind taking along to work with him…. so I’ll keep fiddling.

IF you have suggestions please make them.

recipe link up