Monthly Archives: November 2012

What Are Your Plans For Thanksgiving?

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Here in the United States (I’m having a lot of traffic today from Eastern Europe), we celebrate our Thanksgiving on the third thursday in November.  Well, tomorrow is the big day where we stuff our faces with the most heavy, butter laden foods known to man and amazingly enough we don’t feel sorry for it.  Traditionally the meal consists of a turkey with lots of side dishes, and my favorite part…the DESSERT!  I usually make pumpkin pie, but this year I’m going out on a limb and trying a southern classic…pecan pie?  No, Sweet Potato Pie.  I googled a recipe, and as you know when you do something like that you get thousands.  Everyone has their own spin on this type of pie, and a lot of them had corn syrup as an ingredient.  Now, I don’t care if the recipe has been passed down from your great great great granny, I doubt she used corn syrup, and I personally don’t want to eat it.  So, after a diligent search, I found a recipe that I will use tomorrow for my pie.

Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

(Taste of Home)

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3/4 cup evaporated milk
  • 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)

Directions

  • In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Add milk, sweet potatoes, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; mix well. Pour into pie shell. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°; bake 35-40 minutes longer or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool. Store in refrigerator. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Nutritional Facts1 serving (1 slice) equals 372 calories, 18 g fat (9 g saturated fat), 86 mg cholesterol, 300 mg sodium, 48 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 6 g protein.

 

I added the nutritional content from the recipe, but don’t pay attention to those facts, your mouth will be rejoicing with the flavor!

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Ode to Cilantro

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There are many people out there who DO NOT like cilantro, there are even websites dedicated to those who HATE cilantro.  Well, I’m not one of those people, in fact I’m PRO cilantro.  I’m glad cilantro only grows in the spring and the fall, otherwise my kids would join the other cilantro camp because it would be a part of every meal!  I want to share today my favorite way to enjoy cilantro: Cilantro Pesto!

All you need to make this delicious concoction is some cilantro, a food processor, salt, garlic, and olive oil.  You might be asking yourself, self, is this like making basil pesto?  And your self will answer back, YES!  If you go online, there are many recipes to choose from, and I say pick one.  If it has too many ingredients, skip it, because the flavor of the pesto will be covered up.  Here is how we make it:

Cilantro Pesto

1 large bunch of cilantro

salt to taste

1 cup olive oil

4 garlic cloves

Directions:

Place all ingredients in food processor, blend until incorporated.  Taste it to see if it meets your needs.  More salt?  More garlic?  And oui, là!

Toss this pesto with some freshly prepared pasta, or rice.  We put it on everything!  A dollop on some salad, a smear on a burrito, even on pizza!

Cilantro lovers unite!  Try this tasty alternative to basil pesto, and this yummy way to enjoy the love of my life which is, cilantro!

Penguin Peppers

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You know it has been a long season, when your plants start producing magical, yet comical fruits.  They must be saying to us, sit down and have a laugh, it’s almost over.

Not only are there penguin peppers, but peppers with funny noses:

These peppers are doing their job, showing us that plants can have a sense of humor too!

 

 

Hoop House Hoopla

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We’ve been really busy here on the farm, our main project right now, on top of EVERYTHING else is re-erecting the Mothership.  If you aren’t a 2-greenthumbs superfan, let me fill you in.  Last march our hoop house, the Mothership, was blown down in what we later found out was a F1 tornado.  Look back into my archives, there were pictures and tears shed.  But NOW we are putting a new Mothership back up, better than ever.  There were lots of hands involved in this, there are some pictures on my other farm blog Ozark Alternatives and I will add some more here as well.

 

I would just like to add that we also pulled the roof up and over!  There are no pictures of that, because all hands were on deck.  FARM LIFE!