CockeyeBBQ

Found this recipe, and I had zucchini and red bell peppers leftover from my last picking of the garden so I thought I would give it a try. It was quick and tasty. I'd make this one again, but would add a 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper to the mix.

Home-cured HamSo the end of August brings a lot of things to my family. Our little garden is in full harvest mode, tomatoes have the vines hanging down with weight, we canned quarts and quarts of pickles and picked I don't know how many pounds of green beans. But this year I was able to take advantage of another bounty, local farm-raised pork. A good friend of mine had raised 2 hogs and offered one to me.

Now I have the butchering skills to break down the carcass, but unfortunately I don't have all the tools. My little summer kitchen is lacking a bandsaw for the chops, but my grinder, slicer, stuffer and smoker will do a nice job with everything else.

Well, it was Dutch Oven Wednesday again and this week I chose one of the meals we had in Canada with Troop 101. The recipe says to brown the chops on a griddle, but I decided to put some marks on it with the grill and finish them baking with the spuds. This is a really good recipe. Easy, filling sure to impress.

Ingredients
1 Pork chop per person
12 oz sour cream
2# frozen hash browns
8 oz shredded cheddar
1 can cream of chicken soup
3 small onion, minced
2 sticks margarine
1 ½ cups crushed corn flakes

Looked in the fruit bowl this morning and saw a few nanners that were past their prime, so I decided to throw together some banana bread. Paired with some fresh strawberries that are also in the fridge and some Greek yogurt, should make a nice summer dessert for tonight. Actually, I think I'll grill the banana bread so it's warm and serve with the berry compote. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas
handful of walnuts (ok, big handful)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

Trash Can ChickenTrash can chicken, or garbage can chicken is a really simple way of using common household items to cook up some tasty yardbird. I made this recipe years ago as a demo at a Cub Scout campout and the results were pretty good. One of my Scouts remembers it to this day, so it must have been good.

I used a 10 or 11 gallon galvanized trash can that I got at Tractor Supply and a charcoal chimney full of coals.

Get your coals started in the chimney and while they're getting hot prepare the chicken.

I rub the bird down with plain old yellow mustard and then coat pretty liberally with your favorite BBQ rub.

Find out if your soil is acidic or alkaline without a pricey test kit.

Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 15 minutes or less

Here's How:

Scoop some soil into a container. Then, add a half-cup of vinegar. If the soil bubbles or fizzes, it's alkaline.

If there's no reaction, scoop a fresh soil sample into a second container. Add a half-cup of water and mix. Then, add a half-cup of baking soda. If the soil bubbles or fizzes the soil is highly acidic.

Amend your soil with wood ash or lime, if it's acidic. Amend your soil with sulfur or pine needles, if it's alkaline.

What You Need

A soil sample
Vinegar
Baking soda
Water
2 sample containers

As the primary cook and "grocery-getter" in our household, I usually write up a menu every week, and cross-reference a grocery list. This menu is usually hand written and stuck to the fridge for reference. This is important because it does more than one thing. Most importantly I remember what I bought, and when I planned to use it. I can also see if there is anything that needs prepped the day before, or if something needs to be pulled out and thawed in the fridge. The boys never have to ask me "What's for dinner?" and they'll also know if they need to have a snack in case it's not one of their faves.

My basil is doing really well this year, actually it does well every year I've planted it. I have one container that started to bolt and at first I let it go, just to enjoy the blooms and watching that plant do it's thang. But then I noticed that the stems were really stretching out and less and less leaves were being produced. This seems to make sense as the plant is putting forth all its energy into producing flowers and seeds for next year.

Well, I decided to give my basil plant a haircut and see if I can make it bush out a little more and get more leaves....which is really what I want.

A basic "Big Apple" pizza dough recipe. This pizza dough is built for that signature thin-crust, "fold-able" slice New York is famous for.

Yields: 1 large or 2 small pizzas
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time:
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

2 1/4 teaspoon (1 package) instant dry active yeast
1 cup warm water (not hot!)
1/2 tablespoon sugar
3 cups bread flour, or as needed
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Strawberry JamThe strawberries are on! You'd better hurry if you want to put up some fresh local strawberries this year! Stacey took the boys out two weekends ago and the farmers told her they'd have berries for another couple of weeks until the heat of summer takes them away. She picked about 25 pounds of strawberries and so far I've made jam, strawberry sauce, shortcake and Ben even made a cobbler or two. At $1.49/lb that beats Aldi's price of $1.99 and you're supporting a local farmer. To me, that's a win-win.

Here's the recipe I used for the first batch of jam. I'm hoping we can get out next weekend and get some more.