Healthy Vegetable (not) & My Creative Side

I love vegetables, I really do. In raw form, steamed, stir fried, baked, etc. Broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, squash, zucchini ... you get the picture. But sometimes you see a recipe & think to yourself, wow that sounds good.

I had a resolution for this year to only cook recipes that had been tried & true from friends, books or magazines. It seemed in 2016 that I tried too many Pinterest recipes that failed. Most times an ingredient was missing or the wrong amount was specified. The pictures looked beautiful but somehow it didn't taste even 1/2 as good as it looked. However, I saw this recipe for cauliflower patties that I really wanted to try.

Like with mashed potatoes, I usually always have leftover cauliflower. With potatoes I make a twice baked potato casserole or patties. So I decided to try the cauliflower patty recipe but didn't follow the instructions exactly. For instance, the recipe called for 2 eggs but when I broke my eggs they were both double yolks. I said ehh, I'll just add a few more bread crumbs & a little extra cheese. See, that's where the healthy vegetable becomes not so. I patted them out & fried (so not healthy again) them in a little oil. They were delicious! We had extra so I've frozen a couple to see how they stand up.

As a homage to Mama Pea committing to being creative this year I wanted to share a wreath I made just before Christmas.

It's made with a pool noodle & canning rings! I wanted it a little bigger than the instructions called for so I enlarged & used more rings. It is quite heavy. Also, the extra weight caused it to sag a little & become more oval but I still like it. I have great plans to get some more quilting done this year & to finish a few of my UFOs that are in my drawer. I'll post as I get around to them, hopefully.

Soup Sunday, New Welcomes & a Strange Vegetable

The last couple of weeks have been uneventful. We went to the Country last weekend & got the 2 asparagus beds straightened & filled w/sticks, poo & straw. Will continue adding compost material until time for planting in March. Forgot the camera so no pic.

Had a bit of drama though. When we got there we were basically locked out of our way in to the property. We had to go to the other side of the property & use my Dad's gate & drive across the pond damn. Quite a ways out of the way but doable. The person who let us use his gate for access has 'gone off his meds' & is a bit crazy w/o them. This is the 3rd or 4th time he's done this so we are done w/him. We'll be putting in a driveway just down the road from my Dad's gate but have  few obstacles we will need to be overcome, such as clearing some woods that has a branch running through it. I'll post our progress.

I got this strange vegetable in my last CSA delivery. 

I cut it up along w/some onion, mushrooms & yellow peppers & roasted them.

I served it w/organic chicken in a creamy asiago cheese sauce. It was delicious.

Greg got some bathroom shelves put up so I could display my milk vases (he calls them graveyard vases). We've had these shelves since last summer & I've been collecting the vases from estate sales during that time. I'm quite pleased w/the results.

For Souper Sunday, I made sausage, kale & lentil soup. I don't like kale & this is about the only way I've found that I can stomach it. I like all other greens (turnip, mustard, collards, etc.), just not this one.

Saute some spicy sausage w/the casing removed
Add onions & any other vegetables you would like (I used parsnip, carrot & a couple of potatoes)
Add rosemary, salt, pepper & cumin
Saute until slightly tender
Wilt in chopped kale along w/some grated nutmeg
Stir in some tomato paste & a cup or so of white wine
I also added a can of chopped tomatoes at this point.
Add lentils & 6-8 cups of liquid (I used a quart of homemade tomato juice, 3 pints of homemade meat stock & 2 cups of water.
Bring to a boil then reduce heat & cook until lentils are tender (about 45 minutes)

This made a lot of soup so I canned most of it (12 pints). I also found a couple of containers of spaghetti & meatballs in the freezer so I thawed those & canned 2 pints of that along w/the soup. The pressure canner is whistling while I type this. Note: This is my 1st time canning any meat products. 75 minutes at 10lb pressure.

Greg just put some ribs on for dinner & I harvested my cauliflower & last of the broccoli. Here's a picture of my bounty.

The largest cauliflower floret is about the size of a baseball. Guess I need to add more sun & fertilizer to my fall/winter garden - lol.

Lastly, I'd like to welcome a few new followers:

Lara from A Primitive Homestead. She's got a real nice blog that talks about a lot of the things we all like. She's going through a rough time right now, as she lost a child last year, so she could use any support available.

Barbara Fitch also joined. Barbara, I didn't see if you have a blog. If so, send me the link, I'd like to read along. Update1: Barbara's blog is 3 Acre Homestead. Head on over & tell her hello. She has a lot to offer.

Lastly, Garland Girl from Crap Happens Acres. From what I can tell, she just started her blog & it looks like it will be very interesting & entertaining.

Update2: Suzi from Chores and Chandeliers also decided to come join the party. She's a very talented wife & mother we could all learn a lot from.

Thank you all for joining me on my journey.