Making Breakfast Burritos to Freeze

I wasn't so sure if these would freeze very well but I am happy to report that they did. I've never tried to freeze eggs before so I wasn't sure if I needed to use something like Egg Beaters in place of real eggs or not.


By the way I'm not a big egg fan but I love this recipe & I've actually posted the Breakfast Burrito recipe on here before so it's really nothing new~ it's just the newly learned fact that they can be made ahead of time, placed in the freezer and then easily microwaved for a quick & easy breakfast.


You can find my Breakfast Burrito recipe ** HERE.**

What I like to do is to make a double batch one evening for  a supper and then use the leftovers to make my freezer burritos. (Just remember to by an extra bag of flour tortillas if you're going to do this! *one for supper and one for freezer*)

Take the leftovers and place a nice big spoonful in the top center of your burrito. Don't forget to top it with lots of cheddar cheese. 

Fold up burrito style ~ fold sides in and then roll.


Wrap each burrito in a piece of aluminum foil. Once you get them all wrapped then place 4-6 of them in a labeled gallon size freezer bag and freeze.

Now when you need a quick bite for breakfast grab one out.
Remove from the foil and place on a microwave safe plate.
Heat in microwave for 3 minutes 30 seconds. (Times will vary depending on the size of your microwave.)
Enjoy!

Canning Spaghetti Sauce

What to do with all those tomatoes?

My favorite way to use them up is by making my own homemade spaghetti sauce. This recipe is from my aunt and it's the one I've been using for years. Everyone loves it!

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

1/2 a bushel of tomatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic (I used minced out of a jar.)
6-7 onions
4 hot peppers ( I use mild banana peppers.)
1/2 cup olive oil
8 (6oz.) cans of tomato paste
1/4 cup salt
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. italian seasoning
1 tsp. rosemary ( I leave this out!)
3/4 cup sugar (more or less depending on your taste)

Cook tomatoes in a large stockpot until tender.

Run tomatoes through a food mill to remove seeds and skins.
Measure out 10 quarts of juice into a large stockpot.
Add garlic and place back on stove to cook.
While juice is cooking, grind up the onions and peppers. (I use my mini-chopper for this.)
Place them in a small saucepan and add the olive oil.
Cook for about 1/2 hour until they are nice and tender.
Now you can add the pepper/onion/oil mixture to the juice but be careful so as to not splatter yourself!
Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.
It will take a bit of stirring to get all that paste mixed in good.
Boil all ingredients for 40 minutes without a lid on.

While waiting for sauce to cook down you can get your canning jars & utensils ready. (Clean & boil jars)
Ladle sauce into jars, add lids and place jars into a water bath canner.
Fill canner with water, making sure that it covers the tops of the jars by at least an inch.
Place lid on canner and bring to a boil.
Let boil for 40 minutes.
Remove jars and let cool.

Garden Goodness

Our tiny gardens our finally starting to produce.
I really wasn't anticipating much from the gardens this year due to such a late start from all the spring rains we had. We got past that and finally got seeds and plants in the ground then we got the exact opposite. Hot..Hot weather and very little rain.
So far the zucchini, squash and cucumbers are doing well. The green beans have finally begun producing and so have the tomatoes but the tomatoes are not growing very big.
Not sure if I will even get enough this year to can spaghetti sauce with but I've got cucumbers galore.
Plenty enough to try my hand at making pickles.

These are dill pickles and the tiny jars contain some blueberry jam that I made this morning.
I'm still waiting to see if the jam thickens up a bit more. I tasted it and it's good but a little on the runny side. I guess if it doesn't set up then we'll have blueberry syrup for pancakes, ice cream topping or whatever else we can think of.

It's been a long day in the kitchen so I'm off to relax a bit in the pool.
Have a great evening!

Mild Pepper Mustard

I LOVE this stuff!
I've bought it before at fall craft fairs and have had the pleasure of receiving it from friendly gardeners and canners but had never tried to make it myself until this morning.
My pepper plants are huge this year and every time I go to pick them I always end up with a huge mixing bowl full.
My freezer is running over with whole and diced peppers so I thought now was the time to try making this mustard.
I have to tell you, the peppers that I grow are mild banana peppers so that is what I used. I did add one very hot pepper to the mix though and that was enough to give it just the right amount of pizzazz without all the heat.
However, if you like HOT then use all hot peppers.

Mild Pepper Mustard

36 banana peppers (I used about 50 that ranged in size from small to large)
1 hot pepper (or more)

1 quart prepared mustard

1 quart apple cider vinegar

5 cups sugar

2 cups water

1 1/2 cups flour

Clean peppers and remove seeds.

Grind peppers in a food processor.

Grind until pretty much pureed.

Place in a large stock pot & add vinegar, mustard & sugar.

Bring to a boil.

Keep a close eye on it because once it begins to boil it will quickly boil clear to the top of the pan & over.

Turn heat down and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Mix flour and water together.

Add to mustard mixture.
Cook until thickened. (10-15 min.)

Place in jars and process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Homemade Ice Cream or Ice Milk

Good Monday Morning to all!
First of all I want to thank you all for the anniversary wishes that you left for us.
The kids all stayed at my parents house Friday evening while Mark and I went out for dinner and then some shopping.
This was the weekend that I do the big once a month shopping trip so I started on Friday morning with making my rounds to our local Krogers and Walmart. After dinner that night we finished by hitting a few stores in St. Clairsville and then home to enjoy some peace and quiet.
Saturday started with a morning bike ride by the river and then home to begin cleaning and organizing. School starts this week so it's time to gather things up and get ready for the start of a new (school) year.
Sunday was spent in the kitchen cooking for our family dinner which included OVEN BBQ ROUND STEAK, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls and then dessert.
I stopped by the bakery to pick up a cake to go with the homemade ice cream that I made.
I don't care for that thick coating of yuck that is left on your tongue after eating homemade ice cream so when I found this recipe over at My Country Blog of This and That I had to try it. It uses chocolate milk, Cool Whip and sweetened condensed milk instead of the heavy cream.
It kind of reminds me of chocolate ice milk instead of ice cream and it beats a Wendy's Frosty hands down if you eat it just as it finishes in the ice cream maker.
You can find the recipe for it HERE. Scroll towards the bottom of the post to find it.

My house is all cleaned and the chores are all caught up so I think I'm going to spend the rest of my day sewing. Hope you all enjoy your day!

Freezing Zucchini

What do you do when you are up to your ears in zucchini???

FREEZE IT!

I'm not sure if my method is correct but it works for me. I did this with last years crop and had enough stored up to last us all winter.
Here's how I do it.

Wash & peel zucchini  (can leave the peel on if you prefer).
Slice it in circles, slabs or chunks.
I like to use the circles to saute in butter, the slabs make nice ZUCCHINI SANDWICHES and the chunks can be thrown into a variety of dishes (soups, casseroles, etc.).
When freezing the slices or slabs I layer them on waxed paper. When a sheet is full I just add another piece of waxed paper and continue layering. I then place all the layers into a freezer bag and freeze.

I can easily remove a sheet at a time or use the whole bag if needed.

To freeze the chunks I place them on a cookie sheet (spread them out) and put in the freezer. Once frozen you can remove them from the tray and place in a freezer bag. Freezing them first prevents them from freezing all together into one big ice chunk. Now you can just grab a handful of zucchini chunks for your next recipe without having to defrost the whole bag.
I use this same method when freezing peppers

(Slice/Freeze/Bag) that way when I go to make a pot of soup or such I just open the bag and easily pour just the amount of peppers that I need into the pan. I then reseal the rest of the bag and place back in the freezer for another recipe.

                               * Today's Batch*

We are still "on vacation" for a few more days. I am so enjoying the week without schedules, bedtimes or alarm clocks. It's been too hot to do much outside other than swim so I've been inside watching movies, playing games and sewing. I manage to get outdoors late in the evening to water the plants and sit a bit in the cooler air. (If you want to call that cool air!) I can't believe how hot this season has been so far!
As I sit here typing, the rain is beginning to fall outside which is so good. The gardens and lawns are super thirsty so this will do them good. I just hope it cools things off a bit.
Hope you all are staying cool and Enjoy your weekend!

Blackberry Frozen Yogurt

This is the frozen yogurt that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I snapped pictures the whole way through as I made it BUT some little fingers found my camera and just so happened to delete all photos except the one above.

New rule in our house:
Don't touch Mom's camera!
No Way ~ No How!

Blackberry Frozen Yogurt

                             5 cups blackberries
                                 1/3 cup water
                             2 tbsp. lemon juice
                                 1 cup sugar
                                 2 tsp. vanilla
                             dash of cinnamon
             32 oz. vanilla yogurt (can be Fat Free)

Place berries in a food processor and puree.
Strain to remove all seeds.
*I used my food mill for this step but you could also use a cheese cloth to squeeze all the goodness from the berries.*
Place pulp & juice back in food processor.
Add sugar, vanilla & cinnamon & process again.
Remove mixture to a bowl and add the yogurt.
Whisk together till blended well and freeze.

It's Tomato Time!

I'm up to my ears in tomatoes this year.

I am losing many to blight but trust me I still have plenty to go around.

And speaking of ears, I picked the biggest ear of corn the other day.

It measured 11 inches long which compared to the others was HUGE!

I'm busy canning tomatoes today so this post is rather short & boring but I'll be back tomorrow. I have a few new recipes to share and I'm almost finished with my fall stitchery plus I tried a few new craft ideas this weekend that I'll tell you about.
Have a great day!

Freezing Season

Or shall I say freezing what is in season!

Berries of all kinds have been on sale at some great prices lately so I have been buying them up and freezing them to use throughout the year.

I am saving so much money by catching them in season as opposed to buying them throughout the year at regular prices or even having to buy frozen from the store.

In the past I have driven to a farm where you can pick your own for a very reasonable price but when the gas prices went up it just wasn't worth the trip. Now I just watch the grocery ads and stock up when they go on sale.

To freeze, I just wash them and then I lay them out on a cookie tray lined with a few paper towels to help soak up the moisture.

I then place the cookie tray in my freezer just long enough to freeze the berries and then I take the tray back out and place the berries into quart size freezer bags, label and toss back in the freezer.

Next time my recipe calls for berries all I have to do is go to the freezer and grab a bag out.

When I freeze strawberries I usually wash and slice them into a bowl. Then I add a bit of sugar to them and then spoon the mixture into freezer bags. They are just like the little tubs of frozen strawberries that you buy at the grocery store.