As I sit here today in the stillness of the garden I am reflecting on the recent Fall Picnic that we had here at The Cottage.I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for all the wonderful people that God has put in our life. I could have written about all the wonderful food that I can still see and taste that everyone brought to the picnic, or all the laughter that we shared, but what I really want to reflect on is the wonderful bonds of friendship that we have together. We are a diverse group from all walks of life and have been brought together by our God who knew that we would need the strength of our friend as we walk along this journey. Some of us have known each other for some 30 years and others just a short while but we all bring so many blessings to each other.  As we walk along life's journey there is no greater gift than a true friend. Someone who can sit with you and just be still in the moment, or laugh with you, and sometimes cry with you. Someone who will understand no m...

Hi come in, we are just going out to the Garden Gate to do a little fall planting. We had unusual high temperature in August and so far in September with very little moisture. We did finally did get some rain and were able to work our ground. The first thing we did is clear all the old non producing plants from the summer garden Next we till the ground and add our homemade compost (a link at the bottom of this post for Compost July 26, 2010) Make our rows and we are ready to plant Now we are ready to plant We planted this section in Turnip Greens which we hope will be on our Christmas Dinner Table   This section we planted with Rainbow Swiss Chard Earlier this summer we planted our Heirloom Tomatoes for fall production.  We have our first green tomato. We planted several vines which I had started indoors from seed. In a few weeks we will have a great fall harvest from our fall heirloom tomatoes.  It is still in the high 90 degrees h...

Hi, come on in, I'm  in the kitchen, just sit right here at the kitchen table and visit with me while I finish this weeks menu's. Let me get  you a cup of coffee and a piece of this coffee cake, it's  made with fresh apples and it's still warm from the oven. Well let's get to our task. Our Feature Recipe is on Tuesday Stuffed Zucchini with Homemade Tomato Sauce Sunday Grilled Herb Chicken Baked Sweet Potato Steamed Broccoli Hot Wheat Buns That Coco Cake with Blue Bell Monday  Recipe from "Miz Helen's Kitchen Table Cookbook" Meatloaf Macaroni and Cheese Early Peas (canned from the garden) Cucumber and Tomato Salad Cottage Bread Lemon Pie Tuesday Stuffed Zucchini with Homemade Tomato Sauce Tossed Spring Greens Garlic Bread Pumpkin Seed Cookies Wednesday Onion Smothered Steak Mashed Potatoes Tossed Green Salad Hot Biscuits and Gravy Lemon Pie (Left over From Monday) Thursday (Left Over from Tuesday)  Choppe...

Every Christmas we try to give homemade gifts to our friends and family.  One of the gifts we include is always something from the garden.  This year we have an abundance of corn so we decided to can Corn Relish in half pint glass jars. We start our Corn Relish by chopping the Celery, Onions, Green, and Red Peppers . Next we will blanch the corn and drain it really well. You can use roasted corn or corn cut off the cob.  You can use frozen corn, canned corn really does not work.as well.  We are using corn cut off the cob. Next we will mix all the liquid ingredients with the Corn, Onion, Celery, and Pepper mixture pour into a large stock pot and bring to a boil for five minutes and hold on simmer until  you are ready to pack in jars. Make sure that your jars, lids and rings are sterile and hot. Pack the hot Corn Relish in the hot jar and seal . We are going to use the hot water bath for our canning the Corn Relish.  After packing and s...

Come on in, we are just on our way to the Up Stairs Patio.  It really is a beautiful place to have morning coffee.  The birds are so busy at the bird feeders, and I just love to watch them take a bath in the bird bath. We love being outdoors this time of the year.  I am planning a Fall Picnic for a group of friends from the City. We will have about thirty friends so we will be doing some serious cooking. I have been planning The Fall Picnic for some time, so I already  have some items stocked in my freezer and pantry.When I have an upcoming event I am always watching for specials. Another event I plan around this time of the year is football.  We love it all, High School, College, and Professional.  Sunday is usually the big game day and sometimes we will have friends over to watch the game, so I like to serve food that is easy to prepare and not to much last minute preparation. My feature recipe this week is on Sunday *Slow Cooker Green Chile Pull...