Search Results

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Planting garlic in the fall is the last garden chores of the season. A small amount of preparation at planting time will give you an abundant garlic harvest without much effort. Garlic is one of the easiest crops you can grow in your garden. It is a long season crop with a unique growing pattern compared to other garden crops. Garlic is planted in fall in order to give it a head start and enough time to produce a larger bulb. How to Plant Garlic in the Fall Planting garlic in the fall allows the roots to begin growing. When winter arrives and the ground freezes, the plants go dormant. Once the soil warms up in the spring, the garlic will start growing again right where it left off. Prepare Your Growing Bed Garlic thrives in full sun and loose soil. Choose a garden bed that has not grown anything in the onion family in the past two years and one that receives an average of at least six hours of sunlight each day. Remove weeds and spread some slow-release organic fertilizer according to the package direction. Add about 2-inches of finished compost and work it in the top 4-6 inches of soil. Plot out your growing bed 4-6 inches in all directions. Dig your holes about 4-inches deep. If you are using the square foot gardening method, plot 6 cloves per square. Divide Your Garlic Seed When you purchase garlic seed, you are actually getting heads of garlic. Garlic is grown from individual cloves. Each clove will grow into a bulb of garlic. Separate your cloves right before planting. Sort out your largest and healthiest looking cloves for planting. If you plant the largest cloves, you will grow larger heads of garlic for next year. Save the smaller and damaged cloves for cooking. Plant Your Garlic Cloves Plant a garlic clove into each hole, with the flat side down and the pointy end up. Cover and firm the soil. Mulch Your Garlic Bed Water the garlic bed well after planting and cover with a light layer of mulch, such as straw or shredded leaves. Aim for about 2-3 inches of mulch to keep the weeds down until the ground freezes. After the ground freezes, add another layer of 2-3 inches of mulch to insulate the soil. This helps prevent the garlic roots from being heaved out of the ground by alternate freezing and thawing. Once the soil warms in spring, you will see green garlic shoots growing through the mulch. If you used an all-purpose organic fertilizer at planting time, your garlic is off to a great start. Water the garlic bed during dry spells when the soil feels dry an inch beneath the surface. Feed with organic fish emulsion fertilizer if the foliage shows signs of stress (yellow tips). Follow the directions on the bottle. If you planted hardneck garlic, you will have an opportunity to harvest garlic scapes a few weeks before the garlic bulb is finished growing. These tender, mildly garlic flavored shoots are delicious.

I was talking to a friend about the soon to be released A Prepared Home food storage calculator and how it was going to be such a big help to figure out what you need in your food storage. She said that she and her daughter sat down and picked out their favorite recipes and started figuring out what food they needed to buy. After a while, she stopped because most everything she loved to cook and to feed her family involved large amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Obviously, she can’t store a years’ worth of fresh vegetables; sometimes you are lucky if you can store a week’s worth of fresh vegetables. We talked about alternative storage ideas for vegetables, and these were the best ideas. First, I would suggest buying frozen vegetables. I am a really big fan of frozen vegetables; it doesn’t matter to me if you freeze them yourself or if you buy them frozen. Of course, you will need to consider what you are buying to make sure that it is healthy. If you buy frozen vegetables that are slathered in a delectable, yet unhealthy, sauce you might want to reconsider. But for the most part, frozen vegetables are far superior to canned veggies. The frozen vegetables are processed and frozen within hours after they have been picked so they actually retain more of their nutrients than do the fresh vegetables that have been picked, processed, trucked, and sit on the shelves at the store – slowly deteriorating. I also like the idea that all of the work has already been done and all you have to do is open the bag and pour out the amount that you need, saving the rest in the freezer for a later date – never once worrying about them going bad. I buy my frozen vegetables at Sam’s Club or Costco because they sell them in very large bags. It makes it affordable and convenient. A second alternative is the canned vegetable. I really don’t like canned vegetables very much, but there are some acceptable things about storing canned veggies. Most canned vegetables taste okay and can be eaten without much preparation, except for peas – there should be a law against canned peas. The real upside to canned vegetables is that you can store them for a very long time; you don’t need refrigeration until after you have opened the can and you can transport them the easiest out of all of the alternatives. I especially like to store canned corn, beans, potatoes, mushrooms (I consider the mushrooms a vegetable when it is in a can) and I keep canned carrots on hand for times when I might be desperate enough to use them. A third alternative is sprouting. It is always a good idea to keep seeds on hand for sprouting or growing a garden. Don’t forget to rotate your seeds because they can get old and not work and make sure to always buy good quality seeds. Since it is important to eat fresh food for certain types of nutrients, sprouting can offer you a quick and easy way to get the fresh nutrients in literally days instead of weeks. You will also find that sprouts have more nutritious value than their full-grown counterparts. For example, the broccoli sprout is much more nutritious than the mature broccoli and that is pretty hard to do since broccoli is the most perfect vegetable on the face of the earth. It would be a good thing for you to try sprouting some seeds to see how it is done. There are a lot of instructions on the internet and plenty of books that explain the best way to do it. I will bet that you will fall in love with sprouting and incorporate it into your everyday eating. Remember that there are a whole lot of seeds that can be sprouted – not just alfalfa seeds! Here is a tip for sprouting – use a metal grease splatter shield to sprout your seeds. Just wet the seeds down and spread them on to the shield. Lay it on top of moist paper towels next to the sink. When they start to sprout and are clinging to the metal screen, you can just wet them down and let them drain all while perched over the sink. The sprouts are easy to detach and eat and the shield can be thrown into the dishwasher when you’re done. Too easy. Dried vegetables are also an acceptable way of storing vegetables, but before you go out and buy a bunch, try them out first. I found that some brands taste really good and some would be better used as fertilizer to grow the fresh stuff. Make sure that the money you spend to purchase and store your vegetables is money put to good use, that of buying high quality food for the good health of your family.

My daughter gave me a cookbook by Zonya Foco, of “Zonya’s Health Bites” on PBS, for Christmas and I have been reading it, yes reading it, and I have really enjoyed it. (I have to say that I haven’t really read my Better Homes and Garden cookbook – I mostly just leaf through it). The reason that I like this cookbook so much is that she likes to cook like me – only she does it healthier. She isn’t into slaving over the stove for hours, but she is into presenting well-balanced meals that are appealing, healthy and quick. But the most important thing about how she cooks is that it is food storage friendly, very food storage friendly. In fact, at the back of the book there is a shopping list of foods that she suggests you have on hand at all times so that you can cook her meals quickly. She has one minute meals, five minute meals, 30 minute meals and slow cooker feasts. Basically, she has done all of your work for you; she gives you a shopping list, point by point on how to cook each meal and she doesn’t make you slave over the stove day and night – I really like her! This is such a good time of year to evaluate (or re-evaluate) your food storage because there aren’t any major holidays looming ahead. You now have time to analyze what you need to do to bring your food storage up to standard – one year’s supply of food and dry good sundry – including clothes and such. If you are going to make this work, then you are going to have to make specific plans. There are several ways that you can decide to take this on. One really quick way is to take your top 15 favorite recipes, multiply all of the ingredients by two and then again by 12 – then go buy however much your calculations say to buy. Remember, you don’t have to purchase it all at once. Wait for sales or just pick up a case here and there, whenever you go grocery shopping, and let it add up – it will add up quicker than you expect. Make sure that you have your 15 favorite breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes – unless you only want to eat one meal a day. Another way to decide on what to store is to get online and download a list of what different agencies have determined to be the items that you need to survive for a year. After you get those items stored, you can spice your storage up by purchasing additional foodstuffs (e.g., mushrooms, olives, spices, and more) to make the meals that you create a little more fun and inviting. Remember, you want to build your food storage in such a way that you and your family will enjoy it when you use it – which should be an ongoing everyday thing. This is a really good time to talk about rotation. Remember that you should be using what you buy and then replacing it, always making sure that your food storage will be fresh, usable, and palatable. Remember – R&R, rotate and replenish. We will soon have A Prepared Home food storage calculator that will be extremely useful in managing and maintaining your storage. Good luck with your re-assessing endeavor!

Tender sheets of pasta, a creamy ricotta cheese filling, and a rich meaty tomato sauce are all topped with more cheese and baked until browned and bubbly. < Back Easy Homemade Lasagna Prep Time: 30 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour Serves: 12 Level: Beginner About the Recipe Tender sheets of pasta, a creamy ricotta cheese filling, and a rich meaty tomato sauce are all topped with more cheese and baked until browned and bubbly. Ingredients 12 lasagna noodles uncooked 4 cups mozzarella cheese shredded and divided ½ cup parmesan cheese shredded and divided Tomato Sauce ½ pound lean ground beef ½ pound Italian sausage 1 onion diced 2 cloves garlic minced 36 ounces pasta sauce *see note 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning Cheese Mixture 2 cups ricotta cheese ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped 1 egg beaten Preparation While there are a few steps to this lasagna recipe, it’s easy to make and has so much flavor. This dish can be made ahead of time and freezes well either before or after baking! Homemade lasagna may have a few steps, but each step is easy – and I assure you it’s worth the time; the perfect Italian meal! The best lasagna recipe is made with ingredients that you know, and it’s not difficult at all! All you’ll need for this easy lasagna recipe is one pan, one bowl, and a 9×13 baking dish! Cheese Filling: For this classic lasagna recipe, the filling contains ricotta and parmesan with seasonings and a couple of tablespoons of parsley. No ricotta? No problem, cottage cheese works just fine in this recipe! Meat: I use both Italian sausage and ground beef for great flavor. If using all beef, add a ¼ teaspoon of fennel seeds and some Italian seasoning to the meat mixture for flavor. Sauce: To keep this sauce quick, I use pasta sauce or marinara sauce (it’s easy to make from scratch with crushed tomatoes and canned tomatoes if you’d prefer). Spinach (variation): To make a spinach lasagna, squeeze out most of the moisture of defrosted frozen spinach and add it along with the cheese layer. Lasagna ingredients don’t have to be limited to the ones you see here. Substitute meats or different cheeses, or try different meat sauce variations. How to Make Lasagna Homemade lasagna may have a few steps, but each step is easy – and I assure you it’s worth the time; the perfect Italian meal! This is a really easy lasagna recipe. Boil pasta: Cook in a large pot of salted water per the recipe below . Prepare meat sauce: Cook sausage and beef with onion and garlic. Drain well, add the pasta sauce & simmer it for a few minutes to thicken. Combine cheese mixture: Stir the cheese mixture together in a bowl. Layer & bake: Layer the meat sauce and cheese mixture with lasagna noodles and bake until browned and bubbly. How to Layer Lasagna 1. Spread about a cup of meat sauce into a 9×13 pan. Add a layer of noodles 2. Top the noodles with some of the ricotta cheese mixture. Repeat the layers, ending with a layer of noodles and sauce 3. Cover with foil and bake. Remove foil, top with mozzarella and parmesan, and bake for another 15 minutes. Once you have prepared the meat sauce and the cheese mixture, you’re ready to layer. This is the order of layers: sauce – noodles – cheese sauce – noodles – cheese sauce – noodles – cheese noodles – sauce (bake) – cheese How Long to Bake Bake this lasagna recipe for a total of one hour. To get a perfect browned cheese topping, you’ll need to bake it in two stages. 1. Layer and cover it tightly with aluminum foil to retain the moisture. 2. Once cooked, and heated through, remove the foil, top with cheese, and return to the oven for an additional 15 minutes, or until the top is browned and the lasagna is bubbling. Important: Let the Lasagna Rest Let the lasagna sit/rest for at least 15 minutes once removed from the oven (even 30-45 minutes is fine). This will keep it from becoming runny and help it to keep its shape when cut. Resting is not required when reheating. Serve with a big slice of Easy Cheesy Garlic Bread and garnish with fresh basil or a couple of tablespoons of parsley. Make Ahead Lasagna can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated for up to 2 days before baking. It can also be frozen before or after baking. To Freeze Lasagna Lasagna is one of the best meals to make ahead and freeze. Double or triple the recipe and store it tightly wrapped in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight and bake as directed. If the lasagna is cold from the fridge, it may need an extra 20 minutes or so of cooking time. How To Reheat Lasagna If you’ve frozen leftovers, pop them in the oven at 350°F covered until reheated. This should take about 30 minutes! Of course, leftovers are perfectly heated in the microwave too! Instructions Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large pot of salted water, boil lasagna noodles until al dente according to package directions. Drain, rinse under cold water, and set aside. In a large skillet or dutch oven, brown beef, sausage, onion, and garlic over medium-high heat until no pink remains. Drain any fat. Stir in the pasta sauce, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, ½ teaspoon of salt, and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper. Simmer uncovered over medium heat for 5 minutes or until thickened. In a separate bowl, combine 1 ½ cups mozzarella, ¼ cup parmesan cheese, ricotta, parsley, egg, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Spread 1 cup of the meat sauce in a 9×13 pan or casserole dish. Top it with 3 lasagna noodles. Layer with ⅓ of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup of meat sauce. Repeat twice more. Finish with 3 noodles topped with remaining sauce. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle with the remaining 2 ½ cups mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup parmesan cheese. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Broil for 2-3 minutes if desired. Rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting. Previous Next

Today, we’re bringing a Southern barbecue classic right to your kitchen — Alabama White Sauce. < Back Alabama White Sauce Prep Time: Cook Time: 5 Minutes Serves: 2 Cups Level: Beginner About the Recipe Today, we’re bringing a Southern barbecue classic right to your kitchen — Alabama White Sauce. Ingredients 1 cup Mayonnaise 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder 1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder Salt and Pepper to taste Preparation This zesty, creamy sauce is a beloved staple in Alabama, known for its unique flavor profile that pairs perfectly with a variety of meats. It’s tangy from the apple cider vinegar, rich from the mayonnaise, with a hint of spice from the Dijon mustard and a depth of flavor from the Worcestershire sauce. In the heart of barbecue tradition, a unique concoction stands out, not for its deep red hue but for its creamy, tangy essence. Alabama White BBQ Sauce, a creation that diverges from the conventional barbecue sauce path, offers a refreshing twist to grilled delights. Originating from the inventive kitchens of Alabama, this sauce has etched its mark on the barbecue map, thanks to its distinctive flavor profile and versatility. The Genesis of a Culinary Staple The story of Alabama White BBQ Sauce begins with Robert Gibson at Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q in Decatur, Alabama. This innovative sauce was crafted not just as an accompaniment but as a central feature, generously applied to chicken before serving. Its base, unlike the tomato or vinegar foundations of its counterparts, is mayonnaise, which lends it a creamy texture and a unique ability to complement a wide range of meats. Crafting the Sauce The simplicity of making Alabama White BBQ Sauce is part of its charm. The ingredients are straightforward, yet each plays a pivotal role in achieving the perfect balance of flavors: Mayonnaise: The creamy backbone of the sauce. Apple Cider Vinegar: Adds a tangy kick, though white vinegar can be substituted. Dijon Mustard & Worcestershire Sauce: Provide depth and a slight tang. Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Black Pepper, Salt: These seasonings round out the flavor, adding spice and zest. Here’s how to make your own Alabama White Sauce: Ingredients: 1 cup Mayonnaise 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard 1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder 1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder Salt and Pepper to taste Instructions: In a mixing bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, and Dijon mustard until well combined. Add the Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and onion powder. Mix thoroughly to ensure the spices are evenly distributed. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. For the best flavor, cover and refrigerate the sauce for at least 30 minutes before serving. This allows the flavors to meld together beautifully. Serving Suggestions: Alabama White Sauce is versatile and can be used as a marinade, dipping sauce, or a dressing for salads. It’s traditionally served with smoked or grilled chicken, but it also pairs wonderfully with pork, beef, and even as a zesty addition to your burgers or sandwiches. Featured Recipe: Smoked Chicken with Alabama White Sauce Marinate your chicken in a portion of the Alabama White Sauce for at least an hour before cooking. Smoke or grill your chicken to perfection. Serve with a side of Alabama White Sauce for dipping. This sauce is sure to become a favorite at your next barbecue. It’s a simple recipe with complex flavors that can elevate any cookout. Give it a try and let us know how it goes! Previous Next

This chowder will quickly become a family favorite! < Back Fish and Clam Chowder Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 20 minutes Serves: 6 Level: Beginner About the Recipe Ingredients 1 pound fish filets (your favorite fish, cod is especially good) 1 cup bacon pieces 2 cups potatoes, diced 2 stalks celery, chopped 3 tablespoons green onions, sliced with greens 1 ¾ cup (14 ounces) chicken broth 3 cups milk 3 tablespoons flour 1 cup heavy whipping cream 6 ½ ounce can clams, minced undrained ¼ teaspoon salt (to taste) ¼ teaspoon pepper (to taste) 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (to taste) Preparation Cut up bacon and brown in a Dutch oven or large pan. Drain all but 3 tablespoons of bacon drippings. Set bacon aside. Add potatoes, celery, and onion to drippings. Cook until the onion is tender. Add broth. Cover, cook for 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add fish (cut into half inch pieces) and add 2 1/2 cups of the milk. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for three minutes or until the fish is done. Mix the ½ cup cold milk with the flour; stir into chowder and cook until bubbly. Add cream, clams with clam juice, bacon, salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Serve hot with slices of sourdough bread or Mile High Biscuits. Yum! Previous Next