Greetings family and friends,
I cannot tell a lie! I have to admit that I love this warm
weather we are having in March. I could not have imagined 80 degree days this
time of year, but we are having them. The redbuds and dogwood trees are in
bloom, along with some of the fruit trees. The magnolias are magnificent this
year with their pink blossoms dripping like old Spanish moss from great
southern oaks. The bright yellow forsythia bushes look like liquid honey they
are so filled with blooms. While the colors of the tulips remind me of the
skirts of a southern belle bouncing in the wind as if they are gaily stepping
to the music of a Virginia reel. At night I hear the peepers croaking out a
tune as if to warn the night bugs that they are hungry and off in the distance
an owl hoots as if to ask “Who is still up at this late hour?” “Oh it is only
I, is my reply while I stand on my front porch and drink in Mother Nature like
a vintage wine from the royal table.
Life is good on my grandpa’s farm here in southern Indiana.
The fire pit in my parents’ back yard is beginning to beckon to me. It is
whispering that it is time to gather my family for a backyard weenie
roast. Hot dogs roasting on wooden sticks
that grandpa cuts from his trees, baked beans, chips and of course S’mores to
end the evening. We will talk of old memories and make future plans that too
will one day become campfire memories to share. The youngsters will run and
play trying to catch the fire flies while all the time giggling in delight.
Eventually even they run out of steam and begin to draw closer to the circle of
parents and grandparents seated around the fire.
Many times we will make a big pot of homemade Vegetable soup
on the open fire. Grandma will bring out one of her big soup pots and we will
fill it with beef and vegetables and let it simmer on the open fire for a few
hours. If it isn’t vegetable soup it
might be chili soup or beans when the weather turns cooler or in summer a simmering
pot of fresh corn on the cob that has been pulled from the garden. Lucky for us
Grandpa’s garden is close by the shelter house and fire pit.
Sometimes I try to recreate that wonderful sense of family
by making a pot of homemade vegetable soup. My problem is that when I try to
make a small amount it never seems to work. That is until I finally figured out
what I was doing wrong. I was buying canned vegetables opening them up and
dumping the entire can into the soup. By the time I added the peas, corn, green
beans, tomatoes, etc. I had way too much soup for one person. Now what I do is
when our local grocery has frozen vegetables on sale I stock up on them. Now
all I have to do is open up the bag of frozen vegetables take out ½ a cup and
using a twist tie reclose the bag for later use. Instead of buying a large
roast I will buy some stew beef, or I sometimes just use ground chuck. And
instead of buying those big cans of tomato juice to pour into your soup, I buy
the plastic bottles with the screw on lids. I pour out what I need, recap the
bottle and put it away in the fridge for other uses. Another benefit from using
the frozen vegetables is you are not getting all of the extra sodium that is
used when the vegetables are canned. This way you can season your soup the way
you want it to taste. And if you don’t want to have leftovers for a few nights
you can actually buy a vegetable soup mix in the freezer section. This way you
can add as many or as little as you want to your soup.
If you are trying to control your sodium go for the fresh
vegetables or the frozen ones. Just the other day at the grocery I looked at a
can of salt free corn and the can was almost $1.50 for that one can of corn.
When I went to the freezer section I was able to get a 1 lb bag of frozen corn
for $1.00. If you have a Dollar Tree store in your neighborhood by all means
check it out. They have a freezer section in the back of the store and they
carry the one pound bags of name brand frozen vegetables. They also have some
very tasty frozen fruit that can be used to make some great smoothies for the
family or to bake up a special dessert.
Besides everything in the store is a dollar and you can’t go wrong with
the cost compared to some of the local super markets.
Recently my niece was telling me about a recycle program she
started at her children’s school. The collection program she works with is
called “Terracycle” and you can look them up on the net. Their school has
collected enough items to be able to provide fresh drinking water and live stock
to families in third world countries. You would be surprised what you can
recycle, chip bags, the little plastic wrappers off of cheese singles, the
plastic trays that come with your cookies or the plastic used to wrap your
bathroom tissue. Every day we throw away so much without even stopping to think
of how it is destroying our eco-system. If we continue the way we are than we
too will one day be like the third world countries searching for clean drinking
water. Remember all of these items are synthetic and have been created
somewhere in a science lab.
This week I am going to encourage you to look on the
internet for a recipe for a vegetable that you and your family have not tried.
To help look for a recipe that has a lot of really good reviews. Write or print
out the recipe and take it with you to the grocery and let your children help
gather the ingredients. Once you have everything at home let the children help
you make this dish. Let them get involved in what they eat and they are more
likely to eat something they have helped to make. I have recently gotten on
this kick of buying fresh zucchini. I slice the zucchini thin and sprinkle it
with salt and pepper then I sauté it in a pan with a little olive oil, a pat of
butter and some fresh minced garlic. Once the zucchini is fork tender I serve
it with a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese. You might even try making a
vegetable pizza with your family. You will be amazed at what you can put on
that pizza pie. Besides everything taste good when it is smothered in hot gooey
cheese.
Melanie
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