Traditional Salsa Day. . . .

The salsa verde was so good, the hubbs decided to try his traditional salsa by roasting the tomatoes rather than boiling them.  I think it will give a good roasted flavor to the salsa.   The hubbs is roasting his tomatoes now along with his jalapenos, garlic, and onion.   This is going to give his salsa a different flavor from previous batches.  This is in process so I will have to share how this one turns out later. 
We are prepping to go to orientation later this month so, I am having to get paperwork all ready for physicals, immunization proof, and insurance proof.  This is an exhausting process!!!
Sprat is going to get to meet his new coach and see some of his teammates that he has not seen since May.  He had been hanging out with them before he came home for the Summer. 
The first day of orientation is a FULL day of meetings and information, I hope he is ready for this transition.  Stay tuned for this later in the month. . .

Finished Salsa Verde  

Roasting tomatoes, jalapenos, and garlic  

First batch of tomatoes roasted and cooling.

We have some cantaloupe and honey dew melon growing, no fruit just yet but the plants are big and beautiful. 

Stay tuned for more garden fun and a round up on what we learned from our garden this year. We have decided we will definitely have a Fall garden.

Not Aunt Bee's Pickles Story. . .

The cucumbers are coming in like crazy so, the hubbs and I made some quick refrigerator pickles.  The hubbs loves his jalapenos and of course they ended up in my mild mannered dill pickles.  I  do not like sweet pickles or bread and butter pickles, I am a straight up dill pickle girl.   The hubbs got his jar with jalapenos and I got two jars, one with a little onion and one straight dill.  I just tried the jalapeno ones last night and I must admit they were awesome.   They are not too hot but have just a little kick.  I tried the ones with onion this morning, yes I eat pickles in the morning, anytime is a good time for homemade pickles.  The ones with the onion are good but, if you do not tell my hubby I said this, I will admit the jalapeno ones were the best.  The boys do not like any kind of pickles so the hubbs and I have three jars to eat and he does not like them that much either. 
Here is the recipe we used, we tweaked it to fit our personal taste, I do not remember where the original recipe came from but this is ours.

Refrigerator Pickles

We used standard mason jars:

In each Jar

3 cloves garlic peeled
3 tsp black pepper corns
1 small onion sliced
2 bunches of fresh dill
4 slices of jalapeno with seeds

Several cucumbers sliced into spears and cram as many as you can in your jar.

Liquid

2 cups water, 4 Tbsp white vinegar, 1 1/2 Tbs kosher salt.  Mix together until salt dissolved.  Pour over your cucumbers in the jar.  top with part of your dill and make sure your cucumbers are covered with liquid and put your lid on.  Invert your jar a couple times to get everything swished around and put in the fridge for 2 days.  This recipe is for one jar of pickles, you will have a little liquid left over. 

Hope you are enjoying my recipes and my stories, stay tuned. .. .

Pepper Jack Rice Casserole. . .

Last night I decided to make my jalapeno rice casserole.  As par for the course I changed things up and did a few alterations to my own recipe.  I used whole wheat orzo instead of white rice and I made up my own cream of mushroom soup minus the mushrooms.  I have never attempted to make up my own cream of mushroom soup before but it is pretty easy.   Here is how it all went down.  I started my homemade soup first.  One tablespoon of butter melting in a sauce pan then add a tablespoon or two of flour to make a rue.  Then add equal parts of milk and chicken stock about a cup each.  It will bubble up, mine did not get real thick but it worked.   Cook your white rice or whole wheat orzo according to package directions.  I used two cups of dry orzo.   Grate one 8oz block of pepper jack cheese, one can of green chilies, and 8oz sour cream.   Combine your cooked rice/orzo with shredded cheese, chilies, soup, and sour cream.  Mix and put in casserole dish and bake for 30-45 minutes at 350.  You can top with corn chips, I did not have any on hand last night so I did not use them for this recipe.  This was really good and it thickened up very well in the oven.   The hubbs loved it but, I did not even broach it with the kids.  They are not much for casseroles.