Pesto Pasta with Veggies & Sausage

This isn’t really as recipe as much as it is a suggestion…

It’s a quick and easy supper and the perfect way to use up those veggies from your garden or the farmer’s market!

Wash and cut up and fresh veggies you have and/or like. (green beans, mushrooms, squash, peppers, onions, garlic, asparagus, tomatoes, peas…)

Cook up some pasta (any shape will do). I threw my green beans in with the pasta to cook together.

Slice your favorite Italian sausage links. Brown them in a skillet until heated through. Throw in your veggies to sauté with the sausage links.

Drain your pasta, mix in sausage and veggies. Toss with your favorite pesto (store-bought or homemade).

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Garlic Parmesan Butter

This savory butter is good on steaks, sautéed veggies or bread. Make it as garlic-y as you like…

1 stick butter, softened

3-5 cloves of minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 Tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese

cracked black pepper, to taste

Mix together well and store in fridge.

Canning Applesauce

I think I have perfected my method of making applesauce! It is so quick and easy to make LOADS of it with hardly any effort! All you need is a roaster oven and a food mill. If only canning it were as simple… :o)

First get apples!

This has been a very good year for apples for the first time in a couple of years!

Then wash, quarter and core them. That’s all… you don’t have to peel them.

Place them into a roaster oven pan that you have filled halfway with cold water and added lemon juice (like 1/4 cup maybe??? I didn’t measure).

When the pan is full, pour off the water into the sink. Be very careful! Well,  you’re probably gonna get wet… ;o)

Put the pan back in the roaster oven and bake at 350 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours (give or take). Give them a stir occasionally to keep the edges from burning.

When the apples are soft, turn off the oven and remove lid.

   They don’t look very appetizing at this point.

Place your food mill over a large bowl and fill only about halfway with the apples. Run them through the food mill until you only have peels left in the mill. You don’t want to run more than two batches through before you clean it out.

Fill as many bowls as necessary.  My three boxes did 3 ovens full and lots of bowls of applesauce!

At this point you can freeze or can your applesauce.

If you are going to can it, you have to heat the applesauce to 212!

The easiest way to do it is to pour it back into your roaster oven, turn it to 400 and cook until 212 and ready to can. Be sure to stir it often to make sure it is all hot!

Add sugar to hot applesauce and stir well before canning. You can add as little or as much as you want.

Pour into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/2'” headspace. Top with a prepared canning lid and put on the rings to only finger tight. Place in boiling water, return to a boil and process for 20 minutes for both pints and quarts. Turn off heat, remove lid and let rest for 5 minutes before removing jars to cool.

Check jars after 12 to 24 hours to see if they have sealed. If not, place in fridge or freeze. Place the rest on the shelf and enjoy them all year long!

Oven Baked Chili Dogs

These chili dogs were pretty darn tasty! I think they’d be even better with my homemade chili, but I was in a hurry…

I took some extra steps that added some time to this speedy easy recipe, but I think they were totally worth it!

Preheat oven to 375.

First grill your hot dogs.

Heat chili.

Butter the hot dog buns and then broil or grill them until toasted.

Place buns with hot dogs in them in a 9x13 (or larger) pan.

Top dogs with chili.

Then sprinkle with shredded cheese and chopped onions.

Bake until cheese is melted and chili is bubbly.

For some reason they just taste better after baking! ;o)

Buttery Blueberry Nectarine Cobbler

This is a variation on my blackberry cobbler and it’s possible I like it even more than the original! The blueberries and nectarines make for a very lovely combination in this buttery cobbler!

Eat it warm and store the leftovers in the fridge.

1/2 cup butter

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

4 cups (total) of  fresh sliced nectarines and blueberries (blueberries may be frozen)

Preheat oven to 350. Once oven temp is reached, melt butter in 9x13 pan.

Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, vanilla and cardamom; batter will be slightly lumpy. Pour half of batter on top of melted butter in pan. Spread fruit over lubatter and pour remaining batter over the fruit.

Bake in preheated oven for one hour or until golden brown.