Tuesday, August 29, 2023

My August Working Country Kitchen

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Good Morning, welcome to my working kitchen.

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Summer is such a busy time in a gardener's kitchen. Between our 'mess' from the basement damage, and the garden which is now 'giving up its bounty', I haven't really showed any photos of my house, porch or garden. 


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But Velkommen have a cuppa in my kitchen and we will catch up. I always have blue and white in my kitchen. In the summer I opt for dashes of red and yellow added. 

(The kettle is vintage Swedish enamel, I've always had some pieces of this from my family and I pick them up whenever I see them.)

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Gnomes all year round, thrift store find in porcelain.

You can have tea from the caddy...or...

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Have some coffee at our coffee machine. Yes, that is a big arse restaurant coffee machine. My husband bought this on the sly, and well, we had to design the kitchen around it.
But, IT IS THE BUSIEST
in the morning and also ideal for company. (I can have hot water brewing or decaf and regular...kept hot on the burners.)
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Sugar, sweetener, flavoring, creamer and spoons...it's all here, just pick your cup!

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Hubby also bought the towel...cracks me up.
Monday cup...please!

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And this service area works well, just to the left of the sink and filtered water.


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Another busy spot is the cabinet by the windows I have covered with a vintage tablecloth. I use this location in early spring for seedlings and now it has been full of tomatoes ripening for the last three weeks. We have to pick tomatoes before totally ripe--or the critters sample them.

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Our tomato crop was weird is year...we ended up with tons of small tomatoes, the yellows and the yellow pears.  So, I roasted most of them on parchment paper in large trays by slicing them in half.

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We did have plenty of reds and they are still producing, but only 4 plants.

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NUM!
They really are scrumptious and sweet.
So I CANNED TOMATOES!
3 BATCHES in the last week and a half.

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I put two large spoons (3-oz or so) of roasted tomatoes in each hot jar, added extra lemon juice(2 tsp.) and 1/2 tsp salt. Then added the cooked boiling tomatoes over the roasted  ones, then water-bath processed the jars for 15 min. A bit more than usual, but the roasteds weren't hot.

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I ended up with three batches over a week and a half, or 27 pint jars, of which 7 were made into sauce by cooking for 10 hours. 

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We've also had LOTS of cucumbers...yesterday I cut and seeded two large ones, some radishes, 2 small yellow squash, red pepper, onions, parsley, fresh oregano into a bowl. I added Italian dressing, some garlic oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper and a bit of Western dressing for tomato flavor and some sweetness. Num, this will keep until the weekend if we don't eat it all.
Sorry no recipe, I just sort of wing this by tasting. Once it sits for a day, it's even better.

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Last weekend I also made refrigerator Dills. This is a fast, easy and detailed recipe I shared HERE. They stay crunchy in the refrigerator for a year. My mother-in-laws recipe and it's fool-proof.

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This time of year fresh dill is plentiful normally, mine dried up in the hot weather, but the grocery had plenty.

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We ended up with a gallon and a half which I keep in the refrigerator. The sons will come and probably split the smaller jar.

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The island is always in use, but I try and have some fun seasonal decor on the end...what is more summer than a jar of old marbles, antique crocks, an antique French enamel lidded coffeepot and well something yellow to go with the sunflowers, my vintage McCoy yellow shoe.

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PHEW! Now you know why I called this my 
Working kitchen. 

Do you want another cup and stay awhile?

If you enjoyed this post please follow this blog by blogger or FOLLOW IT which you will find in the upper right hand corner of this page. 


Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!







All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi

































Friday, August 25, 2023

Fabulous Friday Photos and Memories

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When I transferred into my new computer I lost two years of photos in the transfer...when you think of relying on computers for your life...it really is a shame when a Ka-FLooey erases history.

Luckily, I at least had my Google photos from my blog...while scanning through those---thousands, I pulled a few OLD favorites. Some very old...and thought I would share them as Fabulous Friday Photos.

Fall, hopefully is on its way. Yesterday we had the highest temp, 100+, and heat index, 120+, ever in the Chicagoland Area. It was stifling with our humidity, but this morning it is dreary and cooler. 
Thank goodness.

The Fall arrangement above is one of my favorites, because it has some of my favorite flowers and lots of naturals and textures:

Delphiniums


Black eyed Susans, 

Sunflowers, 


Queen Anne's Lace, 

The sparkly thing on the right is 


'Spooky Spider', a cute Dollar Store spider.

This is was when our grandgirl was small and chose the non-spooky Halloween decor from my storage bins. She placed him on an old lantern and that was my porch decor for most of Fall.

The enameled container is a huge gallon or more coffee pot with a wood handle, I found at a farm yard sale probably 40 years ago. I dragged it home without a lid and a tiny hole in the bottom and my hubby wrinkled his nose. Oh, well--it's perfect for arrangements.

I often wondered where anyone needed an enamel coffeepot that large, then I recalled the huge coffeepots at my first job at 14 waiting on banquet tables at Dania Hall. We were a bunch of young girls of members, who often waited on tables for 350 or more at banquets. My great-aunt, Gudren, was the cook there for large events. The coffeepots were even larger in that kitchen, and were lifted by two ladies into the dumb-waiter to go upstairs banquet hall. Not an easy feat.

 Danish coffee is always the drip sort, boiling water poured over grounds in the large baskets lined with linen cloth. It was a tedious process, as large pots were slower to drain, but the coffee was the BEST ever, and the smell overran the huge and busy kitchen at Dania.

Memories for the Day from one photo:
Favorite flowers
Grandgirl choosing Halloween decor
Antiquing for a Coffee Pot
First Job waiting banquet tables at Dania
The smell and taste of Danish Coffee

ALL these fabulous memories from one photo!
 
Friday Fabulous Photos and Memories
 
Do You have special 
Memories from your Photos?

If you enjoyed this post please follow this blog by blogger or FOLLOW IT which you will find in the upper right hand corner of this page. 


Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!\













All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi













Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Sunflowers Deux

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I love Sunflowers and a few years back I spent an entire month playing with watercolors and one of the prompts was sunflowers. 

With the mess this year, I'm behind with everything so I've been doing some Link Parties with some old posts. Our garden has been challenged, so how about some sharing some old sunflowers...from better gardening days.

These are some of my favorite sunflower posts!



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I love this color!



This was a bird 'planted' sunflower.


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We had some 12 footers by the flag pole in a raised bed. Crazy wind here also.


The weight of this one altered the shape.

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I planted some 12 footers in the garden one year and they went TO the telephone wires.



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Broken heads are great bird feeders.

Sun or shade we have luck with the bush ones. Goldfinches love these!!

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A smaller variety of Autumn Sunset.

This year I planted 6 foot Scarlet Sunflowers, but they are lost next to the neigbor's bamboo...which must love the humidity and the heat....for it is so thick and large this year.


Sunflowers are critter attractors...who of course need no help bending the flowers.

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Aftermath gigantic flower heads, the large one is sitting on a wood 16" bench and back.

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My sunflower painting...

I'm not sure if I worked from memory or photos...

I was featured here:


I Was Featured at I Made it Monday Link Party



How does YOUR
Garden Grow???

If you enjoyed this post please follow this blog by blogger or FOLLOW IT which you will find in the upper right hand corner of this page. 


Thanks always for visiting. 
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I will be sharing at these fine Parties!






All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi








Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Danish Rhubarb Strawberry Torte/Pie

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It's our favorite time of year---RHUBARB TIME.
This was a post from five years ago of our  Family's favorite pie/tart recipe and adapted from my Danish  grandmother's.

One of the first fresh fruits to ripen in the upper Midwest is Rhubarb. Tart and tangy it is one of our favorites.  This recipe includes some quick tips and variations.

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We have two Rhubarb plants and they were huge, below is a photo from May12th I think, and they are 4 times as large now.

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I always pick the biggest and reddest stalks for pie. The leaves immediately go to the compost pile.  A wonderful compliment to the Rhubarb are Strawberries, which are plentiful and reasonable right now. 

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So, I just had to make some Strawberry/Rhubarb pie. At this point this recipe is mine or one learned long ago and from memory. 

Sandi’s Strawberry Rhubarb Pie or Tart  

Fills 2-8” pre-made pie crusts or one very large tart pan. (I allow thawing time for the pre-made pie crusts) A cookie crust adds some extra flavor in a tart. (I'll use a lemon/vanilla cookie recipe for tarts.)

Mix:
8 cups of diced rhubarb 
2 cups sugar or sweetner
½ tsp of salt

Stir in large microwaveable bowl. Cook on high for 4 min, and stir and then another 4 min on high. ( Pre-cooking the rhubarb gives a warm solution for the corn starch to dissolve and helps to shorten baking time).

Add:
4 cups of sliced cleaned strawberries
2 tsp of vanilla or more-this is what makes it Danish!
Stir together into rhubarb
Here you can add 2 tsp of vanilla if you wish, we always do.

Make a mixture of
2 TBSP of cornstarch or thickener of your choice
½ tsp nutmeg
1 TBSP of cinnamon (we love cinnamon)
Stir into warm fruit until well mixed-
Split into pie shells or tart pan.

Mix 2 cups of rolled oats (Not quick-cook) in bowl or chopper
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of flour
5 TBSP of cold oleo/butter
1 tsp cinnamon
(you could add chopped almonds to this also) 

Pulse in chopper or mix with a pastry cutter in bowl, until well mixed and crumbly.
Spread over fruit

Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 15 min at 350 degrees.

Serve with icecream/whip cream/ or cool whip.

Delicious warm or cold! 

As a girl when I stayed a summer in Denmark, we had rhubarb and strawberry treats all through the summer. Also, rhubarb pudding with fresh scraped vanilla bean was my favorite and of course drowned in rich cold cream. I will have to make that next!

I'll be sharing at these fine parties:
 














Thank you for your cooperation, 
Sandi