Lemon Drop Tomato

These are adorable lemon drop tomatoes that my sister brought over. They are not extremely sour as their name may suggest, but slightly tart. My local grocery store usually offers the equally small cherry tomato. However, I will be sure to look for lemon drop tomatoes now that I am aware of their existance. They would add a lovely color to any salad!

Peach Crumble

Peach crumble is one of my favorite easy to make desserts. During the summer, I had purchased 25 pounds of peaches! I made peach crumble, peach pie, peach muffins and just plain ate the peaches, but I still had some left. So.......I peeled, pitted and froze them. Now that it is winter and I haven't had a peach in months, I decided to make some peach crumble with the peaches that I had froze.

It is a bit watery as you can see, but still tastes just as good as the peach crumble I made during the summer. Of course, I could have dehydrated the peaches a bit, but these days, I opt for anything simple and quick.

To make the peach crumble, I simply placed 3 layers of peach slices in a 3 to 4 inch deep, oven safe baking dish. Then in a separate bowl, I mixed together 1 1/4 cup of oats, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup of butter and 1 tsp cinnamon and then sprinkled the mix over the peaches.
Next, I baked it at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes and let it cool for about 10 minutes before enjoying!

Recipe for Pesto

There are so many recipes for pesto, but my favorite one is quite simple and includes olive oil, basil, parmesan, garlic and pinenuts. The ingredients for pesto are so versatile and easy to find!

Using a food processor, I pulse together 2 cups of fresh basil leaves, 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of pine nuts (walnuts work well too!), 3 large cloves of garlic and 1/2 cup of olive oil. I add some salt and pepper to taste and I'm all set!

I usually serve the pesto with spaghetti since it is my favorite pasta noodle, but this time I decided to spread it on some flatbread and top it off with some fresh aged parmesan.

Aged Parmesan

I really love all sorts of cheese, mainly because they are so versatile and can add such a nice flavor to any dish. Parmesan is one of my favorites so when the aged parmesan went on sale at our local grocery store, I had to stop in and pick some up. I made some spaghetti bolognese and finely grated some parmesan cheese on top. It was absolutely delicious. Adding parmesan cheese shavings to soups is another one of my favorite ways to enjoy it.

Pumpkins

We went to visit a farm on the weekend and there were so many pumpkins! Of course, they had a huge pumpkin patch where we got to explore and pick out a pumkin. We ended up with four pumpkins, a mini one, a small one. a regular sized one and a large one. I wanted a really HUGE pumpkin, but my husband thought it would be too heavy to carry across the farm and back out to the car.

I am not one for carving pumpkins so I figured I would take the seeds out and roast them in the oven. Roasted pumpkin seeds have always been a favorite of mine. Once I take the seeds out of the pumpkin, I am sure to pick them out of their pulp right away. Then I rinse them in a colander under cold running water. I take a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and spread the seeds out in a single layer, sprinkle them with salt and roast them at 325 degrees F for about 25 minutes. Be sure to stir them around about half way through. Finally, let them cool and enjoy!

Making a pumpkin pie with the actual pumpkin is a great option, but this month has been really busy for me so I figured that having my husband carve the pumpkins would be a better idea. We are going to put them out on the front porch for Halloween!

Dill Potato Salad

I love potato salad and usually make one which includes sauteed onions and bacon. However, I had some redskin potatoes and some fresh dill from the garden so I decided to try something different. I thought, why not make a dill potato salad. It was really easy, because all I did was boil some potatoes, then strained them and let them cool a bit, while I went out to the garden to get some dill and wash it up. Once the potatoes were cooled off, I cut them into 3/4 inch chunks and mixed them with the fresh chopped dill, mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

So simple and delicious. It really is a a flexible recipe and the amount of mayonnaise, dill, salt and pepper you add really depends on your liking. I like to put a bit of extra mayonnaise in my potato salad if I am refrigerating it over night since I find that some of it seems to disappear after being refrigerated.

Thousand Year Old Eggs

The thought of eating an egg that is a thousand years old is enough to make most people lose their appetite. To me, thousand year old eggs remind me of rice porridge, because that is usually what I eat them with. I don't eat them often, but when I do, I can usually eat only one egg at most. Above is a picture of the thousand year old egg in it's shell, and the picture below shows the inner part of the egg along with it's jelly like outer part.

They are often referred to as 1000 year old eggs or 100 year old eggs, but are not nearly that old. They are in actual fact, simply preserved duck eggs. The inner yolk part is firm and rich in texture and the outside is similar to jelly.
Sometimes, the inner part is somewhat runny and I always thought it was because some preserved duck egg yolks were meant to be that way. However, I discovered that if the egg is boiled for 8 minutes or so, then the egg would firm up, both on the outside and the inside, similar to a hardboiled egg.