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It's NOT a
good thing! We are spoiled nowadays by having all those
prepackaged foods at our fingertips. Whatever happened to the
satisfaction a person got by canning their own tomato sauce
instead of rushing to the local grocery store and grabbing one
off the shelf?
My own mother told me of her life growing up on a farm. They
were almost living a self-sufficient existence, only relying on
the store in town for such things as maybe flour or sugar, or
coffee. They raised their own farm animals for slaughter and
grew their own vegetables. They had milking cows for their dairy
products and hens for fresh eggs.
So enough time travel! Let’s start
cookin’! I think every gardener has at least one tomato
plant. Delicious eaten fresh from the garden of course,
but how about having some of Auntie Canuck’s yummy
Pepper-Tomato
Sauce
ready in your pantry? Think of all the delicious meals you
could make with that!
Debbie The Seed Queen has a super
idea. Her and her mother swear by this recipe. Her
"Pepper
Relish"
uses green and red peppers and onions and spices to create a
mouth watering topping for any meat dish. It’s even good
on eggs too! Debbie says that last year at Christmas time
she took some of her jars of pepper relish and jazzed them up
with fabric and raffia bows and gave them to co-workers for
presents. They were a huge hit!
Did you know
that peppers can be frozen for use later on? Just wash and
deseed the pepper and cut up as desired (I cut them in
strips). Put in freezer bags and then in a plastic
container to keep the pepper smell under wraps. You can do
this in the summer and make the pepper relish in the winter
months when it’s cooler. The same goes for anything
tomato based. Freeze whole tomatoes in freezer bags and
use in the winter. You will have to "cook down"
the mixture a bit more as the freezing process makes the veggies
retain extra water.
Also popular
(at least, er, um…..well, most times) is the yummy Old-Fashioned
Zucchini Bread.
You will definitely want all the zucchinis left on your doorstep
once you taste this recipe!
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Well enough of
food. (I never thought I would say that!) Someone
once said, "A man cannot live by bread alone…"
He has to have a beautiful woman at his side. And if it
can’t be me, here are some beautifying recipes you can create
from your own home ingredients.
Have you ever
tried whitening your nails by rubbing them with a wedge of
grapefruit? Grapefruit seems to have a stain removing
property that will work wonders on your nails! (It will
help to get rid of that tell-tale "gardener’s nail"
too!)
Would you like
some lovely sunny highlights in your hair? Try this:
Strain the juice of 2 or 3 lemons into a pint of warm
water. Pour this mixture through your clean but dry
hair. Massage it in with your fingertips. Let it sit
5 minutes before rinsing it out. (You
can always make lemonade with the leftovers!)
Still on the
subject of hair…..To make hair shiny: Mix together 1 Cup
Olive Oil, 1 egg, and 1/3 C honey. Apply generously to dry
hair, then cover with some plastic wrap or even a shower cap and
leave on for about 3 hours and then rinse out. (If
you didn’t use all the above ingredients, you can use the
mixture for a simple salad dressing!)
Did you know
that rose hip oil is an inexpensive and really easy
moisturizer? Apply pure rose hip oil to those nasty
troublesome areas around the eyes and mouth. (Or just
don’t laugh or frown, then you’ll never have wrinkles –
that’s my secret you know)
Time to
exfoliate! Prepare one serving of oatmeal with whole milk
according to the directions on the package. Apply this
mixture to clean, dry skin. Let it dry. Wash off
gently with warm water. (Use
your leftover breakfast for this fiber-filled beauty treatment!)
Here’s
another mask. Lightly beat 1 egg white, then apply to your
clean, dry skin and let this dry. Now gently wash it off
with warm water. (Remember to wash it off or people
might start to call you "Meringue Face").
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