salsa making

Yesterday I went to the Farmer's Market to gather my ingredients to can some Zesty Salsa. The Farmer's Market is just bursting right now.with all kinds of end of the summer goodness, which makes for the perfect time to do canning.

25 pounds of tomatoes, 12 green peppers, 40 jalepeno's,  24 onions

oh my

Salsa making is a ton of work with all of the chopping, cooking and then canning... but the end product is always worth it. 

weekend lens {Olympics & pickles}

Friday night was the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and we decided to stay home, order some pizzas and spend the evening watching this on TV.

I made a fruit pizza for dessert to go with our 'Olympic and pizza' themed night. :)

Saturday morning we headed out to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market to find the things I needed to make dill pickles and dilly beans.

Organizing my canning supplies.

The big bag of pickling cucumbers.

dill

I haven't canned pickles for a few years- it is quite a bit of work, but it is always worth it!

While I was busy doing my canning, Pete and Drew worked on the Z.

And Drew took it upon himself to trim a tree that was taking over the basketball hoop. :)

I made the easiest rib recipe ever and they turned out amazing!

All I did was put some 'country style ribs' (no sauce or anything else) in the crock pot and cooked them on low for 8 hours. Then we thew them on the grill to char them up a little and brushed them with BBQ sauce.

So good and so easy!

We also had some great corn on the cob from the farmer's market.

It was nice to have a weekend at home that was quieter and to have time to do some of those extra things (like canning) that we have been wanted to do this summer.

weekend lens :: great food & pretty flowers

My weekend couldn't start out more perfect... with a freshly picked bouquet of my favorite flowers from my favorite 14 year old on his way home from the bus stop.

Dinner was at Blue Door Pub in St. Paul.

My very favorite burger in the entire world is the Blue Door Juicy Blucy!

Another spot that Guy Fieri has left his mark. Last time we saw this mark was {HERE}.

Saturday was our first of the season visit to the Farmer's Market. Love!

We bought some pretty flowers for our front baskets.

And some vegi's and herbs to plant in my garden.

And we couldn't pass up the brats loaded with peppers and onions from the great stand at the Farmer's Market.

We stopped at Coastal Seafood's in St. Paul to pick up some fish for our dinner.

My front lilac bush in full bloom. Love.

Starting the marinade and sauce for the fish tacos for dinner.

AMAZING!!!!!

I made Rhubarb Torte with the perfect rhubarb we bought at the Farmer's Market.

Sunday morning I made Puffy Apple Pancake {Pannekoeken}. This recipe is in our family cookbook which was submitted by my sister. I have made this recipe several times over the years and it is always delicious, super easy to make and a family favorite!

While Pete used the smoker grill to smoke some pork shoulders for his amazing pulled pork  sandwiches!! Truly a family favorite!

Tyler was in Appleton, WI for the Ultimate Frisbee DIII National Tournament. His team had been favored to win but ended up with a 5th place finish. Still amazing for College Nationals!!!

And more importantly,  it sounds like he had a fun weekend! :)

 Another weekend where I really, really didn't want Monday to come!!!

{I will post a couple of these recipes later this week. }

weekend Lens

Memorial Day Weekend :: Project Flower Bomb :: Farmers Market finds {flowers, herbs, asparagus, rhubarb, kettle corn} :: planting my potted herb garden :: grilled steak :: new bistro table :: pulled pork from the smoker :: a walk with the dog :: new baseball cleats :: rhubarb torte :: spring storms :: family time

Movie Night

Can you guess by this picture what movie I saw last night?


I went to see 'Julie and Julia' and I just loved it!! But really, what is not to love? It has some of my favorite things... cooking, blogging and Paris!

It was a great movie and I thought Meryl Streep did an amazing job portraying Julia Child! My only critique of the movie was that it made me so hungry and wanting to go home and start cooking some "Beef Bourguignon." =0)

This morning I went to the 'Minneapolis Farmer's Market' and I came home with all of this for only a few dollars...


I love going to the Farmer's Market any time of the year- but come the end of August when everything is in harvest--it is one of my all time favorite places to go!!

So, what I have been thinking all day is... what would Julia make with this?