Ready for Winter

It's the last day of July in Iowa right now.  Things are starting to turn brown and it leaves us with the feeling that summer is winding down to it's end.  In Iowa, the whole point of August is to finish up any excursions or events that are typically summer fun - such as the token summer baseball game you wanted to attend, the camping trip you didn't get around to taking yet, that trip to a pool party that never happened over the summer or backyard bbq party you missed having all summer long.  This is the time of year too, that if you live in Iowa you are preparing and gearing up for fall and winter.  I think I have that seed in me right now actually.  I have been scouring cookbooks for recipes of things that I can make now, freeze and eat later this winter.  And really, even in Iowa there aren't too many days that you can't leave the house because of the blizzard conditions but the less I have to fight the crazy 'the world is coming to an end because we are going to have 6" of snow' people that rush out and drain the shelves of food after the weather forecast then happier I will be this winter.

So far I have found several recipes that make decent quantities of food and are worth freezing- home-cooked pulled pork, salmon, homemade tomato sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.  are all things that are being neatly packed into the freezers at our house.  But most recently I froze fresh herbs for the winter.  I was blessed with 3 lbs. of fresh basil and 5 lbs. of fresh parsley.  Both I love to cook with and if I can have fresh over dried, the better the dish is!  I did a little research and found out the proper way to freeze both and here is what I came up with.

Fresh basil ready to freeze.

Freezing Basil

Pick the good leaves off the stems.  Wash well.  I used a salad spinner for this. Pat dry.  Fill the cup in a food processor with leaves.  Don't pack them, just fill to brim.  Drizzle a little EVOO and lemon juice over it.  Place lid on the processor and push the chop button repeatedly to get a course chop on the leaves.  Empty into FoodSaver bags or into plastic containers.  I used our FoodSaver to vacuum seal them to keep fresh otherwise use plastic tupperware and seal tightly.  Store in freezer.  I have read this will last for up to 6 months.  I read too that if you don't add the olive oil or lemon juice, the basil will quickly turn black once frozen.

Freezing Parsley

Wash thoroughly and pat dry.  Simply lay parsley in freezer bags and freeze- push all the air out.  No olive oil or lemon juice is necessary for parsley.  I would assume it would last about 6 months in freezer as well.  You can chop or leave stems whole.  From what I've read, if you work quickly, you can just break off the amount of parsley you need from frozen state.

Tommaccio Harvest

Before

After

Soaking in olive oil, garlic and special seasoning.  

Love in Lily of the Valley

I worked on our lily of the valley garden tonight... and thanks to a wonderful friend of mine, I made our special garden grow with love.  The lily of the valley is a funny story for us.  Last year we received the most beautiful lily of the valley plants from my husband's 95 year old grandmother who had them growing in her garden from her mother's.  Those started our little 'love' garden.  We loved them so much before we received those and especially upon receiving them that we wanted lily of the valley for our wedding in June last year.  When we talked to our florist (who was one of the last vendors we dealt with) we were saddened to hear that we were a month too late for those beautiful flowers.  Even though I was willing to change the date of our wedding to make it in time for lily of the valley, I realized this was not humanly possible.  So we did what we could do and did all the wedding details in lily of the valley and used all old fashioned white flowers for our wedding.  Now, almost a year later we received these beautiful lilies to add to our special garden.  The garden now not only represents generations from our family but it also represents our friendships.  The combination of those two things in addition to everything we are, is the foundation for our love.  We felt it fitting to place the 'love' stepping stone we received as a bridal shower gift to express this little portion of our growing garden.

Foxglove

Foxglove
'Pink
Height: 2-5'
Spread: 8" 
Bloom Time: Mid-Summer
Sun-Shade: Partial Sun - Sun
Zones: 3-9

Description: Foxglove bears tall, dramatic spikes of tubular flowers with speckled throats. Foxglove blooms in midsummer and adds elegance to a perennial border, woodland area, or shade garden.  
Factoids:  Foxgloves are biennials or short-lived perennials. However, although individual plants may be short-lived, foxglove readily self-sows and multiplies. Foxglove leaves contain digitalis, a potent heart medicine, and are considered poisonous.

'Spooky' Pinks Dianthus

Dianthus Superbus
'Spooky' Pinks Dianthus
Height: 12"
Spread: 8" 
Bloom Time: Summer
Sun-Shade: Partial Sun
Zones: 3-9

Description: Frilly, fragrant flowers over attractive medium green foliage.  Excellent cut flowers and lovely in herb, rock or flower gardens.


Reminds me of...  "Bonus Bucks" I Love Lucy Episode
Lucy, finds a bonus buck and through a string of misfortunate events, she ends up chasing the 'bonus buck' to a laundry mat where she goes through the starcher.  When she comes out of the starcher, she is stiff as a board and her collar is frilled.  When I saw this plant last night at the garden center it's frilled petals reminded me of Lucy's collar.  

Westerplatte Clematis

Clematis; Westerplatte 
Clematis


Height: 3-6 Feet
Spread: 15-18 Inches
Bloom Time: Spring-Late Summer
Sun-Shade: Full Sun to Mostly Shady
Zones: 4-9

Description: Clematis 'Westerplatte' shows off dark velvety-red flowers made up of broad, overlapping, perfectly formed petals. The petals also recurve at the tips giving the 5" flowers a very nice rounded appearance. Blooms in late spring on old wood and again in late summer on the new growth. A very compact habit makes it ideal for containers.


Wiki says... Westerplatte is a peninsula in Gdańsk, Poland, located on the Baltic Sea coast mouth of the Dead Vistula (one of the Vistula delta estuaries), in the Gdańsk harbour channel. From 1926 to 1939 it was the location of a Polish Military Transit Depot (WST), sanctioned within the territory of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk).
It is famous for the Battle of Westerplatte, which was the first clash between Polish and German forces during the Invasion of Poland and thus the first battle of the European theater of World War II.. 

Black Forest Parfaits

1 pkg. brownie mix, baked
1 (6 oz.) pkg instant chocolate pudding mix prepared
1 (21 oz.) can cherry pie filling
1 (8 oz.) carton whipped topping
4  to 6 parfait glasses

Crumble brownies in bottom. Spoon pudding in next, pie filling and whipped topping.  Garnish with a few brownie crumbs on top.