Balsamic Cherry Tomato and Caramelized Onion Conserve

This is a new canning recipe and it turned out to be one that I really like.  I have a lot of cherry tomatoes more than we can ever eat, so this is going to be a good way to preserve them. A great way to serve this is put the conserve in a bowl then the bowl on a platter with sliced baguette slices, different cheeses and cured meats or baguette slices topped with goat cheese and top with the conserve. It's delicious with the goat cheese, that's how I've eaten it.  This is a quick appetizer when friends show up or something to put together to watch football.

2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 pounds sweet onions, quartered and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 cups of cherry tomatoes, halved
3/4cup honey
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

In a large pot heat butter and oil over medium-low heat until butter is melted.  Stir in onion, salt and sugar.  Cook covered, for 13 to 15 minutes or until onions are tender, stirring occasionally.  Cook, uncovered, over medium-high het for 3 to 5 minutes more or until onions are deep golden brown, stirring frequently.

Stir in cherry tomatoes and honey.  Bring to boiling over high heat; reduce heat to medium-high.  Cook, uncovered about 5 minutes or just until tomatoes are softened, stirring frequently.   Remove from heat. Stir in balsamic vinegar and pepper.

Ladle hot mixture into hot sterilized half-pint canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.  Wipe jar rims; adjust lids and screw bands.

Process filled jars in a boiling-water canner for 5 minutes (start timing when water returns to boiling). Remove jars from canner; cool on wire racks.  Makes 5 half pints.

Veggie Basil Pesto Lasagna

About mid summer, our family gathered at our daughter's home for Italian night.  I know, it's hot summer and we are eating food that is hot and heavy.  But, I was hearing moans and groans for lasagna.  I had been wanting to try a vegetable lasagna with basil pesto.  So, I made the traditional lasagna and a pan of veggie.  It was good but it was really rich.  It didn't take a very big piece to fill you up.  Sorry about the picture but as usual I forgot to take a picture of the whole lasagna so you are getting a picture of the left overs.  Here is how I made it.

2-3 yellow squash, sliced
2 zucchini, sliced
2 sweet onions, sliced
1 large or 2 medium eggplant, sliced
1 small box of lasagna noodles
1 large cottage cheese
1 small sour cream
1 medium pkg. mozzarella cheese, grated
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese
1-1 1/2 cups basil pesto

Saute squash, zucchini, onions in 3 tablespoons of butter until crisp tender. Lightly flour eggplant and fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side.  Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions.  In a large bowl mix cottage cheese, sour cream, grated mozzarella, and Parmesan.  Stir well until all is incorporated. 

Put a layer of the fried eggplant, then a layer of the veggie mixture, then lasagna noodles, over noodles a very thin layer of pesto and then a layer of the cheese mixture.  Repeat this layering once more.  You will end up with cheese mixture of top.  I put a dollop of pesto in the middle of cheese mixture and with a knife swirled it through the top of cheese mixture. 

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes to an hour.  Watch it and when it starts to bubble and the top is golden it's done. 

The vegetables I used is what I had on hand.  I thought mushrooms would have been good and I also thought about a layer a fresh tomatoes from the garden that had been squeezed so the lasagna wouldn't be runny.  I really think the tomatoes would have topped it off.  Next time!   :)

Alps from Above

Early one Sunday morning I stumbled onto this wonderful show, Alps from Above.  The scenery is so breath taking and beautiful, I literally started to cry.  The show is on every Saturday and Sunday morning at 7:00 on AXS channel.  They have wonderful travel shows on this channel.  Stephen Fry's Across America, Rick Steve's Europe, Paul Meron in India.  I know what you are probably thinking, Travel Shows, really!  But I'm really hooked on travel shows.  Love the narrative, and the music that they play with Alps from Above is beautiful.  Rick Steve's did a wonderful show recently on Iran.  They have some of the most beautiful mosque's I've every seen.  The most gorgeous colors and designs.....just amazing.  When I think of Iran, it's desert, shacks, barren, no vegetation, certainly not desirable.  What he shared was beautiful in a lot of ways.

I have a dear friend in Chickasha who traveled to Italy several years ago with her cousin.  When she returned she was telling me about her trip. They had seen all the sights in Rome and then spent several days in the country.  They stayed at a quaint little country inn and the next morning they got up and went outside.  Much to their surprise, they were very near the Mediterranean.  They walked to a rock wall and looked over the edge to this beautiful turquoise water.  She looked at her cousin and she was crying.  She looked at her questionably and her cousin said,  "it's just amazing to me the beauty of God's creation, it's almost more than I can take in."  I've always remembered her response and that is exactly how I felt as I watch Alps from Above that first morning. 

In Chickasha, Oklahoma we certainly don't have the beauty of the alps but we have the vast plains which permits us to see the most amazing sunrises and sunsets.  Not long after moving to the country, I was coming home one evening from the city as the sun was setting and it was amazing.  As I marveled at the grandeur of this beauty, this thought popped into my mind, " this is my gift to you today." Since that time, I have been the recipient of some of the most spectacular gifts.  Not only the sunrises and sunsets but the most beautiful rising moons.

I'm not special, these gifts are to us all.  We just need to stop long enough to be conscious and take it all in.  And much to your surprise,  you will find the tears running down your cheeks!

Here's My Watermelon

Ok, the picture on the seed packet shows the meat to be a orange-yellow.  I'm a little disappointed in the flavor.  It was sweet but not the best watermelon I've ever eaten.  I won't plant this variety again.  I was looking forward to delivering wonderful watermelons to family and friends......well, not this year.  I want to amend the soil in the raised beds this winter and that will help the flavor of whatever I plant.  That may be why the color of these melons were not the orange- yellow.  

These are some observations of nature that I have noticed over the last five years.  Number one, there are hardly any geese making their flight north or south.  When we first moved to the country, this was one of my favorite things.  We moved to the country in late September and I'll never forget being awakened by all the honking one morning.  I ran outside and there were hundreds of geese flying south in formation and they came in droves for a month.  Now, literally there is almost nothing.  :(  We may see a small formation of maybe 20 geese once or twice and that is stretching it.
Number two, the migration of the monarch butterflies.  In the last three years, I've seen maybe a couple.  In contrast, we would see groups of them landed in the flower beds, flying over the back roads in the country.  One year, we were exploring and came upon a riverbed where there were hundreds.  It was one of the most beautiful sites.  I had never seen anything like that and until then I didn't even know that monarchs migrated.  Number three, This one is about turtles.  In the spring, we see lots of turtles again, out on the back roads in the country crossing the road.  I would never get out on one of these roads and not see 5 or 6 turtles crossing the road.  I've not seen one turtle this year. The last one is about our hummingbirds.  They left this year for a month.  They have never done that before.  They are usually here all summer.  They came back about a week ago.