Lunch

The tomatoes and Lemon cucumber are from my garden. That is all!

Cupcakes

So I promised you cupcakes right? Well here you go! The ones on the left are chocolate mint cupcakes with chocolate mint ganache filling and mint icing and the ones on the right are lemon cake with strawberries and a strawberry and lemon curd filling with lemon buttercream frosting. They were a hit at the party! Well, except not as big a hit as the birthday girl! Happy 1st birthday to my baby niece Addison!

Garden Caprese Salad

I spent the day today making some yummy cupcakes for my nieces first birthday tomorrow. I will be posting pictures of the desserts including her giant cupcake smash cake. But in the meantime I wanted to show you my dinner tonight.

I have been trying my best to consume all my tomatoes and not waste a single one, and in that vain, I made a yummy tricolor caprese salad to go with my grilled beef sausage and corn on the cob. It was a lovely meal and we actually ate in the garden tonight, which despite the flies and heat, was actually very nice.

For the caprese salad I used some of my early girl tomatoes, green zebra striped tomatoes, yellow pear, and sunburst golden. I layered them with some fresh picked basil and some fresh mozzarella. To finish the salad I simply drizzled on some olive oil and added salt and pepper to taste.

Browned Butter Blueberry Almond Muffins

 

My sister made some blueberry almond muffins for mothers day and I just couldn't keep my mind off of them, so I made some of these delicious muffins last week. The recipe is below. Trust me, these are soooo good. But I guess I say that about everything I post. I think I just really love to cook and eat food.

Ingredients:

7 TBSP Butter ( I actually used earths Balance Vegan butter and while it didn't technically brown, the muffins still tasted amazing)

1/3 cup whole Goats Milk

1 Egg Plus 1 Yolk

1 tsp almond extract

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1-2 cups blueberries (if you use frozen, thaw them and drain off the juice before you add them to the batter)

1/2 cup sliced almonds for the topping

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Heat the oven to 375° F and line a muffin pan with liners. Brown the butter in a sauce pan until it starts to turn golden and the crackling subsides then remove from the heat. Mix the milk, egg, yolk, almond extract together and then add the cooled browned butter. In a separate bowl add the sugar, baking powder, flour, and salt and stir to combine. Add the liquids to the flour mixture and fold the ingredients together gently. Finally add the blueberries and fold into the batter.

Spoon into your muffin cups and sprinkle with the sliced almonds. Bake for appx. 18-20 minutes or until the tops of the muffins are golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cool slightly and then enjoy when they are warm. Surprisingly they are still good (maybe even better) the next day. So you can definitely make these in advance for your next brunch or breakfast gathering.

Garden Veggie Pasta

I was on a mini vacation in San Antonio Monday and Tuesday and when I got home this morning, all of these veggies were waiting in my garden for me! I got my first cucumber, which Madeline proceeded to eat right after I took the photo. And although it looks like I may be taking pictures of the same tomatoes, I promise you that these are new ones straight from the vines each day.

Unfortunately the bugs are coming now. I found two tomato hornworms on my cherry tomato plant and then killed them, and today I saw some stink bugs starting to swarm around the tomato plants. Hopefully they won't do that much damage. Like I said I killed the hornworms right away, but I still have to do some research on the stink bugs.

Well, since I harvested so many tomatoes and another zucchini, I figured I needed to work them into tonight's dinner. Sorry about talking about food right after the pest talk, but I wanted to show you what I was able to make with my garden veggies.

I made some multigrain spaghetti with alfredo sauce and then topped it with grilled sliced zucchini, grilled cherry tomatoes, and grilled chicken. It was yummy! And it was neat to be able to use veggies that I grew myself.

Today's harvest

Look at the squash and tomatoes! They are coming in quick now. I also have some baby Mediterranean cucumbers that are starting to grow. Can't wait for those! I love me some cucumbers!

Also, my spaghetti squash leaves are showing some signs of disease, but I am not sure what it is. Any ideas?

Renegade Craft Fair Booth

Hey All! Out at my booth today selling my pretty things! Take a look at the booth and free lemon berry cupcakes I am giving away to customers.