Saturday, October 13, 2012

A Mainstay Soup at Our Home - Wonderful For Fall


Now that there is some hope of cooler weather, I thought I'd share one of the soups that's a weekly mainstay at our home. You've got to try it and let me know! 

It's Tortilla Soup from the Fix-It and Forget It Cookbook (Good Publishers) and it's done in your crockpot!

My husband LOVES this soup. Both our daughters make it frequently and everyone they serve it to LOVES it.  

Ingredients:
4 chicken breast halves (cook, debone and shred chicken)
1 garlic clove, minced,
2 Tbsp. butter,
2 14 1/2 oz cans of chicken broth,
2 14 oz cans chopped stewed tomatoes,
1 cup salsa (mild, medium, or hot),
1/2 cup chopped cilantro,
1 Tbsp or more of ground cumin.

Melt the butter and add the minced garlic to it. Combine all the other ingredients in a slow cooker THEN add the sautéed garlic. Cover and cook on low for 8 - 10 hours.

Then shred or cube 8 oz of Monterey jack cheese - put this in your soup bowls. Ladle your soup over the cheese THEN sprinkle tortilla chips on the top and add a dollop of sour cream.

IT'S that easy and very yummy. I always double the recipe. It's great the first day and even better the second. And it freezes well— Enjoy! Let me know how you like it!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Finally! Our Fall Market and Cafe Open This Thursday

It was nothing less than exciting to walk around this morning looking at all we'll be snipping, pulling and gathering for this week's RE-OPENING of our Thursday morning Fall Market and Cafe.  We open these days at 8:30 am and close at Noon.




We look forward to seeing our little cafe tables filled with people sipping coffee, eating lemon cranberry pound cake or nibbling pumpkin scones and enjoying some fresh fall air at our little suburban farm.

Pie Pumpkins from Crooked Sky Farms


Menu Plan for This Weeks Markets - See here on how to shop a market.
To help you in your menu planning and market shopping - this is what we'll have in our market baskets:

Swiss Chard
Lettuces
Mustard Greens
Okra
French Breakfast radish
Bunching Onions
Peppers
Cucumbers
Squash
Apples (English Orchards)
Sweet Potatoes (Crooked Sky complement)
Sweet Onions (Crooked Sky complement)
Red Potatoes (Crooked Sky complement)
Pumpkins (Crooked Sky) - check out how last year our market looked. Lots of changes!

Crow's Dairy goat chevre and feta ( of course) 

Maybe some carrots and beets.

Herbs:
Thyme
Oregano
Lemon Verbena
Winter Savory
Garlic Chives
Mint
Basil


In the next few weeks - we'll add spinach, sugar snap peas and turnips to the lists.


Sunday, October 7, 2012

Jill's Guide To Phoenix Garden's Start Now

I have some of the most amazing friends and Jill Green of Sweet Life Garden is one of them.  I learn from Jill. She teaches me . . .



Today, her blog post was so good that I had to repost some of her gardening pictures here and then tell you to go HERE to read all about HOW to start YOUR OWN back yard garden. Jill has a simple step by step approach and her style of communication will make it understandable and a doable. Not only do you need to go to her post HERE....but please subscribe to her blog and receive her gardening "how to" updates.

Tell her Lylah sent you!