My Favorite Summer Sandwich! What's Yours?

Well, you are all thinking to yourselves she has finally gone over the edge! Green tomatoes and peanut butter! An heirloom 'Green Zebra' tomato so it is supposed to look this way. We have extra fiber bread so I think next time I may toast it. I was so excited that I just slapped on the peanut butter, place the tomato slices on the bread and I was in tomato and peanut butter heaven! By the way I use Jif Extra Chunky!

There is a back story with this post. I was a legal secretary for many years and the typewriter repairman (Yes, quills and ink were gone!) was fixing my machine at lunch. He asked what I was having and I said a peanut butter and tomato sandwich. He said, "You must be from Kittanning. My wife is from there and eats the same sandwich!" It was a little creepy and funny at the same time. Here is a picture of my hometown from a hillside above on a hot steamy day in July five years ago. Kittanning is the County Seat of Armstrong County and is situated along the Allegheny River. You can just make out the Courthouse in the distance!

I have to say the 'Green Zebra' tomato is my new favorite, but 'Early Girl' is my other favorite with peanut butter! I save the 'Cherokee Purple' tomatoes for a basil, feta cheese and tomato salad. 'Sungold' cherry tomatoes are my favorite cherry tomato with 'Matt's Wild Cherry' a very close second! So what is your favorite sandwich in the summer? Don't forget to enter our contests! Check the August 7, 2009 posts!

Like Little Soldiers at Attention!

The bathroom window has become the place to be to take aerial pictures of my herb garden. This particular day the finches were working frantically to get the sunflower seeds! They know exactly when to pounce and sometimes they are early and have to wait longer! Last night and this morning the majority of sunflowers were open and they just looked like they were at attention like soldiers. Too hot to work out in the garden even The Herbal Husband had to come in! Hope you are staying cool wherever you may be! Don't forget to enter our contests! Check the August 7, 2009 posts!

A Day or Two of Apples!

We have an espaliered apple tree that is a 'Liberty'. The espalier has come undone and we have a massive tree that is producing apples. The good news! The bad news is is that I have to catch them as The Herbal Husband cuts them on the neighbor's side. Their dogs barking fiercely. I should have taken a video! It was chaos! Here is the pile of pruning apple tree. It looks bad at the moment, but hopefully early in the spring while dormant, we can get the espalier back! Our other apple tree is supposed to be a 'dwarf Granny Smith' but it was a giant instead. The Herbal Husband commented that we needed to take that tree out! It is full of disease and bad insects and needs to be shaped dramatically and sprayed. As my extension agent has said to me, "A chainsaw at ground level is its only hope!" You know it's bad when an extension agent tells you that! She really likes both of us! Really!

These are the 'Liberty' apples. They look nice, don't they? Well, these are their good sides. It's all in the staging! They may have even looked better were they in a basket and not on top of the washer with a Marshall's bag as a background! The Herbal Husband was a huge help cutting out the bad parts and getting them cut to cook down.

I put water enough so that it wouldn't scorch. We had about four quarts of apples, maybe five. At least quartered, but there were many little pieces. I added 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. It's chunky applesauce! I canned it last night. The finished product is a little less chunky. My first attempt at applesauce a few years ago was too runny and watery. This time it looks like marshmallows in the applesauce! It tastes great though and that's what's important! That fourth jar is a little thin as far as being full, but we will enjoy it! Hope you are preserving your harvest wherever you may be!

Don't forget to enter our contests! Check the August 7, 2009 posts!

Celebrate with Herbs and Edible Flowers!

We like to celebrate with food around this house! Who doesn't! We had The Herbal Husband's famous guacamole with nasturtium flowers yesterday. The flowers add a peppery kick to the guacamole! Then we topped off breakfast today with some lemon verbena bread! A fitting finish! In case you missed my favorite lemon verbena bread recipe before, here it is again.

It comes from the February/March, 1990 The Herb Companion magazine:

Lemon Verbena Bread

1 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup fresh lemon verbena leaves chopped
1-1/2 cup sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
Grated rind of 1 lemon
3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream butter with verbena leaves in mixer or food processor. I use my food processor. Add sugar and beat well, then eggs, salt and remaining ingredients. Grease loaf pans: 1 large, 2 small or 4 minis and pour in batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 65 minutes. I usually bake it in one large pan. Bake until bread tests done with a toothpick or cake tester. Meanwhile, prepare glaze. (I usually don't use the glaze.) I'm giving it to you because every person's taste is different. Leave loaf in pan. While it is still hot, pour glaze over it and let sit several hours. Remove loaf from pan. Wrap in foil to ripen overnight before serving, or freeze immediately.

Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon verbena leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon

Hope you enjoy it! Hope you are celebrating with family and friends! Don't forget to enter our herbal giveaways!

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Aug 7, 2009 Friday Faves - buzzzzz....

Each Friday, I hope to spotlight a couple of our advertisers and a couple other cool things I've come across. Since my last entry showed my fascination with the bees in the yard (after last evening, I am fervently hoping it doesn't turn into a snake thing), we are continuing with that - the buzz of bees!
First is The Original Soap Dish. The Bailey family succeeds in bringing their customers some of the finest ingredients available for soap and lotion making. Beeswax pastilles (SO nice to work with!) and honey powder are there, as well as sometimes hard-to-find Lye, colors, fragrances, packaging, extracts, things like strawberry pulp powder, and additives to add volume, shine, glide and shimmer.
Here in Lancaster, we have Dutch Gold Honey. For a long time, the plant was run on a residential street by the Gamber family. It wasn't even noticeable, and I know that because I lived a block down the street for years.The honey house was built on a vacant lot across from their home in the 50's. It is now a home, surrounded by other houses. The honey bear bottle that we've all come to recognize was Ralph Gamber's "baby", and Dutch Gold used it long before it became part of the PBJ of our collective childhoods. They have grown to now be using a very large warehouse, and they supply several interesting honeys in their shop - blueberry, eucalptus, tupelo, wildflower, orange blossom, and buckwheat come to mind. They have a page with honey recipes.
At Herbs from the Labyrinth, Sarah gives the bees plenty of pollen and nectar from the labyrinth garden she's been tending for several years in her backyard. Many of her fine balms and salves contain beeswax, and she uses local products whenever possible. Stop by her website to see pictures of the labyrinth and visit her shopping cart -OR- if you are in Lancaster for vacation (or if you live in the area) she has a delicious shop called Radiance at 9 W. Grant St., Lancaster PA. Sometimes you will even find me behind the counter. I like to put in a day here and there. She lets me play in the vast apothecary :-). Haagen-Daz ice cream has a website devoted to honey bees and their struggle against colony collapse, called Help the Honey Bees. There are ideas of ways that we can all help, and lots of information.

Edible Honeydust Powder :-)
1 C cornstarch
2 T Vanilla Powder
2 - 3 T honey powder
Mix in blender.

And, last but not least, I caught a few minutes of The Today Show this morning, and the author of this article was shown in a segment about the value of farmers markets. Check out these scrumptious recipes!!!
101 simple salads: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/dining/22mlist.html?_r=1
GO FARMERS!!!!

Celebrating a Year of Blogging!--Herbal Giveaway to USA Readers!!

A year has gone by and we had to bring out the noise makers to celebrate blogging about our wacky lives! I was inspired to start this journey from reading the blog by two of my favorite sisters (we aren't related) from The Rosemary House and Sweet Remembrances in Mechanicsburg, PA. They have a wonderful blog called Rosemary's Sampler. The Herbal Husband and I want to thank you for reading and commenting on our journey through our travels and gardens and day to day lives.

So to thank you we are going to give you a chance to win herbal napkins. For our USA readers, you have the chance to win a pack of 20 herbal luncheon (6-1/2" x 6-1/2") paper napkins. All you have to do is leave a comment with your contact e-mail information and USA in your comment. One comment per e-mail address please. You will have until Friday, August 14th at Midnight Eastern Daylight Time to enter. The winners will be announced after 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, August 14th. Here are the napkins. Good Luck!

Celebrating A Year of Blogging!--Herbal Giveaway to Our International Readers!!

A year has gone by and we had to bring out the noise makers to celebrate blogging about our wacky lives! I was inspired to start this journey from reading the blog by two of my favorite sisters (we aren't related) from The Rosemary House and Sweet Remembrances in Mechanicsburg, PA. They have a wonderful blog called Rosemary's Sampler. The Herbal Husband and I want to thank you for reading and commenting on our journey through our travels and gardens and day to day lives.

So to thank you we are going to give you a chance to win herbal napkins. For our international readers, you have the chance to win a pack of 20 herbal cocktail (12.7 cm x 12.7 cm) paper napkins. All you have to do is leave a comment with your contact e-mail information and Inter. in your comment. One comment per e-mail address please. You will have until Friday, August 14th at Midnight Eastern Daylight Time to enter. The winners will be announced after 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, August 14th. Here are the napkins. Good Luck!

It's Travel Thursday--A Home Town Adventure for the Family!

We are bird lovers in this house. I know for some of you who have kids, this time of year can be difficult to entertain them! It is almost school time! UGH! Sooo I have the perfect solution if you are in the Pittsburgh area, take them to the National Aviary! Here is The Herbal Husband feeding a dollar bill to Minni, the American crow. Smart bird! She takes it from you gently and puts it in the box for a good cause.

There are feedings for the lorikeets or lorries that will delight your kids and you. They are very noisy, but it is very interesting to feed them. For a nominal fee per cup, you and your kids can enjoy this activity.

This beautiful bird is the Victoria Crowned Pigeon. Named not for the car but for the Queen! It is from the country of New Guinea. I'm going to take my best friend's daughter there soon before she starts school. Hope you get a chance to go! It is a fun education for both you and them! Check back tomorrow for some exciting news!

Nasturtiums in Bloom! Finally!

This is a clump of nasturtiums that we grew from seeds we bought in Holland several years ago. It is finally blooming wildly. I harvested 18 flowers from this clump yesterday to eat with The Herbal Husband's guacamole. Delicious! Remember you can eat both leaves and flowers that give a salad a peppery taste. This flower and variegated leaf below is a variety called 'Alaska'. A book called Edible Flowers: From Garden to Palate by Cathy Wilkinson Barash is my favorite book on edible flowers. You also need to remember that not all flowers are edible and Ms. Barash addresses both edible and non-edible flowers in her book. That's why it's my favorite. You can find it at Book Finder or favorite used book search engine.