Savoring Summer {Week 12 ~ Cucumber-Dill Squares}

I am ending my Savoring Summer recipe series with a beginning: a super easy summer hors d'oeuvre! These Cucumber Squares are light and refreshing - perfect for wedding or baby showers, tea time, or as an appetizer for a summer meal. 

There is no real recipe, only a process, so I'll walk you through it. 

CUCUMBER-DILL SQUARES

Cut some English cucumbers (long, seedless) into one-inch slices.

I like for them to be uniform, so I use a ruler to score them before slicing.

(OCD? A little.)

Trim a slice of the peel on all four sides, creating a (sort of) square, leaving the dark green peel on the corners.

With a melon-baller, scoop a small depression into the center of each square.

(If you don't have a melon-baller, use a small spoon.)

Fill each little depression with a small scoop of spreadable cheese.

I used Alouette Garlic & Herbs spreadable cheese, but you could use another. You could even make your own cheese spread, like Pioneer Woman's Veggie Cream Cheese Spread. That's got to be good!

Top each square with some fresh dill.

Or if you didn't plant dill in your herb garden this year (ahem), then go ahead and shake on some McCormick dill weed.

Have you been enjoying summer cooking (and eating) at your house? What is your favorite food season?

Looking for a recipe from another week?
Week 1: Marinade for Chicken
Week 2: Black Bean Salad
Week 3: Cappuccino Pops
Week 4: Roasted Sausage and Vegetable Pasta
Week 5: Easy-Freezy Vanilla Ice Cream
Week 6: Farm Fresh Corn Chowder
Week 7: Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Week 8: Jill's Dill Dip
Week 9: Apricot Upside-Down Cake

Week 10: Stuffed Peppers

Week 11: Peach Crisp

Or last year?

Fruit on Tuesday Week 12: Plum Kuchen

Or two years ago?

Salad on Tuesday Week 12: Autumn Chopped Salad

Sunday Snapshots: Simple and Spectacular

Although those words seem to be opposites, they aren't always. Our Sunday gathering yesterday was a simple celebration of our our oldest daughter's birthday, but we think Kristin is spectacular (she is!) and so the day was both!

On the menu: crab cakes, Crash Hot Potatoes, coleslaw, and tomato/cucumber salad with a simple vinaigrette. Also on the menu: grasshopper pie for birthday dessert. Also on the menu: a little singing, presents, and party games. (Well...we played Apples to Apples which we play almost every week. But this week we had the new "Trendy" cards that Kristin and Brian had purchased to add to the original cards. Some of us aren't really "trendy," but it was fun! We played to categories like "So 5 Minutes Ago" and "Fired Up.") 

In between, there were some simple activities.

Kristin is teaching a unit on architecture in her homeschool and Bekah is intrigued, so Kristin offered to bring some of the activities on Sundays so that Bekah can participate. Yesterday they learned about cantilevers and practiced with some building blocks. Here they're watching a YouTube video tour of Fallingwater, the famous house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Others are looking through the ads in the Sunday paper, or talking.

A sniffly little girl asked Papa to read her a book.

"Simple" activities? Or are they "spectacular"? 

Anna's Cookbooks

I now have several of Great-Grandmother Anna's cookbooks.

I find them intriguing, their faded covers and taped spines and glimpses into another time.

This one is a wartime cookbook.

And isn't this one fun?

We had a chuckle reading some of the suggested daily menus.

(That's a lot of food! And we suspect that any followers of these menu plans spent much of their day in the kitchen!)

But the one I love the most is this one.

It was Anna's own collection of recipes.

I love that they are recipes that she used, and that they are recorded in her handwriting.

Later in the book, there are recipes in my Great-Aunt Minerva's (Anna's daughter's) handwriting.

There are also recipes that were clipped from the Baltimore Sun. 

They are now yellowed with age, but are fascinating glimpses into another era.

When I took these photos, I grouped them with a bouquet of zinnias

as Mom tells me that Great-Grandmother Anna planted zinnias in her yard.

Come autumn, there will be some vintage cooking in my kitchen!

Savoring Summer {Week 11 ~ Peach Crisp}

This week's recipe falls in the "tried and true" category, so when Kati brought home a bag of peaches from a friend, I knew that some of them would end up in this crisp! (This dessert is worth turning the oven on for an hour.) 

Nothing says summer like warm-from-the-oven crunchy peach crisp with a scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside. 

Okay, maybe other things (garden tomatoes, corn-on-the-cob, homemade ice cream) say summer too, but this sure does say summer at our house!

photo by Bekah

PEACH CRISP

{with a crunchy oatmeal topping}

6 cups peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup nuts, optional (I used pecans.)

* * *

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Stir together peaches, sugar, and cinnamon. Place in greased 2-quart baking dish. 

Mix oats, brown sugar, and flour. Cut in butter until crumbly. (Stir in nuts, if you're using them.)
Place on top of peach mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, until topping is golden.

NOTES: 

• This crisp is great with other fruits too! Try blueberries, cherries, apples...
• Sometimes it's fun to make this in ramekins for individual servings. After mixing the fruit, sugar, and spices, place in greased ramekins. (Fill your ramekins about 2/3 full, leaving room for the yummy topping. The size of your ramekins determines how many you will need.) Then divide the topping among the ramekins. 
• Don't forget to add some vanilla ice cream or a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream to the top of each crisp when you serve them!

Join me next Wednesday for the final recipe in my Savoring Summer series!

Looking for a recipe from another week?
Week 1: Marinade for Chicken
Week 2: Black Bean Salad
Week 3: Cappuccino Pops
Week 4: Roasted Sausage and Vegetable Pasta
Week 5: Easy-Freezy Vanilla Ice Cream
Week 6: Farm Fresh Corn Chowder
Week 7: Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Week 8: Jill's Dill Dip
Week 9: Apricot Upside-Down Cake

Week 10: Stuffed Peppers

Or last year?

Fruit on Tuesday Week 11: Cheesecake-Stuffed Peaches

Or two years ago?

Salad on Tuesday Week 11: Asian Chicken Salad

Tuesday Morning Chat

As August whirs right along, I thought I'd stop in with a little chat.

See that big smile on my girl's face? She bought a car this past weekend! I don't know who is happier, Kati or me. Her old car (a hand me down from her Dad) was on its last leg (wheel?), and we prayed every time she left the driveway. Whew! Thank the Lord for watching over her...and for these new wheels!

Ron had birthday celebration #2 on Sunday. The meal featured homemade oyster fritters, a special request of the birthday boy. Three of the eleven people enjoyed them. (Have you ever eaten an oyster fritter?) More of us enjoyed the Boston Cream Pie that we had for dessert! 

Singing ♫ Happy Birthday ♫ to Papa (Dad) 

Speaking of birthdays (actually we are "speaking of birthdays" all month long!), Owen's birthday is this week. He had his party with his sister Maddie over a week ago, but tomorrow he is officially 8!

Happy birthday, Owen!!

August isn't just for birthdays; there are three anniversaries too! (As an aside, we have asked Kati and Bekah to consider choosing a different month when their time comes.) 

Brian and Kristin celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary yesterday. It seems like yesterday, and it seems like forever! Kristin shared some sweet pictures and memories on her blog. Happy anniversary, you two!

I had a great idea, so I thought.

I bought all of my August cards (ten of them, I think) at the end of July and put them in my card organizer. That way, I wouldn't forget to buy a card and have to scramble at the last minute. Genius, right? Piece of cake (so to speak). 

Nope. 

I have discovered that even if I have all of the cards selected, purchased, and filed, I still have to remember to give them! And that, my friends, is the flaw in my system. I am "a good forgetter" as Bekah once told me. Sigh...

Although I love to organize and be organized, it is an uphill struggle. I continue to work through my summer list. We have checked off all of the fun stuff except for one thing (which we plan to do this week!), but I'm still chipping away at all of those organizing tasks. 

The floorcloth, however, is nearly done! I'll be doing a post about it next week: detailing the process, sharing what I learned, and, of course, showing the finished project! 

Let's chat! What's left on your summer list? What things have you accomplished?

Birthday Stories

Last night, Ron's mom joined us as we celebrated Ron's birthday with a simple dinner. As we ate, she told us the story of the day that he was born.

"I had already started supper," she said, "but I wondered whether I ought to go to the hospital instead." She had called her friend Catherine, who came over to watch the other children (Ron was their fifth child) and to finish preparing the meal. Ron was born around 5:30 pm. (I think she made the right choice by going ahead to the hospital!) 

After dinner, Mom told us another part of the story. (Let me insert here that at the time of Ron's birth, his parents had a son, age 10, and daughters, ages 8, 6, and 4.)

"Your daddy was so excited to have another boy - it had been 10 years - that he went out and bought birth announcements." Dad had written them out and mailed them himself, something that they didn't usually do. In his excitement, he mailed one of those announcements to his brother and sister-in-law, and forgot to fill out the information inside! But since the outside of the card had said, "It's a boy," they put two and two together and they shared many laughs about that blank announcement over the years!

We loved hearing these stories, and something struck me as I listened. In our day, having even a 3rd child sometimes raises eyebrows. ("But you already have a boy and a girl." "Don't you know what causes that?" and so on and so on...)  But what a blessing to be child #5 and to be wanted and welcomed with such enthusiasm and love. 

Savoring Summer {Week 10 ~ Stuffed Peppers}

The garden is rather small this year: six tomato plants and six bell pepper plants. But those twelve plants are "going gangbusters" as I remarked on a friend's Facebook discussion about gardening. Kristin saw my comment and replied, "Ben needs to come live with you as you are mass producing his two favorite veggies." 

It's true. My 5-year-old grandson adores tomatoes and peppers and will eat them like candy! (He can put a serious dent in a veggie tray. ~smile~)

So we brought Ben a "party favor" when we went to Maddie and Owen's birthday party last Sunday...a bag of his favorite veggies! 

The next morning, Ben asked his mama if he could have a pepper for breakfast. Then he said, "You really need to figure out how to make these and stuff them with meat." 

I told you last year that I will always associate blueberries with Eve and "the best day of her life." Now I will associate green peppers with Ben. 

This week's recipe is a tribute to Ben: peppers stuffed with meat! 

STUFFED PEPPERS

6 medium green peppers

1 pound lean ground beef

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

1 1-pound can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

* * *

Cut off tops of 6 medium green peppers; remove seeds and membranes.

Cook ground beef and onion until meat is lightly browned. Season with salt and pepper.

Add diced tomatoes, water, rice, and Worcestershire sauce. 

Cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 18 minutes.

Stir in shredded cheese.

Stuff peppers with the beef mixture; stand upright in a baking dish.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

NOTES: 

• If you prefer your peppers soft, precook them in boiling water for about 5 minutes before you stuff them. I like them crisp, so I omit this step. 
• I like to add a little extra cheese to the top before baking.
• If you are short on peppers (we were, as we had used 24 peppers to make pepper relish and then had taken Ben his "party favors"), you can place the meat/rice mixture (we call it the "stuffed") into a greased baking dish, and lay pepper strips over the top. This week, I combined the two techniques and my dish really looked like this:

Kind of a hybrid.

What's your favorite summer vegetable? 

Looking for a recipe from another week?
Week 1: Marinade for Chicken
Week 2: Black Bean Salad
Week 3: Cappuccino Pops
Week 4: Roasted Sausage and Vegetable Pasta
Week 5: Easy-Freezy Vanilla Ice Cream
Week 6: Farm Fresh Corn Chowder
Week 7: Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Week 8: Jill's Dill Dip
Week 9: Apricot Upside-Down Cake

Or last year?

Fruit on Tuesday Week 10: Bostonian Blueberry Muffins

Or two years ago?

Salad on Tuesday Week 10: Caprese Salad

Chain Reaction

This afternoon, I put new sheets on my bed. 

A bed freshly made with new sheets inspired me to say (not really meaning today), "I am so wanting to try the living room rug up in my bedroom."

Bekah (who loves changing things around and, in fact, had flipped her duvet and changed up some things in her room just this morning) said, "Oh, let's do it!" and then begged and pleaded until she wore me down and I consented. 

She and I rolled up the living room rug and moved it into the kitchen.

Kati vacuumed the living room floor. 

Kati and I lugged the rug upstairs, nearly knocking a few things off the wall in the process. 

Bekah moved the red checked chair out of the way. 

Kati and Bekah rolled out the rug...

...and then we shifted and turned it until it was right. 

We talked about where we were going to put our printer which has been housed in the computer cabinet that Ron is going to makeover to house The Grandmother Dishes so that they can be released from their storage boxes. 

We found a place in the bottom of the built-in bookshelves in the living room, but first we'd have to find a new place for the household bill organizer. 

We could find a place for the household finance folders if we could clean out the homeschool filing cabinet. 

Kati and I set about cleaning out the homeschool filing cabinet, because I told her that I felt emotionally able to do it today. (Tomorrow I may have a meltdown.) 

Some of the files went to the trash. Some went to the laundry room floor (the location of the homeschool filing cabinet...which is no longer the homeschool filing cabinet), to be sorted and transferred to the filing cabinet in the corner of my bedroom. 

Kati had to go to work and I had to prepare dinner so we took a break. 

After dinner, Ron and I cleaned out and organized the household finance folders and put them in the filing cabinet (which is no longer a homeschool filing cabinet) in the laundry room. 

Now, as I get ready for bed, the living room floor is bare, there are piles all over the house, and the vacuum cleaner is still out. 

But we have new sheets to sleep on!