Just a Few Garden Pictures and a Blue Apron Meal

Hi there everyone...hope you had a wonderful day. One more hour and it will be JULY 1st!!! Are you ready for a new month? I still have not accomplished all that I wanted to in June....but, there is still 2 months yet to go, to get those projects done. By then, fall will be upon us, hopefully I can still enjoy the summer.

So I took a few pictures tonight of my black eyed Susan's in the front yard. They sure are prolific aren't they?

In this picture, you can see the plant next to the black eyed Susan's....it's a hissop bush. JP likes to dry the leaves (actually I dry the leaves) and make tea. The front of the house has lemon-mint growing, which has over taken the front yard. Tonight I made some mint tea....boiled the leaves and added some stevia...not a bad tea. I think I will make some mint jelly this summer...but I need to find a good recipe.

Along side the house are some more black eyed Susan's, Lillie's, star Clementius and purple Clementius, those purple flowers, I am not sure what they are.....they come back every year. They look awful when growing, almost like weeds, then they bloom these cute little purple bells....they dry up and then I pull them out....but they seem to come back every year.....hard to get rid of them.

So hey you guys, this meal was really delicious!! "Spicy Hoisin Turkey Meatballs with sautéed zucchini and brown rice" I just finished the last of it tonight. I need to make this again.

It was a pretty easy meal to make. Make the rice, quarter the zucchini, mince the garlic and ginger, slice the scallions. Add breadcrumbs, hoisin sauce and sambal oelek (spice) to the meat and make into balls. Cook the balls till browned and transfer to a dish and keep warm. Add the zucchini to the fond and cook to browned. Add the meatballs, remaining hoisin sauce and 1/2 cup water to the pan. Cook till the sauce thickens and the meatballs are thoroughly coated and cooked through. Place rice in a bowl, top with the meat and zucchini and top with scallion and sesame seeds. Yep, I would make this again.

Well, time to close this last post of the month....maybe July I will be more active. Showing you some of the things I have been making besides cards. Have a great day and keep looking up....better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

500 Posts and Hibiscus Tea

Hi there everyone. How is your day going? I am loving this weather...mid 7o's is just perfect and not high humidity....perfect, perfect. I am not a hot weather person and especially as I get older, hot does not agree with me or my ankles. So I have been praying....God keep it cool....and He has. But there is still August and September....then comes October, November and December and we know how cold those months can be. But for now, this has been a very comfortable Summer in my books.

So today is my 500 post on BlogSpot. I guess there should be a celebration of sorts....it's been fun blogging, don't know if I have a lot of followers that are actually following every word I type....it would be nice....but that is okay if you are not. It has been good therapy for me and maybe hopefully helped someone along the line.

Through the course of blogging here, I have ended up with a 2nd blog at: cards4ubylouise.wordpress.com  I was forced to go there because I could not up-load my pictures on blogspot. To say the least I became very frustrated, and started a 2nd blog. Wordpress is still a bit confusing to me, but it seems to attract more followers and reach more people for some reason. So, I will keep it going for the time being.

I have made some hibiscus tea. In all the years I have had this plant, never realized I could make tea with the flowers. Now I am hooked and can have fresh hibiscus tea during the winter too!!! I looked up on Youtube how to make the tea and it has lots of good properties like Vitamin C and also keeps the blood pressure down. Which I need.

So you take a tea pot with filtered water and boil. Take your hibiscus flowers and pull the petals off. and place in the water and let them steep.

In this picture you can see the petals starting to lose their color. I take the flower petals out when they go completely white and have lost all their color. The water will have turned pink as you can see in the two pictures below.

I also added a half package of stevia to sweeten the tea a bit. Such a pretty color and very tasty also. I think I am addicted to this luscious and refreshing tea.

Here's another picture of the tea.  I have also been making Hyssop tea with the leaves, which has a bit of a licorice taste to it, and Bee Balm tea, which you can use the petals of the red flowers (and you can eat the bee balm petals also, good for bad breath). I suspect you can use the leaves of the bee balm also...have not done that as yet. I think I have enough teas to keep me busy drying for a couple of weeks. I do have some lemon mint leaves to dry also.

Well as you can see....been busy making my own teas. JP likes the Hyssop tea the best. It's mentioned in the Bible and was used for Passover in Exodus 12:22. So yeah, he likes that Hyssop is in the Bible. So it must be good for our bodies in some way.

Time to close and get going on some of these teas. I told the Pastor's wife I would bring some mint tea for her to try tomorrow. Maybe I should google "how to make lemon mint tea" and see what it says.

You have a great day and keep looking up. Cheers ~ Louise

PS I blogged about this wonderful tea on Saturday. Not exactly sure why it did not post....I guess I need to contact Blog Support...have nothing but frustrations with this blog. Sorry for my rant!!!

My Apple Tree and a Recipe

Hi everyone. Hope you are all doing well and staying cool in this very warm weather.
Today I am going to tell you about this wonderful apple tree. I am not really sure what the name of the apple tree is, the apples are green, they cook up really good and are not too sweet. I planted the tree probably about 15-20 years ago. It took a very long time to grow....now it is so tall, it is hard to reach the apples even with an extender basket. I need a TALL person!!!
In the above picture is a shot of our tree in the spring....oh my, it was just full of blossoms this year....I was so excited. During the winter, either the squirrel or rabbits got a hold of my two apple trees and ate the bark off the trees. My neighbor thought the trees were ruined. So did I for that matter.
Then, one spring morning I looked out the window and "oh my gosh" the tree was just loaded with flowers. We ended up not spraying the tree. Just letting it go natural. I mentioned I had two trees. The other tree is a red apple tree. As far as I can see, there are only 1 or 2 apples up there. Maybe next year will be its' year to show off!!!

Oh my....apples in the tree!!! There have been apples before, but NOT so big and NOT so abundant!!! My goodness every branch was just loaded with apples!!! I've made a few pickings since this picture was taken. Some of the apples are buggy inside. But then, some are just fine. The birds and squirrels get their share. So I think if I can get a good share of cooked apples in the freezer I will be happy.

In this picture are some apples I picked tonight with our new little $25 apple extender from Menards. I am hoping that the basket will pay for itself. Maybe it has and I have not realized it as yet.

In this picture is a shot of the apples still left in the tree that are too high for Louise to reach even with the basket extender.

So here we are, tonight with 20 apples waiting to be cut and sliced in the kitchen sink.

So here is a picture of the apples cooked up in it's sauce. All I do is add about a cup of water with the apples, cook them up a bit, add cinnamon, and maybe 4 packets of stevia. (if you use sugar, maybe about 1/4 cup of sugar, depends how sweet you want the apples), then I add some corn starch with a little bit of water and mix with the apples to thicken the juice. Taste test to see if they are cooked through and sweet enough for your taste.

Okay...here is the recipe. I found it on www.cooks.com  Look for it under "Cherry Streusel Coffee Cake." I found with this recipe, you can use any fruit you desire...that is why I am using my apples. (I've used cherries also) Bake this coffee cake/pie at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Pie filling
Cream together the butter and sugar, add eggs. Add dry ingredients next and beat well. Batter will be heavy. Spread 3/4 of the batter in a 9x13 inch pan. Cover with the pie filling. Drop remaining batter by spoonfuls over filling.
 Sprinkle with the following mixture.
4 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
One last step....I sprinkle the top of the cake with some more cinnamon, of course this is with the apple pie. Using other fruit would be optional.

Another thing about this recipe...I cut all the ingredients in half, so instead of making a 9x13, I make a pie pan...which is enough for JP and I.
I have company coming next weekend, so I may make a 9x13 apple dessert then.

After baking, a slice of heaven. Adding some whip cream or ice cream to this dessert would really top it off.

Taste Testing....mmmmmm....good!!

Well there you have it, a wonderful dessert for any time, any place and any where. I really like making this, as it is really easy and goes fast. JP likes it a lot too, but then he is not a hard person to please when it comes to food, he eats most anything I concoct and always knows that if I follow a recipe, I never quite follow it to the "T"....always changing some ingredient.

Hope you enjoy this recipe...I sure do. Have a great day and keep looking up for your redemption draws nigh. Cheers ~ Louise