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Need a potluck or party dish to pass for Labor Day weekend? I got you covered. This recipe is so simple, and so in season, you might be growing the ingredients right in your garden, maybe even incorporated into your landscape gardening, like mine.
I’m generally a little relaxed on the portions, so sometimes I wonder if it comes out the same every time. When I made it last week for dinner and to take camping, I asked my husband, “Is it okay?”
He said, “It’s awesome. This dish is always awesome.”
I’ll take that one at face value.
Recipe: Tomato-Basil Pasta Salad
With garden fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and melted cheese, the flavors in this versatile side dish will tickle you in their simplicity and balanced perfection. If you’re an adventurous cook at all, by the second time you make it, you’ll need neither measuring utensils nor a recipe.
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Tags: basil·in-season recipes·olive oil·party food·pasta·pasta salad·side dishes·summer foods·summer meals
The last of the organic gardening series by Rene of Budget Saving Mom:
How To Be Self Sufficient When You Garden:
We try to be pretty self sufficient, and grow most of the fruits and vegetables that we use throughout the year. We also raise our chickens, guineas and ducks which provide meat and eggs throughout the year. There are a few items that we have to buy each year. We are not able to grow enough potatoes, apples, peaches or pears. So, I include room in my budget to purchase these additional foods.
I buy potatoes when I can find them on sale throughout the year. Apples and pears take up more room to grow than I have, and I am very fortunate to live only a couple of hours from the mountains, where we are able to purchase these organically and in bulk each fall at a very reduced price. I dehydrate and freeze this fruit each year. I absolutely love this time of year. My daughters and I can homemade applesauce, apple butter, cinnamon apples and more. We have the best time together. We work for about a week with the apples and pears each fall. It always feels like the beginning of the holiday season, and the house smells so good! (Peaches come in during the summer, and we buy these locally and preserve them while we are preserving the rest of our garden.)
So, how do I ensure that we have enough food to feed our family with the rest of our fruits and vegetables? This is really important to us, because we do actually rely on our garden (and birds), as our main sources of food.
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Tags: gardening·herbs·preserving vegetables·produce
I’ve truly enjoyed getting to know Lisa Byrne this year, and I’m very excited to help her promote her eCourse, Designed for Wellness. Although all the eCourses by bloggers are very professional and well done, Lisa’s stands out from the crowd in that she’s certified as an holistic health counselor by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I’ve priced out consultation sessions with IIN trained health counselors before, and they generally run at least $600 for six months of bi-monthly or monthly sessions (or double that…but who’s counting, right?). Click HERE to see more about Designed for Wellness. You’ll be learning so much in this 12-week course, including:
- Eat the perfect foods for your body in order to feel your best
- Get crystal clear strategies that make taking care of yourself a breeze in a busy lifestyle
- Make space in your life to focus on yourself and get your own inner house in order
- Learn the “golden rule” of every well-cared for woman
- Understand what your body is telling you and never fight against your nature again
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August 26th, 2010 · recipes
How do you get nutritious food that tastes amazing? For me, I visit my dearest friend. You see, I can tell you how to make a nutrient-dense meal, and my friend and her roommate are both connoisseurs of great flavors and fine cooking. The 
complement is perfect. I had the rare pleasure of visiting them all the way in St. Paul, Minnesota last weekend, and let me tell you: there were many-splendored feasts of all kinds.
Not only did we get to cook together a little, but we spent two hours at the local Farmer’s Market (yes, this is what I do for fun even when I can’t buy any produce – she made a Farmer’s Market Bingo for 5-year-old Paul that I hope to offer as a free download sometime soon); had an amazing dinner at a local restaurant that served grassfed beef and had chicken and duck liver pate on the menu in two places, which pretty much tells you everything; discovered a tiny bakery that only makes traditional sourdough bread with spelt and rye (I had a conversation with the owner about sourdough rise times, coconut oil, and soaking grains, oh, yes I did!); and relished the fact that at midnight, we were flipping through recipes and talking about food.
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Tags: Brussels sprouts·side dishes·vegetables
You want to make homemade green cleaners, but you’re not sure how to fit it in your schedule? I’m dishing out at Simple Organic today about my green cleaner routines (which really, are hardly time-consuming enough to even call a routine). Find the encouragement you need to get your green cleaners in order HERE:
There’s always so much I want to do for my family, and sometimes I just get overwhelmed and can’t possibly add “one more thing!” to the list. Know the feeling?
If you’ve been tempted to move to greener cleaners but just can’t take the plunge because you’re worried about the time it will take, let me ease your anxiety.
You don’t have to set aside a time to “make” homemade cleaners or even think of putting it on your list, anymore than you would write “open new bottle of Windex” on your to-do list. You wouldn’t. You’d simply grab one from the linen closet when your Windex bottle ran dry, or add it to your grocery list.
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August 24th, 2010 · recipes
I just can’t stop making soup, even when it’s ninety degrees outside. You may think of soup as purely a winter thing, but with all the fresh produce coming into my house (from the Farmer’s Market…remember, the organic gardening series were all guest posts!) I can’t help but make some of my favorites. 
This soup is fantastic in the winter, too, and often gets made when spinach is abundantly on sale in the grocery store (spinach makes a great substitute for the kale). However, it’s the dipping sandwiches that make this soup really special, and any tomato found in a grocery store is less than subpar. It’s got to be a summer thing.
(For other ideas to include broth and/or beans in your summer fare check out this post: Ways to Use Broth and Beans in the Summer)
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Tags: beans·kale·main dishes·sausage·soup·summer foods·summer meals
Happy Monday Mornin’!
I’m absolutely delighted to invite you to sit down at a virtual table with a virtual cup of…whatever you drink in the morning (I’m a water gal, myself)…with me and Lisa Byrne of the Well Grounded Life and Designed for Wellness. I’m acquainted with Lisa through our work with Simple Living Media and Simple Mom, and I must say, it’s such a treat to bump into another real food blogger with whom I haven’t previously been acquainted.
Sometimes it’s easy to believe that there are just twenty or so people blogging about whole, traditional foods who don’t trust the low-fat food pyramid. In the wide world of the Internet, certainly there are always more fish in the sea! I’m very pleased to introduce you to Lisa. Make yourself comfortable; stay a while; let’s get to know each other.
I asked Lisa some interview questions, and she took time out of preparing for her upcoming eCourse, Designed for Wellness, to have a chat with me.
Kitchen Stewardship: You released a free eBook about breaking the sugar habit, which may or may not have made me feel a little guilty for the love of sweets I may or may not be admitting to here. What’s your personal “sweets” history? Did you have a turning point when you decided to break the sugar habit, or was it a gradual shift?
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Tags: wellness
Need a potluck or party dish to pass for Labor Day weekend? I got you covered. This recipe is so simple, and so in season, you might be growing the ingredients right in your garden, maybe even incorporated into your landscape gardening, like mine.
![a natural deodorizer made of bamboo [sustainable + reusable + recycable]](http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/everbamboo125.png)
