Showing posts with label own. Show all posts
Showing posts with label own. Show all posts
Friday, March 20, 2015
Have a Recipe of Your Very Own Featured in Zyngas FarmVille 2!
Farmville is a super popular game on Facebook that was developed by Zynga and has been played by more than 400 million people.
Holy smokes, thats an awful lot of people.
Zynga has partnered up with BlogHer and in honor of the new release of Farmville 2 they are creating a Farm to the Table cookbook featuring recipes that will be available for download on your phone, tablet or computer.
and thats super cool!
The premise of FarmVille 2 is that when you are growing and shopping for your food, you can then use the food that is in your shopping basket to create one of the in-game recipes.
Do you have a family favorite recipe that youd like to see featured in the FarmVille To Table Cookbook?
I submitted one of my favorites that I make at the end of the summer when the squash and tomatoes are perfectly vine-ripened.
Do you have a family favorite recipe that youd like to see featured in the FarmVille To Table Cookbook?
I submitted one of my favorites that I make at the end of the summer when the squash and tomatoes are perfectly vine-ripened.
End of Summer Harvest Soup (slow cooker recipe)
serves 8
4 cups chicken broth (vegetable stock is fine!)
1 cup prepared pasta sauce
1 cup water
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 zucchini, washed well and sliced in 1/4-inch rounds
2 yellow summer squash, washed well and sliced in 1/4-inch rounds
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (depending on size)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/3 cup dry white Cannellini beans (this doesnt sound like a lot, but they swell!)
1/2 cup pasta (to add 20 minutes before serving)
salt and pepper to taste
garnish with Parmesan and Romano cheeses
The Directions.
Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Wash squashes well, and slice in rounds. Place into slow cooker, with diced onion and tomato wedges. Rinse your beans in hot water, and add to cooker. Add broth, pasta sauce, and water. Stir in Italian seasoning.
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until beans have reached desired tenderness. 20 minutes before serving, stir in raw pasta. Serve with grated Parmesan and Romano cheese.
1 cup prepared pasta sauce
1 cup water
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 zucchini, washed well and sliced in 1/4-inch rounds
2 yellow summer squash, washed well and sliced in 1/4-inch rounds
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered (depending on size)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/3 cup dry white Cannellini beans (this doesnt sound like a lot, but they swell!)
1/2 cup pasta (to add 20 minutes before serving)
salt and pepper to taste
garnish with Parmesan and Romano cheeses
The Directions.
Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Wash squashes well, and slice in rounds. Place into slow cooker, with diced onion and tomato wedges. Rinse your beans in hot water, and add to cooker. Add broth, pasta sauce, and water. Stir in Italian seasoning.
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until beans have reached desired tenderness. 20 minutes before serving, stir in raw pasta. Serve with grated Parmesan and Romano cheese.
How to Enter the BlogHer/Zynga Farm to Table FarmVille 2: Country Escape Cookbook Contest:
Submit your favorite summer recipe by clicking here.
Submitted recipes will be selected by Zyngas culinary team (Im not on this team. bummer.) and if chosen, the recipe will be prepared, photographed, and featured in the FarmVille-to-Table Digital Cookbook.
This is a chance to get YOUR recipe (and name! and website and/or facebook page!) in front of MILLIONS (millions!) of people that play FarmVille every single day.
Im pretty sure this counts as major Christmas-Newsletter-Worthy bragging.
Best of luck to all who enter!!
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Plant Your Own Herb Garden In Recycled Plastic Tubs
Fresh Herbs
Some herbs taste significantly different when dried and some dont. For example, I think dried dill tastes pretty good so when I grew fresh dill last year, I didnt think it was really worth all the garden space it took. But herbs like sweet basil, parsley and cilantro, to name a few, taste completely different when they are fresh. So if you want to use fresh herbs in your cuisine, you have two choices. Buy them or grow them.
Buying herbs presents several problems. You usually need a very small amount but must buy a lot more than you need and certainly more than you want to pay for (especially when they are organic). Its also very inconvenient to have to run to the store every time you need a sprig of parsley or a tablespoon of fresh cilantro. So I like to grow my own.
Grow Your Own Herbs
I have plenty of room for vegetable gardens but this year I decided to plant my herbs in plastic tubs. The biggest reason was convenience. My gardens are in the back yard, down a flight of stairs and a ways from the kitchen. I really like to have my herbs close to where I prepare food. So this year I took a bunch of plastic tubs Ive been saving (the ones you get when you buy organic spinach and salad greens), stabbed a few holes in them with a knife, filled them with organic potting soil and planted my favorite herbs. Best of all, they are a few feet from my kitchen door!
Another advantage of tubs is that it keeps some pervasive herbs, like mint, from taking over the entire garden.
Plant What You Actually Use
When I pick out herbs, I am always tempted to buy seeds or starts of every herb on the planet. And without fail, I use the basil, rosemary, parsley, mint, cilantro and thyme and watch the other herbs bolt. So now I try to control myself and only plant what I actually use.
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