In honor of the 4th of July I decided to make a batch of Independence Day Tarts. This simple dessert comes together in no time. The only thing you have to actually make is the tart shells and the pudding. Take advantage of the fresh blueberries and raspberries which are available now.
Independence Day Tarts
Ingredients:
1 package of vanilla pudding 6-8 prebaked tart shells Fresh blueberries, Whipped cream Raspberry for garnish
Directions:
Make a package of vanilla pudding according to the package directions, using 1 ¾ cups of milk. Cover and cool. Divide the pudding among 6-8 prebaked tart shells. Top with fresh blueberries. Decorate with whipped cream and garnish with a fresh raspberry. We got so carried away we forgot to add the whipped cream but the tarts were delicious!
Tart Shells
If you want you can use a premade piecrust and just cut circles out and line your tart shell with the crust. If you are feeling more ambitious you can make your own. Either way the end result will be delicious!
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. sugar ½ tsp. Salt 1 cup flour 6 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1 large egg, beaten.
Directions:
Whisk the sugar, salt, and 1 cup of flour in a medium bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle the beaten egg over the butter mixture and mix gently until the dough comes together.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Form dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and let chill for at least two hours.
When the dough has chilled roll the dough out. You want the dough to be slightly larger than your tart shell. Lightly grease the tart shell. Extend the dough slightly above the rim to allow for shrinkage. Chill the tart shells in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line each tart shell with a small piece of aluminum foil. Use dry beans or pie weights. Bake the shell for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and lift out the foil with the weights or beans. Continue baking for another 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool. Your tart shell is now ready to use.
My goal setting update took a back burner this last week. Our two sons moved down to Portland from Seattle and we were busy helping them move! Not only were they able to use our many boxes but my husband lent a hand and actually drove up to help them load and then unload their truck. We now have three of our grown children within twenty minutes of where we live!
Continue to monetize my blog. This is my ongoing goal. Have you taken the time to check out my page on Amazon? This page is where I put all the items I just love, from favorite cookbooks to gardening tools. Please check it out. I do thank all of your who have taken the time to check out my Amazon page and purchased from the various links in my bog posts. It is slowly paying off and it’s nice to have some money coming in to pay for the expenses of blogging.
2. Create a cookbook. Breaking this goal down into smaller goals has been a big motivator! I am currently in the process of copying and pasting all 400 recipes into a document which we can then have published. amazing what you can accomplish when you just look at something a little differently.
3. Have 20 minutes of exercise at least 5 times a week. My husband and I are back to working out on a daily basis. Much as I don’t really enjoy getting up and working out first thing I feel so much better afterwards! I sure feels good to be moving again on a regular basis.
4. Explore ten 3 parks or hiking trails in the state of Washington or Oregon! No new parks or hiking trails this week.
5. Incorporate 20 3 new recipes into our dinner plans with the focus on healthy eating. Been trying to eat less meat. The winning recipe this week was a Southwestern Veggie Taco. Perfect summertime meal. I’ll be sharing the recipe next week.
6. Read 35 13 new books this year. Back on the wait list for The Garden of the Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, since my Kindle loan expired and I know have to wait for it to be available again. So frustrating because I was enjoying the book! Did finally get the book The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick. I’ve enjoyed her other books so I hope I like this one!
7. Complete Four 1 knitting or sewing projects this year. Just one more project to complete this year. However knitting has been put on hold until the weather cools off.
8. Visit family on the west coast. No plans for any extended visits anytime soon. Our next big trip will be flying east for a big family reunion! We’re also taking little extra time to visit friends and family on my side. The countdown has begun to our trip to the east coast. Going to be visiting a lot of family and friends! Plus a stay in our hometown! Can’t wait.
9. Explore Six 5 new museums in the area. Now that we both have our library cards it’s time to plan an adventure. Planning to visit the Oregon Garden the end of this week, the Oregon Garden is an 80-acres botanical garden located in Silverton, OR. Just about an hours drive from where we live.
10. Find A New Home COMPLETED! Wonderful to have this goal completed! Our new house is finally feeling much more like our home. The majority of the unpacking is behind us and we just have some art work to hang on the walls. So nice to have this goal completed!
“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.” Jim Rohn, ECavett Robert, Public Speaker
This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site.
For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting Nancy On The Home Front.
This year instead of having our own garden we are supporting a local CSA. Each Friday we receive a basket of various fresh vegetables from Pumpkin Ridge Gardens. Planning meals from a CSA is not hard and each week I try to use up all the vegetables we received.
Pumpkin Ridge Gardens, where we receive our CSA from makes it so easy in planning meals from a CSA. Each Monday I can go online to see what vegetables will be included in my basket. This gives me an idea of what meals I will need to plan.
They also give you a few recipe ideas using the various vegetables you will be receiving. This has proved very helpful especially when trying vegetables for the first time like kohlrabi! In all my years of gardening I had never tried kohlrabi before, I had no idea how to even go about preparing it!
Pumpkin Ridge Gardens gave me a wonderful way to prepare kohlrabi and use it in a salad. I shared the recipe in a previous blog and all enjoyed it.
If you don’t like the recipes given that week, no problem just go onto to the Pumpkin Ridge Garden website and they have a password protected section just for the members of the CSA. On the page you will find numerous recipes. Just click on the vegetable you want to use and you will find ideas.
I used their website when I wondered how to prepare sorrel, another vegetable I had never tried. I made a Sorrel Soup which was very good.
My goal each week is to us up all the vegetables I receive before the next order comes. By planning meals from the CSA I have been able to do this each week. We have enjoyed pizza topped with sautéed greens and a Beef with Oyster Sauce made with fresh bok chow and broccoli!
Next year I hope to have a few raised beds in place to be able to raise my own vegetables. However I am so glad I decided to be a part of this CSA this year. I am able to support the local farmers, enjoy fresh organic vegetables and have them delivered to my house each week.
Not only have we enjoyed those benefits but we have met others from the CSA when Pumpkin Ridge Gardens hosted a potluck for all the members. It was a wonderful way to meet the others and enjoy some delicious food!
My mother shared this unique salad with me many, many years ago. I have made it often over the years and still enjoy this Nicoise Orzo Salad as much now as when my mother first shared the recipe with me.
The nice thing about this salad is that the salad ingredients can be made ahead of time, mixed with the dressing and chilled before serving later in the day. The salad only takes about 30 minutes to prepare and then some additional time to chill. Next time you are looking for a entrée salad try this delicious Nicoise Orzo Salad
Nicoise Orzo Salad
Ingredients
1 cup orzo, cooked ½ pound green beans, cooked al dente and cut diagonally 1 6oz jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained and quartered 1 can tuna, drained and flaked 1 red or yellow pepper, chopped ½ cup chopped red onion 1 ½ tsp. Thyme 1/3 cup Kalmata olives, seeded and halved 2 cups arugula
Directions
Combine all salad ingredients; mix with the dressing and chill, toss well before serving.
Salad Dressing
Ingredients
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar 1 Tbsp. lemon juice 4 anchovies 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard 1 garlic clove ¼ cup olive oil
Directions
Process all dressing ingredients except the olive oil. Add the olive oil slowly until the dressing is emulsified.
I love a salad that goes together easily, can be made ahead of time and the leftovers can be enjoyed the next day. The addition of the orzo makes this salad a little different from any other salad and it will be a hit when you decide to share it with others!
The next time you have to bring a salad to a friend’s house or to a potluck make this unique salad, you’ll be glad you did. Your friends will thank you.
Before I tell you about this amazing jam recipe I just want to welcome all my new blog readers! I so appreciate you all and love all the comments! While you’re on the Internet be sure to come visit my Facebook page, On The Home Front, I’d love it if you’d “like” my page!
While living in Vermont we had our own strawberry patch. Most years I would have an abundant crop of strawberries and I would make jam and fill my freezer with frozen strawberries. One of my favorite jams was a strawberry fig jam. This year I picked strawberries with my daughter and granddaughter. However I could not find any fresh figs. Instead I decided I would be making strawberry jam with dried figs.
After doing a little research I found that using dried fruits to make jam is actually a good thing and helps to intensify the flavor. Finding dried figs was easy. To make the jam I placed the figs in a pan, covered them with water and rehydrated them by bringing the water to a boil and then simmering the figs for about 20 minutes, until the figs were once again plump. I then proceeded with my jam recipe. The result was a delicious strawberry jam with an intense fig flavor.
The recipe I use is from the book Small Batch Preserving. They said, “This jam is so good it disappears from the shelf. The fresh figs lend an amazing texture and taste to the strawberries. Be sure to make as much of it as jar and cupboard space allow whenever you can get your hands on fresh figs.” Truer words have not been spoken the jam is that good. The best news is that the jam is just as delicious using dried figs.
Fresh Fig and Strawberry Jam
Ingredients
1 lb fresh green figs, stemmed and cut into small pieces (about 12oz dried figs) 2 cups quartered strawberries 2 cups sugar 3 Tbsp lemon juice
Directions
Place figs, strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a medium stainless steel saucepan. Cover and let stand for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium and boil rapidly, uncovered until the mixture forms a gel, about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.
Ladle into sterilized jars and process in a water bath canner for 5 minutes.
I can this recipe in small jars which make it perfect for gift giving. Now I’m wondering if I can grow a fig tree here in Oregon?
These days life is full. Now that the various small house projects have been completed the days are full of planning our future garden space and exploring. Our new town is quite active and we’ve taken advantage of all the various activities. Last weekend was the local strawberry festival, such fun to walk to the festival with my granddaughter and enjoy some delicious local strawberries.
Continue to monetize my blog. This is my ongoing goal. Have you taken the time to check out my page on Amazon? This page is where I put all the items I just love, from favorite cookbooks to gardening tools. Please check it out. I do thank all of your who have taken the time to check out my Amazon page and purchased from the various links in my bog posts. It is slowly paying off and it’s nice to have some money coming in to pay for the expenses of blogging.
2. Create a cookbook. Realizing just how big this goal is. Still determined to have the cookbook complete by November! I’ve now broken the project down into smaller size goals which makes it easier for me to see what needs to get accomplished each month in order to complete this goal.
3. Have 20 minutes of exercise at least 5 times a week. My husband and I are back to working out on a daily basis. Much as I don’t really enjoy getting up and working out first thing I feel so much better afterwards! We have a small space that is just perfect for our boring workouts.
4. Explore ten 3 parks or hiking trails in the state of Washington or Oregon! This past weekend was the Tualatin River Explore, we rented a two man kayak and went on a three mile river explore. We are considering buying kayaks but need to spend more time renting or borrowing kayaks until we decide whether this is something we really want to do.
5. Incorporate 20 3 new recipes into our dinner plans with the focus on healthy eating. The wining recipe this week was a Nicose Orzo Salad. My mother used to make this amazing recipe but I had never made it myself. I will be sharing the recipe on Friday.
6. Read 35 13 new books this year. Back on the wait list for The Garden of the Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, since my Kindle loan expired and I know have to wait for it to be available again. So frustrating because I was enjoying the book!
I did finish another book that finally came in on my library loans. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. Apparently this book has been made into a movie. I love that the book takes place in Seattle, WA and is all about Bernadette Fox. She is married to a Microsoft guru and is an amazing architect. She runs her life buy hiring a virtual assistant in India. The book is a quick read, funny and entertaining. Now I’ll have to watch the movie!
7. Complete Four 1 knitting or sewing projects this year. Just one more project to complete this year. However knitting has been put on hold until the weather cools off.
8. Visit family on the west coast. No plans for any extended visits anytime soon.
9. Explore Six 5 new museums in the area. Finally got our library cards, now to plan a day for an adventure! There are so many different places to visit and apparently unlike Washington I can just set a date and print out a free pass. How simple is that? this the first on the list will be the Oregon Garden, the Oregon Garden is an 80-acres botanical garden located in Silver ton, OR. Just about an hours drive from where we live.
10. Find A New Home COMPLETED! Wonderful to have this goal completed! Our new house is finally feeling much more like our home. The majority of the unpacking is behind us and we just have some art work to hang on the walls. So nice to have this goal completed!
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” Jim Rohn, Entrepreneur & Author
This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site.
For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting Nancy On The Home Front.
I have previously shared our favorite recipe for ham and egg fried rice, and recently made a bacon and egg fried rice which was delicious. I used diced pancetta instead of regular bacon although you could use regular bacon if that’s what you had on hand. I also scrambled the eggs and cooked them separately and then added them to the rice mixture. Regardless of how you put this dish together it is a very quick meal. In under ½ hour you can have dinner on the table. I love meals that come together quickly and this bacon and egg fried rice is one of them!
Bacon and Egg Fried Rice
Ingredients:
2 tsp. oil 2 ounce diced pancetta 4 scallions, sliced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1- 5 ounce container of baby spinach 2 cup cooked brown rice ¾ cup frozen green peas ½ tsp. salt ¼ tsp. black pepper 4 large eggs
Directions:
Heat a wok over high heat Add 1 tsp. oil and swirl to coat the bottom of the wok. Add pancetta and stir fry until crisp, about one minute. Add scallions and garlic and stir fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add spinach and stir fry until wilted, about one minute. Add rice, peas, salt and black pepper and stir-fry until hot, 1-2 minutes.
Meanwhile heat the remaining 1 tsp. of oil in another nonstick skillet over medium heat and scramble the eggs until cooked. Add the scrambled eggs to the rice mixture and serve. This recipe makes four servings.
Summer is a busy time in the garden. The seeds have sprouted; the plants are growing including the weeds! In order to produce a good harvest you want to stay ahead of the weeds. You also want to give your vegetables the best chance so they will produce well.
When your seedlings are just a few inches high use your hoe and rake to thin the weeds between the rows. You will not only be getting rid of the weeds but aerating the soil as well. Cultivation breaks up the surface crust, which helps oxygen to reach lower soil depths. Take the time to thin your seedlings as well. Plants grow much better when given the room to grown.
There are many tools to destroy those small weeds. My favorite is a small four-pronged hoe. I do have to get down on my hands and knees to use it, but it is very effective. I also have a “finger” or “poker” hoe. This is shaped like a pointed finger and works so well on those areas of stubborn weeds. If you take a few minutes every day to pull a few weeds you can stay ahead of them. If you prefer to stand up use a longer handled tool to weed.
Once your garden is well weeded take the time to mulch your plants. Mulching is the layering of materials onto the garden soil and around your plants. By mulching the sunlight is blocked and the weeds can’t get a start. It also conserves moisture. My favorite mulch is grass clippings. As long as you know that the grass clippings are free of pesticides, herbicides or other toxic pest controls they are safe to use on your garden. I have also used pieces of old carpet for my paths. This seems to work well although I have had persistent weeds that have grown through the carpet.
Different plants may prefer different types of mulch. I use wood chips around our blueberry bushes; they prefer an acidic soil and woodchips are a perfect solution. Blueberries also like to be well supplied with moisture. I run a soaker hose around each blueberry bush, which does a good job at keeping the plants, watered. You can also use wood shavings or pine needles, both of which help to provide an acidic environment. Increased organic matter from decomposing mulch will help improve the soil structure and nutrient uptake of the blueberries. You want to replenish the mulch as needed to keep the mulch depth at two to four inches.
Strawberries are very susceptible to frosts in the spring. Mulches that have covered the plants during the winter should be removed in the early spring but should be left in the aisles to cover the blossoms in the spring when frost is predicted. I leave a light layer of straw between my plants during the growing season. It helps keep the moisture in and makes it easier to pick the berries. It also helps keep the berries off the ground which keeps them cleaner.
I have also used newspaper to mulch my vegetables. Most newspapers use soy based ink. The inks used on the matte newspaper pages and the high gloss inserts may contain petroleum-based inks and should be avoided in the garden. I then cover the newspaper with grass clippings so I don’t have newspaper blowing, all over the garden. Newspaper mulch can be used in the vegetable garden, around shrubs, on perennial borders and on walkways. It can be used pretty much anywhere that weeds grow.
It is important to wait until your soil is warm enough to put the mulch on otherwise the mulch will actually keep the soil cool, it may keep the soil too moist attracting slugs. Heat loving crops such as tomatoes will not like this.
As summer progresses you will want to water your garden. Every week June through September your garden needs an inch of rainfall. This can be in the form of rain or water that you provide. Try to water your garden in the evening or the morning when evaporation by the sun is low. You want the water to really soak down to a depth of four to five inches. This will encourage good root growth; the last thing you want is a shallow root system.
Once your garden is weeded and mulched you can now concentrate on the plants themselves. Keep thinning as the plants grow. Harvest thinning helps to cultivate the soil within the row, loosening the soil and making it easier for the remaining crops to grow. Baby beets are wonderful in a summer salad. You can cook the baby beets and the greens together.
Just like staying ahead of your weeds you also want to stay on top of your harvest. Check your garden regularly and pick the crops as they mature. If you are going to be away ask someone to come every day and pick. You want to keep your garden clean of over ripe, soon to rot vegetables. Most vegetables are much tastier when picked young. Zucchini for example can grow rather quickly. I like to pick ours when they are on the small side, if left on the plant in a matter of days they can get as big as a baseball bat!
Late summer is the time to enjoy your garden. Keep track of your harvest, as this will help you with the planning of future gardens. Stay on bug patrol as well. Your garden will last longer if free of harmful insects. Enjoy your harvest; you’ve worked hard for the bounty.
Another busy week! We’re beginning to realize that this is our new life! No complaints, just loving life! Trying to move forward on the goal setting process. Writing a weekly post on my goal setting update helps keep me on track! Managed to get three hydrangeas planted in our front yard. It’s the first step in removing the grass and creating garden!
Continue to monetize my blog. This is my ongoing goal. Have you taken the time to check out my page on Amazon? This page is where I put all the items I just love, from favorite cookbooks to gardening tools. Please check it out. My page on Amazon and being linked to Amazon Affiliates is slowly paying off. I thank those of you who have taken the time to check my page out, or if you have purchased items through the links you find on my blog. Every little bit helps to support the expense involved in running a blog.
2. Create a cookbook. This goal is slowly coming along. My office is set up and about 85% organized. My new thought is to create eBooks as I work on my cookbook. Perhaps numerous eBooks on the different chapters of the cookbook such as appetizers, bread, desserts etc. What do you think?
3. Have 20 minutes of exercise at least 5 times a week. Have I said how much I love where we live? This week we tried stand up paddle boarding! Had a family day at a nearby lake and spent several hours playing on the water. Such fun to enjoy a swim on such a hot day!
4. Explore ten 4 parks or hiking trails in the state of Washington or Oregon! The new park we explored this week was Henry Hagg Lake, it was a perfect spot for swimming and paddle boarding. It’s a beautiful spot with numerous picnic areas, two boat launching areas and more than 14 miles for hiking. It was the hottest day we’ve had yet this summer so we spent our time in the water, not hiking!
5. Incorporate 20 4 new recipes into our dinner plans with the focus on healthy eating. This week our CSA contained sorrel, another vegetable I have never tried. I decided to make Sorrel Soup. It was pretty good, and had a slight lemony taste.
6. Read 35 14 new books this year. No new books read this week. I was hoping to finish The Garden of the Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, however my Kindle loan expired and I know have to wait for it to be available again. So frustrating because I was enjoying the book!
7. Complete Four 1 knitting or sewing projects this year. Just one more project to complete and I’m hoping it’s the mitten that I’ve started. However this is getting put on hold for a bit.
8. Visit family on the west coast. Spending all our time with our immediate family. I have reached out to extended family to see if we can connect. Did have a wonderful time picking strawberries with my daughter and granddaughter.
9. Explore Six 5 new museums in the area. Finally got our library cards, now to grab a pass to one of the local museums. Just like when we lived in Washington these passes are popular!
10. Find A New Home COMPLETED! Wonderful to have this goal completed! Our new house is finally feeling much more like our home. The majority of the unpacking is behind us and we just have some art work to hang on the walls. So nice to have this goal completed!
“If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.” Alice in Wonderland, Written by Lewis Carroll
This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site.
For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting Nancy On The Home Front.
After we completed our move from the east coast to the west coast I realized there were many lessons learned from moving. The most important lesson learned was to be organized. Since our move involved putting our belongings into storage while we looked for a new house it was imperative that I knew what boxes would be put into storage and what boxes we would want in our little apartment.
To solve this problem we marked all the boxes going into the apartment with red duct tape. These boxes were set aside so when the movers came to pack us up it was obvious what boxes needed to be kept separate. Even with the red duct tape we had several boxes that ended up in the storage unit that should have been in our apartment!
Make a list of what is in each box. I had a master list of all of our boxes and made a notation as to what was in each box. Ideally I would suggest making a detailed list inside each box. The more information you can put down the easier it will be when unpacking.
Unfortunately I fell short on this aspect. I did label each box with what was in the box. However sometimes I just wrote “Misc. Kitchen” or “Books”. When it came to unpacking and I would be looking for something it was not always easy to find. Remember the more information you can jot down the better it will be when it comes time to unpack.
If you are packing the boxes yourself make sure you wrap things well. I knew our belongings would be making a long cross-country journey and then going into storage before finally being moved to our new home. The boxes would be touched several times and stacked for both moving and storage. I made sure that everything was wrapped well and I used bubble wrap and packing peanuts for extra cushioning. As a result we have not had a single broken item in all that moving!
Before packing go through everything and take a hard look at what you are planning to move. We spent three years sorting though our belongings and getting rid of stuff. We sold things and passed items along to friends and still we ended up moving too much. This move involved downsizing so we moved into a smaller home that what we previously lived in.
Despite all the de-cluttering we did we still have items that we wonder, “Why did we move this?” Having the majority of our belongings in storage for seven months made us realize just how little we can live with.
Less is more, is probably the most important of the lessons learned from moving! We do not need all the stuff we thought we did. Yes certain items bring back wonderful memories, take a picture of the item instead of packing it and moving it. I think we’ll spend the next few years sorting through everything once again and de-cluttering.
We are thankful to once again be settled in our home. The move went well, no major issues or broken belongings. The lessons learned from moving were many and hopefully the few I shared will help you if you are making a move.
I did finish another book that finally came in on my library loans. 
Nancy on the Home Front 