I don’t normally make spaghetti sauce from scratch instead opting to buy the already-made-ones at the store as they are quick in a pinch.
However, I do like to accent the store bought spaghetti sauce with fresh vegetables.
Fresh Vegetables
Normally I add broccoli, green pepper, onions and carrots. But you can add whatever you like.
First I add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a medium sized skillet. I wait until the oil is warm and then add the fresh vegetables. I keep stirring until the vegetables are cooked. If you want crisper onions though, you can add them at a later time once the other vegetables are cooked.
Once the vegetables are cooked, I add the spaghetti sauce and stir to get everything mixed together.
Then, I add the sauce to the cooked spaghetti and mix it all up.
Spaghetti with fresh vegetables
It seems simple enough, but I never would have thought of doing it until a friend of mine made it this way.
Chockful of vitamins.
I hope you try this helpful tip if you aren’t already doing it.
“As the “publicans and sinners” gathered about Christ, the rabbis expressed their displeasure. “This man receives sinners,” they said, “and eats with them.”
By this accusation they insinuated that Christ liked to associate with the sinful and vile, and was insensible to their wickedness. The rabbis had been disappointed in Jesus. Why was it that one who claimed so lofty a character did not mingle with them and follow their methods of teaching? Why did He go about so unpretendingly, working among all classes? If He were a true prophet, they said, He would harmonize with them, and would treat the publicans and sinners with the indifference they deserved. It angered these guardians of society that He with whom they were continually in controversy, yet whose purity of life awed and condemned them, should meet, in such apparent sympathy, with social outcasts. They did not approve of His methods. They regarded themselves as educated, refined, and pre-eminently religious; but Christ’s example laid bare their selfishness.
It angered them also that those who showed only contempt for the rabbis and who were never seen in the synagogues should flock about Jesus and listen with rapt attention to His words. The scribes and Pharisees felt only condemnation in that pure presence; how was it, then, that publicans and sinners were drawn to Jesus?
They knew not that the explanation lay in the very words they had uttered as a scornful charge, “This man receives sinners.” The souls who came to Jesus felt in His presence that even for them there was escape from the pit of sin. The Pharisees had only scorn and condemnation for them; but Christ greeted them as children of God, estranged indeed from the Father’s house, but not forgotten by the Father’s heart. And their very misery and sin made them only the more the objects of His compassion. The farther they had wandered from Him, the more earnest the longing and the greater the sacrifice for their rescue.”
Christ’s Object Lessons pg 185, 186/Luke 15:1, 2
Nothing more needs to be said than what this writer has said. Jesus came to show us the love of God the Father and He did not care what class the person was. May we treat each other the way Christ treats us – always with love.
The Green Room is a very nice restaurant in Stillwater, Minnesota. It has entrances in the front and the back. We entered through the back entrance this time.
The Green Room, Stillwater, Minnesota
My husband started his meal with the Minnesota Salad which includes mixed greens, blueberries, hazelnuts, a wild rice waffle and turkey confit with Maple Syrup Vinaigrette. It was very delicious.
Minnesota Salad
Then my husband had the Grilled Mahi Mahi which again he thought was delicious. It came with a mango chutney, turmeric potatoes and had a spicy red curry on it.
Grilled Mahi Mahi
I started my dinner with the special of the day: Salmon Chowder. I was a little disappointed as it was kind’ve oily. Instead of the salmon being chunky, it was more shredded-like.
Salmon Chowder
For my entree, I had the oven roasted half chicken. The chicken was cooked well and tasted good except that it had too much salt. I couldn’t finish it. This entree came with sage and squash bread pudding which was a little dry.
We came to this restaurant once before and all of the food was delicious. The presentation is always good and the service is excellent. Hopefully they will work on the flavorings to get them “just right.”
Click here to go to the Green Room website and see their menu.
What to do with leftover ripe bananas and french bread? Why not stuffed french toast?
This recipe is pretty easy to follow. The only complaint I received from my guests was that the bananas were too ripe and therefore I could have used less. But, I’m a banana aficionado so it didn’t bother me in the least bit. I did make 1 1/2 times the batter (already shown below) as otherwise it wouldn’t have been enough.
Baked Banana French Toast
Ingredients
4 ripe bananas, mashed
8 slices French bread
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 Â teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lightly spray a cast iron or an ovenproof skillet with cooking spray and then heat over medium heat.
Spread 1 mashed banana on top of 4 slices of bread (one banana per slice)
Place remaining four slices on top to make a sandwich.
In a bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon.
Dip the bread in the egg batter for about 30 seconds on each side then place the banana sandwich in the skillet.
Cook each side for approximately two minutes.
Place bread on an ungreased baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven for 8 minutes. Serve warm.
Add ripe mashed bananas on top of a slice
Add another slice of bread on the top
Grill on both sides
Put on ungreased cookie sheet to bake
Baked Banana French Toast
I added maple syrup on top of this french toast but I didn’t really need to. It tasted fine without anything on it. Next time though, I think a nice strawberry or blueberry compote on top would make it taste even better.
Original recipe courtesy of http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/karens-baked-banana-stuffed-french-toast/detail.aspx
I recently made a Roquefort Pear Salad and had to caramelize the pecans that I was using. Everything went pretty well until I accidentally dropped a pecan on the floor while stirring.
Not wanting the floor to get sticky, I bent oven and picked up the pecan with my bare hands. Bad news! I burned my fingers. The yell was immediate as was the dropping of the pecan back on the floor.
Burned Fingertips
Quickly putting my hand under cold water, I thought the burning sensation would go away. It did not. Â I quickly ran to the bathroom and got a tube of toothpaste. Remembering from when I was a young girl what my mother used to do (old wives tale), I dabbed a little toothpaste on each burned fingertip.
I have to say it was quite soothing. And — the fingertips healed rather quickly. By the end of the day, my hand was back to normal.
What to do with extra pears, pecans and green onions? Make a roquefort pear salad! This recipe is delicious! Truly truly truly! I’m looking forward to making it again in the near future. The cheese is very expensive though so I only used 3.5 ounces which is what came in the container instead of the  5 ounces that the original recipe called for.
Roquefort Pear Salad
Ingredients
1 head of romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
3 pears – peeled, cored and chopped
5 ounces Roquefort cheese, crumbled
1 avocado (peeled, pitted, and diced)
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup pecans
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 teaspoons prepared mustard
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh ground black pepper to taste
Directions
In a skillet over medium heat, stir 1/4 cup of sugar together with the pecans. Continue stirring gently until the sugar has melted and caramelized the pecans, then transfer the nuts onto waxed or parchment paper. Allow this to cool then break into smaller pieces.
For the dressing, combine the oil, vinegar, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, mustard, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper. I only used 1 teaspoon mustard instead of the 1 1/2 the original recipe calls for as I didn’t want a strong mustardy taste.
In a large bowl, layer the lettuce, pears, blue cheese, avocado, and green onions. Then add the pieces of pecan on top.
I served the dressing on the side instead of pouring it on top. That way, people can use as much or as little as they want.
It’s “only” September 14th and the weather has taken a turn — it’s cold! I walked outside and it was 45 with what must be a north wind.
The weatherman warned us about the change for the next couple of days so I went to my winter pile of clothes and pulled out a sweater. I needed more than a sweater this morning.
Yesterday I quickly finished planting the rest of the hyacinth and daffodil bulbs. Our dirt is mostly clay and sand so I’ve had to make several runs to the local Menard’s store to get topsoil. This morning I bought 5 more bags and will mix them in with the current dirt, put a weed cover on top and then add a layer of mulch over the weed cover. All this has to be completed before the first frost which  may be tomorrow.
I’ll be using the cool weather to work in our backyard and do some clean-up. There are quite a few large twigs that I’d like to have removed before winter sets in.
The autumn colors haven’t set in yet although I expect by next week we should see a bit of a change. Our neighbor told us that we don’t have to go to the “north shore” to see colors. (The north shore is the area around Lake Superior which we hear is beautiful all year around.) She explained that since there are so many trees in our neighborhood, the colors are just as brilliant.
It’s our first autumn in Minnesota. Once it’s over, we would have experienced every season here. And, even though last year we broke winter records, I think that so far, I like winter the best. Perhaps autumn will change my mind as that has always been my favorite season.
With at least 5 dead trees and large broken branches on our property, we had to hire a company to come and fell them. The company’s name was All Seasons Tree Service.
All Seasons Tree Company
They arrived exactly when they said they would. There were 5 of them and it took 3 hours for them to complete their work.
The first project was to remove a large black cherry tree. Although this tree was dead, a large branch was ripped to the ground from it during one of our summer storms.
Black Cherry Tree (in the middle next to the branch on the ground)
It didn’t take long for the worker to saw this tree down.
Black Cherry Tree (after it was sawn down)
Since moving to Minnesota from Seattle last November, I am constantly fascinated by the different lifestyle that I am living. From urban to rural. Â I couldn’t help but take a video of the worker cutting down our black cherry tree. It was simply delightful to me. I am enjoying all the “newness” of life.
These new experiences really tickle me inside and make me feel happy. I can’t explain it. Watching a worker (see below) sawing down a tree is pretty cool.
Behind the black cherry tree, 2 dead oak trees were taken down — project 2. In Minnesota, the oak trees sometimes get a disease called oak wilt which causes the leaves to turn a bronze color. Oak wilt is a fungus and can be spread from one tree to another via grafted root systems as far away as 50 feet.
The fungus can also be transmitted via a beetle.
If an oak tree is diagnosed with oak wilt, most arborists recommend that the tree be removed immediately. As far as I can tell, there is no treatment for oak wilt so the tree will not recover.
We currently have an oak tree that is looking sickly — the leaves are starting to turn brown although all the other oak trees on our property are not yet changing colors. The arborist told us we should keep an eye on it and see what happens next spring.
Oak trees are very sensitive. They should not be disturbed, i.e. pruned, removed or worked around during the months of January – August. A rule of thumb I was given by an arborist was: Every month that ends in R is a good month to prune an oak tree. I hope the arborists in this area know what they are talking about.
Our third project was having the trees cut into smaller pieces so we can use them as firewood. The pieces aren’t quite small enough yet — we need to either buy a wood splitter or hire someone to do the work for us. Another thing to learn.
The old wood pile that the previous owner made needs some work.
Woodpile
With the cooler weather soon heading our way, this is a project I will be working on very soon so we can have all the logs “cured.” Curing means the logs have to dry out and this can take about a year. We don’t want any critters entering our house when we bring the wood in.
Looking for a low fat easy dinner? Try the Morningstar Vegetarian Grillers. They can be found in the freezer section of almost any grocery store. Each box contains 4 grillers (burgers).
Baked Morningstar Grillers
Below is the recipe for how our family makes them served with homemade gravy and mashed potatoes.
Ingredients
 2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cubes of vegetable bouillon
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup of milk
4-8 grillers (broken into 4 pieces each)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Thaw the grillers (burgers) and cut each griller into 4 pieces then set aside
Melt the butter in a small saucepan
Add the flour to the saucepan and, using a whisk, stir both together until combined and heated through
Dissolve bouillon in the boiling water (have this ready before you combine the butter and the flour)
Add the bouillon water to the saucepan
Add the milk
Whisk everything together until all is heated through and it thickens
Put the grillers in a baking dish and cover with the sauce
Bake until the sauce is bubbling
Making Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
8 medium red potatoes, diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of warmed milk
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Directions
In a medium sized pot, boil the potatoes until a fork pricked through them comes out soft (about 10 minutes). Then drain the potatoes and put them back in the pot.
Add 3 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 cup of warm milk, 3 cloves minced garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Using a masher, mash the potatoes. Adjust the consistency to your liking — if you like your mashed potatoes lumpy then don’t mash as much. Add more milk if you want a softer mushier consistency.
You can leave the garlic out if you don’t want the garlic taste.
Morningstar Vegetarian Burgers (Grillers)
Cut each griller in 4 pieces
Vegetable Gravy
Dice the potatoes and boil in water just to cover them
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