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Recipes & Cookbook

Hang on to Summer – Salads (and More)

As fall harvest season arrives, the challenge is to create or try new recipes to fully appreciate the array of tastes available to us. As always, Master Gardener Joy Johnson is ready with recipes, this time, salads that help us to hang on to summer. And just to make sure that you use the abundant apple crop available to us now, she provides a scrumptious apple-centered dessert bar. Let your mouth water while reading these delicious recipes.

Hang on to Summer – Salads (and More)

Making Delicious Meals with Hardy Vegetables

Master Gardener Joy Johnson is an accomplished vegetable grower but even she struggled this year with the effects of the hot weather and drought on her crops. Still, she offers 4 tried, true and delicious recipes for using the vegetables that were garden champions this year. You will want to read this article for inspiration in the kitchen!

Making Delicious Meals with Hardy Vegetables

Strawberry Asparagus Salad and a Challenge!

It’s July and some of your vegetables and fruit are ripe for picking – yay! Two of these early products are asparagus and strawberries. And, luckily, they go together in a delicious salad. Read Joy Johnson’s article for an easy recipe. And, keep reading for a more difficult recipe for Strawberry Cucumber bread. If you’re up for the challenge, you will be rewarded with a delicious treat!

Strawberry Asparagus Salad and a Challenge!

Greek Artichoke Salad

Get your early lettuce on the table with other yummy vegetables in this recipe for Greek artichoke salad. Add some baking powder biscuits and you have dinner.

Greek Artichoke Salad

Fermenting Your Own Hot Sauce

Sometimes just experimenting with your vegetables makes you a winner. Read about how to grow the peppers and make the hot sauce that won over Joy Johnson’s “hot sauce crazy” family members.

Fermenting Your Own Hot Sauce

Raspberry Delights

Yes, it’s December and there probably isn’t anything growing in your garden right now, since you live in Minnesota. But not that long ago you may have had a bumper crop of berries that are now in your freezer. Here’s a fresh idea for strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, and raspberries.

Raspberry Delights

Ethnic Heritage Food

With the onset of cold weather, embrace your comfort food roots. Joy Johnson shares two of her family’s comfort recipes. Try them and they may become your new comfort food recipes.

Ethnic Heritage Food

Parsnips a Favorite Winter Vegetable

The parsnip is the creamy white cousin to carrots that add a nutty but sweet flavor to your winter vegetable table. Parsnips are a taproot vegetable that will enrich a broth or soup by adding another dimension of flavor. Whether parsnips are pureed, baked, sauteed, steamed, mashed or roasted they will not disappoint. Let’s dig in and discover the best way to sow, grow, harvest, store and enjoy this winter vegetable.

Parsnips a Favorite Winter Vegetable

Using the Last Frozen Vegetables to make Tasty Tacos and Springtime Cake

It’s May, you may have a few things peeking up in your garden, or maybe you’re like me and nothing is up yet, and nothing is ready for picking. I’m still living off of veggies that I canned, froze or dried last fall. Here is a crowd-pleasing recipe that makes use of my canned tomatoes, frozen corn and ground venison. You can use ground beef or ground turkey too. It also has corn chips on it, and those are a favorite!

Using the Last Frozen Vegetables to make Tasty Tacos and Springtime Cake

Just for My Valentine

Joy Johnson shares how to use those tomatoes that you saved from September’s harvest. And, make something sweet for your “sweetie” on Valentine’s Day. Joy shares her recipe for Sweetheart scones in this article.

Just for My Valentine

Cooking with Frozen Vegetables (And a St. Patrick’s Day Nod)

It’s not too early to order seeds for your vegetable garden this summer but first, you need to use up all those vegetables left over from last summer that are sitting in your freezer. Joy Johnson’s Minestrone soup will help you do just that. Add some Irish soda bread for a great St. Patrick’s Day meal.

Cooking with Frozen Vegetables (And a St. Patrick’s Day Nod)

Sweet Potatoes and a Sweet Winter Treat

Sweet potatoes are a lovely garden plant. They are a low calorie but highly nutritious food and have a beautiful color. Sweet potatoes can be harvested very late in the fall and are pretty easy to store over the winter. Best of all, they taste great. You will love this sweet potato recipe from Master Gardener Joy Johnson along with a bonus sweet treat.

Sweet Potatoes and a Sweet Winter Treat
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