Balsamic Roasted Beet Salad

We harvested our beets this weekend.

After years of unsuccessful vegetable gardening, caused mostly by rogue deer and squirrels, we have an abundance of our summer favorites ready to harvest almost every morning. There are still adjustments and improvements to be made next year, but I've been mostly pleased with the results so far.

The beets came all at once.

After a very busy week, filled with classes and summer camps, we realized we had neglected the garden a bit, and we spent Saturday morning weeding and harvesting to find that all of the beets were popping over the top of the soil and ready for harvest.

That meant I needed to find a new recipe to try out, one that could use them all up and be enjoyed by all. As usual, Ina Garten did not disappoint. This was a very easy salad to put together, and it served as the side dish to light, oven-roasted lamb and mint meatballs.

https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/balsamic-roasted-beet-salad

Homemade Granola Bars

My son C's best friend in the whole world lives next door. He and N are inseparable. This week, I've found myself in a major childcare/pickup conundrum due to a camp I promised to teach months ago before I knew my husband would no longer be working from home. 

Enter my neighbors, who took C for six hours yesterday and are taking him again today to go swimming. C and I wanted to bring along something sweet for the kids to enjoy, so I decided to go with another Barefoot Contessa recipe that the kids and I have wanted to try. 

These granola bars are perfect. The mix has just the right amount of sweetness and "sauce" to coat the ingredients and the kids gobbled them up!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/homemade-granola-bars-recipe-1948524 

Peach and Blueberry Crumble

My daughter A has become enamored with the Barefoot Contessa this summer, so we checked a few of her books out of the library and have been experimenting with them for weeks. This was the first recipe that she made entirely on her own. The only variation we made was that we made the dish in one large baking pan rather than individual ramekins. 

This was a serious hit. We'll make it again very soon, for sure.

https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/peach-blueberry-crumbles

Refrigerator Pickles

Last year, I got the greatest book at my local foods market. It covered a myriad of canning and preserving recipes, something I had gotten far more comfortable with last year. When I found myself with more cucumbers than I could handle, I decided to tackle pickles and relish.

And it was a disaster.

Fast forward to this year. My friend D finally convinced me that, especially considering how many pickles my kids eat in a week, to try her refrigerator pickle recipe. It takes more time to cut the cucumbers than it does to actually make the pickles, and they are DELICIOUS - crisp and fresh as a good pickle should be. The best part of this recipe is that if you find yourself with only one large cucumber sitting around, you can easily make a batch of pickles without much time commitment at all.

For one quart of pickles, you need:

1 qt. glass jar
4 kirby cucumbers, quartered lengthwise
3/4 c. white wine vinegar
1/4 c. small sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. dill seed
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 tsp. kosher salt

Place the cucumbers in the jar. In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients with 3/4 c. hot tap water. Stir until the sugar dissolved. Pour the vinegar mixture into the jar with the cucumbers, seal the jar, and refrigerate for one day. Pickles will last for a little over a week.