Summer Eats

This poor, neglected blog of mine.  I can't believe it's been a month since my last post.

I have so much to tell, so much to share, so I'll start with some delicious food we have enjoyed this season...

Homemade pizza has been a pretty constant thing around here.  This one was dressed with caramelized onions, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, homemade tomato sauce with goat cheese & mozzarella.

Fresh Garden salads w/ flat bread pizza for a quick Friday night dinner.

We tried out the local cupcake shop, holy moly.  We enjoyed tasting grasshopper, pineapple & tiramisu flavors.

Blueberries from our own bushes have been few & far between this year, with the Japanese beetle invasion.

I made my own vanilla extract a few months back.  So super easy and will be so much more cost effective than buying in the store.  I used the recipe from The Homemade Pantry.  LOVE this cookbook!

Luckily the Japanese beetles did not find our strawberry patch.  I was so, so surprised with the amount of strawberries we got this year out of our own patch.  A total of 15 quarts, which allowed me to freeze a bunch and make 23 jars of Jam.

Oh and a strawberry rhubarb pie from A Year of Pies by Ashley English.  I cannot recommend this book enough.  My pie dough comes out flawless every time i follow her recipe.  The savory & sweet pies i have tried have blown us away.  Such a valuable cookbook to have on your shelf :)

And that's it for a sampling of the good eats we have tried this summer!