♦♦♦ 100th Post Giveaway ♦♦♦

We have a winner!  Congratulations to Kim for winning our gardener’s giveaway, and a $10 online gift certificate to Rareseeds.com.  We just sent you an email with the prize!  Hope you enjoy shopping at Rareseeds.com, and best of success to your gardening ventures!

Edit: We’ve extended the giveaway out two more days – it now ends at 12am Central on July 4th.  Be sure to share it with your friends before it’s too late!  Thanks!

The Suburban Homestead Blog is hosting it’s first ever blog giveaway!  Help us celebrate our 100th post by entering this fantastic giveaway, and spreading the word about it.  Our giveaway begins at 12am Central on June 25 and ends at 12am Central on July 4.  The prize is a $10 online gift certificate to RareSeeds.com – perfect for a gardener wanting to buy high-quality, heirloom seeds.   RareSeeds.com (Baker Creek Seed Co.) has heirloom seeds for vegetable plants, as well as for flowers and herbs.  They also carry helpful informational and educational books and magazines.

♦♦♦ Click here to enter via Facebook, or click on the image to enter via a webpage. ↑↑  (If you have any trouble entering the giveaway, please do not hesitate to contact us.  This is our first giveaway, so please forgive us if there are any glitches.) ♦♦♦

NOTE: We have not been paid to promote RareSeeds.com.  We believe that this company is a high-quality company and is worthy of our business.

Home Cookin’

While I’ve been out of town, I’ve had the opportunity to cook multiple meals for the family with I’ve been staying.  They’ve enjoyed all the different meals I’ve created, and keep saying that I’m spoiling them!  Well, that seems to be a good sign!  🙂

I thought I’d post a couple of the recipes, and photos to go along with it, that I’ve used.   Pinterest is a great place to find recipes.  In fact I found a couple of the ones I’m posting here on Pinterest.   (Yes, I know, that’s amazing isn’t it?!  I actually made a recipe from Pinterest, instead of just pinning a bunch!)

Stuffed Zucchini

Their picture is much better than mine!

My version of the stuffed zucchini recipe.

This recipe is super easy, and really delicious!  I bet you could even get your kids to eat it.  😉

Sweet Potato Fries

Yum!

Sweet potato fries – yeah!

These were not as crispy as I would’ve liked, but that probably could’ve been attained if I would have flipped them over one by one, as the recipe said.  Even so, they were delicious!

Avocado, Corn and Tomato Salad

DE-lish! (Not my image; unfortunately I wasn’t able to photograph my version.)

This was so refreshing, and amazingly delicious! (Well, maybe not that amazing, since there was corn AND avocados in it!)   It would go great with anything Mexican, and especially some corn tortilla chips.  Mmmm, it’s making me hungry just looking at it.

Banana Nut Cake

Mother’s Day cake

Even though I wasn’t with my Mom on Mother’s Day, I still made a cake in her honor, as well as for my Aunt, who I am currently with.  The banana nut cake recipe I used turned out well, though not overly spectacular.  Plenty moist and sweet, and it hit home.

Cranberry-Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

The combination of cranberries, walnuts and an oatmeal cookie is scrumptious.

This recipe I got of the side of a Food Club® oatmeal container.  It turned out really well, especially if you like cranberries, and is as easy to make as any other cookie.  Delicious warm or cold, and especially yummy with a cool glass of milk!  In fact, I ate two or three of these for breakfast this morning.

Cranberry-Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

The mixture of cranberries, walnuts and an oatmeal cookie is scrumptious.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) margarine or butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening (or just use butter)
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups dried cranberries**
• 1 cup chopped pecans (or I used walnuts)

**I actually only used about 1 cups worth, and that turned out to be plenty.

Directions:

Beat sugars, margarine (or butter) and shortening until creamy.  Add eggs, milk and vanilla; mix well.  Combine oats, flour, baking power, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.  Add to margarine (or butter) mixture; mix well.  Stir in cranberries and pecans (or walnuts).  Chill dough 1 hour.**  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool.

Make ~5 dozen.

**Or not – you don’t have to, it just makes it easier to put on the cookie sheet.

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!

(Click on images to view larger.)

A creative idea

All the different shades and colors of irises are fascinating!

A perfect name for a street full of flowers and spring colors!

The Whole Kitchen

Thanks to The Whole Kitchen blog for putting a shout-out to our post on DIY Seed Starting Pots.