Fruit

Strawberry Mango Salsa

May 28, 2016 by Sydney Anderson

Hi there, so glad you stopped by!

Are you looking for a sweet, tangy and delicious salsa? Something out of the ordinary that will have everyone begging for the recipe? Then you’re in the right place! This Strawberry Mango Salsa has only 6 fresh ingredients, and is ready to eat in less than 10 minutes!

Did you know that May is National Strawberry Month?! If it was up to me, every month would be National Strawberry Month. Since, sadly, it’s not, I will take full advantage of it in May and stock up on strawberries at a great price, while I wait for my strawberry plant to start delivering those red beauties right to my door step!

There are many ways to eat strawberries. From eating them plain to putting them in desserts or drinks, or even in your favorite breakfast. Strawberries are great no matter how you eat them! Today I’m sharing a new way to eat this delicious red fruit…in salsa!

I’m not a big spicy salsa fan. In fact, most salsas are too spicy for me. So when I heard about fruit salsas, I was in the kitchen whipping up a batch that night. My first attempt was a tasty peach salsa that we made last fall.

Peaches are out of season this time of year and this pregnant mama was wanting a sweet salsa to enjoy with some tortilla chips. Luckily, A few weeks ago I found strawberries for $1 a box and knew they would be a good base for my salsa. I also picked up a few mangoes and limes and made my way home.

I cut some cilantro from my indoor herb garden, diced up some leftover onions from burgers that weekend and mixed it all together. What I got was a sweet and tangy salsa my whole family devoured! I actually had to go back to the store the next day to get more strawberries to make another batch. If you like a little more heat to your salsa you could add some jalapeño or serrano peppers to kick it up a notch.

Strawberry Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberries, diced
1 cup mango, diced (about 1 mango)
1/8 cup red onion, diced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp honey
juice from 1 lime

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine honey and lime juice.
In a large bowl combine strawberries, mangoes, onions and cilantro.
Toss with honey-lime mix.
Chill until ready to serve.

Strawberry Mango Salsa

Ingredients

1 cup strawberries, diced
1 cup mango, diced (about 1 mango)
1/8 cup red onion, diced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp honey
juice from 1 lime

Instructions

In a small bowl combine honey and lime juice.
In a large bowl combine strawberries, mangoes, onions and cilantro.
Toss with honey-lime mix.
Chill until ready to serve.

https://westerngardens.com/strawberry-mango-salsa/

What is your favorite way to eat strawberries? Head into any Western Gardens Center to pick up your strawberry plants and get started enjoying the fruit of the month!

Want a few more tasty strawberry recipes? Check these out:

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Strawberry French Toast Cannolis

Copy Cat Sonic Lemon Berry Slush

Cookie Butter Apple Dip

April 20, 2015 by Becky

Mother’s Day is just around the corner and do we have a treat for you today! In fact, we have a double treat. We’re going to show you a simple 4 ingredient Cookie Butter Apple Dip in mini chocolate bowls, PLUS we have a great giveaway for a Gardening Grab Bag! Win it for yourself, or give it to a favorite mother in your life. Keep reading, you won’t want to miss a thing!

The chocolate bowls go together in minutes, and then you can put them in the fridge to set. Everything can be prepped ahead of time so you can just pull it out of the fridge when you’re ready to serve!
Simply melt your chocolate (the instructions below will keep it in temper. If you overheat the chocolate, the cocoa butter molecules won’t realign properly, resulting in a soft set chocolate even at room temperature). Put a small dollop of chocolate on a lined cookie sheet, dip the balloon in the chocolate, and place it on the dollop of chocolate. Then just let the chocolate harden, deflate the balloon, and you’re ready to fill it with cookie butter fluff!

Cookie Butter Apple Dip

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chocolate
6 Tbsp cookie butter
2 Tbsp vanilla greek yogurt
apple slices

Directions:

Blow up 7 water balloons to desired size (I did mine small). Wash and dry balloons.
Melt chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. (Microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring in between, in a plastic bowl until smooth).
Put a small dollop of melted chocolate on a lined cookie sheet (a little bigger than a nickle).
Dip a balloon part way in chocolate until it’s the size you’d like. If necessary, use a spoon to push the chocolate onto the balloon. Place on the dollop of melted chocolate. Repeat with all balloons.
Let chocolate set. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes if necessary.
When chocolate is set, make a small snip with scissors near the knot of the balloon. You want it deflate, not pop. Peel deflated balloon out of the chocolate bowl.
Thoroughly combine the cookie butter and yogurt. Place in a sandwich bag, snip a corner, and pipe into chocolate bowls. Serve with apple slices.

**********THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED**********

And now for the Mother’s Day Giveaway! We’ve teamed up with Bite of Delight to bring you this awesome gardening grab bag valued at over $55! {It contains a pruner, trowel, trigger nozzle, garden shears, gardening gloves, kneeling pad, tote, and a black 3-pocket apron that will be custom embroidered with the winner’s name of choice!} And we’ll ship it all to you in time for Mother’s Day!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway ends 4/27/15, so don’t wait to enter! Open to US residents only.
We are also running this giveaway on our Instagram account, so head there for even more chances to win!

And if that wasn’t enough, there are NINE more chances to win equally awesome prizes from these other fabulous blogs for yourself or a favorite Mother in your life.

1- My Daylights 2- Eat It & Say Yum 3- Tastefully Frugal 4- The Things I Love Most 5- Bite of Delight and Western Gardens 6- Home Crafts by Ali 7- Gypsy Road School 8- Mom’s Bag of Tricks 9- Honest Harm 10- Happy 2BA Homemaker

Sugared Cranberries

December 23, 2014 by Becky

Sugared Cranberries are an easy, beautiful way to decorate your table, Christmas tree, cheese plate, mousse, or even cupcakes! They are simple to put together, but I like to let them sit overnight, so start these the day before if you can. You can still make them the day of if you don’t have the time, and all will be well, but the sugar tends to adhere better and give it a better sugar crust if you let them sit overnight.

If you want a deeper molasses flavor, you can use raw sugar or brown sugar to make the simple syrup, but white sugar works great as well. To roll the sugar, it works best to use a coarser-grained sugar, like an organic variety (but not as large as a raw sugar). If you roll it a second time in a fine sugar (just pulse your sugar a few times in your blender!), then it will cover any bare, sticky spots that the coarse sugar didn’t get. This is optional, but gives the cranberries better coverage.

Sugared Cranberries

Ingredients:

1 (12 oz) bag fresh cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
coarse sugar (for rolling)
fine sugar (for rolling a second time, if desired)

Directions:

Wash cranberries and discard any that are bruised, damaged or shriveled.
Combine one cup of water and one cup of sugar in a pot, and bring to a simmer. Stir until sugar is dissolved and remove from heat. Let cool until it is warm, and pour over cranberries. {Do not pour hot syrup over your cranberries or they could burst.} Let sit overnight, or at least until the syrup has cooled.
Remove cranberries from syrup with a slotted spoon and let drain on a cooling rack for about an hour (I like to place mine over a cookie sheet to catch the drips).
Working in small batches, roll the sticky cranberries in the coarse sugar, and place on a clean cookie sheet to continue drying.
Once all the cranberries have been rolled in coarse sugar, roll again in fine sugar to fill in any spots the coarse sugar missed, if desired. Place on cookie sheet to finish drying (give them a couple more hours if you can).
Store in an air tight container at room temperature.

*My 6 year old niece came over for Thanksgiving and inhaled these cranberries! So if you like a tart-sweet combination, this is a great snack!

Companion Planting 101

May 10, 2014 by Becky

Companion planting can help your garden flourish in ways it never has before. You can have healthier plants and a better harvest (and even control some garden pests!) by choosing with care which plants go together and which plants to keep apart. Companion planting isn’t difficult once you have a few basics down. This is, however, a very broad subject, so we’ll cover the basics here to get you started! Through companion planting you can:

enhance the flavor of your harvest (plants like herbs can enhance the flavor of nearby plants)
increase your yield (some plants help others grow better)
improve nitrogen (some plants can make nitrogen available to other plants)
repel pests (the biochemicals of certain plants can repel insect and other pests)
attract good guys (beneficial insects are attracted to or like to inhabit certain plants)
divert pests (certain plants attract pests, which can keep them away from your garden)

Companion Plants

{The list looks small, just click on it to enlarge!}

Other highly beneficial plants to consider for your garden:

catmint: deters ants
chamomile: helps keep nearby plants healthy
foxglove: lends strength and longer life to nearby plants
lavender: attracts bees and deters caterpillars, mice, ticks & rabbits
marigolds: deter pests
marjoram: repels insect pests, attracts bees
mint: repels insects pests, attracts beneficial insects
nettles: a weed, but it excretes nutrients into the soil and protects against aphids, black fly & mildew
pennyroyal: deters ants & burrowing insects
soybeans: nourishes and reconditions soil, and deters corn pests
tansy: repels pests
tarragon: beneficial to nearby plants
yarrow: good for veggies & herbs, attracts beneficial bugs

One of our favorite combinations for the garden is one of our favorite combinations for the kitchen…tomatoes and basil! Basil will add subtle flavor to tomatoes, makes it more disease resistant, and repel aphids, fruit flies & house flies, and it will attract bees! If you missed last week’s recipe for
bruschetta, a simple but amazing combination of tomatoes and basil, be sure to pin it so you can make it this summer! We will keep bringing you weekly garden-fresh recipes to give some kitchen inspiration for all those delicious fruits and veggies!

Happy planting!

Fruity Pasta Salad

April 29, 2014 by Becky

Looking for a fresh, colorful side dish for your Mother’s Day brunch this year? Try this fruity pasta salad! It’s versatile, flavorful, and easy to put together…perfect for busy moms and grandmas (and dads too)!

You can use any combination of soft fruits in this salad. Here we used strawberries, pineapple, grapes, kiwi and mandarin oranges.

Peaches, nectarines, grapefruit, plums, all kinds of berries, bananas…add whatever combination sounds good!

Strawberry Mango Salsa

Ingredients

1 cup strawberries, diced
1 cup mango, diced (about 1 mango)
1/8 cup red onion, diced
2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp honey
juice from 1 lime

Instructions

In a small bowl combine honey and lime juice.
In a large bowl combine strawberries, mangoes, onions and cilantro.
Toss with honey-lime mix.
Chill until ready to serve.

https://westerngardens.com/fruity-pasta-salad/

St. Patrick’s Day Mini Fruit Skewers

March 6, 2014 by Becky

If you are looking for a new idea, try these fun and festive (and healthy!) fruit skewers for St. Patrick’s Day!

St. Patrick’s Day Mini Fruit Skewers

Ingredients:

1 kiwi
1 cucumber
1 green apple
1 d’anjou pear

Directions:

Cut fruit and cucumber into bite-sized pieces. Using a party toothpick (with a green tip), skewer the fruit. Serve immediately.
Green grapes (cut in half) would be a great option too!

Happy Spring, it’s almost here!!

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~ Becky

Tips For Picking Ripe Cantaloupe

September 27, 2012 by Becky

If you’re like me, you can use some tips for picking ripe cantaloupe, because it can be hard to tell when it’s ready to eat!

I used to think I didn’t like cantaloupe very much. And I guess I didn’t really. My problem was that I was eating bland, dry, flavorless cantaloupe that I bought on sale somewhere. I learned my lesson and discovered how to choose or pick a cantaloupe that is ripe and ready to eat. Now when I’m either picking fruit at the store or from my own garden, there are some simple tips to help you spend your money and time wisely.

Follow these simple tips to choose a melon that is ripe and ready to eat.

LOOK – Cantaloupe should be a nice golden yellow color. Don’t pick cantaloupe that are greenish. They are not ready! Don’t worry about rough spots that may be on the outside of your cantaloupe. They don’t mean anything as to the ripeness.
FEEL – You should be able to feel the edges of the outer skin. A smooth skin means it is not ripe. The flower end (the end not attached to the vine) is soft. You should be able to press it gently in. If it springs back out after pressing, your cantaloupe is ready.
SMELL – Place that blossom end or the “button” of the cantaloupe just under your nose and take a whiff. A strong sweet aroma indicates the cantaloupe is ready. Sometimes you will smell the strong aroma without smelling the button. If it doesn’t have a scent, don’t pick it or don’t buy it. It is not sweet.

Now when I eat cantaloupe, it is like a little slice of heaven. Fresh from my garden, picked right off the vine. It is heavy, fragrant, so very juicy, and still warm from sitting in the sun in my happy little weed-filled corner of the world. This is what makes me love to garden. And what makes me love to eat!

Perfection!