Norwish Recipes

Garden season is coming on into full force and we are loving it. Did you see our garden update  that I posted earlier this month? If you've been following my facebook page  you may have seen the harvest pictures that I've been posting once in a while. Gardening is great. We love it. Especially the harvest. One of the questions I get asked a lot is what do I do with all of the produce from the garden. We grow a big garden and obviously for a family of four, there is more fresh produce than we can use at the time it ripens. For the last nine years we've been learning tips and tricks to use the produce in the garden. Using what you have is one of the great ways to live a frugal life. Today I'll share a few ideas with you and then I'd love to hear any that you have to share with us. What to do with Garden Produce: Eat them raw - This is probably the most popular and quick way to use up garden produce. Much of it can be eaten raw. I always am finding my kids out in the ...

I may have mentioned before that my husband gets to travel for work sometimes. And of course he eats out a lot when he's traveling. He has grown to love Thai food. He found a restaurant in Hawaii that he would rave about their Massaman Curry. He went their multiple times (on different trips) and loved to order it. He always said it was the best. Well I decided for Father's day this year to surprise him with a Massaman Curry dish. I hoped it would be good, but never intended to be able to match his beloved Hawaiian restaurant's version. He coached me a bit at the end with how to adapt this recipe that I found at  Favorite Family Recipes . And lo and behold when we tasted the finished product, he loved it and I did too! He said it was equally as good if not better as his favorite version. Soul food. So there you have it folks. You can make exotic (at least for me this is considered exotic) food in the comfort of your own kitchen. This version is not too hot or spicy, so even ...

Grilled Yam Salad 3 yams 2 red bell peppers (or orange or yellow) 1 sweet onion olive oil 1 avocado, diced 1 C cherry tomatoes (or more) 3 T cilantro, minced 1 lime juiced salt Peel yams and slice length wise, place in large bowl. Slice pepper in 3 big pieces, remove seeds, place in bowl with yams.  Drizzle with olive oil and toss in the bowl with tongs until olive oil covers peppers and yams well.  Slice onion into 1/2 inch thick slices, leave slices together.   Preheat grill on high for a few minutes, then turn heat to low and place yams and peppers on the grill.  Oil onions and place on grill also.  Shut grill to help yams cook well. Watch carefully.  You want a little char, but not too much. When cooked through, remove from grill, dice into desired size pieces and put in a bowl. Add diced avocado, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice and toss to coat.  Salt to taste. *I'm in love with this salad right now and have made it the last 3 weekends to ac...

We're always excited to find new ways to use our garden produce. I shared these yummy zucchini muffins last week in case you missed them and they are superb. Today I'm excited to share this delicious Zucchini Lasagna recipe given to me by Kim, my hair stylist and good friend. She grows a beautiful garden and has shared many awesome gardening tips and ideas with me. She told me about this lasagna at the end of last gardening season and I never got a chance to make it. I texted her this year begging for the recipe when my zucchini came on in full force. She was kind enough to share the basic ideas with me and I adapted it using on my own spaghetti sauce and a few ideas I read about from the web.  One of the wonderful things about this recipe is the fresh Mexican ricotta cheese. Mexican ricotta is different than regular ricotta in that it has a wonderful firm texture without a lot of liquid. If you can't find the Mexican ricotta (I think you can actually make it too, but I u...

I don't know about you but school is sneaking up on me way to fast. All to soon the rush will be here again and questions of "What's for breakfast?", "What's for lunch?", and "What's for snack?" will plague me every day times two. Sometimes thinking up creative answers to those questions is difficult. My first grader won't even eat a sandwich so that throws some extra fun into the school lunch mix this year.  In my efforts of late that alternate between freaking out and trying to prepare for those inevitable school days just around the corner, I ran across this recipe that I started perfecting last year but never finished before I ran out of the zucchini harvest. Well I'm happy to report that my zucchini harvest is back in full swing so I've completed the task and this recipe is wonderful in it's perfected state. Delicious, moist, and light. Healthy, hearty, and sweet. These tender morsels of yumminess are just the thing for...

I can't believe that summer is almost over! The garden is producing like crazy and in case you missed it, last week I shared a tour of my lovely garden sanctuary . People often ask me what we do with all of the food from our garden because it's a lot more than a family of four can eat when it comes on in full force. I spend a lot of my time this time of year preserving the garden harvest so that we can eat it all year round. Since I'm not a huge fan of canned green beans (and I don't think they are very nutritious), I usually preserve the green beans by freezing them. And they are wonderful. Home frozen green beans are so much better than those you buy from the store because you can pick and freeze them at the peak of their ripeness so they will be tender and yummy when you use them later in the year. Green beans are definitely one of the prized harvests from the garden and today I'm going to share a step by step tutorial on how to freeze them so you can do it easil...

A few weeks ago my oldest son and husband decided that they would start a challenge to see if our whole family could not eat any sugar treats, sugar drinks/soda, or candy until school started. School was 30 days away at the time and I of course though. Duh! Of course I'll do that with you! :) It's been two full weeks and I've been amazed at the stuff my kids have passed up: donuts, candy bars, lemon meringue pie (that was a bit hard for yours truly...), and TONS more junk. They have done soooo well! And don't worry...it will all pay off. At the end of 30 days we will have a special adventure trip (I think it involves fishing on a floating device of some sort) as the reward. So have I noticed a difference? I have. I love watching the effects of my family becoming more healthy. I know for myself I feel better. More energy. I get more done. I feel invigorated. I have more patience. Healthy is great. And I really am hoping that at the end of the 30 days my kids will be bett...

I decided that it's time again for me to share with you our sanctuary. We've spent a lot of time this year in the garden and it has paid off. It's such a wonderful place. There's just something about a garden that soothes the soul, awakens the senses, and provides a feeling of tranquility like nothing else does. I hope you're ready for a WHOLE LOT of pictures. Welcome to our garden! View from our patio. New this year you will see the drinking fountain which comes in super handy with thirsty boys! Walking through our grape arbor you will notice this lovely new hibiscus flower. One of my other favorite new additions this year. Another angle of the grape arbor Looking back towards the house A row of tomatoes. We use a lot of carpet and black plastic to keep the weeds down. Tomatillos Pole Beans and Cucumbers Rows of Corn Melons Brussel Sprouts Turnip Beautiful Squash Flower The sunlight one beautiful spring morning in the garden Beautiful flowers Now entering through t...