Green Tomato Relish

What can I say... This recipe is simply delicious and VERY unexpected also! Because the fall is upon us and because the temperature was starting to dip low at night, we figured that it was time to pick the remainder (a large remainder) of our tomatoes before they got damaged by the frost (never mind this AWESOME stretch of weather we're currently on!). Aside from a few really nice ripe fruits, we had lots of green tomatoes... lots!

What to do with all of them? The only thing we've ever really done with green tomatoes back in my native country was to pickle them (they are delicious, might I add!). But I felt like I wanted to do something interesting instead.

Once again, I scoured the Internet for an idea... I found 3 or 4 interesting things, but finally stopped at a recipe for a Green Tomato Relish. Although I WAS hesitant at first (I'm not a big fan of relish), but I decided to give it a try, and I was not disappointed that I did! It's sweet, yet soft and mild, there is something about it that makes me want to put it on everything!

Green Tomato Relish

Homemade Salsa

HERE WE GO!

As promised, and a bit overdue, I'm sharing a recipe of salsa I made for the first time ever. I've never actually made salsa before - my adventures in preserving have mostly been in jams (posted here and here). But this year our garden provided us with an overabundance of tomatoes, so it was TIME to do something about it. After looking around the net for a few simple, but interesting recipe, I stopped at one that I felt would be a) easy to prep and b) easy to modify - I adopted (and tweaked) from the Stop Lookin Get Cookin blog.

And here it finally is!
(Note that I skipped the step of peeling the skins off tomatoes and I did NOT add sugar to the jars before pouring in the cooked salsa, in part because I just forgot, but also because there's enough sugar as it is.) 

Homemade Salsa

Fresh Summer Salad

A few people were over having supper with us the other day and I made a simple salad that I think goes well with on a side of anything. It's packed with fresh veggies and herbs, dressed with simple oil and it just delicious. I was asked how to make it and I didn't even think about because it's SO easy! I swear to you that this is probably the easiest salad you'll ever make.

Zucchini Pancakes

For those that know a little bit about my home country of Belarus know that most, if not all of our national dishes are usually made with potatoes. That's right, I come from the potato land (and I love potatoes)! However, this year, once again, I let our first zucchini overgrow in our vegetable garden... to about 4 lbs!

What to do... I love potato pancakes, they are a staple in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian cuisine. Originally, my plan was to make potato-zucchini pancakes, but since I ran out of potatoes this weekend, it became just Zucchini Pancakes. They are sooooo easy to make and so quick that I didn't feel the need (and frankly, had no time) to make illustrations. I'm sure you'll be able to figure this out, it's that easy :)

Hubby had them with maple syrup. Being true to my Slavic roots, I had mine with sour cream.

Zucchini Pie

My awesome neighbour and friend G shared a zucchini pie recipe with me today, and now it's my turn to share it with you! Since I still have zucchini left from our garden what a better way to eat it by trying something new?! And I love to try new foods, he-he... :)
So here it goes:

G's zucchini pie, yum!