This simple veggie salad is light and so easy to make! I came up with this recipe after visiting my friend Amy Brown’s Laughing Goat Flower Farm.  Amy has a beautiful flower farm and grows vegetables that she sells to local restaurants. When I saw how many beautiful varieties of cherry tomatoes she had in her massive garden, I knew I had to make something with them.  I also grew some of my own vegetables and wanted to use what I had in my garden as well! Using what is fresh and in season is something I really enjoy. There is nothing better than picking something you have grown, as you know exactly where it came from. I have always enjoyed growing and cultivating my own food.

When my husband and I first met, he took me to Idaho to meet his grandparents.  They lived on a farm in Kuna, Idaho. The farm had been in his family since the early 1900’s.  My husband’s grandpa had the most amazing garden. I remember walking through row after row of every vegetable you can imagine and all sorts of berries, melons, grapes, and fruit trees.  Grandpa and Grandma Fuhriman would make delicious jams, grape juice from different varieties of grapes, the best pickles you’ve ever had, and so many other things. They canned everything they grew.  I ate so many good things that weekend and decided that one day when I had a home and property of my own, I would have a garden.

My husbands mom, Kathy, also has an amazing garden and her garden is also beautiful.  She has a knack for growing things, just like her father, Grandpa Furhiman did, but she also makes it look pretty at the same time.  I have enjoyed canning with her when I go to visit her in Idaho in the summer.

There is something magical about being able to go into your own garden, pick fresh produce and make recipes with what’s in season.

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Simple Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Course Salad, Side Dish, Snack

Keyword fresh, salad, Tomato

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Chill 30 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 4 Pints Various Cherry or Small Tomatoes
• 1 Cucumber Large
• 1 Shallot Medium Sized
• 2 TBSP Olive Oil
• 1 TBSP Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper

Instructions

• Slice 4 Pints Various Cherry or Small Tomatoes into halves and put in a mixing bowl.
•  Then dice 1 Cucumber into small pieces.
• Peel and chop 1 Shallot up into small pieces as well.
• Drizzle approximately 2 TBSP Olive Oil and then add 1 TBSP Lemon Juice. 
• Add 1 tsp Salt and 1/2 tsp Pepper to taste and toss to coat everything in the Olive Oil and Lemon Juice.
• Chill until serving.

I paired this light and fresh salad with my homemade lasagna to balance out the heaviness of the pasta. It goes well with anything though.  So, if you have a lot of cherry tomatoes on hand or see some nice varieties at the market, this is a great accompaniment to any main dish. Let me know what you think! Enjoy!

[holly_healthful_tips]  

Holly’s Helpful Tips:

*Some of the varieties Amy grew in her garden and that I used in the salad (in case you’d like to grow your own) were: Jaune Flamme (bigger orange) Lemon Drop (round yellow) Yellow Pear Cherry Bomb Chadwick Cherry Black Cherry *You can make this salad with any tomatoes you’d like! Fresh is always best! This dish has so much color, making it the perfect salad or side for any meal. Beautiful and delicious! [/holly_healthful_tips]

Simple Veggie Salad

The post Simple Tomato Cucumber Salad appeared first on Home With Holly J.

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Fresh Peach Dessert Recipe

Whether I am in Utah or Washington, at the end of the summer it is peach season!  Both states have a lot of peach trees! I love peaches and the yummy desserts you can make with them. Peaches remind me of summertime and this fresh peach dessert recipe makes me wish it was summertime all year long!

A few weeks back I was at a family gathering at my brother’s home in Cache Valley in Northern Utah. They had invited some friends and family over to celebrate my nephew’s return from a two-year mission for our church.  

After the church service, we went back to their home, and my brother and his wife hosted a luncheon. We were all so hungry after a long morning driving up there and attending church, so when I saw this amazing peach dessert, I knew I was going to have to try it! Everyone there was salivating over it. I shouldn’t admit it, but I dished that up first and ate that before I had anything else! Who needs to eat a sandwich first when there’s a yummy fruit-filled dessert on the table? It was so good! Fresh peaches and whipped cream, how can you go wrong?!

I tracked down the lady that made it, and she graciously shared her recipe with me. I made some tweaks to her recipe that included the addition of almond extract (at my husband’s request, he LOVES almond extract) and using real whipped cream instead of Cool Whip and this is the result.  Either way, it’s amazing and so good!

Ingredients

• Graham Crackers – used for the crust
• Butter
• Sugar
• Cream Cheese
• Milk
• Almond Extract
• Peaches – Use fresh peaches! I love to wait until they are in season and are generally cheaper.
• Lemon Juice
• Whipping Cream
• Powdered Sugar

Directions

Crush the Graham Crackers and add in the butter and sugar to create the crust. Set aside about ¼ of a cup to use to sprinkle on top of the whipped cream at the end. (Optional: 2 tsp almond extract)

Press into the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish. Bake for 10 minutes on 350 degrees then let cool for 15-20 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, combine the cream cheese, milk, almond extract and sugar until blended well.

Peel and slice the peaches and drizzle with lemon juice to prevent the peaches from browning

Put the cream cheese mixture on top of the graham cracker crust and then top with the freshly peeled peaches.

In a separate mixing bowl or stand mixer, whip the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and almond extract. 

Cover the top of the peaches with whipping cream. Garnish with leftover graham cracker crumbs and a few berries or peaches.  

Chill until ready to serve.

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Fresh Peach Dessert

Course Dessert

Keyword dessert, peach, whipped cream

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 55 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Ingredients

• 3 cups graham crackers crushed
• 4 TBSP butter melted
• 4 TBSP sugar
• 16 oz cream cheese
• 5 TBSP milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 tsp almond extract
• 8 fresh peaches peeled and sliced
• 2 TBSP lemon juice
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

• Crush 3 cups graham crackers and add in 4 TBSP butter melted, and 4 TBSP sugar. Set aside about ¼ of a cup to use to sprinkle on top of the whipped cream at the end. (Optional: 2 tsp almond extract)
• Mix and press into bottom of 9 x 13 dish. 
• Bake for 10 minutes on 350 degrees then let cool for 15-20 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
• In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, combine 16 oz cream cheese (2 packages), softened, 5 TBSP milk, 2 teaspoons of almond extract, and 1/2 cup sugar. Beat until all the ingredients are blended well.
• Peel and slice the 8 fresh peaches, drizzle with 2 TBSP lemon juice, and toss gently to coat all the peaches. This keeps the peaches from turning brown.
• Put the cream cheese mixture on top of the graham cracker crust and then top with the freshly peeled peaches.
• In a separate mixing bowl or stand mixer, whip 2 cups heavy whipping cream and add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the remaining 2 teaspoons of almond extract.
• Cover the top of the peaches with whipping cream. Garnish with leftover graham cracker crumbs and a few berries or peaches.  
• Chill until ready to serve.

[holly_healthful_tips]  

Holly’s Helpful tips:

*Blanch the peaches first.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop peaches in for 2 minutes.  Take them out and immediately immerse them into ice water to stop the cooking process.  This makes it so the skin peels off without destroying the shape of the peach and also allows you to make nice uniform slices.  This is not a requirement but I’ve found that it helps keep the peaches intact and you don’t lose as much of the peach when you peel them as you do when you don’t blanch them first.

*Lemon juice helps prevent the peaches from turning brown.  I drizzle 1-2 TBSP and toss to coat the peaches.

*When I am pressing graham cracker crumbs into the bottom of the pan, I use the bottom of a glass or measuring cup to help flatten out and press the crumbs into the bottom of the dish. 

*I sometimes add 2 tsps of almond extract to the graham cracker crust. If you’re not a huge almond extract fan, you can leave this out.

*I use a wider, taller serving dish that has higher sides on it.  See photos for reference.

*You can use cool whip instead of whipped cream if you prefer.

[/holly_healthful_tips]

We love peaches over here, so this dessert has been a real hit! If you love peach season, run and try this and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

If you like this recipe, you’ll also like my Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie.

Or my Fresh Fruit Cobbler.

For more on details of this tablescape and recipes, click here to see my Outdoor Farm to Table Collaboration. 

Photography by: Missy Palacol

For info on Laughing Goat Flower Farm 

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One of my favorite recipes to make is my delicious homemade lasagna recipe. I make it with homemade meat sauce or what they call bolognese. This recipe is also what I use when I’m making a marinara or bolognese sauce for spaghetti! You can make it vegetarian by leaving out the meat and it then becomes a simple marinara. This recipe has evolved over the years as I’ve learned more about authentic Italian cooking.  When I went to Italy years ago, I had the most amazing pasta! I asked the little Italian grandmas who hosted us how they made their sauce. I came back from my trip and tried to replicate what they told me to do. It’s taken a few years, but this is the recipe I’ve come up with that I think is pretty close.

The most important thing is the quality of the ingredients.  If you can get fresh San Marzano tomatoes, that is your best option.  If you can’t find them (they are hard to find sadly) you can use Roma tomatoes.  They also have canned San Marzano tomatoes and I use them when I don’t have real tomatoes.  Use fresh garlic and a quality olive oil. Fresh herbs also make it even better!

This sauce can be frozen and used in other pasta dishes.  I will often make a giant batch of it for spaghetti, then I freeze the rest and use it when I want to make lasagna. This can be a time-consuming recipe so having the sauce already made is a time saver.  Sometimes I will make the sauce without the meat and mix in cream or alfredo sauce and serve it with some kind of ravioli or tortellini. So many options with this basic Italian red sauce!

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this lasagna recipe using this amazing sauce!

[holly_healthful_tips]  

Holly’s Helpful Tips:

*When boiling water for pasta, always add salt to the water.  It should be like seawater and helps flavor the pasta while it’s cooking.

*You do not have to use zucchini in the recipe, but if I can add some vegetables to the sauce and hide it from the kids, then it’s a win-win!  I use a hand blender right in the pot as it’s still cooking. Be careful not to splatter the sauce on yourself!

*The best tomatoes for any authentic Italian tomato sauce are San Marzanos.  They are a Roma type of tomato. I have only found them a few times and in the summer so if you can’t find them, don’t fret. You can use regular Roma tomatoes.  You can actually use any tomato you have but these are the best options. If you can’t find fresh or either, you can buy canned San Marzano tomatoes!

*If you don’t have fresh basil, you can use dried basil.  2-3 teaspoons will do.

*I prefer to grate my own cheese but you can always use pre-shredded cheeses.

*I don’t like large clumps of ground beef in my sauce so when I am cooking the meat I use a metal potato masher to break up the meat into a uniform size.  The hand blender will take care of blending it more. If you have kids and they don’t like big chunks of tomatoes, this trick and the blender helps hide the vegetables!

[/holly_healthful_tips]

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Homemade Lasagna

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Lasagna

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Ingredients

• 1 Box Lasagna Noodles
• 3 TBSP Salt
• 12 San Marzano or Roma Tomatoes Washed and Quartered
• 2 Cloves Garlic Finely Chopped
• 3/4 cup Onion Finely Diced
• 1 cup Carrots Shredded
• 1 cup Zucchini Shredded (optional)
• 1 cup Celery Finely Chopped
• 3 Basil Leaves Finely Chopped
• 3 TBSP Olive Oil
• 1 1/2 lbs Lean Ground Beef
• 1 tsp Pepper
• 2 tsp Garlic Salt
• 2 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1 TBSP Sugar
• 1 can Tomato Paste
• 6 cup Mozzarella Cheese Shredded
• 2 cup Asiago Cheese Shredded
• 1 cup Romano Cheese Shredded
• 3 cup Parmesan Cheese Shredded

Instructions

• Begin by making the sauce in a 5-7 quart Dutch oven or large saucepan. Saute the 3 TBSP Olive Oil, 2 Cloves Garlic, 3/4 cup Onion, 1 cup Celery, 1 cup Carrots, and 1 cup Zucchini on medium-high for about 5 minutes.
•  Add the 1 1/2 lbs Lean Ground Beef, 2 tsp Garlic Salt, 1 tsp Pepper, and 2 tsp Italian Seasoning and cook until the ground beef is fully cooked.
• Then add the chopped 12 San Marzano or Roma Tomatoes, 1 TBSP Sugar, 3 Basil Leaves, and 1 can Tomato Paste. Simmer on medium-low for about 30-40 minutes stirring often.  
• Bring the water for the lasagna noodles to a boil and add the 3 TBSP Salt to the water. Once it’s boiling, add the 1 Box Lasagna Noodles and stir often to help keep the noodles from sticking together. Take the noodles out just before they are fully cooked and drain them in a colander. 
• While the sauce and noodles are cooking, grate the different cheeses (6 cup Mozzarella Cheese, 2 cup Asiago Cheese, 1 cup Romano Cheese, 3 cup Parmesan Cheese), setting aside 1 cup of the parmesan cheese for the top layer, and dump it all into a bowl, and toss gently to mix it up.
• When the sauce is done simmering, take an immersion blender and blend the sauce up right in the pan. Add in the finely chopped fresh basil. If you don’t have fresh basil you can use dried basil.
• Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Set your sauce, noodles, and cheese next to your baking dish.
• Use a ladle and start by putting a little bit of sauce on the bottom then layer the noodles, more sauce, and then cheese. Continue until you get almost to the top and finish with a layer of sauce and the remaining cheese on top. 
• Take the parmesan that was set aside earlier and put that on the very top.
• Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. When the cheese starts to turn golden brown and the sides of the pan are bubbling, it’s done.

This recipe is best served hot with some nice french bread and if you want a yummy salad to go with it, try this Cherry Tomato Salad as the perfect compliment to this rich pasta dish.  

Delicious homemade lasagna recipe

The post Homemade Lasagna appeared first on Home With Holly J.

A few months back I had the opportunity to attend a floral arranging workshop at a beautiful rose farm in Washington. It was a wonderful day and I met some very lovely and talented ladies.  After the workshop, we stayed in touch and soon we were talking about doing a collaboration. We brainstormed our ideas and thought it would be so much fun to utilize all our different skills to create a farm to table meal and outdoor tablescape.  We wanted to create the perfect outdoor entertaining environment where friends could gather and enjoy the last bit of summer and transition into fall.  Part of what was so amazing about this collaboration was that one of the ladies owns a farm where she grows fresh flowers and produce.  This was a dream come true!  Creating a beautiful tablescape with locally grown flowers and cooking farm-fresh food from a local farm was something I’ve always dreamed about doing. A gorgeous farm to fable entertainment. I plant a garden each year as well, but my garden has become the local buffet for the deer that have discovered I grow everything they like to eat! They didn’t leave much for us to eat.

I really enjoy cooking and creating a beautiful table.  I was excited to create some recipes after finding out what was available from the farm. I went out to Enumclaw, a town not far from my home in Ravensdale, Washington, and met up with Amy Brown at her beautiful farm. The farm is fittingly called Laughing Goat Flower Farm and rightfully named because she has the cutest goats ever. The views from the farm are incredible and there is a perfect view of Mount Rainier. Amy grows many varieties of flowers for the Seattle flower market and for local floral designers. She is also a great gardener and I loved walking through her garden.  She sells her produce to local restaurants where I’ve had the pleasure of eating.  Amy is so knowledgable about growing flowers and food.  She is planting 1200 peony plants this fall and has begun adding roses and hydrangeas.  I could get lost in her acres of flowers!  Amy and I have become friends since meeting and I have visited her frequently at her farm.  The farm is a work in process and Amy and her husband Steve, are planning to have floral arranging workshops, weddings, and other events at the farm in the near future.  I can’t wait to see the farms progression and gorgeous farm to table entertainment!

Tammy Myers is the owner of First and Bloom, a floral design company in Fall City, Washington.  She is a talented floral designer and finds creative ways to use native plants and greenery in her floral designs. At the workshop, I watched Tammy make her arrangement and she is a true professional.  She used items that could be cut right from her yard along with all the beautiful flowers from the rose farm. Tammy uses locally grown flowers whenever possible as it helps support the local farming communities.  Her floral designs are so unique and beautiful.  When I told what I envisioned for the tablescape and the color palette, she brought it to life in the most beautiful way.  I wanted white flowers mixed with greenery.  It was absolutely perfect. 

Through Tammy, I later met Missy Palacol.  She is a talented photographer in the greater Seattle area. She has worked with other bloggers and is so good at capturing the details of what you’re photographing. I had seen her work on other instagram accounts and was excited to work on this project with her.  I do a lot of the photography myself so it was nice to be able to focus on cooking the food and decorating the table and let Missy do her magic. Her beautiful photos brought to life this amazing collaboration.  

I asked Missy if she had any tips on photographing a party or entertaining event so you can remember what you did. I always take photos so I can remember what I did in case I want to recreate it and it’s also nice to take some photos when your guests arrive.  I’m a big fan of making memories and documenting it.  Here are some tips Missy shared with me.

*Don’t think you have to take just one photo and be done with it.

*Always shoot from multiple angles and play around with the light at each angle. Not only does this allow you to find the perfect shot, but you will get multiple pics of the same subject.

*Get up high

*Get down low

*Straight on

*To the left

*To the right

*Shoot through something so you have a foreground which can really add another level to the depth of field to your image.

For the tablescape, I had this vision of an outdoor french country theme. I had these beautiful blue and white dishes that I hadn’t used before that gave me the inspiration for the color palette.  I didn’t want to do traditional fall colors as the colors hadn’t changed yet in my yard. I also had this beautiful custom farm table that I keep outdoors and some french bistro chairs that completed to french vibe.

We all met at Amy’s flower farm the night before to pick out what we wanted for the flowers and greenery.  Amy and Tammy loved the color palette I had chosen and what I was envisioning.  We then set about to find the perfect flowers to go with the dishes and linens I had selected and then cut the flowers we had selected.  Amy and I then went to her garden and picked the vegetables for the recipes. We picked san marzano tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, shallots, garlic, basil, carrots!  I was in heaven and couldn’t wait to start cooking with these perfect vegetables that were so fresh! We love this gorgeous farm to table entertainment.

The next morning, Amy and Tammy brought all the flowers we cut the night before and brought them to my home. When they arrived, they wandered around my eleven acres of wooded property and found many more items to use in the floral arrangements we planned to make. One plant we are lucky to have in the Pacific Northwest is salal.  It’s a native plant that grows wild. I had a lot of it in my yard so Tammy snipped a bunch of it to make the simple garland. I really enjoyed having Tammy show me how she made the garland. It is so simple and creates a lovely effect on any table. It also holds up well outside of water for awhile.

For the centerpiece, I envisioned a garland running down the middle on top of a blue table runner with a centerpiece in the middle.  I wanted a mix of white flowers and greenery and I wanted to keep it simple and elegant at the same time. Tammy created a centerpiece that had a rustic feel to it and used the beautiful dahlias and other white and cream colored flowers from Amy’s farm.  

We then set the table with the beautiful blue and white dishes, blue napkins, silver flatware, and stemware.  I then added in some rustic candlesticks, votive candleholders, and some velvet pumpkins.

In between all this, I cooked the food with Amy’s help and we had such a great time talking about all the fresh vegetables from her farm. I shared some cooking tips with Missy and Amy while we gathered in the kitchen.  

I chose to make my Homemade Lasagna when I discovered that Amy had san marzano tomatoes in her garden. They are the best tomato for a red pasta sauce.  She had an abundance of small cherry tomatoes which inspired the Simple Tomato and Cucumber Salad.  Yakima peaches were also in season and local so I decided to make my Fresh Peach Dessert.

When it was finally time to sit down and eat and enjoy the beautiful table, we all reflected on how much fun we had getting to know each other through this entire experience.  We all share a love of flowers and farm to table cooking. I truly enjoyed creating this inspirational tablescape and having the abundance of Amy’s fresh produce to make our meal with.

I think it’s safe to say they LOVED the food and I think that it was the best lasagna I’ve ever made.  I credit that to Amy’s San Marzano tomatoes. What a treat to get to cook straight from her garden and to have the beautiful flowers surrounding us.  Tammy made my vision come to life and Missy captured this whole experience perfectly. An amazing and gorgeous farm to table entertainment vision came to life!

I hope you will find inspiration in what we created and that you can see the true joy we had doing this. I seriously adore and admire these darling friends I’ve made.  I truly hope you find as much joy reading this as we did creating it.

Sources linked here:

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GORGEOUS FARM TO TABLE ENTERTAINMENT

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