It's Pepper Time at Pin Oak Farms in New Haven, MO

Here they are! If I could throw a rock far enough, just across the Missouri River from Marthasville to New Haven, I could reach the farm where our bell peppers are grown. How cool is that? Here are the bell peppers -- green, red, orange and some with a hint of yellow -- that will be a part of the next several batches of Garlic Earth Seasoning.

As always, we start off with LOTS of fresh organic garlic, fresh organic yellow onion, fresh local bell peppers, and several other fresh vegetables. That's what makes our seasonings different -- the freshness. Oh, and the fact that they're "microbrewed" in small batches, and the unique combination of about a dozen different natural ingredients in each flavor.

Gotta get more peppers while they're ripe!

Lemon Broccoli & Shrimp with Asian Seasoning

Imagine biting into a crisp, stir-fried broccoli floret, some succulent shrimp, both with a little tang from the lemon and sweetness from the ginger & Asian sauces in the Asian Garlic Seasoning -- delicious! Here's a new EASY recipe:

Lemon Broccoli & Shrimp
2 tsp. canola oil
1 lb fresh shrimp (shelled and deveined)
1 lb broccoli florets
the juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp. + a few shakes Asian Garlic Seasoning

Heat the canola oil over medium heat. Saute broccoli florets with a few shakes of the seasoning for about 8 - 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the the shrimp, lemon juice, and 1 tsp. seasoning. Stir, cover and steam for about 5 minutes. Toss one more time before serving.

Back to School

Chef Gordon Ramsay AND planet approved: the 2-tier tiffin. I first saw this lunchbox on a Kitchen Nightmares episode and I found it at the Nubius Organics website. They have tons of earth-friendly lunch gear! I don't know if a kindergartner would find the tiffin very cool, but I sure do.

With the school year quickly approaching, I will try to include some lunchbox-friendly recipes and ideas, so please stay tuned! Many of you experienced parents may already know this, but here are a few tips to get us started:

* Freeze yogurt tubes and use them to keep lunch cool (thanks, Mandy!)
* Freeze juice boxes and use them to keep lunch cool
* My son's new favorite, Ham and Cheese Kabobs: stick rolled lunchmeat and cheese cubes on a small skewer (I'm not sure if the school will allow skewers so I'm going to experiment with straws as the skewer)

My New Favorite Local Band

This goes under my favorite local things: Pik'n Lik'n. I first saw them on accident in Washington, MO at Marquart's Landing. I met a friend for a garlic seasoning deal and there were Ed, Barb and Andy. The first song I heard them play was Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. Imagine Pink Floyd with a mandolin. It was beautiful. Next thing you know, they're playing bluegrass -- a song Ed wrote, I believe. Barb has an Amy Ray quality in her voice; the next time I see Barb she promised some Indigo Girls for me. Hope you can catch them soon! In the meantime, this link will take you to their webpage with streaming songs... turn it up: Pik'n Lik'n

Psycho Balls

What do you get when you combine ground beef with Psycho Chicken and blend in a little Sopranos reruns?

Psycho Balls, of course! You won't believe what else I added (if you know me, you'd believe it).

Inspired by those end of summer reruns, a fellow O'Fallon Farmer's Market vendor and market customer, I created "Psycho Balls". Last Saturday, the jellies and pies vendor yelled across the tents about her idea to make burgers by putting the Southwest Seasoning in ground beef first. Meanwhile, while enjoying a couple days in the Ozarks near the Current River, I received an email from my Garlic Earth T-Shirt winner about his "Psycho Chicken". I'm afraid John is having separation anxiety from his Italian Seasoning :). He sprinkled Italian on one side of a piece of chicken and the Southwest on the other side. I thank both of them for being the inspiration behind this recipe!

Psycho Balls
Makes 4 large meatballs

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/4 cup mixture of bread crumbs, panko bread crumbs, almond meal, flax seed meal
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. Garlic Earth Italian Garlic Seasoning
1 tsp. Garlic Earth Italian Southwest Seasoning
1.5 pounds mixture of ground beef, ground turkey (veal or pork can be added, too)
few dashes of black pepper
1 egg
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 pound spaghetti noodles (I used half organic white with half whole wheat pasta)

Heat the oil in a nonstick pan over med-low heat. In a medium bowl, combine the bread crumb mixture with the milk and seasoning. Mix well with a spoon. Add the rest of the ingredients and combine well with your hands. Let the mixture marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Cut the meat mixture in half. Make 2 meatballs out of each half to create 4 meatballs. Place the meatballs in the hot oil, and brown all around. Gently squeeze the meatballs with tongs on occasion to help them keep a round shape.

Pour the sauce over the meatballs, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes while the pasta is cooking.

I cut each meatball in half and placed it on top of spaghetti on the center of the plate. You can then top with Parmesan cheese and serve.

Congratulations to the 3 winners!

Garlic Earth held its first raffle at the O'Fallon Farmer's and Artist's Market last Saturday. My son drew 3 names from the jar and here's who won:

Jeannie won a bottle of Garlic Earth Seasoning (she chose Southwest)

Michelle & Tom aka "seaweed people" :) won a Garlic Earth baseball cap

John won a Grillin' With Garlic Earth T-Shirt

We'll contact the winners asap. Thanks to all who visited us and for playing along. It was fun and we will try to do that more often.

Our next demo will be Saturday, August 15th at the State Fair in Sedalia, MO. We'll share food samples all day at the AgriMissouri Store, and will be on stage from 12-1pm in the Agricultural Building demonstrating 3 recipes. This link will take you to all the happenings at the Fair that day: State Fair 8/15