I have mint growing in a pot in my garden.  
      The reason it is growing in a pot is because mint is a very invasive plant and will take over a bed quickly! 
        Mint is also a very useful plant in the garden because many garden pests are repelled by its smell.  I move it around among my squash plants to try to repel squash beetles.  It seems to have worked the last couple of years! 
      Not only that, mint is a beautiful plant with textured green leaves as well as the lovely aroma that non-pests really like. 
      But, lately as I wander about in my garden looking at my lovely plants and thinking about the recipes that I will make with them, I realized that I haven't been cooking with the mint and I decided that I needed to do that.  I wondered if I would like the minty taste in very many foods and felt like its use was probably limited.  Well, after doing a bit of research, I discovered how wrong that assumption was!  Now I can  hardly wait to try using mint in a bunch of new recipes, and I can only hope that I am growing enough of it! 

     Don't you just love happy accidents?  I do, especially when it comes to my garden! Last year, the happy accident was that I ended up growing tons of pumpkin plants, thinking that some of them would be pattypan squash.  I only ended up with one pattypan plant, but tons of pumpkins which yielded me over 15 pumpkins!  I have frozen pumpkin puree in my freezer to last for years!   This year, I thought that I had planted an over abundance of yellow squash, but as it turns out, I planted patty pan in one of the spots and it is producing prolifically! 
       Besides the few pattypan that I was able to harvest last year, this is the first time that I am going to be able to find new recipes, give away and preserve pattypan squash!  I am so excited! I came up with a simple and delicious recipe yesterday that I will share with you today!  Click Read More! 

     I promised a garden update and I'm happy to give you one today because I am so happy with my garden so far this year!  
      One of the benefits of living here in Phoenix is that we can grow food just about all year round.  The hardest time to grow is in the hottest part of the summer, basically the months of July and August, but even then there are some very heat tolerant plants that can survive even our extremely hot summers.  Then, in September we can begin sowing our Winter crops and by the end of February, the winter garden starts to finish up and in goes the Spring/Summer garden! 
      This year I had a bumper crop of peas in my winter garden which delighted me to no end.  I even had enough to freeze some for later! 
      Once my peas were ready to pull out, I already had seedlings ready to go in to replace them!  The miracle of planting those little seeds and then later harvesting large fruits and vegetables never gets old for me.  Click Read more and I will tell you how I get it all to work and where else I get produce to preserve and feed to my family. 

     Easter is such an important and meaningful holiday to our family and to everyone, whether they realize it or not.  While the word Easter may come from non-Christian origins, the reason that we celebrate Easter is because it is now  recognized in  Christian religions as the designated time of year that we celebrate the Resurrection of the Savior, Jesus Christ, following his Atoning sacrifice.  
      This year we have taken on the challenge to remember, even more than before, the significance of that event in each of our lives.  The leaders of our church have especially suggested that this week, Holy Week, be a part of our sacred ponderings as we lead up to Easter Day, or Resurrection Day as some prefer to call it.  For the last month leading up to this Holy Week, I have pondered, studied and purposefully tried to keep my thoughts on how I could personally improve the way I Keep Easter in my heart.  Click Read More if you want to see how it has gone for me! Hopefully you will be inspired to purposefully strive feel the Spirit of this Holy Season!