Sausage Mushroom Pie and a Garden Update

We have been experiencing summer weather around here for the past few days, lots of sunshine and temperatures up into the 80's!  The garden has needed extra attention so all the new flowers and veggies don't wilt in all this heat.

These are snapdragons that I planted last year, I love this hot pink color and they are doing very well, I love snapdragons and try to plant a few every year.

The potatoes that I am growing in potato planting bags are doing very well.  The plants have come up, and I have covered them with more soil, this first picture is of the smaller purple variety that I am growing, they are doing very well.

These are my red potatoes, not as big as the purple variety, but I am happy to see them coming up. You can read about how I planted these potatoes in my post from last month.

Along with the purple potatoes I have growing, I also planted some purple colored bell peppers.  I am growing quite a few purple veggies this year, last year I had great luck with my purple variety of green beans.  This year I am growing the purple beans again, as well as purple peppers, purple potatoes, and purple basil. I guess I just find purple veggies pretty fun, next year I may add purple carrots and radishes as well. :)

I have also finally found a spot for a hydrangea.  I have had mature hydrangea in all of my past gardens, and I have really missed having them.  The tree in my front yard has finally grown tall enough that it has made a nice semi shady spot in my side yard.  I was trying to grow a blueberry in this spot, but it wasn't getting enough sun anymore, so I decided to splurge on a hydrangea, and I am glad I did, it looks very pretty in the corner of my side garden.

I absolutely love the big blue flowers!

We have also had the California Poppies coming up, there are a bunch on the sides of the road in town, and a few in my garden, I look forward to these every year.

I would love to get the rest of my veggies in, with all this hot weather it is very tempting, but I am holding off for a week, last year I planted too early, and the weather went back to cold and none of my green beans or summer squash would germinate, so I had to replant them.  I am eager to get more flowers in this Mother's Day weekend, we have been making great progress weeding and cleaning out the garden beds, I hope to have the garden in good order by the end of next week.  How's your garden coming along?

Last week, before the really hot weather set in, I baked a delicious sausage mushroom pie for dinner.  I love meat pies, and think they are tasty any time of year.  This pie would be great with a salad during the summer.  Here is my simple recipe for Sausage Mushroom Pie.

Sausage Mushroom Pie
1 large onion chopped
2 cans sliced mushrooms or a package of sliced fresh mushrooms
a little olive oil for the pan
salt, pepper, Italian herb blend
1 pound of regular ground sausage
4 large cooked potatoes- peeled and chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/3 cup milk
1 double pie crust (homemade or store bought)

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Add a little olive oil to a pan, and saute mushrooms and onions over medium high heat until they are mostly cooked through and tender.  Then add Salt and Pepper and Italian herb blend to taste.

When onions and mushrooms have gotten a good start cooking, add the sausage to the pan, and scramble it with the mushrooms and onions until it is cook through and lightly browned.  Then add chopped pre-cooked potatoes (whenever I cook potatoes I cook extra to keep in the fridge for adding to recipes like this or for making breakfast potatoes).  Stir mixture until potatoes are heated through, check seasoning, add more salt, pepper, and herbs if needed)

To the mixture add a can of cream of mushroom soup and about a third of a cup of milk, just enough the help the soup mix through the sausage mixture.  Put pie crust into a deep pie pan, then fill with sausage mixture, then add top crust, and seal edge.  Cut a few slits in the top of pie crust to vent the pie.

Bake pie at 400 F. until golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Let the pie cool for about 10 minutes so it will be easier to cut. A very delicious savory meat pie!  I have also made a similar simple individual sausage pie without the soup mixture that is also very tasty.  If you prefer a vegetarian rustic savory pie you might like my mushroom pot pie recipe which is also a family favorite.

I hope everyone has had a nice start to the week, thanks for reading!