ecoyear

Once again many delicious foods - I have been loving the edamame (I boil them for 5 minutes and sprinkle salt on them).  We roasted the potatoes, with carrots and peppers.  The cucumbers are awesome with yogurt-mint sauce.   I took a cue from The Kitchen and rubbed goat cheese all over our corn - it disappeared in minutes!  I made pesto with the basil and parsley (parsley pesto is surprisingly delicious - just parsley instead of basil or mixed up with it).

I would definitely be wasting food if I was not preserving it.  I froze cut up peppers and tomatoes.  Along with what I grew in my garden, I have a large bunch of carrots I want to cut up and freeze for soups.  I would like to put some in cold storage as well, but I am not sure how to do the bucket of sand system, and what part of my house will actually be cold enough for the next two months.  I would rather store carrots from October there and freeze the sweet smaller ones that are available now.

Before it gets too cold, I want to make vichyssoise - a cold smooth potato soup.  I also would love to try this tomato bisque - it sound very nice! 

Sorry no photo - the vegies were cooked and eaten before I had a chance to think about it.  My new thing is opening the fridge door wide and putting everything out on the kitchen counter, then deciding on three or four dishes to make (and freeze), then chopping and cooking madly until it's time to pick up the kids.  In the evening, I might re-heat anything I was planning to can and boil the jars after the kids have gone to bed.  Otherwise I tend to burn something as I get distracted by needy children (don't you love the first couple of weeks of school!).

I do suspect I have nowhere near enough preserved for winter.  I'm getting corn again at the market tomorrow, and more eggplant, and waiting on the tomatoes to come at a better deal since I am aiming for 24 quarts of tomato sauce (!).  By the way, I bought a box of imperfect peaches from Ela Family Farms ($20 for 20 lbs) Saturday and the peaches were outstanding.  Most went into peach crisp, peach sorbet (6 peaches and some mint simple syrup) and puree (5 peaches with 1/2 cup of grape juice - sorry not local) to make popsicles next summer.  I know most things officially last 6 months in the freezer but I am hoping this will go for 9 months.

Needless to say I have cut back on bread baking and I am still putting off learning to make yogurt while this deluge of produce continues to occupy my life.  Next I will have to devote my attention to the kids' homework...