I can never keep my kitchen counter cleared off. Friday night and Saturday morning are the worst, when I’ve heaped up ingredients for my weekend projects. Sloppy Joes, Sweet Potato Chowder, Applesauce and Salsa.
Do you have a weekend project?
Category Archives: Food
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today’s post comes to us from tim.
- The weekend at my daughters school was pretty lame
- We got a late start my fault
- Got to dinner too late after unloading at airb2b
- Had to deal with oncoming illness
- Events were poorly planned out and yet ok
- Seeing daughter was great
- Letting 16 year old hang with her sister was worth it
- Brunch should be go to meal every day
- People watching is my 2nd favorite thing
What’s a summary of something in your life with bare bones description?
Music To Cook By
VS’s story about making pesto reminded me of the pesto fests that Husband and I had this month as we harvested the too large basil crop in the garden. Husband took the leaves off the stems, which I find to be the most tedious of chores, and I whirred up the ingredients in the food processor. We ended up with 54 jars.
Husband has gout in one of his feet, and he needs to shift his weight from one foot to the next pretty regularly if he has to stand for any length of time. I figure that he stripped about 110 cups of basil leaves off the stems this year over three pesto making extravaganzas. That meant a lot of standing at the sink. He said it would be easier for him if he had some music to listen to and shift his weight to as he took care of the basil. He thought that Celtic music would be good for the purpose. One evening we tried something by Clannad, but that was too dreamy and new age. We finally settled on a disc by Danu, a group we heard once at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. He shifted and danced his way through the basil stems, and it wasn’t too tedious for him at all.
I listen to music as I do paper work for my job. I typically choose classical music for work. We have music on most of the time at our house, and choose music accordingly for what we need to get done.
What music helps you work?
Sweet Corn or Bust!
Today’s post comes to us from Ben.
My sweet corn finally got ripe. It’s not good. But Dammit, I’m going to eat it!
I get sweet corn from the seed corn dealer. Two small bags slightly bigger than what you’d pick up from Fleet Farm in the spring.
I use the first bag as I test the planter as I start corn in the spring.
I divide the seed into 3 rows of the planter and then plant the sweet corn testing depth and the monitor and just making sure the planter is working properly.
This year, the first 50’ I had the depth wrong so the corn never emerged. And the last 75’ was next to the pasture and woods and the deer ate all that before it even got tassels. But I kinda expected that.
Then I plant all the rest of my regular corn. And then, before switching the planter to soybeans, I plant the second batch of sweet corn. Some years that might only be 3 – 7 days. This year it was about 2 weeks between batches.
I plant the second batch in a different field, close to the house and on the other side of the field from the trees and deer.
This year with the weather being so cool, it took a long time for that second field to get ripe. The bottom of the ear was tough and the top and middle were just OK. I don’t know if was the variety of the sweet corn or just the way it ripened. And there was a lot. 12 rows 100’ long. I knew it was too much but I take a lot to the my siblings and I freeze some and I invite others. This year, I bought corn earlier to freeze as I didn’t know if mine would ever get ripe
But darn it; I look forward to sweet corn all summer and I’ll be darned if I’m going to not eat it just because it doesn’t taste good!
Sigh.
But I think I’ve had enough corn this year…
What do you do even though it’s a dumb idea?
Pesto Party!
Our two basil plants have been constantly picked over this summer (YA and I can find a use for basil in almost everything) and I was thinking that maybe next year we should plant more so we would have enough for putting up some pesto. In swept a hero friends, bringing us excess bounty from their garden and with it a renewed dream of pesto through the winter!
YA wanted to help so we set up production. I stripped the leaves and minced the garlic; she did everything else, from washing the basil leaves to measuring, then running the food processor and getting the finished pesto into the jars. She even stayed at it when I had to run up to Kowalski’s for more garlic, although she did leave me with all the clean up.
So now we have pesto to last us for a while, although I doubt it will get us through the entire winter – we’ve already both had pesto on naan today!
What do you need enough of to get through the winter?
State Fair 2017
As you all know, I adore the Minnesota State Fair. This year I was able to attend three times: opening day on my own and twice with Young Adult. Some new things this year: a thorough exploration of the West End area, Macaroni & Cheese Curds, llamas and alpacas in the very back of the horse barn. And the traditionals as well: Hawaiian Shave ice, bunny whispering, butter heads. After three years of lusting after them, YA and I caved this year and purchased a big set of Thin Bins, collapsible containers with color-coded lids. We also went home with some t-shirts, assorted bags and cookies.
Even though it is essentially the same parade day after day, it is one of my favorite parts of the fair. I love seeing the different marching bands, the dairy princesses and the art cars.
On reflection though, one of my favorite things about the Fair is the people watching – and the unbelievable “variety” there is in the folks of Minnesota (and Iowa/Wisconsin/Dakota visitors). Lots of different family types, from extended families in matching shirts to young families with their jam-packed strollers. An amazing array of clothing and shoes – why would you wear bright white tennies to the fair? Or high-heeled shoes? Lots of shoppers (YA and I included) getting fancy scissors, wine pouches, shark teeth – this list could go on and on.
So now the fair is finished for another year and I’m already looking forward to next year. If my feet and my pocket book can handle it, maybe I’ll go four times!
Where is your favorite people-watching locale?
Tomato Land
It’s all your fault that I have too many tomatoes. Six years ago I read Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook, based on somebody’s recommendation on the trail. That made me want to grow my own tomatoes in the worst way. That led me to straw bales which had led me to today; tomatoes are taking over my kitchen!
This past weekend I tried to make a dent. First I made salsa for the freezer (2 jars):
- 4 cups diced, fresh tomatoes (Roma) – I didn’t peel them because I used an immersion blender after the salsa cooked down
- 1 medium green pepper, chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 chopped loco peppers – didn’t seed them so I could keep the heat
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 1 Tbs. sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2-1 Tbs. cayenne pepper
- 4 Tbs. chopped cilantro
That didn’t make a big enough dent so then I made Tomato Veggie soup in the slow cooker:
- 3 cups diced tomatoes – again left the skins on
- 2 cup water
- 1 ½ cupsw green beans, cut into bit-sizes
- 1 cup diced potato
- 1 cup diced turnit
- 1 cup chopped cabbage
- 4 Tbs. cooked onion (sautéed w/ the garlic)
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- ½ green pepper, diced
- 2 bouillon cubes (I used vegetarian cubes)
- Salt & pepper to taste
Everything into the slow cooker, on low for about 8 hours.
Then today I came home and found another batch of ripe tomatoes on my vines. Help!
What do you like to do with excess garden produce?
Name That Carrot
Husband is now able to put some weight on his right foot, by using one crutch and his walking cast. Yesterday he was able to do some garden harvest; he came up with some lovely carrots and potatoes, and of course thousands of cherry tomatoes.
In past years we have unearthed some wonderful carrots – here is one we called Carrot Man from 2014…
And today I can’t resist taking a couple of pictures of one special (set of) carrot. I had a caption ready for it/them, but thought it would be fun to let the baboons come up with a caption
Do you have a special vegetable memory in your past?
Name That Carrot.
Defrosting the Freezers.
The tomatoes are ripening. Due to the extremely hot temperatures this summer, the pole beans are only now loaded with flowers, and, if we have a late frost, we will be inundated with green beans and shell out beans. The third spinach planting is getting bigger. Husband just ordered two lambs from the butcher shop in Newell, SD. One lamb will eventually go to son and DIL, but we will need to store it until we can transport it to them. We currently have the largest basil crop in our history, and it all will go into the freezer as pesto. I estimate we will have 30 jars of pesto before we are finished. We give lots of pesto away to friends and family, but it all needs to be frozen and stored until it can be distributed.
Husband and I have three and a half freezers in the basement. We have two large uprights, one small chest freezer, and the top freezer of a refrigerator. There is really no reason for us to have so many, but that is just how it has turned out. Friends tell use that they will camp out with us in the event of a national disaster since they know we well be able to feed them for months.
Our freezers are usually full to overflowing. I can most of our tomatoes or turn them into canned salsa or sauces, but sometimes it is more convenient to stew them and freeze them. We haven’t figured out how to cook for just two, and so we have leftover soups and casseroles that have to get frozen as well. I make a wonderful, all-purpose stock from turkey wings and ox tail, and we store the stock as well as wings and tails for future batches. It is not easy to find either turkey wings or ox tails in town and when we find them we buy them. We freeze our garden veggies and seal them with a vacuum packer, and the frozen packets spill all over the shelves. We have lots of greens and beans left over from last year. Due to overcrowding and poor organization, it was hard to see exactly what we had in the freezers, so we bought twelve pounds of ground round this summer when we didn’t really need it, and we have pounds of ground veal, lamb, and pork as well. I will make lots of meat balls this Christmas.
It has been too many years since we defrosted the freezers, and the frost has been taking up too much space. As I thought about the new produce and lamb coming in to the house in the next couple of months, I knew that the freezers had to be defrosted and reorganized, and that was what we did last weekend. I purchased bins to contain the plastic veggie vacuum packages and ground meat, and tossed anything that had been there too long. Why, if We had many jars of grape jelly, did we need a large container of our home grown grape juice to make more jelly?
I really dislike defrosting freezers. It is messy and gross. It is a trick to keep what is frozen from thawing while the ice melts. It is so easy to just wedge a container in, and shut the door, and go upstairs, and try to forget about it. Imagine my surprise when, after all was done and mopped up and cleaned and organized, that we had freed up the space in one entire freezer. I told Husband that we are not moving all three and a half freezers when we leave here after retirement. We have to learn to minimize and cut back. I give us 5 years to figure it out. The freezers will need defrosting by then, so it will be a good time to downsize.
What tasks have you left undone that need your attention?
One-Way Market
On my trip to Madison last weekend, I went to the Dane County Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning. It is a four-block affair that rims the capital building. You can enter the market from any of the incoming streets but my friends explained early on that you can only go one way at the market.
As we were there pretty early (6:30 a.m.) and it wasn’t very crowded I didn’t understand the rule about one-way. And it’s not a posted rule either, so that made me want to turn and go the other way very badly.
But after about an hour of very leisurely looking, tasting and shopping, it had gotten very crowded; that’s when I realized the intelligence of the one-way rule. At that point it would have been very awkward (and inefficient) to try to go against the crowd. My friends told me that in another hour, it would be even worse!
It was a great market – all local folks, no re-sellers. I ended up with a purple cauliflower, a chili-cheese bread, a little tiny apple pie, cherry tomatoes that taste out of this world, squeaky cheese curds, another cheese w/ Kalamata olives and some multi-colored potatoes. A real score!
When have you gone against the grain?
Trail Baboon 