I succeeded in filling my freezer with the bounty of summer, so much so that there is literally no more room for anything, which is a probem, because I am constantly coming up with things to stuff into the freezer. Things like 1/2 a loaf of corn bread, or a dozen bagels, or frozen raviolis, or a batch of soup. I've got to get the tendency to freeze things under control until I start making some progress in using up what's in there.
And what is in there this year? I have frozen 2-3 flats of blueberries (they were cheap this year), lots of green peppers (my plants were very productive), and tomato sauces and purees (bought 1/2 a bushel of tomatoes for $8 and spent a weekend cooking and pureeing). I used the tomatoes from my garden to make salsas. The freezer also has asparagus (makes great pasta, in a cream sauce with proscuitto), green beans, apple sauce, and blueberry spread (my first attempt at a non-cooked preserve). I have a couple of batches of paprika gravy, some soups (spicy chicken, curried chicken, curried eggplant, and smothered cabbage). There's french fries, a frozen pizza, frozen ravioli, ground beef, sausage and chocolate ice cream as well. And let's not forget the whole chicken, which takes up a fair amount of space and just might find itself being dinner on Sunday (DD has been lobbying for roast chicken).
The little freezer upstairs (the top half of the fridge) has the hot peppers I grew, as well as three bags of basil (hope that's enough to get through the winter). There's some peppers and blueberries, beets, chicken breast, ground beef, corn bread, cranberries, spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce. And other things I'm sure I forgot.
Heaven forbid we lose power this winter and I lose the contents of my freezer. A lot of work went into putting those fruits and veggies up, and I would be sorely disappointed if I lost them. But should we find ourselves snowed in for a week, at least we won't starve.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
A Quick Knitting Update
I am currently working on a scarf for my FIL. It's a navy blue washable wool with four cables running up it. An easy pattern that is knitting up nicely.
Over the summer I made a scarf for DD from a ribbon yarn I picked up at a store in the Finger Lakes. Last time I knit with ribbon yarn; it twists something terrible while knitting, so I was constantly untwisting the yarn. But the scarf turned out nicely.
Also made a pair of socks for DS, but they turned out to be a little small and a couple of dropped stitches resulted in holes, which I haven't fixed yet.
Over the summer I made a scarf for DD from a ribbon yarn I picked up at a store in the Finger Lakes. Last time I knit with ribbon yarn; it twists something terrible while knitting, so I was constantly untwisting the yarn. But the scarf turned out nicely.
Also made a pair of socks for DS, but they turned out to be a little small and a couple of dropped stitches resulted in holes, which I haven't fixed yet.
Cabbage
I bought a giant cabbage at the farmer's market last weekend. Okay, it didn't seem so giant when I bought it, but we couldn't get it in the fridge without chopping it into 4 big pieces.
So then I had to do something with the cabbage. I took a quarter of it and made a batch of smothered cabbage soup, from Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking. I added bacon to it, because, well, it seemed like a good idea. And it was. It turned out to be a pretty good soup, but not the best cabbage soup I've made. Probably will not be making it again.
The rest of the cabbage I cooked up according to a recipe from my mother: slice the cabbage, put it in a big pot with olive oil, saute for a little while, add 1-2 cups of water, 3-6 boullion cubes, some sugar and some nutmeg. This is a very yummy way to make cabbage, and I've made enough to freeze for later. That one cabbage went a very long way.
So then I had to do something with the cabbage. I took a quarter of it and made a batch of smothered cabbage soup, from Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking. I added bacon to it, because, well, it seemed like a good idea. And it was. It turned out to be a pretty good soup, but not the best cabbage soup I've made. Probably will not be making it again.
The rest of the cabbage I cooked up according to a recipe from my mother: slice the cabbage, put it in a big pot with olive oil, saute for a little while, add 1-2 cups of water, 3-6 boullion cubes, some sugar and some nutmeg. This is a very yummy way to make cabbage, and I've made enough to freeze for later. That one cabbage went a very long way.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
A Good Day in the Kitchen
Yesterday was an excellent day in the kitchen. I made:
1) applesauce, from old soft apples that no one was going to eat (peel, core, chop and cook with a little water and a cinnamon stick until soft, mush with a potato masher).
2) spicy chicken soup. The day before I cooked a whole chicken on the grill (cut in half, marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary and black pepper) and from the carcass I made a nice, dark broth (the grilled skin had a lot to do with the color of the stock). To the stock I added the remaining chicken meat, a diced onion, some broccoli leftover from dinner the night before, a little pasta I found in the fridge, sprigs of thyme and rosemary from the garden, salt, pepper, and lots of red pepper. This soup has a kick to it. It's now sitting in the freezer.
3) blueberry cream. The recipe is from Kaffehouse by Rick Rodgers, a Christmas gift from DH. It's supposed to go inside a roulade, but I was in no mood to try to make a rolled cake, having never done it before. So I decided to make the cream (using fresh local blueberries), and serve it in
4) crepes, which turned out pretty good, but the filling is pretty rich and should probably be tempered by a larger piece of cake, rather than a thin crepe. Still good, though, and I have resolved to one day make a roulade. Should start by making sure I have the right pan on hand. Oh, and crepes are a wonderful invention. In the past I've kept some in the freezer and they definitely come in handy. They are great to have around when I've made a batch of paprika gravy (from the Frugal Gourmet's Our Immigrant Ancestors). There's always a lot, and chicken paprika crepes is a good way to use some up.
And then for dinner we had burgers on the grill, with roasted new potatoes tossed in fresh parsley.
The farmer's market has been hopping. Went twice this week. Took my mother on Thursday so she could get bread and lunch meat from the Polish deli for her road trip (they left on Friday morning). I bought strawberries (getting near the end of the season), sweet cherries (the best I've had in years. I'll never by from the grocery store again), broccoli, onions, cabbage, beets and asparagus. But that wasn't enough, no, returned on Saturday with DD for the Blueberry Festival (free blueberry cake and blueberries on sale). I bought a flat of blueberries (used a pint for the blueberry cream and froze the rest), more strawberries and cherries, carrots (for some reason, not seen too often at the market), and new potatoes. I'll have to get another flat of blueberries next week so that I can make sure the freezer is properly stocked (I eat them in oatmeal in the winter).
Tonight we're having fish, asparagus, and some kind of bread, maybe soda bread or cheese muffins. I'll have to poke around and see what kind of recipies I've got.
1) applesauce, from old soft apples that no one was going to eat (peel, core, chop and cook with a little water and a cinnamon stick until soft, mush with a potato masher).
2) spicy chicken soup. The day before I cooked a whole chicken on the grill (cut in half, marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary and black pepper) and from the carcass I made a nice, dark broth (the grilled skin had a lot to do with the color of the stock). To the stock I added the remaining chicken meat, a diced onion, some broccoli leftover from dinner the night before, a little pasta I found in the fridge, sprigs of thyme and rosemary from the garden, salt, pepper, and lots of red pepper. This soup has a kick to it. It's now sitting in the freezer.
3) blueberry cream. The recipe is from Kaffehouse by Rick Rodgers, a Christmas gift from DH. It's supposed to go inside a roulade, but I was in no mood to try to make a rolled cake, having never done it before. So I decided to make the cream (using fresh local blueberries), and serve it in
4) crepes, which turned out pretty good, but the filling is pretty rich and should probably be tempered by a larger piece of cake, rather than a thin crepe. Still good, though, and I have resolved to one day make a roulade. Should start by making sure I have the right pan on hand. Oh, and crepes are a wonderful invention. In the past I've kept some in the freezer and they definitely come in handy. They are great to have around when I've made a batch of paprika gravy (from the Frugal Gourmet's Our Immigrant Ancestors). There's always a lot, and chicken paprika crepes is a good way to use some up.
And then for dinner we had burgers on the grill, with roasted new potatoes tossed in fresh parsley.
The farmer's market has been hopping. Went twice this week. Took my mother on Thursday so she could get bread and lunch meat from the Polish deli for her road trip (they left on Friday morning). I bought strawberries (getting near the end of the season), sweet cherries (the best I've had in years. I'll never by from the grocery store again), broccoli, onions, cabbage, beets and asparagus. But that wasn't enough, no, returned on Saturday with DD for the Blueberry Festival (free blueberry cake and blueberries on sale). I bought a flat of blueberries (used a pint for the blueberry cream and froze the rest), more strawberries and cherries, carrots (for some reason, not seen too often at the market), and new potatoes. I'll have to get another flat of blueberries next week so that I can make sure the freezer is properly stocked (I eat them in oatmeal in the winter).
Tonight we're having fish, asparagus, and some kind of bread, maybe soda bread or cheese muffins. I'll have to poke around and see what kind of recipies I've got.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Thank Goodness for the Freezer
My mother and her gentleman friend have been visiting for the past few days. We took them on a two day excursion to the Finger Lakes region of New York, about a five hour drive from where we live. So we returned home today around 5:00. And instead of ordering out, which is so tempting to do when coming home from a long drive, I pulled a container of spaghetti sauce and meatballs out of the freezer and made spaghetti and meatballs. With a salad (from the garden) and a loaf of Italian bread picked up at the store, we had dinner with minimal effort, and it was great to eat real cooked food after a few days of restaurant food (which gets old fast). A stocked freezer is a good friend.
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