veggie tales
July 20, 2024
I meant to make a gardening post about my zinnias today but yesterday we picked 50 pounds of tomatoes and that is how my zinnia post got hijacked. These exuberant tomatoes would have their way and pushed the zinnias right off the page. So what does a retired couple do with such a bountiful harvest? Come on in and see, because there's also cucumbers, green beans, zucchini and beets to tackle, oh my!
First we'll take on the tomatoes. We'll have a big harvest like this weekly so I have to have a plan. With about 40 pounds I made 7 quarts of roasted tomato sauce. I pull out my big roasters and drizzle the bottom with olive oil, then lay down basil and parsley, cover with halved tomatoes, more olive oil, several cloves of garlic and lots of salt and pepper and a few dashes of red pepper flakes. I roast them, strain them and bottle them for the freezer. Click this link for my full recipe. Even if you don't grow your own tomatoes, roadside stands will often sell lugs for a good price. FYI, a lug should weigh about 30 pounds. I know this because my grandfather was a commercial tomato grower when I was growing up. I still have and use my grandmother's equipment for processing tomatoes. Tomatoes are in my blood!
I also made a quart of salsa which will last us several days and saved some of the more beautiful ones for slicing and gave quite a few away. One thing I know is that there will be more to pick tomorrow and then next week the whole tomato sauce process will start again.
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| With the cucumbers I make these pickles, recipe here, but we have also fallen in love with this variation of a recipe my Swedish grandmother used to make. It's simply cucumbers and salt mixed with a dressing of one part vinegar and one part sugar. For the above amount of cucumbers I used 2 tablespoons of each. I added tomatoes because I had them. We like to eat it right away but it's also good if it sits for a few hours or even days to marinate in the refrigerator. We eat it as a side salad, piled onto a sandwich, or as a topping on a lettuce salad, spooning some of the marinade over the lettuce as a dressing. Those little blue flowers are borage flowers, an edible flower that tastes faintly of cucumber. The pollinators love it! |
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| Roasting vegetables is still my favorite way of cooking vegetables. |
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| Big Rainbow and Black Krim ready for our BLTs. |
I had an epiphany last week and decided to BAKE my zucchini fritters instead of frying, saving me precious time hovering over a hot stove on a hot summer day. Without a doubt, this is my new favorite way of making fritters. I guess they are not exactly fritters now, but since this new method was as quick as could be and not only saved time but saved us from consuming extra calories from oil, this will be my new way forever more. I made the same zucchini recipe I always make, then spread the mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet that had been covered with parchment paper. I baked it at 375 F for a little over 1/2 hour (I think it was 35 minutes, I just started checking after 25 minutes). And since we weren't going to eat them right away, after they cooled I cut them into squares with a pizza cutter and put the pan in the freezer. After a few hours they were hard as rocks and were easily separated into squares to be stored in the freezer. To reheat I tried three ways.
- Microwave--ok in a pinch for a quick lunch.
- Traditional oven or toaster oven--really good and easy.
- Frying in a pan with a spritz of oil--also really good but a little more trouble.
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| Ready for the freezer. |
We love beets but we only seem to eat them if we grow them. This year I planted two 8 foot rows of a beautiful mixed variety and I've just begun to harvest. Last week I made an easy beet salad with a maple and dijon dressing which we both absolutely loved. I roasted, cooled, peeled and roughly chopped 6 beets with this chopper, the original chopper is still the best! I added crumbled feta cheese, candied pecans from this recipe, snipped chives and chopped parsley for a contrast color and this highly recommended maple dijon vinaigrette recipe.
With this week's beet harvest I'm making borscht. This is my traditional recipe but I'm adding meat to today's soup. We've gone out to dinner three nights in a row which is a lot for us so we are looking forward to staying home tonight and having a healthy soup. The weather has cooled down and it's a good day to make soup. I cooked a pot roast overnight in the slow cooker to beef up the borscht. I woke up to a kitchen that smelled like Sunday dinner! Before I went to bed last night I put the pot roast in my slow cooker, added a quartered onion, 3 carrots and a can of Campbell's Beef Consomme and a can of water, (no subs, this has the best flavor). The vegetables and the juice will also go in the soup. I also roasted the beets last night after we got home from a party. Before bed we watched another installment of The Vikings and it was just enough time to roast the beets. I know it's an old series but we never really finished it as it just got so bloody. This time we are determined! But back to roasting beets, I trim them and scrub them well, then rub with olive oil and put them in a covered casserole dish. Add two tablespoons of water and cover. Bake at 400 F for an episode of Vikings, or an hour ;) and check for doneness with a knife. When they can be pierced easily with a knife, they are done, but you will need to cool them before handing and then the skins slip off easily with your fingers and the beets will be ready for your recipe. I put them in the fridge overnight to deal with today, which meant grating for the soup (messy job, must wear apron). It made 3 quarts soup, so two will go in the freezer.
Well, I'm kind of pooped but today I have a calm and pleasant day ahead of me with nothing to do except knit, garden and cook a little. The weather's perfect and my house is tidy. Looks like it will be a good day!
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| We have a bunny living in our front yard. :( |
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2 Comments
What a beautiful harvest! You must be exhausted after all of this. You will reap the rewards for the next year.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carole!
ReplyDeleteYou make my day when you make a comment!