If any of you have gone though a shift change, or have gone to college full time and worked more than 15 hours a week, you now know the story of our life! We have been exceptionally bad bloggers lately but hopefully that will be ending after this week.
Even though we have been bad bloggers we have been good at eating and preserving! Without further ado, our adventures for the last 3 +/- weeks!
One of the main reasons that we started this CSA project was so that we could preserve our bounty and have to buy as little produce as possible come winter. During the first few weeks we weren't sure that this would be possible. Now with summer in full swing, we are starting to see that it is more than just possible!
One of our methods of preservation we have done is using the radish greens. Radish greens are the tops of the radishes. We had never eaten radish greens before this year when we Googled to see if they were even edible. Luckily they are edible and with some additional searches we discovered that they make a great pesto. In an earlier post I explained how to make the radish green pesto. Now however we have frozen it in an ice tray and made it into individual servings that can be dropped into a sauce pan with milk or cream to be used as a sauce or added to any dish for a flavor burst.
Another method of preservation that we have used is the freezer in regards to vegetables. This is probably the easiest method for everyone. All you have to do is blanch the vegetables and then shock them in cold water that has ice cubes added to it. After that dry off the vegetables and then bag, freeze and date! So far we have bags of Zucchini/Squash medley, Cabbage for soups, Broccoli, Green Beans and Broccoli Stalks to be used for soup this winter.
We have also been preserving chicken stock for this winter for soups. So far we have about 5-6 bags. The stock that we make is from raw chicken carcasses and bones from cooked chicken that we have eaten, saved and frozen. Chef Z cooks that chicken in water for 3-5 hours without any added vegetables. He then adds carrots, celery, leeks, and onion along with thyme and other herbs and lets it simmer for another 4 hours. This makes a thick gelatinous like stock that is packed full of flavor and the marrow from the chicken bones. Is there anything better than a thick bowl of stock in the dead of winter?
Any time that we make soup, we make sure to put up at least 2 servings worth for future quick meals. For this we used leftover leeks from making stock, nitrate free local bacon, and potatoes along with celery to make a rich soup. This is a pureed soup that is made with chicken stock as the liquid base.
Tomato soup was also created with some of our slightly softening tomatoes, onion, garlic, chives and yes a can of tomato soup that had been in our pantry since the dawn of time. Waste not want not they say! The fresh tomatoes added a lot to the condensed soup base and the raw milk made it a rich meal.
We also made refrigerator pickles out of some of the old leftover brine since the old brine cannot be used again after being boiled for canned pickles. These pickles were made out of a lone cucumber that was lurking from the share and was unable to be used for a jar of pickles.
Chow-Chow must be the home gardeners life-saver. It has EVERYTHING in it -- cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, etc. We made quite a few jars of it but we are still not sure how it is used in its relish-y form. What do you serve with Chow-Chow?
This patty-pan squash was pickled in the same brine that we have used for pickles but with the addition of turmeric and celery seed. I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but it seems that the turmeric adds to the golden color of the squash so that it retains it's summer brightness!
Even though we are preserving up a storm, we have been making a food to use up all of the produce that we aren't preserving. We are really happy that we haven't been wasting any of the produce. A lot of the vegetables have been showing up in stir-fries, soups and casseroles. It just goes to show that healthy food can be easy to make and enjoyable.
Pasta with carrots, yellow summer squash, tomatoes and romanesco with onion, garlic, anchovies, and mozzarella cheese.
Hard boiled eggs have been a big feature in our household due to the major amount of eggs in our fridge. To get rid of some of the eggs and the zucchini, a loaf of zucchini bread was made using the
Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006
but without the nuts. Yumm.
A quiche of squash, cheddar, tomatoes, zucchini, and onion with a potato crust was made this week. We have been eating it with salad greens mixed with onion, radish slices and pickled beets.
Quesadillas are a great way to use up vegetables! This one was made with a multi-grain tortilla, tomatoes, yellow squash, and with a thin layer of cilantro hummus. It was topped with cheddar cheese and cooked in a skillet until the cheese melted.
One of our nicer dinners was a pan fried chicken leg (the leg was 3 servings if you can believe that!) and a pesto pan sauce with a garden salad topped with a Caesar vinaigrette, along with the aforementioned potato leek soup and a baguette.
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