An Adventure in Leftovers

The forecast is rain – again. Seems like this is the rainiest fall ever. Generally the warm and dry August days give way to brown patches in the front and back yard but not this year; it's as green as it was in spring.

Good news – we've had an amazing bounty in the garden. Bad news – the ground is saturated and people are bailing out their basements – not fun. You might recall we had water in our basement earlier in the season but this last flood go around we were dry as a bone – thanks to the landscaper who figured out how to regrade our yard and now all the water goes away from the house instead of toward it.

Last weekend Dan hosted a lovely 60^th birthday party for me – we had great food, family and a lot of fun. The weather cooperated so that we could be outside and I got to spend time with the people who really matter to me.

I did have a hand in helping Dan with the food and true to form we had too much. As a matter of fact we are finally getting to the end of the leftovers. One of the things we had too much of was grilled veggies; eggplant, zucchini, summer squash and asparagus. Don't get me wrong, I love eggplant but I get tired of eating leftovers even if they are wonderful leftovers.

On Saturday I decided that we needed to find a way to finish up the last of the roasted veggies so I decided to make soup, which just so happened to go well with the wet and cool day we were having.

I started with 2 chopped onions, and some garlic. To that I added the leftover roasted eggplant, zucchini and summer squash and 4 cups of vegetable broth and simmered until the veggies were hot, which didn't take very long since they were already cooked.

I pureed the mixture in batches in my Vitamix and for good measure I added two thai chili peppers from the garden to give it a kick; and a delicious kick it was. We served it with fresh bread and a spinach salad.

We're still pulling tomatoes out of the garden and the kale, collard greens and squash are not showing signs of giving in. I've been keeping notes on what worked and didn’t and have decided that I won't be planting carrots or eggplant again – our soil and/or conditions aren't conducive for growing them. I will however, add more broccoli and cauliflower – they were awesome. And I'll try to get the hubby to not plant so many cabbage plants – a girl can only eat so much cabbage.

If you have recipes for kale and collard greens – other than smoothies because if you know me you know I'm not drinking that stuff  - EVER, please send them my way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bottling the Summer Harvest

It's harvest season and our garden is in full swing and then some. I was calculating our expenses for August this evening and I noticed a distinct absence/shortage of purchases at our local grocery store, which is not a bad thing, in fact, it's awesome.

We've been more than knee deep – actually closer to hip deep in cauliflower, broccoli, red, yellow, orange and green peppers. We've finally finished the swiss chard but the kale and collard greens are still going strong, actually I'm not sure what to do with ALL THOSE GREENS!

Our neighbors have stopped taking our calls and barely make eye contact with us these days; I guess they are afraid I'll wander over with another load of tomatoes/cucumbers or whatever I need to get rid of - let's just say we're having an amazing garden year.

Camille is still insisting on spending her free time in the garden sleeping under the pepper and tomato plants. When she can convince us, she wanders into the far reaches of the back yard, sometimes sauntering, sometimes leaping (when the grass is wet) to the highest spot in the yard so she can survey her/lands. To be honest it's hard to deny her anything. She is old, frail and still a sweet, sweet girl – most of the time.

I started my morning around 5:45 am with Camille sitting on my head, meowing in her own special way because, well she was hungry and it is my job to crawl out of bed at whatever time she chooses to feed her (note – Dan was up and not more than 20 feet from her food bowl – obviously he has other duties).

Since I was up, awake and ready for the day I decided to make another batch of tomato sauce – so I chopped, pureed, sautéed tomatoes, onions, herbs, 2 thai chili peppers and an entire head of garlic and let it boil down into a rich, red, tomato sauce – I can't wait for chili, zoodles with tomato sauce and soups this winter –it will be awesome.

Tonight I also found myself with 10 nectarines all ripening at the same time, so I decided to make freezer jam. I first learned about freezer jam from my friend Shane. I like jam but the whole water bath thing seemed complicated. Enter freezer jam no boiling, no canning apparatus just dice the fruit and add the sugar and lemon juice and cook.

You're probably thinking wait she forgot the pectin – no, no I did not. No pectin in this recipe. The thing about pectin is that it adds a sour flavor, which then requires you to add more sugar and to be honest when you are done the jam tastes like sugar, not the fruit.

Most fruits naturally have pectin but it's added to jams and jellies to speed up the process. Truth is if  you boil the fruit longer, the natural pectin is released and you have the same result with less sugar and more fruit!

I started with about 2.5 pounds of nectarines, which I seeded and chopped. To that I added the zest and juice from ½ of a lemon and ¾ cup of sugar. The original recipe called for 2 ½ cups of sugar, which seemed like way to much and the fruit was sweet and juicy so I started with ¾ and tasted it first and it was to my taste so I left the rest out. 

As it was cooking I decided to add some spices to give it an extra kick so I included 2 tsp of nutmeg and ¾ tsp. of cinnamon. I cooked it (stirring often to prevent scorching) for about 40 minutes and then poured it into 3 jars, screwed on the lids and popped them into the freezer. 

I love the color and chunkiness of the jam and the addition of the spices will make it a perfect spread on whole grain toast on a cold winter morning. If you have any jam recipes to share, send them my way - it's like bottling summer.