Among the events of this past week, some little things, garden- and pantry-wise:
A steady, if modest, harvest. The onions and garlic are drying outside. I have some green beans in the freezer, along with grilled zucchini for future veggie lasagnas. The winter squash are looking good!
These are supposed to be sweet pie pumpkins, and I'm super excited about delicata squash:
Tomato-wise, I have salsa and a good amount of roasted tomatoes and sauce stashed away. I have an on-going system of letting the less ripe ones sit while I at least chop up and seed the more ripe ones — a bag of minimally processed tomato chunks is in the freezer, waiting for the others to catch up.
Note to self: plant fewer cherry tomatoes! They are a pain! To pick and to process! But the plants grow well from seed and I am a person who cannot bear to throw away even the tiniest little seedling! Meaning that I now am overrun with these dumb things!
That said, if I set myself up to go through a bunch (I can listen to a podcast while I do it, which makes up for not having little ones to fob the chore on), cut them in half, and dehydrate them, I am grateful in the winter for something tomato-y, rich, and sweet to chuck into a salad or a sauce.
I'm trying to be more confident in my dehydrating results and just keep the things in jars, rather than put them in the freezer — little things in my freezer(s) are hard to keep track of.
I hate rummaging for a handful of dried tomato when I'm making a salad. I'd be happier going into the pantry and seeing them on the shelf, and I think I have figured out how to determine if such things are really dry enough (vs. herbs which just become so crumbly that you know!).
I dehydrated some zucchini too! It's amazing because this amount (2 pints) represents a few pounds of zukes!
I caught this photo from the porch: The Chief checking on the bees. We are hoping for a propolis harvest for the medicinal stash — you can read about that below, in the bits & pieces!
The fennel got a little out of control (and after the two ample, and so welcome, rainfalls of this week); it fell over and completely blocked my walkway!
Fennel hosts a vast array of predatory pollinators who apparently attack bad bugs. Maybe I should plant them among the squash — I was killing squash bugs while taking those photos, above!
And also these welcome lovelies:
Speaking of the pantry, I'm slowly tweaking my organization (they can put that on my gravestone, I guess), and I had the bright idea of moving the dehydrator from the mudroom to this spot.
I had had it out in the mudroom because it's a bit noisy for the kitchen and it has a short cord, so needs to be near an outlet. But it's silly to have it be something you see when you walk in, and obviously food belongs in the pantry!
I have to chuckle at my dehydrator when I see people's extra-zowie-acme-deluxe models on Instagram, because I got it at a yard sale for $5 and it is clearly showing its age. Little pieces of it occasionally fall off, although I try to be more careful. But seriously, it works fine! You can regulate the heat and everything! I use it a lot to dry my herbs; they really do come out nicer if dehydrated with a little heat, as opposed to being left to air dry, but you also don't want to heat them so much that they lose their potency — and my oven just gets too warm, even on the lowest setting.
bits & pieces
- A bit of “Doomsday Esolen,” but maybe also a reason to remain firm about taking charge of our children's education: Imagine… What We Already Are
- Propolis information — so fascinating how nature works, and that we are able to hitch a ride
- Auntie Sue sent me the story of Abigail Becker, to add to last week's post about amazing women. (Just switch the word “had” in the first sentence with her name, when you read that account of her heroism to your children!). And also Jane Whyte, who saved 11 sailors from the sea. Love that these ladies had a lot of children in between rescuing folks from drowning. (Award for best and absurdest non-sequitur to the author of that story, who irrelevantly opines, “This heroic lady was ahead of her time and it is fitting that the anniversary falls on the same year as the centenary of universal suffrage for women” as if having the vote would have done her any good or made her any more of a figure of honor. How many of us with the vote have odes written for us, I ask you? Isn't it wonderful that in both cases, poems were written to commemorate these women's acts. Maybe we should encourage our children to try their hand at similar tributes to their heroes!)
- It's always good to talk about a Lewis book: Out of the Silent Planet: A Guidebook Against the “New Normal”
- We went to the movie theater the other night (more on my IG later), and the volume was much too loud. It's no use saying that this perception is due to my age, because older people (myself included) tend to want the audio, on the TV for example, to be set a bit high. This was in the painful zone. Hugh Grant agrees. Calibrate, shmalibrate.
- Even a bald eagle had to be screened by the TSA before boarding!
from the archives
- Speaking of… what Tony Esolen is speaking of: give your children the gift of Purity. Innocence is beautiful.
- Late summer, hot weather goodness: how to make a satisfying Salade Composée out of anything
liturgical living
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Carol Kennedy says
A long time Esolen fan…and yes, that is definitely “Doomsday Esolen”! I am looking forward to his solutions–we always need some hope! The first thing that comes to my mind, that I have been thinking about a lot with a house full of young adults, is how to pass on a good culture to the next generations. I think first we have to abolish the generation gap! We have indulged, widened, accepted that gap for too long! Our children have been encouraged to create their own culture from at least adolescence if not earlier–they have their own special music, movies, language, literature, entertainment–and then we wonder why we can’t connect with our kids. And why they call growing up “adulting”! We need to stop separating families by age groups all the time! This is the scourge of the “youth group” IMHO. (rant over…for now)
Leila says
Yes! I detest separating young people out. I have a few chapters in my book about this! Including something against youth ministry!
Logan says
Have you tried the roasted cherry tomato feta sauce that was going around the internet? Really easy way to use up cherries and is really delicious! Don’t skimp on the olive oil! https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/baked-feta-pasta-9867689
All the posts on extraordinary women are reminding me of a sweet book that my grandmother wrote for me when I turned 10. I’m one of many Katherines in my family and she researched and collected remarkable stories about all of the Katherines, Kates, and Katrinas in our family history. It was a wonderful gift to grow up with the sense of being part of a legacy!
Leila says
I did try that recipe… and have been cooking with tomatoes for a month LOL… it’s all tasty and now I will have a bunch of nice jars of dried tomatoes as well.
That book sounds wonderful! So sweet! Did you know that St. Kateri Tekekwitha is named after St. Catherine? I love that Kateri (we pronounce it Ka TER ee — it’s Bridget’s middle name) is a variant as well!
Dixie says
You made me laugh about the cherry tomatoes. I just eat them as I pick them. All of them. And encourage my children, and the neighbor children, and, hey, you, lady walking her dog! to raid the garden whenever they want. I almost never have cherry tomatoes (or green beans, for that matter, at least up to the height that the kids can reach on the plant!) left to bring inside.
I get tired of tomato season, even though they are so tasty homegrown…by this time of year (I’m South of you) I can’t wait to just pull them up and let the chickens out into the garden.
Leila says
I could not eat them as I pick them… my stomach would curl up and die! And the photo here represents one-one-hundredth of what I could have brought in at that moment.
There are no kids to bring them in… my only close grandchildren don’t really like tomatoes, not even these nice tasty sweet ones!
But anyone who wants to come by and pick is welcome to!
Judy says
I have a dehydrator identical to yours! It’s years old, but still works beautifully. We have a covered back porch where it can run without heating up the house.
Rosemary says
Another way to deal with an over abundance of cherry tomatoes is to ferment them! Once they’re finished fermenting they keep for months in the fridge, and they are delightful little fizzy champagne-like bites that are simply delicious.
Elizabeth K Rau says
Too loud cinemas have been a problem for years. While I don’t often go to the movies, when I do and once it starts and proves to be too painful to listen to, I find the manager and make him/her turn it down. Usually there is a protest about set levels and the number of people in the theatre, etc. That’s my cue to give them a rundown on what is a healthy listening level and what is not. And tell them that if they won’t turn it down, they can refund my ticket as I won’t stay. They have never not turned it down to a bearable level. My grown children insist I’m too scary to ignore. I don’t know about that. I’ve never been rude or nasty; just firm.
Abigail says
A friend tipped me off to drying the cherry tomatoes and then using the blender to turn them into tomato powder! It is shelf stable as long as you are confident in the drying (want them crispy dry not leathery), but I am freezing mine in jars “just to be sure”. We are pretty “tomato independent,” i.e. we grow all the tomatoes we need for making sauce year round. But I was still relying on the little store bought tubes or cans of paste to thicken it. This tomato powder works just the same as the paste.. a couple of tablespoons adds intense tomato flavor and thickening power.. and is a great way for me to use up the crazy abundance of cherry toms. I even limited myself to 3, only 3, in the garden this year, and we still have plenty!
Samantha Webb says
How do you grill your zucchini? I’d like to try it as my husband likes zucchini lasagna.
Katie says
My mom has 6 very productive cherry tomato plants- and she just throws them into a freezer bag as is, and freezes them whole! You won’t want them on a salad then of course but perfect for a recipe like this https://thenovicechefblog.com/caprese-chicken/ (which you can also turn into a baked casserole dish type recipe).
Mrs. Bee says
And don’t forget that, come April, one should put the dehydrator to good use to stock up on water! 🙂
Loud volume has also suddenly become a problem in the grocery stores around us: for some unknown reason, the silly background “music” is now so unbearably loud! I mean to complain, but I seem to forget every time – I just want out of there! It’s aggravating to me, I wonder how the poor employees can stay sane!
Ashley says
Your garden looks great! I thought I was going to have to figure out what to do with all the tomatoes we planted, but my three kids are pretty good at eating them. I know a mom that joked that she grows snacks, and that pretty much sums up our situation. We have enough that make it into the house for a weekly cucumber and tomato salad, but the rest just get eaten. I need to start drying herbs but lack the motivation. Last year, I just froze a bunch of thyme, rosemary, and sage which seemed to work (I got the idea from a gardening blog).
Somewhat random question – is it normal/standard to just invite your priest over for dinner? We’ve already had one of our two priests over for lunch when he blessed our house, and it’s been on my mind to invite the other one over. It’s not something we ever did growing up and I’m not sure if it’s common or not. As an introvert, I wonder if maybe he likes his evenings free or maybe I’m just overthinking it. Thanks for your help!
Anamaria says
Yes, we usually have our priest over once a year or so. This last time it was somewhat quick notice (our pastor is also vicar general for the diocese and was booked for at least a month after!); I just made a nicer weekday meal. He really liked that we put the kids to bed at their normal bedtimes so he saw the two youngest, had some time with the older ones, and had some adult time.
I think it’s helpful for the family to know the priest in normal times (definitely better prepares everyone for if/when there’s a crisis!), good for the priest to have an idea of family life, and good for boys especially to see the priest as a regular person!
Leila says
Ashley, I think most priests are lonely! I think inviting them over is good to do. It’s not common enough!
Rosemary P says
We had a priest from our parish over 4 years ago to bless our (new to us) house and have had him over once a year just because. We have since moved to a different parish and he was an associate who then was moved to have his own parish as a pastor. So, short answer now, Yes! Just invite him over for dinner!
Karen says
I make these tomatoes every year and freeze them. They are just like the very expensive ones you can buy in a jar. Delicious in eggs, pasta, etc. I’ve been known to eat a couple from the freezer like potato chips!
https://foodinjars.com/recipe/marinated-dehydrated-tomatoes/