What a strange phrase that is. It is, however, one used to describe preparing your food for winter when there isn't any fresh garden from which to pick.
Above you can see what we've been doing today. Nolan and Mike went to the Tomato Barn (isn't that the best thing you ever heard of? A Tomato BARN?). They used all of our homegrown large tomatoes, the tomatoes from our CSA (3 pounds) and a large box of 'maters from the Tomato Barn to make a double batch of sauce. Yum! After dinner (which was cooked on our new charcoal grill) I threw on the mass of bell peppers from the CSA. They are lovely and roasted to perfection. My good friend Connie recommended grilling them whole and throwing them in a freezer bag as is. After defrosting, peel and seed before using. What a GREAT idea! Thanks, Connie! This was the easiest ever. Since we already had the grill going, it was a cinch to add the peppers when the food was finished.
Finally, I mixed up a batch of bread dough from the book 
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Of course, this is a library book. According to this book, you can mix up a pot of bread dough in minutes, let it sit on the counter for 2 hours, put it in the fridge and cut a loaf's worth everyday for fresh bread. Each day the bit you cut off needs to sit on the counter for 20 minutes and then bake for another 20. Wow. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out. It is sitting on my counter at the moment.
Just when I think I can't be a stay at home mom and work full time I have days that so many things get accomplished. Did I mention I cut both my boys hair tonight, too? That's at least a $40 savings. I'm glad we brought those boys up right. They sure do make life easy now that they are teens.
I'm off for an ice cream run. We're eating healthy but it is summer.....gotta have some 'cream. Have a wonderful weekend. I may hit the sewing room when I get back from the store.
Today was the first CSA pickup! Yeah! We have been eagerly awaiting the local garden bounty. Mike and I hesitated for a long time to join a CSA because we tend to eat the same veggies over and over. We just weren't sure that we would eat the vegetables that we had paid for. Recently, we have been doing a lot of reading about food and changing our food buying and food eating habits. That includes trying new things and eating seasonally. So, we went ahead and joined Goodwill at Homefield Farms.
Here's the bounty we received. While Mike and I gathered our goods in the barn, the boys went out to the strawberry field to pick our box. They've really enjoyed being on the farm and getting to pick their own food. Homefields has several gardens that are for the shareholders to pick themselves. I love that, especially for the boys. There's certainly no fresher food than the food you pick yourself.
As you can see we had lettuce and garlic scape, chard, bok choy, strawberries and kale. It was the kale that worried me a little. I've never eaten it. None of us ever did.
Here you can see what I did with it. I chopped the firmer veggies and sautéed them first (onion, bok choy, garlic scape) and then added the kale. I used sesame oil which adds a little flavor to the dish. After the whole thing wilted, I added some fresh ground salt and pepper.
Mike was grilling burgers while I was dealing with the veggies. You can see my plate full above. Now, I'll admit, these veggies aren't much to look at but WOW were they delicious. I'm looking forward to making it again another night.
Here's the best dessert of all. Fresh strawberries and blueberries. I bought the blueberries at market on Tues. and I can't imagine they are local but they were delicious with the strawberries. Now I have a hankering for a berry smoothie for breakfast. Yum.
