Cookin and keepin

I didn't get a shot of the plate before hand but dinner consisted of stuffed zucchini and green beans from the garden (steamed just a touch). Here is what's left, I was nervous about how it would be received. My wife likes them, I used to make it all the time before we got kids, but the kids was the variable. One just turned one year old and I guess I shouldn't have worried because he eats everything under the sun and seems to love squash and sweet potatoes, so when he barely took time to breathe between bites I shouldn't have been surprised. Our daughter will be turning 9 in two weeks and the last time I made eggplant it did not go well, but I was relieved to hear that she loved it.


After dinner I put some of the glut of potatoes to use. The old standbye, your favorite and mine, potato and leek soup. This picture was taken before I finished filling the jars, 5 in total but when you factor in the large headspace it probably came closer to 4 quarts. Since this is a low acid food and I have no pressure canner, this is going in the freezer, hence the large headspace. Both came from the same cookbook, which I'll have to see if I can find a link to. I must have close to a dozen cookbooks, but this one gets used more than all others.
I first started cooking around the time I "fell off the chuckwagon" (has it been almost 12 years now?) Anyway, its not something I have always been good at, but after growing a lot of my ingredients now I am really getting the sense of accomplishment from it.

Smuckers...Your Fired!

Our long weekend in four easy picture. First we had a picnic with friends, and what do you ask the vegetarian to bring? Salad of course, actually thats not completely honest, I offered to bring it, what you see is the last of the lettuce before it bolted, the last of the radishes, some baby pea pods and a few smallish onions that were not quite ready...oh and of course Nasturtium flowers which we have in abundance right now. So The lettuce and the peas came out and in went the beans and corn.



Then on the fifth we went strawberry picking and came home with about 15 pounds of berries.


and promptly butchered the 15 pounds of berries


In a recipe that says 8 cups I somehow ended up with nine jars of jam (which is not as foamy as the jar up front would have you believe.)


...twelve pints frozen for smoothies
...and three quarts mashed up for shortcake

Life is good.

Attack of the 50 foot Kimchi!

the past week had been a perfect storm of stress and challenge. The old me wouldn't have survived it. Thankful for what I have been given we press forward and all is well again. I had a necessary bike ride through the woods nearby where I discovered a patch of blackberries ripening, and an abundance of burdock. I made mental notes so I can find this spot again, though I don't doubt there are more like it in the area. It was nice. Reminded me of how far I have come, even a year ago I would have just said ouch when one of the canes scraped my shin, I wouldn't have thought to take a closer look to find the berries a little deeper in the patch, and I sure as heck wouldn't have thought "hey, I can use those for food!" when I noticed the burdock, if I would have even noticed at all.

but that is just the beginning. Change it seems is a pervasive thing, The cabbage's time had come, so out goes the cabbage, in goes the corn and beans. And what to do with a vegetable that I have in abundance and am the only one who currently enjoys...store it.Recalling another fond childhood memory I found an answer. Kimchi, for the uninitiated is a fermented cabbage dish (only significantly spicier), and the national dish of Korea. In fact there are as many recipes for it as there are families in Korea, and twice as many available online. I picked something simple that contained as many ingredients as I can get superlocal (backyard) and with the exception of pickling salt and ginger, all of it was grown by yours truly.

So here it is in stage one, the cabbage portion sitting overnight in brine.


the bowls on top are not there for any esoteric reasons, just weight to keep the plate and therefore the cabbage below it, submerged in the water. I of course do not have any taste testing to report as this is a dish that takes time...more than a week in fact. So this will be a to be continued while two quart jars of shredded vegetables get stinky.

...and a happy 100th post to me!