Category Archives: Cooking

Lemon Custard

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It has been awhile since anything noteworthy has happened in the garden.  That may have a little to do with a tiny man named Joel.  However, just the other weekend we were able to send our bags and bags of Roma tomatoes through the food mill to make tomato sauce.  Spaghetti is now a staple on our menu again.  Today we had an even more exciting garden adventure with the 3 lemons produced from our Meyer lemon tree.

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Drew whipped up, literally, a lemon custard.  We were both skeptical of how it would turn out, but each one set up very nicely.  We tried one warm, delicious, and now have the remaining ones in the fridge.

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Roma Tomato Sauce

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We thawed out our many jars of Roma tomatoes that we had pre-processed along the way in order to make tomato sauce.

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It took a lot of onions and a few hours to get it cooked down to the right consistency.

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We ended up with several jars to freeze.  It’s amazing to see how many tomatoes it takes to make sauce.

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I forgot to get pictures, but we also made salsa from our cherry tomato stash.  I like it even better than last year’s.  The cherry tomatoes make it very sweet, similar to a mango salsa.  Drew gets to take all the credit for that one, as I only had the energy to peel the garlic.  Thanks Drew!

 

Posted in Cooking, Vegetables

Green Egg Ribs

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A few weekends ago Drew grilled ribs low and slow on the Big Green Egg.  They were amazing.  Thanks to my sister-in-law’s many troubles in procuring the BGE, we had complementary John Henry’s Honey Rib Rub to use on this fine meat.

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We continue to get batches of tomatoes each week.  The Roma are destined for sauce, while the Cherry will become an experimental salsa.

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Posted in Cooking, Vegetables

Pesto and Cucumber Soup

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I decided to grow a few herbs this year, but I have such a habit of using dried herbs that I forget to ever cook with fresh.  Today I fixed this issue with my basil plant by making a small batch of pesto.  I’m freezing it in an ice cube tray to have chunks to use for later dishes.  Hopefully I’ll get even more basil to add to this.

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We are overflowing with cucumbers at the moment but as I still have pickles left over from last season I need to find different uses for my cucumbers.  I love fresh cucumber salad in a vinegar/sugar dressing and plan to make plenty of it this year.  I also went ahead and experimented with making a cucumber soup.  It called for avocado, yogurt, parsley, chicken broth, and spices.  I used our garden onions too.

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I ate it warm and thought it was good.  Drew says he will only eat it chilled, so he is patiently waiting as it cools in the fridge.

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The Lemon

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Can you believe it?  While we were gone our lemon turned yellow, fell off, and turned squishy on one side as it sat in water for who knows how long.  Here is the pretty side.  Drew is telling me to be happy that it at least made a lemon.

DSC02925I did make a couple batches of carrot soup with our large harvest of carrots.  It was the consistency of a butternut squash soup and I great way to use the carrots. First you roast the carrots.

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Here is the rest of the loot that was waiting for us after getting back from Washington D.C.

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Roma Tomatoes

Huge Zucchini

Huge Zucchini

Pepper and Onion

Pepper and Onion

 

 

 

Posted in Cooking, Vegetables

Our Return

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After coming back from vacation we had a few surprises in the garden.  One of them was a crazy amount of weeds that had taken over after the warm week.  The other was a decent harvest of peas, some berries, a pepper, carrots and beets.

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For dinner we had a colorful meal of pea soup and beet and carrot salad.  The picture doesn’t do it justice, but this pea soup was a wonderful lime green.

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Don’t forget the dessert.

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Posted in Cooking, Fruits, Vegetables

Big Green Egg

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The newest addition to our family is the Big Green Egg that Drew got for his birthday from his wonderful family.  This will give him his next project of learning how to use the thing.

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Here is the current state of the garden.  We are hoping to pull up some beets soon.

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Front: Carrots and beet Back: Lettuce, peas, and cauliflower

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Peppers and cucumbers

Corn, beans, and squash

Corn, beans, and squash

Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Posted in Cooking, Vegetables

Venison Jerky

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Take some venison, provided by my dad, and our dehydrator and out comes jerky!  I have never been a jerky fan but I must say this actually turned out really well.  Drew used the venison roast and a marinade of soy sauce, our habanero hot sauce, and various spices.  Yum!

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Hot Sauce

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Time to use all those habaneros!  Okay, let me warn you, this is a hazardous exercise. I was coughing, my eyes watering, and my nose burning all while using rubber gloves.  The combination of the habanero and vinegar fumes is a killer.  Thankfully, I have successfully made a few bottles of hot sauce.

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This recipe has carrots in it, so the sauce is a little chunkier than I’m used to.  We will have to see if I can get it out of the hot sauce bottles without too much trouble.

Posted in Cooking, Food Preservation, Vegetables

Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

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Tonight I made our first dish using our tomato sauce.  It was spaghetti squash and meatballs in the crock pot.

It was very easy to make.  Just throw in the sauce, a little oil, balls of Italian sausage, and a spaghetti squash cut in half with the seeds removed.  After it cooks for a few hours in the crock pot, you remove the squash and the flesh can be scooped right out.  We are pleased with our sauce!

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Posted in Cooking, Vegetables
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