Foodie Friday

It’s been a bit light on the food posts around here lately, but rest assured that it’s not for a lack of garden produce to harvest, cook/process, and consume.

Apples
Like last year, we bought a bushel of organic apples from Blue Heron Orchard.  Unlike last year, we didn’t drive to northeast Missouri to get them.  Rather, we ordered ahead of time and picked up the boxes when Dan was at the Schlafly (AKA Maplewood) Farmers Market — super convenient.  So far, we’ve mostly been enjoying them fresh, but we’ve also dried two dehydrators-full for future enjoyment.

Last year, we experimented with dehydrating the apples with skins on and off and decided that we prefered the peeled version.  I prefer peeling apples with a knife rather than a vegetable peeler, but this leaves a decent amount of flesh on the peel, and I’m loathe to waste anything.

This year, I had the brilliant idea of cooking the apple peels, then putting them through the Foley food mill to make apple sauce.  Two whole apples (added to bulk up the quantity), plus who-knows-how-many apple peels yielded over a pint of very tasty applesauce.

I had good intentions of making and canning a big batch of apple sauce, but that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m not sure it will.  The remaining apples are in our “root cellar” by the front door, and Gabriel loves helping himself to a snack for the road.

Peppers
The early frost meant a sudden influx of peppers, most still green, that needed to be harvested before the frost.  It’s a bummer that more of these babies didn’t have a chance to fully ripen, but we’ll still enjoy them.

I spent part of Saturday slicing and freezing two gallon-size bags of green peppers.   While [non-local] peppers are available in stores year-round, non-organic bell peppers are on the “dirty dozen” list, so it’s nice to have our own to add to chili and other dishes throughout the winter.

Tomatillos
After several attempts to use broiled (or grilled) chopped tomatillos in various dishes left me less-than-excited, I turned to the internet and discovered that most recipes call for pureeing them after cooking, and then using them as a sauce.

Inspired, I pureed and froze 8-10 cups of tomatillo sauce.  I saved a quart to use as enchilada sauce.  The dish turned out quite well, and I hope to share the recipe soon.

Curry leaves
I fell in love with curry leaves last summer when I swapped some of my garden produce for some of Nupur’s homemade Indian dishes.  She gave me a tiny cutting from her curry tree, but it failed to live through our Portland trip last fall.

I’ve had a hard time finding fresh curry leaves at the international grocers that are not too far out-of-the-way from my regular trips, so having our own potted tree would be ideal.  I finally scored some fresh leaves, and I’m attempting to root six little branches.

I’ve managed to keep them alive for over two weeks now — grow, babies, grow!  If this works, maybe I’ll start a side business selling curry trees.

Greens
Finally, our greens consumption has dropped a bit, thanks to the good news that Matthew is no longer taking warfarin!  Not that I don’t enjoy kale and collards, but eating them every. single. day. did get a bit old.