I did say that we were going to pick corn and beans this week, didn't I? Well, there's no corn in this picture because Andy picked a bushel and a half of it and froze most of it (4.5 qts worth) Sunday night, but there are three pounds of beans, almost all of them from Gareth's Three Sister's Garden.
This is what I started with the morning of Labor Day: if you can't count the zucchini, there are ten of them. ;-) On Sunday I'd sat down and written out a housecleaning schedule for our September break, but I made one glaring omission: the garden. So instead of cleaning out the laundry room yesterday, as I had written down on my list, I worked on food all day.
Out of what you see here (plus a few assorted other ingredients, some of which we also grew), I made:
- Ratatouille -- all 3 eggplant, 4 zucchini, 2 green peppers (locally raised, but not mine) from the refrigerator, garlic (locally raised), 5 smallish tomatoes (mix of red and yellow), basil and parsley. I used the recipe from Preserving the Harvest (linked in my sidebar) and meant to freeze most of it. But Andy and I ended up eating some of it for lunch, and Katydid tried it and liked it, and so I put a couple of pints in the refrigerator for lunches this week, and only froze a pint. I was surprised that Andy liked it so much, since he is not a big fan of tomatoes or zucchini, but this one gets a big thumbs up. It's really, really good. (Although I think my Italian zucchini variety had something to do with it! It seems sweeter than your usual hybrid.)
- Zucchini Bread -- Out of 6 zucchini, I made 1 giant loaf and 1 13x9 pan of chocolate chip zucchini bread, and 1 medium-size oval baker and 1 9x9 pan of regular zucchini bread. I ran out of oil, so I substituted vanilla yogurt. Happily, it's better this way! We've scarfed down almost 3/4 of the oval baker today. Farmerboy ate zucchini bread for breakfast and lunch. I put the rest of the bread in the freezer.
- Yellow Squash Muffins -- Sounds bizarre, I know, but all 27 muffins are GONE as of lunchtime today. A friend of mine, who is in the same boat as far as squash goes, sent me this link. I didn't have any applesauce, so I used the whole cup of melted butter, and I added about a teaspoon or so of cinnamon. The recipe says it makes 18 muffins, but I guess my squash must have stretched it somewhat.
I didn't get around to freezing the beans. (Gareth requested that I not attempt making Dilly Beans with his beans. Have I mentioned that there are at least 20 qts of beans in our freezer already?) That's for today. And today we did get around to the next room of the house on my housework list: the kitchen. I've decided to take advantage of "many hands making light work" and get everyone to focus on ONE room of the house every day, just to get done some of the stuff that isn't done on a regular basis. This morning I gave the little boys soapy rags and set them to wiping stuff, Gareth moved the island, cleaned under it, and mopped the floor, and Katydid and Pop cleaned out the pantry while I sorted food, cleaned a bunch of clutter off one of the counters, and attempted to make the toaster oven less of a fire hazard.
There's still a lot more to do, though, and since I am feeling better (and thanks to everyone who commented on my breathing post :-), I probably ought to go do it. While I have no illusions about getting everything on my list done, even a quarter or half the list would be progress. Progress feels good.
So, until September 22, I'll probably be working quite a bit around here, offline. If I seem a little scarce, that's why.
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