Keeping Up With All the Produce
My son was sick for more than a week, I’m completely behind on my work, and it’s GORGEOUS outside (built little hoop houses for my winter greens this weekend instead of catching up on inside work). All of this means that the fruit and vegetables, already abundant this time of year, are overwhelming my small refrigerator, counter, fruit bowl, etc. The fruit flies are feasting and time is a wasting on all this beautiful stuff. So I just did a whirlwind catch up job on some of it:
Roasted peppers
Roasted Tomatoes
Cut the rotten parts out of a few quince and am plotting what to do with them all. Compote, paste, apple/quince crisp, jam. . . .
And alas, threw away some rotting lettuce.
I think tonight’s dinner will be a frittata with some of the roasted peppers or a Savory Bread Pudding with some of the peppers and roasted tomatoes and the rest of the basil I just salvaged from the garden.
I feel a bit better about the state of my fridge and counters and am ready for tomorrow’s CSA and all the shopping I’ll be doing for this weekend’s classes. And I do love this season and the bounty and beauty of it, but I won’t pretend that it’s not a lot of work. I enjoy the work and like the creativity of figuring out what to with it all. If I didn’t work at home though, and have a job (have given myself a job:) that involved food, I wouldn’t be able to manage all of it and still have fun with it. I also know it’s a privilege as well as a choice. I’ve been musing about this a lot lately and will devote more time to it in the future, but in the meantime, I wish you the time to preserve and use this bounty if you’re so inclined. And I’m happy to share my techniques and ideas if you’re interested. And I’d love to know what you’re doing with the odds and ends in your kitchen, whether it’s just tonight’s dinner or some favorite way of preserving.
Happy cooking and eating!
Cook With What You Have 
Thanks for the idea- of course, Frrritata! why didn’t I think of that?
Keeping up with the harvest that just keeps going, and actually I’m having to water my Broccoli Raab and greens to make sure the bounty continues- weird in October…
Glad I’m not the only one. We did applesauce and cooked and froze a bunch of corn… I also had a sick little one last week so soup in the crock pot has been my life saver. Veggie soup with potatoes/sweet potatoes and a little immersion blender… it also freezes nicely (add some tiny pasta and the kids go wild).
Ahhhh, the peppers have me drooling! I’m roasting some tomatoes now too. I made lots of salsa, some sauce, have been eating them sliced with breakfast and lunch and I still had 2 trays worth to roast. That’s what happens when they ALL ripen at once. Thanks for the ideas…
Looks similar around here – especially the fruit flies which have the company of 1000 ladybugs on this sunny afternoon.
Made your barley salad a couple of days ago and shared it with Karen and Bill last night. Turned out well. Added some chopped tomatoes and gave the remainder to Ru, Benny and Art for lunch today along with red chard stems in a cheese sauce over noodles and left over roasted little potatoes and kale. Life is good – but the rains are on the way. Time to rescue the remaining Walla Wallas from the garden.
M
My “problem” for tonight is a pumpkin! Cooked down a chopped onion and a couple of carrots, then put in some coriander and fennel, added the roasted pumpkin and a lot of broth. Cooked a while, immersion-blended. Bleh, bland. I had some leftover salted coconut cream (from that delicious Pok-Pok grilled corn-on-the-cob recipe that was in the paper recently) and stirred that in, hoping it wouldn’t turn out tasting like Banana Boat suntan lotion. It’s very tasty! Now my daughter will make a batch of popovers and we’ll have dinner.
I love your account Sue. I often feel that way with soup. And major points for creativity. . . . cook with what you have and taste, taste, taste!
I loved the pictures.
When I skimmed through the pictures, I wondered what THIS dish was going to be. Imagine my relief…!