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I have a mess in the kitchen - it's the preserving season of the year! I have salsa started, with about 8 pints of chopped tomatoes draining, and jalepenos, and garlic ready to chop. I probably don't have enough cilantro still growing in my herb planter. I also have about 30 large tomatoes skinned, and ready to process with the stick blender, and then will add diced celery, bell pepper, and onion, and cook down for several hours. I need to get this done today because it is predicted to be 92 tomorrow.
I'm also in the process of making a d'Italini salad, with celery, onion, red bell pepper, summer squash and zucchini, and peas if I can find some in the freezer. Maybe add some sliced black olives, too. We'll have that with grilled pork ribs for dinner.
I made 2 loaves of bread with oatmeal, bread flour, barley, rye, onion and flax meal.
My bean crop is very disappointing, and I'm not sure why. I grow them in a 2' x 4' x 8" deep planter on the deck, and fertilize with 1/4 strength Miracle Grow about every 10 days. I've also watered them, soaking, about every 3-4 days, as we've had only about 1.25" of rain this month. The first, main crop, was excellent, similar to the crop last year. But I didn't get another crop! For 37 years, I've gotten one huge main crop, a 2nd smaller crop, and then a handful of beans every week or so. This time, the plants did not produce any more flowers, so no more beans. We've had about 20 days of 90* temps, but with about 5-7 days of low to mid-80s in between hot days. It's a variety I have often grown, Blue Lake. Since everything else on my deck flourished with the same management, I don't know why I didn't get more beans. I miss having fresh beans for dinner!
I just picked a 5 gallon pail of huge, ripe Celebrity tomatoes. Tomorrow I freeze sauce and salsa. There are another couple of pails of huge green tomatoes. I think this is the best crop in the 37 years I've been gardening here. Very few of the LaRoma tomatoes are red, but there must be a couple of pails of green ones. The average date of our first killing frost is October 15, so they have plenty of time to ripen.
BakerAunt, I'm so glad your husband is looking out for us!! The .70 inches saved us from watering the garden, but I don't know that it was enough to make a dent in the drought. Hopefully with the onset of meteorological fall next week, the weather patterns will change, but who knows these days what Mother Nature has in mind for us.
We had grilled hamburger patties, corn on the cob, broccoli salad, and a tomato-cucumber-onion salad. We got a horrendous thunderstorm with heavy winds and pouring rain this afternoon, .70 inches of water. My garden will look green and happy tomorrow. Me, too!
Dinner tonight was pizza. I decided to not make our usual thick-crust, loaded pizza, but to try the Neopolitan thin-crust recipe from from KABC's Pizza School. The crust was good, but the toppings were a bit charred from trying to get the bottom of the crust brown and crispy. That is a function of my misbehaving oven. I rarely bake in it any more, choosing to use my Breville countertop oven. However, the Lodge cast iron pizza pan that I love, and that gives great results, is a little too big for the Breville.
We grilled salmon and potatoes, and had leftover broccoli salad.
Today I made raspberry muffins, using raspberries we picked yesterday and froze individually on a cookie sheet. That worked well at keeping them mostly whole, instead of falling apart and being mushed.
We had lasagna for dinner.
No steak under $8 a pound around here!
So sorry about your well, BakerAunt. I know you are somewhat rural, but I hope you have some nearby food establishments where you can get some good take-out. The bonus? More time to peruse forgotten cookbooks, bulging folders, piles of loose recipes saved for posterity; and fresh recipes to try out when the new well is up and running!
BakerAunt, I have a tortilla press. My first one was plastic (?) and the handle broke off after a few uses, so I bought a metal press. For a while I was making tortillas, but for several years I've been buying them instead. I've never been able to make great tortillas. It's a lot of frustration, using parchment and saran, and peeling the pressed dough off, only to get a misshapen roundish thing that, after cooking, is pale with charred blotches on it. And they don't taste any better than most of the store-bought tortillas. My suggestion - buy them! I prefer the spinach or tomato flavored ones, they make great wraps and quesadillas. Sorry I'm no help to you!
My husband had a BLT, and I had a LT.
Grilled chicken thighs, corn on the cob, and zucchini and yellow squash. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
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