[chocomouse]

Today I made 2 loaves of oatmeal-whole wheat sandwich bread for our frequent BLT dinners.

[chocomouse]

Dinner was a sliced tomato with mayo on light rye bread.

[chocomouse]

I made Chewy Maple Cookies today.

[chocomouse]

Aaron, it's like making maple syrup! Boil fresh, tart cider for hours and hours until 1/2 gallon of cider is reduced to 1 cup of boiled cider. It will need to boil at medium-high heat for 3-6 hour. Watch it closely near the end, and stir it, so it doesn't scorch. I've read that you can do it overnight in a slow-cooker, but I've not tried that.

[chocomouse]

Len, we often have that Fenway tailgate food here, in a bun. And one of my favorite pasta dishes is hot Italian sausage, sliced, with bite sized chunks of onions and red and green peppers, in a tomato sauce.

[chocomouse]

As a certified Master Gardener, I'm not allowed to promote the use of a product for gardening if it was not intended for that purpose. However, I will say that I use about a tablespoon of Epsom Salts scratched into the soil around my pepper and tomato plants when they blossom. I do this only every couple of years, and I've never had a problem with blossom end rot.

I should add that I do not use any commercial/chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides -- only the compost I make.

[chocomouse]

Skeptic, I do not have a recipe for maple fudge, sorry. The only fudge I've ever made was peanut butter, and then only a couple of times.

I do have a great recipe for maple cheesecake, from the Arlington Inn. I prefer to use a shortbread type crust instead of graham crackers. I'll also try to post the recipe in the recipe section.

Vermont Maple Syrup Cheesecake from Epicurious
The Arlington Inn, Arlington VT

For crust:
twenty-four 5- by 2 1/2-inch graham crackers
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/2 cup pure maple syrup (preferably Grade B; see note, above)

For filling:
four 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup pure maple syrup (preferably Grade B)
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream
and pure maple syrup if desired for drizzling

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Make crust:
In a food processor finely grind graham crackers (you will have about 3 1/2 cups). Melt butter. In a large bowl stir together graham cracker crumbs, butter, and maple syrup and press evenly into bottom and up side of a 10-inch springform pan. Wrap bottom and side of pan with 2 layers of heavy-duty foil to avoid leakage.

Make filling:
In bowl of a standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment or in a food processor beat cream cheese on low speed, scraping down side of bowl occasionally, until smooth. Add syrup and eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and cream and beat until just combined.

Pour filling into crust and bake in middle of oven 1 hour (cake will not be set in center but will set as it chills). Cool cake in pan on a rack. Chill cake, covered, at least 8 hours and up to 4 days.

Remove side of pan. Serve cheesecake in wedges, drizzled with maple syrup.

[chocomouse]

I've been reading in my VT/NH gardening forums a lot this summer about squirrels and chipmunks eating the tomatoes! The comments are that it's unusual, and probably due the drought -- with no rain, no puddles, and no water in lots of usual areas. The suggested remedy is to put out some shallow pans of water for the critters. We have a drought here, but I've not had a problem.

During the off-season, I stash my tomato cages in the edge of the woods that surround our property.

[chocomouse]

Mike, that is what I make from my garden harvest - tomatoes, sweet red and/or green peppers, and onions. I'd never heard it called piperade. I freeze it plain, and add whatever seasonings depending on how I will use it -- garlic, oregano, basil, paprika, chipotle peppers, etc. It turns into marinara, "spaghetti sauce", soup, pizza sauce, salsa. I prefer to freeze rather than can the tomatoes, and I have plenty of peppers and onions ready to harvest at the same time so I add them to it now instead of needing a separate supply in the freezer or fridge year-round.

[chocomouse]

Dinner was pork shishkebobs with peppers, onions, and cherry tomatoes, plus brown rice, and summer squash sauteed in butter with lots of fresh herbs from the deck. Everything tasted better because it was picked and/or cooked in the rain!

[chocomouse]

It's 90* here now, the prediction was for 80*. At least it now cools off a lot at night. I have several baking projects planned for the coming week - rye bread, raspberry muffins, hot dog buns.

[chocomouse]

Yummy looking melon, Mike!

[chocomouse]

I think he got your order, Skeptic, thank you. I have a lot of maple recipes; if you are looking for anything specific, just ask. My very favorite is a maple vinaigrette, a very light, not too sweet dressing for spring greens. I'm going to try a new recipe soon for roasted veggies (such as carrots, squash, parsnips) with warm spices (ginger, nutmeg) and maple syrup. You can always replace some of the sugar in scones, muffins, sweet breads, with maple syrup - and remember to brush a little extra syrup on them as soon as they come out of the oven. Maple is so good in most of our traditional fall foods.

[chocomouse]

Happy Birthday, Mike!! Funny -- you told us you've been married 50 years, but not how many birthdays you've had!!!

[chocomouse]

I just froze 6 quarts of tomato sauce and 4 half-pint containers of tomato-basil soup. I still have a couple of 5 gallon pails worth of ripe tomatoes on the vine, but I think I'll take them to the local food shelf. Between the abundance of berries and tomatoes, I am running low on freezer containers; however, I just found a box of empty large Cool Whip containers that will work. We are done picking blackberries -- too much competition from the yellow jackets and their stings are very painful. I'll pick blueberries once more, maybe a quart, and remove the netting for the birds to feast. Raspberries are just approaching peak picking, and that will continue until we get a good frost, mid to late October most years.

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