I made the entire 4th of July menu from Cooking Light magazine. I cruised several Farmer's Markets and farm stands to purchase the necessary fruits and vegetables for both the CL menu and the coming week.
Then, at C's insistence we went crabbing. We caught, cleaned, cooked, and picked 20 crabs (this resulted in a solid 3 cups of crab meat - yum!). I had a little help in the catching from C; he eschewed the cleaning, cooking, and picking.
I also oven dried 5 pints of grape tomatoes. I've done 5 pints twice this month and I now have a respectable half gallon of dried tomatoes in the freezer. I had to purchase these tomatoes at the Farmer's Market. My own cherry tomatoes still look like this...
not exactly ready to be dried.
Although I have a fairly large back yard
(large from my California standards anyway); the yard is PC's and I am permitted to plant in the two raised beds he made for me. I did add three additional pots along a sunny wall.
I have requested three additional raised beds. We're currently negotiating the additional beds.
Next week, I plan to make 25 or 50 pounds of tomatoes into lovely fresh sauce to be frozen. I also want to start shredding and freezing zuchinni. I love shredded zuchinni in orzo and I want to be able to eat it all year long without buying zuchinni from Chile.
Since my vegetable beds are in a fairly sunless area, I can't grow much. I tried one bed with Roma tomatoes and a few herbs. In the other, I have a pepper patch. I planted nine tiny plants each of Jalapeno, Banana, and Cayenne peppers. They've done very well.
With my surfeit of crab and peppers (jalapeno and banana peppers - grown in my own nearly sunless yard) I made some really yummy stuffed peppers. I used about 2/3 of a cup of the crab with 8 ounces of vegetable cream cheese, about 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese. some parmesan and chili sauce. After I filled the chili halves I rolled the cream cheese side in some crushed croutons mixed with still more parmesan. These things were Yummy. Really yummy. I loved that I grew the peppers and caught the crabs. I am woman (hear me roar).
Although I have a fairly large back yard
(large from my California standards anyway); the yard is PC's and I am permitted to plant in the two raised beds he made for me. I did add three additional pots along a sunny wall.
I have requested three additional raised beds. We're currently negotiating the additional beds.Next week, I plan to make 25 or 50 pounds of tomatoes into lovely fresh sauce to be frozen. I also want to start shredding and freezing zuchinni. I love shredded zuchinni in orzo and I want to be able to eat it all year long without buying zuchinni from Chile.
Since my vegetable beds are in a fairly sunless area, I can't grow much. I tried one bed with Roma tomatoes and a few herbs. In the other, I have a pepper patch. I planted nine tiny plants each of Jalapeno, Banana, and Cayenne peppers. They've done very well.
With my surfeit of crab and peppers (jalapeno and banana peppers - grown in my own nearly sunless yard) I made some really yummy stuffed peppers. I used about 2/3 of a cup of the crab with 8 ounces of vegetable cream cheese, about 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese. some parmesan and chili sauce. After I filled the chili halves I rolled the cream cheese side in some crushed croutons mixed with still more parmesan. These things were Yummy. Really yummy. I loved that I grew the peppers and caught the crabs. I am woman (hear me roar).
