What are you cooking?

[ChanellG]

With all this talk about what fruit, vegetables, and herbs we are all growing, I am surprised there hasn't been more talk about what we are all cooking and/or preserving.

I don't produce enough of anything to freeze or can. Like Maddie, when I have a surplus of herbs I just give the extra away to friends. I saw something interesting recently though that showed how to freeze herbs in olive oil "ice cubes."

So what does everyone do with their homegrown food?

 

[Babble64]

I'm mostly a flower gardener at this point. My first husband and I had some really lovely gardens when the kids were little but when the deer started taking over as if it were a four star restaurant we gave up. (Short of putting up a very large fence all of our efforts to keep them out failed. )

What I DO make is homemade applesauce from our apples. Oh my goodness, there is nothing like homemade applesauce! Last year we had a freeze after the trees were in blossom so I wasn't able to make any sauce from our own apples. That meant I didn't have a freezer full of yummy stuff to get me through the winter. And now I have to wait till the late summer and fall for this year's crop!

 

[ChanellG]

I have to say, I have never been attracted to the concept of applesauce. I can't say if I ever ate it as a child - I did love apples and apple juice, but I am weird about texture and I was a very picky youngster. (Which is ironic now that I am practically vegetarian and such a wide and diverse array of foods.)

I feel I should at least try it, since it is such a highly recommended substitute for butter and sugar in baking, but I don't know... maybe if I made it myself?

I think you should fence in your veggies and make a mini garden that the deer and other wildlife can munch to their hearts content in so as to keep them away from your food. I think there are some plants that deter deer and other critters that you could plant in between the two spaces.

 

[maddie]

I wish I had surplus to think of preserving. Somehow I love fresh stuff and I enjoy my fresh spinach and herbs.
Now all that talk about apple sauce makes me hungry

 

[ChanellG]

I wish I had surplus to think of preserving. Somehow I love fresh stuff and I enjoy my fresh spinach and herbs.

Maddie, are you not the person who just gave away a huge amount of basil? That sounds like surplus to me I've read that you can freeze pesto.

I'm mostly a flower gardener at this point...

I don't know why I didn't think to ask you this earlier, but are you growing any edible flowers?

I had squash blossoms for the first time yesterday. I herbed some cream cheese (with herbs from my garden, garlic, and lemon peel all minced together), stuffed the blossoms and cooked them in the toaster oven about ten minutes with a little oil. Yum, yum, yum!

 

[ACSAPA]

The tree behind my current hated apartment has a lot of mangoes growing, so I'm just juicing them, blending them, eating them and giving some away to the lady next door.
The landlord doesn't actually care about the mango tree so I'm allowed to pick them, as long as I clean up and don't leave rotting ones on the ground.

 

[dim]

here are some recipes that are cooked from scratch:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

 

[ACSAPA]

here are some recipes that are cooked from scratch:

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

I see that and I like that website. But I'm not sure how it relates to this question. Do you use the recipes on that website to preserve your surplus homegrown produce? Because that's what this thread is about.

 

[ChanellG]

The landlord doesn't actually care about the mango tree so I'm allowed to pick them, as long as I clean up and don't leave rotting ones on the ground.

Oooh, I think you should dry and freeze as many mangoes as you can so you can still enjoy them after you are finally able to move. I didn't grow up with mango as a flavor is I am still getting used to it, but I love mango ice and mango sorbet. I also get mango juice to drink with my meal at my favorite Indian restaurant. I don't get them fresh because they are so difficult to judge for ripeness.

 

[Babble64]

Tried to carry a quote here and I failed miserably!

Chanell....

It really does make a difference. The texture of my sauce is thicker than the stuff you buy at the store, and the flavor is tremendously richer!! Even if you used it only to put into your baking I think you'd be pleased with the difference. One of my specialty cookies are applesauce jumbles. Last year I was forced to make them with store bought applesauce, and they weren't nearly as good.


I don't grow anything (that I'm aware of) that's edible, but your stuffed squash leaves sound absolutely delicious!!!

 

[maddie]

Maddie, are you not the person who just gave away a huge amount of basil? That sounds like surplus to me I've read that you can freeze pesto.

True Basil is the only thing I have had in excess. This year the spinach didn't grow as well as they did last year. Tomatoes did grow as big or as plentifully as last year.. But, I cannot complain.. I think for a container garden I did have a good amount of produce. I will keep trying.
Your squash blossom recipe sound yum.

 

[dim]

I see that and I like that website. But I'm not sure how it relates to this question. Do you use the recipes on that website to preserve your surplus homegrown produce? Because that's what this thread is about.

the website tells you how prepare low cost cooking from scratch .... many/most of the ingredients are what can (and is grown) in gardens

so I thought it was appropriate to this thread .... you obviously did'nt

 

[ACSAPA]

the website tells you how prepare low cost cooking from scratch .... many/most of the ingredients are what can (and is grown) in gardens

so I thought it was appropriate to this thread .... you obviously did'nt

As I said , I have seen that website before and like it. But since we're all talking about what we personally are preparing, like my mangoes, Maddie's basil, and Chanell's squash blossoms, I thought you shared the link because you are currently making one of those recipes to use up some garden produce surplus.

 

[happyflowerlady]

Our landlord is on vacation now, so we are also caretaking their property and garden while they are gone. We have been watering it, and it is starting to produce some squash, so we brought home some of the zucchini and yellow crookneck the other day.
I put them in with some rice and a little meat, and it turned out to be delicious. I still have some left, so tonite I am going to use the rest of them with some pasta.
I am getting salad greens out of our garden, but that is all that is ready to eat right now.

 

[Babble64]

Our landlord is on vacation now, so we are also caretaker their property and garden while they are gone. We have been watering it, and it is starting to produce some squash, so we brought home some of the zucchini and yellow crookneck the other day.
I put them in with some rice and a l title meat, and it turned out to be delicious. I still have some left, so tonite I am going to use the rest of them with some pasta.
I am getting salad greens out of our garden, but that is all that is ready to eat right now.

I LOVE it when zucchini is in season! I could eat it every day!!!! I recently found a recipe on facebook for zucchini and yellow squash, sliced thin and baked with onions and....hm, can't remember what else. It looked marvelous!