What Ya' Got Cookin' 2014 Part 4 Sweet Summers' End

We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1360812/

Geez--Ric--

You moved this thread just as I was going to comment on the
Goetze's Caramel Creams--everyone's favorite candy..."Cowtails" too.

Did you know that all Goetze's candies are made in Baltimore?
It is a 100 year old company right here....

I second your feelings on cantelopes...one of my favorites too,
especially when mixed with strawberries...Local ones are the sweetest...
The off-season Cantelopes can be just so-so.

Gita

last call for Country Fair recipes!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1372053/

also, you may want to enter a few fav photos in the photo contest too

I just entered a few ^_^

Cookout yesterday, extended family was here, probably about 20. Hamburgers, turkey burgers, hotdogs, veggie dogs, potato salad, corn on the cob, cantaloupe with blueberries,cake, and ice cream.
I made corn fritters, and bratwurst for breakfast and leftovers made up the rest of the day, today. Tomorrow is my Dad's birthday and He's here, so I guess dinner will be for about 7 of us. I'm thinking roast chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, and a big chopped salad.

sounds like a great time and the weather couldn't have been nicer! your corn fritters sound good

Happy Birthday to your Dad!! Have a nice visit

Dinner ended up being pasta and meatballs with watermelon and cantaloupe. It was quicker and easier. I made 2 boxes of spaghetti and 32 meatballs it was all gone except about 1 1/2 cups.

too bad you can't hire a sous chef!

AHA! Another pronunciation example---

"Sous"--pronounced as "SUU"--with a long "U" as in "You"...(Yooo),,,
G.

oui, c'est en francais

Ok so I had three peach trees grown from compost peach pits. Tree #1 got cut down this summer as it was really sick looking. Tree 2 had beautiful big pink flowers this spring for the first time.. Tree 3 had a few flowers and carried a dozen or so good size peaches till recently. Last week I picked a few hoping they would ripen before rotting, but no luck. And tonight I picked up one almost perfect peach (well, cover the nibbled on corner and ignore the smattering of brown scabs on one side. One hemisphere was perfect) It tasted very good.

I could use a few suggestions
We have tons of cherry tomatoes and little yellow plumb tomatoes. What can I do with them? I just got done blanching and bagging the larger tomatoes but these little ones I'm just too sure what to do with them.
Also any ideas for the lovely cukes we have. Ric wants to make pickles but I would like a few other ideas. I probably should have picked them and given them away at the swap.

Roasting the little maters to make sauce??

I posted this on another thread a month or so ago, so sorry for the duplication, but I would absolutely definitely do the herbed roasted tomatoes like these: http://awaytogarden.com/herbed-roasted-tomatoes-freeze-alana-chernila/ and freeze them. Note the low oven temperature (275). I've roasted them this way and they are to die for - never had enough left to freeze because we ate them so fast. We don't grow fresh tomatoes (not enough sun) or I would do it for sure.

I'm trying to find the exact recipe I used last summer -- note that in this one, the oven temp is just 225. http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/08/slow-roasted-tomatoes/ I think that may be the one I used.

Or maybe this one, which uses just 200 degrees. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Slow-Roasted-Tomatoes-102278

Actually, I think it was this one -- http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Oven-Roasted-Plum-Tomatoes -- which uses 250 degrees.

If you roast different sizes at the same time, you'll get an idea how well-roasted you like them, since the smaller ones will be more well-roasted than the bigger ones.

Slow is good. They come out almost like sun dried tomatoes, except juicy and more tender. The aroma as they roast is outstanding. And apparently they freeze well.

I edited to fix the links....

This message was edited Sep 19, 2014 2:41 PM

Oh I like the idea of roasting them going to give that a try.
Jen stopped by and took 2 doz eggs, chard, couple of cukes, peppers and a ton of the little tomatoes both red and yellow. I still have a ton of stuff in the garden.

Holly: I fixed the links in my post above....

Thanks Happy, I didn't have any problem finding them but it is better with the links.
One of the neighbors stopped by and we found a home for another doz eggs, 2 cukes and more mini tomatoes but there is still more in the garden.

LOL -- I bet you didn't have any trouble at all finding a home for all of that!

Your chard was like Godzilla!!! or King Kong! It blew me away!

Holly--

You can freeze fresh tomatoes--just like they are--in a zip-baggie.
They last forever...never lose theit shape---easy to slough off the
skin when you need to cook them. Just a dip in got water.

g.

I usually skin my tomatoes in hot water before I freeze them but the little ones would take too much time to do that and I had visions of more skin than tomatoes with them. I love the roasted idea. I gave away a good bit yesterday which made me feel good, they aren't wasted and I don't have to deal with them. Later today Ric is making stuffed peppers, a real fav of ours but they usually get eaten before they make it to the freezer. LOL

mm stuffed peppers, I love me too.

On another thread, it's said that you can cook the tomato skin seeds and all, then puree and get a good flavor. Others say the seeds add bitterness.

Got off work at five to find a text request to make something for DS and couple friends. So - stop at store, get stuff, throw pasta sauce together...only to have the friends decide they weren't staying after a long drive home today.. Well, dinner is made for couple of us and leftovers for another night as well.

Penzey's coupon in my email, had to share it!

https://www.penzeys.com/pages/holiday-2014-coupon/

free jar with an order/purchase of $5 or more

still my favorite place to get herbs, spices, cocoa...

Nice for stocking up. I'm still working on my last batch. I keep the bags in the fridge and refill my jars.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...
Cortney promised desert. Mean while I have concocted a sweet potato dish Holly found on all receipts, and a mince meat pie. they should shorten the sweet tooth a bit. We have at the minimum 13 people showing for dinner. If travel fails we could have 17. We will see. God bless everyone out there and remember to give Thanks for what you've got, This is about loving life and family, the fact that we prosper and are never truly hungry.

Happy Thanksgiving Ric, Holly, and everyone! You always have some good cooking going on. I have it easy this year. Just heading 15 minutes down the road to my sister's house in Leesburg. She has all the food taken care of, so all I have to do is show up early and keep her company while she gets everything in the oven. It has been a few years since I've made the Thanksgiving feast myself.

We--(Myself, Aina (DD) and her hubby, Mark)--decided to do the FEAST
on Saturday--mostly because I am working almost every day this week.
Just too much to eat dinner and know you have to be in at work in the AM.

Today--I am going to see if i can start doing my X-mas cards.
Do a load of laundry
Make the gravy for Saturday's Turkey feast. They delegate that to me--It is THAT good!.
Stuffing is already made--as I made extra (for us) when i made the huge batch
for our HD Feast.

Overall--it will be a no stress day.
***********************************************

eminder to you all----Re Black Friday:

HD opens at 5AM. As every year--they will be selling Poinsettias for 99 cents!
These are 3-bloom size--(not 5 or 6--as the bigger ones) but always beautiful.
Get there as early as you can-as people and churches will be buying these by the
cart-full. Usually--we are sold out by 9:30AM. We have 6 carts-full sitting in receiving.

I come in at 9AM. I will be lucky to find a couple....:o(

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Gita

Ric you said it.

Just us five, visiting MIL after dinner, with her dinner. All the usual suspects on the dinner table.

There will be 11 here. After 40 on Sunday it seems very relaxing.

Thankful for so many things and for all of you..

Just relaxing after yesterdays crowd. Great food and great company. I must say that I really am very Thankful for my children they sure are caring and good, feeling very blessed.

At work today, dinner was at my house yesterday. Two out of three kids came ( the other went to Las Vegas), their significant others came and of course Noah. No turkey for us, we had a ham, hash brown casserole, green beans with pecans and honey cranberry butter, homemade applesauce, rolls. My son's girlfriend was to make dessert, which she did(yay for cheesecake) but she also made bruschetta, baked brie with raspberries, and pigs in a blanket. A good time was had by all and everyone took home leftovers.

Catbird, that sounds delicious, esp since I'm all turkeyed out.

Holly, and Jan, glad you had good times and can relax!

Leftovers today!

Leftovers here also

Something to Keep in mind when shopping and planning
http://www.webmd.com/diet/printable/healthy-grocery-shopping-list

Yesterday we visited the PA Dutch Farmers Market, in a shopping center just south of Annapolis. Oh how gorgeous! Everything looks so delicious, meat, poultry, produce, fresh bakery, (watch them make many things) jam, cheese, deli, hot food...

http://www.padutchfarmmarket.com/

Feeling really good supporting traditional agriculture. Do Amish grow organically. strictly?

We're going to go again next Friday. After that we ate at Lebanese Taverna Cafe there. My first ever falafel. I was happily surprised that Mark saw the cafe and suggested it, he is leery of some unknown cuisine.

http://accad.osu.edu/~midori/Game/intro_farm.html

That was an interesting read, Sally.

All the Amish Market items have been really good! Smoked sausage and hot sausage, corn on the cob (Is that really local? December! haha) today got into the bag of spinach. Oh so fresh and clean! I even found a couple blades of grass which made me happy! Which I take as certification that the field wasn't doused in herbicide.

Italian wedding soup, or some facsimile therof, in slow cooker. Chicken Better than bouillon, meatballs (store made sorry) onion, carrot, greens from my garden and some spinach, garlic, tiny shell pasta.

Sally--

Try their smoked Turkey parts. WOWSA!
I have bought their smoked Turkey Thigh. Humongous! Delish!

G.

How do you prepare that Gita?

We have a new arrangement for dinner planing. Friday will be Mark's night again We plan to go to Amish Market in Annapolis again and shop for his dinner, and whatever.
Gita do you remember I bought 'Traffic Jam" at RIchardsons? Youngest son L O V E D it. A mix of fruits.

We got FROG jam, which is fig, raspberry, orange, ginger. Pretty good, although mark said there was a faint mustard like hint of flavor somehow, from the ginger I guess, which I agreed with once he pointed it out.

Sally, that FROG jam sounds cool, just up my BIL's alley. May have to make a run to Harbour Center to pick up a jar on Saturday.

Sally---

I did not prepare the smoked turkey--I slowly ate it as is.
I just whittled it to nothingness over several days. Then saved the bone
for some future soup.

Some people use smoked turkey instead of ham Hocks or other pork things.
Tastes the same--less fat.

I would not--as fat is GOOD! That is where all the flavor comes from.
Butter is GOOD too!.....

Both Sally and Muddy are skinny people. Just enjoy!
Me? I am "robust"..."Athletic Build".....??--"Big-boned"---YEAH, right!
A "Solid" 190lbs--+ or -. Can't say it is all muscle any more.
I am losing a lot of muscle, even though I work a physical job. I can see it!

Old age..........:o( G.

Gita