Latkes and "Moroccan" soup
I put the "Moroccan" in quotes because it, like all of my vague wavings in the direction of ethnic cuisine, doesn't even pretend to be authentic. But it has dried apricots, mint, cumin, and chickpeas in it, so.
- Fry 3 cloves of garlic in olive oil.
- Add chopped-up dried apricots, dried mint, cumin, and turmeric (because it doesn't taste like much in a strong-flavored dish like this, and maybe it'll keep us from getting Alzheimer's!).
- Add can of chickpeas, juice included.
- Add 3/4 jar of chopped tomatoes.
- Cook for awhile: delicious soup!
I served this with Mollie Katzen's latke recipe, and some of my canned applesauce from last fall.
What's really important here, though, is that this represents the last jar of tomatoes, the last potatoes, and the second-to-last jar of applesauce, and therefore the end of the bulk of last year's preserved food. (There are still a few shallots, 3 jars of peaches, a bag of frozen corn, some frozen pesto, and probably one or two other things, but nothing that would add up to "dinner.")
I've certainly eaten out a lot more since Thanksgiving than I will once I have farmer's market bounty to cook from again. And I ended up only feeding myself this winter rather than feeding myself and spooky_thing. That said, though -- I'm eating my last jar of tomatoes, and the farmer's market opens again in a couple of weeks. I'd say the first year of the Grand Food Preservation Experiment was a success!
Notes for this year:
- I can never have enough tomatoes or garlic. Duh.
- More butternut squash, less other kinds of wacky experimental squash. Butternut is the standby for a reason.
- More sweet potatoes, and a better way to store them -- they started going mushy by January or so.
- Ditto beets, parsnips, and carrots, if possible. I could happily live on root vegetables and squash for six months.
- Don't be shy; fill up the fridge drawer with apples! I wish I'd written down which ones Tommy told me stayed crisp the longest, because he was absolutely right. They kept way longer than I expected -- I was still eating November's apples in 2008.
- Figure out a way to store (freeze, I guess) spinach, chard, and kale. Greens were the one thing I didn't get nearly enough of this winter.
- There isn't much point in canning whole fruit. The raspberries and blueberries were delicious, but not much healthier than jam, and freezing them is so much easier. Canned peaches taste like... canned peaches, which fill neither my "dessert" need nor my "fruit" need, so why bother?
- Make more finished meals to freeze. That eggplant and zucchini lasagne really hit the spot in February.
I'm going to experiment with jam for the first time -- probably peach and strawberry, since those are the fruits I love that just don't freeze or can well. I'll also get to play with my new dehydrator, which was a birthday present from my dad and his wife. Since my birthday is in December, there hasn't been anything worth dehydrating yet, but soon! I'm looking forward to replacing my snack-bag of Trader Joe's dried apricots with homemade dried apples and peaches at work next winter.
- Fry 3 cloves of garlic in olive oil.
- Add chopped-up dried apricots, dried mint, cumin, and turmeric (because it doesn't taste like much in a strong-flavored dish like this, and maybe it'll keep us from getting Alzheimer's!).
- Add can of chickpeas, juice included.
- Add 3/4 jar of chopped tomatoes.
- Cook for awhile: delicious soup!
I served this with Mollie Katzen's latke recipe, and some of my canned applesauce from last fall.
What's really important here, though, is that this represents the last jar of tomatoes, the last potatoes, and the second-to-last jar of applesauce, and therefore the end of the bulk of last year's preserved food. (There are still a few shallots, 3 jars of peaches, a bag of frozen corn, some frozen pesto, and probably one or two other things, but nothing that would add up to "dinner.")
I've certainly eaten out a lot more since Thanksgiving than I will once I have farmer's market bounty to cook from again. And I ended up only feeding myself this winter rather than feeding myself and spooky_thing. That said, though -- I'm eating my last jar of tomatoes, and the farmer's market opens again in a couple of weeks. I'd say the first year of the Grand Food Preservation Experiment was a success!
Notes for this year:
- I can never have enough tomatoes or garlic. Duh.
- More butternut squash, less other kinds of wacky experimental squash. Butternut is the standby for a reason.
- More sweet potatoes, and a better way to store them -- they started going mushy by January or so.
- Ditto beets, parsnips, and carrots, if possible. I could happily live on root vegetables and squash for six months.
- Don't be shy; fill up the fridge drawer with apples! I wish I'd written down which ones Tommy told me stayed crisp the longest, because he was absolutely right. They kept way longer than I expected -- I was still eating November's apples in 2008.
- Figure out a way to store (freeze, I guess) spinach, chard, and kale. Greens were the one thing I didn't get nearly enough of this winter.
- There isn't much point in canning whole fruit. The raspberries and blueberries were delicious, but not much healthier than jam, and freezing them is so much easier. Canned peaches taste like... canned peaches, which fill neither my "dessert" need nor my "fruit" need, so why bother?
- Make more finished meals to freeze. That eggplant and zucchini lasagne really hit the spot in February.
I'm going to experiment with jam for the first time -- probably peach and strawberry, since those are the fruits I love that just don't freeze or can well. I'll also get to play with my new dehydrator, which was a birthday present from my dad and his wife. Since my birthday is in December, there hasn't been anything worth dehydrating yet, but soon! I'm looking forward to replacing my snack-bag of Trader Joe's dried apricots with homemade dried apples and peaches at work next winter.