Sunday, October 26, 2008

Home Ec-o Adieu

This will be my last post on this blog for awhile. The CSA season is almost at an end, and though I conceived of this blog separate from our CSA pickups, I feel the end of the growing season is a good time to put the Home Ec-O blog to rest and start some other projects.

Honestly, I now realize that the blog takes a lot of time, and I still don't have enough to make it exactly how I want it to be (specifically, I haven't gotten around to calculating the nutrition information and the costs per serving for each recipe). I've decided to move on to other projects (still cooking and baking, but also silversmithing/jewelry-making and a lot of other writing projects that I've neglected).

As a parting post, I've decided to write about the last meals I cooked that are worth mentioning: the savory green tomato pie and the sweet green tomato tarts.

I made the savory tomato pie following the basic recipe from Everyday Citizen: 4 cups chopped green Roma tomatoes, 1.5 cups grated Parmesean cheese, finely chopped garlic, and a handful of chopped semi-fresh herbs (oregano and marjoram). For the pie crust, I used Martha Stewart's Perfect Pie Crust recipe (2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, 3 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening, 1/4 cup ice water) and combined her instructions with Julia Child's for the food processor method (I mainly used Julia's instructions but I deferred to Martha when adding the ice water bit by bit).

The result? Surprisingly good. I'm now a fan of marjoram AND green tomatoes too! Making a savory pie seems to be a better use of the green tomatoes than frying them. My coworkers said that the pie reminded them of pizza. Despite the praise, next time, I'll add seasoned bread crumbs and olive oil. And next time, I'll be sure to get my tomatoes in the ground earlier.

For the remaining green tomatoes I made two small sweet tarts (top crust only) in some of those bakers I bought from Fishes Eddy. Again, I used the recipe from Everyday Citizen but added lemon jucie because the recipe was so close to an apple pie recipe that I had to add lemon. It just seemed the right, and necessary, thing to do. Despite the addition of the lemon juice, I thought the tarts were a tad too sweet ("Bob" disagreed). I was also quite surprised that I could taste the tomatoes and they were still delicious in a sweet dessert. This recipe will put to rest any doubt that tomatoes are a fruit.

And this post puts to rest the Home Ec-o blog. I'll likely post from time to time here or my Des Obsessed blog. But for now, I'm on to other things. Don't forget: waste not, want not!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Total Tomatoes

With all the late season tomatoes I picked today, it seemed like a good idea to try to make fried green tomatoes.

The first batch of green tomatoes (the Rutgers hybrid), I seasoned with salt and pepper and dipped in yellow cornmeal. Then I fried them in vegetable oil (on medium-low flame). These were just "okay." The next batch, I followed "Bob's" advice and tried a different recipe. This one created more of a crust on the tomatoes by first dipping the salt-and-peppered tomatoes in flour, then in beaten egg, and then in the cornmeal. I added a few dashes of Tobasco sauce to the egg. It didn't do much for the flavor. We also decided, after experimenting with various thicknesses, that the thinly sliced tomatoes were better tasting. So, for the third batch we fried up thinner slices, and I also added some Worcestershire sauce to the egg. I think it added a bit of tang.
We also diced some of the Romas I had ripening on the windowsill for a fresh relish. With some feta, I thought that was quite tasty. I couldn't decide what vinegar to add to the tomatoes; I'll keep experimenting with that idea (I might even forgo a vinegar and just use a sweet oil).

The fourth and final batch was made from a very thinly sliced green Roma tomato. Bob liked this the best. I liked the third batch best. Marital spat ensued (approximately 5 seconds).

I hope to use up the rest of the green Romas in a green tomato pie this week.


Saturday, October 11, 2008

Menu a la Week: 10/11/08 - 10/17/08

Today's dinner will be...nothing. We went to a surprise birthday party today (happy 4oth Glenn!) and ate our fill of burgers, fries, and cake.

Since we've been cooking like crazy and the freezer's full, it's time to empty out the backlog of dinners and make some room. The from-scratch cooking this week will be very limited. I noticed that the first six vegetables I listed from this week's CSA shipment (potatoes, celery, tomato, oregano, parsnips, and onions) suggested their very own soup! "Bob" will be making it on Monday or Tuesday.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick the last of the Roma tomatoes. There's a bunch of them and they're all green. With the frost coming and the sun not shining as long as it had, there's really no hope that they'll ever turn red, so I'll be using them in a recipe calling for green tomatoes. I'm leaning towards making a green tomato pie (the recipe I plan to use is from Everyday Citizen which is publishing a bunch of "end of the harvest" recipes). There are also recipes here: http://southernfood.about.com/od/greentomatoes/Green_Tomato_Recipes.htm

Menu 10/11/08 to 10/17/08
Saturday October 11, 2008
Birthday party food

Sunday October 12, 2008
Soup and salad

Monday October 13, 2008
Squash and potato torte

Tuesday October 14, 2008
Potato and parsnip soup and salad

Wednesday October 15, 2008
Stuffed peppers

Thursday October 16, 2008
Bob's summer squash?

Friday October 17, 2008
Pesto with pasta and salad

Friday, October 10, 2008

Quick CSA List

This is what "Bob" grabbed from the CSA on Thursday: 2 lbs. potatoes, one bunch of celery, one tomato, handful of oregano stems, two parsnips, four onions, two squash, three small eggplants, and some strange greens (not collard or mustard). I threw the greens in the composter because they already wilted to nearly nothing.

We'll be making beet and carrot salad this weekend (we bought beets at the supermarket last weekend).

A Little Behind and a Big Ass...

That's how I find myself weeks after my trip to Russia and England, specifically: a little behind (on the blog) and a big ass (both figuratively, for cooking way too much last weekend, and literally, for eating too much too).

Though the blog has suffered for posts in the last few weeks, let me assure you, we’ve been picking up our produce from the CSA and cooking. Two weeks ago, "Bob" made a wonderful Kitchen Sink Soup out of everything and anything that looked like it was hanging around too long (including, homemade chicken stock from a carcasse in the freezer, carrots, onions, a can of beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a swiftly decomposing squash, some rigatoni, and some whole wheat spaghetti). Then, last Thursday (October 2) at the CSA, “Bob” took home quite a few things: carrots, radishes, escarole, butternut squash, melons (not ripe), tomatoes, romaine lettuce, some herbs (oregano and marjoram), a few small eggplants, some green peppers, and corn.

Because I was a little homesick for some home cooking, and a wee bit overambitious, we overdid it with our cooking for the weekend: stuffed peppers, lentil and turkey sausage soup with escarole, homemade butternut squash ravioli (with homemade semolina pasta), herbed crepes with tomato sauce, and eggplant caviar (from a Chocolate & Zucchini recipe). I still can’t believe I fit everything into the freezer by the time we finished on Sunday (I made a bit more room by donating our long-frozen, and none-too-popular spinach pie to Iz's dog Kiki).

I’ve also updated the “in season” list to the left. It’s like September never happened.

The Menu a la Week for October 2 through October 10 went something like this:

Menu 10/2/08 - 10/10/08
Saturday October 4, 2008
Kitchen Sink Soup

Sunday October 5, 2008
Eggplant caviar for lunch
Pasta patches leftover from ravioli making and selected butternut squash ravioli not suitable for freezing

Monday October 6, 2008
Greek-style stuffed peppers and tossed salad

Tuesday October 7, 2008
Lentil soup with Italian sausage and escarole and a tossed salad

Wednesday October 8, 2008
Herbed crepes with ricotta, green bell pepper, and spring tomato sauce and a tossed salad

Thursday October 9, 2008
Lentil soup with Italian sausage and escarole and a tossed salad

Friday October 10, 2008
Eggplant caviar (for snacks)
Lentil soup with Italian sausage and escarole and corn on the cob