Labor Day Vacation and 70 pounds of Tomatoes

A lovely week, busy, but lovely.  I began Wednesday afternoon stopping by the grocery store one last time and then home to prepare for my second plant based cooking class at Country Village.  I should say I started Tuesday night as I got to go out to Ruth & Mike's organic farm and help pick the produce I needed for my class.  I started working at home Wednesday about 4:00 p.m. getting fresh kale in the dehydrator, sauces prepared ahead, three chocolate cakes baked, and various spices and supplies marked and ready to go.  I finally stopped about 11:45. Up early frosting chocolate gluten free cake, shredding zucchini, and making cauliflower rice.  I had 38 people signed up for the class and I'm already learning that means I'll have about 24 people, so I prepared for 30.  It's nice to have some samples for the store employees too.  It's a lot of work, but I really enjoyed it.  Took it slow, taking a few tea breaks along the way and just getting it done.  I smiled to myself a couple times when I remembered I was "working at home" which is the long term goal.

 The class was a whole lot of fun.  Twenty three people attended to learn some tips about plant based cooking along with some nutritional information.  It went very smoothly, didn't seem like we forgot anything important. There were some great discussions. A couple people even came in from the store, curious about what was going on, paid and sat in on the class. I learned that I should find a way to cook in the fall.  Based on the comments I requested, many people would like to know more about cooked vegan cuisine.  I've purchased a couple induction burners.  I am hoping they'll work for the class.  It would be fun to do some cooked root dishes in the fall.  We might schedule an all-day class on a Saturday, we'll see.  The most important thing is that we all had a good time and I'm welcome to do another class. Woo Who!

Sharing Some Fresh Garden Stevia

Friday came with some oral surgery and sleep through most of the day.

Saturday we enjoyed a leisure morning and picked up our Kaylee for a day of fun.  We stopped by the garden for some weeding and watering and then off to Sauve Island to enjoy the Blackberry & Bluegrass Festival and giant corn maze.  They had given us tickets when we bought the peaches so we thought it a good way to spend a sunny day with Kaylee.

 A little fine face painting.

It was a good family fun event.  Lots of space, not too crowded,  and vegan and vegetarian choices at the food trucks too.  We enjoyed a roasted eggplant gyro and a felafel gyro.  The corn maze was pretty fun, but it was way too big for me.  It spanned 2 and a half miles and wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  Kaylee thought grandma and grandpa were giving up because we finally went out the entrance.  We were in there quite awhile and based on the checkpoints we saw, we traveled quite a bit.  I did feel like an older grandma after a bit.  That doesn't happen very often.

We stopped by Proper Eats on the way home for a bowl of broccoli bisque and I was feeling quite winded.  I think it was probably too much fun after my Friday adventure at the dentist.  Sunday I took it easy, read, napped, and relaxed in the sun.


After a full day of rest, I was ready to tackle the 70 lb of tomatoes I had gathered over the weekend from our garden, 50 lb organic heirlooms from Willow Grove Gardens, and 20 lb of beautiful big heirlooms I picked up at Bella Organic Farm.  I packed the big heirlooms with fresh rosemary and lemon juice.  30 lb of the small organic red heirlooms I roasted with onions and garlic, then removed their skins and simmered them all with some fresh oregano and rosemary until thickened for a nice tomato sauce.  I got about 12 jars of the sauce.  Then I canned some of the nice big red ones and dehydrated about 10 lb of the smaller ones.  It sounds like a lot of work, but I went at it very slow, systematically, and I was done by 5:15 p.m.  I even found time to put together a black bean enchilada casserole.  I still have time to do this blog and relax before bed. Nice Monday!

 

Vegan Black Bean Casserole with Homemade Cashew Cheddar Cheeze

It's been a full and productive week.  I'm feel rested and ready to head back to work where we'll be "ramping it up" with the month end work, then the planning fun ahead. 

Processing the Gifts of Summer

It was a big produce weekend that started with picking up our organic peaches Friday and waking up to pick some wonderful figs on Saturday morning.  The first thing I did was whip up a vanilla chia pudding and added some of the chopped ripe figs. My husband is enjoying it right now.  Aside from snacking on the lovelies all day, I dried many of them for future recipes and snacks.

Figs headed for the dehydrator.












I delivered Rachel's peaches to her out on Puget Island and took out a couple of my own boxes.  I grabbed a few random veggies to use for our meal. I love this time of year when I go shopping in my own garden. We spent a lovely day canning, visiting, and enjoying the day.  We picked up Kaylee on the way out and I brought her a bead making kit for something to keep her busy.  She doesn't stay in much there though.  She gets to feed and run with chickens and kitties.  It's a pretty free place for a kid. She and Allison sat together and created bracelets for everyone there.  We were all decorated at the end of the day.  Every one helped out with the peaches, picking up a knife and peeling and pitting throughout the day.  I manned the jars and the canners, keeping them going.  We processed four boxes, eighty pounds, and ended up with 33 pint and a half jars.  That should make for some good peach treats through the winter.  We always have a great time doing this too.  This time Allison joined in and made a fresh apple pie with the apples she and Rachel foraged on the Island.

Sunday at home and I have lots of produce coming out of the garden right now.  I have to get to work preserving it so it doesn't go to waste. Even though we're not able to give away as much as we'd like, we are still pulling out a good amount of groceries.  This morning I had two very large heads of cabbage I wanted to get into something.  I made a nice pot of Tuscan Cabbage & White bean soup.  I used some white onions, red onions, garlic, carrots, collards, and herbs from the garden.  I added a couple of the ripe heirloom tomatoes I picked up at the organic farm Friday, and used some low sodium vegetable broth.  I cooked up about a cup of white beans ahead of time, but you could use a drained and rinsed can of white beans.  I seasoned it very simply with fresh garlic, sea salt, ground black pepper, a sprig of thyme, and a spring of rosemary.  Here's a link to a pretty easy recipe for cabbage and bean soup.

The big red cabbage became sweet & sour cabbage just like my grandmother used to make.  I put three pints up, but I don't think they'll last long.  I really like it. I think of my grandma with every bite.  This is really good stuff. It's pretty easy to make.

 Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegan margarine, non hydrogenized
• 1 2-pound red cabbage, thinly sliced (about 12 cups)
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 2/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Method

Melt the vegan margarine in a large pot over medium heat. Add cabbage and sauté until slightly wilted, about 5 minutes. Add sugar, toss to coat evenly. Add vinegar. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover, simmer until cabbage is tender, stirring often, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serves 6-8.

The canning station is ready, I quickly put some cabbage soup and sweet & sour cabbage up for a quick meal sometime.

Somehow this weekend I also managed to squeeze in some almond and flax meal crackers with rosemary and garlic.  I made a pretty wonderful vegan capri cheese for them.  I've been playing with a few vegan cheese recipes.  I think I'll have some good ones coming up soon. I roasted up some beets & onions and it all made for a great Sunday dinner.

But that's not all, we still had a large zucchini and probably would like something sweet on hand this week.  I shredded it up and stored most of it for salads and meals this week.  But, not before I made a double batch some of what I call "Zucchini Muffin Top" cookies.  I made these gluten free too.

I should warn my calorie counting friends at work, I'm going to mess with their calorie count tomorrow. ***giggling***

It's a bit of work, but none of the fresh produce is wasted, we have some great handy meals for lunch and dinner this week, and we've stored some goodies for later.  I don't have to cook, if I don't want to, until at least Wednesday.  I'd say it was a successful weekend.

Summer Day with My Sweetie

We had the most awesome day Friday.  It started out very early for me.  I went to work at 5:30 a.m.  so I could take a half day off to go out to Sauve's Island to get our peaches this year.  I am fortunate to be able to do that sometimes. Scott's business was closed for the weekend and he had the time off. The temperature was supposed to get up to 100º or more.  We don't have days like that very often, glad to be able to take advantage of it. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy this summer day while it was here.  Lucky thing too, Saturday and Sunday were both cloudy days.  We slowly meandered our way to Sauve's Island stopping a few times to hike around and take some photos along the way.  It did get up to 105º at one point, but we didn't notice it so much as we found plenty of places to grab some shade.

When we got out to the Island the sun was at it's highest, we stopped to take some photos of some very impressive cabbage and took advantage of the sprinklers.

In the 23 years we've lived in the pacific northwest, this is only the second time we've explored Sauve's Island.  There were some beautiful and creative farms.  I especially enjoyed the farm with all the old trucks turned into planters.  There was a blue one, a red one, a yellow one, and a white one.  There was other old farm equipment with gorgeous flowers everywhere you looked.

We found an organic farm, Bella Organic Farm and ordered our peaches before we arrived.  They had ten boxes of fresh picked peaches waiting for us.  That's 200 pounds, eighty for me, eighty for Rachel, and forty for Ruth. We'll can about half of them, freeze some, and dehydrate some.  I like peach cobbler in November. We picked up some other items in the farm store and explored the grounds.  They've got a HUGE corn maze.  The friendly woman at the store gave us tickets for their Blackberry Bluegrass and Country Harvest Festival on Labor Day weekend.  It looks like fun, we do like outdoor music festivals.  They've got a pretty impressive corn maze as well as a hay maze for the kid's.  We saw one of the employee's making many scarecrows and dressing them up for the big opening of the corn maze. I think it might be a good trip with Kaylee.

We ended the day out at Willow Grove delivering the two boxes of peaches Ruth & Mike wanted for their CSA shares this weekend.  We stopped at the beach to take in just a little bit more sunshine. 

And those peaches... were canned the very next day.

Canning Cherries ~ Summer Fun in The PNW

It's definitely summer and the local fruits and veggies are beginning to show up in abundance.  I like to store lots of them for the winter months while they are 'in season' and fresh.  Much of the fruit and veggies we can get locally I freeze, dehydrate, or can.  I've already got about 50 pounds of strawberries in the freezer and dried, some cherries, and blueberries too.  In the next few weeks I'll get about 100 lb of tomatoes and peaches canned.  I ran out of tomatoes about a month ago.  I can hardly wait for them to begin ripening.

Got together with Rachel and Allison yesterday for a full day of canning cherries and fun in the kitchen.  We canned about 60 pounds of Washington Bing and Rainier cherries.  Rachel whipped up some cherry lavender jam using  dried Stevia for a sweetener.  She also pureed some fresh raspberries and blueberries and added a bit of lemon zest to be used in ice creams and sauces.  No sweetener was added to the raspberry and blueberry puré.  That way they can be used tart or sweetened later. The cherries don't have any added sugar either, just a bit of stevia in some water with lemon juice and a bit of red wine.

How many cooks can you fit in a 'single wide' kitchen?  We did great considering the space we worked in.  Special thanks goes to Scott, he was a great cherry washer, cherry stoner, stem plucker and photographer.

Fall is Upon Us and We're Storing the Harvest

It just might be fall.  Our hot streak is over and we're back to the normal cool, grey weather in the 60's.  Usually we're cold immediately after Labor Day, but this year we were blessed with two weeks of hot summer weather. Soon the sandals will all be put away and the socks will come out.  The pumpkin, winter squash, and root vegetable recipes will appear on the blogs and Facebook posts. I took proper advantage of the summer's harvest and managed to put up 100 pounds of organic tomatoes, 100 pounds of peaches, 50 or more pounds of strawberries, some blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Many are canned, some are in the freezer ready for smoothies, desserts, and jam. We've got garden fresh green beans canned and this year, lots of fruit and vegetables dried. I won't be buying dried tomatoes this year. There's garlic and herbs of all kinds hanging in the kitchen and onions and potatoes stored for those winter meals.  The garden didn't do as well as other years, but we still harvested plenty enough to keep us from buying at the grocery store. What I didn't grow my local organic farmer grew.  The peaches come from Eastern Washington.  They had a short season too this year, they were only at the markets for about two weeks.

Went over to Rachel's house for a good day of canning a couple weeks ago.  She also has her canning set up for outdoors.  She has a double gas burner.  I show up early, bring my canner and we get busy.  Everybody gets in on it.  The guys snapped all the green beans, Scott helped us with the canning, and Damon grilled the tuna. With her burner we can get two batches of jars done with her canner and mine going at the same time.  She can blanch the peaches and get a batch of jars going at the same time.  I get a lot of exercise going back and forth from the deck to the kitchen at my house.  I think I need one of those double burners. We canned 50 pounds of peaches and the close to the same amount of green beans.  When I left late at night, she was putting on another batch of the jars of beans we filled and getting ready for her tomato canning adventures the next day.

I've got six more heads of cabbage from the garden. I'll get in the crock for some home made sauerkraut tonight.  A few more weeks of fresh local vegetables, I'm not sure what I'll put up next, but the tomatoes in my garden could still ripen, I hope, and need to be 'processed'. If they don't I'll just have to get out all the green tomato recipes:  salsa. enchilada sauce, and I even have some for  bread and muffins.

Rachel also enjoys cooking with fresh, whole foods.  She's a great cook and a talented kitchen witch. She has some unique flavor combinations.  I always enjoy whatever she makes. As usual we combined our talents and made a wonderful dinner. She made her vegetable gyoza with a sweet & spicy dipping sauce.  They were ready before the main dishes and were quite welcome with the hungry gang around the fire pit. I had to remember to stop eating them so I could eat dinner.  Her husband brought home a fresh tuna which we grilled on the barbeque.  I made baked fresh bell peppers from the garden stuffed with quinoa, black rice, vegan sausage, and herbs. I topped them with a raw pasta sauce and Daiya cheese. Rachel put together a fresh green salad with her garden veggies and we roasted an eggplant.  It was a perfect summer feast. Her dad joined us and brought in some fresh blackberries he'd picked the same afternoon. She whipped together a blackberry polenta cake.  I think we ended up calling it blackberry pudding cake.  It was so good, like jam filled cake. Very nice of her to include some of it in my leftover package.  After the long day of canning and an hours drive home, it was a very welcome snack when I got into my jammies and settled in the house.

Vegetable Gyoza

Quinoa & Black Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers

Marinating Eggplant

Blackberry Polenta Pudding Cake - Blackberry Goodness