Processing the Garden

Maybe Wife is trying send me a message. I'm in the middle of the two week home stand and she has scheduled a four day visit to Pulisha and family. I might be just a tad bummed. In the meantime it is cooking overtime. While I was kayaking and pig disassembling over the last two weeks, the garden was in over drive. As a result I needed to do a mess of cooking this weekend to make use of the abundance. First to deal with the mass of tomatoes, I made a cream of tomato soup (to be served at the big Podolny Group meeting).

Tomato Puree, Onions and Garlic for Tomato Soup

Onions and Garlic cooking in a Roux for said Soup

I also had some eggplants so I made an old recipe from my family for a chopped eggplant salad. This involves baking the eggplant then removing the cooked meat from the seeds and skin. It is then chopped (via a closely guarded family secret) with onions and hard boiled eggs. It's served cold with fresh tomatoes (got those), olive oil and bread.

From Ohio I brought back some very tasty semi-dried meat (not quite jerky). I decided to try to make a rillettes type (a kind of cold potted meat like a pate) of dish as an appetizer for my group meal. It turned out very good.

Rillettes in Process

Since a lot of people are not fond of tomato soup, I am also making Vichyssoise, a cold cream of potato and leek soup for the Wednesday meal.

Vichyssoise Ingredients

Last but not least I have a mess 'o' peppers, both New Mexican and Poblano. So those have been roasted and I'm still deciding whether to just freeze the the meat or make sauces from them. We'll have to see how my energy is.

Chiles, New Mexicans on the left and center, Poblanos on the right