First corn from my local farm today, and since Handsome Son is expected for dinner, I thought it would be good to make a sort of corn thing with three ears of corn, off the cob, a job I hate doing, but anyway, farm eggs, from another farm, cheese, sea salt and white pepper, and a bunch of thyme from my front yard.
Added in a can of chickpeas for ballast. I might have used tomatoes, but I don't get them till tomorrow, and well, I ate all of this week's..I might make a batch of hot biscuits to go with, though, come to think of it. And I'm serving steamed buttered green beans from yet another farm, courtesy of a friend. Who also gave me another squash..yet another.
Nice glass of sangria, summer sort of wine, will accompany this Lucullan shebang.
Dessert will be build it yourself, fresh blueberries and peaches from the farm this morning, with vanilla yogurt.
Pot of English Breakfast tea, snarling as it comes out of the pot, will round off the proceedings.
On one of these very hot and humid nights, it's very good to serve yourself a helping of frozen mango slices and frozen blueberries. They act like icecream and candy at the same time, perfect.My mangoes came from yet another friend, and I sliced and froze them right away. The ones I didn't use to make mango preserve, that is.
So bring them, the very last of last year's farmshare, cucumbers, corn, and, with cheese whey, carrot water and cucumber water, together with cilantro, curry leaves, turmeric, black pepper and kosher salt, render them into the last soup of this season.
Just in time, too, since the new season opens next week.
This is the time of year when the farmshare is at its height, and physically lifting the share becomes a planning operation.
Yesterday's looks like this:
raw material for redskin potato salad, corn chowder, spaghetti sauce, shredded zucchini for bread, broccoli for steaming, bell peppers for stuffing and stirfry, and eggplant gift for neighbors.
My farmshare will take me right through to next March without buying any vegetables other than carrots and celery, which won't grow around here. But between here and there is a lot of activity in the kitchen. Good thing I sharpened my chef's knife this week.
Update on the oat flour: it makes great pancakes, too. Oat flour and walnut pancakes this morning for breakfast, with a nice drizzle of honey. Makes it worth getting up in the morning.
The farmshare this time of year becomes a pressing priority to those of us froogle folk who can't bear to waste food. So the jam, and the tomato sauce, and the veggie quiches, and all that happen. As well as a frenzy of chopping and slicing and prepping for the freezer. I did give away a bunch of eggplant to happy neighbors, too.
Today I made some sort of dish, can you help me name it, blogistas?
anyway, I used a glass lasagna pan, rubbed with butter -- I save butter wrappers in the freezer from the rare times I buy it, use them to butter pans, then toss, works lovely.
And put in a couple of handfuls of zucchini sticks, cut like big french fries, four ears of corn, cut off the cob, four eggs beaten with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, a big swoosh of Italian seasoning stuff, turmeric, handful of grated cheddar cheese.
Poured this over the vegetables, sprinkle of red pepper on top. Baked at 350 for 30 minutes. This, yet another kitchen experiment, worked fine, as you see my lunch serving. The veggies were still bitey, not too soft, nice flavor, very fresh.
This was my second course,the first being a tomato cubed and salted and that was all it needed for a wonderful first course. Simply nothing better than a tomato fresh from the vine. I never eat them in winter -- that's when I use my spaghetti sauce from the freezer. Anyway, the tomato was gone before I thought of a pic, oh well.
Nonfood things will return to this blog, promise. Oh yes, gardening exploits, hm, yes, been doing those, too. But you don't need to hear about my allergy issues, that's been a feature, too, but too boring.
Contemplating large amounts of shredded zucchini and chopped green beans and onions in the freezer, after an avalanche of frozen items fell on me, I thought, self, you had better use some of this up. The farmshare season is in full swing, tons of fresh vegetables falling on me every week, and I eat fresh, share round several friends, and still have plenty to freeze.
Sooooo, I thought, what about Diane's crustless spinach quiche? Daunted only for a moment by not having a lot of eggs and no spinach, I figured, fewer eggs is okay.
And I made a nice sort of quiche using caramelized onions and garlic, except for the garlic segment that flew across the kitchen and vanished as I was smashing them with my knife blade, Pepin style, this never happens to him, unless they edit that bit out..where was I? oh right, big cup of shredded zucchini and cut green beans, plenty of shredded cheddar, three eggs, seasoned with kosher salt, dry mustard, cumin, buttered pie plate, 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, and here's a nice dish. The seasonings are not very evident, but just make it interesting to eat.
Several lunches here. And since corn is a staple of my farmshare, next one will perhaps be a corn quiche. I might experiment with freezing it, just to see if it works out.
