Yesterday when a stray beam of sunshine came through my window in the late afternoon, it was the first direct sunlight I’d seen in four days. Today is turning out much like the day before yesterday, unremittingly grey and on and off showers, mostly a mist so heavy it looks like rain. As you can see.
I have been making myself go out every day regardless, bike rides, walks or grocery errands. I am slowly getting a feel for our neighborhood, but mostly I must admit, I’m getting a feel for the farmer’s market, and trying to take advantage of the over abundance of certain fruits and vegetables. Right now those are mainly tomatoes, peaches, zucchini and eggplants. Tomatoes I have been turning into sauce. Peaches have been sliced and frozen. Zucchini and eggplant I’m less sure what to do with. How exactly does one preserve the wonderful goodness of these two vegetables which I tend to find rather boring?
That is not to say I’ve been shirking my vegetable consumption duty. We’ve been eating plenty of zucchini (stuffed w/ quinoa-corn-squash filling) and eggplant (roasted w/ rosemary and balsamic vinegar). But I’m much less motivated to preserve those two veggies than others. Especially when I have access to tomatillos!
I saw them Sunday a week ago, noted their existence and passed on. The next day it dawned on me that I what I should have done was purchased two pounds and made salsa. So I purchased the other necessary ingredients for that salsa (jalapenos, limes, extra onion, garlic, cilantro) and waited for the Thursday market. No luck. My tomatillo vendor did not come! So with bated breath I awaited Sunday, and indeed, he did return! So Sunday’s rain was spent husking and chopping and dicing and cooking. Et voila! Canned sunshine, for use at some future moment (like Monday night’s enchiladas).
It’s not always bad to be stuck inside…
i’m trying not to OD on eggplant here as well. although it seems like we can never OD on fried okra. 🙂 i would freeze things if i actually had freezer space (pupsicles don’t end until end of sept).
we just had first concord grapes of the season at the farmer’s market on saturday. nothing like fresh concord grapes in the morning. except maybe concord grapes on a sunny porch entwined with wisteria and vineyard-dry september weather. 🙂
two things for you:
what’s up with greenmarkets:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/dining/19gree.html?ex=1156996800&en=9765646bb4611e2d&ei=5070
and a quick-easy salsa verde recipe, adapted from saveur’s special tex-mex issue:
put tomatillos, onions, serrano/jalapeno peppers in oven, and broil them at for about 10-15 minutes until lightly charred. put them in a blender along with cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper (and some other secret ingredients of your choice) and serve.
oh, and one more delicious eggplant recipe, from deborah madson’s local flavors book: if you find really long, thin eggplant, stuff them with garlic silvers and braise them for a while in salted water. they become ridiculously soft and practically melt in your mouth.
also recommended — recipes from america’s small farms, by joanne lamb hayes and lori stein. has a great eggplant and tomato recipe (kind of like a fresher eggplant parmesan).
So I’m horrific at keeping up with the blogs, but Seth redirected me to yours today. Zucchini bread. I’ll find my recipe… but it’s moist cinnamon-ey breakfast-bread type goodness, and the loaves freeze remarkably well. Just a thought… 🙂
I would love to have Eily’s own personal zucchini bread recipe. That will make all that much better when I bake and freeze the damn things! 🙂 I do enjoy zucchini once it’s found its way into something interesting…