sunday local eating report

Today was a light day by preservation standards, but I'm still tired!

Breakfast and brunch were resoundingly familiar (see last Sunday) but today's pancakes were made with local raspberries and nectarines. Nectarines in Ohio, who knew? They are from last week and still tasty. We had local peppered bacon this week, which was lovely. I bought a whole pound, so I should probably freeze some lest I eat it all.

After making brunch, I prepared the two chickens for roasting (chunks of onion in the cavities along with some herbs from the garden, the latter were also shoved under the skin) and into the oven they went. I should roast two together more often; the cooking time doesn't really increase, it only heated the kitchen up once, and it gave me more bones for stock. After they rested a bit I took as much meat off as I could and put the bones (and herbs and onions) to cook into stock. I also made salsa to snack on before dinner (the tortilla chips were purchased from before the challenge, but were from a local company at least) with tomatoes and jalapeños from the garden.

I put the bulk of my 10 pounds of canning tomatoes in the freezer. I just don't have the time for major sauce production this week, and it will be nice to have tomatoes for soup and stews this winter. They are easy to freeze - no need to blanch and peel, just freeze them whole on baking sheets then bag up (or use your handy foodsaver.) I also froze a pint of blackberries and some assorted raspberries, and the shreds of dark meat chicken.

Dinner was a glass of local white wine, roasted chicken breasts with gravy (made from drippings), mashed potatoes and french-cut green and yellow beans. The bean frencher isn't the most effective tool, but by running them through twice I had a lovely julienne thing going. It was a very nice change of texture. I had to vamp up my gravy with some powdered boullion because the stock wasn't cooked down yet, but it made it edible (and so good that we were nearly licking our plates.)

I'll have the rest of my plum/peach cobbler as dessert and call it a day. Well, after I cool the stock so I can pull the fat off the top and freeze it; cooking your soup/stew veggies in chicken fat is a good way to make a very local dish, and is darn good eats!

As a side note, I need to find some herb seeds. The cilantro went to seed and died, and the catnip plant just plain died (much to my cats' chagrin.) I tried replanting the cilantro seeds but nothing has sprouted.

Meals for this week will include burgers (grass-fed local beef) with corn and green beans; pasta with veggies (I'll make fresh sauce from the canning tomatoes that were blemished) and leftover chicken. I still have leftovers from last week for easy lunches: fried eggplant (breaded with local wheat flour!), sweet potatoes, and the first acorn squash of the season (cooked with local maple syrup.)

One of these days I will take pictures of the food before we eat it all!