Green tomato jam

The best thing you can do with green tomatoes is, of course, fried green tomatoes. You can also let them ripen slowly--it may take weeks, and the ripe tomatoes won't be great (but they'll still be better than store-bought).

OR, you can make green tomato jam.

I had a lot of small green cherry tomatoes, which were perfect for this. I made a big batch, and it's surprisingly sweet and jammy. I've experimented with it on grilled pork loin and baked brie (recipes to come) and plain ol' breakfast toast, and it was equally versatile.

Don't worry, you don't need any fancy equipment for this. You don't even need jars--you could put the finished product in Tupperware.

3 lbs green tomatoes, diced finely
3 cups water
2 lbs apples, peeled and sliced
1 1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 3/4 cup sugar

Add the water to the tomatoes in a large saucepan, and cook 5 minutes. Add the apples with the ginger and cloves, cook until soft. Add the sugar, stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Once it is dissolved (not before), turn the heat up and bring the whole thing to a boil. Let it boil until it reaches the consistency of jam. Let cool, pop in a Mason jar, stick in the fridge. Yum!

Spaghetti with spaghetti squash, dandelion greens, and fresh tomato sauce

Yesterday after work, instead of unpacking, I decided to christen my kitchen.

I also had a bunch of food that needed to be turned into something, pronto, before it went bad--about two weeks' worth of CSA vegetables, nine metric tons of tomatoes (both red and green), and a few gallons of vegetable scrap that needed to become vegetable broth.

To use up the ripe tomatoes, I made a huge batch of salsa, another of tabbouleh, and some sauce that I froze. To use up the green tomatoes, I made fried green tomatoes and a batch of green tomato jam (look for that recipe soon!). Of course, the veg scrap became broth (frozen for later use in soups).

CSA veggies used: cilantro, onion, peppers, and other assorted herbs. Plus dandelion greens and spaghetti squash.

Spaghetti squash, if you're not familiar with it, can be a great substitute for regular spaghetti. When roasted, you can take a fork to the inside of the squash and pull--the resulting squash strings look just like spaghetti (hence the name). I wanted to use up both this squash and the dandelion greens, so I cooked a small amount of regular spaghetti, to beef up the dish a little, and mixed it all with some homemade tomato sauce.

A great quick, filling, vegetarian dish that had the added bonus of using up three things in my fridge. Win!

Of course, you can leave the regular pasta out for a vegan/gluten-free option.

I still have a bunch of green tomatoes left, though. I'm thinking green tomato pie soon.

Moving once is like dying twice

...as the Germans say.

Well, we're officially moved in. Note that "moved in" is not the same as "fully unpacked." This move was pretty easy, comparatively speaking--my husband's company relocated us, so we didn't actually have to pay for it, or pack anything, or load anything, or unload anything.

But there's still all the unpacking, plus all the accompanying paperwork--you know, re-registering the cars, getting a new bank account (Bank of America royally screwed me, but that's another post), changing our address on all our accounts, getting new cable/internet, etc. We also moved into a twisty Victorian house, so our massive entertainment center wouldn't even make it in the front door. That had to be abandoned to the basement, and we'll be going to Ikea in search of modular furniture in the near future.

So, sorry for the absence of new posts this week. I've been eating out of Tupperware all week (I cooked big batches of soup in anticipation of that), and between work and unpacking, I haven't cooked a thing. I hope to have something for you tomorrow!

Moving hiatus

Hi everyone! I'm taking a few days off because a) we're moving, and b) because of that, I won't be cooking anything more complicated than reheating spaghetti for the next few days.

But stay tuned, because I have some Concord-grape infused vodka that's just waiting to be turned into cocktails, several dozen pounds (literally) of green tomatoes that will need to be turned into something, and a pear tree in my new backyard. Exciting new recipes to come!

Gardening update: no more garden

Well, that's it, folks. The Great Gardening Experiment of 2011 is officially over.

We move out of our house, beginning on Monday, so this weekend I'll be ripping out the last of the tomato and pepper plants. Everything else has already been harvested and ripped out, and I've been removing tomato plants as they die/stop producing. It's a shame, I think I could get a few more weeks out of the pepper plants if it doesn't get too cold, but oh well.

Here's my verdict: tomatoes were the clear winner. I harvested bushels, all different kinds, all exceedingly delicious. Herbs were the runner-up. Out of everything else, here's what I got:

Corn: 2 spindly ears, maybe the size of a finger. I don't think they got enough sun.
Squash: Several zucchini, 3 baby-sized butternut squash. They were doing well until Hurricane Irene, but all the water killed them off.
Green beans: A few handfuls' worth, nothing of note, and they never got very big. Not sure what happened there.
Kale: Lots of baby kale in the beginning; the groundhog ate it down to the ground in August and I pulled it up at that point.
Cauliflower and carrots: Lost to the rabbits.
Cucumbers: Several baby ones. Ditto Hurricane Irene (see squash, above).
Peppers: Coming along very nicely. None of the bell peppers got very big, but perhaps that's just because I've been impatient and have been picking them as soon as they get bigger than a golf ball.

Lessons for next year: Well, next year we'll be in a city apartment with no yard (okay, there is a yard, but it's a bricked-in patio), so it'll be all about the container gardening again. But I will expand the container garden to include tomatoes, more peppers, and more types of greenery. I'll also keep some of the herbs inside this fall, to try and keep the basil and such alive as long as possible.

Vanilla ice cream

Good ol' plain-jane vanilla ice cream. Once you've tasted homemade, you'll never go back to store-bought.

Note: if you still don't have an ice cream maker, please go get one. I like the Cuisinart one.

From David Lebovitz:

3 cups heavy cream, or 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat 1 cup cream in a saucepan with the sugar and salt. Scrape the vanilla seeds into the mixture, add the pod. Warm over medium heat, stirring til sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the remaining cream/milk and vanilla extract. Chill thoroughly in the fridge. Remove the vanilla pod before mixing in your ice cream maker. (Note: the vanilla pod can be rinsed and re-used for homemade vanilla extract.)

Wine from my collection: Canoe Ridge Riesling 2008

It's almost that not-white-wine-drinking time of year; the time of year when I'll switch to reds almost exclusively. Which is not to say that a nice white isn't enjoyable in winter--but not when it's overly chilled, as most of them are.

Anyway, the point is, I'm running through my white wine supply and not replenishing it.

Canoe Ridge Riesling is a lovely dry, acidic riesling from Washington, a great under-$20 bottle and a great food wine. I'm leery of rieslings, because most tend to be too sweet for my tastes, but this one is just right. Well-balanced, fruity, just a hint of sea spray.