Sunday Tally: Bon Appetit

Yesterday morning I wrote a post-it note and stuck it to the microwave. I completed 6 of the twelve tasks on the note and feel worthy!

The tally?

15 pints of tomato glut--I used a recipe from Joan Gussow Dye's This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader. I've made it for years, and I usually make enough each summer to last fall, winter, spring. I use it in soups and stews, on pasta and with rice. I grow virtually everything needed--I only buy the celery, and this year had to buy bay leaves as our bay tree hit the dust around about March.

Three-quarters through with Drums of Autumn. Brianna just met Jamie. Have I mentioned before that I think Diana Gabaldon is a terrific storyteller. Planning to go to the Tattered Cover in Denver on September 22 to get her final book in the series, An Echo in the Bone: A Novel. Am dog-earring all pages in Drums of Autumn that contain the phrase "echo in the bone." Two so far. Planning to go to her reading September 23 in Highlands Ranch. Anyone else going? How cool is it that she will be in Denver area that day after her final book in the series launches?!

Refilled quilted pillows and hand-stitched opening. My husband and I made a gorgeous quilt for our bed that he finished while I was travelling this June with our older daughter. We started it three years ago, and it's gorgeous--almost exclusively Kansas Troubles fabrics. Love that palette. Anyway, for practice, before we tackled the quilt, we made two throw pillows that the cats adopted last year. Last month, I took them back. Unstitched one side, washed them, restuffed them, and then yesterday finally restitched the open side. The kitties are happy :)

Made 3 pints tomatillo salsa, trying to duplicate the Cantina Laredo salsa. Again, everything from the garden except the tomatillos. Next year, we grow tomatillos. Got close. V. good. Could live on this stuff, but maybe more charred cilantro next time?

Went to church. Haven't been since before Easter. Something always comes up, but it was great to go and feel part of my Methodist church family again. Wish I could bottle the music. Pat the organist has a rare talent.

Went shopping with 14-year old son. Bought two pairs of jeans, converse sneaks, henley shirt, zipped sweatshirt, backpack. He's happy. It doesn't take much.

Saw Julie and Julia with husband and two of three teenagers who call our house home. Fantastic. Loved it. Didn't find Julie whiny. Found both interesting and funny and inspiring. Came home and cooked favorite summer stew for dinner. Ready to tackle Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon. Have added Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One (1) (Vol 1) and My Life in France and Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously to Xmas and Bday lists. Totally marvelous to hear two fourteen-year olds laughing out loud with parents during movie!

Watched disc 2, episode 1 of Playing Shakespeare. David Suchet and Patrick Stewart debate and demonstrate two different interpretations of The Merchant of Venice's Shylock. The most interesting point is that director John Barton claims that he gave both of them the same direction and each came up with a very different approach to the character. I think I like Suchet's better, but it's hard to really say having viewed only parts of four scenes, but I liked how Suchet handled the final exit of Shylock versus how Stewart did.

Framed the poster of Top Withins that I picked up at the Haworth Parsonage when I visited it in June. I googled trying to find the image to share, but to no avail. But, it is wonderful, very Van Gogh-esque, and will be a nice image around which I hope to add some book shelves to my office walls soon.

What didn't I do? Didn't make zucchini bread. Didn't do the expense report for the biz trip I took last week. Didn't sew the button on a jacket that has been sitting on the mending pile for several weeks.

All in all...a good weekend.

Summer Stew

We put in our vegetable garden late this year--we've been keeping a garden journal for the past eight years, and this was the latest mobilization in that timeframe. Something about teenagers tends to fill our time in the spring, but we finally found some time towards the end of May to get everything in.

I don't think we'll have any peas this year, but the beans are looking good and on Thursday I harvested our first fingerling eggplants. I picked some very small zucchinis to go with them. They grow about an inch an hour, so I wanted to get them before they turned into Fred Flintstone clubs. Then I turned to the Internet for fresh ideas on what to do with the fresh veggies and what I had in my pantry.

I found a promising recipe and modified it enough to suit my own taste and renamed it...

Summer Stew

Ingredients:
Eggplant, cut into ½ inch cubes (mine where so small I simply sliced them, and occasionally halved the slices)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup chopped onion (I used half a red onion left over from salad the night before)
4 cloves garlic, chopped (actually squeezed in the garlic press)
1/2 cup Basmati rice
Zucchini, cut into ½ inch cubes (same sliced rounds as the eggplant)
½ bell pepper, diced (I like yellow best, or orange, rarely red and never green)
3 fresh or canned tomatoes pureed or 1 cup of sauce (I finally ran out of frozen sauce from last summer's tomato harvest, so I used my final can of diced tomatoes from the pantry)
2 cups chicken stock (we roast a turkey so that we can make stock and freeze it in 1 cup portions)
salt, or to taste
red pepper flakes
chopped fresh basil
chopped fresh parsley
1 sprig fresh rosemary

Directions:
1. Place eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with salt.
2. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot. Rinse eggplant and pat dry. Saute with onion, zucchini, bell pepper, and garlic.
3. Stir in rice and spices/herbs; then add tomatoes and stock. Cook over medium-high heat until mixture reaches a low boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender and rice is cooked—should be consistency of risotto.
4. Remove from heat and remove rosemary.

Delicious hot or cold.



Next week's dinner.