Summer Food!

Three weeks in a row I've sat here in Coffee Hound, half way through a blog entry, and then poof, I scrap the thing for some reason or another (friends walked in, too hot to think, croissant sitting in front of me, the entry was crap, most likely about the weather). So now that it's (relatively) cooler and I'm all by my lonesome, I'll give you a quickie update. And why not? I'm sick of this stupid bug post being the first thing you all see.

Right now we are in the midst of tomato city. A couple nights a week I spend two or three hours dicing up the salvageable parts of the "for us-es", the tomatoes smashed on one side, overripe, or with little, dodgeable worm holes . Pounds and pounds and pounds, mostly into the freezer but some made into tomato butter, a jam that is spiced up with whole lemons and some cinnamon and clove. It's delicious and sweet, a very different take on tomatoes and one my mom reminisced about at length when I began farming. I made two batches-- one with the spices and one with just lemon, and I like them both. The lemon one tastes a bit more tomato-ey and is more like a marmalade than a jam or butter. My mom says the bits of softened lemon peel are the the best parts and I'm inclined to agree. The spiced one is superb, too, and very fruity. Henry was surprised I didn't slip in some stone fruit or another but nope, all tomatoes. It really does taste like cherries! It took ages for the stuff to reduce on the stove, but with our cool spell (read: less than 95 degrees) I didn't mind having a pot boiling on the back of the stove for an entire evening.

Another awesome cooking adventure this week sprung from a glut of thai basil that the foolish fools of Bloomington don't feel like buying by the yard. I made a thai basil pesto, using cashews in place of the pine nuts and coconut in place of the parmasan cheese. Add some chili garlic sauce, a bit of soy sauce, an even smaller bit of fish sauce, and boom. you have the makings of a curry. oh yes. add a dash of curry powder, if you feel. I found this awesome awesome, SO AWESOME! I whipped this up real quick during lunch and then we ate it over green beans and summer squash. I then had some on pasta with pan glazed carrots, diced tomatoes, and negi, the Japanese scallions Henry grows. summer! Such good summer food! And, even better, it will freeze up perfectly and bring me a taste of summer in January.

If, you know, I'm around here in winter. eep. time to start thinking about my future. Again! hm. so tiresome. off to read a book instead, I think... But decision time will be here soon.