Harvested today:It was a busy day on the homestead front today. In the morning I finally got around to putting up the plums. I ended up with 4 quarts of plums in syrup for later plum usage this year (they'll be good for baking and what not) and 4 half pints of plum preserves. The cookbook assured me this is delicious on cheesecake and I can only assume ice cream as well. I'm really looking forward to drizzling some over a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice cream.
We've started ripping out the grass in our backyard to put in a patio!
We were fortunate enough to come by oodles of paving stones and now we are actually going to have that patio we keep talking about. Tres exciting!
There are a couple smaller harvests that came through – chamomile and oregano. I've been snagging the chamomile for a couple weeks now; there should be enough for a couple pots of tea once it's done. The oregano keeps flowering, and the plant is pretty sad anyway, so I'm drying what was left. Plus, we are out of dried oregano in the house.
We pulled up the broccoli. Man, some of those things were like little trees - the stalks got huge! They weren't producing much anymore and I need the space for the fall crops. I think fall lettuce, garlic and shallots are taking their place.
The harvest has been a little lax the last week it seems. We've gotten a couple zucchini, some beans and straggly broccoli, but that's about it. No news on the pepper front. They are taking their sweet time to grow. No more cucumbers yet. The tomatoes are growing though and will hopefully start to ripen soon. Plus there is always chard, carrots and lettuce standing by when we need it.
What do you think of when you think of the idyllic farmhouse style meal? Probably a roast chicken or turkey with stuffing and a side of green beans. Well, what if you were a vegetarian? That's right, it would be a pot pie. So warm, so savory, such a throwback in time.
I grew up eating the frozen pot pies, which I always liked, mostly because it involved gravy. I'd never had a made-from-scratch one before though. Judging from everything else I have eaten this year as my first homemade version or homegrown version I concluded that I had never had a pot pie before. It has got to be better than the frozen kind, obviously. But I was pretty sure it would be amazing.
When I thought about making a pot pie from scratch I would feel intimidated. First, it would require me to make a pie crust. I've only ever made one pie crust in my life and it was for a disastrous pie. A pie I had to take to a wedding. A pie I was required to take my picture with at said wedding so everyone could know who made which pie. It was embarrassing at best. The pie did taste good – it just looked awful because my crust was such a disaster. Secondly, I would have to make a tasty gravy. This is actually an easy thing, but for some reason I find it intimidating. I'm just not totally confident in my roux-ing abilities yet.
I had lots of random summer vegetables so I decided to make a one last night. I watched a cooking show last week about pie dough, and felt a little more confident in my abilities. I picked up a few tricks. The result was a pretty darn easy meal. It just required a few hours foresight to mix the dough and stick it in the fridge to chill. The gravy took all of five minutes, made from vegetable stock, and then you just dump it all in the pie and cover it up.
The dough this time came out great! It was the right size to cover the pie pan and it was flaky and crunchy on the edges. I was able to use up some green beans, broccoli, zucchini and carrots from the garden too! And I couldn't help but feel proud of myself when I sat down at the dinner table in front of my idyllic meal.
I'll spare you the anticipation. The sourdough is really, really good. I declared as soon as I ate a bite that it was worth six days. I'd say that's a success!
Last night I came home after spending time with friends and a couple beers to really just want to get into bed. But, I had bread duties. So, I donned my apron, added more water and more flour and some salt, dumped my dough on the counter and kneaded away. Then it sat in the corner for another 8-12 hours.
This morning I was ready for the final steps. I dumped the dough.
Then divided and shaped into loaves.
Then put them into floured towel lined bowls. And they sat again for a few hours in the final rise.
Then into the oven!
And they're done!
And they're good!
I will make sourdough again. Sure, it's a commitment and it takes a lot of patience, but that's kind of what this whole thing is about. I'm getting very patient. I hardly ever have instant gratification anymore. Except maybe for chips and salsa; that's the treat I usually have on hand. Otherwise it's two weeks for pickles, 6 days for bread and planning your dinners for December in July so you're sure to put enough seeds out.
It's alive!!
Last night I took my finished sponge, which was growing and bubbling with yeast action and added water and flour for the start of the bread. I did my first kneading of the dough before I went to bed and then let it sit in the corner overnight.
I came back to the kitchen this morning to find this lovely, yeasty, rising dough ball. I wish I could put some smell-o-vision on this blog because the dough smells...sour. Like sourdough!
I took my lovely, yeasty dough ball and added some more water.
Then added more flour to make another new dough ball. It's rising in the corner for another 8-12 hours.
I have a good feeling about this sourdough. I think it's going to work! I did, however, forget to save some of the starter sponge. Oops. If I like the final product I'll have to start over from the beginning now.
I mentioned before that I love pickles. Because of this I bought pickling cucumber seeds this year so I could make my own pickles. I had one pickling cucumber ripen last week and I put it in a salad. Not such a good idea. It was really unpleasantly bitter on its own. I learned my lesson on that one. This week I had five or six pickling cucumbers ripen, so I made a small batch of pickles.
I'm new to pickling and am learning that you can pickle just about anything and there are lots of different ways to make pickles, from easy refrigerator pickles, to one-day and two-day pickles, to pickles that have to sit in the corner of your kitchen for three weeks before you do anything with them. Since I only had a small batch of cucumbers right now I went with the easy, breezy refrigerator dill pickles. These aren't canned and preserved, so they have to be eaten within a few months. When all three of my cucumber plants start producing (right now only one is producing fruit) then I will make a bigger batch of preserved pickles.
First, I sliced my cukes and set them aside in a bowl.
I made the pickling brine with some vinegar, pickling salt, sugar and pickling spice and boiled it about ten minutes. Then poured the brine over the pickle slices and let it sit and cool for about a half hour.
Inside the jars I put some peppercorns, mustard seed, garlic cloves and dill. Then added the slices and covered with brine. Pickles, done!
Well, mostly done. They are fermenting in the fridge and will be tasty and edible in about two weeks.
