Hidden Picture

Can you find the pecans? Seriously, you can't walk without crunching one, but when you are harvesting you can't see them until you hear the crunch. When people come to the house, they rarely make it inside, not that I want anyone to see the mess. They stand in the yard, pick up pecans two by two and crack them, then eat - one of the pleasures of fall.

The chickens love them, too. As do the squirrels and crows.

Even so, we have collected bags full. We took one bag to the co-op and had it cracked. Now, every night we pick pecans, sitting on either side of a huge dishpan, competing, talking, thinking.

Honey Harvest

One of the things I've been doing when I haven't been writing is harvesting honey. Actually, we harvested about a month ago, but we returned some of the extracted comb to the hive for a fall flow. I know it doesn't seem logical to those of you who are already shivering, but we are in the prime of goldenrod and fall flower season. We'll slip these fall supers off at the end of November when the temperatures start dropping in earnest.

This last hive check will give us an idea of which hives will need a little extra help in winter and which hives have all the honey and pollen they need until the spring. We don't count individual bees, but we do like to have a general idea of bee population going into the winter. Once the weather turns cold, we won't pop the tops.

Anyway, honey harvest is a family production. There is a job for every person. Honey supers have to be removed, jars have to be sterilized, cappings have to be removed, the extractor has to be spun, comb honey has to be cut and jarred, and jars have to be filled and sealed. Our goal was to be finished in one day. We weren't, though we were incredibly more efficient.

Confession. I still have a pot of comb and cappings that need cleaning sitting on my kitchen cabinet. Perhaps today will be the day I tackle it.

Goober Peas

Sittin' by the roadside
On a sunny day
Chattin' with my mess mates
Passin' time away
Lyin' in the shadows
Underneath the trees
Goodness, how delicious
Eatin' goober peas

Peas, peas, peas, peas
Eatin' goober peas
Peas, peas, peas, peas
Eatin' goober peas

Peanuts have been harvested in our area. The green, non-cured, peanuts are great for boiling and are an oh so delicious salty treat. Yum! Yum!

The Lowly Black-Eyed Pea

I would guess that there is not a garden in this area that does not have at least one row of southern peas, lumped affectionately together as black-eyed peas. The ones I grow are technically pink eye, purple hull peas, but fill the same niche in our garden and larder. There are subtle taste and texture differences between crowders, black-eyed, purple hull, and lady finger, so you try a few and pick a pea. You don't really need to grow more than one kind in a garden unless you want a new variety. Bees just love peas and cross pollination is a sure thing.

In the garden, peas are nitrogen-fixing legumes that are also pollen rich. They love the heat of the south and are even drought tolerate. In the larder, peas are a staple of the southern table. Eaten along with greens or ham or with just cornbread, they are rich in Vitamin A, Folate, and Calcium. They also are a source of protein.

Perhaps, if Mississippians would remember their traditional foods and shun the fast food stands, they wouldn't be the fattest Americans, again.

Today, I will salute the lowly black-eyed pea. After I shell today's harvest, I will cook some, basically unadorned, to eat with some cornbread, accented with some pepper jelly - nothing better, really. Of course, having a hunk of watermelon for dessert wouldn't be bad.

Tradition. Not always bad.

Summer Food

Now is the time of good eating. I'm making jelly, preserves, and jam. We've harvested and have a wonderful excess of taste enhancers like garlic, onions, basil, dill, and peppers. And the summer melons are getting to that heat produced sweetness that only Mississippi can supply.

This week, I produced blackberry preserves and syrup, and plum jelly. The plums weren't mine, but I should have enough of mine (from the rent house's small orchard) to make another batch or two later this week. I was worried that there would be nothing for jelly, since most of our fruit got frozen. Our larder is bare, except for fig preserves, so I put out word in town that I needed some plums.

Luckily, we found some. Plum is Mr. W's and E's favorite.

I thought y'all would want to see my garlic braided. Obviously, it isn't a wreath. That didn't work out, but this year's creation is much better than last year's. The true test, though, comes once garlic is cut from the braid. A good braid will remain. A lousy one will fall apart. I'm hoping for the best.

Mr. W took some meat out of the freezer this morning before he left for work. I guess that means he is tired of zucchini. I may have overdone it a bit. Just this week, we've had sauteed zucchini with Parmesan, sauteed zucchini in tomato sauce served over pasta, zucchini and onions, zucchini tart. I suggested omelets with, you guessed it, zucchini for supper last night, but was overruled. We had pasta and pesto, instead, but no meat was in sight.

Tonight, we'll have meat and no zucchini.

Yesterday, when I was delivering the pay checks in town, I saw a truck load of melons.

Mississippi Melons.

I knew the man. I asked a few questions about the origination of the fruit, while smelling the cantaloupe and thumping a few watermelons. Even though there have been melons in the local grocery store for weeks, they weren't the real thing. They weren't from here. They were picked a little early.

I waited patiently.

Waited until the pick-up trucks driven by locals were pulling into town, loaded with melons.

I was rewarded - rewarded with the sweetest Smith County watermelon and perfectly ripe cantaloupe.

The chickens approve!

Berries

In pursuit of perfect blackberries, we tramped through mud and briers, risked getting chiggers and ticks, and endured oppressive heat. Why? Wild blackberries are the best. No thornless hybrid, no tame orchard berry can even compete.

The flavor and texture differences are subtle, yet distinct - the twang of the wild, I like to say.

My children and I brought home 5 pounds. We picked many more than that, but getting them into the basket is tough. Even though I should have more self control than my children, I know I ate at least a cup - maybe two. You have to test each picking location to make sure they aren't bitter from lack of rain.

Yep, that sounds like a solid defense.

We did have to limit our picking to low spots, the spring stream, and the small spring because we need rain to produce the sweetest berries. Those dry berries have way too much wild twang. Even with the limitation, we got enough today for a cobbler and a jar or two of preserves.

Yum! Yum!

While we were out, we did reconnaissance for a later harvest - wild muscadines. My husband has a small orchard, but finding a wild crop is even better because I like that wild twang. Of course, walking out to the orchard is certainly easier. Looks like we will have a good crop this year if we don't have to share too many with the birds.

Zucchini

We're at that awkward time of the gardening year when we get basket after basket of one thing, but don't have the other ingredients to make our favorites.

Costata Romanesco, my favorite zucchini, is fabulous alone, sauteed in olive oil with just a sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground pepper, served over a bed of spaghetti. Dust lightly with Parmesan to make it perfect. But, what I'm craving right this minute is Ratatouille. I still don't have eggplant, bell pepper, or tomato ripe, but I'm close.

Meanwhile, I have lots and lots and lots of zucchini.

I'm making Zucchini Bread with the larger squash (this species gets huge overnight but is amazingly tender for the larger vegetable genre) for eating now and for the freezer. Here's the recipe in case you have an over supply without support veggies.

Zucchini Bread

3 ea Egg -- slightly beaten
1 cup Sugar, Brown
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Vegetable Oil
2 cup Zucchini -- grated
3 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 cup Flour, White, Unbleached
1 cup Flour, Whole-Grain
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3 tsp Cinnamon, Ground
1 cup Pecans -- Chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs and sugars together. Mix in oil, zucchini, and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together and beat into mixture. Stir in chopped nuts. Pour batter into two greased and floured 9 x 5 loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour. Best if allowed to cool for a while after baking. from Dinner on the Diner, Junior League of Chattanooga.

Image is E's. I think this will be her fair photography entry. I saw her working on it in Black and White, yesterday afternoon.

Basil

I absolutely, positively love basil. And why not? Basil grows when it is hot, is a companion plant to just about any other plant, and it provides the base for one of my most favorite dishes - pesto.

In fact, we had pesto last night. I was tired from hoeing, weeding (I missed that one piece of grass in the basil), cutting and hauling cane for beanpoles, and sticking a few beans - not anywhere close to all. I needed something quick, low heat producing, and indulgent.

Noticing earlier that my basil needed nipping, I decided pesto was the answer. So, we threw two chickens, flavored with a bit of olive oil, salt, garlic, and a touch of lemon, on the grill, and I started harvesting basil. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have hand chopped every single garlic clove and basil leaf, but alas I tossed everything except the oil and cheese in the food processor and pulsed it a few times. I am usually snooty about things like this, but sometimes you just have to take the easy way. I did grate the Parmesan by hand before I threw it in the food processor with the olive oil and gave it a few more whirs.

Here is a recipe. I know not from where it came, but I do know that it is very flexible.

About 2 cups basil
About 1/4 pine nuts (I've used pecans in a tight, but will never use walnuts though some people like it that way)
Two or three cloves or garlic
Sea salt to taste, but also to help with the chopping of the garlic
Ground pepper to taste
A mound of grated Parmesan, about 1 cup
Then, enough great extra virgin olive oil to make it smooth and somewhat emulsified (maybe 3/4 cup).

A few of those recipe caveats: Quality matters here, use great olive oil and if you have a green can in the fridge, leave it there.

Chop the basil, pine nuts, and garlic together with the salt and pepper. Add the cheese. Then add the olive oil in a stream until it looks right. Serve over pasta - warm or room temperature.

Sit back and wait for the Wows, Ohs, and Ahhhs.

Sugaring, Southern Style

In the South, sugar cane is the source of most things sweet. The weather and natural tree selection prevents maple sugaring, so to satisfy the Southern sweet tooth, we grow sugar cane. Just so you know, there are several varieties. Most people here grow two - one for syrup and one for chewing. In the fall, traditionally the weekend after Thanksgiving, the cane is harvested, stripped of its foliage, and then pressed.

In the past the cane press was turned with mules - some still are. Last year my neighbors pressed and cooked the cane the old fashioned way with mules and a wood fire, but this year an old tractor and a huge belt was used to turn the press and a propane fire was used to cook the juice.


I hated to see the change, but training mules and donkeys to walk round and round for hours on end must be a lot of trouble. I also understand that a gas fire is easier to regulate than a wood fire, but you know how I am about the old ways. The second picture is the pulley that is attached to the tractor. Mr. W says they had a lot of technical difficulties early in the morning with the tractor, yet they mostly had it figured out.

Once you get the press turning, you feed the cane through the press without getting your fingers caught. The idea of being pulled into the press just gives me the all-overs. Can you hear my voice of caution warning my children when it was their turn to shove cane through? I'm turning into my mother. Help!!

When the cane comes out the other side it is mashed to pulp. The juice is extracted and is filtered through a burlap bag which will capture all the cane pieces that get left behind. From the bag the juice is stored in a big tub with a spigot. When enough juice is captured, it is released through a pipe into the cooking tray, which unfortunately no one thought to capture in a picture.
The juice is cooked and stirred, stirred and cooked until it is a perfect consistency. Then, it is released into syrup cans and sealed. Yum! Yum! If you continue cooking, you will have cane sugar, though it is a beautiful mocha brown color rather than the white of grocery store sugar. My neighbors buy their sugar, so stop at syrup.

Another favorite thing!

I'm continuing my round-up of favorite things. I was going to wait to combine this favorite with a post on how I run my kitchen, answering questions from past posts like: Do you serve your family enough iodine when you use coarse salt; how many cookbooks do you have; and how do you keep up with your recipes? But desperation and Mrs. G called, and I will post one of my kitchen secrets now.

I love my recipe software, A Cooks Book. I have worked my way through many programs and though all have some similar features, none make me as happy as this work in progress program which I have used about 8 years (just guessing). The individual, Tony Cate, his 3 cats, and his Mac who wrote and upgrade this program listen to the users. He fixes, adds, and improves all the time. But, what I love about this program is that it doesn't need to be fixed that often. It is a small program that doesn't hog up your whole computer. It is as flexible as each individual user. You can import recipes from almost any format and can drag and drop recipes from emails and the web. You can plan meals and print grocery lists. You can search recipes by ingredients, categories, quick lists, publications . . . . And for the health conscious there is nutritional tracking of meals and recipes. Check out the website for all the features. You can even download a demo and try it (Mac users only!).

Combined with another kitchen secret that I will divulge within the week, planning and cooking is a snap.

Unsolicited and Unpaid Advertising

Sometimes I think it sounds like I never buy food and that I make every single thing from scratch. This is a long way from the truth. I am careful, though. I read every single label of every single product that is placed in the cart. I'm not a stickler for organic products, but I find that with organic packaged food the ingredient lists are sometimes shorter, which is what I'm seeking.

Take Suzie's Salted Crackers for example. The ingredient list reads Organic Wheat Flour, Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Salt, Water. Do I care that the package says No Hydrogenated Fats, No Cholesterol, Non GMO, All Natural, Low Fat, 100% Organic? Not really. The ingredient list says it all. Of course it doesn't have all that bad stuff because Suzie uses quality, unadulterated ingredients and made crackers the way they should be made - with four ingredients. This isn't true with all organic foods with healthy claims.

Sometimes the organic varieties of common foods, like crackers have ingredient lists just as long as the standard, commercial brands. The lists are healthier, but still comprise way too much of the package space, and even then the product tastes bland - too healthy.

Give me simplicity. Give me great taste. Give me more products like Suzie's Salted Crackers.

Give me some more thin, crisp, lightly salted crackers. This package is empty.

* You can blame Mrs. G for this one. She did a list yesterday and it seemed fun to share so I will, but I'm not organized enough to do all of my favorites in one day.

Boo!!

Yesterday, while nursing a couple of facial stings incurred when I walked outside because I thought I had something important to say while Mr. W was trimming around the hives, removing honey supers, and doing the fall bee check (Funny, after I ran a few laps around the house with bees chasing me I forgot the very pressing news. I still don't remember what it was.), I sat in front of the computer and started reading blogs and news feeds. The first blog I read was Julie Zickefoose's and she was lamenting the invention of non-Halloween trick-or-treating (Hers was the Saturday before). Instead of soothing my frenzied adrenal glands I was issued another jolt. I panicked. Did we miss Halloween?

I called the hardware store, because technically they are the information clearing house for the town, and spoke to a mother who wouldn't judge me too harshly if I had, indeed, missed Halloween. I didn't miss it! But, Halloween was scheduled for that very night and you could only trick-or-treat from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Panic truly arose because we had not carved the pumpkins, made the popcorn balls and ghost cookies, or gotten the costumes ready and 5:30 was only four hours away. How can a town change a holiday and not tell the general public? At first I thought we didn't know because the children don't go to the school, but my mother didn't know until I told her so she wouldn't be embarrassed by not having candy when the hordes arrived, and we trick-or-treated at someone's house who didn't have any candy. So, I wonder how were we supposed to find out that trick-or-treating on a Wednesday interferes with church, so it can't be done. In spite of my confusion, I knew I had to get my side show into gear so the one trick-or-treater who usually comes to our house would not be disappointed because I chose not to buy store-bought, chemical laden candy this year.


First thing I did was tell the children that tonight was the night. Next, I asked K to start popping corn while I started boiling honey and sugar for the candy. Once all twenty four cups of popcorn were coated and formed, and we had eaten all the scraps we moved on to the Gingerbread Ghost Cookies. Miracle of miracles I had already made the dough and had it chilling in the fridge, so all we had to do was roll, cut, and bake. Of course, we had to decorate too, but all the icing was white, so was easier.


At 5:30 our first and only trick-or-treaters arrived while we were still in frenzied, slinging mode. The cookies weren't dry. OK, they weren't all decorated either. We were still cutting the pumpkins and Princess' hair was still in rollers because she was going for that curly-haired fairy look. I told the mom, the same one I called at the hardware earlier in the day, that I would bring the cookies tomorrow. I will, if I don't eat them before I get downtown. These cookies are soooo good. I got the recipe got from Williams Sonoma when I bought a copper, snowflake cookie cutter when I had the bright idea to decorate our seven foot Christmas tree exclusively with iced, gingerbread snowflakes. That is a story for a different time, but here is the recipe. Of course, I changed it a little.

Ginger Molasses Cookies
2 cups Flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Ginger, Ground
1 ½ tsp Cinnamon, Ground
1 tsp Cloves, Ground
1 tsp Salt
¾ cup Butter
1 cup Sugar, Brown
1 Egg
¼ cup Molasses, Dark
1 recipe Royal Icing

Sift together dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and molasses and beat. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Shape dough into a ball, wrap with wax paper, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350F. Cover baking sheets with parchment, silpat liners, or butter them profusely. Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness. Cut cookies. Bake until golden, about 8 to 10 minutes. Cool completely if you are going to ice them.


Royal Icing
3 ea Egg Whites -- room temperature
4 ½ cups Sugar, Powdered
½ tsp Cream Of Tartar
1 pinch Salt

In an electric mixer combine all ingredients. Beat on medium high until stiff peaks form and mixture is nearly triple in volume. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Additional tips:

• You really need to double the recipe for the cookies, but not for the frosting if you want everything to work out evenly.
• For cookies exclusively for eating I use only butter, but if you use this recipe for a gingerbread house or for decorating a Christmas tree you really do need to use use some margarine or shortening to produce sturdier cookies.
• Honey is a great substitute for the molasses, especially stronger flavored, fall honey, but can you really have gingerbread without molasses.
• The Royal Icing recipe gives you basic icing which is for details and to outline the designs before filling in. To create the run out, just add a touch of water to create a less stiff consistency. Practice is the only teacher here. You don't want too much water because the more liquid icing will make the cookies less sturdy and will take oh so long to dry. You don't want too little water because then you won't get that smooth, puffy consistency that truly makes the cookie.

I realize these are inadequate instructions, so if y'all are interested I will do another post with pictures in time for Christmas cookies.

Isn't the packaging shown in the last picture winsome. My sister-in-law in Memphis always thinks of the cutest things. My goody bags will look like this next year!!!

A Reward

To reward all those who are still checking to see if I'm going to write something, I will give you a recipe that falls into the category of Recipes That Make You Appear to be June Cleaver Even When You Aren't. I have lots of these. I treasure them because image is everything.

I originally harvested this recipe from Southern Living magazine about 20 years ago. After I captured it I noticed that it was in Southern Sideboards, another wonderful Junior League of Jackson cookbook, and a few other southern Junior League and Junior Auxiliary cookbooks. The name is changed, the quantities are changed, and the nut varieties are changed but the recipe is essentially the same. I don't know who published first.

This particular recipe makes a lot and that is what makes it a June Cleaver Wanna Be Recipe. Once you get these in the freezer, no one has to see the messy bowl or the effort. Just slice and bake when you or the children have friends over and everyone can smell the wonderful aroma of freshly baked cookies while wondering how it is possible for you to do all that you do and still have time to whip out cookies.

There is one caveat!!! Watch your dough closely. Since we grow our own eggs, we're not afraid of salmonella. No one is scared to eat dough, so I can't keep my self husband and children out of the dough.

Memory Book Cookies

1 ½ cup Butter -- softened
1 cup Sugar
2 cup Sugar, Brown
3 ea Egg
½ lbs Pecans -- chopped
4 ½ cup Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon, Ground

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Add flour mixed with salt, soda, and cinnamon. Add nuts. Shape dough into long, thin rolls (about 1" in diameter). Wrap in wax paper. Store in the freezer. When needed, slice and bake at 350° F for 8 to 10 minutes.

Things to know about all my recipes. I always use unbleached flour and prefer King Arthur organic. I use only coarse salt so if you don't you may need to use a little less.

Things to know about this recipe. You may use any nut, but since I am a true Southerner I think pecans are best. You may substitute some whole wheat, especially the white whole wheat, for the plain flour, but they will notice if you go over half. That grainy texture is tough to overcome. You may use raw sugar instead of the white. I always use butter for baking because it tastes better, if you don't agree you could use some of those other products just don't say it's my recipe.

Cooking Ahead

Even though it was as hot as a "cat on a hot tin roof" yesterday, my mother and I had a cook ahead session. I had a mound of flat leaf parsley and carrots that had to be harvested because of the heat, so we got together to make meatloaf. We each walked away from the project with six meatloaves in the the freezer and had a great time doing it.

I don't like the idea of make ahead meals, except "The Sauce," but the realities of life make having something in the freezer that just needs to be reheated comforting. Princess wants to audition for The Nutcracker again this year which means that I will spend many hours driving her back and forth to Jackson for rehearsals between now and the beginning of December. Add that driving and waiting to my work and homeschool schedule and there is little time for cooking. So, I have the six meatloaves to which I can add a jar of green beans or a salad, 5 bags of pesto (without the cheese and some of the oil) which can quickly become something fantastic, 3 quarts of ratatouille which I can serve on pasta or with some meat or by itself, and several quarts of "The Sauce" that when poured on anything will make it taste as if you spent the entire day in the kitchen (I did, just not the day I served it). If the weather breaks, and maybe if it doesn't, I will make eggplant lasagna or a tasty eggplant, zucchini, pasta dish to round out my options.

Cooking while everything is fresh makes the food, though frozen, still retain a certain quality that makes it not a terrible option. Having a kitchen afternoon with your mother (or some other friend) is a great way to be productive and socialize.

Peace Tomato

This was supposed to be my Green Zebra Tomato. It turned out to be an angry looking thing with the yellow and green fighting for surface. All those old tomatoes combined with all my bees, I honestly doubt I have had more than one or two tomatoes a year that turn out like the picture in the seed catalog. I don't mind. They all taste great and retain many of their evolved properties. Besides that, I like the surprise.

Surprise is what I got when sliced the end from this tomato - a peace sign. I know I'm aging myself since the peace sign is not as popular as it once was, and most children are more familiar with the similar, but not the same, Mercedes Benz logo. But look!! The yellow and green rage of the surface found peace in an almost neon citrus green center.

Groovy?

Sweet Pickles

How much is too much? I ask myself that very question all the time. I know that there is no way my family can eat 3 gallons of sweet pickles in a year. I have 1 gallon of Kosher Dills, too. When I was jarring these sweet pickles, I ran short of sterilized jars. I was going to toss a quart of pickles in the compost, but my husband caught me. He then went out to the shed and produced two disgustingly dirty jars and said he would wash them. He did and I put pickles in them and put them in the refrigerator. I didn't want those two jars to get mixed up with the sterilized jars of pickles. Why did we need that last quart?

The pickles are Grandmother Florence's (my husband's grandmother) recipe. They take time, lots of time. I've spent years trying to create authentic pickles from her vague recipe, but I have it now. The cucumbers are brined, then sliced, then soaked with the pickling spices, sugar, and vinegar. So yummy, but unfortunately different every year. The recipe uses the words "to taste" more than is comfortable. In fact, everything is "to taste" once the cucumbers are brined. How's that for a recipe?

They are finished, to taste.

Ratatouille

We had Ratatouille with Linguine last night for supper. 'Tis the season of eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, and tomatoes. Actually, I almost killed my eggplant early in the season so do not yet have even one eggplant of my own, but my sister has more than she wants and shared, and the bell pepper came from my mother's garden. Though the ingredients are fresh and local now and that should be reason enough to savor Ratatouille, we had Ratatouille because of the movie.

Last week my hubby and I took the children to see Ratatouille. We had both seen good reviews and were interested so we drove the 20 miles to the nearest theater for a rare family movie night. The movie was certainly entertaining - a rat with special talents seeking more than the colony could provide and making a liaison with the dreaded enemy. I do have one caveat. You must be thoroughly able to separate your reality and enter the world of Remy and Linguine. Even with the completely beautiful animation, I found it difficult to stomach scenes with the full colony of rats moving and of any rat touching the food in a restaurant. Call me squeamish, but my willingness to suspend disbelief was stretched as far as it could go. Rats and food don't mix. Yet, I really liked the idea of a most unlikely candidate for chef rising from the gutter to stardom. My opinions and hangups aside, my children loved the movie and have been asking for Ratatouille daily. They were ecstatic when I served their requested Ratatouille atop Linguine (one of the characters from the movie) garnished with a slice of fresh mozzarella and a piece of crostini.

Here is the recipe I used that came (I think) from a 2004 Martha Stewart Living, which my mother gave every household in the family as a show of support of Martha during her ignominy because she felt Martha was singled out because she was a strong woman while men in a similar position would have been applauded for a job well done, yet it really sounds like an Ina Garten recipe since the zucchini and eggplant are roasted. Perhaps there was a feature on Ina Garten in Martha Stewart Living in 2004, yet I checked the Barefoot Contessa website's index of books and didn't find the recipe. I salute and bow to whomever created this version of Ratatouille.

Ratatouille
1 eggplant -- cut into 1" cubes (about 1 1/2 lbs)
4 zucchini -- medium, cut into 1" cubes
1/2 cup olive oil -- plus 2 TBLS
2 TBLS thyme -- coarsely chopped
salt and pepper
6 lbs tomatoes -- about 10, peeled and seeded and quartered
2 bell pepper -- roasted and skinned
4 garlic cloves -- finely chopped
2 onions -- halved and cut into half moons
1/2 cup basil -- coarsely chopped
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley -- coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 400. Toss together the eggplant, zucchini, 1/2 cup oil, 1 TBLS thyme, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper on a large baking sheet. Roast, tossing occasionally, until vegetables are golden, about 1 hour.
Cut peppers lengthwise in 1/2" strips. When eggplant and zucchini are done roasting, heat remaining 2 TBLS oil in a large deep skillet over medium high heat until hot, but not smoking. Add garlic and onions and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes and peppers. Cook until tomatoes are soft, about 7 minutes. Add eggplant and zucchini, 1/4 cup basil, and remaining Tablespoon of thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are very soft, about 30 minutes. Stir in parsley and remaining 1/4 cup basil. Cook until heated through, about 1 minute more.

Tiny Tomatoes

I plant three varieties of tiny tomatoes - Sungold, Matt's Wild, and Yellow Pear. In a practical sense, they don't really fit into our lifestyle. They aren't really a canning candidate because their size makes them difficult to peel, though I thought I might try this year. They take more time to pick and cut because they are small so you need more of them to make whatever you are making. Sometimes, usually as I am halving or quartering the thousandth tomato of the day, I ask myself why I go to the trouble when I could take a bigger tomato and dice it with similar results. Yet, I have planted these three varieties for five years and will not be able to resist planting them in years to come. Why?

Taste. Each of these tasty morsels has a enormous burst of flavor that when combined with the other two is almost life changing - maybe not life changing, but certainly memorable. Perhaps taste should rule (and it does), but I don't just grow these jewels for their taste. I grow them for . . .

Beauty. Yes, I am a slave to appearance in the kitchen. I love the way the tomatoes look when tossed together in a bowl. The orange, yellow, and red combined make a statement visually. Add the subtle size differences and the pear shape of the Yellow Pear, throw in a little green and white, and WOW! The first picture shows just tomatoes. The second is of a tomato salad we make often. The third picture is the salsa I make nearly every day for my . . .

Husband. Honestly, I don't pamper my husband. In fact, he is a low maintenance part of our household, but in the summer he needs refueling with tons of fresh salsa. When the first of the tiny tomatoes arrives he starts asking, no begging, for salsa. The salsa is technically pico de gallo with my combination of tiny tomatoes cut into bite size pieces, chopped onion, finely chopped jalapeno peppers, fresh cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and a dash of coarse salt. The proportions are personal preference and I don't measure. I eye it, then taste it. If you are proportionally challenged, email and I will measure for you tonight.

I've been busy eating - Watermelon

And peaches . . . And blueberries . . . And corn . . . And zucchini . . .And . . . Mississippi summer has kept me busy eating and preserving. Since I last wrote, which I realize was a while ago, my family has eaten 8 fabulously sweet local watermelons, scads of blueberries from my neighbor, and peaches picked from our own backyard. I'm at a point that I don't want to look at another cucumber or squash and corn has lost its early season luster. We harvested five or six hundred ears of corn, which I cut from the cob and froze. My hands were like claws for days, but we have enough corn to eat corn once a week until next corn season. We are still eating corn, reluctantly, from the garden, but I'm finished freezing.

In addition to the corn, we are picking peas in 5 gallon increments. Once picked, we shell, blanch, and freeze them. Of course, we eat our share. Butterbeans started this morning. I picked an enormous basket. We'll eat as many as we can, but will freeze most of these, too. About the time the butterbeans finish, the canning tomatoes will be ready.

I know that in some places the canning, pickling, and freezing is drawn out over a few months, but here harvest seems to be fast and furious. There is not much time for anything else, if the garden is doing well. Though the work is grueling and hot, the rewards are great. The satisfaction of seeing all those bags of peas, corn, beans, peaches, and berries lined up in the freezer and seeing those beautiful jars standing as sentinels in my pie safe is extraordinary. Knowing that the food I will serve my family during the year is safe, delicious, and didn't travel to my table from points unknown is priceless.

I'll be scarce for a few more weeks, then will try to find time to write. I've taken pictures of the various canning projects and will post when time permits. Until then, think of me cooking and eating the best, freshest foods available. I'll be down the road in a few minutes looking for another melon. I traded eggs last time. I wonder if they've eaten them. Would a jar of honey be an equal trade?

We've Eaten Our Vegetables . . .

May we have some dessert?

During the busy months of Summer, quick vegetable based meals reign. Thursday night we had green beans, corn, and cornbread. Friday at lunch we had pasta with sauteed zucchini and Parmesan. After that my meat loving husband said, "I'm starving. When are we going to have a full meal?" We finally had what he deems a full meal last night - Chicken, grilled over a pecan wood fire (we have lots of pecan left from Katrina), baked sweet potatoes, steamed sugar snap peas, and banana pudding.

Banana pudding is a child friendly recipe. Slicing bananas, layering bananas and cookies, and beating egg whites for the meringue can all be done by even the youngest children while you make sure you don't scorch the custard. My children love kitchen duty, especially when the duty involves dessert preparation.

Banana Pudding

1 cup Sugar
¼ cup Flour
1 pinch Salt
4 cup Milk
8 ea Egg Yolks
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
12 oz Vanilla Wafers (we used Country Choice Organic)
8 ea Banana -- sliced
8 ea Egg Whites
2 tbsp Sugar

Custard - Mix together 1 cup sugar, flour, and salt. Pour milk into a heavy saucepan and add the flour mixture. Heat. Beat the egg yolks. Pour some of the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks and beat briefly. Then, add the egg yolk mixture to the base mixture. Bring slowly to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly and cook slowly until just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Be careful that the custard doesn't scorch. Add vanilla, remove from heat.

Combination - Line bottom and sides of an oven proof dish with vanilla wafers. Layer banana slices and wafers until all are gone. Pour in custard.

Meringue - Preheat oven to 375. Beat egg whites until soft peaks. Add 2 tbsp sugar and beat to stiff peaks. Spread meringue over top of pudding. Bake until browned (about 15 minutes).

BTW, I didn't add food coloring or enhance the image. My eggs are just that yellow.