67 and cloudy, but turned into a nice day, never reached 80 and the humidity dropped. A blessing for sure.
I cooked a lot over the weekend--the cookies that disappeared like water in the sun, and then yesterday, canning pepper mustard, putting sliced squash and tomatoes in the dehydrator, and fixing a big dinner since my son would be here to eat.
If you're interested in the recipe for the pepper mustard, you can find it here. One note: I used sweet banana peppers and added hot sauce to my taste. This gets rid of the need to worry about burning your hands cutting up the hot variety.
As for the dehydrated squash and tomatoes: a friend slices squash and zucchini lengthwise in long thin slices, dries them and uses them as substitutes for the noodles in lasagna. I'm willing to try anything once, so we shall see. As for the tomatoes, Tipper posted about drying them and raved about the flavor. So I'm going to give it a go. I tasted one that dried faster than the others, and liked it very much. This might be a good way to preserve those small batches of tomatoes that ripen and aren't enough to make anything else with.
Dinner was another effort to use up veggies. I made a squash casserole that was a big hit. I found the recipe on the Taste of Home website. A definite keeper, and so easy to make. Click here if you want to see the recipe.
Then I cut up tomatoes and cucumbers, added some chopped parsley and basil and poured Italian dressing over them. I set that dish in the fridge to blend the flavors. Delicious.
And cooked cabbage. We're one of those weird families that loves cooked cabbage. I just cut it up, boil in as little water as possible, add salt, pepper, and a good chunk of butter, and that's it.
The main dish was a casserole made with our own sausage, browned with onions ans mushrooms, then added to my home-canned pasta sauce and whole tomatoes, adding some garlic, oregano, parsley, salt, pepper and Worchester sauce, and simmered that together for a while. Poured this mixture over penne pasta, covered with shredded cheese, and baked for about 40 minutes. My son took a lot of it home with him, as well as some of the squash casserole and the cabbage. And of course, some of the pepper mustard.
It was a lot of cooking, but look how many vegetables I used up! That's a major win right now when we're inundated with goodness. And today, there were plenty of leftovers for dinner.
I'll be back in the kitchen tomorrow, as a neighbor gave us almost two bushels of peaches. I believe that will keep me busy for at least a couple days. Let these good things roll!
I'm going to have to try the zucchini idea. My husband can't eat pasta so that would be a great substitute. I wonder how eggplant would do.
ReplyDeleteI just bought my first dehydrator & am learning to use it.
Jenny, my friend said it works with eggplant too.
DeleteI liked cooked cabbage, too! Your supper sounds perfect to me. -Jenn
ReplyDelete