Sunday, September 8, 2013

The beginning of fall and a foodie weekend

We got back from a week in Maine on Thursday to find that fall had arrived in our absence. I love it. Cool nights and mornings, followed by warm days and breezy evenings. New England is at its best right now, and it is cool enough to use the oven and have pots of goodness bubbling away on the stove.

Saturday I put a pot of beans in the oven. We went to a party that evening, so I'll have the beans for lunches all week. Since the oven was on I roasted three whole sweet potatoes to make baby food for Olivia. I also roasted a fourth cut in chunks and slathered in olive oil. This is, by far, my favorite way to eat sweet potatoes. I've read several cookbooks that claim sweet potatoes can only be roasted whole. This is not true. Roasted in chunks they caramelize inside and blacken a little on the outside. Outstanding. I also froze two bunches of kale and all of the overgrown beans from my garden. Going on vacation just as the beans were coming in did not work out so well for the beans. I like my beans slow-stewed though, so it isn't all bad.

Sunday I made green tomato salsa to freeze. I had cilantro, peppers, and onions from my CSA share, and I know that all of my tomatoes aren't going to ripen so I picked some green now. It's the first time I've tried making salsa from green tomatoes. It came out well. I don't like my salsa sweet anyway, so I don't miss the sweetness of the ripened tomatoes. We'll see how it is after being frozen. In the afternoon I roasted a chicken and potatoes. I love roasted chicken. It was a big one, over five pounds, which means there will be leftover chicken all week. I saved the pan juices. I read recently that they make a great base for a soup. Once I thought about that, it makes sense. It's basically concentrated stock. I'll probably make chicken soup for dinner tomorrow night. I'm going to make it with corn, peppers, rice, and a little tomato. I haven't tried that before, but it sounds delicious.