I had the meal plan all ready to post on schedule last night, then my mom showed up for a surprise visit with a bounty of vegetables that my grandma picked from her garden to send along. A vegetable care package! Cool!
The most fascinating thing I found in all of the bags and buckets of produce was this gargantuan tomato. It was huge. 2-1/2 pounds according to my kitchen scale. Seriously impressive.
It put my regular-sized garden tomatoes to shame.
I am having some difficulty deciding what to do with a few of the items from grandma's garden. Maybe some of you can help me out?
First of all, Grandma sent bunches of flat leaf parsley. I'd like to preserve some. Do any of you have experience with this? What should I do? I've heard about freezing it in ice cube trays. Or maybe I should dry it?
She also sent 3 eggplants. I had just purchased 1 eggplant for the Garden Vegetable Tart that I plan to make later this week, so now I have 4 eggplants. How should I prepare it? Do any of you have a favorite recipe? I have fried it before, but I'd love to try a different recipe.
Finally, she sent a whole bucket full of red hot chili peppers. I was thinking about drying them. If anyone has tips, I'd be happy to read them. Also, have any of you ever dried pepper seeds and planted them the next year? My grandma suggested that I save some of the seeds for planting. I was just wondering if that really works and how I should go about it. Sound off, my pepper lovin' readers!
Okay, so now for the meal plan. I only had to plan for 4 meals this week, and I'm only cooking 3. Tuesday I'm pulling some barbecue out of the freezer to heat for sandwiches. On Thursdays during the school year, my daughters attend an evening children's program at our church, where I also teach a class. They serve dinner there. Love that! On Saturday we will probably cook out with our neighbors and on Sunday we have 2 birthday parties to attend. While I'm only cooking three meals, I'll probably keep pretty busy in the kitchen using up all of those vegetables!
Monday August 29th
Grilled Teriyaki Pork Loin
Sesame Green Bean Salad
Tuesday August 30th
Barbecued Brisket from the freezer
Cucumber Ribbon Salad
Wednesday August 31st
Harvest Vegetable Tart
Thursday September 1st
Dinner @ church for me and the girls.
Leftovers for my husband. : )
Friday September 2nd
Cheesesteak Pizza
Saturday September 3rd
Cookout
Sunday September 4th
Whole family @ a birthday party
Grocery List
Produce
1 lb. green beans
2-3 onions
garlic
2 cucumbers
4 radishes
red onion
green onions
egg plant
tomato
green pepper
red bell pepper
Meat
2 lbs. pork loin
4 lbs. beef brisket
4 Steak-ums
Deli
kalamata olives
Dairy
ATHENOS Crumbled Feta Cheese with Basil & Tomato
butter
grated Parmesan
2 eggs
Pillsbury Thin Crust Refrigerated Pizza dough
Shredded mozzarella/provolone
milk
Canned Goods
Teriyaki marinade
soy sauce
cider vinegar
canola oil
sesame oil
ketchup
beer
white vinegar
liquid smoke
Italian dressing
evaporated milk
Dry Goods
sugar
sesame seeds
brown sugar
smoked paprika
oregano
cornstarch
all-purpose flour
whole wheat flour
cornmeal
cayenne pepper
Freezer
1/2 cup frozen corn
Have a great week, everyone!
Oh what beautiful veggies! That tomato looks like a "mortgage lifter", not sure. However, allow the peppers to dry out completely by hanging. (String them up by the stem). After they have dried, remove the seeds and store in a cool dry space until planting time. Can't wait to see what you prepare from your bounty. Hugs!
ReplyDeleteI made this Basil Eggplant Parm from Tasty Kitchen a few weeks back. It was DELISH! http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/basil-eggplant-parmesan/
ReplyDeletewe either dry our herbs or blend them up with a bit of water and ice cube them then put them in little tubs like the small butter tubs or cottage cheese ones(yes im one of those ladies who saves all that because whats the point of buying Tupperware when you already bought something just as good.) For a good seal if you cube it and put it in containers like butter ones, put plastic wrap over the top before putting the lid on, gives it a better seal so the air doesn't get to it and ruin the herbs.
ReplyDeleteoh oh oh probably should have finished reading the post before commenting, lol, other than my aloe, my entire garden was grown from seeds from either fruits that other ppl gave me from last year or ones i bought from the store, i even went as far as buying a few of the new trend herbs the major chains have that still have the roots and dirt on them. or the fresh ones that are in the cold box of the produce section and the ones with roots i just popped in a pot, the fresh herbs that were cuttings, i bought some rooting hormone powder from the local hardware/garden store and "cloned" them. Worked like a charm and i didn't spend more than maybe 50$ on my entire garden if that including buying top soil.
ReplyDeletescrape the seeds, making sure there's no ribbing on them and I would suggest some rubber gloves. The oil those peppers produce,if they are hot ones anyway, is crazy hot and will burn for hours if u get it around your eyes mouth or nose (learned the hard way:S) I just dry mine in cleaned baby food jars that my friend who actually buys that crap saves for me.
ReplyDelete