My dad returned from Osoyoos with 10lbs of peaches for me. I like peaches but I have to admit that when I eat them I get irritated. They taste good but all that juice running down your chin, your face - ugh! I knew I'd never eat them before they went bad and the kids aren't huge peach eaters. I contemplated canning them but 10 lbs is not really enough to justify the effort involved for canning. Besides all of my canning supplies are packed up still. There was a time when we were really into growing lots of veggies and fruits and I would can them. Those days seem to have passed. We used to have 2 cherry trees that grew these very sour cherries that tasted awful but made amazing jelly, juice and pie filling. And we also had 2 apple trees and at one point a very large veggie garden. But I haven't canned in years and frankly, have no desire to start up again.
So I decided to freeze the peaches and googled a page on how to freeze as whole slices without syrup. I boiled, peeled, sliced and diced and had a large mound of delicious smelling peaches. THere were a few little pieces that seemed to stubby and unappetizing to freeze as whole slices so I put them aside with sugar and made one of Martha's jam recipes. Her version was Apricots with Sauterne but I just substituated peaches and pear wine as that was what was open in the fridge. The result was very yummy if I do say so myself! I now have a very strong desire to bake bread as there is nothing better than a loaf of GOOD rustic bread or baguette with butter and homemade jam.
But I must get back to work so if I still have energy later I just may bake some bread!
total aside: I found a yummy food item that I must share. I've been eating a few wraps lately... mainly because I bought these very healthy, grainy ones and they needed to be finished. I ran out of them but still had cut up chicken, veggies and lettuce in the fridge to use up so when I was at the market last night decided to buy more. The market had regular old tortillas but they also had these "Masala Roti" so I tried those. OH my word - so good! They have some zing, some Indian inspried spices in them and a really yummy consistency. A must try! I had mine with some grilled chicken breast, some lettuce and a wee bit of fat free mayo and it was amazing.
One family's explorations towards living a natural life through our choices, our faith and our daily events
Words of Wisdom
"I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."
- Helen Keller
- Calvin B. DeWitt, president of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies
"My head bent over a bowl of steaming soup, my prayer seems to be incense floating up to heaven. I think God likes soup.
- Mary Beth Lind
"Food bears the signature of God's grace. It is the fruit of the web of life that clothes our globe in such beauty... a steady diet of gratitude keeps us awake in God's economy of grace. It invites us to make choices that allow all to have a place at the banquet and the web of life to flourish."
- Cathy Campbell, author of Stations of the Banquet: Faith Foundations for Food Justice
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Blogs I read
Good Things
- Building a Nutrition packed day
- Elephant Island
- European Breads Bakery
- Joie
- La Frenz
- Laughing Stock Wines (a favorite of mine!)
- Les Amis Du Fromage
- Liberty Wine
- MCC (I wonder if the MCC woud like being listed in with all of these wines??!!)
- Method: People Against Dirty
- My winter life and home and where I see all of my "winter friends"
- Raincity grill - my favorite fancy restaurant
- Spud
- The cookbook that changed my life
4 comments:
Exactly where do you get your energy!?!?! "I'll just go back to work for a bit after freezing 10 lbs of peaches, and making jam...then maybe later I'll make some bread" - You astound me :-)
Those wraps sound Sooooo good. I've been looking for easy meal ideas. We've been doing a lot of cut up veggies, bits of meat and/or cheese, or sandwiches. No time or energy to actually make meals right now (you were SO right about that with the moving preparation stuff).
ahhh, easy summer meal ideas:
Pre-cook your meats: we did up a bunch of chicken breasts, DH marinated them and then we threw them on the bbq. now if you don't have a bbq, you could broil or bake... just do up a bunch all at once. When cool, slice up into strips and then throw on lettuce, in wraps etc. It is sort of like a mini salad bar in your fridge.
I also sometimes buy an extra rotisserie chicken and then freeze it. You can pull it out, defrost and then voila, for you guys, a couple of days meals! when you reheat, just throw some honey garlic sauce or something over it to moisten it up.
another fav or mine: roasted vegetables. I roast up a huge amount (zucchini, squash, red onion cuz its pretty and tasty, whole cloves of garlic, peppers, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms... anything goes really... except cuke and tomato ;-)... just toss in a bit of olive oil and that is all you need to do. I do them on the bbq but again do them in the oven on a not hot night and eat for days), first night eat them hot, throw on some goat cheese... then eat as a cold veggie salad...then eat in wraps. something about those flavors of the veggies and the goat cheese that is just amazing. Use the chevre goat cheese.
and my other easy stand by... frozen soy burgers. DH likes a good meaty burger so I have buffalo or other lean meat patties for him but I can't eat ground meat (gag!) so I have a soy patty. THey cook instantaneously and are low fat, healthy and good. You can have them in a bun, or as if they were falafel with some hummus and salad or tzatziki (with hot sauce of course) or any other sauce. No prep, short cooking time and not too bad price wise. You can make your own but I am just lazy and buy the prepattied type. I buy the soy burger type so I can bbq them. yes, I love my bbq ;-)
you have got to try those wraps, you would enjoy them. Hey fellow bloggers what is your quick summer meal that you throw together??
Yes...my stand by is the rotisserie chicken, on greens with olives, feta tomatoes cukes, peppers etc. Basically chicken-greek salad on greens. Easy and MMM....
mmm that sounds good. I do that with greek chicken from president's choice brand. they are frozen, low fat, marinated chicken breasts that need to be cooked but you just throw them in the pan frozen and they are good.
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