Stewing some tomatoes to freeze.
Two quarts of beautiful multicolored tomatoes from the farmer's market...
Into a pot with onions, a splash of water, a squirt of tomato paste, salt and pepper, some crushed red pepper, and fresh basil from my garden. An hour or so later, they're still looking gorgeous!
And finally, around two hours later, into freezer containers for the cold months when fresh, delicious tomatoes seem a million years away....
I still remember like it was yesterday the beautiful canned tomatoes Kristal delivered to a sick, sick me a few years ago. What a special treat they were a few weeks later, deep into the winter.
Baking with pumpkin.
And cooking with pumpkin. And reheating with pumpkin. Everything pumpkin! My current favorite is adding a plop of canned pumpkin into my morning oatmeal. Yum.
Zucchini pumpkin bread. I'm still fiddling with recipes to find the one, but I'm getting closer. I swapped out half of the butter with applesauce and cut the sugar by 25% - it was a tad dry and a tad not-sweet-enough. I think if I still swap out the butter, still cut the sugar, but then add some sweetness and moistness back in with an additional quarter cup or so of applesauce, I'll be there. Next batch!
Showering friends with brunch.
Our friends Liz and Greg are expecting their first baby (a little girl!) in November, so Hillary, Ceile, and I hosted a couple's brunch last Sunday. Ceile was the decorations committee (and her mom made dessert for us!) and Hillary (and Troy!) and I made the food - waffles and baked apples and two quiches, respectively. I even made a ham and cheese quiche (ew)! I think the Cooking Light base is the way to go -- three eggs, a cup of skim milk, a quarter cup of cheese, however much flour it calls for [can't remember off the top of my head], and you're good to go with whatever add-ins you have. Still perfectly quichey but incredibly light -- I haven't once gotten egg belly from this!
We also had the expecting couple play a round of the Newlyparent's Game, where we asked them parenthood questions (like, "Who will give your daughter 'The Talk'?") and had them each write down the answer. If they agreed, we cheered; if they disagreed, we booed. My favorite part was learning Liz wanted to name the baby La - a (pronounced la-dash-a). Okay, she didn't really, but Greg used that as an answer and it made us all laugh.
They agreed on nearly all the answers. :)
We also had fan re-creating our baby picture poses.
And we had a very special birthday.
Happy birthday, Georgie. We love you more than you love squeaky balls!
And now we continue the countdown until V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N (11 days!)... and H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N!!!! Three cheers for October.
1 comment:
A girl used to work here who was seriously named La-a :-)
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