Chopped tomatoes, salted and draining for a tomato pie. It has occurred to me that I've only made one during the season which is sort of a sin (as is tomato pie in and of itself) so I've gathered up the different varieties we have and have chopped them and squished them lovingly and set them in the colander with salt.
The juice from them is delicious, straight out of the bowl I've poured it in.
I've made a pie crust and will soon slice onions and layer them with the tomatoes in the pastry and top those with basil and then the holy mixture of mayonnaise and cheese and bake it all until it's fit for all the holy angels and demonic devils too. We'll also be having a lovely (I hope) soup of yellow and Delicata squash.
I've canned six pints of hot and sweet pickled banana peppers and baked a loaf of sourdough today too. And did a little weeding. And a little bit of bathroom cleaning.
I am out of my mind. Obviously. But I am doing very few activities outside. Because...
I was just thinking a few minutes ago how I've spent my entire life thinking that I should be doing something or I should not be doing something or that I'm wasting my time or that my priorities are perverted or at least not correct and I'm really tired of that shit. So what if I'm spending hours in the kitchen every day? This is the time of year that if you have a garden that you find yourself dealing with the fruits of the gardening labors. That's just all there is to it. And mostly I do enjoy it and I get a great deal of satisfaction preserving the vegetables and fruits that I am able to preserve, and preparing them fresh for us to eat. I mean- isn't this sort of the dream?
And so forth.
Fuck it. If I want to can and cook all day I will.
They say if you can't stand the heat, to get out of the kitchen. Well, my kitchen has air conditioning and so I am fine right there between sink and stove and chopping board.
I just went out to pick the aforementioned basil and saw this.
I wish I'd gotten a better picture but you can grasp some of the glory of it and I do love the drooping palm fronds. There was also a very fine and fat bumblebee buzzing the beautiful phlox but she was not having her picture taken and that was that.
And of course, here are some zinnias. I have these in the kitchen because that is where I am spending the most time these days.
You hit the nail on the head. Why fret about what you should or shouldn't be doing......and just do what you *want*? I am learning, as I age, to get better at that, accepting how I feel and trying to feel no guilt to *do* all these years. A work in progress. I may have to attempt a tomato pie- never done it. Have made onion pie with caraway seeds (Mom)......but never tomato. You have motivated me out of my today's slump! a *to-do* for this upcoming week- tomato pie
ReplyDeleteSusan M
Do your best to find some really nice tomatoes. Their flavor is what makes it so good. Well, that and the cheese and mayonnaise.
DeleteIt certainly is the season to be preserving all the fine food grown by the sweat of our brows. Or, Mr. Moons and yours.
ReplyDeleteLove that old thermometer, on the dot.
I like the thermometer too.
DeleteI was thinking yesterday that maybe the winter garden is best- all I do is make incredible salads from it and occasionally cook some of the greens. A very be-here-now sort of situation.
Beautiful butterfly! I’ve seen many Monarchs this year which is rare for us or me, anyway. I hope they’re coming back in full force.
ReplyDeleteI love putting up food! It feels empowering to me! As God is my witness i will never go hungry, or some such. You’ve had a full day and accomplished much!
Debbie
Ha! Neither you nor I will ever pull a radish from the dirt and puke it up, will we?
DeleteAnd all winter long you can glory in those foods you put up!
ReplyDeleteSO many foods!
Deletelove those red zinnias. all I ever get is pink. I've collected some dead heads of red, yellow, orange, and a salmon color from a friend for next year.
ReplyDeleteand cook away Mary. preserve away. we need those skills. this is what you contribute.
I have one right now that is the most beautiful deep ruby color. I don't have nearly enough yellow or orange ones to suit me though.
DeleteAs talented as you are in the kitchen, and as happy as you are doing cooking and canning (except when there is a stove spillover), I can't think of any reason you shouldn't do what makes you happy. When I retired, people kept asking me (in horror) what I was going to do. My response: "Any damn thing I want." That was a couple of years ago and that answer still stands. Don't feel the need to justify my existence to anyone else.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary. I needed to hear that!
DeleteYou most certainly are living the dream! Homegrown tomatoes, onions, basil and olive oil - that's "the dream" for me. I also tended (tend?) to always think I should be doing something else, but I'm curious really to think who this invisible person is that thinks I should be doing X and not Y! They don't exist right? Since I retired I don't have to answer to anyone. It's hard to get past though isn't it!
ReplyDeleteRight? Who IS this invisible and very judgmental person? I did not ask them into my head.
DeleteBut yes, for some of us we have unhealthy relationship with constant movement. Not sure why.
Glad you are enjoying your life and the treasures from your garden! You put so much love into your cooking making it all the more enriching in every way! Stay safe and happy!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ellen. I'm trying.
DeleteLiving the dream, absolutely! I think you're doing what lots and lots of women historically did at this time of year when the harvest came in -- working to prepare and preserve all that food. You're walking the steps of your ancestors going back a long, long way.
ReplyDeleteMy zinnias are still relatively small and haven't bloomed yet. I keep thinking, if not now, WHEN?!
I do believe that the genes of my foremothers call to me quite strongly. They are hard taskmasters!
DeleteGive your zinnias time. They'll bloom. Do they get enough sun?
It takes a lot of doing to throw off that sense of what we should or shouldn't be doing. Whatever we want and can is the answer. Short of setting fire to Notre Dame, that is. But I don't think that was one of your plans.
ReplyDeleteAnd who am I, living alone and cooking daily, to say anything against cooking?
No, strangely it has never occurred to me to set fire to a cathedral.
DeleteI love the way you cook for yourself. When I'm alone, I cook for myself too. I don't understand people who don't see the need to do that.
Do you know something we don't? All this bottling, canning, preserving etc. makes me suspect that we are on the verge of a nuclear war and you are just getting ready for it. After all, the shelves at Publix and even Piggly Wiggly will be empty when the mushroom clouds start blooming again.
ReplyDeleteNo, I am not doing this for the apocalypse. I'm doing it because the vegetables are here, ripe, and needing to be picked and preserved! And I guess for pleasure.
DeleteOMG that Butterfly picture is EVERYTHING! I mean, it even transcends your lovely Food pixs and as a self-professed Foodie, that's saying something!
ReplyDelete