Posts tagged ‘books’
25lb of tomatoes!
Caselot season has begun at the farmer’s market. Big beautiful boxes of tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, apricots, blueberries and raspberries were all on display when we made our weekly shopping trip. As part of our quest to be more conscious about the transportation footprint of our food, I am making a point of stocking up while local produce is abundant. Already I have a couple of pounds of spinach from our very own garden and half a case of blueberries packaged and stored in our freezer. Next up is tomatoes! We purchased a 25lb case of pesticide-free BC roma tomatoes at the market today. This is obviously a huge amount of tomatoes, as you can see from the photo. It’s a long winter, though, and I make a lot of tomato-based dishes like lasagna, pizza sauce and chili, especially in the winter. I’m sure we’ll have no trouble eating our way through them.
Up until now, I’ve relied on crushed canned tomatoes, organic and delicious, but shipped in from California. Plus, that infamous chemical BPA is found in the top of tin can liners, so I’ve mostly given up buying food in cans. So the case of tomatoes is good – we’ll be eating local and doing away with tinned food almost altogether.
My plan for our case of tomatoes is to eat some this week in salads and salsa, to make a huge vat of the tomato sauce recipe from the Rebar cookbook to freeze, and then to chop and freeze the rest. There’s a character in The Stone Diaries, one of my favourite Carol Shields novels, who accidentally poisons her mother-in-law to death with some improperly canned runner beans (botulism). So although I’ve thought about learning how to can food several times, freezing seems safest. I’m quite fond of my mother-in-law and just can’t shake that story out of my head!
Wish me luck with the tomato preparations over the next few days. Have already sliced a finger with my lovely (but sharp!) tomato knife making caprese salad for this evening’s dinner. Hopefully I’ll fare better with the remaining 24.5lb.
Asparagus Risotto
Asparagus risotto is one of my favorite things to make for a simple but special supper at home with family and friends. We’ve been making an effort to buy more local seasonal produce, so the only reason I’m cooking with asparagus is because I’d stashed a bunch in the back of our freezer after buying too much produce at the farmer’s market last summer (amazingly it still tasted great!).
Asparagus will be back in season in a few short months – spring is the time to find it fresh and locally grown. I’ve been thinking about planting some asparagus crowns in my own garden, which apparently fare well (as long as you’re patient) in our chilly Zone 3 climate. (more…)
Santa’s bookshelf
Many gifts were given and received this season to and from our wonderful friends and family. Along with cooking and baking gadgets (I must be doing something right in the kitchen), some excellent new books made their way into our home this holiday season . The Christmas break is one of the few times I actually have the time I crave to sink into reading for at least a few hours a day, so I LOVE books for gifts. Thank you!
Red Dog Red Dog by Patrick Lane. Patrick Lane is the author my very favorite book, a beautiful memoir about love, addiction, and gardening on the West Coast called There is a Season. The writing in the memoir is stunning, and so is the story. Red Dog is Patrick Lane’s first novel (after a lifetime of winning poetry awards), and I can’t wait to read it.
Molto Italiano by Mario Batali. This is a big beautiful glossy cookbook with lots of photos and an emphasis on quality seasonal and local ingredients. We had the pleasure of eating at Babbo, Mario Batali’s restaurant in New York City this past July and it was the best meal. I cooked a risotto dish from this cookbook for our New Year’s Eve celebration and it was delish!
