Eating

We’ve been eating from the garden more this week. Fresh as fresh can be without lying down on the floor of the greenhouse and nibbling the peppers straight from the plant.

At the beginning of the season, I planted one greenhouse up with the ingredients for ratatouille. One of my best ideas this year, I might say. This week, we had our first bowlful.

It was so tasty. All the family loved it. Only exception was a bit of grumbling about aubergines from one person around the table, but I’ll disguise it next time. Ratatouille is firmly back on the menu again.

I love the fresh ingredients I have available. Eating them warm from the greenhouse is a real treat, that I miss in the winter. As we tucked into a bowlful of pasta, one lunch time this week, it suddenly dawned on me that I am indeed a foodie. I admired how the pasta and tomatoes work brilliantly together. Texture and flavour were on point. It fed the soul, as well as the stomach.

Not all pasta is the same. I make fresh pasta, but not the shaped tubes. Maybe one day. Instead I’ve looked hard for a good source of pasta and now buy it in big bags of 5kg. The secret is to cook the pasta slowly to perfection. My tomatoes are homegrown and uncooked with the skins removed and the basil is fresh from the greenhouse.

It turns out I’m a bit of a foodie.

In an attempt to capture the summer goodness, to savour during the colder months, I am starting to can/preserve some of my garden surplus. The plan is to can apple pie fillers and pasta sauce this weekend.  In different jars, of course. (Canning is the American term for preserving food in a jar. I guess “jarring” never caught on. 😀 Anyway, it includes all preserving and not just pickles and jams)

Apples I’ve done before, but most years I end up flinging bags of puree into the freezer, along with the pasta sauces. I’d like to move away from the long term storage of using the freezer and plastic. Hopefully, next week, I’ll be proudly showing you my new batch of filled jars. Watch this space.

Last weekend, we visited grandparents. The children haven’t seen this set of grandparents since February, and I really wanted them to visit before they went back to school. I’m going to be less willing to go over, once school starts back next week, due to the increased chances of us passing the virus on.

It was a lovely day. My in-laws ordered in a roast dinner from a local pub. It arrived in metal containers and all they had to do was serve it up on plates. Very easy and yummy. Hero enjoyed his visit too. Copious amounts of beef made it into his bowls, as the portions were generous.

Final meal is one I didn’t join in on. Middle teen braved the bus into Bristol to meet up with friends. Five of them got together for a meal and shopping trip to celebrate one of their birthdays.

First time she’s been on the bus by herself and apart from getting soaked on the way back, she is ready to repeat the experience.

Catching up with her afterwards, she talked about how her friends have all changed in a lovely way. I think if this is the same around the country, teachers are going to find a portion of their students more confident and self assured than the ones they waved goodbye to at the end of March. I hope they can hang on to this experience. Away from peer pressure and the confines of school, it sounds like these teens have grown, and not just in height.

Final note goes to my fig ice cream, before I wrap up. If you have a glut of figs and are looking at a way of using them, then I can recommend my recipe. It is yummy!

Joining in with Anne’s word of the week.

(PS my comments may not be displaying properly at the moment, but the ones you leave do get through to me. Been trying to correct it. In the meantime, any questions you have, I’ll get back to you via your blog or email. Thank you!)