Busy in the Kitchen

Things are really busy in the kitchen at this time of year.  We have a CSA vegetable assortment weekly from Nature's Route Farm here in eastern NB.  Added to that, I have my own vegetable garden, and some treats from my friend who has a vegetable farm in Memramcook.  As a result, today was spent largely in the kitchen.

I made pesto from garlic scapes (from Memramcook), parsley, sage, basil (all herbs from my vegetable beds) and a mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  Marc is allergic to all nuts except almonds, so I don't use the traditional pine nuts in my pesto.  You can see that I have some zucchini to use as well!

I made the pesto in the food processor and for the oil component, I used a lovely speciality Lucques olive oil.  I pressed it into ice cube trays and will take the frozen cubes out and put them in bags to use through the winter. 

It makes a great accompaniment to pasta, but also does double duty as a pizza base, an addition to stuffed chicken breasts, or an addition to lasagne layers when mixed with cottage cheese.

I bought 6 trays of half price mushrooms at the grocery store last week, all of which needed to be rinsed and chopped before being sauteed.  I managed to get Marc to help with that task today. 

I used some mushrooms in a quiche with tomatoes, ham and leeks.  The rest are in the fridge for accompanying meals this coming week.

I also made a large batch of mushroom and barley soup, adding some quinoa and tomato paste to the beef-broth based soup.  That's been transferred into containers now and some will likely be frozen.

In addition, I made a sort of fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants recipe.  I shredded 2 zucchini and 6 carrots.  I boiled about 5 potatoes and a large sweet potato.  I mashed the potatoes and added a bit of butter.  Then I shredded a large head of cabbage and sauteed it in olive oil until it was really soft and sweet.  I mixed everything together and added 3 small (silkie) eggs and a good dollop of pureed ginger paste.  Then I formed patties with the mixture and rolled them in seasoned bread crumbs.

Then I sauteed them in olive oil to form a sort of potato-cabbage-veggie "fritter" of sorts. 

They taste really good!  I have 2 large containers full of them.

Tomorrow I anticipate making a broccoli and blue cheese soup, as well as a parsnip-based soup.  Finding freezer space is becoming challenging but I'm trying to do the best I can with the summer harvest.  If I find time, I will also roast beets and make a cake.