Since I normally teach on the weekend, my "weekend" is Tuesday and part of Wednesday. This is when I get a lot of the week's food preparation done. Today, while shuffling through the freezer to get a big roast out to thaw for cooking tomorrow, I found a couple of rooster legs from the last batch of roosters that we raised for the freezer, and some broth. Rooster soup it is. But this will not be my usual rooster soup, because the garden is in full swing.
Right from the garden.
And for those who haven't gardened yet and only saw dirt in the above photo, here is what they look like after five seconds with a spray of water.
The soup will contain all products we produced ourselves....it gives me a thrill when I can do this. Chicken, onions, garlic, and in the above photos, carrots, celery, rutabaga, chard, chard stems, and green beans. For seasoning, we have rosemary and red pepper (I'll leave the black pepper out this time just so I can enjoy the idea that we totally produced this) and finally, sea salt that we made from sea water.
Meanwhile, I've been busy blanching and freezing lots of chard and green beans. Many batches of herbs have gone through the dehydrator, in fact, it is running right now: rosemary, basil, wormwood, and sage so far.
There is a four gallon batch of feta going, and some ground pork thawing to be flavored with our herbs and used in a meal later in the week with some tomatoes and basil and maybe a quick soup.
Two black bean chocolate cakes are cooling on the counter, one for us and one to give away.
Last week's batch of feta needs to be removed from the brine and wrapped and frozen for winter use. I'll grate some for use as a flavoring during meals. It is wonderful with eggs in the morning.
There is a batch of peppermint extract busy extracting with what will likely be the last of the mint for this year.
If there is time, I may go get another batch of chard from the garden and get it into the freezer. Probably not! I just remembered I have some local peaches that need to be dealt with. They will make a great topping for the cake with some chevre, don't you think?
How do you make feta? I LOVE feta!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know one could freeze Feta. What's the texture like after it thaws?
ReplyDeleteI got the recipe from the book, 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes. If you can measure ingredients, read a thermometer, and stir, stir, and stir some more, you can make cheese. It really IS easy!
ReplyDeleteMost cheeses are a bit crumbly after freezing and thawing. I make my feta strong for grating, and I use it to salt and flavor various foods. It is wonderful in soups, over buttered popcorn, and with anything using tomatoes and Italian herbs. I've never been a fan of feta on salad, nor have I liked the feta that you can buy in the grocery store. Like everything homemade, this one is very different. So good, and so worth the effort!