cookin’

I love fruits and vegetables more than almost anything. Seriously.

Last week my friend Bruce holidayed in my hometown and, since my parents still live there, I asked if he could collect a package of stuff from my mom. Thankfully he's a peach and coordinated with her. I got the smallish box/bag yesterday; my mother is the master of packing boxes. So much stuff, including:
- 5 ears of corn
- 15 tomatoes
- 2 green peppers
- 3 cukes
- a bag of green and wax beans
- 10 enormous nectarines
- a bag of prune plums
- an enormous zucchini (probably around 7 cups worth, shredded!)
- 3 ziplocs of walnuts

Most of it is from my parents' garden, including the walnuts. Tonight I made the green tomatoes she packed using a fried green tomatoes recipe from Simply Recipes and they were tasty! I still have a couple of the firmer slices left, so will try them cold in the morning. As soon as I get a baguette and a little parmesan, I will work on the tomato bread pudding from Culinary in the Country.

This might be a good time to figure out what I can make and freeze. I froze a few cups of grated zucchini last week for fritters and/or muffins, but now... so much zucchini to work with. I always have a few bags of walnuts in the freezer, just in case, so have a pretty good stash now and probably should try to figure out how to use large amounts of them at once. (My parents have a ridiculous amount of walnuts, so I'm really doing them a favour by taking them.) The corn and nectarines can easily be frozen (I've done up a few nectarines already and will do more if they get much more ripe). If I make the plums into my mom's plum cake, that can be frozen. Most, if not all, of the tomatoes will be used up by the end of the week. Just need to shove myself full of the rest of it.

Today I also picked up some apricot beer from the booze shop. It's pretty tasty, though not as sweet as some other fruity beers. I almost got a bottle of blackberry porter as well, but then decided against it this time around.

Oh, some fantastic news: dear friends Rachel and Nathan have a baby girl! Lily Ann popped out yesterday morning (a week-and-a-half early) around 9:30am, and is already home. Pretty excited to meet her soon. Being a fake auntie sort of kicks ass.

Currently reading :
Can I Freeze It?: How to Use the Most Versatile Appliance in Your Kitchen
By Susie Theodorou
Release date: 30 January, 2007