Dear god it has been hot. It has been in the 90s all week, and the humidity has been high. It isn’t helping that I’ve been making BBQ sauce downstairs and it has been boiling/cooking down for the last 3 1/2 hours. Yup, that is what happens when you make BBQ sauce from fresh tomatoes. The plus is that I now have a bunch of sauce that I can freeze and pull out as I need it over the winter. But it is making my house really warm.
I noticed something I’ve stopped doing. I use to keep a log of all the produce I got from my CSA and made a list of meals I was making with it. For example I got 16+ lbs of tomatoes and only used 9 of those pounds for that BBQ sauce. More mind boggling is that for the average price of organic tomatoes is about $4 per pound, that makes my BBQ sauce $36 for 3 jars! I have to say the tomatoes alone is the main reason why my CSA pays for itself.
Farm Round Up:
What I got:
1 quart of purple tomatillos
1 quart of green beans
1/2 pint blackberries
1 large spaghetti squash
8 lbs slicing tomatoes (about 12)
8 lbs big ass cherry tomatoes (more like tennis tomatoes)
3 asian eggplant
3 bell peppers (2 green, 1 mostly red)
3 red italia peppers
2 poblano peppers
4 white onions (very small)
1 lb 4oz okra
What I’m cooking:
BBQ Sauce (9lbs of tomatoes cooked down and frozen for future use)
Tomatillo Coconut Ice Cream (working on a new recipe)
Black Bean & Tomatillo Soup (using a few tomatillos, more tomatoes, and a poblano pepper)
Bhindi Masala from Isa Does It (tomatoes and okra)
Black Bean Tacos with roasted peppers and fresh salsa (peppers and tomatoes)
Jajangmyeon Spaghetti Squash (spaghetti squash, older zucchini, and maybe peppers)
Eggplant Stir-Fry with Green Beans and Cashews (eggplant and green beans)
Maple Cupcakes for Jon’s Birthday (using absolutely no produce ^__~)
What really stinks is that I was originally planning on making some Nacho Tots with some peppers and maybe tomatillos on top. Then as I started to make this list I saw that I never wrote down the planned recipe for the eggplant and green beans. *cries* I keep seeing photos of roasted potatoes and french fries and have a weird desire for them. Actually, I’ve been really craving processed starchy comfort foods but keep knowing that I should really be eating all this great produce. *sigh* I guess I shouldn’t complain. We got 16lbs of organic tomatoes, which at retail prices would of been $64! Better start eating.
This old YA novel shows us how far women’s gymnastics has come — and how far it hasn’t
This is an interesting review of an old 70s book targeted for teenage girls. It talks about how much the sport of gymnastics have changed in pop culture and how the pressures on girls have changed. What I find funny is that the main character criticizes the Russian team for being TOO athletic, while today, Russian athletes have criticized the team USA for taking the grace out of the sport. I am all for taking some of the “dance” and “grace” aspects out of the sport, as they are starting to look a little silly. Don’t agree? Watch the men’s floor exercises and then watch the women’s. What is with all the these weird octopus arms ladies?
The Secret Lives of Cadavers
My work is a little weird. I work with two people who are pretty open about death. We have talked a few times about how we would like be buried. Yes, I know what I would like done with my dead body, and Jon knows this too. It is his fault for making me watch Six Feet Under and made me aware of the funeral business. I am not 100% what I want to have done, but I am considering donating my body to be a cadaver after reading this article.
Simone Biles’s adoption defies a foster care system that punishes black families
This is a nice article talking about how the foster care system in the USA is broken and racially bias. They talk about Simone Biles because she was very lucky to be adopted by her Grandparents, as appose to being placed in the foster system. I’ve heard a lot of shady things about the foster system, and I remember reading a memoir about being placed in the system for school.
This “wacky wallpaper house” in Minnesota will assault your eyes with patterns galore
Totally a fluff piece but I am loving this. Offbeat Home features a house that is just so beyond matchy matchy. Would I want to decorate my house like this? Uh no. I actually was a little dizzy the day I read this post and just felt more sick from looking at all that pattern! But there is something admirable about being so over the top that it works.
raechel
Great articles and sounds like a lot of great meals! Our CSA had to cancel their deliveries this summer and I feel like I’ve really missed out on getting a variety of produce.
Good for you for making BBQ from scratch! Get it, gurl!
Jennifer
That stinks! Was it that your CSA didn’t have enough produce this season? The weather this year has been all over the place. The peach orchards in the area are destroyed this year because they tree blossomed and there was frost afterward. And I think this heatwave has been postponing a lot of crops
Susan
I read that article about body donation a couple of weeks ago. Personally, I want to be put into one of those tree pod things. And grow into a tree. I actually had a really big discussion about this with one of the other women at work a couple of weeks ago, and we decided on becoming trees.
That wallpaper house almost gave me a headache just looking at photos through the screen! I guess if you lived there you’d just get used to it?
Jennifer
I’ve never heard of those tree pod things. Though the idea isn’t completely unheard of. There was some movie where they planted a tree where a woman was being buried, which is a sweet idea, but doesn’t work that way with traditional funeral methods. I the USA there are strict laws for burial, and I know eco-friendly cemeteries have to work to get exempted from those laws.
Susan
I don’t think the tree pod things are widely available, and in fact they may not even be fully legal yet? Though it is the ashes that are buried in the pod, not a whole body, so perhaps that is OK? I suppose no one could stop you planting it on the sneaky? Hopefully by the time I am likely to need a tree pod, they’ll be allowed!
kimmythevegan
“Tomatillo Coconut Ice Cream” Hmmm that may be a little too out there for me ;p I like tomatillos, but I dunno ;p
Oooh I’m going to have to check out that okra recipe. My husband picked up okra from the market and I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
“Yes, I know what I would like done with my dead body” Ditto. I worked in an insurance company for a few years and had to take claim calls when someone passed away. It made me realize how unprepared we can be for death.
Jennifer
Sadly we may never know if it was a wash. I made a rookie ice cream mistake and poured the ice cream in the maker without the paddle, and couldn’t get the paddle in since the ice cream started to freeze on the sides. *sigh* And it looks like our CSA is coming to the end of their tomatillos, so we’ll see.