Fall cookin'

So fall is here...finally! We had a bit of a heat wave, which I wasn't very happy with. I've noticed the last few summers, I'm pretty much ready for fall by September. I don't know why... I guess I've just adapted so well to northern climes that I can't take the heat even for 3 short months.

We're definitely in a state of heavy bounty right now. Between all the things I canned and froze and a ton of potatoes and onions and garlic from mom & dad and now the winter CSA, I am in total cooking mode. My goal: To not waste one single morsel of food.

We got some leeks from the CSA this afternoon so I'm making some potato leek soup. We had some cauliflower left from last week and a gorgeous bunch of broccoli so I'm roasting that with some leftover cabbage in the oven with olive oil, lemon, and garlic. I would take photos my camera's battery is recharging...

Last night I made veggie reubens. I sauteed some white button mushrooms with spinach, and then layered it onto a Pepperidge farm dark german bread with some homemade sauerkraut and provolone cheese. I totally forgot about the dressing. I was going to make some russian dressing with mayo and ketchup and relish, but I forgot. The sauerkraut stole the show, for sure. Next time, I think I will use Swiss cheese instead.

I also recently made a broccoli and tofu dish from my vegan cookbook. I marinated the tofu in lemon juice and that was supposed to create a fake kind of feta. It was pretty good.

We went wild mushroom foraging this afternoon... actually Jon is still out there. We found a few things, that I need to identify. Most exciting was a bears head tooth (or something like that) that Jon found. I'm pretty sure that's edible. It's probably past it's prime, but still..it was kind cool. Found some other stuff too, though not sure if any of it is edible.

We put some sugar water on for the bees. I think the pink hive is doing fine for honey. The purple hive (according to Jon, who has been coordinating this effort) has been sucking upl the sugar water, which means they need to make more honey for the winter. We've got another 6 weeks or so before we put the tar paper on, so they shoudl be ok. Technically we should give them fumigilin, which is to treat intestinal parasites. If we can get over to Rick's we'll get it, but we've been pretty light on treatments. I hate to give them all these chemicals, and yet, I'm not ready to let them all die off of disease eitehr, so we're doing sort of a half way approach. So far, so good.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet or not, but on 10/24 I'm going over to my ex-boss's house (Adam) and he's going to show me how to make mead. He is an experienced home brewer and has all the equipment. Originally I was going to buy it all, but I already have so much stuff around the house, and how often am I really going to need it? Hopefully the mead will turn out good. \

Anyway, the soup's ready!