Off the Clock

 Just leaving myself a note about some soup I made tonight that was oh-so-good. I roasted a butternut squash cut in half lengthwise, brushed with oil and salt and peppered at 375F for about 1hr 15min.  Then I sauted in the saucepan maybe half a cup of chopped onions and a little less chopped red peppers (the frozen ones).  After they had sauted for 5-10 minutes I added the meat from one half of the squash and 2 cups of chicken broth.  Sprinkled with a little cayenne pepper and nutmeg.  Then pureed with the stick blender.  It made a thick soup to which I added a dollop of sour cream.  Delicious!!!  

  This wraps up my week of homesteading.  All I have left to do is one more butternut squash.  So what I've ended up processing and freezing: 10 bags of Mirepoix 3 pounds of red peppers 5 pounds of zucchini 10 pounds of butternut squash 10 pounds of beets 15 pounds of carrots 15 pounds of onions 30 pounds of potatoes The Mirepoix was unprocessed; I've done this before and as it goes into soup or stew I haven't noticed any problems with the quality of the veg.  The onions and peppers were frozen raw.  The zucchini, squash, carrots, and potatoes cut into fries were all blanched for 2 minutes.  The beets and potatoes were fully cooked. The blanching was a bit of a learning curve.  When I did the carrots and zucchini I probably put too much in at a time.  It took quite a few minutes for the water to return to a boil which is when you start the timer.  They may be cooked a bit more than expected.  I'm hoping this isn't a problem, but I'll need to remember this when I

 This is a continuation of the freezing obsession that I blogged about here.   I mangaged to get all the onions bagged up.  I think I prefer the ones frozen flat on the baking sheets.  The parchment paper really helped to break them up as I pulled up on it and as long as they don't thaw and refreeze I think they should stay scoopable.  The ones I froze in the muffin trays, on the other hand, didn't stick together as well as you'd think.  I froze them in a separate bag but I'm not optimistic that they will work out any better than the loose ones.  I won't bother with these next time. Then I started on the potatoes.  I cut maybe 4lbs into french fries, blanched them for a couple minutes and froze them flat on the baking sheets.  Then I vacuum sealed them into a large bag.  I then cubed and fully cooked the remaining potatoes and froze them in ten 1lb portions in ziplock bags.  Google says you can reheat them by putting them in a pot of boiling water and then mash them

 I've been trying to keep my freezer stocked so that I don't have to shop as often during these covid days.  Now that fall is here my local grocery store had 10lb bags of onions, carrots and potatoes on for a very good price.  I bought 10lb each of carrots and onions (even though I already had more than 5lb at home) and 20lb of potatoes.  I also bought two bundles of celery since they have come back to a reasonable price.  That may not seem like a lot until you consider that I mostly cook dinners for just two adults.  So how to make sure that my frugal finds don't end up rotten in the compost pile in a month?  Well Google says that I can freeze all of it. I started with making bags of Mirepoix.  I use this mixture often with soups and stews and it is a real time saver having a bag already peeled and chopped in the freezer ready to go.  I made up ten freezer bags, each with 1 cup chopped carrots, 1 cup chopped celery and 1 chopped onion.   That used up all the celery, but I

This young pup took a wander through our backyard earlier this summer.  We thought he was quite young to be on his own, so hopefully his pack was not too far away for him.  On the other hand maybe this is the age where young males go off on their own.  I haven't researched coyotes much yet. We've also had very majestic bald eagles flying through the yard and high overhead but I've yet to get a good pic or video.  I did get a shot of this hawk, which I think is a Northern Goshawk.  It was huge; I'm guessing at least two feet tall.