Enchiladas and Dancing Babies

I kind of feel like I'm drowning in produce..my fridge is ridiculous, my counter is covered with onions and garlic and I have crates of zucchini and summer squash on the floor...sigh.  My plan is to bring some of it to NH this weekend and make a big family feast with the folks, but in the meantime I've been slowly working my way through a few items.

We received a large bag of braising greens again last week. 

As I've mentioned before...I really don't enjoy eating these.  They are extremely bitter and stringy but the thought of tossing them or letting them just wilt into mush makes me sick to my stomach, so I wracked my brain and decided that I would make enchiladas.  Strange thing to concoct with braising greens, I know, but I have made enchiladas with sauteed spinach before so I figured it'd be kind of similar.

On Sunday afternoon, I started by preparing the greens by washing, chopping and sauteing them with some onions, garlic (all from the CSA), and a good dose of ground chipotle pepper.  I let that cool and put it in the fridge for later.  I then diced up a summer squash and just simply sauteed in olive oil, let it cool and stored it for assembly.

After going to the grocery store and picking up the rest of my ingredients, I started got to work.  First I shredded one pre-cooked chicken breast and put that in a bowl with the greens and squash.  I added a good dose of sour cream, 1/2 cup of shredded Mexicans cheese blend and some homemade tomatillo, tomato and peach salsa.

Ingredients for tomatillo, tomato, peach salsa

I then filled large, whole wheat flour tortillas with the mixture, rolled them up and placed them into glass baking dishes.  I poured some premade enchilada sauce and more salsa over the top and sprinkled a generous amount of cheese over everything.  This went into the oven at 375 degrees for about a half hour until browned and bubbly.   SOOOOOOO YUMMY!  A bit spicy, but creamy, and slightly sweet from the onions and peach salsa which really helped cut the bitterness of the greens.  I'd make this again in a heartbeat.

Also, check out the fun eggplant that we received in our share this week.  We've been affectionately calling it the dancing baby!

I'm Back!--Processing Food

Hihi! I'm back! Sorry for the hiatus....I've been feeling less than inspired to write about my food adventures.  Don't get me wrong, I have been cookin' away, making yummy things like Panzanella Salad, and Potato Leek Pizza, but I just haven't been feeling like blogging about it.  However, after this weekend, I have LOTS to write about.

On Sunday, I ventured up to Lake Placid to visit my brother.  He currently works at the North Country School as a Farm Intern--soon to be Farm Education Coordinator (or something like that).  The North Country School is a very cool boarding school/summer camp set at the base of Pitchoff and Cascade Mountains in the heart of the Adirondacks.  The school has an impressive farm which supplies the kitchen  with all kinds of veggies, poultry, pigs, eggs and maple syrup.  They also work to integrate the farm into the school curriculum.  Think of a social studies class discussing regional/cultural cuisine and using food from the farm to prepare a meal, or a science class using the annual pre-Thanksgiving turkey slaughter as a lab.  Pleasant thought I know.

When I arrived on Sunday afternoon, most of the farm staff was busy "processing food."  By this I mean, they were pickling and canning fresh cucumbers, beans and beets for storage.  This is all done for their own personal use, as the kitchen isn't allowed to serve canned veggies to the kids for health code reasons.  I had never seen canning in action before, but it is a very cool process and inspired me to try it!

I was allowed free reign to take whatever I wanted from the farm, and boy, did I.  My eyes might have been a bit bigger than my fridge, but I left with a pretty impressive haul of basil, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, beans, beets, sage, and thyme.

Now that I am back on a fairly normal work schedule, I decided to use my free time after work yesterday to start "processing" my loot from the previous day.  My goal was to start by making pickles!  Before you start canning, you have to wash and sanitize the jars.  This can easily be done in the dishwasher, but because mine decided it was no longer going to work last night, I did this by hand.  I washed the jars and then sanitized them in a big pot of boiling water.  Heating the jars also helps prevent the glass from breaking when the hot brine is added later in the process.

The lids and rings must also be heated to soften the seal and sanitize--but be sure not to bring these to a boil, just a simmer.

While all of this was working on the stove, I made zucchini bread.  My hope was to use up a massive zucchini, but I was able to get the two required cups of grated zucchini from just about half of the veggie.  This recipe made a very large loaf, which I actually cooked in a bunt pan.  Recipe note--I halved the amount of sugar.  It called for 3 CUPS but because it's from Paula Dean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Once the zucchini bread was in the oven, I cleaned and sliced up four large cucumbers.  I placed them in the sanitized jars and added dill seed, a glove of garlic, a slice of jalapeno pepper and some whole pepper corns.  To that I added the hot brine which consisted of water, white vinegar (at a ratio of 2-1) and salt.  It helps if you have a funnel to control spillage.  I placed the lids and rings on the four jars and then put them into a large pot of water to process for 20 minutes.  The "processing" time starts once the water has come to a boil.

While that was working, I made two large batches of pesto, which went into the freezer, and a massive amount of salsa.

Once the jars had processed, I took them out of the water and set them on the counter to cool over night.  The heating and cooling process ensures a tight seal on the lid, which will allow the food to stay preserved for up to a year.  Pretty neat, huh!

Canning is actually pretty easy, despite being a bit time and dish consuming.  The clean up was a bit daunting....

My goal tonight is to turn green beans into Dilly Beans and the 7 lbs of cabbage into sauerkraut!

For more information on the how tos of canning, jarring and pickling check out this website : http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started.aspx.