Top to bottom:: blueberries (over 20# this week), blueberries in the dehydrator for granola all winter long, blueberry-coconut water sorbet with orange blossom water, smoothies (peaches, blueberries, cherries, banana, spirulina, coconut water), gathering herbs to dry from the garden, spiralized cucumbers for making miso fermented pickles, tomato season has arrived, gluten free/dairy free blueberry upside down cake (a blueberry adapted version of this recipe), and blueberry mostarda. 

Blueberries is my theme for the week. Ha! We try to get things in season in bulk whenever we can, and then preserve enough in many ways to last the winter, of course. This week we froze a lot, dried a lot, made cake, mostarda, and a few other things. I try to freeze and dry enough fruit to last us all winter. We make smoothies all the time, plus dried fruit is amazing in homemade granola/granola bars. As for the mostarda, well, none of us really likes jam or jelly. Too sweet. We don't eat bread. So no need to make it. But, mostarda is amazing. I make tweaked versions of mostarda. Usually it is big whole fruit which is sweet and twangy and savory all at once. I like it more like a compote mustard texture. It has the flavor of the fruit, a lot of mustard seeds, the richness of the vinegar (in this I used raspberry balsamic), and isn't too sweet. I usually make several kinds to last us through winter - blueberry, peach, white currant. 

Tomato season is here finally as well. Time to dry a bunch, roast a lot, make salsa to freeze (I like the freshness of frozen salsa more than canned), and later, sauce. We don't use that much sauce these days, so I prefer drying and salsa the most. Cucumbers are here too. This is another one we use differently. We are not huge fans of pickles. Just regular pickles. We make a few bags of freezer pickles every year, plus a few jars of lacto fermented garlic pickles, but overall I like relishes and unusual flavors better. This week I made miso fermented refrigerator pickles. Almost ready to crack them open for a taste!

Door County Cherries should be in soon, so I will have more fruit after this batch. And we will be up to our noses in tomatoes. 


How about you? What has been happening in your kitchen this week?


Be sure to visit Heather at Beauty that Moves for all of the Blog Hop-ees.

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

*     *     *     *     *

top to bottom:: indigo apple tomato, white currant harvest, tomatoes ripening on the windowsill (chipmunk thwarting), collecting seeds for drying (dill, coriander, mustard), brining lovage seeds to make pickles, turkey taco salad with fresh salsa, stock making from all the veggie and herb tops/stems this week, lovage seeds drying, everything salad.

We traveled a bit last weekend so I spent many mealtimes cooking in the tiny hotel kitchen. In my experience, the closer to a big city you get, the more non-functional the "full kitchen" is (no matter how expensive), so we always take enough options so that we can feed my allergy boy no matter how simple the tools. I also always plot the nearest food co-op/Whole Foods types of places too, so we were within 10 miles of two WF's and were able to grab a few extra things for him that could be heated in the microwave, as the "full kitchen" didn't contain an oven or a toaster. Traveling in a more congested area can be tough food-wise also, as we base our hotel requirements on specifications that dictate where we can stay and it usually isn't close to the things we are traveling to see. That can mean the hotel is not easy to get to for lunch or snacks mid-day, so we always pack a full cooler with ice packs plus a wide variety of snacks and drinks so that we are still OK if we don't really want to do a 40 minute drive to get 15 miles back to the hotel. That means we can also just stop and eat anywhere, and so we snacked in the foyer of Fermilab (very cool), had lunch outside a beautiful nature center, and had a close at hand palate cleanser after my boy tasted every single balsamic vinegar and olive oil in the gourmet food store and max'd out his taste buds. {He selected a great aged raspberry balsamic, honey-ginger balsamic, a vivid green intense peppery spanish olive oil, and a fantastic olive oil which was pressed with blood orange rind -- yum!!!}

After our trip we have been playing catch up, so we have been collecting the first tomatoes (early so the chipmunk doesn't get them), harvesting seeds to dry and use for seasoning blends, collecting herbs for all of the pickles I am behind on, and filling the dehydrator daily to catch back up on all of my tea and culinary herbs for the winter. Playing a bit of catch up with the CSA share as well. I pulled out an extra table to stack all of my overflow of veggies I need to freeze/can/pickle/make. And with the hot sunshine returning, I am making a few rounds of coconut water sorbet and popsicles with the last of my strawberries, first of my red raspberries,  and the finally in season blueberries!  Yum. 

What have you been making?

Be sure to visit Heather at Beauty that Moves to see everyone in the blog hop!

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

*     *     *     *     *

top to bottom: dried peaches from the dehydrator, chicken enchiladas with sauce and daiya dairy free cheese, on the grill, chicken salad with the last of the pickled radish pods, tomato/cucumber/blueberry salad, green beans roasted with grilled spring onions and garlic scapes, grilled peaches with molasses and coconut manna, picking fresh herbs from the garden to dry for tea, garden white currants, peach bbq sauce done, ingredients, and a few pics from the CSA this week (all now packed into my fridge and coolers). 

One thing I love about this weekly blog hop is the recording of moments in the kitchen, because this time of year I often feel like I've been working non-stop and can't remember what I have made, or feel like I DIDN'T GET ANYTHING DONE. It is nice to have too many photos to post here, and have to sort and pick just a few. It makes me feel like I did make it through quite a bit of garden, CSA, or farmstand. That we ate well. Even though we had other appointments, or played at the park every evening, or went to the library more times than usual. That I'm *not quite* as behind as it always feels when the garden is going gangbusters. There is always more to do, more to dry, more to harvest, more canning, more freezing. The fridge is packed, the coolers are full, the counter has bowls of just picked something or other. Summer is abundant and full. I love seeing the freezer fill, the pantry packed, and the cycle repeating. xo 

Be sure to visit Heather at Beauty That Moves to see inside kitchens today!