Out of Uniform Bento

Today was a long-awaited out-of-uniform day at school. That is so exciting that it's ok if lunch is a little boring.

I am making headway on the baskets upon baskets of green tomatoes we rescued before first frost. We wrapped a lot of them in newspaper and set them to ripen in the basement where it's dark and cool. I've frozen batches of puree to make soups and sauces later on. I made and frozen green tomato curry sauce from this book.

I've also canned several batches of green tomato salsa, and made jam.

Canning salsa is tricky because for saftey, you have to use an approved recipe and keep the proportions of vegetable to acid exactly the same. This is from the National Center for Home Preservation website. Tomatillo Green Salsa

It's safe to substitute green tomatoes for tomatillos, lime juice for the lemon, and switch out some of the hot peppers for milder ones. Which I did because I am the only native New Mexican in my house. It has a very strong lime flavor. All that lime juice is necessary for safety. But it's great with chips, or pureed as a sauce for enchildas, or mixed with plain yogurt or a cream sauce to tone down the acid a little. It has such a bright flavor. I think it will be wonderful to open a jar one cold February day, and taste the summer tomatoes ripening on their vines.

Yeterday I made green tomato, orange and apple jam from
this book.

Canning at high altitude is frustrating, because the boiling temperature is different and you can't go by the time or temperature for gel set in a recipe. A few weeks ago I made Christine Ferber's Peach and Pinot Noir preserves, and they nerver set up. I ended up with jars of peaches in Pinot Noir syrup. They're really good, but they're not jam. This tomato jam, I cooked too long, and the set is too thick and sticky. I finally have a digital thermometer and a scale to weigh the fruit (maddening French recipes with everything in grams!), and I'm getting better.

And finally, here is Charlie as of about five minutes ago. He turned four months and had his last puppy shots. His rabies tag indicates that he has been domesticated and registered in the system. He belongs to The Man now.


We're so happy he's here. What did we used to do for fun before Charlie came along?

Cold Rainy Monday Bento

Hot soup for a cold October day.

Last night's dinner was ratatouille from the last garden vegetables we salvaged before frost.

I used Julia Child's recipe, where you cook the peppers and onions and then the tomatoes and garlic slowly, then layer them with zucchini and eggplant that have already been sauteed, sprinkle each layer with fresh parsley, and cook it down at low heat until it melts together.

R was very excited, because she loves the movie with the little rat. Then she was devastated when she saw me making it. "Ratatouille doesn't have vegetables in it! It's SAUSAGES!" She did eat some in the end. One of the sweetest scenes in any movie, when the jaded restaurant critic takes a bite of his ratatouille and it transports him back in time to the little boy in short pants in his French village, sitting at his mother's table. Not as magical at our table. But it was good, and authentic, because it's actually not supposed to have sausages.