Fall to Summer

Farmer Dana's Bean Fermentaria - a sour, salty, crunchy snack in the making - lacto-fermented to keep our gut flora humming this winter. Yellow snap beans, garlic, oregano, and sea salt (2 Tablespoons per quart of water). Put the solid ingredients in a jar then pour the brine solution in, submerging everything. Around twice a day for a few days loosen the lids to allow CO2 to escape. Quite easy and delicious!

Well, we had a few nice cool days and the hours of daylight are decreasing significantly now, so thoughts start to move toward fall and warming dishes, but this coming week we are going back to summer weather again. I only made a few new dishes this past week. I did make another batch of Tomatillo Sauce and got that into the freezer for use later in the year. I happily snacked on edamame and got a lot of them put away into the freezer, half of which I took out of the shells prior to freezing, and the other half I left in the shells. I made another batch of Gazpacho and the summery taste as always was a treat. I made the riff on eggplant parm I described a few weeks ago - it freezes really well and my husband and I decided we like it better than lasagna - eggplant basically takes the place of the noodles. It is made into stacks so that it is easily served and frozen in individual portions. Do you have a dish you would like to share with fellow members? Please email me at lindadansbury@comcast.net and please put Anchor Run in the subject line so I can find your email.

Two dishes I made that I haven't talked about in previous newsletters are below:

Watermelon, tomatoes, chili pepper, basil, mint - I made Watermelon, Heirloom Tomato and Goat Cheese Salad. This is delicious - it doesn't sound like the flavors will come together as they do, but it is great - I made it for a farmer's market demo and so many people asked for the recipe and said how flavorful it is. The recipe has been on this site for a couple of years.

Zucchini, basil, garlic - used the last of my summer squash in a new, very simple recipe: Spiralized Summer Squash Casserole. It is simple and delicious. Simply make a "filling" using ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, basil and garlic. Make squash noodles and form into nests on a sprayed cookie sheet. Top each nest with some of the filling. Broil until slightly browned. Top with more basil and enjoy. I have added the recipe to the website.