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multipurposegoddessI was supposed to go grocery shopping and probably run some other errands today, but I apparently decided not to get dressed. Hey, I got dressed yesterday, I'll get dressed tomorrow, today it wasn't happening. So, no grocery shopping. I need to go soon, though, I am out of garlic and that is just crazy, me not having garlic to throw in everything.
Instead I worked on eating or cooking for storage yesterday's produce haul. I was reminded that roasting makes peppers infinitely more delicious, so I set that up, and remembered that my mom had told me how to roast tomatoes (fortunately in an e-mail so I could just look it up rather than having to call her and force her to try to remember), so I did that concurrently, and threw in a quartered sweet onion while I was at it, just to see what would happen.
Had some leftover apricot chicken for lunch - I like room temperature stone fruit quite a bit, but they are just astoundingly good grilled or otherwise heated. Nom.
Peeled and deseeded the peppers by hand. There is probably an easier way to do that, or maybe a better technique, but I managed. Put the tomatoes through the magical tomato pulper. I wasn't sure how that would handle cooked tomatoes, I've only ever used it on raw before, but it worked like a champ. Carmelized the roasted onion and a sliced raw onion (because those onions are from last month's box, they really needed to be eaten up) in the rockpot for a while, then added the tomato and pepper flesh and let that cook on low for about 4 hours.
While that was cooking I thought I'd make pasta to put the sauce on. I followed the Ratio recipe, using semolina flour because I have semolina flour and I have it in my head that it's good for pasta. Made for a very yellow and too sticky dough. I had hoped that the whole pasta making process would come back to me once I got started (it's a long time since I've done it) but it really didn't: the dough never felt right, what I was doing never felt familiar, it was all pretty frustrating. And when I got fed up and sat down and read the whole chapter on pasta dough it didn't help any. Meh. But the stackable cooling racks that I thought would work as a pasta drying rack worked fine. And once I cooked the pasta, it was pretty good - dense and chewy but I kind of like that. Not "wow this was totally worth all that frustration" good, but good.
The sauce also turned out not great - good flavor but thin and watery. I think it needs fat, it would probably be good full of meat. I thought about adding a bunch of butter but one of the things I am almost out of is butter.
Anyway, good enough meal and the tomato pepper sauce can go into the freezer until I can turn it into something better. Wastage avoided, which was really the goal.
And once I was all frustrated and wound up from that, I decided to relax by shaping the challah dough that has been in the fridge since last Saturday (I am so cavalier about sticking bread dough that has been through it's first rise in the fridge for long periods of time but it's never been a problem for me and on occasion made for extra delicious results). I keep cutting down the size of the individual knots, these are 2 oz a piece and they look tiny, but once they rise I suspect they will be just fine.
I did get the queen excluder and super installed - snuck up on the hive before they were really awake, the bees were barely disturbed. Adding supers is easy, when it comes time to remove it will be another story.
Instead I worked on eating or cooking for storage yesterday's produce haul. I was reminded that roasting makes peppers infinitely more delicious, so I set that up, and remembered that my mom had told me how to roast tomatoes (fortunately in an e-mail so I could just look it up rather than having to call her and force her to try to remember), so I did that concurrently, and threw in a quartered sweet onion while I was at it, just to see what would happen.
Had some leftover apricot chicken for lunch - I like room temperature stone fruit quite a bit, but they are just astoundingly good grilled or otherwise heated. Nom.
Peeled and deseeded the peppers by hand. There is probably an easier way to do that, or maybe a better technique, but I managed. Put the tomatoes through the magical tomato pulper. I wasn't sure how that would handle cooked tomatoes, I've only ever used it on raw before, but it worked like a champ. Carmelized the roasted onion and a sliced raw onion (because those onions are from last month's box, they really needed to be eaten up) in the rockpot for a while, then added the tomato and pepper flesh and let that cook on low for about 4 hours.
While that was cooking I thought I'd make pasta to put the sauce on. I followed the Ratio recipe, using semolina flour because I have semolina flour and I have it in my head that it's good for pasta. Made for a very yellow and too sticky dough. I had hoped that the whole pasta making process would come back to me once I got started (it's a long time since I've done it) but it really didn't: the dough never felt right, what I was doing never felt familiar, it was all pretty frustrating. And when I got fed up and sat down and read the whole chapter on pasta dough it didn't help any. Meh. But the stackable cooling racks that I thought would work as a pasta drying rack worked fine. And once I cooked the pasta, it was pretty good - dense and chewy but I kind of like that. Not "wow this was totally worth all that frustration" good, but good.
The sauce also turned out not great - good flavor but thin and watery. I think it needs fat, it would probably be good full of meat. I thought about adding a bunch of butter but one of the things I am almost out of is butter.
Anyway, good enough meal and the tomato pepper sauce can go into the freezer until I can turn it into something better. Wastage avoided, which was really the goal.
And once I was all frustrated and wound up from that, I decided to relax by shaping the challah dough that has been in the fridge since last Saturday (I am so cavalier about sticking bread dough that has been through it's first rise in the fridge for long periods of time but it's never been a problem for me and on occasion made for extra delicious results). I keep cutting down the size of the individual knots, these are 2 oz a piece and they look tiny, but once they rise I suspect they will be just fine.
I did get the queen excluder and super installed - snuck up on the hive before they were really awake, the bees were barely disturbed. Adding supers is easy, when it comes time to remove it will be another story.