Tuesday, September 25, 2007

We've Got the Beets!

We have way too many beets. They've begun to take over the fridge. I've been putting them aside thinking I'll can them when I have enough to make it worthwhile. Clearly, when all three drawers in your fridge are filled to the point of exploding, the time has come.

I've really enjoyed getting back to canning. I feel that it is such a worthwhile use of my time and energy. The sunny days of CSA pickups are beginning to dwindle. In the cold of the winter it will be so comforting, and economical, to dip into my cupboard of home canned foods.

After reading several bulk cooking books a while back, I've begun to embrace the logic of keeping the liquid content of frozen foods (usually water or broth) low. I've thought about it and carried it one step further. In the past, I would take the apple butter I'm working on, make it into apple muffins and then freeze the apple muffins. Well the apple muffins take up a lot more freezer space than the cup of apple butter I used in them. If I froze just the apple butter to use later wouldn't that be a better use of my freezer space?

I think constantly questioning why we do things a certain way is really helpful in breaking out of our wasteful ruts. Speaking of this, my daughters are both going to the homecoming dance this year. When we went to homecoming it was not a very dressy thing. Now, I'm told (or is it, now that I'm old?), it requires a rather fancy dress. Tasha went "shopping" in her aunt's closet of dresses that have been worn exactly once. She came up with a beautiful black dress. Leen's going shopping in the same closet today. I love that they both chose to do this without any prompting from me.

5 comments:

Chile said...

I like your logic on the freezing thing, Katie. One thing I do with apple butter to cut down the time it needs to "cook down" is to strain the cooked apples before pureeing. The cooking water tastes like apple juice and can be drunk or used in other recipes.

Chile said...

Also forgot to mention that you can roast and then puree your beets. They freeze well and can be used as part of the fat replacement in chocolate baked goods. (Warning: the beet flavor comes through if you use ONLY beet puree. Mix it half/half with either prune puree or applesauce, or use your regular Earthbalance or oil.) :)

Ruthie said...

hehee chocolate beet muffins :)

don't you love/hate this time of year? it's so gorgeous but hints of such coldness ahead!

I'm so proud of your daughters, too. :) Lucky for having a young, trendy sister, eh? :)

I'm going to my first yoga class today, wish me luck!
Ruthie

Anonymous said...

Do you have an apple butter recipe you could share?


Thanks!
Courtney

Katie said...

Thanks for the tips Chile!

I do love this time of year Ruthie. I want to hear about your first yoga class!

Check out 9/26's post for the apple butter recipe COurtney.