Weekend Wrap-Up (Sept 4-6 & Sept 11-12)

Lard Rendering and Tomatoes Dehydrating

Since it's still technically summer, we're still busy, so I'm combining two weekends into this one post.


Tom is lucky enough to get 'Summer Fridays' (half day of work) during the summer, so he decided to take advantage of his last Summer Friday and cook/work on projects. That afternoon alone, Tom rendered out two kinds of fat, dehydrated tomatoes to make tomato salt, baked a loaf of bread, and made dinner. I was still at work, but got constant updates on his progress (some good, some bad).

The fat rendering processes seemed to go smoothly. Except that when I got home from work, both Tom and the kitchen were splattered with grease, and the ENTIRE apartment smelled like fat! I wish I would have paid more attention to this, because when I got out of the shower and grabbed a towel, even the towel smelled like fat! So gross.

Bread Dough

The bread didn't rise as much as Tom had wanted, and he burned the tomatoes he was dehydrating, so it was kind of a nightmare for him (I was really glad I was at work when all this happened!). But his dinner of country style pork ribs turned out good. He thought everything was too salty, which I disagreed with. Maybe it was slightly salty, but that's not always a bad thing.

Country Style Pork Ribs, Braised Potatoes, Corn

Also that afternoon, he made a sous vide machine out of a crockpot and temperature control. He cooked a chicken breast sous vide, which he then fried in a pan, but he ate it before I got home.



Tom's Homemade Sous Vide Machine (Crock Pot and Thermometer)

This past weekend, I was actually around for some of the cooking, so it was a little more interesting.

Tomato Paste

Our CSA had a deal on tomatoes- $15 for 10 lbs. Even though I don't like them, I thought it was a good idea to get them since they can be used in lots of things. Tom loves tomatoes, so I didn't have to convince him. Then we got the tomatoes, and it was like, 'Ok, now what do we do with them?' Of course, Tom had plenty of ideas. He tried the dehydrated tomatoes/tomato salt thing again (and this time it worked), he cut up some to freeze, and he made tomato paste with the rest.



Freezing Tomato Paste

We are all about hanging onto the last bits of summer, so Tom's been buying lots of summer vegetables at the farmer's market. He's been getting more creative with his veggie dishes lately- he's not doing the standard grain/roasted veggie dishes. The new dishes have been very good (and I've even been eating eggplant!).

For dinner on Sunday, he made zucchini/corn enchiladas with oats and corn on the cob.

Grilled Corn on the Cob, Oats, Veggie Enchiladas



The above picture isn't very good, its hard to tell what's going on with the enchilada. Tom made the tortillas, and stuffed them with roasted zucchini and a corn puree. (I'm usually the tortilla-making expert, but the dough kept ripping on me so I gave up) He topped it with tomatillo sauce, cheese, and in this case, some jalapenos (they weren't on mine, I don't eat them). The red stuff on the corn that looks like paprika is the tomato salt Tom made.

The other new veggie dish that Tom made was a vegetable tart (that's what I call it, Tom says it's a 'Ratatouille Galette'). He made the pie crust, and filled it with zucchini, eggplant, onions, peppers and tomatoes, and he topped it with dill and parmesan cheese.



Vegetable Tart

I'm not exactly sure how he made this, but it was really good. I think he used butter and lard in the pie dough, so it was flaky and flavorful. My cat was very interested in the dough! And to think, I used to not like vegetables!

One other noteworthy thing from the last two weeks that I unfortunately don't have any photos of: I love apple cider donuts and haven't had any all year. The farmer's market near my work was ending for the summer, so I got a bag. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the donuts had been frozen at one point, so they were kind of dry. Tom decided to make them into a bread pudding to help with the lack of moisture. It was kind of weird- it looked like bread pudding but it tasted like donuts, but it was also kind of good, since it still tasted like donuts.