Sunday, December 26, 2010

CSA Soups


You may recall that C and I had a share in a CSA (community supported agriculture farm) this past summer.  Because there are normally only two of us eating here at home, we often ended up with leftover veggies, but early on I decided that if we had too much of something, I would freeze it.  In the case of greens, I would blanch them in stock and then put the entire pot full in a freezer bag and throw it in the freezer.  Excess tomatoes were washed and then placed on cookie sheets and put directly in the freezer.  Once frozen, they were transferred to freezer bags.  Last night, as it was snowing like crazy, I thought that soup on the stove sounded like a good plan for tonight's dinner.  I rummaged around in the freezer and found a gold mine: greens in stock, tomatoes, corn cut from the cob, okra, roasted veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, onions, carrots, and turnips), plus the remains of a pork roast.  MMMMMMM!


I braised the slices of pork in a slow oven (about 200) for a couple of hours, turning about every 15-20 minutes.  That just smelled divine!  Toward the end of the pork's oven time, I started the frozen veggies in my big soup pot, and then added the meat when it looked sufficiently browned.




I cannot tell you how good it made the entire house smell AND how nice and warm and inviting our kitchen was!  


The braising pan had lots of little bits of browned pork that seemed a shame to waste, so I decided to deglaze the pan with a bit of Argentinian Malbec, a nice robust wine for a hearty stew:




We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning, and I was greeted by the sight of several deer grazing in the snow down by the lake.  I'm sorry I didn't get a picture for you, but I wasn't totally awake (they were!) and they ambled off before I could get to my camera.  The roads had been cleared well enough that we were able to drive into town for Christmas Lessons and Carols at our church.  It was a beautiful service and I'm so glad that we made the extra effort to attend!


While the soup was cooking away this afternoon, I managed to get the binding sewed onto little Charlie's log cabin quilt!  YAYYY!!  Now I can do the remaining hand sewing and deliver it to my darling grandson!  I also got a bit of my assignments for my mastery class completed.  So much to do, and the weather is so lousy (read: cold!) for dyeing.  I'm doing what I can do in the house, and spending minimal time heating up the studio for dye jobs.  Oh, but I do love it!!








Barker and I had a nice long walk this afternoon.  It is bitterly cold here, and the winds are directly out of the north!  ARGH!!!  This is Georgia: what is going on???
We have a Snow Goose spending some time on our lakeshore....doesn't happen unless our temps are very low!  C is putting out extra corn for the waterfowl, making more and more suet for the birds, and refilling the feeders at least once a day!  We do love our birds!


Hope you've had a lovely Boxing Day!  We normally have a party for family and friends on December 26th but decided to put it off this year, in hopes that Charlie can make his debut in another month or so (more about that later!)


PEACE

2 comments:

Eva said...

That snow looks rather wet, makes it feel chillier than it really is, I guess. Unpleasant. Our snow is dry and fluffy, and it doesn't make so much difference if we have 12 or 30°F. I even feel warmer, the colder it becomes. Maybe a matter of habit and dry air.
Our winters seem to become colder than they used to be, it is more like Swedish climate now.
Who knows if this is a constant change...

Carol said...

Your soup looks sooo good! I've been watching US weather on TV and it really is amazing. England last week, you this one. Snow in Alabama! What next? But your photo of Barker peeking into the picture is beautiful and it sounds as though your Christmas has been too. I really enjoyed ours; three days in a row of major eating and I think we still have a couple of days of visitors to come.00XX