Upstater

One of the great things about moving upstate full-time is that I have MORE time to do the things I love. Cooking is one of those things and each season brings new inspiration and fresh produce to create with.  Just as I get excited to use my grill when summer arrives, when autumn creeps in I get excited to use my kitchen again. (Especially since I finally have finished renovating it- full pics to come) As with all seasons, those with gardens know that this time of year you can have an overabundance of goods to the point you can’t keep up with them. My friends have an adorable veggie garden in the Rondout in Kingston. The last time I was over, I was lucky enough to get a huge bag of their tomatoes, (and a zucchini the size of my dog) because they had basically been picking themselves from the vine and throwing themselves at their door, I took home enough ripe, sweet, and perfect tomatoes to make 4 meals from! I heard the tomatoes are still dropping faster than they can pick them so I am hoping to “help” them get rid of them again!

I am one of those cooks that rarely uses a recipe unless it is for temperature and cook time. (Baking is a different story) But that can be a problem when someone asks you for the recipe because eyeballing everything and working on whim and intuition makes it hard to retrace and document everything.  This time, I tried to document what I was doing, how much I was using, etc.

With my friends amazing fresh garden tomatoes, zucchini, and farmers market/Adams Fairacre kale, lemongrass, onions et. all, I was able to come up with 4 meals that I have posted in full on my Urban Jane Blog. All of these are using end of season veggies plus a few other items; and most all can be made vegan or veggie. Slight spins on classics, they were all very easy and were hits with the husband, kale and all.

Provincial Garden Bouillabasse

Spinach and Zucchini Spaakopita

Steamed Blue Mussels in Spicy Tomato, Kale Cream Sauce

Slow Cooked Green Curry Chicken with Tomatoes and Lemongrass

Next up…it’s time to get to the local orchards and pick what we can from the harvest this year, I can’t wait to make some apple dishes next!