Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard

Every week, I try to stick with the menu that I create at the beginning of that week. Of course, plans change all the time. This week was one of those weeks that I constantly had to change because of what's around my kitchen.

We had a bountiful mushroom harvest last weekend, so we absolutely had to make something with them. One of our favorite dishes is homemade pizza using those wild mushrooms. I bake bread quite often, so I have a bread machine, but for pizza doughs, I always use food processor. And I always make it the night before up to a few days in advance. It is the easiest and best dough ever for our taste. I'm a bit of a pizza snob ever since I spent some years in NY. So I've tried many many many many different recipes and methods over the years. I seem to stick to this one nowadays. Ideally, you want to grill the pizza, but I just crank up the oven as high as it goes, and it's usually pretty successful.

These are obviously white pizzas. I think the tomato sauce would overpower the delicate flavor of these mushrooms. I just brush the dough with garlic infused olive oil and put already sauteed mushrooms (in butter) and fresh mozzarella cheese on top.  Here is the pizza dough recipe:

7.5 oz Bread Flour
3/4 tsp salt

Pulse these in the food processor until mixed

Mix in a separate bowl the following

5 oz water
1/2 TBSP sugar
1TBSP Olive oil
3/4 tsp yeast

Add this mixture to the flour mixture in the food processor and let it process until a ball of dough forms (about 30 seconds). Take the dough out and put it in a greased plastic bag. Rest it in the fridge over night or 2-3 days until ready to use.



Last weekend was also my canning weekend, and I had a few jars of tomato sauce that did not seal. Do I made eggplant parmesan the next day. I wish the eggplant was from my garden, but they were the first thing to be affected by the fungal problem and died very quickly without producing any. Luckily, I bought 2 big beautiful eggplants at a local farm for 80 cents.

We had enough to eat for the dinner, lunch the next day, and 2 meals worth went to the freezer.

Then last night, I used up the leftover grilled chicken from the previous week and made chicken pot pie. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures, but here is what's left of it, ready for the freezer. I used carrots, celery, herbs, green beans, and onions from the garden.

It was certainly yummy, but it was way too early to have that kind of cozy soul food in shorts. I'm sure we'll appreciate it more when we pull them out of the freezer in a couple of months from now.


Linking up to the host of Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard where you can see what's going around everyone's kitchen.

Harvest Monday

The night temperatures have been unusually cool for August, which is not so good for the remaining summer veggie plants. But it's great for the fall veggie seedlings.

The last of the carrots were pulled out and I need to sow some more seeds for the fall/winter crop. I had no idea that the home-grown carrots could taste this good!

I have been harvesting herbs and drying them. They have been good to us all throughout the season.

Earlier in the season, my basil was getting attacked by something. They were so bare at one point that I thought I would just pull them out...

But I'm glad I didn't! They all came back and the more I snip, the more they give.

I used the basil in my first batch of tomato sauce this weekend.

I wish I could say these tomatoes were from my garden, but I've been having trouble with my tomato plants all throughout the season and they didn't produce much. They recovered for a few weeks, but then with all the rain we've been getting lately, they were hit by blight and are quickly dying. The good news is I can buy a box of canning tomatoes for $3 around here. It's ALMOST not worth gardening when they are this cheap!

I canned 15 quarts of sauce from the beginning to the end. 3 quarts did not seal in my pressure canner. I have been having a problem with that lately. I can't figure out why. It does seem to happen more often with the wide-mouth jars though. I give plenty of head space, wipe the rim, etc.... Anyone has suggestions?

The rain has been great for some things in nature - wild mushrooms! My husband and I collect all sorts of wild mushrooms, but we especially look forward to this time of year when our favorite ones come out.

Happy Harvest everyone!

Linking up to the host of Harvest Monday, where people share their wonderful harvests!