Whats Cookin'?

Jalapenos ready for the dehydrator


Yesterday after I got done doing the morning chores I picked a huge bowl full of tomatoes, also some green peppers, jalapenos and 3 eggplants. I already had a bag in the refrigerator that has about 2 pounds of jalapenos in it already, along with about a pound of tomatoes that I harvested the other day. Now, in previous years I had canned most of the garden produce that we grew. This year I decided to buy a dehydrator. One of the reasons was our son loves dried fruit.....banana chips, apple chips, and of course raisins. The dehydrator was a little less than $60, certainly not a top of the line dehydrator but so far has done the job nicely. I have been able to dehydrate lots of tomatoes already, its amazing how many of them you can fit into a jar. Our thinking with the dried tomatoes is to rehydrate them and use them in chili, soups, dips,salsa, pasta dishes and maybe even keep them dried and put on salads. I have also dehydrated swiss chard, jalapenos, eggplant, cucumbers, bananas, apples, green peppers, zucchini, patty pan squash, and yellow peppers. I am sure that Im forgetting some things but it will be fun during the winter months to be able to use some of the vegetables that we grew ourselves in our dishes. So yesterday I dehydrated swiss chard...it dries out very quickly so I got that all done and started some tomatoes and jalapenos. The dehydrator is still drying out the tomatoes, I should check it here in a bit and get the veges that are dried in a jar. This week has been down right cold in the mornings. Some counties just to the north of us had their first frost warning last night! Yikes....the tomatoes and eggplants and probably the peppers cannot survive a frost so if we are to get cold here soon I need to get an old blanket or tarp to get the garden covered. All depends on when the frost will hit and how the garden is doing. Plants in pots can be brought inside. Since it has been chilly this week I thought it would be a great night for soup. We love soup, especially in the cold weather months. Sometimes I use a recipe and sometimes I dont. Its somewhat fun to be able to put your own touches into something that you make. Ok, so back to soups. Last weekend I boiled about 10 pounds of potatoes. They were just beginning to sprout and my husband wanted some potato salad. So some were used for the salad the others I put in a storage bag and into the fridge. So I thought those can be used for potato soup. I chopped up some celery, onion and carrots put those in the pot with some olive oil and 2 cloves of garlic. Let them cook until they were just starting to get soft. While they were cooking I peeled and cubed the potatoes and added those to the vegetables. Water just to cover, salt & pepper and I also added four bouillon cubes. I still had quite a bit of Swiss Chard left in the garden so decided to find a recipe to use some of that in a soup. Here is what I found, I did make some changes...I used some basil instead of fennel, no beans, pasta was cooked seperately and then added to individual bowls...I find that it tends to fall apart in soup especially if its reheated. I used whole grain pasta. I chopped the ingredients by hand. Swiss chard is delicious and so easy to grow! Something that I will definitely do next year...you can cut it all off and it will come back to harvest again and again. Its somewhat like spinach but not as strong, delicious in soup.

Swiss Chard and Penne Soup

2 cloves garlic

1 medium red onion

1 bunch swiss chard

3 TB olive oil

6 cups chicken stock

3 cups water

1 cup penne

2 cups canned cannellini, drained

1/4 tsp fennel

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

salt & pepper

parmesan cheese

Directions

Steel knife: With food processor running, drop garlic through feed tube and mince. Add onion and chop coarsely, using 6 to 8 on/off turns

Remove leaves from chard and reserve. Cut stems into feed tube lengths.

Ultra thick: Stand stems in feed tube; slice, using light pressure.

Heat oil in heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add contents of work bowl and cook until soft, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.

Add stock and water; bring to a boil. Mix in penne and cook 5 minutes.

Ultra thick: Roll up chard leaves and arrange in feed tube. Slice, using light pressure. Add chard leaves to saucepan.

Mix in beans, fennel seed, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.

Bring to boil and cook until penne is tender, about 3 minutes.

Can be made ahead. Pass the Parmesan cheese

I also made banana bread yesterday. Cinnamon rolls I made the day before using sliced up apples from the tree in our backyard. They went great with our breakfast dinner :)