Rain Barrels ~ End of the Garden ~ Salmon Romanoff

I've lacked the motivation to do much of anything for winter prep, and slacking horribly.   I finally went out and drained all the rain barrels and flipped one upside down.  That was the extent of my "winter prep."  One barrel has poison ivy growing in front.  Wonderful.  I'm flipping the rest today.

It's a winter without beets as well.  I did my first dig and they are the size of the carrots - pathetic.  All that weeding for nothing.  Can't even save the greens - tops dying off.

I took some time to dig up more carrots, but if you saw my post about it, they are getting tossed.  No carrot seeds saved this year either.

I saved some of the carrot tops.  I'll have another post for that project.

More tomatoes were picked - 7#.  Last picking.  Plants are coming out.  I would have started it yesterday, but I left my knife in the house, and walking back and forth to get it was not on the agenda - too hot anyway.

Global warming has me concerned we won't be able to survive without a green house now.  This tough garden year really has be thinking about food shortages and with all the store food contaminations and recalls, I really don't want to be buying it.

I got some homemade condensed cream of celery made, and in the freezer for winter.

Salmon Romanoff was for dinner, with salmon caught by my oldest brother and gifted to us.  Yum!

Salmon Romanoff
1/2 finely chopped organic shallots
1 clove home grown garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. organic butter
1 cup organic cottage cheese
2 cups organic sour cream
5 dashes home canned hot sauce*
1/2 tsp. salt
1 lb. cooked salmon, flaked
12 oz. medium homemade noodles*
1 cup shredded organic shredded cheddar cheese*

Saute the shallots in the butter until they are clear, then add the garlic and cook about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and toss them into a large mixing bowl and add the cottage cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, and salt. Flake the salmon and mix.

Preheat ove to 325°F and lightly oil (or spray) 9 x 13 in baking dish.

Cook noodles and drain.  Stir into mixture and pour into baking dish.  Top with shredded cheese.  Bake approximately 30 minutes.

*5 dashes of Tabasco sauce can be substituted.
*I some times any non-gmo/organic store brand noodle too.  Amount of noodles can be changed as well.
*I like to put an additional 1 cup of organic shredded cheddar cheese in the mix too.  

I apologize for no photo of the dish, we took off right after to deliver some of it to two places.  I'll try to get a photo next time and add it to this post.

Time is a tickin' ~ Boozy sauce topped pear pie ~ This is it . . .

Monday we woke up to lots of fog.  Although school was delayed, our youngest still had to be up at her school (33 minute drive) earlier than normal bus pick up time.  She was heading to her first hair show.  I'm gonna assume next year she'll be going and spending more money as she learns more.

The temps heated back up again, but it came with rain.  So frustrating as I cannot get in the garden to get the garlic planted.  I don't want to say it, but it may be the first fall we do not plant garlic.  This year has taught me that planting too late is just not worth the work followed by loss of harvest.

I remembered I had pears in the freezer, so those pie crust crumbles came in handy.  

It was my very first time to bake a pie using frozen fruit vs. fresh.  I thawed them completely, but they didn't look like the normal 2 1/2# fresh (meaning not enough).  I thawed 5# of frozen and drained them.

It turned out perfect.  Although the pears much softer, it was still delicious.

Of course I whipped up a batch of homemade whiskey butterscotch sauce to top it with too.

It was a busy day in the kitchen, whether I wanted it or not.  Things needed done - eggs boiled, breakfast scramble make with greens, and bake and flake some Michigan salmon. 

I had to refill my jars of nettle and oat straw, wash dishes, and whatnot. 

The rain gave me a ton of lemon balm, so more filled the dehydrator despite the temperature 94° outside. I'll have a post soon on the lemon balm.

This is it. . . 

. . . the green bell pepper harvest.  They will not be getting bigger and the blossoms that were on are off.  Pitiful harvest and disheartening.  The weather heated up, but the cool down (less than a week) is coming and they won't be in the garden much longer.