Thursday, October 22, 2009

Seasonal Food, Seasonal Eating

Seasonal Food, Seasonal Eating or Somethings Are Hard to Say Goodbye to...

This week I will make our last tomato pie of the year.  I've thought about making two and freezing them for our Solstice celebration dinner - wouldn't it be a delight to eat tomato pie in December - but I haven't got to it yet.  I've got 5 nice big beefsteaks left that have been ripening on the windowsill and it seems a shame to use them for  pie for the freezer when pie Right Now! sounds even better. ;-)


So...good-bye tomato pie, we'll see you next year.  We've enjoyed you many times this season.  So often, in fact, that we've got you just the way we want you and have perfected our recipe so that you are the most delicious tomato recipe we've ever had.  We'll miss you.  You with your delicious home-made flaky crust.  Your thin layer of home-made pesto (though store-bought does in a pinch).  Your home grown tomatoes layered with shredded zucchini.  Your bubbly topping of mayo, lots of garlic, grated cheese, salt and pepper.  You've become a favourite of everyone we've introduced you to.



We'll miss You most out of all our favourite summertime foods.  Well...except for you, plum pie.  You know we love you.  It's just that we actually put plums in the freezer just so that we can enjoy you year round so it isn't quite the same as with Tomato pie.  You understand.


And now...
Hello Autumn veggies.  Nice to see you again.  And especially nice to meet some new friends...like you, Roasted Veggies (we've already adapted this Jamie Oliver recipe by adding onions, loads more carrots and garlic as well as slices of butternut squash with the skin still on).  Doesn't it look good?

And you, cabbage salad (from A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes From my Kitchen Table ).  E likes to call you "the cabbage salad that you should make if you don't like cabbage...or even salad."  And I think that is quite an apt name.  You're delicious.  We're glad you've made your way into our lives.

And welcome back our old regulars...
tomato soups

sage and squash soup

squash curry, baked squash...

squash everything, in fact.

I absolutely love being surrounded by amazingly delicious, locally grown food and feel so blessed to live where I do - in a spot that makes eating local and eating fresh so easy and so affordable.  Very blessed indeed.

2 comments:

Leigh said...

Good post. I absolutely love roasted root vegetables, a fall and winter favorite! It seems that fresh summer eating is the hardest to say good bye to. It's a good thing those grocery store tomatoes are so blah or I'd be tempted to buy them. Still, seasonal eating really makes me appreciate the tastes and textures of each season.

Heather said...

Yes, I think fresh summer eating is hardest to say good-by to as well. I suppose because the Autumn things (cabbage, squash, potatoes, etc) store so well that we enjoy them for longer anyway? Summer veg are more fleeting.
Whole hearted agreement on the store tomatoes being blah, the boys and I sometimes wonder about people who have only ever had store bought tomatoes...can you imagine what you would think of them? No wonder so many people feel that they don't like certain veg.