Monday, December 12, 2011

Something's Cookin'

Tomorrow, my coworkers get to taste the delicious treats my garden shared this fall.  In the crockpot, I have Goat & Beer Vegetable Soup cooking with onions, carrots, and potatoes from the garden along with some goat stew meat, a can of beef broth, minced garlic, spices (thyme, salt, pepper and two bay leaves) and a bottle of beer.  It's "Crockpot Monday" at work and we take turns bringing in lunch to share.  It's a way to get everyone in the faculty lounge and it's something to look forward to on an otherwise uneventful Monday.  I'm also bringing a back-up soup, Red Pepper Tomato Soup, just in case the goat doesn't go over well.  Though one thing I appreciate about this group of people is that there are several hunter/gatherer/gardeners among us.  You usually have to ask what the meat is because it's not always identifiable in that lounge.  This year we've had elk, bear, venison, goose, and now goat to go along with the usual chicken, port and beef.  If the recipe is a hit, I'll share.  Though it may be hard to tell, there is a saying about food in a teachers' lounge.

Here's another measure of how much I enjoy these people I work with:  I used the last of my canned tomatoes for the soup!  This year's harvest wasn't as good as last.  But I also made salsa and pizza sauce this year, which I hadn't last year.  The pizza sauce was a winner - all fourteen pints of that have already been used!  The salsa, not so much.  I just can't find a salsa recipe that I'm excited for, I guess.  I have about ten quarts of spaghetti sauce in the freezer, and we use about a quart a week, so not too many weeks left of the good stuff! 

One of my gardening resolutions last year was to use all of the harvest and not let anything go to waste.  I'm proud to say we did just that!  Though it may be too soon to report on the potatoes, I still have a basement full!


How did I do on my other gardening resolutions?  I'll think about that tomorrow....

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