Calling All Cooking Friends

With summer speeding by and all these farm fresh fruits and vegetables ripe for the picking, I’ve got some hard core cooking and freezing to do! (But first I need to call someone to take a look at my freezer, which isn’t doing its freezing job quite the way it should.) And then second is make some Outrageous Chocolate Chip cookies (courtesy of Martha Stewart) with the gift of chocolate from my friend Lou. Here are my top ten cooking projects:

1) Pie filling — My family just loves farm fresh peach pie in the middle of winter.
2) Big batches of tomato sauce — Hoping to crash my friend Lou’s tomato puree making session.
3) Blanching and freezing vegetables — Anything I freeze now is way better than any store bought vegetables I’ll get months down the road. Hoping to freeze some corn, zucchini, kale and peppers.
4) Basil Pesto — For sandwiches, pasta and chicken dishes. Fresh basil is everywhere. . .
5) Peach Jam — For my morning whole grain toast.
6) Breads & Muffins — Zucchini, blueberry and peach are the must-have breads and muffins. Make now and serve to the kids for breakfast in the fall.
7) Pickles — Canning sweet and dill pickles using the Kirby cucumbers
8) Cocktail Party Nibbles — Zucchini or corn fritters, beet and carrot latkes, eggplant caponata, spring rolls, empanadas
9) Family dinners — Eggplant parmesan, vegetable curry, farm fresh veggie lasagna.
10) Vegetable Soups — Roasted tomato soup, minestrone, chowder, corn stock

I’ve got some work to do! But today I’m hoping to make some tomato sauce with Lou and Christina in Lou’s garage. He’s got everything all set up and even purchesed the tomatoes! I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.