Another reason to like my freezer

Hi again!

Last week I saw some fantastic looking strawberries at the grocery store and I couldn't help myself but to buy some. My husband and I enjoyed some that night, and the next day, but by the third day - they had all gone bad and were moldy! I was not impressed and I felt guilty for buying something and having it go to waste. 

So the next time I bought strawberries I had a plan. I saved about 8 or so to enjoy fresh. The others I washed and cut up and laid onto a baking pan with parchment paper. I put them into the freezer in batches (so that the none of the strawberries were touching each other - and would freeze individually). 

When I took them out of the freezer I put them in a re-usable plastic ziploc bag and then back into the freezer again. I LOVED the results! They are all frozen indivudally, not in a big clump so if I want to take out just a handful for a smoothie, or 2 cups for a pie I can do just that. My mother-in-law said that i can also dust them with sugar when they are still fresh and before they go on the baking sheet and it will give even better results. 

So I tried it with raspberries next! 

Raspberries in the back, Rhubarb in the front.

My rhubarb had grown so big that I really needed to use some of it before it went bad. So i spent about half an hour chopping off the reddest stalks. I washed them, cut them in inch chunks and laid them out to freeze the same way! I have used them in two pies so far and the result has been wonderful!

I will continue to add to and take from these freezer bags as the berries and other fruits and vegetables ripen and need to be used. 

I hope to have a collection of berries and other goodies in the freezer so that I can use them in the dead of winter next year. They are supposed to be good for at least 6 months in the freezer. 

Enjoy your berries this summer!

-Cooking4two

My city garden

Hello again! Part of my action plan this year was trying to make the best use of my garden. I want to have the most benefit from it, with the least waste. 

Above: from the left (broccoli - hard to see), then onions, carrots, cucumber, corn, tomatoes, lettuce.

Corn is in the bottom right. I just planted peas and beans at the base of the each corn stalk so that they can climb up the corn stalk as they grown. Beans and peas also put large amounts of nitrogen into the soil, which corn needs! 

Tomatoes

From the left: spinach, one lonely garlic plant, butter lettuce, green onions, green leaf lettuce.

My garden is 6' x 12' and I am growing 5 potato plants in containers, which should come up in a few weeks. I also have a small garden on the other side of the yard which has raspberry bushes, and rhubarb... which i will post about later on.

The black hose thing that is wrapped around in my garden is called a weeping hose and the water flows out of the entire length of it. (Although I haven't had to use it much as it has been so wet this year.)

My favorite thing to do in the summer is to go out and cut off some lettuce from the garden to make an impromptu salad. 

There are so many varieties of lettuce and they can easily be grown in a pretty pot. 

I hope you are also trying your hand at gardening this year. 

Enjoy!

-Cooking4two