Harvest Monday, December 16th, 2013

I did succeed in harvesting one thing this week. Though it was put on the scale it wasn't worth writing down and putting in the spreadsheet.

I'm guessing this coming week will won't see the plethora of harvests that I saw this week.

You can see the kale poking its head out. But it looks like I won't get to the last of the tatsoi. Under the hoops is where it is. And that snow isn't melting anytime soon. Today will be in the 20Fs and tonight will get down to 1F. That's -17C for the rest of the world. Our typical low for the year is about -3F or -4F (-20C) and it is usually in January, our coldest month. So the cold has come early this year. The last three Decembers have had a low of 18.8F, 14.4F, and 16.1F. This doesn't bode well for January. Or my wrapped up fig trees. At least they are better wrapped this year than last year.

I did use up the last of my Michihili Chinese cabbage. I packed up three small bags measured out for making wontons.

I made coleslaw. With a mix of the Michihili and regular cabbage.

And I made stew with the last little bit. It was a kitchen sink stew, which of course means I added everything but the kitchen sink to it. From the garden I used carrots, sweet potatoes, both kinds of cabbage, onions, green beans, black beans, garlic, and the rosemary pictured at the top. I don't use a lot of meat in the stew. It really is more of a vegetable stew with a little beef added. And I have to confess that I like my normal beef stew better that just has the typical mirepoix with lots of onion and mushrooms. But I had no mushrooms and really wanted a beef stew.

My main challenge this week was to make an enchilada sauce that I could use ( I can't eat any of the nightshade crops). I started with the recipe here as the basic idea. But an enchilada sauce to me is a sauce made from broth and thickened with a roux and then seasoned. It also has something acidic in it which for a regular one would be vinegar, but I used lime here, though I wonder if 2 tablespoons would have been better. So here is my version of a nightshade free enchilada sauce.

Daphne's Avocado Enchilada Sauce

• 1 T oil
• 1 cup onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic chopped
• 1 T oil
• 1 T flour
• 1 c chicken broth (or veggie if going vegetarian)
• 1 avocado diced
• 1/3 c cilantro chopped (use stems too)
• 1 T lime juice
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t black pepper

Saute onion in oil until translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Remove from pan. Add oil and flour and cook for a couple minutes until just starting to color. Slowly add broth, whisking to keep from lumping. Cook for five minutes or until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat. Add the remaining ingredients and the onion mixture. Puree with a stick blender until totally smooth.

As you can see from the enchilada photo, I drown my enchiladas in sauce. Yum. The sauce makes about 2 cups and I use about 1 cup for my two enchiladas. The enchiladas don't have the typical innards as I used black beans with chopped red onion and a little cheese. My husband and daughter had more typical enchiladas with canned enchilada sauce and shredded chicken added to the mix. Though my daughter complained I didn't add nearly enough cheese to her enchilada.

Making enchiladas for may family from a pepper based enchilada sauce is a real turn around for me. In the past it would have made me sick. But I seem to be a little better with it now. I can eat a bite of my husband's pizza or whatever and not react much if at all from it. Which is so nice. I don't have to worry about cross contamination as much. I can eat out without problems. Now if it would just all go away that would be so nice.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.