The Grand Re-re-re Opening of the Best Restaurant In Town
Today I'm cooking for my favorite place to get takeout.
The basement chest freezer, aka The B.R.I.T., where the chef always has exactly what I want on the menu, is officially open for business again— sanitized, plugged in, icy cold, ready to store Summer’s bounty. It currently holds: leftover spinach + garlic beans from yesterday, leftover lemony tomato lima beans from last week, one bag blueberries, one bag cherries, two bags broccoli (our broccoli starts failed, oh well), two big jars tomato broth from last Fall, and 5 pounds ice (our ice maker has never worked). Thrilling, I know.
What’s actually thrilling is the calm that washes over me when I process and freeze vegetables from the garden. I’ll tell you how I like to slice, blanch, and/or steam everything as it grows in.
Today, the first snow peas. Usually they’ll go from making about 12 beans per day to a hundred, poof! ovenight at the end of April. Tonight, just the 12. Bulked out with green beans from the grocery store and stir-fried to serve alongside vegan mapo tofu and rice.