Kitchen experiments at harvest

The garden is taking its time this year, and while there are lotsa tomatoes, they seem to be ripening slowly, much to the frustration of the doctor, who's waiting for the bounty to come in. The plants are laden, and this year there are more melons, eggplants, and peppers to add to the crops, as well as a healthy looking lot of tomatillos.

Re-visited favorites:

• Tomato preserves: so easy!
  
• Grilled figs stuffed with herbs and chevre, wrapped in a grape leaf
  
• Pimientos del padron: this time, fresh from the garden
• Grilled zucchini and stir-fried zucchini flowers
  
• Peaches with cognac and vanilla (new favorite: made ice cream with these preserves - amazingly creamy, fluffy and barely boozily indulgent)

And made some new favorites:

• Cherry preserves with pinot noir (again, made amazingly good ice cream)
• Apricots and peaches in brandy
• Striped, spiced pears

Next up this fall:

• Fig chutney (the doctor will be making Jack London fig chutney this week from some little green figs that were recently "saved" from the birds on the author's property)
• Time to try making bacon; in a 5th grade science experiment, the doctor and I decided to try infusing some white Wisconsin whiskey with bacon - we'll see how it all comes out

Happy Labor Day everyone!