It was a fortunate series of events which led me to this morning’s kitchen activity and indeed, something I have never done before: blanch and freeze vegetables. - A discussion yesterday about what to do with surplus fruit led me to suggest to a friend that she could blanch and freeze watermelon for later smoothies. (I really had no idea if this could be done, but doesn’t it just sound like it could work?)
- The generosity of this same friend left me with wax beans and a pepper, and my current schedule meant that I would not be able to consume them in the near future.
- Rising to the surface were childhood memories of my mother canning and freezing all manner of things which were grown in our garden.
- We had a desire for the food not to go to waste.
- I have no fear in the kitchen.
- Oh, and I own a small cookbook collection. I was certain one of these books would give me the instructions for such a task.
The Joy of Cooking did not fail me and in those golden pages in the back, there were instructions for preserving food. With the largest of my three owned pots filled to the brim with water, I began this quest to freeze wax beans and the pepper. The whole process took me less than an hour and by 7:15 a.m., I was done save washing and drying the few dishes I used. (Two bowls, two strainers, pot, knife, and cutting board might constitute more than a “few” to you, but you have not been in the kitchen with me lately.) I also managed to slosh water on my cookbook as I had it perched near my “cooling water”. I decided this page wrinkling was my badge for my first freeze.
The point of this whole excursion and perhaps the reason that I am prompted to write this morning is that I really had no idea how to do this and I will not know if it worked until some point later in the fall when I consume these items. (If the blog ends abruptly, please check on me). By using a book as my guide, I decided to try. The knowledge of others’ success is sometimes just the inspiration we need.
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