strawberry rhubarb bread pudding.

It has been a long, long time! I took a break from this blog after a busy garden/CSA/canning season to just step away from it for the winter, and come back when growing season was in swing again. I have a lot of ideas and recipes this year - and I'm excited about trying some new things, stretching my food preservation muscles even more, and exploring all the goodness around me.

This week has been the beginning of strawberry season. The garden has been giving us spring greens for awhile, but it really seems like summer is starting when the strawberries are ripe. As we all know, strawberries and rhubarb are quite the duo. I love the preserves and crisps and pies that I always make, but I wanted to combine the flavors of the two with a more comfy cozy dessert - bread pudding. It turned out so good!

I based it on my favorite basic bread pudding recipe, with some tweaks for flavor and ingredients!


::strawberry rhubarb bread pudding::

1 cup chopped rhubarb
2 cups sliced strawberries
4 cups sliced or cubed bread
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
1 cup milk
4 large eggs
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
pinch nutmeg
zest of one lemon

1/4 cup grated unsweetened coconut
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350º.

Place your bread into your baking dish. Add the rhubarb & strawberries making sure it is all mixed in between the bread pieces.

In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, honey, vanilla, milk and spices (room temp eggs work best to help mix honey).


Pour the mixture over your bread/fruit mix. Add the zest over the top. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Add the coconut & brown sugar to the top. We don't like things too sweet, so we add only enough brown sugar to mix well with the coconut for a nice topping - if you like sweet you can add a bit more.

Put back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven, and let sit a few before serving.


I'm ready for summer!

CSA Box - September 3

In our CSA box this week: several types of tomatoes & peppers, yellow beans, thyme, edamame, onions, cucumber, summer squash, carrots, cabbage, beets, shallot, and beets.


For extras this week I picked up more onions, carrots, beets & mushrooms.


And, who could pass up a bag of 4 dozen ears of corn? We love to boil, cut from cob, bag and freeze! So far we have frozen about 80 ears worth!


We have now entered apple season, so G and I have been making small batches of applesauce - and he must taste test every batch. I have also been testing different recipes of apple chutney - SO GOOD with so many fall and winter dishes!

CSA Box - August 27

The week of August 27 we have in our CSA box:: a variety of tomatoes and peppers, cabbage, summer squash, beets, cucumbers, carrots, onions, sweet corn, eggplant and lettuce!


For extras this week I picked up more onions, dill, mushrooms, beets and a few bunches of radishes. So nice to have radishes again!

CSA Box - August 20

I've been seriously behind on posting my CSA boxes this month...as well as recipes. I have been working hard in the kitchen - preserving, freezing, canning, drying. Whew! It is a lot of work to try to preserve enough food to last through the winter, but I know it will be well worth it in the end. I do appreciate that there is this much work with modern conveniences - I can only imagine a century ago how gardening, food prep and preserving consumed so much of the year!

The week of August 20 we have a lot of goodies in our CSA box: cucumbers, several types of tomatoes and peppers, summer squash, onion, basil, sweet corn, beets, lettuce, and kohlrabi.


I also picked up some extras - cherry tomatotes, onions, beets, and dill. There has been a lot of pickling going on, so I have been going through a lot of dill and onion!

CSA Box this Week - Aug 13

In our CSA box this week: cucumbers, onion, daikon radish, basil, peppers, beans, sweet corn, summer squash and lettuce.


I did pick up a few extras this week: mushrooms, garlic, kohlrabi and parsley.

My favorite road side farm stand finally has peaches! I picked up only a few pounds - to dehydrate and freeze for smoothies and granola this winter. Mmmm.

CSA Box August 6.

In our box this week: mixed peppers, cucumbers, mixed herbs, beets, swiss chard, summer squash, eggplant, 2 types of lettuce, and fresh garlic!


For extras this week I picked up our usual mushrooms, as well as a few more bags of basil for pesto making, and parsley for the dehydrator!

This time of year the garden is in full swing, we are preserving every single day - canning, drying, freezing - I am in awe of how much we have coming in from such a tiny yard. It is pretty constant work, but not hard work. And it is very satisfying. We of course know we want to preserve enough to last through the whole winter - our goal is no store bought produce through June 2010 (but for citrus:: oranges, lemons, etc. which we cannot find local) and we are doing great. As we have gone on, we realized that while we are preserving the harvest to last throughout the winter, we can also preserve so much in the way of herbs too. We have over 25 canning jars of dried vegetables, fruit and herbs so far - with many more to go! We plan to make soup and stew mixes, granola mixes, and mixed herbs for cheeses and breads. SO GOOD!

CSA Box - July 30.

This week in our box we have basil, broccoli, peppers, summer squash, green beans, fresh garlic, beets, onion, cucumber, and 2 types of lettuce.



This week I picked up some extras - more basil, cabbage and onions. I keep making batches of pesto. It is quick and easy to make in large batches, and I can keep some in the fridge fresh, and then freeze the rest. Yum. I like to add a tray in the dehydrator each time too, so that I can have dried basil for pasta and seasoning in the winter.


It is switching into fruit season here too. We have many spring fruit around here, but August is when it really kicks into high gear. Peaches, cherries, plums, blueberries...yum. We picked up a bunch of fruit this week. I am dehydrating some cherries & blueberries - which is YUMMY in fresh home made granola. We also love to make jams, syrups and pie filling for winter. So good!