Hosting a Hungry Household

“Mom. Your freezer is full!” my daughter Emily exclaimed after she’d resurfaced from my basement. I’d sent her down to check the mouse traps and laundry, but she couldn’t resist checking my food stash.

She and her husband Tim have been visiting the past several days, and we have been feasting on all sorts of homemade delicacies, as I continue to exercise self-discipline and use up ingredients which I had in stock.

Before they arrived from Vermont, I’d had an anxious moment when I told myself, I should stop at the store and get some supplies that they might enjoy—be the perfect hostess, of course. I did resist, and figured it would be more fun to stick with my New Year’s challenge to myself, and let the sprinkles land where they may in terms of hosting guests. Fortunately, they are appreciative of anything homemade, are flexible, and graciously support my creativity.

I extracted some frozen grape leaves, stuffed with cauliflower from my freezer, and made some lemon garlic wild rice with chopped up spinach (Spanakorizo) to complement the meal. I’d put on my winter gloves and dug deep to find spinach, as it is usually the first home grown veggie to go into my chest freezer in the spring, and subsequently, ends up at the bottom, buried.

Another evening we dined on winter squash chili over fried polenta. I made some applesauce chocolate cupcakes for dessert, which I over-filled with an apricot coconut mixture. They were a bit lumpy when I replaced the cutaway cone of cake to plug them up, but that did not ruin our experience in the least. The chocolate maple frosting covered them adequately.

For another meal, I combined tvp (a dry soy product) with baked puffball mushrooms which I had frozen in the fall, to make an unmeat loaf. A jar of my homegrown / homemade tomato sauce and ground flax seeds bound the ingredients together. We brought it to my housebound parents to share. They had no choice but to indulge, and hopefully to enjoy.

For breakfast, we enjoyed apricot almond rice pudding, made with sweet rice, which is a bit chewier and gooey-er than simple brown rice. I used unsulfured apricots, which are not as pretty as the sulfured variety, but are as tasty. As a topping, I combined a bag of my homegrown peaches with arrowroot as thickener, cardamom powder, pear juice and a jar of locust blossom agave syrup which I had made in the spring and had canned. The light syrup has a slight floral aroma and flavor, which reminds you of early summer. The pendulous clusters of white blossoms dangling from black locust trees emit a fragrance which can overpower even an insensitive nose and that to me, smells aphrodisiacal.  

It seems that all we did was eat! And mostly healthy desserts.

This torte has an almond oat, maple crust. I layered maple glazed fruit over the leftover apricot coconut cupcake filling which I spread on the dough.

Guess I did not have to worry about feeding guests. Though, any spring time guests will definitely have a different experience dining with me, when all I have available is an abundance of homemade salsa and frozen nettles.

Ooo -da- lah-lie!, I just noticed three cans of organic coconut milk on my counter— a gift from appreciative family fairies I guess. The can label encourages, “Go ahead, conquer your quest for adventurous taste and find your inner Zen.”

When Emily and Tim leave on Sunday, I intend to continue my culinary adventures, and maybe that inner Zen will appear. Likely it will. Even if I dine alone.