Pickled Peppers

In the spirit of my One Small change for September- (storing my harvest-properly) I've been trying to get a handle on my veggies this week- Pickling peppers, freezing eggplant and parsley, chopping Basil, and ripening tomatoes.

Here's the rundown on what I've done so far- I roasted the eggplant, sliced with olive oil- for about 20 min in a hot oven- then froze it in a single layer, and put it in baggies, I think it'll be easy to use for Eggplant Parmesan- when I take it out- I'll just layer it with the tomato sauce and cheese and finish the baking time.

The Serrano Peppers- I've pickled using this method- They're very good and as a health bonus this recipe has no salt in it and you don't miss it so that's a plus.

The Basil leaves were chopped up in a food processor with some olive oil - then I froze some in ice cube trays and put some in jars in the fridge with some extra oil on top, it seals it the air out so the basil says green and fresh and lovely. You can use this mixture for all sorts of methods and is probably even good uncooked- I've used it on pizza and foccacia bread so far- all with stellar results. Just scoop what you need out of the jar and then even the mixture out and put more oil on top - if you don't do this the basil will brown- I don't know how long this keeps though I expect it'll be good for a couple of months.

I chopped some of the Parsley and froze it in ice cube trays with a small amount of water and also froze some just as it was in zip lock bags.

I still have tomatoes, carrots, melons and potatoes in the garden which need a bit of dry weather to be dug up in- so hopefully I'll get to them this week. I also have Bell Peppers to chop and blanch and freeze and Tomatoes to skin and seed and freeze- though I've read about people who just pop tomatoes right into the freezer as is- has anyone tried this? does it just make more work when you want to use them?

Okay... I have a chocolate Zucchini cake to make...enjoy your weekend!