Ready for Winter

It's the last day of July in Iowa right now.  Things are starting to turn brown and it leaves us with the feeling that summer is winding down to it's end.  In Iowa, the whole point of August is to finish up any excursions or events that are typically summer fun - such as the token summer baseball game you wanted to attend, the camping trip you didn't get around to taking yet, that trip to a pool party that never happened over the summer or backyard bbq party you missed having all summer long.  This is the time of year too, that if you live in Iowa you are preparing and gearing up for fall and winter.  I think I have that seed in me right now actually.  I have been scouring cookbooks for recipes of things that I can make now, freeze and eat later this winter.  And really, even in Iowa there aren't too many days that you can't leave the house because of the blizzard conditions but the less I have to fight the crazy 'the world is coming to an end because we are going to have 6" of snow' people that rush out and drain the shelves of food after the weather forecast then happier I will be this winter.

So far I have found several recipes that make decent quantities of food and are worth freezing- home-cooked pulled pork, salmon, homemade tomato sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.  are all things that are being neatly packed into the freezers at our house.  But most recently I froze fresh herbs for the winter.  I was blessed with 3 lbs. of fresh basil and 5 lbs. of fresh parsley.  Both I love to cook with and if I can have fresh over dried, the better the dish is!  I did a little research and found out the proper way to freeze both and here is what I came up with.

Fresh basil ready to freeze.

Freezing Basil

Pick the good leaves off the stems.  Wash well.  I used a salad spinner for this. Pat dry.  Fill the cup in a food processor with leaves.  Don't pack them, just fill to brim.  Drizzle a little EVOO and lemon juice over it.  Place lid on the processor and push the chop button repeatedly to get a course chop on the leaves.  Empty into FoodSaver bags or into plastic containers.  I used our FoodSaver to vacuum seal them to keep fresh otherwise use plastic tupperware and seal tightly.  Store in freezer.  I have read this will last for up to 6 months.  I read too that if you don't add the olive oil or lemon juice, the basil will quickly turn black once frozen.

Freezing Parsley

Wash thoroughly and pat dry.  Simply lay parsley in freezer bags and freeze- push all the air out.  No olive oil or lemon juice is necessary for parsley.  I would assume it would last about 6 months in freezer as well.  You can chop or leave stems whole.  From what I've read, if you work quickly, you can just break off the amount of parsley you need from frozen state.

Tommaccio Harvest

Before

After

Soaking in olive oil, garlic and special seasoning.