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A Week of Indigenous Eating:

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Peppers

The remainder of the peppers. I cut the stems off the red ones, the Kung Paos and Tobasco Seasonings, and put them in the food dehydrator. After they're dry, they'll get ground up in the coffee bean grinder to be used as sprinkles on spaghetti, eggs, pizza, potatoes, etc.

Easy Beans

Beans are staples at our house and I cook them in the crock pot at least once a week. Black beans are especially nutritious. This weekend I soaked a bag of black beans overnight then the next day tossed the water (some argue that you should use the water, but I normally just pour it in the compost bin). Put in the crock pot along with 6 chopped tomatoes, a chopped onion, black pepper, and three cups of turkey stock then cook 6 hours on high--or longer if you're at work.



Peppers make nice props



The tomatoes turn black. Add some salsa and corn bread. Dinner is ready.

Baked Squash

The Black Eyed Pea restaurant has a delicious squash casserole, but it's made with butter, milk and sugar. This is my riff on the dish with indigenous ingredients.

Four small yellow squashes, two zucchinis, 1/2 cup agave syrup, 1/2 chopped sweet onion, 3/4 cup corn meal. Black pepper and hot sauce to taste.

Boil the squashes and onion until tender. Drain, put in casserole dish and add the corn meal, agave, pepper then mash. Cook in oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Josh says that it almost tastes like dessert, so maybe I added too much agave--but perhaps not!

Last Call for Peppers and Tomatoes

It did not freeze last night like the weather guy predicted, but it will tonight. I assessed my peppers and tomatoes and still had hundreds on the vines, but they are not quite ready.



Upside down plants in one the sheds. My Risden mushing sled hangs in there, too. That's my old AZ truck plate.



I pulled them, shook the dirt from the roots, tied the plants to together and hung them upside down. The green ones should ripen.

Upside down peppers in the greenhouse.

I also dug up the elephant ears. I'll cut the stems close to the roots and will let them dry before storing in a bad full of vermiculite. That will keep them until next year.

Turkey Pepper Pot

This morning I put a turkey breast in the crock pot along with 30 peppers of various colors and sizes from my garden, black pepper, salt and green chile sauce. It cooked 8 hours and was done by the time we were really hungry. I served it with sweet corn and a side of tomatoes and leftover sauteed squash.

Squash Dinner

Here is a quick dinner made of squash, tomatoes, onions and spices. Cut a spaghetti squash in half and place cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 about 25 minutes or until it is soft.

In a skillet heated on medium, add sliced zucchini, yellow squash, onion, tomato, salt, black pepper and sage. Cook until tender.

Rake out the insides of the spaghetti squash with a fork into a bowl then top with the skillet ingredients.

The only clean up is the cuttng board and the squash leftovers.