A little kitchen help for fall produce

As time goes by, much of the knowledge about cooking has gone to the grave. Many in this new generation have to rely on recipes, but for many foods, especially raw garden produce, there is no recipe. Now and then, everyone needs a little help in the kitchen. Much of what my wife and I fix from our garden goodies is a mix of what we learned as kids in Nebraska and just simple experimentation.

One garden crop that is just now coming in is turnips. Most gardeners plant their turnips about the middle of August so they will be ready to start pulling toward the end of October. We enjoy turnips about every way you can imagine. The easiest way is to wash the turnips and get them as clean as you can. Then we trim off all the outside, or the hide, as well as the top and bottom. Cut it up if you want, or eat it whole. We add some Lawry's seasoning salt and enjoy it raw.

Once in a while, we will take the hide, top and bottom off. We then slice the turnip and boil it in salt water until it is tender. We drain off the water and add some butter and then salt to taste and enjoy. You can also drain off the water and fry them in some butter.

One of my favorite ways is to take the hide, top and bottom off. Then simply chunk it up and fry it in some bacon grease, just like you fry potatoes. You can add some onions and garlic if you want to. We brown the turnips just like you brown potatoes. These are darn good.

One plant that seems to like the fall is peppers. Normally in the fall, we end up with a bunch of bell peppers as well as jalapeño peppers. We don't use very many jalapeño peppers, so we just throw them in a baggie and freeze them. Then we can pull some out as we need them. The bell peppers or sweet peppers are something I really love.

This year, I grew some long sweet peppers that ended up about 8 inches long and 2 inches across at the base. I've been putting them directly on the burner on our gas range and scorching the outside of the pepper. I continually turn the pepper until the outside has a black, burned color. I then scrape the skin off the pepper under the faucet in our kitchen sink.

Once I've scraped the skin off, I slice off the end and down the side and clean out the pepper. At times, I'll add some salt and just eat it alone. Other times, I'll add this to a sandwich, which is really good, or you can put them in a baggie and freeze for later.

We also trim the base off our bell peppers, clean out the core and the seeds and then chunk up the pepper. We put these chunks in a freezer bag and freeze to use later in soups, scrambled eggs or green beans. You can add them to some round steak and let them simmer for a delicious steak and pepper dish.

For a good part of the summer, we have had Yukon Gold potatoes, but fall is usually potato-digging time. Sometimes Marge peels the hide off and boils them until they're done, and then mashes them for mashed potatoes. If I make mashed potatoes, I normally add an onion or two and boil them with the potatoes. Then, when I mash them, there will be onion chunks in the mashed potatoes. Add some garlic cloves if you like garlic.

Marge also brushes the potatoes until they are clean, and then she leaves the hide on the potatoes. She chunks up the potatoes if they are too big and then boils them until tender. We then put the chunks of potato on our plates and add butter and sour cream. Since she usually boils a good bunch of potatoes, there will be quite a few potato chunks left over. These we like to cut up a little more and then fry with some onion and garlic. They are really good.

I like to take these fried potatoes and add an onion, some garlic, some cooked meat and a handful of frozen bell peppers. I cook this until the onions and peppers are tender. If we have some sweet corn, I like to add a little sweet corn.

When the potato and meat mixture is hot, I add some eggs and cook them until the white, runny part is firm. I then add some milk and a good helping of cheese. I don't think there is a better breakfast dish than this. I use my No. 12 cast-iron skillet to make mine.

One other crop we have a lot of is okra. We like to take whole okra, with the stem still on, if it isn't too big, and throw it in a cast-iron skillet, along with a little olive oil.

We cook on medium heat until the okra is getting brown and is tender. Then we sift a little corn meal or corn flour on this okra. Continue to cook until the meal or flour has browned a little, and then you are ready to enjoy it. Or you can freeze the okra for later or chunk it and fry it.

I hope this helps as you enjoy this fall's goodies.

Have a good one,

Until next time.