Where angels fear to tread...

I have a habit of plunging into the deep end of the pool. I won't beat around the bush here (am I collecting cliches today? Oh well): This past week I bought enough eggplant, zucchini, butternut squash, tomatoes, onions, and green peppers to make several gallons of ratatouille.  Up until the movie "Ratatouille" came out a few years ago, I'd never heard of the stuff. I went online to find a recipe, and discovered hundreds! So I made one. Loved it. Made another. Loved it. Etc etc etc. I am a ratatouille convert. I love it more than spaghetti sauce (and that's saying something). I love how I can freeze it and later pile it on top of noodles, potatoes, or rice, or have it with salad and a baguette or even pile it warm on crackers. Or pita and goat cheese...mmmmm.

And we have the wonderful Wenninghoff's here in Omaha for all of your fresh produce needs. So this week I went there and bought all that stuff, and today I'm going to make ratatouille by the vat-full.

Yesterday I went back and bought 25 pounds of Missouri peaches. I hadn't realized quite how many peaches that is until I got them home. *gulp* I'm going to freeze those, too. I have about half the volume in my chest freezer available for all this stuff.

And today I'm freezing peaches. (I'm using the lazy way; washing off the fuzz, slicing them and laying the slices on cookie sheets and freezing them then putting them into freezer zip-style bags.)

This is a LOT of work. But I'm going to love myself this winter. And I'm very glad I have Netflix to keep me company during today's labors.

3 hrs later: Well, 21 of the peaches are halved and sitting in the freezer, freezing. The two giant pots of ratatouille are cooking. There is about a half-gallon of tomatoes left over, which I don't know what I'll do with, but they'll get used.

And my feet hurt and I'm tired, and I still have to bag up all this stuff for the freezer.  *groan* but here I am groaning about having too much food? in THIS world? Really, Terry? Shame on me. So instead, I shall be grateful down to my sore arches.

2 1/2 hrs later:  Got about 2/3 done with all this. Will finish tomorrow. Too pooped to keep going tonight!

ETA photos:

Freezing peaches!  The butter tubs are to hold the next tray above the peaches.

Next: my two batches of ratatouille. It turned out really really good.  :^)

And, because there aren't enough pictures of cats on the internet, here are my cats:

They both HAD been lying on the floor, one right behind the other, so I thought it'd make a cool floor-level picture. Of course, as soon as I put the camera down O'Keefe had to come investigate it, so you can only admire her toes here. As if she'd never seen it before. That's her more nonchalant brother Adams being cool about the whole thing.