Tomatoes

I got a great box from the CSA this weekend.  Lots of tomatoes and cucumbers.  I decided to try to can the tomatoes that I got.  My hubby had bought six plum tomatoes from the grocery store also, so I did all of them.

I ended up with four quarts of canned tomatoes.  I can use them to make sauce or whenever I need canned whole tomatoes.  It was such an easy process.....I think I will be doing more!

Canning Pears

After picking all the pears from my tree, which was not a good haul this year, I ended up with four quarts of pear pie filling.  I used the recipe from here.

I hope to make a pear-raspberry pie this week.....

PYO Season coming soon

I just called Jones Tree Farm, our local PYO farm for strawberries/blueberries/pumpkins, etc. 
Strawberries should be ready the first week of June!

I never had time to go picking either strawberries or blueberries last year (most unfortunately).  I had run out of strawberry jam last year and I am using my last blueberry jam jar (from two years ago) now, so I can't wait to go picking this year! 

I'll be calling the farm hotline periodically and will hopefully get to the farm the first week of picking! 

If anyone wants to go on lunch hour, let me know....Otherwise, I'll go on a Sunday morning! 

They say, "When the cat's away....."

Well the hubby is away and although, I haven't been playing, I have been doing things this weekend that I put off for way too long.....

• Two banana breads from the six over ripe bananas I had been saving in the freezer
• Raspberry-jalapeno jam from the second to last bag of raspberries and the last bag of the jalapenos from the CSA last year (both were frozen) - 5 half pints
• More stock from the bag of chicken necks and gizards and bones that were in the freezer from my last order of chickens from the farm.
• Lard - I have had fat in the freezer for a while and I have been dying to try to render the lard.  It is still in the crock pot as I type, so I'm not sure how it will come out.  
• Going for walks with the dog!  I have the most beautiful park at the top of my street and I never have the time to get there and enjoy the beauty!  This weekend, I did!
• I got a new phone!  My old one was slowly dying and on my last dog walk, it fell out of pocket and the inside screen no longer worked!  The old lasted for four years and I'm hoping this new one will last the same!

Jellies

My good friend (and sister-in-law) Kathy came over this afternoon and we made 10 pints and 6 half pints of corn cob jelly and violet jelly!

Thank you, Kathy, for all your help!  It was fun!

We had a beautiful Palm Sunday brunch at my friend Maryanne's this morning!  Thank you, Maryanne, Catie and Andrew!

And now.........Let's go UCONN!!!!

Sunday

This Sunday, I really had no plans except to stay in the kitchen.  I had a lot of stuff to accomplish.  I was up at seven taking care of the animals and having my first cup of coffee.  I didn't have to take Nonni to church because we went Saturday night and then we went to the church supper which I will blog about later in the week.

Saturday night, after supper,  was my prep time.  I cut and marinated the beef jerky.  Beef jerky is totally new to me, so I'll post about it once I know if it is a success or fail!  I also cleaned the counters, got down the crockpot, straightened up the kitchen, brought up the canning jars from the cold cellar and just mentally prepared for Sunday!

First up on Sunday morning, is a little cleaning.  Seriously, sometimes, I don't know if I should be embarrassed by my hatred of cleaning or mad at the fact that I have no time to clean.  Either way, I never do it until I have to and that either makes me sad or angry.  With five people in six little rooms and two bathrooms (and I don't even touch the boys bathroom downstairs), the house is always a disaster.  *sigh*  Moving on......

After cleaning, crockpot applesauce with the apples I picked, was first on the agenda.  I didn't get as many apples as I had hoped, but I did end up with four quarts of applesauce (two batches) and enough apples to eat for the week.  My son is going picking again in a few weeks and he will get me more for apple pie filling!

I had a ton of beets from the CSA, so I roasted those and then peeled them and added salt and olive oil and it made a nice little salad.

I still had raspberries in the freezer from my mother in law.  I canned fourteen MORE pints AND I still have more raspberries in the freezer! HAH!  I think I'm done with raspberry jam and the rest of them that I have, I'll use for different desserts!

I had a recipe from a friend for home made soy sauce.  It's not as good as usual, but in a pinch it worked for chicken stir fry for dinner last night.

I was totally out of detergent, so I had to make five gallons of that, too.

My biggest project for Sunday was the chicken coop.  Not only was the inside pretty gross, but the outside was never cleaned up from Hurricane Irene.  The cleaning took about 1-1/2 hours with five wheelbarrows full of hay and sticks and s%#t!  The coop looks and smells wonderful now.  Those hens better appreciate it!

FYI - Beef Jerky is good, but too thick.  Will do a blog this week about it!

Fall Weather

We have gone from 88 degrees and humid to 44 degrees and chilly in 48 hours here in CT!

Two nights ago, at Zumba, it was disgustingly hot and it was probably as worse as any summer session we held.  This morning, on my run, I had to wear a hoodie, gloves and sweatpants (I hadn't taken them out since April).

God has given us a touch of fall without the leaves changing colors!
This is my favorite time of year!

Apple picking on Saturday with the trips (pictures to follow on Sunday) and of course canning applesauce and apple pie filling on Sunday!

Have a great weekend!

Marinated Eggplant

I have been looking for a good recipe to mimic the way my dad made his marinated eggplant.  Unfortunately, this is one of the things I forgot to ask about before he passed.  I remember him in the kitchen with the huge colandar full of eggplant with a plate on top and bricks on the plates.  But that is basically the only part of the operation that I ever witnessed. 

So here is my recipe:

Marinated Eggplant
(makes 1 quart Mason Jar)

Eggplant, peeled and sliced thinly, like french fries, (1 Medium purple and six long white) or whatever you have!)
White Wine Vinegar, 1/2 cup
Salt, 1-1/2 tablespoons
Capers, 2 Tablespoons or more if you prefer
Roasted Red Bell Peppers, a few tablespoons, cut into small strips
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped but NOT minced
Celery, one stalk, cut into small pieces, boiled with the onion.
6 Black Olives (or green if you prefer that flavor) cut in half
EV Olive Oil

Peel and cut the eggplant into strips.  I cut mine a little two thick I think.  (Think McDonald's French Fry Size) I used one medium purple eggplant and six thin white eggplant.  (This makes about one quart).
Put the eggplant in a colandar and salt it.  (Here is where I went wrong - I used a little too much salt).  1-1/2 Tablespoons should be enough.  Mix it up with your hands until covered.  Put a flat dish on the eggplant in the colandar and then put two large cans of tomatoes (or a brick) on top of the plate.  (This will squeeze the water out of the eggplant) Let that sit for a minimum of two hours in the sink.  A lot of water will escape. 

Put 1/2 cup of vinegar and two cups of water in a small pot and boil.  Put the strips of eggplant in for about 5 minutes.  You do not want it to become mushy.

Take out the eggplant, run it under cold water and return to the colandar, with the plate on top and the brick!  Set this aside for a minimum of four hours or overnight.  I did it overnight.  More water will come out. 

In the morning, squeeze out any additional water and put the eggplant in a bowl.  Add two tablespoons of capers (more or less to your taste), cut up strips of red bell peppers - I used about Three Tablespoons, but I should have used more.  Add in one half of a boiled onion.  (I actually fried mine to get it translucent, but then it browned up a little bit and I didn't like the way it looked so you should cut up the onion and then boil it for a few minutes.)  (My dad also added boiled celery pieces) (He also added black olives chopped in half right out of the can.  I didn't have celery or olives, so I didn't add them in, but I realize now that you need that flavor!)   Mix up all the ingredients with your hands in the bowl and then stuff into a quart canning jar.  Add EVOO to cover the mixture.  Add the lids to the mason jar and refrigerate and it is ready to use on sandwiches. 

I am not sure if my dad actually water canned his eggplant.  I just don't remember it.  I read a few recipes where people did this.  I only remember there being about 20 jars each fall in the cold room and that it lasted until the next fall.  I'm thinking he must have water canned them.  Since I am only doing one jar at a time, I am not going to worry about it.

Weekend canning

On Monday, I canned two more quarts of pears and one quart of marinated eggplant.  I got the eggplant recipe on line but totally doctored it up.  It looks great, BUT, once I taste it, I'll let you  know. 

I plan on making bread tonight, so I'll be taking a sandwich for lunch tomorrow.  The proof will be in the taste.  And if this recipe didn't work, I have another recipe coming this week from a friend.  So much eggplant, so little time!

Next up in the canning department....more pears.  I should be able to can two or three more quarts for pies.  I need to finish them up before Sunday which is apple picking day!

Pears

My dad had pear trees (and apple trees and mulberry trees and olive trees, etc).  But the pears were abundant this year.  Right before Irene hit (Can we use the word 'Irene' the way we use the word 'Katrina'? - to some extent, maybe), my mom picked all the pears because she knew they would all get ruined.  There was a full bushel - probably more.  I took some, my sisters both took some and my mom had some.  I put mine in the cold cellar to ripen.  They took five days.

I cut them up and added lemon juice, made a 'light'syrup and canned two quarts for pies.  The rest we are eating.

The cellar canning area is getting larger!

Honeycrisp apples in two weeks.......I can't wait!!!!

Canning

My brother in law has been wanting to learn how to can and he got it in his head to make hot pepper relish.  Since I neither eat hot peppers nor any kind of relish, I wasn't sure if I was up to the task.  But I got a few recipes on line and set up the date for this past week.  I got the jars ready and he brought the ingredients.  Joe was definitely prepared.  He even brought his own recipe!

Joe didn't realize how truly easy this whole water bath canning process actually is!!   The prep time takes the longest.  But he did all the chopping of the ingredients for the relish.  We ended up with (5) 1/2 quarts of hot pepper relish.  He said it is so good that he wants to enter it into the fair.  (I didn't taste it)

I had gone to my CSA farm and got a box of tomatoes because we were also going to make some salsa - two kinds.  One with cilantro and one without (for my sister).  He will take home 7 1/2 quarts of salsa and I kept one.  I already made a bunch for myself and I will probably make more this week too.  I still have about 45 tomatoes left (plus Joe took home about 40) from the box, so I plan on making some marinara sauce this weekend.  I think I canned sauce a very long time ago.  Most of the time, I just freeze it, so I'm going to look up a recipe to see what I need to do to can sauce.

Canning and Freezing Inventory to date

Here is my list for the season so far:

Apple Pie Filling - 9 quarts - gave two to my mom
Applesauce - 6-1/2 quarts
Pear Sauce - 4 pints; 1 1/2 pint - one pint to my sister
Strawberry Fig Preserves - 4-1/2 pints - one pint to my dad
Salsa - 2-1/2 quarts
Raspberry Jam - 9 pints
Blackberry Jam  - 8 pints
Corn Cob Jelly - 5-1/2 pints (tastes like honey) - making more this weekend!

Still had three strawberry jams and four blueberry jams from last year - which I have been doling out to the family. 

Freezer:

Dandelion greens - 2 bags
Green beans - about 6 lbs.
Beet greens - 1 bag
Collard Greens - 2 bags
Kale - 1 bag
broccoli - two bags full, plus one quart

Everything else from the CSA or the garden I have used.  It has been a very, very good year for me!

I don't have a food dehyrdrator or a pressure canner.  I need to invest in these, but one step at a time.  I am down to ONE empty canning jar left.....if anyone of my local friends in blog-land has any canning jars in their basements, attics, where ever, let me know.  Otherwise, I'll pick some up this weekend. 

CSA Friday

Here is what I got:

Half Share:
1/2 dozen corn
1/2 lb leeks
1 lb potatoes
1 lb tomatoes
1 lb sweet peppers
1/2 lb hot peppers
1 lb cucumbers or zucchini
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 lb apples
turnip greens

In my future I see....... leek and potato soup and some more salsa.  Maybe I'll be able to can  more salsa, too. 

With the apples that my son picked, I made another 2-1/2 quarts of applesauce.  The apples were Jonathan and Gala, and the applesauce came out a nice reddish brown color and is a little chunkier than the first batch!!!!

If I save the corn cobs from this batch of corn and add more to them next week, I should be able to make more corn cob jelly next week.  So much to do at this time of year and so precious little time........... 

I also ordered two organically raised chickens cut up.  I haven't made fried chicken in a long while.  It's time!  Sunday supper?

Have a great weekend, everyone!!

Canning

I got nine quarts of apple pie filling canned, five and 1/2 pints of corn cob jelly done and 1 quart of salsa (we already ate the other quart :))

Made a big pot of marinara and made two trays of eggplant parm.  One batch of zucchini quiche is already eaten and I am done for the day!!!

I love Sundays!!!

(Applesauce will have to wait for Tuesday night!)