Monday, August 08, 2005
the only thing missing is the garden
All my plans for growing veggies and herbs to make preserve-y stuff for Christmas this year fell through, thanks to my heavy watering hand that killed all of the poor seedlings. But luckily we have a pretty great farmers' market twenty minutes away, so I'm at least getting to experiment with recipes.
We were supposed to go to the beach this weekend, but there was the threat of storminess, so we bailed. Of course, it only stormed at NIGHT, so now I feel like a sucker. Plus as an added bonus, I experienced my first night of terror waiting for a tree to get hit by lightning and crash through the roof, destroying our home beyond repair. I wouldn't give the three acres of woods around us up for anything, but all the big trees can make one a wee bit paranoid.
Anyway, so we went thrifting Saturday instead (and I found way too many books at the bazaar and the used bookstore). Then Sunday yawned before me, wide open and waiting, and I decided to put off cleaning in favor of trying my hand at canning.
My plan was to make bread and butter pickles, then Ben voted for dill. I only had six cucumbers, so I put three aside for each batch. Magically, Ben bought half-pint jars instead of the pints I wanted, which ended up working well because I'd be doing small batches. I was worried about the hot-water bath, since I don't have any official canning supplies, but I ended up just putting a thick dishtowel in the bottom of my stockpot, putting the sealed jars down on that while they were bathing, and using our metal barbeque tongs to lift the jars after they were done. The downside to using the metal tongs: I chipped an edge of the rim of one jar. But other than that, it worked out fine.
I'm getting ahead of myself. I made bread and butter pickles using this recipe, only I layered the pickles and onions in the jars first since they were such small jars, then poured the hot vinegar mixture into the jars. Also, I didn't have any cloves or celery seed, so I skipped them, and I used dry mustard instead of mustard seed. And I substituted white vinegar for cider vinegar. But other than THAT, it was the same, ha. And then I stuck them in the hot water bath for 10 minutes, took them out, and let them sit overnight. And this morning I checked and all the seals are good! Yay. They may taste like crap since I was missing or subbed half of the ingredients, but they sure are pickles.
After that, I blanched and froze some sweet corn and summer squash that was on the verge of going bad.
Then, since I had a bunch of cherry tomatoes laying around that we hadn't eaten yet, I made some dried tomatoes in the toaster oven. Basically, you halve and scoop out the tomatoes, then lay them hollow side up on a baking sheet and sprinkle with your mixture of Italian spices or whatever, plus a tiny bit of sugar and salt. Then bake at 225˚F for about three hours. Mine took less time because they were so small. You want them to look like dried apricots, essentially. Then you cool them off, put in a jar, and pour olive oil in the jar until the tomatoes are completely submerged. They can be stored in the fridge for three months; just make sure you let them come to room temp before using in a recipe so the oil can re-liquefy.
After that I chopped up the cucumbers for the dill pickles and stuck them in a bowl of water in the fridge to soak overnight. I'll work on them tonight -- I'm going to use this recipe, subbing red pepper flakes for the dried peppers.
Also soaking in the fridge is a bowl of watermelon rind in brine, for watermelon rind pickles. And the watermelon that was in the rind is in the freezer for future use as watermelon ice. Normally it would be eaten by now, but it was a bit grainy, so I think this will be a better use.
So I guess this weekend was productive, if you count discovering that you enjoy something you've never tried before as being productive. And I do, so it was. Even the clean-up wasn't all that bad.
Oh, and we capped off the night with no-bake oatmeal cookies. (Add coconut, use butter instead of margarine, evaporated milk instead of regular milk, and add enough oatmeal to make the mixture thick enough that it won't fall apart.)
That was a good weekend. I think before the markets close for the year I need to get enough stuff to make some Christmas presents. Very exciting. (For me, anyway.)
We were supposed to go to the beach this weekend, but there was the threat of storminess, so we bailed. Of course, it only stormed at NIGHT, so now I feel like a sucker. Plus as an added bonus, I experienced my first night of terror waiting for a tree to get hit by lightning and crash through the roof, destroying our home beyond repair. I wouldn't give the three acres of woods around us up for anything, but all the big trees can make one a wee bit paranoid.
Anyway, so we went thrifting Saturday instead (and I found way too many books at the bazaar and the used bookstore). Then Sunday yawned before me, wide open and waiting, and I decided to put off cleaning in favor of trying my hand at canning.
My plan was to make bread and butter pickles, then Ben voted for dill. I only had six cucumbers, so I put three aside for each batch. Magically, Ben bought half-pint jars instead of the pints I wanted, which ended up working well because I'd be doing small batches. I was worried about the hot-water bath, since I don't have any official canning supplies, but I ended up just putting a thick dishtowel in the bottom of my stockpot, putting the sealed jars down on that while they were bathing, and using our metal barbeque tongs to lift the jars after they were done. The downside to using the metal tongs: I chipped an edge of the rim of one jar. But other than that, it worked out fine.
I'm getting ahead of myself. I made bread and butter pickles using this recipe, only I layered the pickles and onions in the jars first since they were such small jars, then poured the hot vinegar mixture into the jars. Also, I didn't have any cloves or celery seed, so I skipped them, and I used dry mustard instead of mustard seed. And I substituted white vinegar for cider vinegar. But other than THAT, it was the same, ha. And then I stuck them in the hot water bath for 10 minutes, took them out, and let them sit overnight. And this morning I checked and all the seals are good! Yay. They may taste like crap since I was missing or subbed half of the ingredients, but they sure are pickles.
After that, I blanched and froze some sweet corn and summer squash that was on the verge of going bad.
Then, since I had a bunch of cherry tomatoes laying around that we hadn't eaten yet, I made some dried tomatoes in the toaster oven. Basically, you halve and scoop out the tomatoes, then lay them hollow side up on a baking sheet and sprinkle with your mixture of Italian spices or whatever, plus a tiny bit of sugar and salt. Then bake at 225˚F for about three hours. Mine took less time because they were so small. You want them to look like dried apricots, essentially. Then you cool them off, put in a jar, and pour olive oil in the jar until the tomatoes are completely submerged. They can be stored in the fridge for three months; just make sure you let them come to room temp before using in a recipe so the oil can re-liquefy.
After that I chopped up the cucumbers for the dill pickles and stuck them in a bowl of water in the fridge to soak overnight. I'll work on them tonight -- I'm going to use this recipe, subbing red pepper flakes for the dried peppers.
Also soaking in the fridge is a bowl of watermelon rind in brine, for watermelon rind pickles. And the watermelon that was in the rind is in the freezer for future use as watermelon ice. Normally it would be eaten by now, but it was a bit grainy, so I think this will be a better use.
So I guess this weekend was productive, if you count discovering that you enjoy something you've never tried before as being productive. And I do, so it was. Even the clean-up wasn't all that bad.
Oh, and we capped off the night with no-bake oatmeal cookies. (Add coconut, use butter instead of margarine, evaporated milk instead of regular milk, and add enough oatmeal to make the mixture thick enough that it won't fall apart.)
That was a good weekend. I think before the markets close for the year I need to get enough stuff to make some Christmas presents. Very exciting. (For me, anyway.)
