I believe I have officially pickled, jellied, and dried more pecks of peppers than Peter Piper ever shook a stick at. Seriously. It is the middle of November and my pepper plants are still producing like crazy. It is completely. Out. Of. Control. I'm not complaining, though. My mother-in-law gave me her old food dehydrator that was gathering dust in her attic. I have used it to dry our cayennes and our friend Tim's jalapenos and poblanos and apples and pears from the co-op. Tim has given us a lot of poblanos, which I love love love because I like to make my own chili powder and anchos (dried poblanos) are just great for that. I am getting such a kick out of all of these peppers that I am definitely going to grow more varieties next year - including our own poblanos. So, I don't have all my Independence Days stuff separated into categories, but I have been doing things nonetheless. Harvesting peppers, peppers, and more peppers. And some basil and chard. I have preserved peppers by drying and making jelly, basil by making pesto, and apples and pears by drying.
As far as eating the food, we have been eating a batch of chili a week for several weeks now. I'll post the recipe below. Peppers will not go to waste around here. I have not been as diligent about composting because all of my receptacles are full! Once hubby builds me another raised bed, I will have space to resume composting. We have been doing our usual recycling. I have been shopping regularly at a great little resale shop for most of our clothing. I made most of the kids' Halloween costumes. Actually, one of them - a cheerleader's costume/uniform - came from the resale shop and then I altered it to fit my 10-year old. My other girls were Tinkerbell and a mermaid with homemade costumes. My 8-year old boy was Optimus Prime and I must confess that his costume came from Target. Oh - and I made my sister-in-law a scarf for her birthday. It's a fun pattern and I'll post it below. It's an adaptation of this scarf.
I have been making a ridiculous amount of soap because I plan to give soapy love to teachers - and we have a lot of teachers this year :) - and for hostess gifts during the holidays. I plan to give a trio of soaps: Cranberry-Kaolin for shaving, Pumpkin Spice for general use, and Peppermint-Pumice foot scrubby soap. The first two are curing and I will be making the Peppermint-Pumice soap in the next day or two. Unlike cookies, soap can (and should) be made weeks in advance, so I am excited that our gifts will be ready early. I think it will take the pressure off during those last two crazy weeks before Christmas.
And speaking of Christmas, I have decided to reclaim my love of Christmas and the holiday season this year. I've been a little humbuggy the last few (like, 7 or 8) years because the frenetic pace of the hustle and bustle is a bit much for me. And, although it sounds cliche, the commercialization of Christmas really gets to me, too. I would love to get and give only handmade Christmas presents, but many of the givers in my life feel compelled to buy buy buy. They mean well, I mean, they mean the very very best...it's just too much, you know? Last year I asked my brother and his girlfriend to give us a small homemade gift and they said that they just don't have the skills. I remembered some of the gorgeous pics they had emailed me from their outings in Oregon and Colorado and asked for them to have a couple of them blown up to 8x10 and give those. My brother felt that that wasn't enough because it only cost, like, nine bucks to do. But to me, I ended up with four gorgeous pieces of original art for my home. Not only is it special to me because my brother and his lady took them, but it would have cost me a lot to purchase four 8x10 landscape photos at a gallery. And you know what? Once they saw the pics blown up, they decided that they liked them so much that they were going to use them in their own home! So, the moral of the story is that everyone has a skill that can be used for homemade gifts.
In an effort to reclaim Christmas and to share my love of handmade gifts, I am going to throw a kids' Christmas party and I am so so so excited. Kids just naturally understand the special nature of giving something they made with their own hands. So, here's what I am going to do:
1. I am going to take a picture of each kid when they arrive. Then, they will each decorate a ready-to-paint wooden frame (which I bought at Michael's yesterday for $1 each).
2. We're going to decorate cookies. Just because it's fun - no agenda here.
3. The kids are going to watch The Polar Express. I love that movie. Plus, it will give me time to print out the kids' photos and put them in the frames. After the movie, we will wrap up the framed photos and each kid will have a handmade gift for their parents to open on Christmas morning. Fun!
4. To help everyone remember that Christmas is a time of giving, I am asking everyone to bring a canned food item. They will use their food item as a ballot to cast a vote. I'm thinking we'll vote on our favorite Christmas treat, cookies vs. candy. But I also kind of like the idea of favorite holiday movie villain, Ebenezer Scrooge vs. The Grinch. I don't know.
Okay, this post has gotten way out-of-control-long, so I'm going to put my chili recipe and the scarf pattern in a separate post later today. Okay, so it may be tomorrow. I'll do my best!
Love,
B
Showing posts with label preserving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preserving. Show all posts
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Woo Hoo! Canning rocks!
Okay peeps. Since my last post I have canned 3 half-pints of jalapenos and 8 pints of dill pickles! I am officially over my home-canning-phobia and I am threatening to can anything that will stand still long enough for me to squish it into a jar. So, maybe the stuff I've put up in the last couple of weeks won't get my family through winter - but I have overcome a hurdle and that has to count for something. Plus, it has opened up a whole new world of homemade gift possibilities for Christmas and beyond. Did you know that you can make and can homemade mustard? And did you also know that you can now buy canning jars that feature more contemporary styling so you can give gifts that exude a modern gourmet flair? Well, you can. So now you know.
I want to take a moment to address the roots of my home-canning-phobia because I just can't help but think that I may not be the only person in this great big world who has suffered needlessly from this affliction. First of all, my phobia is not rooted in germ-o-phobia. Let me state for the record that even though I may suffer from myriad neuroses, germ-o-phobia is not among them. I know of a lady who spent a weekend canning jar after jar after jar of glorious produce only to be wakened in the night by fears of poisoning her family. She tossed out every bit of most-likely-completely-safe food. Yikes. In case you are affected by the germ-based version of this phobia, let me just say this: There has been a lot of research done about safe procedures for home canning. If you follow the procedures dilligently - including checking to be sure that the jars have sealed, and including checking the food for signs of spoilage before consumption - well then I just can't see any danger.
No, my phobia was actually rooted in an overwhelming feeling of being intimidated by the procedure of canning. It just seemed like so. many. steps. Then there's the image in my mind of being chained to the stove amidst bushel upon bushel of fruits and veggies. Add to that the fact that my garden did not produce the amount of food that I thought it would, which left me feeling that I didn't have enough to preserve. The recipe for pickled hot peppers in my canning book called for almost 3 pounds of peppers to make five pints of pickled peppers. Well, I only have two jalapeno plants and even though they have been very prolific, I did not have 3 pounds of peppers and it seemed a little silly to buy that many peppers at the grocery store only to wind up with more peppers than we would consume in five years. So this had me feeling a little stuck for a while as well.
I'm not sure what finally got me off of high-center, let's call it Divine Intervention, but I was suddenly struck by the realization that just because the recipe yielded 5 pints, it didn't mean that I had to make that much. Yeah, I know. I'm not that great at thinking outside the box sometimes, okay? There are a lot of good things about me, too. But I digress. Moving on. I made a half recipe of the pickling liquid and used half-pint jars. Then I just chopped up my peppers and decided to make as many jars as I could, which turned out to be three. I was able to use my regular old stock pot and I actually used my pasta/strainer insert as the rack to keep my jars off the bottom of the pot. This turned out to be a great way to start out for a newbie home canner because the procedures are the same whether you process one jar or twelve, but three or four jars just feels much more do-able. Also, my only investment was about seven bucks for a 12-pack of jars and I saved the leftover pickling liquid to use the next time my plants are flush with peppers (For pickling peppers, the liquid was only white vinegar and water, which it seems to me should keep indefinitely. Leftover pickling liquid that includes sugar and spices can usually be stored in the fridge for a week.).
Yesterday, I pickled five pints of cucumbers. I stopped at five because that is all my pot would hold at once, but I still had a bunch of cucumbers left. By the time the pickles were processed and dinner was done, I was too tired to finish off the cukes. So, I threw everything in the fridge and started again this afternoon. And you know what is so fun about that? When you have 3 pints of cucumbers in front of you and the liquid is already seasoned and waiting, your creative juices get going and you start thinking about "what if I add..." So today's three pints of sliced dills included a cayenne pepper tucked into each jar for a spicy variation on a traditional hamburger dill. It's so fun! At the risk of exposing the overall lame-ness of my personal life, I'm going to say that it's, like, the funnest thing ever. Seriously! You should totally give it a try. Even if it's just one jar. Even if it seems silly. It's a skill that could prove valuable in the future, so practice now. You will be glad you did!
I want to take a moment to address the roots of my home-canning-phobia because I just can't help but think that I may not be the only person in this great big world who has suffered needlessly from this affliction. First of all, my phobia is not rooted in germ-o-phobia. Let me state for the record that even though I may suffer from myriad neuroses, germ-o-phobia is not among them. I know of a lady who spent a weekend canning jar after jar after jar of glorious produce only to be wakened in the night by fears of poisoning her family. She tossed out every bit of most-likely-completely-safe food. Yikes. In case you are affected by the germ-based version of this phobia, let me just say this: There has been a lot of research done about safe procedures for home canning. If you follow the procedures dilligently - including checking to be sure that the jars have sealed, and including checking the food for signs of spoilage before consumption - well then I just can't see any danger.
No, my phobia was actually rooted in an overwhelming feeling of being intimidated by the procedure of canning. It just seemed like so. many. steps. Then there's the image in my mind of being chained to the stove amidst bushel upon bushel of fruits and veggies. Add to that the fact that my garden did not produce the amount of food that I thought it would, which left me feeling that I didn't have enough to preserve. The recipe for pickled hot peppers in my canning book called for almost 3 pounds of peppers to make five pints of pickled peppers. Well, I only have two jalapeno plants and even though they have been very prolific, I did not have 3 pounds of peppers and it seemed a little silly to buy that many peppers at the grocery store only to wind up with more peppers than we would consume in five years. So this had me feeling a little stuck for a while as well.
I'm not sure what finally got me off of high-center, let's call it Divine Intervention, but I was suddenly struck by the realization that just because the recipe yielded 5 pints, it didn't mean that I had to make that much. Yeah, I know. I'm not that great at thinking outside the box sometimes, okay? There are a lot of good things about me, too. But I digress. Moving on. I made a half recipe of the pickling liquid and used half-pint jars. Then I just chopped up my peppers and decided to make as many jars as I could, which turned out to be three. I was able to use my regular old stock pot and I actually used my pasta/strainer insert as the rack to keep my jars off the bottom of the pot. This turned out to be a great way to start out for a newbie home canner because the procedures are the same whether you process one jar or twelve, but three or four jars just feels much more do-able. Also, my only investment was about seven bucks for a 12-pack of jars and I saved the leftover pickling liquid to use the next time my plants are flush with peppers (For pickling peppers, the liquid was only white vinegar and water, which it seems to me should keep indefinitely. Leftover pickling liquid that includes sugar and spices can usually be stored in the fridge for a week.).
Yesterday, I pickled five pints of cucumbers. I stopped at five because that is all my pot would hold at once, but I still had a bunch of cucumbers left. By the time the pickles were processed and dinner was done, I was too tired to finish off the cukes. So, I threw everything in the fridge and started again this afternoon. And you know what is so fun about that? When you have 3 pints of cucumbers in front of you and the liquid is already seasoned and waiting, your creative juices get going and you start thinking about "what if I add..." So today's three pints of sliced dills included a cayenne pepper tucked into each jar for a spicy variation on a traditional hamburger dill. It's so fun! At the risk of exposing the overall lame-ness of my personal life, I'm going to say that it's, like, the funnest thing ever. Seriously! You should totally give it a try. Even if it's just one jar. Even if it seems silly. It's a skill that could prove valuable in the future, so practice now. You will be glad you did!
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