I’ve made a few batches of this salsa, first in 8 oz jars, and, later, after we realized how good it is, in pint jars. It doesn’t have quite the same flavor as the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa I wrote about a while back, but it’s pretty similar and very, very good.
This was my dining room table at 6:55 this morning.
Please ignore the bags of potato chips. In this house we only eat homemade potato chips, of course. Those were…for………the neighbors.
Anyway.
On the table I’ve got some canned crushed tomatoes, other canned stuff that’s buried and you can’t see it. Bowls of basil, sage, and kale, a little plastic container of cookes, a bowl of tomatillows, some apples, peaches, garlic, tomatoes, a few jalapenos somewhere, 6 ears of corn, that bag of shredded coconut…which is also……for the neighbors, because of course we only travel to tropical islands, climb up trees, harvest our own coconuts, and shred the flesh ourselves….
The post title is solely for my sister, with whom I had this IM conversation this morning (we were each watching the news on Irene in our respective homes): Her: did you hear that doom and gloom Today show music? geeeeez Me: noooooo. didn't hear it, or i just wasn't paying attention Her: good god.… Continue reading Hunkering Down
Yay, pickles!
I canned ten pints of bread and butter pickles the other day, along with a quart and a pint of tomato sauce. (Subsequent batches of sauce will be larger as the tomatoes are now ripening at an alarming rate….)
But never mind the tomatoes. This post is about pickles.
We pulled most of the remaining coriander (cilantro) the other day and needed a place to put it until we could pick all the little seeds off.
Way back in May, as a combination Mother’s Day, Birthday, Christmas, and any other gift-receiving holiday you can think of, I got a pressure canner. And I’ve been waiting to use it. I knew that the first thing I wanted to can was homemade stock. I make a lot of stock, chicken especially, and I’d wanted the pressure canner especially so I could put the stock in jars and give us more room in the freezer.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago, the pressure canner made its canning debut….
While Mommy slacked off inside pretending to make beef stock and other nourishing foods, plus do laundry and dishes – OR SO SHE SAID – Julia and Alex were pressed into service as Firewood Transportation Specialists.
Three 8 oz jars of pickled beets. I’ve written before that as a child I was not a fan of beets. I didn’t like how their pink juice bled into my mashed potatoes. As an adult, though, I love them. And if I don’t want pink food, I can just put my beets in a… Continue reading A Wee Sma’ Batch of Pickled Beets
I was thinking ahead to Christmas with this one. Thinking of making festively-colored jelly to give (if we can bear to part with any) to some family and friends.
I’d already made two batches of Habanero Gold, which is a very pretty gold (of course) color with flecks of red pepper in it.
There was also a recipe for Jalapeno jelly, which would be pretty with the flecks of green…but I’d used up a lot of our jalapenos when I made hot sauce.
What to do?
Hot Paper Lantern Habanero Peppers, ripening in our garden.
We grew a variety of hot peppers this year and, amazingly, they’ve all done really well. We’ve made fresh salsa with them, and recently I canned some Jalapeno salsa and will probably make another batch of that when more of the peppers have reached maturity.
A couple of years ago our friend, John, made some sort of hot pepper jam or marmalade and gave us a jar. I don’t remember all the details, just that it was hot and sweet and completely addictive.
With our lovely selection of peppers this year, I really wanted to make a jam or jelly myself. Over the winter I’d gone through various canning books and recipes, and marked the pages of the jellies I wanted to try. And finally, with our peppers ripening, and some of them turning brilliant shades of red, it was time.