What’s Taters, Precious?

I had to hang out around the phone last night waiting for a call about a starving horse, so I didn’t get much done up at the barn.  What I did do, was wonder out to the garden for the first time in days and found the first five ripe tomatoes of the season!  It’s about darned time!  None of them made it to the house for a photo shoot, sorry.  I also picked the first of the Ancho peppers

I finally harvested the potatoes last night.  I planted less than 5 lbs of blue and red seed potatoes this year and never got around to hilling them, fertilizing, or covering with Remay.  I think the harvest did okay anyway!  The blues definitely beat the reds in quantity, but the reds were generally larger and more uniform.

 

 

There were a bunch of very small potatoes, so I ended up canning them for the first time.  The recipe I followed said to peel the potatoes, but I’ve also read several that didn’t peel them first and they turned out okay.  And honestly, peeling them just seemed like way too much work.

Scrub and clean potatoes and cut any larger ones up so that each piece is generally the same size.  Throw the cut pieces into a bowl of water so they don’t brown.  Boil all the pieces for about three minutes, so that the pieces are heated through, but not mushy.  I added a little vinegar to the boiling water so the potato pieces would keep their color.  Drain the potatoes and hot pack into jars, then pour fresh boiling water and cover potatoes, leaving 1/2” headspace.  Pressure can quarts for 45 min and pints for 35 at 10lbs of pressure.

 

 

I still have a basket full of potatoes to put away and have no idea where I’m going to keep them where they won’t sprout.   Looks like I may be canning more soon!

Mushroom Madness

I made the mistake of sending Glenn to the grocery store by himself the other day, not realizing that mushrooms were on sale for .39 cents a package.    This is what he came home with:

 

 

He even stacked them for the picture.  But first he had to roll his eyes when I told him not to start processing them until I got a picture for the blog.

The silver lining was that all those mushrooms turned into twenty three of these with very little help from me.

 

Glenn followed the recipe all by his lonesome… and they’re actually good.  Amazing.

Warren, sorry it took so long!

 

Marinated Mushrooms

 

7 pounds small, whole, fresh white mushrooms

1/2 cup bottled lemon juice of the juice of 4 medium lemons

2 cups olive oil

2 1/2 cups white vinegar

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon canning salt

1/2 cup finely chopped onions

2 cloves garlic, quartered

25 whole black peppercorns

 

Wash the mushrooms and cut stems short.  Add lemon juice and water to cover in saucepan.  Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.  Drain well.

Mix olive oil, vinegar, herbs, and salt in a saucepan.  Add onion and heat to boiling. 

Divide peppercorns and garlic among jars.  Fill pint jars with mushrooms, add hot oil and vinegar solution to each jar, leaving 1/2” headspace.  Cap and seal.

Process in a boiling water bath canner for 20 minutes.

Canning Recipe - Applesauce with Pineapple Tomatillos

Last weekend, Anastasia had sent us away with two bags full of green apples from her tree. All week they had been sitting on the table begging me to do something with them. I had never canned applesauce and had my eye on an applesauce recipe from one of my canning books, but just didn't find the time during the week. Last night I sat down with knife and peeler and went to work.


12 pounds cored, peeled, chopped apples
6 cups pineapple tomatillo puree
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice


First thing you do is put a pot of 12 cups of water with 3/4 cup of lemon juice in front of you. As soon as you cut up each apple throw it in the pot. This reduces the browning of the apples. Once you have 12 pounds of apples cut up (I weighed before cutting, then threw in three more apples to make up for the core and skin). As you're cutting up the last apple you stop and hold still for just a minute because you think you heard something. You did! What you heard was that colander full of pineapple tomatillos calling your name. The ones you thought maybe you'd dehydrate, but were still undecided about. Hmmm... the recipe says to put a little bit of water in the bottom of the pot of apples so they don't burn when you put them on the stove. Water? Water is tasteless.



What about pineapple tomatillo puree instead?



So once the apples are all cut up, puree a bunch of pineapple tomatillos until you have about 6 cups. Drain the water and lemon juice from the apples and dump in the puree, then put on medium heat. Stir frequently so none of the apples burn. Depending on the type of apple and size of the chunks, it could take 5-20 minutes for the apple chunks to soften. When they're soft enough, pour them into food processor. Once you have them at the consistency that you like, dump them back into the pot and keep it on low to medium to keep everything hot while you jar it. It was awesome just like it was, but I added 1 cup of sugar and it went from awesome to incredible. The sugar really brought out the flavor of the tomatillos! You also need to add 4tbsp of lemon juice to help the apples keep their color and to add acidity for processing.


We got 4 1/2 quarts in this batch. Process the jars in a water bath canner for 20 minutes.


My applesauce turned out really chunky as you can see from the picture, but this is the way we like it. If you like runnier sauce you might want to add some apple juice or water. Just be sure to reheat to boiling before jarring.





Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have another "lucky" kitchen moment. OMG, this was the best applesauce I have ever had!! Glenn agreed and armed with two spoons we quickly polished off about a pint before even canning it.

Cherry Tomato and Ginger Marinade

*disclaimer: This is not a food blog. I am not a foodie, however much I wish I was. Frankly, I'm fairly clueless in the kitchen, but sometimes I just get lucky. :)


That bowl of cherry tomatoes from yesterday turned out to be four pounds. Last night I picked another four pounds. This will likely continue until frost. Bring it on, I'm ready!


What I did with those eight pounds of cherry tomatoes was make a most excellent ginger marinade. I believe the original plan for this recipe was to create a type of side dish and not a marinade, but man is it ever so good on chicken and pork!


4lbs firm ripe cherry tomatoes, pricked with a fork
3 1/2 pounds sugar (yikes!)
4 cups water
2 lemons, zest and juice
1 tbsp grated ginger (I like to do 2 tblsp of ginger. I'm just a rebel like that.)
1 tsp pickling salt


Combine the water and sugar and let boil 5 minutes until the sugar is dissolved. Add the lemon zest and juice, grated ginger, and salt. Let that simmer for 10 minutes, then add the cherry tomatoes. If you're like me and want to use this as a marinade, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. If you want something that you can use as a side dish, simmer for 30 min uncovered. This will make it thicker and you will get about 6 pints. If you simmer while covered, you'll get about 9 pints, but the sauce will be very runny (which is fine for a marinade!). Ladle into hot jars and process in water bath canner for 10 minutes.






One of my "lucky" moments in the kitchen happened this morning. I needed food. Sustenance to get me through the coming day. Energy, not empty calories. But the fridge was bare except for some eggs and soft taco shells. Woe is me, what to do, what to do?? I know, check out the Pioneer Woman! She's always got easy and basic recipes on her site. What I did find was a recipe for a breakfast burrito: bell peppers, potatoes, eggs, sausage, etc. Well, duh, I used to make breakfast burritos all the time using shrooms, sausage, eggs, onions, and pepper jack cheese. But I hadn't made one in so long that I forgot about it. Ever have that happen? You fall in love with a food or recipe, don't make it in forever, then forget you ever had it? Happens to me all the time. Maybe I'm just getting old.


There was of course no sausage to be found in the freezer. And we had used the last of the shitake mushrooms the other night. I did find some monterey jack in the fridge and once I cut off the few spots of mold it was as good as new. Really. And when the fridge is bare, look to the garden! The eggplants are coming on strong now. There were no ripe bell peppers (I refuse to eat green bell peppers), but the banana pepper plants are loaded. A ripe Brandywine tomato was calling my name, and the as yet unused Thai Basil was begging for a chance to prove itself in the kitchen. A Walla Walla onion tripped me up on my way in, so I yanked it out and brought it with me.


I got the pan ready with some EVOO (Rachel, is that you?) and minced garlic. Then tossed in the chopped onion, banana pepper, and cubed eggplant. While that was cooking I chopped up the Thai basil and half the tomato and whipped up two eggs with a little milk. I sliced up the Monterrey jack (pepper jack would have been so much tastier) and laid it down the middle of the soft taco shell. Once the veggies were tender I poured in the eggs, scrambled them up with everything, then dumped half down the middle of the shell, letting the mixture melt the cheese. Then piled the mater and basil on top, rolled everything up, made a mess when the taco shell split down the bottom, and ended up eating everything with a fork anyway. But mmmm mmmm good!

Flying Rodents

On Saturday our neighbor brought over his baler and we baled up all the lose hay from our hay mishap a couple of weeks ago. We recovered 31 bales of hay from that mess. Woohooo! He also helped us unload the stock trailer. That boy can chunk some hay bales! He tossed 88 of them up from the stock trailer into the second floor of our small barn. He was throwing them a good 12' up and hardly broke a sweat! We still have another 380 that need to be moved from the big barn into the small barn, but at least we have a borrowed electric hay conveyor that we can use once we get 400' of extension cord for it!

We lost two of the guineas over the weekend. I have no idea how, both little bodies are still in the pen. I'd think if an animal killed them, the offender would either still be in the pen or the bodies would have been eaten or at least drug out of the pen. I'm wondering if the heat got to them because there's always a few birds that don't sit in the shade or go into the coop during the hottest part of the day. Any guinea experts out there want to shed some light on this?

Yesterday I canned 15 quarts of Methodist Pickles. YUM! The cucumbers are still growing and are covered in flowers so it looks like I'll get to try some different pickle recipes this year. I wanted to share the Methodist Pickle recipe with you. This is a pickle that I grew up on and LOVE. I got the recipe from my aunt, who got it from my grandmother, and so on down the line. I have no idea how long my family has been making this pickle, but it's darned good. The measurements are odd, I prefer weighing cucumbers in pounds, not quarts. But I usually just eyeball it anyway. My 15 quarts from yesterday were two different batches. A recipe batch usually makes 7 quarts.

5 qts sliced pickles
4 medium onions

Brine:
6 cups sugar
6 cups white vinegar
3 tbls celery salt
3 tbls mustard seed
3/4 tsp turmeric
6 whole cloves - I like to use 8

Wash and slice the cucumbers and onions, then sprinkle with pickling salt and let stand for an hour. Make brine and bring to boil. Drain cukes and onions and add to brine. Bring to a boil again for 5 minutes, then pack in sterilized jars and seal in a boiling bath canner for 5 minutes.

These things are so good that Glenn can sit down with an unopened jar and a fork and have the jar emptied in under 30 minutes. We gave away many quarts of these last year and heard nothing but rave reviews from everyone.

It was way too hot in the kitchen and I was ready to sit down somewhere cool by the time the pickles were done, so I didn't clean up as I should have. The canner stayed on the stove with the rack and about 6" of water in it. I always forget to remove the rack and it ends up rusting. Last night was hot and sticky and I'm the electricity nazi. So instead of turning on the AC I just left the front door open. Besides, it was in the 50's this morning. Who needs AC?

So around 9AM when I went into the kitchen for some juice I noticed that once again, I had left the rack in the canner. I cursed myself as I was lifting the rack out, then just started cursing. Period. In a very loud shrieky voice. Totally unlike me. When I was 5, my babysitter tried to teach me how to scream. Seriously. It's not something that comes naturally to me. So when I lifted out the rack and saw something live clinging to it, all I could do was squeal out some favorite curse words. Luckily, Glenn had already gone off to work. But I'm sure he'll laugh at me later.



Yes, it's my fault for leaving the door open.



But come on... we must have some really stupid wildlife up here in WV. First the moronic groundhog choosing to live under our porch. Now this dipshit flying into a house with 5 cats. And why the canner???



I guess I should just be happy he chose the canner and not our bed.



The poor little guy was soaking wet, shivering, and half drowned. And because I am who I am, I left him on the stove to dry out. I even turned one of the burners on the other side of the stove on low to give him some heat and help him dry. I should have let the cats have him. But even though they look like winged rodents and give me a case of the creepy crawlies, they do eat a lot of bugs and are good for the garden. Let's just hope this particular dumbass doesn't breed more idiot bats.