How to make Dill Relish

Please note this recipe is from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

Gather ingredients:

• 8lbs pickling cukes
• 1/2C salt
• 2t turmeric
• 1qt water
• 1lb yellow onions
• 1/3C sugar
• 2T dill seed
• 1qt white wine vinegar

Wash cukes, drain, chop in food processor.

Place cukes in bowl (not a white bowl like I did, because turmeric stains it yellow), sprinkle on salt and turmeric. Pour water over top and let sit for 2 hours.

Curse and drive to store because you didn't listen to the advice at the beginning (gather ingredients), and you've now discovered you only have a cup of vinegar and no dill seeds. =0)

Peel and finely chop onions. Drain cukes, rinse, drain again. Combine vinegar, dill seeds, onions, cucumber mush, and sugar in large saucepot.

Notice my bee-u-tee-full glass saucepot in the pic below?! I got a whole box of 'em at a yard sale for $12!! No aluminum, no teflon, just glass, and very breakable.

Anywho back to relish, bring it to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

In the meantime prepare your jars and lids, plus make sure your water canner is close to boiling.

Ladle hot relish into hot jars, leave 1/4 inch headspace, and remove air bubbles. Process for 15 minutes.

Then you get this!!!! A very nice dill-y relish that people seem to love.

How to: Seasoned Tomato Sauce

Please note this recipe is from the Blue Ball Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

Comments and snarkiness are all me! 

Ingredients:

• 
  
  45 pounds tomatoes                                                
• 
  
  6C chopped onions
• 
  
  12 cloves garlic, minced
• 
  
  1/2C olive oil
• 
  
  2T oregano
• 
  
  6 bay leaves
• 
  
  1T black pepper
• 
  
  1 1/2T sugar
• 
  
  PATIENCE
• 
  
  1/4C salt
• 
  
  bottled lemon juice

 

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil in large saucepan.

Looks good right? Smells good too!








Now here's the bitch fun, remove core and blossom ends of 45 pounds of tomatoes then quarter them, this is a lot of work, and MESSY!

Then add the tomatoes,oregano, bay leaves, black pepper, salt, and sugar.
Simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Remove bay leaves and puree using a food processor. Now if you're lucky like me, the nice hot liquid tomato juice will pour down the side of the food processor and run all over your counter and floor before you notice. Be prepared for a mess!


Then strain puree to remove seeds and peels. I used a fine mesh strainer, which did not work well at all. I also tried cheesecloth, that sucked too, then I tried my spaghetti colander which worked ok but let in lots of seeds and peels. At this point I did not care, so I  proceeded with the strainer and seeds and peels.....

Cook the pulp, uncovered, on med-high heat until sauce thickens. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Reduce volume by half (this part took about 6 hours).

In the meantime, clean up your kitchen (this could take awhile), and prepare your canning jars.

Place 2T lemon juice into each quart jar. Funnel sauce into jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Adjust caps. Process quarts for 40 minutes in boiling-water canner.

And then proceed to promise yourself that you'll never make sauce again when you realize all that work and mess made 9 jars of sauce!!

Although, it does taste pretty good....

How To: No-Can half sour refrigerator pickles

Anyone who has lived with me knows I LOOOOVE pickles, I mean love them, like could eat a whole jar of pickles, like my fridge is rarely out of pickles. My first memory of awesome pickles, is eating some of Gramma's home made canned pickles. I've been chasing that taste ever since, but canning pickles is a pain, so I like to make these No-Can half sour refrigerator pickles. They are so easy and taste nearly as good.

Now the key, as I see it, to good pickles, is good pickling cucumbers. They should be pretty uniformly green and ripe, not over ripe(bloated and yellowish with few warts is over ripe), firm, and mostly free of defects.

First gather your ingredients.

• 
  
  Large Jar (I use an old gallon pickle jar)-which has been sterilized (you can run it through the dishwasher, OR you can immerse it in boiling water for 15 minutes)
• 
  
  Pickling cucumbers roughly 3-4 pounds, but it's hard to say because I eat alot of the cukes on the way home....
• 
  
  1 grape leaf (if you can't find one it's ok, but it does help keep them crunchy. I found mine growing wild at the beach in RI. If you pick 'em wild make sure you are sure about what you're picking!)
• 
  
  1 piece rye bread with seeds
• 
  
  1 onion
• 
  
  5-6 cloves garlic peeled
• 
  
  dill (some use heads, I prefer sprigs, but whatever you have works)
• 
  
  1/4C canning salt
• 
  
  1C white vinegar
• 
  
  2 qts. water

Heat the water, vinegar, and salt until the salt is dissolved. Let the liquid cool. 

In the meantime wash all the ingredients.

Peel and quarter the onions.

Place the onions, grape leaf (well washed), garlic cloves, and a handful of dill sprigs on the bottom of the jar.

Then wash and quarter your cucumbers, and pack them straight up and down in the jar.

Whatever doesn't fit, I eat!!!

On top of the pickles add more sprigs of dill and the piece of rye bread.

Then pour the now cooled liquid over the pickles. Go slowly.

\

Put the lid on and set the pickles aside, out of direct sunlight, for 2 days and then refrigerate.

At that time I remove the rye bread.

Then eat, they are best at 1 week, but who can wait that long?! They won't keep forever, but these don't last long around here.

How to preserve butter and sugar corn:

We love butter and sugar corn. It's just about the best part of late New England summers. It's tasty and messy and I could eat it every day.

......and if you freeze it you can eat it in the winter too!

So I bought 3 dozen ears of corn, husked, and rinsed them all. Then I cut off any funky ends.

Immersed them in boiling water for 3 minutes. (this is called blanching I'm told) =0P

And once the timer went off I quickly put them into a big bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

Then I packed them all tightly into large freezer bags. About 8 ears to a bag. The next step is important. I close the bag up except for a teeny slit and insert a straw, then I suck out all the air, quickly remove the straw and completely seal the bag.

The top bag has had the air sucked out, the others haven't and you can see the difference. This helps eliminate freezer burn and the corn lasts longer.

How to make and can SALSA

Here's the recipe! Go to it! Notice all the crossing out and additions? That just makes the recipe better!!!=0) Note I use TWO jalapenos not SIX, because Aaron can't take the spiciness. I also leave out the chilies, the red pepper flakes, and add a little lime juice. Instead of pureeing the chiles I puree the jalapenos, that way you don't get any really HOT bites. Now if you have never canned before, well go read this first. It has a little intro on canning.

I love clinatro!! I hate peeling seeding and dicing tomatoes, so Aaron did it.

Here's everything all mixed and in the pan. I tasted it a few times and it was like the best pico de gallo EVER!!

And here it is..... a while later we have our finished product. Seven teeny jars of salsa, but it's worth it!

How to make rose hip oil

Well it's a little early for  harvesting rose hips, usually they are best (especially for tea) right after the first frost. However, we've spent quite a few August weekends down in Rhode Island at a beautiful beach in the Narragansett Bay. They have wonderful beach roses (rosa rugosa), and I felt the urge to make some rose hip oil.  It's great for scars and moisturizing super dry skin.

If you want to make your own, here's the recipe. Make small batches because this stuff does have a shelf life.
First pick your rose hips, then wash them thoroughly.

Then cut off both ends and place rose hips into a jar, then pour in your carrier oil. In this case I chose sweet almond oil for it's pleasant mild aroma and lightness. You could use safflower oil, grapeseed oil or any other light oil. I wouldn't recommend using olive oil.

Let sit in a warm darkish place for about 2 days. You can cover it with a towel to keep it dark if you need to.

After 2 days put the oil and hips into your crockpot and let simmer on low, uncovered for about 10-12 hours.

 When your oil is done strain out the rose hips. Squeeze them well to get the oil out. (be careful they are likely HOT!!!)

Then pour the strained oil back into the original jar or whatever container you like. Glass is best, and the darker the better, but you can always use what you have. Date and label and keep in a dark cool place. It will last for about 6-8 months before it goes stagnant.

Portabella Burgers

Tonight we had Portabella mushroom burgers. They are so good and so easy!  They have lots of niacin, potassium, and selenium, and only about 30 calories per mushroom. Here's my recipe so you can have some too. I swear even Aaron says they taste like burgers.

Ingredients:
4 Portabella mushrooms
1/2 onion minced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 T. canola oil
1/4c. balsamic vinegar

Wash and de-stem mushrooms

Mince onions and garlic

(note: I am a sucky mincer...it's ok. also, I like garlic ALOT, maybe you might want to use just one clove)

Mix water, oil, & vinegar thoroughly and then add onion and garlic.

Flip Mushrooms and pour mixture into gills. Then grill the mushrooms cap side down, don't flip them over.

Put on bun, add what you want, and eat like a burger! If you're lucky you'll find some good local corn. (from Petruzzi's in East Brookfield, in our case)

five finger shoes OR hideous frog feet shoes

Today Aaron and I drove out to Evans on the Common in Townsend, MA and bought our very own Vibram Five Finger Shoes . The lady at Evans was super nice and helpful with picking the right shoes and the right size. They are not sized like regular shoes so it's important to try them on before you buy them.

Aaron got the nice neutral black KSO,while I got the slate colored Sprint

If you like to be barefoot, but worry about sharp objects and hygiene check these out.

I know, they look kinda goofy, but who cares?

These shoes are supposedly just like being barefoot, but with some protection. Basically the idea is, our feet were made to be barefoot, and all of those pointy heeled shoes force our feet to be what they aren't. Which in turn can cause back, knee, and foot problems. I always think of it in terms of back braces. If you wear a back brace, the brace supports you and your muscles do less work and atrophy. The same thing happens in your feet. The shoes provide all the support and your muscles get weak.

We plan on slowly working our way into wearing these alot of the time, and Aaron wants to run in them. The Plan: take your time, do it slow, listen to your body.

I'll update when we've been wearing them for a bit, and let you know how it's going.

FYI this was all Aaron's idea..... I think he's coming to the crunchy side. =0)

Updated here and here

 at some point about 2 months after buying them, the seam on my big toe gave out. It was a very simple fix with a needle and thread. Aarons however are going strong with no signs of wear.

Picking berries....

Still no word on The House.... still waiting....

So no Thankful Anyway Thursday post, I don't even want to think about the stresses right now..

When we bought this house there were some wild black raspberries on the side of our shed, and we decided to keep them and nurture them a little bit. So we trimmed them and fed them with a little organic fertilizer.

They are coming into season and boy am I glad we kept these guys!! This is their best season out of the last 3 seasons we've had them!! 

There were a ton of ripe berries, so I spent some time picking berries while Roxie hung out in the yard. I left some on the top for the birds, and some on the bottom for the rodents. I of course forgot a bowl, so I used my shirt...

They ended up in a  fruit salad, along with mango, orange, watermelon, grapes, and blueberries.. YUM

How to make horehound drops

Today I finished up making my horehound drops. It doesn't take two days, it just took me 2 days. =0)

 List of Ingredients

■2 cups of fresh horehound (include leaves, stems, and flowers) or 1 cup dried horehound
■2 1/2 cups water
■1/2 cup corn syrup
■3 c brown sugar
■1 teaspoon of butter
■1 teaspoon of lemon juice
■1 teaspoon of cream of tartar

First I harvested the last of my organic horehound. A bunch that would make about 2 cups when cut up.

Then I washed the horehound, removing any dead or yellow leaves, and cut it up with scissors. Next I got all of my ingredients together: Butter, corn syrup, cream of tartar, water, lemon juice, and brown sugar.

I poured the water on the cut up horehound, brought it to a boil and simmered for 10 minutes. Then I strained it a few times through a sieve covered with cheesecloth; into a medium stockpot.

Then I added the brown sugar, corn syrup, and cream of tartar. I brought it to a boil, and stirred frequently. I also attached the candy thermometer. When the mixture reached 240 I added the butter. Also at that point I pretty much stopped stirring except for a couple stirs here and there to make sure it didn't stick.

The next step is just waiting for the mix to get to 300. This took quite a bit longer than I expected. While I was waiting I buttered a pan (use alot of butter). Finally it reached 300 and I quickly added the lemon juice and poured the mix into the pan. It was HOT!

It started to cool down and I scored it a little. (that didn't really help, and next time I'll try wax paper on a cookie sheet) It was HARD to get out of that darn pan, hence the plan to use cookie sheets, or maybe even buy some molds next time.

Today I finally finished getting all the chunks of hard drops out of the pan, what a pain! I coated them with confectioner's sugar because they kept sticking to each other. That seemed to help quite a bit. Then I placed them in these jars for safe keeping.

Just an FYI, these are a little bitter.  I wouldn't call them candy, they are more medicinal cough drops, but horehound drops are very effective for soothing sore throats, asthma, coughs and help encourage mucous expulsion.