Seeing Red

Last night something amazing happened here... the a/c was turned off, temps were in the 60's - that hasn't happened since early May!  Last night I couldn't even concentrate on my book because I kept getting surprised by a wonderful cool breeze blowing through the house.  Today was more of the same.  I put off working in the garden today in favor or more "seasonable" activities like canning and going to the library.  Today was cool, in the 70's and breezy, and just felt like fall to me.  (I wasn't so happy the past 2 days, when we were cleaning up Irene's mess in the 90's!)  Fall always means putting up the last of the summer garden and activities like reading a book outside or a visit to the library.  After that library visit with the kids, I tackled the red stuff!

Left:  Poblanos, Right: Bell Peppers

Since I already have oodles of Poblanos hung to dry into Ancho Peppers...

I thought I'd try roasting and canning them to use as Stuffed Poblanos/Chiles Rellenos this winter.

Roasted, peeled, seeded and left whole for stuffing - pressure canned at 10 lbs of pressure for 35 minutes. 

The very, very last of the large tomatoes and beans.  These were harvested the day before Irene stormed through, and sadly the plants were damaged to the point of being ripped out.  All that's left out there are 2 little Juliet hybrid plants that I will use for drying.

 

One thing is definitely done for the year, no more tomato canning!  The kids go back to school next week, so I will have more uninterrupted time to continue the fall chores outside, but for today it felt nice to just do whatever felt like fall to me :)

More kitchen...

Another incredible 84º day out there, dry and breezy, and I'm missing it again!  BUT... this is the reason I have a garden, right?  More canning today!  Since it took a week to amass the tomatoes I needed this time to warrant canning, it's obvious that the season is winding down out there.   Yet another sign that summer is ending...

Butternut Squash!

I'm starting to get a lot of grape tomatoes off the plants I put in after the Amish Paste succumbed to blight, I'm thinking I'll dry these since they are wonderful added to hummus during the winter.  The second planting of beans are starting to produce now.  At least those and the bell peppers above are easy to take care of:

Although if I'm ever arrested for a crime, it will probably involve the heist of a semi-truck carrying FoodSaver bags, they sure are expensive.  I start to get nervous when the roll starts emptying!

The week's batch of Brandywines were turned into crushed tomatoes with basil.  I also decided to strain and pressure can the juice separately as well today.  It can't hurt to have some of that on hand to add to stews or chili this winter, although I'm sure hubby will have a different idea for that - probably involving added jalapenos, a celery stick and a little something extra :)

Just for fun and information - 

I have some ornamental gourds growing on the fence, and I noticed one that had little holes drilled all over it.  Hmmm "what now?" I ask myself.  I'm not too torn up about this since they aren't for eating anyways, but I couldn't resist finding out what new-to-my-garden pest have I encountered?

I already had a bowl of water/bleach mixture to dip my squash in before storing, so I decided to be a little demented and throw the little gourd in just to see who's living in there...

See it?  Little green worm on the left side being flooded out of his comfy home!  I put it on the counter to dry off, thinking the bleach surely would have killed him when I came back.  Nope, 10 minutes later he was inching across the counter towards safety.  Needless to say, he went down the drain a second later, but what the heck worm lives through a bleach bath and keeps on truckin'?... a Pickleworm!  Apparently they prefer the squash family and are easily distinguished by those little drillbit looking holes bored into the fruit.  So now we have that to look forward to, since I assume it won't be happy with inedible ornamental gourds and will surely move on to become my nemesis in some other fruit next year.  If you want to read more about the Pickleworm, click here, and if you prefer to remain in the dark about new pests, I can't blame you!  Anytime we start googling things like "un-killable green worm drilling holes in gourds", do we really expect good news?!

What a relaxing Sewing Day!

Yeah, right!

Yesterday morning started off hot, and not just the weather!

Before you say it - I only planted THREE jalapeno plants this year, honest!  Thank you all for reminding me not to go overboard yet again :)

First I finished up the last of the big tomato days with a batch of stewed tomatoes.  This will be the end of the tomato canning for awhile, as it is too hot now for the plants to set fruit very well.

One thing led to another and...

This evolution took 2 days instead of the one I had hoped for, but I have lots of goodies to squirrel away.  I did it all the past 2 days, pressure canning, steam canning as well as refrigerator pickling and oil marinating.  For those that don't know, the pressure canner can be used as a steam canner also, a real multi - purpose piece of equipment.

Ever been so busy preparing real, homegrown, healthy food that you are too busy to "cook dinner"?  I find that's a frequent problem here.  I'm up to my neck in fresh food yet my kid gets this for dinner when I'm faced with the "I'm hungry, when's dinner?" question!

  

By this afternoon, I had squirreled away 2.5 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 2.5 pints salsa, 2 pints of mixed veggie pickles, 3 pints of pickled pepperoncini, 9 little 4 oz jars of pickled jalapenos, 2.5 pints of marinated roasted sweet peppers, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Because I'm always interested in what goes into other people's jars, I thought you might be interested in mine - or not :)  (the ingredients in my jars such as herbs and spices always change according to what I have though) 

Pickled Jalapenos

These are just a plain water/vinegar liquid, as the spice in there is quite enough!  This time I sliced them into rings since it's easier than scorching and peeling.  Sometimes it's just got to be easy.

Stewed Tomatoes

This batch was a mixture of Brandywine and Hillbilly heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano & garlic.  I actually prefer to stew most of my tomatoes instead of saucing them, since we only rarely eat spaghetti type pasta sauce, but I can always find somewhere to throw in stewed tomatoes - chili, baked chicken, stews, etc.  If I do want sauce I can run a stick blender through it when I'm preparing a recipe, but you can't go backwards :)  Plus, it's easier and faster!

 Pickled Pepperoncini

In the interest of not canning next week when we are having my sister and brother in law visiting, I picked the pepperoncini while still green and tried to empty the plants as much as possible.  These were simple refrigerator pickles.  I make slits in the pepperoncini, soak overnight in the fridge in a vinegar solution with a lid as a weight so the raw peppers will "give up their air" a bit so they won't float in the jar when I pickle them the next day.  When I packed them, I added a vinegar solution, some pepper flakes and mustard seed.

Mixed Vegetable Refrigerator Pickles

Although I mixed veggies since my cukes are not producing very much this year, I also prefer to always have a few other things in there for flavor and "prettiness" as well.  These are a mixture of Japanese Climbing and Parisian Pickling Cucumbers, a few miniature bell peppers, and a few Fish Hot peppers, dill, garlic, mustard seed and red pepper flakes in a vinegar solution with grape leaves on the jar bottoms.  These keep a good long while in the fridge, so it's what I usually do with cukes, as I like them crisp.  I also like hot spicy pickles, so while the variety of peppers added may change the flavor a bit, there will always be hot peppers in my pickles!

Marinated Roasted Sweet Peppers

You can pressure can these, but they tend to get overcooked and mushy, so I did a refrigerator version again.  You can pack them in straight oil, but they will only keep 3-4 days that way, if you pack them in a vinegar/oil mix they will keep several weeks.  This day I roasted some stray Jimmy Nardello Frying peppers, Quadrato diAsti red/green bells and Sigaretta di bergamo sweet red peppers, peeled, then packed into jars with garlic cloves & oregano then filled with a vinegar/olive oil mixture.

Below is what they look like in the oil mixture - these are great for throwing on top most anything, great in pasta, on bratwurst or on sliced crusty bread dipped in some of the flavored oil.

After the past month, I found myself almost out of jars!  Bad for the bank account, but good for the pantry.  After pretty much ignoring my children for the past 2 days that I disappeared into the kitchen, I came out and announced that I was taking them for a lovely drive out in the 105 degree heat for...

Check out the size of that jar!  I've been wanting a few of those half-gallon jars for awhile :)

Hey, at least I stopped and bought them an ice cream on the way home!

After dinner tonight, I cleaned up all of my messes and informed the kids that I wanted to play a game with them.  After 48 hours of being left to their own devices, I think they were shocked!  :)

Problem is, they are both setting up a different game!  I'll be busy for awhile.

and oh, yeah, I baked 2 pretty crappy loaves of bread - I took 2 weeks off of my bread baking adventure, and it shows :(

Tomatoes and Dunk Tanks!

That pretty much sums up my day.

I started the day with saucing 27 lbs of tomatoes.  They have been collecting on the counter for 2-3 days, and were in danger of rolling off to the floor soon.  Hard to believe that just a week ago I was anxiously awaiting my 2011 harvest total to break the 50 lb mark, and as of today I'm over 98 lbs!  Sure, I had lots of lettuce and peas, but the pounds don't really start stacking up until the tomatoes start coming in for me, since normally I don't grow any heavy squashes.  Hopefully this year that will be different since I am trying zucchini and pumpkins.

A tip for anyone looking for a BIG bowl for cheap - I purchased a new oil pan for just a couple dollars last year and it works fantastic for this stuff.  It makes a great garbage heap for processing, too.

Today was another picnic day for hubby's squadron.  He was nice enough to take the kids with him while he set up over at the park, so I was able to prep all the tomatoes and get the sauce going in the crock pot and clean up without kids underfoot.  Just as I was finishing cleaning up I got a text message from him that he was going to put Loch in the dunk tank over there.  ???  That was my cue as a mom to get my butt over there a.s.a.p.!

As I walked across the grass towards them, I could hear the kids shrieking with glee... this is what I walked in on... (sorry for excessive video, but grandma likes it!)

Finnegan

Lochlann

more Finn

I can't even begin to describe how hot and muggy it is here.  There was intermittent storms the whole time we were there, the whole past week actually.  We've been getting anywhere from 1-2 inches a day for a week, and the mosquitoes are getting nasty!

Hubby actually took this photo of Loch before I got there, I love it!

When it was time to leave, hubby had to stay and tear down the event in the pouring rain!

We are back at home, it's still in the 90's at 7:30 as I write this, and I am starting to stress working in the garden.  It's been neglected due to the daily thunder, lightning and downpours and things are getting really out of hand out there.  This morning the heat index was 92 at 7 am already due to the humidity, so it doesn't even work to get up early anymore.  I think there will be a break in the rain on Sunday, so I'm going to have to psych myself up to get at least 2 hours of work done out there on Sunday.

The sauce has just finished up in the pressure cooker, and I'm excited to report that this is my first foray into pressure cooking with meat!

Heirloom Tomato Sauce with Peppers, Onions, Garlic, Basil, Oregano, and Italian Sausage!

Spending yet another happenin' Friday night with my canner :)

What's YOUR Mess?

With daily downpours, thunderstorms and high winds taking their toll on the tomatoes, I'm wasting no time in putting up all I can while I can, I have no idea how long they will keep going out there, but I fear I won't be canning "excess" tomatoes in September like usual.  The cucumbers were staggered plantings, so I'm only getting a handful at a time, perfect for refrigerator pickles.  Refrigerator pickles last a year, so there is no need can those here.  I would if I had a huge amount to worry about, but since nutritionally they are just fluff LOL, I save the pantry space for more healthful veggies.  I figure if the power goes out and the fridge goes down, well, it was just pickles in there :)

Japanese Climbing Cucumber

Dilly Jar O'Fun - this jar has a few beans and peppers as well as Japanese Climbing Cukes and Parisian Pickling Cucumbers, fresh dill, peppercorn, garlic and fresh grape leaves on the bottom for crispness.  You never know what you might grab when you stick your hand in the jar!

I've been keeping a "largest Brandywine tracker" on my sidebar this year, and yesterday's took the prize, this one is bigger by several ounces than the "bigger than my head" photo of a few weeks ago - this one came in at 1.89 lbs!  

You know, cooking and canning all day is really boring for children.  I'm noticing that the noise and naughtiness levels rise in accordance with how long and involved my particular tasks are. I couldn't think straight at all with the constant clomping that was going on all day yesterday... Finnegan decided he would wear daddy's "Heelys" all day long, ugh!  School can start any time now...

That brings me to my tomato sauce - ever get sick of looking at nice luscious ripe tomatoes and pretty things like this in gardener's posts?  (Thomas, do you hear me?!) You are thinking, wow!  She's so "together"... come ON, we all know it's not always as it seems in photos...

I have a challenge for you -  Post what's not in the photo!  Yep, I want to see your garbage bowls, arms covered in pulp, goggles and gloves when peeling those hot peppers, juice spattered on the dog, walls, sink full of unwashed dishes, you know the drill!  (Remember the refrigerator challenge from last year?)

Here's my "rest of the story" for yesterday :)

So what are you currently putting up?  What's your mess? 

No helmet required!

Today was the day to test drive the new All-American pressure canner!  Ridiculous what excites some of us, isn't it?

Salsa Time!

Don't ever ask me for a recipe for salsa, since I don't use one, it just depends on what I have!  This brings me to one of the best reasons to pressure can - you can use those "homemade style" recipes since pressure canning will ensure the salsa is safe.  With steam canning you have to use certain amounts of tomatoes, not too many peppers in ratio to them, and have to add lots of acidity.  With pressure canning, you would just use the processing time equal to the most time required for the lowest acid ingredient, such as peppers.

I apologize in advance for the fact that my video doesn't show the entire process.  Being a beginner with pressure canning, I was worried about reading manuals, timing, and making sure I was doing everything "right".  Maybe I can do a better "how-to" video some day when I try meats, since by then I won't be stressing every step.  These are more of a "first impression" collection of clips :), basically a "what to expect" for newbies to pressure canning.

Note, I did not wear a helmet :) - actually there is no reason to be scared using this thing, there are several safety stops in function on this canner, and the most likely bad thing to happen would not be an explosion, but rather steam burns from not paying attention or not waiting long enough for the canner to depressurize before opening when you are finished.

A note for anyone considering buying one of these and unsure of what size to buy- 

Check out the photo below, and note how much room there still is...

For those of you who frequently buy veggies or fruits in bulk, like by the bushel or crate and process them all on the same day, you will need the larger size.  For most people with a normal size garden, I think you would be fine with the 915.  The 915 is what you see above, and there are 6 pints of salsa in there with room for several more.  You can also stack pints.  It will hold 7 quart jars for the larger loads like tomato sauce.  Of special note is that this is exactly 1/2" wider than the large burner on my cooktop - if you have a ceramic glass, coil or any other regular electric style stove, you won't be able to safely use the larger size, this is the one you want.  If you need the larger size you will have to have a gas range or be doing it outside on a propane burner.  For people that process throughout the season as I do, one batch of pickles one week, a batch of sauce as tomatoes pile up, etc this 915 will do the job wonderfully!  I was scared that I ordered too small a unit until I actually used it, I found if I would have ordered the larger I would have had to return it, as it would have been too big for my glass cooktop.  For those of you who can 50 quarts of peaches when they come in season, however - you may need the biggie!

All in all - this thing is a breeze!  Easy to read gauges, awesome manual, heats up in just minutes as there is only a few inches of water to deal with, the lid security is amazing, made in the USA, and I saved the best part for last...

No more "sterilizing" jars!  That's right - you just wash your jars normally and set them someplace clean to fill, but you don't have to heat up a huge pot of water to boil the jars since the long hot pressure will safely sterilize your jars while canning!  You will still want to do your lids, however, since those sealing strips need to be softened.

The rest of the post!

Yes, the happy ending to the day!  I did get some birthday presents after all, and exactly what a gal like me wants most!

If this thing is half as Bad A$$ as it looks and feels, I'm going to be a very happy girl!  

I'm now the proud owner of an All-American canner, built right here is the USA, in Manitowoc, WI.  This thing is built for generations to come, it's simply unbelievable unless you are already familiar with them.  I researched the heck out of it but it still didn't prepare me for the quality and heft of it.  A really nice manual & canning guide came with it.  I purchased it from Amazon at the best price I could find at $179.99.  I can't wait to use it, I feel like canning the world, LOL

The other gift was from my hubby!  I have been using a PDF version of this on my computer since my printer is dead, but now I have a real hard copy to flop down on the couch with and mark up to my heart's content!

But why does hubby have to spill random coffee or hydraulic fluid on it before it even gets to me?!

For those of you that might wonder, no, we aren't LDS, but some of you may be familiar with their ideas on preparedness.  They advocate preparing a year's worth of stores, almost require it even of their members, and have lots of good material on the subject, as well as a few websites out there devoted to it.  I guess we could call ourselves "cultural Mormons" in that we value family, preparedness and a few other of their ideas.  Their doctrine states that although they should not drink alcohol, provisions are made for alcoholic drinks made at home, ha!  So I guess we are doing that :)  It actually stems from the fact that they were persecuted and sources of alcohol and other food items could not be trusted as safe, so they highly recommend home gardens and canning as well.  Too bad about their views on gays and gay rights, otherwise they might be able to convert me :)  I better watch it, they probably have people trolling the blogs and they'll be over here tomorrow morning.  That's okay, I'll listen intently and then turn the tables on them, they'll be my interns by noon at the latest.

Gosh, I sure am having a ranting kind of day, aren't I?  But check out the items covered in the manual, pretty neat stuff.  There's also tons of checklists, self tests on supplies and other things not always thought of, like ways to store water, fuel and cash.

Do I feel bad about hubby using his work printer to get this for me?  Nope!  I figure if he has to work 80 hours a week and be gone for half of the year supporting a war for a government that occasionally threatens to pull the paycheck out from under us, well, a little "preparedness guide" is just what military families need!  Am I a little weird for liking these kinds of gifts?!