The Garden Died Today

The 2009 gardening season is officially over for me.

Sad.

We had a hard, solid frost last night.

Everything is D-E-A-D.

But, it's Ok.

Don't cry for me gardening people!

I'm ready for a rest.

And there is always the gardener's mantra: "Next year, it WILL be BETTER!"

I still have to clean everything up, dig my sweet potatoes, plant garlic, ect., ect.

You get the idea.

It never ends!

Pear Chutney

My mother and I love Indian food.

It probably has something to do with the fact that my great-great grandmother was (supposedly) from India.

She married my Scottish great-great grandfather and emigrated to New Zealand.

However, I have seen pictures of her and she looks, ummm..... very British.

That's Ok.

We still love Indian food.

It's the complexity of flavors that I love.

The layering of sweet, sour, salt and probably some of that umami (or whatever).

The buttery feeling of the sauce and the spices, oh the spices!!

Yum!

Ok, so here is a recipe for Pear Chutney.

My mother and I had a chutney taste off last week.

She won with her tomato based chutney, but I still like mine.

Her flavors were just more mature and melded better.

Some day, I too will make perfect chutney!

Pear Chutney

1 cup chopped onion, 2 dried chilies, 2 Tbs candied ginger chopped.

Sauteed in 2 Tbs olive oil for about 5 min. until onion is golden/translucent.

1 cup finely chopped green chile - about 2 or 3 chilies

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup fruit juice

1 clove garlic minced

2 tsp salt

4 Tbs mustard seeds

1/2 tsp curry powder
Saute for a few minutes.

Add 5 cups vinegar and 4 quarts chopped pears - about 20 med. peeled/cored pears.

Simmer until thick.

This can take up to 3 hours,

so be prepared.

Thick pear chutney.

Ladle hot chutney into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.

Remove air bubbles.

Adjust 2 piece caps.

Process 10 mins. in a boiling water canner.

Yummy!

Good with a sharp white cheese on

toasted bread.

Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup

For a period of time, when I was a toddler, I would only eat Progresso Minestrone soup.

My mom would feed it to me and tell me the name of each bean and vegetable on the spoon.

It's still a family joke every time we eat minestrone soup.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, Progresso Soup changed their soup recipe.

The broth is way too thick and garlicky.

It's NOT the same soup, so now my souping mission is to find the perfect minestrone soup.

~

This is my latest effort.

First I started with several pounds of red tomatoes from my garden.

I cored them and then blended them up in the food processor, skin, seeds and all.

Then I cooked them down for about 10 hours until they were thick and saucy.

I used 6 cups of this tomato broth.

The rest of the tomato broth was used in Chocolate Black Beans.


Then saute 2 cups chopped onions (about 2 med)
in 2 Tbs of olive oil, until the onion is soft and slightly golden.
Turn off heat, to prevent the garlic from becoming bitter, and add 3 finely minced garlic cloves.



Roughly chopped 2 cups greens beans
and 3 cups roughly chopped carrots.

Add 2 cups chopped swiss chard or other green (kale, beet greens or cabbage) to the onions and garlic in the pan.

Plus 1 cup chopped celery.

1 can of butter beans.

Add 2 cups roughly chopped summer squash.

To the vegetables add 6 cups tomato broth.

You will need to add more broth to make it soupy.

This is what I do, but feel free to use canned broth -

I take 8 cups of water, boil it and add 1 or 2 bouillon cubes or 1 Tbs. Better Than Bouillon

Then I add the broth to the soup.

Now to season and can:

To season add (to taste) salt, pepper, fresh or dry basil, oregano, thyme, savory and a bay leaf.

Simmer for 10 to 15 mins.

Add more broth if needed.

Ladle hot soup into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace.

Remove air bubbles.

Adjust 2 piece caps.

Process pints 55 mins and

quarts 1 hour and 25 mins, at 10 pounds pressure in a steam-pressure canner.

September Giveaway Winner(s)

I drew number six for the September giveaway and that was Anonymous!

However, since there were only 7 people that entered the giveaway.....

I've decided to give everyone that entered a prize!

Send me your address catalinagrey@hotmail.com and I will, as my grandma says, "Pop it in the Post."

So, that is aromatic, Gail, Jennifer, Lana, Callista and Texas Boss Lady.

Dried Lemon Peel

This should be titled: How To Ruin Your Fingers

Who knew that peeling lemons

could be so painful?

I bought a bag of organic lemons and

oranges last week and, as anyone who buys organic knows,

they go bad very quickly.

So, I had to find recipes to use them up.

First I peeled the lemons and placed the peel on

a plastic wrap covered dehydrator sheet.

Then I made a salt/sugar syrup and canned the peeled lemons

with cinnamon and cloves.

Lemon peel after 8 hours in the dehydrator.

Nice crisp lemon peel.

Quickie Giveaway - September

This is a quickie giveaway!

You have until Midnight

on Sept. 30th to leave a comment

and be entered to win.

~

What's the prize?

First - a note pad with a chicken painting by a local artist.

And second - 2 - 1/4 pints of my very own canning.

1 of White Tomato Jelly

1 of Pure Gold Marmalade - my own recipe

a combination of peaches, mango, passion fruit and oranges.

~

Enter now!

Dried Yellow Tomatoes

This is a picture of 8 pounds of tomatoes.

Place tomatoes on a baking sheet and

roast at 325 degrees until softened, about 40 min.

Place roasted tomatoes on

a plastic wrap covered dehydrator sheet.

Dry tomatoes for 12 - 14 hours,
until tomatoes are crisp,
but still bendable.

8 pounds of tomatoes.

And again

8 pounds of tomatoes

in 1 quart Ziploc bag.

In a Hurry Pancakes

I was called into work yesterday.

Made $300 dollars in an hour, BUT it totally messed up my day!

Then when I went home, I had to get ready for my regular shift....

I visited my girls (for exactly 3 minutes + the 20 min. drive to get there),

went home, dropped Lavender's newly laid egg on the tile kitchen floor (!!!),

and then dropped 1/2 cup of sugar on the floor.

~

If I had dropped a little flour and milk on the floor

I would have had the makings of pancakes.

So here is a recipe for

~

In A Hurry Pancakes

1 cup flour

2 Tablespoons baking powder

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs or 3 bantam eggs

(or use as many eggs as you want

I've added as many as 6-

If you've got 'em use 'em)

1 cup milk

2 Tablespoons veg. oil

Combine ingredients, beat until smooth.

Bake on a hot griddle.

~

These are very light and fluffy.

I like to eat them with jam or honey.

If you have leftover pancakes -

Spread butter thinly on the top of each pancake,

stack pancakes on top of each other,

wrap in tinfoil or plastic wrap,

store in the refrigerator.

To re-heat:

Unwrap pancakes, place on a plate

and microwave for 30-60 seconds.

The picture is of 3 I re-warmed for breakfast.

Italian Plum Conserve

Italian plums are delicious, but they are only in season for a short period of time.

So go buy some right now!

Or use your own plums.

My 2 (yes, 2 - lazy trees!) plum trees produced a total of 4 ripe plums.

So........I had to buy a few plums.

Take 2 pounds/ 5 cups pitted plums.

Chop them if you want to, but I left mine in halves.

They looked too beautiful to chop up.

Add 1 whole orange and 1 whole lemon, ground up finely in a food processor.

3 cups sugar.

1 cup raisins or dried currants.

Combine all ingredients in a large saucepot.

Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Optional: Soak your raisins/currants in 1/2 cup rum or juice.

I used a combination of rum and raspberry/guava juice (one of my mistake jellies)

Cook rapidly almost to the gelling point, about 15 minutes.

As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.

Ladle hot conserve into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.

Remove air bubbles.

Adjust two-piece caps.

Process 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Roasted Golden Beets

Yum!

One of the best flavors of Fall.

I'm not a big fan of red beets, simply because I

don't favor the pink teeth and urine look.

But golden beets are amazing!

Their seeds don't germinate very well, so they are

a little tricky to grow, however they are

well worth the effort.

Sliced, and roasted in a covered dish with 1 cup of water at 350 degrees.



Once cooked, the beet's skins slip off easily.
I eat them without any accoutrement,
but they are delicious with a little butter and salt.

Cast Your Vote

I bought 14lbs of pears today.

However, I can't decide how to preserve them, there are too many options!

Help me decide!

Cast your vote in the poll to the right.

I only have a few days until they will be too ripe, so vote today!

Friday's Harvest & De Nile

More Veggies!

I'm loving this endless summer.

The temp. is 80-85F during the day

and 50F at night.

It's better weather than we had in the actual summer.

I know it will all have to end some time soon, but

until then I can live in denial.

For example:

On Tuesday I thought,

"It's so weird - the trees are all losing their leaves.

What's up with that?"

Oh, duh!

It's called Fall.

NO! NO!

Summer will last FOREVER!

*sigh*

I like De Nile.

Cucumbers.

I gave these to my mom.

She's making Virgina Chunks, a sweet pickle.

They're Ok, but I'll more of a dill person.

More tomatoes.

I'm running out of space and recipes.

Nice problem to have.

Peppers.

Finally.

The little one on the left is the

best pepper I have ever eaten.
They are called Zavory or Yummy,

but I can't remember which is which.

The little pepper has a hot bite to it

and then it is tropical sweet with

overtones of mango and pineapple.

So good!

Onions and carrots.

I need to plant more onions next year.

These are Copra onions.

I grew them last year and

they are a looooooong keeping onion.

I gave some to my parents and my mom used up the

last one in July.

It was as fresh as when I pulled them last fall.

Tomatoes again.

That biggie in the left corner is a

Striped German.

It weighs 2 1/2 lbs!