Harvest Day

August is definitely when the garden starts earning its keep. It's just a shame that August is also when I start to flag.

Pictured here is ONE DAY'S harvest from the pepper plants. One day.

Did I maybe plant too many peppers? Nah. I'll think of something.

Red bowl: Padron peppers, a Spanish variety used in tapas. We eat these a LOT. They're also topped and de-seeded and vacuum sealed in the bags, because they cook up well after being frozen. Win/win.

The big peppers in the front are an Italian sweet pepper called Carmen. Almost large enough to stuff. But we visited NJ this past weekend to talk to Mario's mom at the nursing home window, and stopped at an Italian sausage shop in town, so sausage and peppers is on the menu.

The red peppers are Padrons that got away from me. They'll be chopped and mixed in the jalapenos, behind them, for another big batch of candied peppers.

You don't even want to see the tomatoes. Trust me. It's going to look like a bloodbath in my kitchen when I get started on them.

Hot time in the kitchen

It makes sense that vegetables grow best in hot weather, but that also means canning and preserving take place in hot weather.

Yesterday I made a small batch of cowboy candy - candied jalapenos - one of our favorite snacks.

All the peppers have been coming in well, but the jalapenos arrived all at one time, and to add to the pile I picked up two bags at the Aldi so I could make a batch worth heating up the kitchen.

Candied jalapenos are a wonderful invention. Hot enough to still be classed as peppers, but with a tangy syrup that I use on fish, meat, and even over vanilla ice cream.

Here's the recipe for anyone who wants to give it a shot:

2 lbs. fresh jalapenos
2/3 cup cider vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Chop jalapenos, discarding some ribs/seeds if you don't want extra burn. Mix cider, vinegar, and all spices in a pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the peppers, and simmer for 5 more minutes.

Load sterilized jars with jalapenos and then add liquid, filling the jars and leaving a 1/4" head space. These can be processed in a water bath for 15 minutes or if you're like me, and you're planning to eat them quickly, let them cool on the counter (so the lids seal) and put in the fridge. WAIT TWO WEEKS BEFORE EATING. It helps the flavors to meld.

The original recipe called for only 1 lb. peppers, but I rough chop them instead of slicing, so you can get more in the jars that way. I sometimes add fresh garlic for extra zing. Usually there's syrup left over from this. Jar it and put it in the fridge. You'll thank me.

Seeing red

Last year I didn't can any tomatoes, but then again, last year the garden wasn't knocking at the back door, or leaving tomatoes on the neighbors' porches during the night.

This year, I canned tomatoes.

Even though the other reason I put it off is the bad layout of our kitchen (to be remedied in the new year, once craft show season and book release are dealt with, and I've recovered from what part of the holidays I choose to participate in).

But I did it anyway. Instead of using my ginormous canning kettle, which can only sit on the extra-large burner next to the fridge (which doesn't like the extra large burner and makes resentful clunking noises), I borrowed a high stockpot from my neighbor and canned in smaller batches on the regular burner.

That meant I could only do 5 jars at a time, but they're done.

Since most of my tomatoes were Juliets, which is a large grape/small plum size, I didn't bother to skin skin or core them. I just cut off the stem end, cut them in half and put them in my crockpot to cook down. Once they were mushy, I hit them with the immersion blender, which conveniently clogged with the larger bits of skin, so they were retroactively skinned.  I did two full crockpots of tomatoes, then today I got them into jars.

I also made candied jalapenos for the first time, using both jalapenos and poblanos from the yard, and a few Spanish padrons which had turned red (and hotter). The syrup on those is cider vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed, mustard seed, cayenne and garlic powder. It smelled delicious.

Today's high only hit 80, so the kitchen wasn't the worst place to be, and I won't remember the heat when I crack a jar of tomatoes in February and the whole kitchen smells like summer.

A new toy

My "summer job" is ending the Friday after Labor Day, and not before time.

I figured out the other night that I have 14 events between now and Christmas, and that's assuming none get added to the schedule.  And something always gets added to the schedule.

Add to that the fact that I have enough merchandise for about 3 shows, and that the holidays (and therefore, custom order season) are almost upon us, and I'm really getting antsy to get the job over with.

But while it's still going on, and while I have this steady money coming in, I've treated the house (and occasionally  myself) to a few not-quite-luxuries, this being one of them.

Hopefully this weekend it'll get taken out of the box.  I don't have a show, and so long as the kitchen isn't 90 degrees, I think I'll pick up something at the farmers market and fire this baby up and see what it can do.  I really want to expand beyond tomatoes and pickles, and a pressure canner will allow me to can soups, low-acid vegetables, even meats.

Now I just need to work up the nerve to try it out.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

No, not Christmas.  And not back to school, for you exhausted parents out there.

It's TOMATO SEASON.

What you see there on the counter is about 30 pounds worth of plum tomato goodness, which will be rendered down into many quarts of sauce.

I tend to make my tomato sauce more liquid - partly because I'm too impatient to cook it down until really thick, and partly because I can always do that later; I like having the thinner tomato sauce on hand for soup base all winter long.  Nothing like a good hearty bowl of tomato vegetable soup in the middle of February.  When you pop the top off the jar, it's instant August.

Depending on how many jars this turns into, I may be doing the same thing again in two weeks.  There's a really good farmer's market in NJ where Mario visits his family, and I don't think you can have too many jars of tomatoes put by.  This 30 pounds cost me $18.  You can't beat that.

Wish my backyard tomatoes looked this good.  They're abundant, and coming along, but still for the most part a lovely shade of green.  The sun needs to come out and stay out.

Making the most of what I have

 

This is tomorrow's dinner.  Tomato vegetable soup.

Nothing special, right?

Well, that depends on your point of view.  I'm pretty pleased with this big pot of soup for the following reason - the ingredients, which consist of potatoes, carrots, kale, sorrel, garlic and green beans, all grown by me; onions and okra from the farmer's market; tomatoes - home grown and canned; chicken stock - made by me from a summer's worth of farmer's market bbq.  And barley, the only ingredient that came from the supermarket. 

I still want more land to grow things (and keep critters on), but when I look at this relatively unspectacular pot of soup, I realize how much I've done with the small space that I have right now.

And that's the important thing about this pot of soup.  It shows me that while I haven't yet gotten to where I want to be, I'm not sitting on my hands waiting for things to happen.  If the most my urban farm will give me is the occasional pot of kickass vegetable soup and lots of fluffy omelets, then I'm going to enjoy them for all they're worth, and plot my next move on a full stomach.

Progress on all fronts (and backs)

All days off from work should be this productive. 

I got up earlier than I would have on a work day, treated myself to breakfast at the coffee shop across the street, and promptly at 10:00 a.m., my contractor arrived to do the attic window. 

While he hammered and sawed and generally made noise upstairs, I put together a batch of soup and made wine jelly, which is going to be handed out as holiday giftage this year.  I'm tired of non-reaction to sewn gifts; this year they'll get cooked ones instead.  It was the first time I'd tried the recipe, and it came out well.  We sampled the first jar after dinner tonight.

Window was finished in 3 hours, and then the rest of his crew showed up and re-coated my front and side bay window roofs, which were showing wear but not yet leaking.  Sometimes I get them before they get me.  Sometimes.

Best part: because he got a good deal on the window, my total was actually $50 less than his estimate.  Who does that?

I also got the entire first floor vacuumed, washed the kitchen floor (first time in way too long) and did all the sticky, jell-covered dishes. 

I spent some time with the chickens, who actually don't seem to mind the cold weather.  They stopped laying for over a week, but some internet research convinced me that upping their protein intake would fix it (like molting, cold is stressful and the first thing that goes when they're stressed is the eggs).  In addition to their standard food, I'm giving them dried worms, raisins and nuts (all protein sources).  They love it, and I've been rewarded with eggs for the last few days, so it seems to work. 

Finally, after dinner, I got into the sewing room.  The dress is now beginning to look like a dress, not just like a good idea in my head.  I sewed the darts in the skirt front and backs, and sewed bodices to skirts.  I got the invisible zip inserted, though I somehow inserted the cream zipper I had instead of the tan one which I deliberately went out and bought on Saturday.

All scheduled "work" is complete.  Tomorrow is mine, all mine, and you know where I'll be. 

Has sewing made me a better cook?

I think it has. I've always loved to sew. Cooking came later, but it came full blown, with the arrival of the Food Network on my cable TV lineup (this was back when the Food Network actually taught cooking, instead of simply broadcasting shows about food).

In the beginning, I was a slave to the recipe (or pattern instructions). As I gained confidence, I would occasionally swap out an ingredient or change the steps (order of constuction) to suit myself.

These days, mostly because of Burda, I've learned to sew without reading the instructions except when I'm stumped, and while I love to read cookbooks for inspiration, I rarely have one open on the counter while I'm cooking.

I've noted the resemblance before, but it really hit home this past Sunday when I made a big batch of lamb stock from some bones I had in the freezer. I threw the bones into my biggest pot with an onion, some celery and a carrot, and let them boil away until the broth looked yummy and the veggies and bones turned gray. I removed the insert with the bones and veggies and proceeded to strain my stock. I couldn't find my funnel so I was using my cone-shaped strainer with some cheesecloth inside to simultaneously strain the stock and pour it into jars.

Somewhere around the fourth jar, I noticed that the cheesecloth must have slipped a little because there were a few flecks in the stock. I stopped, thought about it, and said to myself, "No one will notice, and I'll strain it again before I use it." I tried to go on, and I couldn't. I poured the stock back into the pot, changed the cheesecloth and re-strained it, without flecks. Soon I had 7 jars of stock on my counter, and a realization growing in my head.

A few weeks ago, when I made the Burda spring blouse, I picked out an entire line of stitching that no one would ever see, because I realized that it would make me crazy every time I wore it. It seemed easier to do it right the first time than to be irritated later knowing that I was too lazy to do it right.

Apparently this mindset has now drifted downstairs to the kitchen. I've never been a perfectionist - good enough often is good enough - so it remains to be seen whether I can keep up this level of "doing it right the first time."

What about you? Have you seen any of your sewing habits wandering into your other hobbies or obsessions?