A real update

A few recent successes: 

-My mom's Jewish Apple Cake (this recipe is pretty similar)
-Potato Latkes from Smitten Kitchen
-Brown Sugar Cookies from More Best Recipes
-Crock-Pot Pulled Pork with Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce (something I'd canned this summer)

Brown Sugar Cookies

Pizza

And here's a photo I found from the fall:

Kale chips!  Very easy, very addicting, and very healthy.

A Kitchen Mystery

For a number of weeks, people have often asked inquired about the large bucket in the corner of our kitchen.  In July, it held held sour cherries that I bought in bulk from a place in Michigan, but no longer.  Any guesses?

Sauerkraut!  One week Mary and I received two huge heads of cabbage in our CSA share.  What to do when you have more vegetables than you can deal with in one week? Preserve it, of course!  The question was how.

I'd previously seen a reference somewhere to making sauerkraut at home, and after a little internet research, became convinced that it's actually very easy.  And so it was!  We chopped up all the cabbage, layered it with salt, packed it down, poured on some extra salt water to make sure the cabbage was totally immersed, covered with cheesecloth, weighted it down with two ziploc bags filled with water, and let it sit undisturbed!  Read all about what exactly happens in the process here (something called lacto-fermentation).

Four weeks later (At least? Maybe more? I can't recall when we started this), here's the result.

 We had its inaugural eating with some bratwursts before the football game last weekend.  Yum!

An Autumn Account

The other day, as I was returning from a lovely recital at the performing arts center, I decided to drive into my apartment complex from the other entrance. Now, reader, you must understand that I rarely drive over there unless I want to get to a very particular street for a very particular reason. This was not at all the case, yet on a whim, I turned right instead of left, adding a couple hundred feet to our return trip and thus approaching my apartment from the opposite direction from usual.

"Are those peaches?!" exclaimed my companion quite suddenly. Confused, I glanced out her side of the vehicle. "Maybe? I can't tell. I'll pull in."

We parked by the dumpster in the front corner of the complex and hopped out, discovering a rather large tree, loaded with--not peaches--but small apples. After reaching for a few and finding them to be tasty, a short conversation ensued.


"We wanted to do something outside--how about this?"
"Yes! I'm in!"
"But how are we going to get them all?"
"I have a step-stool, and maybe we could grab some sort of tongs?"
"We really need one of those things they have in stores that help you reach things on the top shelves..."
"Yeah. Hmm. How about an umbrella? Or a long stick? Or maybe ---- can help?"
We quickly acquired some empty bags, a step-stool, an umbrella, a pair of heels (every inch counts!), and kitchen tongs. An hour later, and after the brief assistance of a 6' tall friend, we were left with two dish pans full of apples with various levels of bug-infestation.

What does one do with apples too small to merit  peeling and coring? After sorting out the better apples for eating, we chopped up the rest and cooked them down on the stove with a little water. A gracious friend lent me a mixer and attachment that we could use to strain the cooked apples of their peel and seeds.




If you ever stop by, ask to try the über-local, all natural, pesticide-free, nothing-added-except-cinnamon applesauce residing in a few jars in the pantry!

And the list goes on

Zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, purple potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes of various sorts, green peppers, habanero peppers (much hotter than I anticipated, even at a very unripe stage), butternut squash, eggplant, pattypan squash, beets, okra, multi-colored carrots...I think that pretty much covers what I've been getting from my CSA subscription and the community garden.  Needless to say, I haven't been buying much in groceries lately except for eggs, milk, and the occasional bag of sugar for canning.  Speaking of which, I bought a half bushel of peaches the other week which I--besides simply canning a large portion of them--made into preserves as well as this delicious peach barbecue sauce (a great recipe that you could simply make fresh).  There are still a few boxes of jars sitting around waiting for an apple-picking excursion followed by applesauce making.  Hopefully they're not bothering my roommate too much!

So what does one do with all the aforementioned produce? Especially when extra, unanticipated zucchini show up on your doorstep?  Well, I've made buttermilk zucchini soup, ordinary zucchini soup, chocolate zucchini bread, pineapple-raisin zucchini bread, cucumber salad, cucumber and basil slush (I was incredibly skeptical of this, but it actually tasted fairly good), ratatouille, roasted root vegetables, sauted squash, okra and tomatoes, and borscht. For the latter (a great soup that utilizes a lot of mid- to late-summer vegetables), Mary and I used a conglomaration of a few recipes, and it turned out well.  We actually only used one beet.  One beet, which yielded 4 cups when grated.  No joke.

The beet which became the borscht:

I hope you're enjoying the bounty of summer as much as I am!

It was bound to happen...

Time for a confession.  Two days ago I bought 96 canning jars on Craigslist.  Yes, 96.  For only $22!  It was actually kind of a hike to get to the folks (45 minutes), but I had to go halfway there that day, anyway, so what's another 20 minutes?  I'd been wanting to learn how to can, so this was the impetus to get going.

Now my friend Mary and I are on a quest to fill said jars.  She'd helped with canning once before; I was a novice.  We mostly used information online, these two sites being particularly helpful:  All About Canning and National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Here is our first attempt--tart cherry preserves (step-by-step instructions on the first website above).  It was successful, we think.  The only difficult part, honestly, was waiting for the water to boil.  My burners have always been incredibly slow, and this involved quite a lot of water, so it was a long process, though fairly easy.

Now to do something with the other 20 lbs. of cherries, as well as the 25 lbs. of peaches ripening in boxes in the spare room.  Peach salsa or cherry butter, anyone?