Where to begin. I have taken a break from raking leaves and pinestraw, regretfully. I have so much yet to do there. We found some plastic poultry wire, I guess it is, at Wal-Mart and some plastic stakes at Lowe's, all very reasonable, and made a border for our compost. It seems to be working well but is still in progress. Most of the leaves/straw is in the garden waiting to be tilled into the soil. This is making me anxious for springtime and we have only begun our cold weather!
We started cleaning up the old veggie stalks such as tomato vines, bean vines, etc. That goes into the compost and makes cleaning up faster and easier. I found that I had about 3 gallons of green Roma tomatoes and green peppers. What to do? I could always freeze the peppers, but I guess I googled what to do with green tomatoes and read about green tomato relish. There are some good recipes on line, but I found this one in my trusty old BALL BLUE BOOK. If I give them full credit, I hope they don't mind. (I didn't find a disclaimer anywhere.)
PICCALILLI OR GREEN TOMATO RELISH
4 quarts peeled, cored, chopped green tomatoes (about 32 medium)
2 quarts chopped cabbage (about 1 large head)
2 quarts chopped sweet green peppers (about 4 small)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
4 1/2 cups vinegar
Sprinkle salt over vegetables and mix thoroughly; let stand 3 to 4 hours. Drain thoroughly. Press to remove free liquid. Add sugar, spices and horseradish to vinegar; simmer 15 minutes. Add vegetables and bring to a boil. Pack hot into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath. Yield: about 7 pints
Here's my take on this: I had Roma tomatoes, which I peeled and cored and chopped. I somehow have misplaced my food grinder so I just chopped the veggies. (note to self: find that grinder!) For the cabbage, I just happened to have on hand a bag of prepared cabbage slaw. It turned out to be the right amount! How lucky for me. What I didn't notice until later and was a bit worried, but it turned to be great, was slivers of carrots. I had plenty of fresh green peppers which were chopped, and then one medium onion, chopped. What I did substitute for the regular brown sugar was 1 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend. I think I had some cider vinegar and some white distilled, so I just combined that. Then I just proceeded as directed. This did yield 7 pints. Not hard to do. I couldn't wait to taste it and proceeded about a couple of days later with fear and trepidation as I could just imagine that it would be bitter. Not so! It was tangy but what we like. I may share that with family. I do have a few tomatoes and peppers left over and may make another small batch. Wonder what would happen if one put a bit of hot peppers in for a little heat...
Speaking of the Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, I found a good buy this past weekend on Granny Smith apples. Somewhere (I think on line) I read about paring and slicing the apples, adding the brown sugar and oil or butter and microwaving. I did that for breakfast this morning, and it is wonderful. I have a microwave dish made for making rice, but I have converted that to an all-purpose dish for any food I need to microwave, such as potatoes, onions, anything that will cook in a microwave. I cored the apple with one of those gadgets I found at Wal-Mart, spread the slices over the bottom of the container, sprinkled about 1 tablespoon brown sugar and some oil. You could use whatever you like there. I try to make the container air tight, and then cooked for 5 minutes. The oil blends with the sugar and moisture from the apple, and it is just so tasty!
My husband says I am either thinking about, reading about, writing about, talking about, cooking or eating food. I notice that he doesn't hesitate to share the proceeds.
On future blogs, I will try to give some of my old recipes I have enjoyed making for years...just good ole fashioned comfort foods. I have always conceded that my siblings are better cooks than I, but that's okay. I have a few favorites.
BTW, we did move the container of Gomphrena to the porch, next to the wall, and covered these past two freezing nights. So far, it looks fine. I know it has to go, but that's hard to let go. At least I have a zillion seeds to get started next spring and some cut stems for the house until spring. The volunteer lavender that I thought was lost, actually survived the drought/heat and bloomed heavily until now. Still several very sweet lavendar blooms today. We had volunteer yellow lantana by the mailbox that survived the summer also, but that seems bitten today. I think it looks hardy enough that with mulching for the winter will come back next spring. We look for it around April. I did get some pansies started in a whiskey-barrel-size container, lots of colors, and they look fine.
Will get back with pictures of my compost bin, etc., and more recipes soon.
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2 comments:
What will you eat your relish with or on?
I hear that it is eaten with pork, field peas, other veggies, etc. Es says it would be delicious on a turkey sandwich. We will have to figure out how to get a jar of that where you are! I think the airlines would have a stroke if you tried to "fly" it back with you. I think your imagination would be the limit. When you are this way, look out!
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