Celery

The celery grown in this years garden can only be judged a success...cause Hey it made great soup today! The stalks are scrawny to say the least. Fortunately for me, after a weekend of being knocked on my butt sick, Libby made me homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. She used celery, carrots, onions, dill and parsley grown right here at little ole' Columbia Creations.

I have to tell you the celery may not look as polished and magnificent as the grocery store kind. Our celery had a flavor that was so much more intense. The stalks were tender and not stringy. The same can be said for the freshly pulled carrots.

The minute Lib carried the freshly plucked garden goodies into the house I could smell how fabulous this soup would be. For me as a mom...any soup made just for me is a welcomed idea anytime. It just so happened, I was on the tail end of a weekend of sickey girl.

How sweet is my daughter? She cooked the food and took pictures of it for me?

The celery and vegetables were my creations. Sometimes things here at Columbia Creations are created by someone else. Hey...I get credit for creating Libby though...Right??

Update

Mister and I were having our usual morning routine of coffee on the LV (lower veranda) today." I'm done with the garden for the year", were my words. He still has ambition to make and freeze more salsa. I'm over it! Ready to move on to Autumn type things, like apples, pastry, and fall merriment!
Here you can find my ambition from last spring with regards to garden 2010. This is how that all shaped up into reality. I am documenting my current garden approach for 2011 now...just in case I forget when spring rolls around .

• Less Tomatoes... I love fresh homegrown tomatoes. It's hardly time friendly to preserve them when you have so many other scrumptious stuff to put up for winter.
• Less Peppers..if Mister will allow it. We like variety in our selections. I am think one plant of each type and that's it!
• More onions...once again we doubled our onionsthis year from 2009. Still we could have used more!
• Less squash...my yellow squash was killed by the nasty squash borrer despite my greatest effort to protect it. The acorn squash did well. Too many of them though.
• Cucumbers, I will plant 0 cucumbers next year. 2009 I made tons pickles. This year though the cukes did poorly, which is just as well because we still have pickles from 2009.
• Carrots...Loved the Rainbow mix. We had a much lower yield from this variety although they were lovely. Next year we will plant the high yield orange variety.
• Celery..well it's still thinking about becoming big grown up celery. I will need to do more research on how to do this vegetable well. I do plan to plant it again.
• Blueberry Bushes were planted this spring and I hope to harvest a few next year.
• Lettuce..ugh despite my vow I still planted it. Not in 2011!
• Broccolini...well I ordered the seeds and just never got around to planting them! Duh!
• Cauliflower...again more research is needed to figure out why my cauli just doesn't do well.
• Green Beans..Just Say NO!
• Peas...still will plant in 2011 and experiment with a few types.
• Corn... of course, however...I won't take the time to freeze any just because that has become tiresome to me.
• Strawberries should be rocking next spring.
• Herb Garden....trying a few new herbs this year and I plan to do some posts about these in the weeks to come.

Did you read all of that???? If so, Thank You! Still open to suggestions! I don't do eggplant!

Red Onion Marmalade

Red Onion Marmalade. This could be used on pork or chicken and... rock out a delicious dinner. Slather this on toast, top with bacon and maybe toss on a tomato. Yum! It really only  took about an hour from start to finish. This is one of the pantry items to save for when I am craving something a little different.


Ingredients


1 1/2 cups thinly sliced, halved, peeled red onions
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 package powdered pectin
3 cups unsweetened apple juice
4 cups granulated sugar

Saute onions, cranberries, brown sugar and red wine vinegar in a pan over medium heat, until onions are tender. Mix this mixture with powdered pectin, and apple juice in a huge pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Place on lid and rings and process for 15 minutes in a water bath.

I first came across the recipe while reading a blog called Chicken In The Road. Suzanne McMinn has lots of great ideas and recipes.

Dried Fruit and Walnut Conserve

Dried Fruit and Walnut Conserve

1 lb. dried apricots
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 lb. dried cranberries
1 medium orange (1 cup chopped)
3 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 tbls. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Chop dried fruits. Chop entire orange, including peel: discard seeds.
2. Combine dried fruits,orange,and water in an 8 quart or larger pot: cover and cook until tender( about 15 minutes)
3. Uncover and add remaining ingredients except nuts. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves.
4. Cook rapidly, stirring frequently until thick, about 10 minutes. Add nuts during the last 5 minutes.
5. Quickly ladel into clean, hot jars, leaving 1/2" headspace: seal.
6. Process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Yield: About 5 half pints.

Update

Yesterday, I cleared the basil, and dill out of my herb garden. I already have a bag of dill tied up and drying so this time around the dill went into the compost pile. My basil dried nicely in the oven. After my day of canning and baking Tomato Pies, the oven was the perfect temperature to dry a cookie sheet covered with basil. On a side note...lerking beneath the basil was a brand new start of oregano. I hope to see this kick it up before a hard frost.

It was purging time in the garden. I pulled up all of my broccoli plants. Months ago I began picking, blanching, and freezing this wonderful vegetable. We actually saw two or more side shoot harvests after the main head was cut. They were done.

• All of my onions have been pulled and put up for winter use.
• A few carrots are still lingering.
•  Tomatoes....ugh don't get me started. I should be picking them now!
•  Rows of sweet corn have been eaten, some were eaten by us, other rows fed the raccoons. We still have four rows to be picked. The plantings go in every two weeks so that the harvest is staggered as well.
• Red, Yukon, and Russet Potatoes have been harvested a plenty and we have 6 rows to go.
• Sweet Potatoes are growing lovely still with no harvest yet.
• Peppers, Sweet/Red/Yellow/Poblano/Anaheim/Cubanelle/Jalapeno still producing

Okay there you have it my garden update.

Pickled Hot Peppers

As I sat the table for dinner this evening, a few quick photos were snapped of yesterdays Hot Pepper canning project. The project actually started on Sunday. The recipe suggested leaving the peppers whole. I chose to cut the tops off, leaving some seeds, and cutting the peppers in half. The next step was to place the peppers into a huge stainless steel bowl, to which I added the specified amount of canning salt and water. This brew was to sit for 12 to 18 hours.

It was pepper extravaganza on Sunday. Under the watchful eye of Mister and our buddy Steveo, 10 more jars of goodies were added to the pantry.

Serious business now.....read the warning....wear the gloves!!

In my cockiness, I was convinced that although rubber gloves would be nice, they were not a necessity. I was wrong! Let me say this in another way...my hands burned like fire until around 2AM that night. Yes, I had great confidence because, I have chopped plenty of peppers and never worn gloves. My kitchen has cranked out tons of homemade salsa, chile rellenos, etc. This was a whole higher level of pepper extravaganza. With the addition of the project of grilling 24 poblanos and skinning them for homemade Enchilada Sauce this was not a job for a sissy.

The burning sensation came on gradually as the evening progressed. My hands looked normal and there were no actual burned marks on my hands. I did however feel as if they had been placed in boiling water. Here is a list of things I tried to ease the pain.

Soaking them in milk. (helped at first, I had to keep changing the milk because the capcasian came out into it.)
Soaking them in yogurt ( nice and cool, same thing as the milk though)
Washing them with every soap we had in the house many times.
I poured straight vinegar on them.
I took ibuprophen.
Rubbed olive oil on them.
I poured straight rubbing alcohol on them.
I went to bed with an ice pack on each hand.
None of this worked...they were all suggestions that I had found online.

What finally worked? I slathered my hands in Vaseline and carefully rubbed in one motion to remove the Vaseline, in hopes that the petroleum would capture the capsacian from my skins pores. I repeated this several times. The pained eased, I feel asleep, the next morning I had the cleanest hands and nicest cuticles ever and finally the pain had stopped.

I was not so anxious to handle those peppers the next morning and process them in the canner. I did it though. I think I will forever more call this recipe... Hands on fire Peppers!

Peppers I used.

Hot Hungarian

Jalapeno

Banana

Anaheim

Poblano

Aren't they gorgeous in the jars though!!

Jalapeno Jelly

Just think of how scrumptious this jalapeno jelly will taste this winter. It will be slathered on a warm slice of cornbread, no doubt. Knowing last spring that I planned to make this jelly, I selected a variety of jalapeno peppers called 'Fooled You'. This pepper has all of the fruity delicious flavor without the heat. Really...no heat.

My only taste of this batch of jelly came on the tip of a spoon. You know... that little bit of jelly setting up in the bowl after the jars have been filled. That tiny bite was a teaser. Sweet as you would expect jelly to be, minus the familiar fruity flavor of typical jellies. Most interesting I must tell you.

I plan to make more tomorrow.

The recipe can be found in the Ball Canning Book.

A girl can dream, can't she?

Hot damn summer is almost over!

I am so longing for the early evenings of September. Autumn and winter are a magical time for me personally. To pinpoint my exact moment of zen is easy. My perfect scenario of time and space arrives just as the leaves have fallen. The darkness comes before 7PM and a light dusting of snow is in the forecast. *Sigh*
This is the time when all of the ass- busting work in the garden is most appreciated. Oh, I love to garden. I mean the actual physical labor involved in the process is rewarding. Self satisfaction is gained from growing my own food. Trying the new recipes, and photographing the harvest, these all add interest to the undertaking.

Then as the season changes, the cold weather fronts move in and our garden plot lies silent.

Inside my kitchen, the garden springs back to life. A great dinner comprised of various ingredients that we have preserved is about to served. These home grown delights are made all the better if it's cold enough to build a fire in the fireplace. Let's not forget about how wonderful it is to crank out the baked goods and actually enjoy the heat from the oven too.

For tomorrow, the forecast mentioned nothing about snow. Damn it!

However, I will be canning jalapeno jelly, hot pickled peppers, and a few other random garden things. One beautiful sign that autumn is on it's way....the Black Walnuts are piling up on the ground, ready for my hot little hands to harvest!

And just a little side note...the cake mentioned in the above link stayed fresh and delicious in the freezer for months. Every now and then I would sneak a single piece out for myself and savor it with a cup of coffee!

Campfire Grub

One day this week, I will make a genuine effort to snap some photos of the garden and cook something fabulous, I promise...my family could use a good healthy meal. The humble little world of Columbia Creations has seen lots of traveling this Summer 2010. Every week I have high hopes of posting recent garden growth photos. The weekend rolls around, and off we go on some new excursion, leaving the blog world behind.

This is a sample of our menu while camping a few weeks ago.

Steamy hot... right off the fire.

Campfire Potatoes

3lbs. of new red potatoes ( dug a few days earlier)
Olive Oil
Dry Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing
Foil
Gallon Size Zipper Baggie

This is just a perfect camping recipe. I transport all of the ingredients in the baggie. Directions are impossible to mess up.

Just minutes before cooking once your fire has sufficient hot coals;
Wash and chop the potatoes
place them in the zipper bag
 drizzle olive oil over potatoes
sprinkle generously with dry ranch dressing
pour the contents of the bag into foil, wrap well in several layers of foil
place indirectly over the fire
 flip occassionally
 test for doneness by poking the potatoes with a fork, when the potatoes are soft they are done!
Caution...Steam is hot!
Not gourmet...just yummy at night time around the campfire.

Shish Kabob

Let's face it ,who hasn't been served Shish Kabob and the meat is over-cooked in an attempt to get the peppers soft, or the meat is cooked perfectly and the vegies are just nasty underdone flavorless hunks.
I solved this problem by making one entire skewer for each individual component of the dish. Once again, this dish is great for camping.
 Each one of the proteins can be placed into marinade before you leave your kitchen. Toss into a baggie and store in the cooler.
The peppers and onions are from my garden, the mushrooms are not...although next year I am hoping to convince Mister that we should grow our own. I found a mushroom growing kit in a catalog. It's cheaper to buy mushrooms from the grocery. My thoughts are... that it might be cool to grow them myself ( I don't really even like them), I just cook them for others. Okay now I'm rambling again!! Back to this Shish Kabob.

It's all very easy to do. Soak the skewers, lace the skewers with items, cook and eat!!

We chowed!!

Life is slightly slower, can there be redemption for stripping myself of all reason and taking on too much? Baby steps.

Photos

Carrots... white, yellow, purple, and red! I thought this was pretty cool! I'm not sure what recipe I will use them in yet. One thing is for certain, there is something magical about pulling a purple carrot out of the garden.

The tiny little black onion seed will be saved for next years garden. Several of my crops have been allowed to go to seed in anticipation of Garden 2011. The onion rows almost resemble a flower bed with the huge clumps of seed pockets shooting from the top of the onion. Most likely I am missing some fancy technical term for 'clumps of seeds'....aaaaa who cares, I like my term just fine.

Digging potatoes today turned into a rather labor intensive job. Only because I neglected to pull the weeds between the hills. After I actually located the base of the plant, and untangled it from the pesky weeds, the work turned to joy. I haven't weighed the haul from today. My fair guess would be 40 lbs.of Red Potatoes and 60 lbs. of Yukon Gold came from the three rows that were dug. For some reason I have it in my head that I will experiment with freezing my own homemade hashbrowns. How hard can it be?

Banana Peppers have such a classic beauty as they grow.

 I cringe at the thought of the amount of work waiting for me tomorrow.

 I love my huge garden.

I especially love it during the blizzards of winter....soup, stews and more.

 Yet, every year around this time, I swear next years garden will be smaller.

 Harvest time is so super busy!

 Then spring rolls around again and I see the bare ground.

 An empty canvas waiting to explode with vegetable color.