Using up a surplus of big cukes

When we went tomato picking at a friend's garden I noticed a large number of huge cucumbers.  I picked a box full to bring home and we have been eating bowls full of cukes in every way possible ever since.  This weekend I decided to try making refrigerator pickles after a friend suggested them.  I decided to make two large jars full and since my friend had warned me that the recipes made them quite sweet I decided to experiment. 

For one jar I mixed up equal amounts of vinegar to sugar and then added spices like salt, peppercorns, a bit of mustard powder, cinnamon and whole cloves.  I filled the glass jar with super thin slices of cuke (compliments of the Miracle Chef for which I have a newfound respect.  My husband gets to tease me now because I am using it for all sorts of things including fantastic scalloped potatoes...to think I ever disparaged it), added a few thin slices of red onion (only a few since this batch was meant to be mostly for the boys) and then poured the vinegar mixture over.  That's it.  Super easy and they are supposed to last in the fridge for months.  Most recipes I found online had quite a bit more sugar but it seems to me that they should preserve well in this amount of vinegar and sugar especially since they are kept in the fridge.

For the spicy pickles I added a little less sugar to the vinegar and then lots of onion slices, whole garlic cloves, salt, whole cloves, peppercorns, jalapeno pepper chunks, mustard powder and bay leaves.  I'm quite pleased with how delicious they are especially considering how easy they are to make.

Super Easy Peach Frozen Yogurt

Or this post title could be use 'em if ya got 'em. I got quite a few peaches for someone who was not planning on canning any. We've been thoroughly enjoying them fresh and made a bit of peach butter but I think I've found our new favourite way to eat them.  Easy Peach Frozen Yogurt made with just a food processor.  I peeled and finely chopped about 6 peaches and then froze them on a cookie sheet.

Put them in the food processor with 1/3 cup of sugar.  Whizzed.  (this took a bit and I already cut them even finer for the next time, yes...we're having it again tonight)

Once the peaches and sugar are mixed I added about 1/2 cup or so of plain yogurt.  Whizzed again.

Done!

This definitely went down a treat which is why I chopped the remaining peaches and tucked them into the freezer. 

The boys have big plans to make this with our frozen cherries and strawberries and blueberries and....

Making Homemade Catsup

Yesterday I used some of the fresh tomatoes to make a batch of catsup.  I chopped them up and put them in a large pot with a chopped onion and a large red pepper.

Once these were soft I ran it all through the tomato press.

I had found two quite different recipes for catsup and they called for different spices.  I wanted to use what I had on hand so finding recipes with different spices in them allowed me the freedom to experiment a bit with something I had never made before.  I used dried mustard because I didn't have mustard seed.  Lovage seeds from my Lovage plant and some stems off my celery plant in place of celery seed, bay leaves just because, cinnamon instead of cinnamon stick and then garlic, cloves and peppercorns.

The pressed sauce went back in the pot with all the spices and simmered until thick and reduced. 

I ran it through the press twice more after a phone call from a friend where she mentioned that this would make it super smooth and shiny.  I added some sugar, salt and vinegar and cooked it down some more.

And then, since it had been brought to my attention and all of a sudden I wanted it super smooth, I zipped it up with my hand blender and got it even  smoother.

It turned out to be gorgeous.  Pure deliciousness...and I don't even like store-bought catsup.

Even S, who is quite particular about catsup and insists on buying a particular brand name catsup, was delighted with it when he tasted it last night.

Preserving Tomato Passata

Yesterday E and I went to pick more tomatoes (and cukes, and squash, and herbs).  I know that I said I would be taking a year off of my usual maniacal amounts of canning but...free tomatoes!!  How can I be expected to resist!!  And they are gorgeous and ripe and almost falling off the plants. Truly, they were calling my name.  And I knew just what to do with them seeing as how I was down to only 2 jars of passata left from the previous year.  I love making this sauce, it is super easy.  I also find that most everyone loves it, even children who say they don't like tomato sauce like this one because it is naturally sweet and smooth with no "bits" in it.

We wash the romas and then cut them in quarters.  (E de-stemmed and put them in the wash sink and I chopped.)  Then we cook them up in a big pot with just a smidge of water on the bottom (so I don't burn them) until they are soft and the juices are flowing freely.  Then comes the fun part.

E loves to help with this and this year he did them all on his own.  All I had to do was stand on the other side of the counter and fill the jars with the sauce he was cranking out.   Then I added a bit of lemon juice, a bit of salt and some fresh basil leaves.

The sauce comes out one side and the seeds and skins out another.  Here is my helper surrounded by more tomatoes (we saved those ones because E wants to make catsup).

I love having jars of this on hand for when we need an easy dinner.

And now I am finding myself quite pleased that this house has a cold room.  It seems we will be filling it up after all.  Last night I had someone say to me, "I thought you were taking a year off and weren't going to do all those things this year." but I realize that preserving our own food - putting things by for times when things are not so plentiful - is something I simply must do and it is very important to me for many reasons.

Firstly, I just love good food, and there is no better way to get good, flavourful food than to prepare it yourself.  I just can't buy tomatoes as tasty as the ones that I preserve at the peak of their ripeness.  I also love that all through the year I have lots of local food on hand, that we don't need to buy things which have been trucked from other countries if we don't want to.  And...I just love the tradition of preserving each year.  It just is what I do, and it is what my children have come to expect, and I hope that by seeing me do it each year (and now that they're older by helping with the process themselves) they, too, will want to carry on this tradition.  A tradition I see as a very valuable, practical thing.

When we want to make a delicious red sauce with this we put some olive oil (a couple BIG glugs)  in a pan and heat some garlic, salt, pepper, oregano and tomato paste for a few minutes.  Then we add the jar of sauce and two bay leaves and bring it to bubbling then turn it down to simmer.  You can simmer it for hours if you like to get a nice thick, very rich sauce.  Remove bay leaves, check seasoning and serve over hot al dente pasta with a sprinkle of parmesan.  Yum!

Dried Tomato Skins

I mentioned here that I was trying, for my first time, to dry tomato skins to use as flavouring in soups.  They dried quite quickly and then we whizzed them through the blender.  I did the first cookie sheet full and we all got a chuckle out of how little powder we were left with after grinding them.

Full Vita-mix.

Teeny, tiny bit of resulting tomato powder at bottom of Vita-mix.

No matter.  This is intensely flavoured stuff and I think a little will go a long way. Now we are drying a bunch of different herbs and nettle to grind up and mix with it to make our own broth powder.

We are all big fans of *free* food and so the boys and I are quite tickled that we have used something that we would have composted to make a really tasty seasoning.

The Self Sufficient-ish Bible

Sometime ago I asked our library to purchase this book and then was thrilled when it showed up on my hold list.  I picked it up the other day and am really enjoying it.

I think a lot of it I like simply because it is nice to read about other people doing things such as not using shampoo, eating nettles and other wild plants, making their own herbal medicines and more...it helps me to feel that I'm not really that weird. (plus I can use it as written evidence to show my husband that there really are lots of people eating nettles and not using shampoo) ;-)  Seriously though, it is just packed with loads of good ideas...simple ideas for helping one along the path towards a more self sufficient lifestyle.

W really loves the layout of it and the way it is illustrated, he has been reading it too and has already found something he wants to make as a gift. (for me, I think but shhhh)  And I can't wait to try making nettle beer, I knew there must be a way I could get S to enjoy nettles and surely this must be it.  This book also makes me really, really want to find our next home so that we can get on with our gray water system and a proper rain water collection system.  I find it quite inspiring.

The Self Sufficient-ish Bible.  Love it.

Preserving Tomatoes

If I had to choose a must-have item to preserve each year it would definitely be tomatoes.  I really can't imagine quite how I would prepare meals without my tomatoes.  Yesterday on our way home from the beach we stopped off to pick tomatoes (and other produce) in town.  I had been told to pick as many as we wanted on the weekend because they would just go to waste and found soooo many at the peak of ripeness that I felt sure they didn't really want me to pick them all.  We double checked that we were indeed to "pick as many as you want" and then the boys and I picked quickly while the rain came down and the lightening started.

I wanted to make a batch of salsa first to give to the gernerous gardeners who had allowed us free-range in their garden.  I made a batch of my tomato peach salsa with some of the peppers we had picked from their garden.  I love this recipe because it is simple and always turns out well for me no matter what little adjustments I make to it.

Once that was bubbling on the stove I started the tomatoes.  I have no room left in my freezers so I won't be doing any stewed tomatoes this year.  I got 21 quarts of canned tomatoes out of all these tomatoes and  we will head back tomorrow for some more to make passata.

Last week I was canning with a friend and she told me that her grandmother used to dry her tomato skins and then use them, ground up, as a flavourful seasoning in soups, stews, etc.  Of course I have to try it so I have cookie sheets full drying in my solar dryer right now.  I've already had a nibble of one and the flavour is intense and yummy. 

I love seeing all the jars of goodness lined up on the counter, waiting to be tucked away for wintertime use when nothing is growing here.  It feels even better knowing that we were able to prevent all of these yummy tomatoes from going to waste.  And now, as I go about the rest of my day, I can hear the little pop, pop, pops of lids sealing.  Lovely!