Catching Up

There was no sewing yesterday, although I did a little slow stitching in the morning. Today will be much the same since I'm packing food for our trip to the beach. On today's agenda, I'll be making some little Lemon Cheesecake Mousse desserts. It's always good to take a guilty pleasure along. Wouldn't you agree? I've made these before, and so I can entice you with a picture.

The recipe makes eight of these ramekins, but I always make half. That leaves me with half a jar of lemon curd in the refrigerator, so I might as well use it. They aren't hard to make, but they do dirty a lot of bowls. You can find the recipe right here. Also, I'll be making a steak marinade for later in the week. We're keeping the menu simple for the week, but I'm also wanting to try out all the kitchen appliances. I'll use the convection microwave to bake some potatoes for the steak. I'll use the conventional oven to make a lemon Dutch baby for breakfast one morning.

As for yesterday's efforts, you might recall I was in the middle of making the Sweet & Spicy Zucchini Pickle Chips. These are a bread and butter pickle, and I was trying a new recipe, hoping they would be a little more interesting than the ones I made a few years ago. When I left off yesterday, the zucchini and friends were brining in the refrigerator.

They sat in salt for three hours, and then I drained them, but didn't rinse them.

After that, it was pretty quick to add spices and vegetables to the jars, pour over the hot vinegar, and then process them for 30 minutes (35 minutes at our elevation). When I took them out of the canner they looked like this.

It was hard not to open a jar right away, but I waited for them to cool. When I tasted them, I was happy with what I'd done. The Pickle Crisp helped keep the zucchini from getting soggy, and they had a nice little kick without setting our hair on fire. Sweet and spicy is exactly what they are. I tweeked the recipe a little because I used the wax peppers in the mix. When I typed it into my database, I realized I'd left out some water in the vinegar mix. Oh well. It doesn't taste too strong of vinegar to me, and the concentration of vinegar will only increase the acidity, making them extra extra safe.

So here's how I made them. My recipe is just slightly adapted to reflect the addition of the wax peppers. Also, I increased the amount of vinegar and sugar by one-third and left out a cup of water.

Sweet and Spicy Zucchini Pickle Chips

Slightly adapted from Foolproof Preserving by Cook's Illustrated

2-3/4 pounds small zucchini (about 6 oz. each) -- trimmed and sliced 1/4-inch thick
4 shallots -- sliced thin
2 tablespoons canning and pickling salt
4 cups apple cider vinegar
2-2/3 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds -- divided
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon  celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon  Ball Pickle Crisp
2 Red and/or Yellow Italian Wax Peppers -- (optional)
3 Red jalapeno peppers -- stemmed and sliced into rings
8 cloves  garlic -- peeled and quartered

Toss zucchini, shallots, and peppers with salt in a bowl and refrigerate for 3 hours. Drain vegetables in a colander, but do not rinse. Then, pat dry with paper towels.

Meanwhile, prepare boiling water bath and four pint jars according to manufacturer's directions.

Bring vinegar, sugar, and turmeric to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.

To each pint jar, add 1/8 teaspoon Pickle Crisp, 2 1/4 teaspoons mustard seeds, 1/8 teaspoon celery seeds and 2 peeled and quartered garlic cloves. Then pack vegetables tightly.

Using a funnel and ladle, pour hot vinegar mixture over vegetables to cover, leaving 1/2-inch of headspace. Slice wooden skewer along inside of jar, pressing slightly on vegetables to remove air bubbles, then add extra vinegar mixture as needed.

Wipe rims clean, add lids, and screw on rings until fingertip-tight; do not overtighten. Process jars in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes. When time is up, allow jars to sit undisturbed in water for 5 minutes. Remove from pot and let cool for 24 hours. Check seals.

Yield: 4 pints

NOTES : Recipe may be doubled.

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So, that was kind of fun. I'll probably make at least one more batch of these since I'm expecting a lot more zucchini and a lot more peppers.

The rest of the day was spent catching up typing recipes into my database. They stack up until the idea of typing them in becomes forbidding, and then they stack up all the more. Every time I get caught up I swear I will not fall behind again. Then, I fall behind again, and on and on it goes ad infinitum. Right now, I'm all caught up, and I swear I will not fall behind again. Until the next time.

In the middle of writing this post, my assistance was requested at the new RV. There's an intermittent electrical problem with the hydraulic jacks. (There's always something.) It's not a big deal, but Mike needed an extra pair of hands to diagnose the problem. While we were there, our traveling cat decided to take a tour.

Don't mind me...I'm just checking the condition of our treat bowls, and...hey! I see you've got that catio window taken care of. It's a good thing because, purrsonally, I will not travel without my catio.

Little does he know we'll be loading them up tomorrow and heading off down the road. The new RV has a different kind of step in the entry way that requires us to open the door before we can put the step down. We worry about escapees, and so they'll be closed up in the bedroom while we go down the road. That's generally where they ride anyway. It's a smooth ride for them on the bed.

When I was finished helping Mike, I took a little tour around. The third of the echinaceas is getting ready to open. You might recall I was hoping this one was yellow, but I think it will be pink. No worries. I think I still have some of the yellow seeds, but that will be for next year's efforts.

I'm loving this Cheyenne Spirit variety. It barely bloomed last year, and this year, it's blooming like crazy.

When I tour the garden, I always have my fuzzy friends in tow. Smitty thought he'd munch on that little tuft of grass there.

Sadie keeps her distance. She's always worried about being scooped up and taken back inside.

We're hoping to take a few Romas along when we go, and so I checked the greenhouse to see if there were any contenders. These two are looking perfect, and there are others. I'll give them another day on the vine, but then I'll need to do a wholesale harvest before we leave.

There are zucchini to harvest as well. I don't want to come home to baseball bat zucchinis.

The most exciting thing in the garden for me right now are these poppies I brought back from Ireland. They won't bloom until next year, but they've grown large enough that they're now growing through the chicken wire.

Today I'll be packing food into the RV and doing a little cooking. Also, I want to make some Carrot Cake Jam. I'm trying to keep up with the produce as it comes, and so I don't want to wait to process the carrots. When we get home, there will be more tomatoes and zucchini.

Last year, I started keeping a list of the things I can during the year. By keep track of what and how much I do of each thing, I can decide whether to make more or less in the following year...or whether to make it at all. Here's my list of this year's activities:

It's more than I did last year, and I've barely scratched the surface on the tomatoes. Things are going to get a lot busier very soon. I'm just waiting for the farmers to tell us they've got bulk Romas for sale.

So there's lots to do today, and I might try to squeeze in a short trip to the grocery store. I haven't yet decided whether I'll be blogging while we're gone, but I'll be back tomorrow to let you know.