Yes, I Can

Yesterday's wanderings set me up for a few days of canning. Today I have zucchini relish on the agenda. I already had everything I needed for that with five zucchinis in my vegetable crisper and more coming on our plants. Even so, Erik and Mae tried to foist off some of their zucchini when I went to the farmer's market with them yesterday. I politely declined...at least I tried to be polite. But here's something...I was happy to take more than eight cups of cherry tomatoes off their hands. We picked them fresh from their plants when we got back to their house. Actually, they did most of the picking.

So what am I going to do with so many cherry tomatoes (remembering for a moment that I have my own very prolific plant)? Well, here's the thing. The folks on some of the canning forums have been enticing me with a discussion of this book:

Believe me, I was sorely tempted to buy it. And then, one of those canning ladies happened to post that the Kindle version was just $1.99 yesterday. Well, don't you know I dropped everything except my iPad and went straight to Amazon to purchase it. (And if you must know, it's still on sale, so get your own Kindle version right here.) So, of course, I perused the book just before leaving to meet up with Erik and Mae. There were lots of good recipes in the book, but this one, in particular, caught my eye.

It's made using eight cups of cherry tomatoes, and so when they offered me the cherry tomatoes...well, the phrase "Hot Damn!" comes to mind. Or for the more demure among you, "Heck Yeah!" Or how about ""Does a bear sh*t in the woods?" Or this one, which I absolutely can't resist: "Is a frog's ass watertight?" Well that devolved quickly, didn't it?

So anyway...yes, I'm making it...tomorrow...because I need some fresh ginger and some lemons. I kind of wondered what constituted "Moroccan spices" and so I looked it up. You can find a recipe for a Moroccan Spice Blend right here, and that's pretty much what ends up in the preserves.

Here's what else I found at the farmer's market: Tomatillos, and so Tuesday, it'll be some salsa verde action.

For salsa verde, one needs plenty of jalapeno peppers.

And cilantro.

Yes, the cilantro does look suspiciously like Italian parsely, but I rubbed the leaves between my fingers and sniffed. It's definitely cilantro.

Also, I picked up these four tomatoes. They're so ripe that one actually split open before I could get them home. No matter. I'll be using these to make some gazpacho today. It'll be an opportunity to use some of the cucumbers from our most recent CSA share.

When it comes to CSA vegetables, we're always in a war to keep from being drowned in the deluge.

Roma tomatoes were not to be found yesterday, although there were some green ones that were rather expensive. I wanted them to make tomato salsa, but it might be a little early for Romas. I have quite a few on my own plants, but I'm resisting picking them until they're a little larger. Besides, I probably have enough to keep me busy for now. I'll be able to get Romas from our farmers soon enough.

Before I took off for the farmer's market yesterday, I got started on the latest Heart & Home block.

When I got home, I finished sewing the Wine Country blocks together. Now, it just needs borders. If making relish and gazpacho doesn't take up the whole day, I'll add those today.

I promised you a picture of my idea for the borders, and here it is:

There won't be enough of the border fabric for the back, but I'll have plenty of the cork fabric and the green to piece a back together. Also, there will be enough red for the binding. It's going to be pretty when it's all finished. Already, I have some ideas about how to quilt it, but it will need to wait its turn in line.

Smitty was pretty excited to see the blocks all sewn together.

By the end of the day, we started talking about pie fillings I'd like to make. Pie is never far from our thoughts. And then we both got a powerful yen for some pie. Since I still had a crust left in the Pillsbury box and two jars of Blue Cherry Pie Filling, I put together a little pie for two for our dessert last night. This time, I laid the pie crust scraps across the top crazy quilt style. I'm having a little contest with myself to make the ugliest pie crust. Winner gets to eat pie.

When it was cool enough to eat, we smothered it in ice cream and topped it with some of the Chocolate Cherry Preserves I made recently. It was deadly, but we both survived.

Which was good for Sadie because she needed a lap to lie on this morning. It occurs to me that she's two blocks long...quilt blocks, that is.

A few of you have asked me about her tail. Nothing happened to it...she was born that way. She's part Manx, and Manx cats have either no tail, or a short stubby tail like hers. When we first brought her home, she wouldn't let us touch her tail, but now she luxuriates in a good tail petting. She was a very anxious cat when we first brought her home too...clearly, her anxiety has waned, although I think she's a little high strung by nature.

She really loves hanging out on Mike's lap in the morning. And she insists on a quilt. What cat wouldn't?

So this morning I'll get to work on the relish. It has to sit in pickling salt for an hour, and so I'll probably use that time to get a little housework done. After that, cooking and canning, and then back to quilting. Cooking, canning, quilting. (Awesome alliteration.)

Oh yes, and don't forget, the Pets on Quilts show starts August 10th.

We are not ready here at the Three Cats Ranch, but we're getting there.