A Kitchen Day

It was overly optimistic to think anything was going to happen in the sewing room yesterday. I spent the day in the kitchen. That's not a complaint...I enjoy cooking, and everything ended up taking longer than I thought it would. Things might have happened faster had I not gotten it into my head that I needed to start the day with a canning project. On the other hand, I really wanted those CSA carrots out of my vegetable crisper, and so I went ahead with this Carrot Relish.

Really, I was looking for a new way to use some of the carrots, and I had everything I needed to make this relish. It's pretty tasty. I think my DIL Mae hit the nail on the head when she likened it to "carrot sauerkraut."

The recipe is from Marisa McClellan's Preserving by the Pint book. I changed mine up a little bit because I switched out pickling salt for her "finely milled sea salt." Also, I'd used all my jalapeno peppers in the salsa, and so I used one of the cayenne peppers from our most recent CSA share. There's essentially no cooking involved in this relish, and so it was a low-labor effort. I used my food processor to grate all the vegetables. I was hoping someone else had posted the recipe online, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Here's how I did it:

Carrot Relish
adapted from Preserving by the Pint
Yield: 5 half-pint jars

Ingredients:
1 pound carrots, grated
1/2 cup seeded and shredded red bell pepper
1/2 cup minced yellow onion
1 jalapeno pepper, seeds and ribs removed, minced
1 tablespoon pickling salt
1 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the carrots, red bell pepper, onion, jalapeno, and salt. Toss together and let the vegetables sit for 1 hour, until you notice that the salt has drawn out a significant puddle of water.

Pour the vegetables into a colander and rinse briefly with cold water. Drain.

Combine the vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, and black pepper in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Once it begins to bubble, add the vegetables Stir the vegetables into the vinegar mixture and bring back to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and cook for 3 minutes, until the vegetables are beginning to soften and have lent a little color to the vinegar.

When time is up, remove the relish from the heat and funnel into the prepared jars. Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

* * * * *

While I was waiting for time to pass on the relish, I got to work on our dessert for last night's dinner: Dutch Apple Pie. For this, I combined the crust and filling from one recipe with the topping from another recipe. I kind of like the oatmeal in the topping. When it came out of the oven, it looked like this:

We had it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Mike and I will finish off the last two pieces tonight. With apples, oatmeal, and ice cream (calcium, you know), it's practically health food! So there you go.

The rest of my cooking yesterday was a German Potato Salad...yum. And I made one of Erik's favorite appetizers in a hot crab dip. Erik will be turning 40 on Wednesday, which is brutal to think about. We were sort of, kind of celebrating his birthday, but we were also catching up on our recent trips. While we were in Colorado, Erik and Mae were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. It was fun seeing the pictures from their trip.

So with all that going on, there was no sewing yesterday. Today is going to be an easier day, and really the first day I've had to relax since we got home a week ago. As we were leaving the breakfast table this morning, I noticed the sky just beginning to turn pink, and I watched as it bloomed into this pretty sunrise:

You know what they say: Red sky at morning, sailor take warning. Fortunately, the only sailing I'm doing today will be sailing into my sewing room to sew. I think I should be safe in there.

And since I had so little to show from yesterday's efforts, I sat and stitched the last of the second snowman block this morning.

There's still one more of these before I move on to the Dancing Chickens and Flying Pigs block.

I think today will be NBS (Nothing But Sewing). There is one housekeeping chore on my calendar, but I can put it off until tomorrow. Today I want to start sewing together the Sundress quilt. As I've mentioned to a few of you, there are still four Dresden blocks left to make, but the Dresdens will be among the last blocks added to the quilt. I can finish two of them today, and then start sewing the quilt top together. The other two can wait until tomorrow, and no one will be the wiser.

So that's a good plan for the day, don't you think? Any day that is all sewing is going to be a good day.