Yes, I Can

When I started cooking cranberries yesterday, I had three recipes on my mind. I wondered if I could get them all done in one day. I'm happy to report: Yes, I can. First, I tried this Cranberry Pepper Jam. I'm going to give you the link to the recipe, but I must first warn you that the yield is seriously underestimated. The recipe promised me 3 half-pint jars. Since I was thinking of giving it as little gifts this holiday season, I decided to use 6 quarter-pint jars instead. They'll fit in a pocket, and so I can just take them with me easily and hand them out like candy. And look how pretty this is:

And if you're saying to yourself, "Hey, that looks like a half-pint jar! WTF?" Or maybe you aren't as potty-mouthed as I am and so you left off the "F" part of that. Well...here's what happened. 

I made the recipe exactly as written, and I had eight (not six) quarter-pint jars ready to go thinking that even if there was extra, I should have plenty of jars. Well, I filled those jars, and still had lots of jam in the pot. And I hate that because I didn't have any more clean jars or clean lids prepared. So I quickly washed some more half-pint jars and some more lids and finished off with three more half-pint jars. All-in-all, I ended up with 8 quarter-pints and 3 half pints. If I'd done it in half-pint jars from the get-go, I'd have had 7 half-pint jars...not the 3 suggested in the recipe. So, I ask again, WTF?

So anyway...I can highly recommend it because it's very tasty. Someone always asks me what one does with pepper jams, and here's what I tell them: It's wonderful spread on crackers with a little cream cheese. It's also wonderful served with meat...just like ketchup or steak sauce. And it's good on sandwiches, especially roast beef. And if you're just in a mood, it's great spooned straight from the jar directly into your open mouth. That's often how I'm eating it. So, anyway...it's easy, and it's pretty. You can find the recipe right here. I should note that I removed the seeds and ribs from both serrano peppers and one of the jalapenos. It has plenty of kick.

So there was that.

A day or so earlier, I'd boiled and skinned some CSA beets for pickling. I used my old standby recipe for Easy Spiced Pickled Beets. They're a family favorite. I ended up with three pints from two pounds of beets. The recipe I use is from Small Batch Preserving. Here's the recipe for those:

Easy Spiced Pickled Beets

from Small Batch Preserving

Yield: About 3 pint jars

2 Pounds Fresh Beets

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

2 Cups White Vinegar

1/3 Cup Water

16 Whole Cloves

8 Whole Allspice Berries

2 Cinnamon Sticks (about 4 Inches Long)

2 Teaspoons Pickling Salt

Trim beets, leaving 1 inch of stem and tap root attached. Place beets in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-45 minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse under cold water. Remove skins and cut beets into large pieces

Combine sugar, vinegar, and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally.

Remove hot jars from canner and place 4 whole cloves, 2 allspice berries, 1/2 cinnamon stick and 1/2 teaspoon salt in each jar. Pack beets into jars.

Pour hot liquid over beets to within 1/2 inch of rim. Process 30 minutes for pints and 35 minutes for quart jars.

Note: For an interesting variation, add 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes to each jar.

While those were processing, I got to work on the Brussels sprouts. And here again, the author of the recipe seriously underestimated how many jars I would need. Fortunately, I had plenty of jars and lids ready, but it still annoys me when I end up with more veggies than I have prepared jars. So anyway...the Brussels sprouts have to sit for a week or more before they're ready...which is pure torture for this Brussels-sprouts-loving-person. Nevertheless, I opened one of the jars and tried one. I'm happy to say that after waiting just a few hours, this just might be a winner. I'll tell you more about it when I've given it a week to pickle and a true taste test.

So I ended up with a lot of jars and a lot of yummy stuff by day's end.

There was time to sew, but after all that, I sat on my behind for the rest of the day.

Ever feel like you're being watched?

So today I'm putting a recipe for Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings in the crockpot. My housework is done. My canning is done. I'm going to spend the day quilting Wind in the Whiskers.

Busy Week Ahead

Good morning, my friends. My best laid plans for the week turned into better plans when Erik scored a campsite for our two camper rigs for later in the week. We already had a plan to visit the farmer's market yesterday morning, and so what started as a routine schedule for the week just got a whole lot busier. 

Before heading out for the farmer's market, I was able to stitch up the day's Tiny Treasure. This is Tiny Treasure #64. It has stem stitch, lazy daisy, running stitch, and French knot.

At the farmer's market, I was on the hunt for some of the carrots I know only by the name our CSA farmers called them: Nelson carrots. They’re the best carrots for my Spicy Dilled Carrot Spears...a family favorite. I like them for their uniform roundness from stem to root end. Here's a picture I found online.

They’re quartered the long way for canning, and so I end up with nice, straight spears. Also…they’re a short carrot, and so they fit pretty well into the 12 oz. jars I used in the canning process. 

Also, I was on the hunt for some beets to turn into Easy Spiced Pickled Beets. I was able to score both, and so that will keep me busy today and tomorrow. While I was with the kids, we talked about food for our short camping trip, and so I'll be making some things for that as well.

Back home, my first priority was to check on the green beans and continue my mission to train them to grow up their poles. They're doing a pretty good job so far. While I was out, I walked around to check on the flowers. The echinacea are reaching full maturity now with the petals that hang below the center. So pretty. They're one of my favorite flowers.

The buds on the suspected purple poppy get larger and larger, and it has about a half dozen flowers. Look carefully at the midde of the image below, and you’ll see two large buds side by side. I’m so excited for them to open.

Okay, and I thought this was going to be a yellow zinnia, but now I’m thinking it might be red. Maybe I’ll find out today.

Oooh! And lookie there! The first sunflower! The marker next to this one says “Infrared Mix.” According to Territorial Seed (where I get my seeds), its colors can range from the darkest to the softest reds, including many bicolors. You can see that this one has a red-tinged center.

Okay, and then I got back to my quilting. I ended up doing a sort of teardrop motif in the outer border. I wanted something easy that I could do fast. I’ve done this motif before, and so it was pretty easy.

Here’s a peek at the back.

And now that puppy is ready for binding. There were no binding strips cut yet, probably because I couldn’t decide on anything. For a while, I pawed through my stash, and came up empty. Finally, I decided to use the same fabric from the back. The books are a larger scale, and so they’ll be lost on a narrow binding, but the colors will be right for the quilt.

Before I can think about getting that binding sewn on, I need to finish these two blocks for the Northern Wilderness project. This is one of those projects where I end up with scraps and all sorts of crap strewn from “A to Izzard,” as we like to say in our family. (I married into that idiom.) Yesterday’s quest was to make the “Blueberry” block…this one:

First, I needed to make the background. The quilt block is a basket. I struggle with this configuration of triangles every time I encounter it. This one confused me less than previous ones, so I guess that’s progress. At my age, not many things get less confusing. No worries though. If I don’t understand it, I just assume magic made it happen.

I breathed a sigh of relief when that went together correctly. Then, I just needed to add the top, bottom, and sides, and the background was ready for applique.

Just the handle of the basket was fused down, and that pretty much took up the last of my sewing time for the day.

For dinner, I tried this recipe for Greek-Spiced Pork Chops with Warm Zucchini-Feta Salad. We found some nice pork chops at the bargain meat counter on a recent grocery-shopping excursion, and hey…anything to use zucchini at this time of year, amiright?

We actually liked this really well. The Zucchini-Feta Salad was especially nice. It’s served warm and flavored with shallots, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and some other seasonings. We liked that well enough, I’d prepare the zucchini that way even without the pork chops. It would be good as a side dish for anything. I’d link to the recipe, but this is an America’s Test Kitchens recipe, and so you’d need a subscription to their website to be able to open it. If you want the recipe, just email me, and I’ll be happy to send it to you. No sweat.

Okay, so it’s going to be a busy day today. I need to hoe the garden, and I’m going to can the carrots today. While I’m working on those, I can roast the beets. They need to be roasted and skinned before I can turn them into pickled beets. That will be for tomorrow. If there’s time left this afternoon, I’ll work on the applique for the Blueberries block, and then both blocks will need to be top-stitched before I can say they’re finished. The binding will need to wait until then.

I know some of you have been dealing with smoke and heat. I’m hopeful conditions are improving. Summer is great, but it has its moments…like everything else in existence, I suppose.