Last week, Part Uno

Last week was a busy week, so I’m going to start with that. I canned, there were fabric hijinks, and did I mention that Jeff and I are (very cautiously) inspecting this house-purchasing idea?  You know, I don’t have a fear of relationship-with-person-commitment or long-term-pet-ownership or anything like that.  What I do have is a total fear of commitment to a given locale.  I’m not a fan of rental properties, but they still offer me the ability to pick up and take off for parts unknown at any time.  Not that I do this (at least not as regularly as I used to), but I can if I want to.  It’s almost like claustrophobia for me, this idea of “settling down.”  You can see why I’ve never owned property.

Back to canning!  I mentioned my initial canning adventures with okra … well, here they are.  I’m partially doing this because I’m impressed that I canned something, and I’m offering proof here that such a thing actually occurred in my kitchen.

I’m also doing this because some of you have told me that canning brings to mind horrible memories of days on end in a hot kitchen having difficulties.  I thought this process was rather simple and quick, and it was air conditioned.  So I’d be interested to know what about this is hard, or if y’all were talking about pressure canning maybe?  These vegetables are not the sort that need pressure canning.  I’m not ready for pressure canning yet, not convinced I ever will be.

CANNING STAGE 1

Cut up and otherwise prepare your veggies.  Boil jars for 10 min.  Heat lids (but don’t boil).  Meanwhile, boil your pickling liquid and simmer for 5 minutes.  My pickling liquid consisted of apple cider, kosher salt, sugar, dill seed, mustard seed, pequin peppers, and a few peppercorns.  After boiling the jars, I set them on a clean cloth to cool for about a minutes.

CANNING STAGE 2

Stuff the jars really full with okra - I had a couple cucumbers, so I did some of those, too.  Add 2-3 garlic cloves each.  Fill with pickling liquid to 1/2 inch below the lid-screw-marks.  Put on the lids and screw on the bands really tight.  I was kind of ginger with handling these … seems to me I’ve heard bad stories about nasty things getting into canning jars, so I kept everything clean.

CANNING STAGE 3

I put the filled jars back in the water bath for 10 minutes to boil.  My jars didn’t sit on anything in the pot, because I have nothing, and besides my canning equipment consists of jars and my biggest dutch oven.  Afterward, I put the jars on a rack covered by a towel to cool down.  That’s them there, all done.  After this the recipe just instructed me to wait 24 hours before trying them.

Did I mention I tried them?  They were good … I think … unless Jeff and Paula were fabricating their reaction so as not to offend … Personally, I thought the okra was great, but the pickles need to sit a bit and be less sharply vinegary, but that comes with waiting a bit longer than 48 hours after they were made, you know?

Twenty years I’ve waited …

.. to hear that POP!  What pop?  The pop of the lids on the canning jars as they seal!

Remember when I told you about Mabel, the dear, sweet woman who lived next door to us when I was growing up?  The woman who was my step-in grandmother when I was growing up (since my real grandmothers lived states away).  The woman who taught me to garden, made me my first quilt, let me play with ceramics, and cooked lovely scrumptiously delicious apple turnovers?

Well, Mabel also inspired me to make jelly and to can things.  Mabel made the absolute best Mayhaw jelly and pickled okra ever.  Although inspired, however, I’ve never actually had the courage to do anything about that inspiration until tonight.  I was convinced it was too hard.

But as of an hour ago tonight, there are three jars of okra pickling and one jar of cucumber slices. SWEET!  And as they cool from the processing, the lids go POP! I’m so excited about this I can barely sit still!!

Cobbler Makin’

So, have you ever seen www.gizoogle.com?  Go ahead. Try it on CNN.  I dare you. I just about choked. See your whole world the Snoop Dogg way!

Tonight I decided to make dessert instead of dinner. After all, is life truly lived unless you periodically consume baked goods?  I think not. So salad and cobbler with ice cream it was. Also, I’ve been getting (and then forgetting about) the yummy apples that came with my organic food delivery. I could not possibly let these apples go to waste, now could I?  And it’s such a simple recipe!

Preheat your oven to 400 and get out an 8×8 baking dish.

Put 6 cups of sliced, peeled apples into a pot with 1 tbsp lemon juice, 3 tbsp of water, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 2 pinches each of cinnamon and ground ginger.  Bring it to a boil, then turn it down and let it simmer for five minutes.  At the end of 5 minutes, mix together 2 tbsp water and 1 tbsp corn starch in a separate bowl until smooth. Mix this into the hot apple mixture and stir in until it’s thickened and bubbly.

Meanwhile, put a cup of flour in a bowl with 1 tsp baking powder, 2 dashes cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix together, then cut in 3 tbsp butter.  Mix up an egg and 3 tbsp milk separately, and then add to flour mixture. Stir in milk and mix until just combined.

Pour apple mixture into the baking dish. Put spoonfuls of the dough on top, spreading them out evenly. Bake for 20-30 minutes until dough is done (fork comes clean). EAT WITH ICE CREAM.  Like so:

Mmmmmm.  You are done. And if you are me, you are done AND you need sleep from all that food. But I will leave you with a picture of me and Callie.  Because my cat has been kind to me lately, and I needed a cat to snuggle sometimes.