More food. And then more food.
I just made watermelonade. I think it needs more mixing with actual lemonade, but it’s pretty tasty for being just blended, strained watermelon with some lemon juice and a pinch of salt. I was supposed to add sugar, but these watermelons we’ve been getting are so sweet there’s just no point. I have, however, had quite enough of watermelon for the most part. We’ve received four in our local food box - Enough Already! There’s really only so much watermelon a girl can eat.
But this is not really about watermelon. This is about a different fruit, the peach. Remember when I posted those pictures of driving out west of here? Well, I actually made that trip in order to get these:
What’s that you say? You can’t see the lovely produce well enough? it IS pretty, isn’t it? So here you go:
I got all these peaches and tomatoes in order to can them. Guess how long it took me to peel all those peaches and tomatoes? Somewhere around 3 and a half hours. Plus about four more to get everything else boiled, chopped, peeled, cooked, and processed. But that’s not the whole reason this is yet another story of How Miriam Is Nuts.
The real reason is that I canned not only peach preserves (2 quarts) but also tomatoes (1 quart), peach salsa (1 quart) and peach jam (2 pints). It has all been very tasty. HOWEVER, let me tell you about lesson number One about a small kitchen and multiple recipes: DON’T DO IT. It would’ve been fine if I’d stuck to two. Three would’ve been way too many. Four was ridiculous.
With me, nothing can be simple (much to my husband’s eternal dismay). I tend to make things into a giant, messy production, and I was really lucky that on this particular Sunday that these were canned, I was really lucky that my Mom was staying the night. Without her help, I would’ve been up s*** creek without a paddle, as the saying goes. But as the other saying goes, all’s well that ends well. That’s my motto and I’m sticking to it (for now). Recipes after the break.
Is it fall yet?
I think maybe that I should just go on vacation to Saskatchewan for the months of July and August.
I’m not a fan of heat. I prefer chilly and breezy. I’d rather wear a sweater than a pair of shorts. I sunburn with ridiculous, crispy ease. And when it comes to the sunny, sweltering heat of the dog days of late summer, I am not at my best. I’m not sure how many 100+ degree days we’ve had thus far, but I do know that it’s too many, and that it’s not stopping soon. Monday is supposed to be a high of 105.
{aren’t my cupcakes pretty? I made them for a work event. They were really tasty!}
I am longing for the temperatures to slink back into the 80s, as they will in late September. I’m beginning to scour blog posts and craft forums for mentions of fall projects (pumpkins! scarecrows!). I have picked out my Halloween costume already. Plus, I saw a notice about choosing yarn for holiday gifts yesterday and it made me deliriously happy. Soon! I thought. Soon there will be an end to summer!
{here’s Callie, practicing the ancient feline art of Being Where She’s Not Supposed to Be while Pretending She Belongs There Anyway}
Heat appears to suck my creativity and energy out through my ears, leaving scattered unfinished projects in its wake, projects I cannot imagine wanting to ever complete. I can’t say that I’ve managed to summon more than a passing interest in my crochet hooks or sewing machine for weeks now. Heat also makes me irritable. If you’ve ever wanted to start an argument with me, I’d recommend catching me outside at 3:30 pm on a 100-degree Thursday in late July. Today, for example.
Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup
Heat is why I decided to make butternut squash soup the other day. It was a frustrated longing for fall, combined with the timely arrival of a butternut squash and some sweet potatoes in my weekly vegetable delivery. Although I realize squash is a summer vegetable, I’ve always associated it with fall, along with other items like sweet potatoes and yams. The lovely golden color makes me think of harvest, and October.
I’ve always intended to make this soup, but for some reason I never have, and wow! I have a new favorite food, I think. It was really tasty. What I eventually made was an amalgamation of several recipes - all, and yet none of them. I will tell you what sold me on making soup was the quote at the top of one recipe: “this soup is the perfect way to warm up on a cool autumn day.” Just what I needed at the end of July.
Here’s what I did - it makes enough for 2:
- 1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into small cubes
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
- 3/4 cup diced red or yellow onion
- 3 cups vegetable broth/stock
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter
- 10 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped from stems
- 1 hot pepper (serrano or cayenne), deseeded & deveined, diced (optional)
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1/2 c. milk
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender. Add the butternut squash and sweet potatoes (should make about four cups) to the pot, the thyme, the turmeric and the hot pepper (if you want a bit of spice) and pour in the vegetable stock/broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the vetegables are tender, stirring occasionally.
After the vegetables are tender, cool until no longer boiling. Then puree it in a blender or food processor. If you have too much, you may have to do this step in batches. When the mixture is smooth, return it to the soup pot and stir in a half-cup of milk and heat through.
Serve warm with a sprinkling of parmesan and some crusty toasted bread on the side. Mmmm, fall! (if only in my mind)
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?
