Tasting, tasting …
I broke out the peach salsa and the peach jam I canned. I was trying to wait, to let the flavors blend, to have a little patience. Well, that’s as much patience as I have – maybe a month? I really, really wanted to know if something tasty came of all those hours of work and peach juice dripping from my elbows.
I was not disappointed. The peach jam is basically peach butter, thick and tangy and sweet, the essence of peach on toast.
But the peach salsa was better than good. It was terrific. I’m not much for complimenting myself, but if I could give you all a taste, I totally would. It made me happy. If you’re in the area, come on over. But you should hurry, the first of two jars is half gone.
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.
Greetings, earthlings
First on my list today is a birthday wish to my Grandma, who turns 82 today. Happy birthday Grandma!
Second, Shelly asked me what a mayhaw is, since I mentioned one in reference to jam. Eh voila:
Yon mayhaw is a berry from a type of hawthorne tree that fruits in May (May + haw, get it?) So mayhaw.net tells me. As far as what it tastes like … well, it tastes like a mayhaw. You should try it. It’s a southern treat, as mayhaw trees flower early on in the year. Consequently the trees grow best mostly in Louisiana but also in Mississippi and east Texas. My neighbor who made mayhaw jelly was from Louisiana (Looozeeeana) and I grew up in east Tejas, so I guess that explains my familiarity.
Y’all want me to break out in an east Texas twang, now? Hahahahaha. That would be the day.
Speaking of jelly, tomorrow I venture out in a westerly direction where there are a number of fruit tree farms between here and Fredericksburg – peach trees to be precise. I’m going to see if I can procure some of those tasty things and do some more canning with them. I’m quite positive that some obliging farm folks will have recipes I can try at the farm stands. Each year I’ve been out there when fruit is in season I’ve come back with pages of dessert recipes.
I meant to write a post yesterday but honestly, I was being quite weepy. Quite. I’m not normally a weepy person, but … well, I picked up Caper’s ashes yesterday. The folks who do this did one extra thing I wasn’t at all prepared for. They made a clay impression of his paw. That’s right, it did me in. I cried and cried. *sigh* I miss my cat. His food bowls are still out. I can’t help it, I’m not ready yet.
If that wasn’t enough, I went to Shelly’s blog to read her account of delivering the Share A Square blankets (sniffle), and then read the account at Yellow Rose’s Garden (Sherry and her daughter went) (sniff), and then went and looked at the pictures Shelly posted on Flickr (sniff) … and then I cried some more. Then I remembered Shelly gave me an Arte y Pico award earlier this week (that was sweet of her, wasn’t it?) and there was yet more sniffling.
And then I realized I really just had to get off the internet before I became a weeping puddle of goo and go read or something. So I did, and so I will do now, because I’m not yet done with my book.
