Lazy Day

I spent my day being very lazy.  I watched movies snuggled up to my daughter and planned out recipes to make the rest of the summer.  The reason I had such a lazy day was because the remaining peaches molded.  Yep, a total loss of 21 peaches, damn it all.  So I spent quality time with my little girl.  We watched the first Narnia and then Labrynth.  Jerith is one sexy goblin king.  *purrr*

Anyway, tomorrow I am making Dixie Relish.  I have never made it before but it sounds like it should be yummy.  It is a little like pickle relish, from what I can tell, but made with bell peppers instead of cucumbers.  I won't know really how good it is until a few weeks from now when it matures.

For dinner I made another batch of Chicken Enchiladas, instead of pulling them out of the freezer, since I still had all the ingredients.  The Enchilada Sauce that I found ended up too watery so I made some adjustments and it turned out yummy.

Enchilada Sauce
2 8ounce cans tomato sauce
2 cans water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin

Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Boil for about 2 minutes and it is ready.  Makes enough to cover 8 enchiladas in a 15x9-inch pan.

Pour over enchiladas (will be soupy), sprinkle with cheese, and bake at 350 degrees F until bubbly.

Finally...

I finally got the Chicken Enchiladas made.  The original recipe called for ground beef, but my daughter prefers chicken, so I substituted.  That is all I accomplished today because I had an appointment for a routine physical, which turned out better than I had hoped.  All bloodwork came back better than normal, so I am a happy camper.

Tomorrow I plan to make use of the leftover peaches and will probably make spaghetti sauce instead of salsa.  After peeling all those peaches, I am not peeling all those tomatoes! I will as always give the recipes when finished.

Chicken Enchiladas
20 tortillas
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
Filling:
3 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 15ounce cans black beans, drained
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

In a saucepan, combine filling ingredients and cook over medium heat until heated through.  Soften the tortillas in the microwave for 10-20 seconds.  Put a spoonful of filling down the center of the tortilla, sprinkle with cheese, gently roll up, and put seam side down on cookie sheet.  Continue until all filling is used.  Put trays in freezer to flash freeze.  When frozen, put into ziplock bags for later use.

To Make Enchiladas: Put frozen, filled tortillas in a 9x13-inch pan and cover with enchilada sauce.  Sprinkle top with shredded Cheddar cheese and bake at 350 degrees F until everything is bubbly, or roughly 45 minutes.

***I have not tried a homemade enchilada sauce recipe, but will tomorrow night for dinner and will let you know how that turns out.***

Phew...I'm tired

My day started at 7am today -- fun, fun, fun.  I was too sleepy to cook that damn early, so I just relaxed for a while and started around 10:30-11:00.  I started by heating the chicken stock up and then canning it in the pressure canner.  I ended up with 5 quarts and 2 pints of chicken stock.  Not bad for spending only $1.21 for the chicken necks (I don't count the price of the chicken the bones came from since they are just a by-product).  I processed the jars for 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

                                   

I had to wait until the pressure canner was cool enought to move off the stove because I needed the room to get the peaches ready.  Talk about labor intensive!  Ugh!  It was worth it, but tiring.  Took me 3 to 3 1/2 hours to finish and most of that was peeling the little boogers.

This recipe is going to be a little vauge on numbers because I didn't count how many peaches I processed, or even weigh it for that matter.  So you will have to gauge for yourself the proportions.  I ended up with 19 pints of peaches.  And just to give you a rough idea of the amount of syrup to make, I only used 12 cups syrup for the 19 pints. 


I still have 21 peaches that were too soft for canning whole, so I am searching for recipes to use them in.  I think I have a few interesting ones to try out tomorrow.  But first thing tomorrow is Chicken Enchiladas!!!

Peaches in Light Honey Syrup
Firm peaches
Syrup: 1 1/4 cups honey per 4 cups warm water

For the syrup: Mix the honey and warm water together and pour into a tea kettle.  Heat on the stove as you process the peaches.

For peaches: Place peaches, in batches, into boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Remove to a bowl of ice water.  The skins should just peel off.  There should be a little crease to one side of the peach.  Use this as a guide to cut the peach in half and twist slightly to divide the halves. Remove pit and slice into hot sterilized jars.  When jar is full, immediately pour the syrup from the kettle to fill to within 1-inch of the top, leaving a headspace.

When you have enough jars to fill your water bath canner, place them inside with hot water to an inch or two above the jars.  Cover and process at a boil for 15 minutes.  While they are processing, continue to put batches if peaches into the boiling water and then the ice water, etc.  Rotate the jars out of the canner and into the canner as they finish. 

Free? Free is GOOD!

Today I canned made 3 quarts and 1 pint of vegetable stock for free!  Yes, I said FREE!  When I made the Chow-Chow and Garden Soup last week, I saved the onion ends, cabbage cores, bell pepper tops and seeds, and potato peels.  I put them into gallon ziplock bags and when I had two full bags I made veggie stock.  I added the vegetables to a large stock pan and covered them in a lot of water, I mean ALOT.  Then I let it simmer for about 10 hours, maybe 12 (I didn't really count).  I didn't salt it because I don't like a lot of salt.  When it tasted right, I ladeled it into sterilized jars and canned them in the pressure canner for 80 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.

I also beboned the chicken I roasted Saturday and plan to make Chicken Enchiladas tomorrow out of it.  I took the bones, de-fatted broth saved from the roaster, and a 2 pounds of chicken necks I bought for $1.21 and added it to a stock pot filled with water.  I let this simmer for about 6 hours.  I did salt this stock because it needed the flavor to balance out.  I will can this tomorrow.  It wasn't free like the vegie stock, but damn near. 

So, the plan for this week is:

Tuesday

• Can chicken stock
• Can peaches with honey syrup
• Make Chicken Enchilladas for the freezer

Wednesday

• Freeze Bell Peppers
• Make Salsa
• Can Salsa

Thursday

• Make Dishwasher Detergent

Friday

• Spill-Over Day

A Little Persian Flavor

This weekend has been busy!  We went to the Farm Market in Darnestown twice and I now have a box of green bell peppers and a box of peaches.  I bought tomatoes at our local Korean store, H Mart, for 79 cents a pound (I bought roughly 18 pounds).  Magruder's had chicken leg quarters for 69 cents a pound so I bought 13 1/2 pounds and roasted them yesterday in my countertop-roaster.  I plan to make Chicken Enchilladas with some of the chicken tomorrow. 

Today Magruder's had cauliflower for 68 cents a head and green cabbage for 48 cents a pound.  I thought now would be the best time to make some Torshi.  For those who do not know, Torshi is a Persian soury-tangy vegetable condiment, kinda like a chunky relish.  It is awesome!  So I asked Maman to help me make some.  We chopped up everything at her house tonight and then I seasoned it and added the vinegar when I got home.  The seasoning is a bag of picking spices that we bought at the Persian grocery, but you might be able to find it at another ethnic store. 

The back of the pickling spice lists the ingredients.  In case it is difficult to read, it says: Allspice, Mustard Seeds, Cloves, Ginger, Cinnamon, Corriander Seeds, Black Pepper, Dill Seeds, Bay Leaves, Cardamom.

I will post my weekly plan tomorrow because I have yet to formalize it.  I do know that it will be more than this past week, but I will be having a blast as usual.  Now for the rough "recipe" for Torshi.

Torshi
1 small head green cabbage
1 medium head of cauliflower
1 onion
2 heads of garlic
1 package Pickling Spices
Pinch of Turmeric
1 gallon vinegar

Chop the cabbage, cauliflower, and onions into small chunky pieces and place in a very large bowl.  Peel the papery skins from the garlic and add to the vegetable mixture; mix well.  Add the vegetables to a gallon jar (can be plastic or glass).  Add the pickling spices and turmeric.  Fill the jar with vinegar.  If the lid is metal place plastic wrap over the top before sealing because the vinegar reacts with the metal and it is not pretty, but if the lid is plastic you do not need the wrap.  Once the jar is sealed, shake the jar to mix the spices throughout.  The vinegar will turn a slight yellow because of the turmeric.  Set in a dry, cool area for about a month, but if you get impatient wait at least a week.  The longer it sits, the better it tastes. 

Making the Most from a Last Minute Sale

This past weekend Safeway had a sale on 5-pound bags of russett potatoes, $1.49 a bag!  I learned of the sale Friday night, the night before the sale ended.  I went first thing the next morning and bought two bags (the maximum limit).  Today I finally got around to making Twice Baked Potatoes from one of the bags.  I think I will make mashed potatoes and baked potato skins out of the other bag. 

Twice Baked Potatoes is a little labor intensive, but oh so worth it.  I used a grapefruit spoon to hollow out the shells after they were baked, but ended up poking holes in the shells so I won't do that next time.  Since this was the first time I had ever made them, I did not know how easy the potatoes were to hollow out.  Be careful when you touch the potatoes, they are HOT!  Use an oven mitt! 

I also finished canning the rest of the Garden Soup today and only ended up with four more jars, making a total of 11.  Doing the math that is a little over 5 pints a batch, not the 7 pints I originally posted.  Still not a bad amount of soup since one pint should serve two (but it is so damn good ya might not want to share).

Twice Baked Potatoes
5 pounds potatoes
Canola Oil
Salt
1 cup half-and-half
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
4 ounces cream cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Rub canola oil on all of the potatoes, then rub on the salt.  Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until they "give" slightly.  Mix half-and-half, butter, and cream cheese.  Cut potatoes in half lengthwise with a serrated knife. Scoop out the potato pulp and add to cheese mixture; mix well.  Fill shells and sprinkle with Cheddar cheese, patting down to adhere to potatoes.  Cover with plastic wrap and flash freeze.

To Cook Frozen Potatoes:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Remove from plastic, place on baking sheet, and cover loosely with foil.  Bake 45 minutes, remove foil, and cook 15 minutes more.  Do not overbake!

One 5-pound bag made 22 Twice Baked Potatoes, and some of them are even small enough to be the perfect portion for our daughter.  This is a photo of the potatoes ready for the freezer.

P.S. While your hands are coated with canola oil and salt, rub your hands together and you get a cheap hand exfoliation...a.k.a soft hands for free.

Soup's On

About six months ago we though our daughter might be allergic to gluten so I set out looking for recipes that were gluten-free.  Luckily it turns out she is not allergic to gluten, just refined foods.  We now buy all whole grains and she no longer has stomach pains...unless she eats too much of them :-)

The recipe that inspired this soup was from my Gulten-Free searching.  I liked the premise of a tomato-type soup that had more depth to it.  Let's face it, most tomato soups are like eating thick tomato juice...no personality.  I added some things to the original recipe and took others away (not a fan of sweet potatoes).  You can easily adapt this to whatever veggies you like.  I canned seven pints of this and plan to can as many tomorrow, but that was from a double batch (two crockpots).  So roughly seven pints from a single batch.

Oh, and yes, you can add the equal amount of fresh tomatoes instead of the canned called for in the recipe, I was just using what I had on hand.

Garden Soup
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1/2 small head green cabbage, cored and chopped
12 baby carrots, chopped
Salt and fresh black pepper, to taste
28 ounce can cruched tomatoes
2 14ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 cups vegetable stock

Add everything to the crockpot and stir to mix well.  Set to low and allow to cook for 10-12 hours.  Puree in food processor or blender until desired consistancy (less time for chunky and more for a smooth soup).

To can the soup, pour the hot soup into hot, sterlized jars and process in a pressure canning at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts. 

There are many sites that can tell you how to can using a pressure canner, so I will not re-invent the wheel.  :-)  Besides, I am just learning to use the canner I received from my Ninnie. Which I found out today needs a new pressure gauge.  Not bad for a 60-something year old pressure canner.  If you are in the market for a pressure canner, All-American pressure canners with the metal-on-metal seal are the best you can buy, as mine is a prime example of!  It also says something that the company is still in business after damn near 100 years and I can still get parts for my cannner.  Anyway, enough rambling, go cook some soup :-)