Very Credible and Edible Salsa Recipe

Home canning salsa is not an easy task.  Out of 50 or so home canning salsa recipes that I have tried, only 3 or 4 actually tasted good enough for me to prefer it over either a fresh salsa, or a (God forbid) store bought salsa. 

It's because of the need for acidity in the home canned salsa that they so often lack quality.  Lemon juice or vinegar needs to be added in order to avoid botulism death, and that can seriously affect the flavor.

D-Wayne's wife Lori passed this recipe along and it is probably my favorite to date.  It's simple and easy - but best of all it tastes effing awesome. 

LORI'S SALSA

You need:
Approximately 50 normal sized tomatoes (obviously less if they're large, more if they're small).
3 Large Red Peppers
3 Large Green Peppers
2 Banana Peppers (or any sort of hot/sweet pepper)
3 Small Onions
4 Jalapenos (I add these, the original recipe does not call for them)

6 Cloves of Garlic (honestly...it's effing garlic - add as much as you want)
1/2 bunch of Cilantro

Blanch and de-seed your tomatoes first.  Trust me, it may take a few extra minutes but it is well worth it.

Dice the tomatoes until you have approximately 2 quarts (save any leftover tomatoes, you'll need them later).

 

Chop all of the other veggies and place them in a large stock pot.  Mix well.

Add 3 Tablespoons of Kosher or Canning salt to the top of the mixture - sprinkle it over the top but do not mix.  Cover the pot with plastic wrap and a lid, and let it sit for at least 8 hours.

  

I leave mine sit on the counter, at room temperature for an entire day. 

After allowing the mixture to rest, drain as much of the liquid off as possible, without removing the mixture from the pot.  I simply poke a few holes in the plastic wrap and drain it into the sink.

Move the pot to a stove burner, and add:

3 Tablespoons Sugar

1/2 Cup White Vinegar

1/2 Cup Lemon Juice

1 Cup Water

and 1 Large Can Tomato Puree...WHAT??!!  NO, NO, NO. 

Why in the world would you spend the time to grow/purchase all of these fresh ingredients, chopping them by hand, with thoughts of popping a fresh jar in the middle of winter, only to use store bought effin tomato puree??!!

Make your own! 

I use 1 quart jar of whole tomatoes that I canned earlier in the season, but any fresh tomatoes will do (see: left over from your chopping above).  If you're using canned tomatoes you do not need to cook them, simply puree and add to your mixture.  If you're using fresh tomatoes you're going to want to bring them to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 20 minutes before adding to your salsa. 

Once you have everything combined and mixed, bring the mixture to a rapid boil, then reduce heat to a slow boil and boil for at least 45 minutes - STIRRING VERY OFTEN.  Allow mixture to boil until it reaches your desired consistency. 

Adjust two piece caps, add to a hot water bath for 15 minutes, and effin enjoy. 

 

Spicy Dilly Beans Yo

Here is a kick-ass recipe for what to do with an over abundance of beans.  Yellow beans work the best.

Spicy Dilly Beans

 Brine: 2 parts water to 1 part vinegar.
1 tsp red pepper flakes, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp salt, some fresh dill or dill seed per each jar.
pack beans, pour hot brine over them.  let cool.  Effiin enjoy. 

Chestnuts Roasting and my Hands are on Fire

On the opposite end of the fall nut spectrum from the Black Walnut, we find the Chestnut.  Black walnuts are very hard and yield a small amount of meat for the work you put into it.  Chestnuts on the other hand are very soft and moist, and much easier to handle.

Chestnuts do not preserve very well.  If you only have a few and plan on eating them within a week, roast them in an oven or over an open fire.  They are such a treat that for a roasted chestnut to last a week in my house is as rare as a good IPA lasting in my refrigerator for that same amount of time - it just doesn't happen.

If you do end up with an overabundance crop and do not want to waste your God given goodness, you do have some options.  If you plan on keeping your chestnuts over the winter months, do not roast them.  Blanch the chestnuts in a boiling water bath for no longer than 1 minute.  Let them cool, and let them dry.

If you plan on keeping them in your fridge, place them in a zip top bag and poke some holes in the bag to allow air to flow through.  You will get about a month keeping your chestnuts in the fridge.

Chestnuts are also able to be frozen.  Follow the same directions as above, and then freeze each chestnut individually before putting them in an airtight container.  I lay them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the deep freeze.  Once they are frozen I simply store them in a freezer bag and they will last up to a year if you're lucky.

When you are ready to use the chestnuts, allow them to thaw in your fridge for a day, and then roast them using the directions listed above.  Sing some holiday tunes, down some eggnog, and have a merry effing day.

Hardly Harvesting Black Walnuts

Effing awesome tree.  Used for high quality wood working, nut meat, and, whether you want it to or not, walnut stain.


To harvest the Black Walnut is a labor of love.  When you pick the nuts at peak ripeness, the outer green shell should be just soft enough to make an indent with your bare hand.  Older methods of removing the nut from the shell included the use of a corn husker or pounding them through a hole in a board.  Other methods involve running over them with a car or smashing them with your feet.  I personally wait until the nuts fall from the tree so they are a little softer, then I just use a knife and work it in a circular motion around the nut, and then drop both the shell and the nut into a large container (I use a keg bucket).


Once your bucket is full of the shells and the nuts, use a hose and fill the bucket with water until everything inside is floating.  The bad nuts and the shells with float, the good nuts actually sink to the bottom.  Skim all of the shells and bad nuts off of the top, drain the water, and lay the good nuts out to dry.


I leave the nuts outside in the sun if it's still nice (the temperature has not been above 62 degrees the last few weeks in Western PA so my nuts are now sitting on the dining room table).  Once they are completely dry they store very well in a mesh bag, in a well ventilated and humid room.  If you're lucky enough to have a fruit cellar that works very well.  If not, your basement or backroom should work just fine.

The humidity level of the room is critical for prolonged preservation because if the nuts become too dry, the outer protective shell can crack and allow the nut meat to rot. 

Sadly, the most difficult part is cracking that protective shell to retrieve the nut meat.  After all of the hard work all you want to do is enjoy the walnut goodness.  Any sort of cement surface and a hammer works best, but be creative.  Once inside you will want to pick the nut meat from the walnut chambers, and then do whatever the eff you want with it.  Eat it raw, bake with it, candy it. 

The nut meat is similar in taste and texture to a "normal" walnut.  I'm not a huge fan of normal walnuts, but I do enjoy the Black Walnuts - but, like I said - it's a labor of love.

Scary Huge Zucchinis: Part 4: Frozen Shredded

The fourth and final thing we did with our plentiful bounty of alien like Zukes was to simply shred and freeze them.  This allows us to pull them out of the freezer at any point during the winter when we want to make bread, zucchini cakes, stir fry, what-effing-ever we want.  With the effing huge zukes, you definitely want to peel them and de-seed them (saving the seeds) because the skin is basically impenetrable and the seeds will destroy your shredder.  Next, quarter them and use a cheese grater to shred them.  If you have a food processor with a shredding attachment like we do -

- it's way easier and takes half the time, but it's up to you.

Before freezing the shredded Zukes you are going to want to blanch them.  I throw the shreds in boiling water for approximately 3-4 minutes, and then lay them on a paper towel to dry.

Once the shreds are completely dry, portion them into pint sized zip top bags.  SG normally potions them in 1 1/2 cup servings.  Place all of the smaller sealed bags into one, large freezer bag, and you're good to go for the rest of the winter.

There are few breakfasts that I look forward to making more than Zucchini cakes.  So effing easy too.

Zuke Cakes Recipe:

1 1/2 Cups shredded zucchini

1 egg, beaten

approximately 1 tablespoon of flour (i never measure for this)

pepper and salt to taste

fresh (or dried) chives to top

Mix everything but the chives in a bowl.

Heat butter and a little oil in a skillet.

Drop batter mix onto the skillet, flatten slightly, and cook until golden brown.

Top with chives and destroy them.

Now THAT tastes effing awesome.  I'm hungry.

UPDATE:
...so hungry that I woke up the next morning and made them for breakfast.  Ahhhh.  Satisfied.

Scary Huge Zukes: Part 3 - Zucchini Bread/Muffins

The third batch of effing huge Zuke recipes involved a classic Zucchini bread recipe, that has been passed down within Super Greenie's family for years and years.  Also, because we had 300 pounds of Zucchini, Super Greenie (SG) also made up some Zuke Muffins for her fellow teachers.   

Personally I prefer the gold ole' bread, but this turned out pretty well.  This recipe has been passed down by SG's Aunt Tam, who is a wonderful baker/cook herself.  I'm not much of a baker, so sharing the recipe is pretty much the extent to which I was involved in the endeavor.

Here's the Recipe for the bread:

AUNT TAM'S ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 Cups Flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 Cup oil

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 Tbs. vanilla extract

3 Cups grated Zucchini

Mix flour and dry ingredients together.

Beat eggs well, add sugar and oil to eggs.

Add vanilla to the wet ingredients, and then mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.

Stir in the Zucchini.

Pour into two greased loaf pans (or muffin pans).

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

 Here's the recipe for the Muffins:

Zucchini Muffins
3 Cups Grated Zucchini
2/3 Cup melted butter
1 1/3 Cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
3 Cups Flour
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 Cup walnuts
1 Cup raisins or craisens

Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Combine sugar, eggs, vanilla.  Stir in grated zucchini and then the melted butter. 
Sprinkle in baking soda and salt and mix again.
In a separate bowl mix flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon.  Stir into wet mixture, then add the nuts and raisins. 
Bake 25-30 minutes, makes approximately 12-14 muffins.

SG did state that with the effing huge Zukes you may want to add a little honey or extra sugar to the mixture because of the large zukes being less sweet than the normal sized ones.

I like my zuke bread sliced and warmed with a little melted butter on top.  Tastes effing awesome.

Scary Huge Zukes: Part 2 - Roasted Zuke Seeds

When you're dealing with gargantuan zucchinis, you're going to have large seeds to contend with.  If you saved all of the seeds from making your Zuke Soup, you're one step closer to a simple, tasty treat. 

You are going to lose some seeds if you quarter the zukes like in the picture below.  It's almost impossible to cut your zucchini without slicing some of the seeds in half.  The good thing is, even the halved seeds are yummy when roasted.

After separating the seeds from the zuke gunk, boil them in salty water for approximately 10 minutes.  This will aid in completely removing all of the gunk, as well as softening them for a nice toasty roast.

Lay the seeds out on a paper towel and allow them to completely dry overnight. 

 

Once the zuke seeds are completely dry, mix them with some melted butter, olive oil, and coarse sea salt.  I had approximately 1 1/2 cups of seeds, and used 2 Tbls of butter, 1 tsp olive oil, and 1 Tbl of salt. 

Once again lay them on a paper towel to dry the excess moisture.  You still want them to have a nice "sheen" on them from the butter and oil, but you do not want them soaking in the mixutre. 

Once the excess fat is removed, place them on a cookie sheet and then into a preheated 300 degree oven. 

Zuke seeds roast a little faster than pumpkin seeds, so keep an eye on them and remove them when they turn a nice golden brown (usually about 30 minutes).

Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.  If they last more than a few days you will want to then move the container into the refridgerator, but they are nomally gone before you have to worry about that. 

It's a nice way to use those giant seeds, and they taste effing awesome.

 

Scary Huge Zucchinis - Part 1: Zucchini Soup

We have all seen it before.  That one Zucchini (or 3) that grows tucked under those giant leaves, and by the time you find it it's 23 times the size of a normal zucchini.  It scares you when you see it.  "Woah!! Oh my God, what is tha...oh, it's a Zucchini.  I thought for sure I just dug up a petrified dinosaur turd from a Brontosaurus that discovered a field of Broccoli. " 

The good thing is that there is a TON of zucchini meat once you can break through the turd's skin.  The bad thing - or things, are that 1) the skin is rapidly turning to steel, 2) the seeds are no longer the size of cucumber seeds, but more like pepitas, and 3) the fruit is losing it's natural sweet flavor.

Because of those differences with the overgrown Zukes, the same old recipes are not going to taste the same or as good.  We need to make some adjustments.  Tonight Super Greenie and I came home and tackled 3 effing huge Zukes.  We finished the night with 4 varieties of Zucchini.  Here is part 1.

Zucchini Soup (canned):

Recipe (makes 4 pints):

1 1/2 Large Zukes or 4 Normal Zukes - peeled, de-seeded (save the seeds), and cut into 2 inch cubes.

4 Cups of Water.

1 Tbl. canning/kosher salt.

2 Tbl. Lemon Juice

Pinch of ground ginger.

Cook Zukes and water in a stock pot until zukes are soft. 

Blend until smooth with a hand-held blender stick or in a food processor or blender.
Add back into stock pot.

Add Salt and Lemon juice, bring back to a simmer and simmer for at least 5 minutes.

Place into pint jars, adjust two piece lids, and put into a pressure canner.

Cook for 60 minutes at 10 lbs. pressure.

 This soup is awesome by itself (I prefer it with a little more Ginger, fresh if you got it).  It can also be "doctored" up with your favorite herbs and spices, or because it is so simple it can be added to other recipes.  Simple, good, and a nice way to preserve and conserve those effing huge Zucchinis.  Stay tuned for part 2.   

 

 

Home Preservation: Will This Save me Effing Money?!

Let's break it down and take a look. 

Now of course prices are going to vary in different parts of the country and the world, so if someone finds a price cheaper than the example I use - keep it to yourself.

Since we spoke about Tomato soup we'll just use that as an example.  Here is a price for Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup at Walgreens.  Three 10.75 ounce cans for $4.00.

37 cents/ounce for Condensed Tomato soup.  Seems pretty cheap when you look at it that way.  But if you factor in how many ounces of food your body needs to ingest each day to stay healthy that amount could increase exponentially.

Now let's see what it would cost if you made the soup at home.

We'll assume that this is your first adventure into home canning, so we'll factor in the cost of a new case of Mason Jars.  For the this example we'll also assume you grew all of your own veggies.

1 case of 12 mason jars = $8.00.  12 jars x 16 oz each = 192 ounces total. 

All of your veggies whether grown from seed or if you purchased a plant would not cost more than .50 cents if you're using my Tomato Soup Recipe, but we'll increase that to $3.00 just for shits and giggles.

1 package of Brown Sugar = $2.85 for 32 oz - or $.09/oz.   1 Cup dry measure sugar = approx. 6.8 oz., so your sugar would cost you approx. $.61.

Canning Salt costs about the same so 1/4 Cup dry measure salt = approx.  1.7 oz., so salt would cost $.15.

1 tsp ground cloves and 5 Bay leaves cost less than .25 cents, but we'll go with .25 because it's easier.

So we're looking at $8.00 + $3.00 + $.61 + $.15 + $.25 = $12.01 total. 

$12.01 = 1,201 cents.  1,201 divided by 192 oz = an astounding 6.26 cents/ounce.

ALMOST 31 EFFING CENTS/OUNCE LESS!

Awesome isn't it?  And that was with high-balling most of the figures.  Most times if you start your garden from seed it's going to cost you under 50 cents for the veggies in that recipe.

Also, what about the next time you do it?  You already have the jars and rings, so instead of paying $8.00 you're paying $1.89 for a pack of seals.  Factor that in and it's only 2.45 cents/ounce.  NOT - EVEN - EFFING - CLOSE to what it costs you buying it at the store.  I even got 15 pints out of that recipe so it's going to be cheaper still.  Nice huh?

So obviously home canning saves you cold, hard cash. 

Later.

Hot Pepper Freaking Salad

Well, instead of canning pepper rings this weekend, we canned Hot Pepper Salad.  Good, good, shit.  You can make it the way listed below, or you can shred all of the veggies a little smaller and create sort of a spread that you can spoon onto sandwiches, burgers, pizza, your hand, whatever. 

Here's the Recipe:

1/2 Peck Hot Peppers

1/2 Peck Mild Peppers

1 Stalk Celery

1/3 C. Oregeno

3 Cups Oil

2/3 Cups Canning/Pickling Salt

4 Cups Water

1 Quart White Vinegar

1 Head Cauliflower

1/2 Bag Carrots

2 Cups Black Olives

1 Whole Head Garlic

Cut everything into small bite size pieces and place into something large that will still fit into your refridgerator.  Mix oregeno, salt, oil, water, and vinegar. 

Cover all veggies with mixture and let sit over night in fridge.

Next Day place into jars, with liquid, leaving 1/2 inch head space. 

Place in a water canner.  Start in cold water (so the jars don't break).  Bring only to a boil then remove from heat.  Leave jars sit for a few minutes and then remove and cool.

We actually mix up a variety of peppers.  Jalapenos, Bananas, Cubanelles, Green, Red, etc.  Whatever you grew or purchased will work and taste effing awesome.  Of course the Red and Green Bell peppers will not stay as crispy as the others once they are processed, so definitely use more of the hotter varietys.

Buttermilk Biscuits Duder!!

We made some homemade Buttermilk Biscuits this weekend for breakfast:

Buttermilk is badass.  It does not taste all that great by itself, but it enhances so many things.  We normally have some in the fridge, not because we love it so much, but because of it's long shelf life.  Buttermilk is very acidic (that's why you can replicate it in recipes by adding vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk) so it lasts much longer in the refrigerator than "regular" milk.  With this last quart of buttermilk we have made southern fried chicken, buttermilk pancakes (of course, THE EFFIN BEST!), and buttermilk biscuits.  A little goes a long way.

Here is the Recipe:

2 loosely packed Cups of Flour (sifted)

2 1/2 Tbl. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. salt
5 Tbl. Chilled Butter (I chop it up really fine).
3/4 Cup Buttermilk
3 Tbl. Honey

Combine the dry ingredients and cut the butter peices into the mixture with a fork.  Chill 10 minutes.

Combine milk and honey, then add to the dry mixture.  Stir only until moist. 

Turn dough onto a flour covered surface and knead 4 times.  Roll out the dough into about a 10 by 5 inch rectangle that is 1/2 inch think.  Powder the top of the dough with flour. 

Fold the rectangle into thirds (folding both ends to the middle) and repeat previous step, once again dusting the top with flour. 

Repeat step a third time, rolling the dough to approximately 3/4 inch think.  Use any rouch utensil, cup, jar, etc. to cut into circles, and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden effing brown. 

I got this recipe off of the internet about 3 years ago while I was still living in the Mountains (actually the foothills) of Colorado.  I have no idea who this person was that originally listed the recipe, and if you end up being one of the 4 people to read this, I'm sorry I could not give proper credit where it is due - but your Buttermilk Biscuits are effing AWESOME! 

Keep it real green dudes. 

 

You Say Tomato, I say Effing Awesome.

This is the latest batch of garden goodness:

Almost 100% homegrown Tomato Soup.  Heat up the cast iron, slather some butter on the pan, shove some cheese between two pieces of bread, toast, and dunk.  Little Winger LOVES grilled cheese, and he gets pissed when we try to sneak something besides cheese into them.  Tomato soup is good anyway you eat it (especially homemade), but it's the best with a grilled cheese sandwich. 

This was to use up the last of Pop's tomatoes for the 2009 season.  We made out sauces, our salsas, and canned the tomatoes whole - but since I started canning on my own the last batch of tomatoes for the season always brings tomato soup.  The air is getting crispy and the nights are cold.  Sundays are once again spent watching football.  You know that Fall is right around the corner, what better way to celebrate cold weather than with tomato soup.

My Recipe this year (from mine or Pop's garden marked with an *):

3/4 Bushel of Tomatoes*

8 Cups Diced Onion*

2 Cups Diced Green Pepper*

2 Cups Diced Red Pepper*

2 Jalapeno (of course)*

4 Cups Diced Celery (Giant Eagle)

4 Cups Sliced Carrots (Farmer's Market)

2 Cloves Garlic*

5 Bay Leaves

tsp. Ground Cloves

Combine all of the above ingredients in a roaster or large stock pot and simmer until vegetables are fork tender.  Once veggies are soft, place in a blender/food processor until it reaches desired consistency (I like mine blended for approx. 30 seconds on medium speed).

Place back into cooking device and add 1 cup of Brown sugar and 1/4 Cup canning/kosher salt.  Bring to a boil stirring constantly, then reduce to a slow simmer.

Process in hot two-piece canning jars in a pressure canner.  If you have a pressure cooker like mine with the weighted pressure valve on the top, process for 20 minutes once you reach the "slow rock."  If you have a gauged pressure cooker refer to your instruction manual.

Easy as sex, and now you have soup for those blustery days during the winter months.  If you do not feel comfortable canning the soup, Mason/Ball jars can be frozen as well.  So pack them with the soup once it has cooled, leave about 1 inch of head space and stick them in the freezer.

We love this shit as you can see:

 

There is nothing more satisfying than when someone eats something you preserved and they compliment on its awesomeness.  "Whose Jalapeno Jelly is this you say?  Haha (nervous/boastful laugh).  Well yes it's mine.  (blushing, sticking chest out)  Yes I made it with my bounty of Jalapenos from my garden."  Effing AWESOME feeling.  Of course if you're new to canning be sure to follow proven recipes from credible sources because although it's simple once you have the hang of it, botulism is just effing terrible.  

 So, is all of the time and effort it takes to preserve your homegrown goodness worth the time?  Does it save you money?  Carbon Footprint?  OF COURSE. 

But that's for another post. 

We could go into far more detail about the monetary savings, the earth friendliness, and the great taste of home preserved food but this post is already too long so we'll save that for later.

The annual "pepper ring canning" is this weekend before the Steeler's game.  A good time as usual, and who doesn't love a pile of hot peppers on their hoagie or with their eggs.  Effin Eh.