Thursday, July 28, 2011

Hot Pepper Relish

When I start gardening every spring I get these "projects" in my mind and that leads my planting of certain veggies.  Like last year I made 85 jars of pickles using cucumbers and dill that I grew...  This year my only real project is salsa verde and I am still waiting for my tomatillos to ripen up.

Meanwhile I have peppers, lots of peppers!  Hot and sweet, long and short, skinny and fat, all delicious.  While searching recipes posted by two girls and a hammer I found a recipe for Hot Pepper Relish on my favorite food preservation web site.

Everything I have tried from the National Center for Home Food Preservation has been wonderful and this doesn't disappoint.  You can get the recipe here, Hot Pepper Relish.

Here are some photos from the process:








My changes to the recipe were:
I used 6 cups of banana, bell, and some other sweet variety, and 4 cups of jalapeno, anaheim, and poblano.
I used a food processor to grind the peppers.
I did not leave all of the seeds in the jalapenos.

It is wonderful!

I wish you enough.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Mozzarella Cheese

Updated 8/9/2011


I don't remember why I decided to do this... maybe it's all the fresh tomatoes and basil I have and mozzarella is the only thing missing.  So I ordered a cheese making kit and set to work.

I am having friends over to make this next week so I wanted to do a test run before the big night.  I think it went ok.











Super yummy turnout especially when warm....  looking forward to sharing it with friends.

Well, I had a great time having the girls over to make the cheese.  We enjoyed salmon cream cheese crackers, hummus and carrots, and fresh tomatoes.  Not to mention the mojitos and wine.  The cheese turned out ok again.  







I wish you enough!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Portabello Reuben Sandwich

I was craving sandwiches the other night and got this idea for a veggie Reuben from a Moosewood Kitchen cookbook.  I would rate this an 8/10 and think the only thing to make it better would be a dense pumpernickel bread.

First I made the dressing:
1/3 c. mayo
1/4 of a red onion, chopped
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
dash of Cholula or Tabasco sauce
1 tsp tomato paste
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Next slice 4 portabello mushrooms into 1/4 inch slices and saute in a little olive oil until desired consistency.  I like mine a little soft but also still meaty.

While the mushrooms cook spread the sauce on 4 slices of bread. Top one half with cheese and the other half with 1/4 cup sauerkraut.



Heat a grill on medium heat, spray with olive oil and toast bread until cheese melts and the bread is brown.


Place mushrooms on cheese side of the bread and remove from heat.


Enjoy the yummy gooey cheesy inside!



I like this so much I wanted to make it the next night too.  It would also be good with tempeh...

I wish you enough!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Harvest Update: Mid July

Spent a wonderful morning at the farm harvesting food.  Pulled a few weeds, examined the raccoon damage and walked the 53 hills of winter squash.

Here is the garden in May:


And the garden now:


We found out that it was raccoons eating our sweet corn not the groundhogs:



But don't think for one second that these groundhogs are nice to the garden....

** So far we are eating tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, potatoes, peaches, green beans, and peas.




This weekend the bean plants were removed because the Mexican Bean Beetle has been munching away and we are trying to decrease the spread and population.  We are looking into a beneficial wasp that will eat these beetles then do not overwinter.  Maybe that will save our second crop of beans....

I have many dreams of tomato recipes this year, hopefully some will come into fruition and I can share them here.

Hope you are enjoying the food of summer!  



I wish you enough!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Garlic and Shallots

WOW!  This always amazes me.  Last fall I planted 24 cloves of garlic and 18 shallots.  Tonight I harvested them:




And set the garlic up to dry:


If all goes well I think we'll have enough garlic for the year... as for the shallots, I need to figure out how to get a better outcome, but they are beautiful.

I wish you enough!