August Kitchen

We have been putting our kitchen skills to use this summer. Things we have never made before are turning out so amazing we eat them up before a picture can be snapped (fried green tomatoes).  And some old things we are finally learning how to make taste good. (johnnycakes)

Our canning has been limited to raspberries, blueberries and cherries. We didn't get a single of our own raspberry or blueberry this year so all of our fruit came from nearby farms. (Damn birds) We have stocked up a portion of the freezer with salsa, green beans, peaches and basil pesto. I am still waiting to get enough tomatoes at once to can whole tomatoes and hopefully a few jars of ketchup.

I see us forming new habits in our cooking, eating, buying, and obsessing. For starters, we are fat hoarders now. You heard me. We save all the fat from everything we cook that leaves fat in the pan. We use it over and over. I know that sounds gross, it isn't. It's amazing.

We eat what we pull in from the garden and if we run out then we will hit up the farm down the road.  But, mostly what I'm seeing is when we've eaten up the beans for the week we just stop eating beans and move onto whatever else is in the basket we haul up from the backyard.

We are buying way less. I mean way less. Our freezer is pretty well stocked with cows and pigs that used to live down the road. I am so conscience of how much meat we consume that I am always 'forgetting' to thaw something out, so we have to eat beans again. We are eating either beef or pork about 5 times a week now, that includes all meals... not just dinner.  I still haven't found a meat chicken supply that is local and in our budget, so we eat a lot of (free) eggs!

I am trying not to obsessively say in my head 'I can make that - don't buy it' because really the list of what I can make is growing (yay!) but my allotted time to make those things isn't (boo!).  Honestly, though when I reach the point in my life where I have all the time to make all of the things, I won't have all the people to feed on a daily basis and that is just too sad to think about.
  

fried eggs

rosemary pork with peach chutney and sweet corn

pesto, parmesan and roma grilled pizza

peach pie

Apple Butter

I was going to make applesauce, but I left it in the slow cooker a little too long...so now we have apple butter.

Apple Butter

ingredients
about 30 apples, peeled, cored and chopped.
2 Cups white sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg


directions
1. Place about 20 chopped apples in slow cooker with cinnamon and nutmeg
2. Cook on low for about 8 hours
3. Pour mixture into food processor and blend until smooth but not too liquidy
4. Add the remaining chopped apples and sugar to the slow cooker
5. Continue to cook on low for another 3 to 4 hours
6. Again, pour mixture into food processor and blend until smooth
7. Cool overnight in the refrigerator
8. The next morning, cook on low for another 6 to 8 hours with the lid half off to let the steam out
9. Sanitize jars and lids
10. Fill jars with warm apple butter, leaving about 1/4 inch of space at the top
11. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean washcloth
12. Seat the lid and tighten the ring
13. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes
14. Lift them out of the canner and let sit undisturbed for 24 hours 

I tend to process things longer than instructions call for because I'm a bit of a Nervous Nelly when it comes to canning. I'm still very much a novice and I don't need any botulism in my life.

Safety Tip: Make sure your lids are sealed by pressing in the center (gently) with your finger. If it bounces up and down it is not sealed. Refrigerate it (about a month) or freeze it (4 to 6 months)

Basil & Blueberries

This past weekend we drove out to our favorite blueberry farm, Wintergreen Tree Farm,  and three generations of our family picked somewhere close to 12 pounds of blueberries in about an hour and half. That's how long it took for the sun to melt our little ones into whiny exhausted tyrants.  It was worth it. We brought 7.5 pounds of freshly picked blueberries into our kitchen and began rinsing, de-stemming and drying. Now we have two huge bags of blueberries lined up in the freezer that will make January not seem so dull. One bag we'll use for canning blueberry syrup and preserves the other will be nibbled on with oatmeal, cereal, and pancakes throughout the winter.

Basil is in and it is in abundance! While our little herb garden supplies us with enough to pick leaves here and there for meals, it certainly didn't provide enough to make anything wonderful like, pesto. However, my mother-in-law's herb garden is overflowing with giant basil... and she is a good sharer.

Here is my recipe for pesto:

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 5 to 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 to 4 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• about 1 1/2 cups olive oil
• 1 cup fresh grated Parmesan
• 1/3 cup fresh chives