Sweet & Tangy Salsa

Sweet & Tangy Salsa

Ingredients

8 cups tomatoes, chopped
4 cups onion, peeled & chopped (3 medium onions)
4 cups peppers, chopped
6 jalapenos, diced
16 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup pickling vinegar
3 tbsp pickling salt
1 cup sugar
2 limes (juiced)
2 tsp cumin

Salsa ingredients

Directions

Boil for 15 minutes and pour into sterilized jars, then do a 15 minute water bath. Makes about 6 pints.

Salsa cooking

Bottled salsa

Lady Ashburnham Pickles

Lady Ashburnham Pickles

Who the Heck is Lady Ashburnham, Anyway?

Apparently, Lady Ashburnham was a Frederictonian who was employed as a telephone operator and her distinctive voice charmed a British royal and they wound up getting married. He became the Duke despite being like 6th in line, but they weren't really in favor with the Royal Family who "encouraged" him to bring his bride back to New Brunswick where they were basically socialites in Fredericton. The pickles were actually her sister's, not hers, but she gets the credit for them through their name. Not the coolest story, but it answers the question, Who the heck is Lady Ashburnham?

The Recipe

Ingredients
6 large cucumbers, chopped fine
4 cups onions, chopped
1 red pepper (apparently not part of the original recipe, but makes them prettier)
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 cups vinegar
2 cups white sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp dry mustard
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed

Directions

Day 1:
Wash your cucumbers and pepper. Peel and dice your cucumbers and onions, and chop the red pepper fine. Place all vegetables in a large bowl, sprinkle the salt over them and set overnight, covered with a clean cloth.

Peeling cucumbers

Onions

Peeled and de-pulped cucumbers

Some people really chop the cucumbers fine, but I cut mine about 1/4" - 1/2" cubes.

Cucumbers & onions

Cucumbers & onions sitting in salt overnight

Day 2:
Combine all ingredients in a large pot and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.

Pickles cooking

Sterilize 6 500-ml jars and soak lids and bands in hot water for about 15 minutes (don't boil).

Preparing the lids and bands

Sterilizing the jars

Ladle the pickles into the jars, cover with lids and screw the bands on finger-tight. Most of the recipes don't say to, but I always place them in a sterile sink and pour a kettle of boiling water over them. For good measure.

Bottled Lady Ashburnhams

Peach Mango Salsa

Peach Mango Salsa

Making Salsa

We grew just enough tomatoes to make a batch of salsa this year. We tried to grow a lot more but we had blight on most of them.

Along with the tomatoes, we also grew all the garlic and peppers, including the jalapenos, and the fresh herbs.

Salsa veggies

Ingredients

8 cups tomatoes, chopped (about a dozen tomatoes, plus some cherry tomatoes)
4 cups mangoes & peaches, peeled & chopped (2 mangoes & 5 peaches)
2 cups onion, peeled & chopped (3 medium onions)
4 cups peppers, chopped (2 green bells, 2 Anchos, 2 Anaheims, 2 Peppercinis, Corni di Toro, 1 Purple Marconi)
1 cup jalapenos, diced
16 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
6 cups cider vinegar
2 3/4 cups sugar (the recipe we used as a guide didn't call for any)
2 tbsp salt
2 tsp cumin

4 cups tomatoes

Garlic

Directions

Wash and chop everything, then cook it all in a big pot for an hour. Ladle into sterilized bottles and cook in hot water bath for 15 minutes. Let cool, label and horde them until you run out.

Everything chopped, ready for the pot

You can decide how long to cook this for, from 20 minutes to an hour. The shorter the cooking time, the chunkier the salsa. We cooked it longer because we found it too runny, but we're fine with a less chunky salsa.

The process

After an hour of cooking

We got 10 pints from this batch, which was a double batch.

16 x 250 ml & 2 x 500 ml

Personally, I like a sweet salsa, and if I make it again I will be adding another 1/2 - 1 cup of sugar, but overall, it's a fantastic salsa. 

Tortilla chips & peach mango salsa

Granola Bars

Yes...this is the batch of bars that broke the food processor. Yes...they were worth it.

Raw Granola Bars

I took these bars to a baby shower yesterday and although most people went for the naughtier treats, several of the ones who tried these loved them and asked for the recipe, which I'm happy to share.

Ingredients:
1 block of dates (pitted)
1/2 cup natural creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup coarsely chopped almonds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
handful of dried fruit, like raisins, currants, apricot, etc...I used currants

*The above dry ingredients, especially the seeds and nuts, can be substituted with the seeds or nuts of your choice, so long as you have 3 - 4 cups of the dry ingredients. There is really no wrong way to make these. You can also use more peanut butter and less honey or vice versa. The dates are for making everything stick.

Directions:
Chop the dates and whiz in food processor until the blade breaks*. Remove from food processor and add to blender with a tbsp of hot water and whiz until a ball forms.

Melt the peanut butter with the honey in a small saucepan.

Mix all ingredients and press into a 9x13" pan. I lined my pan with parchment.

Refrigerate 1/2 hour and cut into bars. Not necessary, but I dehydrated the bars for 6 hours and then returned to the fridge. They're perfect :)

Would make a nice gift

Tip:
So, the blade really did break on my food processor the first time I made these. I would recommend not using the food processor or blender. Not only did the dates break the blade on the food processor, but then they nearly burned out the motor in the blender. I recommend chopping them by hand with a knife or kitchen scissors.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Head of cauliflower

Cook 5 minutes:
2 tablespoons butter
 1 large onion, chopped
 4 cloves garlic, minced

Add, cook 5 minutes more:
 2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
 2 carrots, chopped

Add, bring to boil:
 1 box vegetable broth

 Stir in and simmer 15 minutes:
1 head cauliflower, chopped

Remove from heat and puree in blender until smooth. Add to pot on low heat and add:
1 cup milk
 1 tsp salt
 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Heat through and serve with some yummy bread of your choice. We like rye. 

Cauliflower soup with buttered roll

Zucchini Fritters

The pic below shows the last of our 2014 zucchini (and a couple other things). Not included is the large one that I just used to make some zucchini fritters. Grated, it was the equivalent of 7 cups of zucchini and it made about 3 dozen fritters. We had some for dinner and froze the rest. 

6 cups zucchini, peeled and grated
2 tbsp salt (I used Kosher)

Sprinkle the salt on the grated zucchini and let sit 30 minutes. Drain liquid and squeeze zucchini to get as much excess liquid out as you can.

Add:
1 cup flour
1 cup parmesan cheese
4 eggs
2 small onions, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
Salt, pepper and paprika to taste

Fry on the griddle in oil (I used peanut oil) a few minutes on each side until browned and cooked through. Drain on paper towels. I added fake bacon and 1/2 cup cheddar to half the batter and those ones were good too; just a variation. 

30 zucchini fritters

Ready for the freezer

Erin's Squash Soup

2014 Squash Harvest

Cut in half, de-seed and roast in roast pan in 1/2 inch to 1 inch of water about 40 minutes:
1 Buttercup Squash – you can substitute Butternut, but it won't be as good. Trust me on this.

Saute until soft about 10 minutes:
1 Onion, Chopped
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2 Tbsp Butter – the good kind
¼ Tsp Nutmeg
¼ Tsp Cinnamon
¼ Tsp Salt
¼ Tsp Pepper

Add to onion mixture:
Cooked Squash
1 Box Vegetable Broth

Cook about 10 minutes until flavors meld. Cool and puree in food processor or blender. Add back to pot and add 1 cup of water; simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat.

Slowly stir in:
1 Pint of Whipping Cream (Heavy Cream)

Squash soup from homegrown buttercup squash