Dave with a lapfull of wiggly, smoochy Barclay!
Barclay has such a big personality, I think of him as a big dog, but then I see pictures like this and realize how little he is! He's just big in spirit!
_
Lapfull of Barclay
Barclay has such a big personality, I think of him as a big dog, but then I see pictures like this and realize how little he is! He's just big in spirit!
_
Rainy Day
Today was the first day of fall. Rain and cloudy grey skies returned after a too short summer. I hope there is a little more summer yet to come! But I took advantage of the weather change to take pictures of the remaining flowers around the yard covered with raindrops.
I played with Picasa's center tint function to highlight this dark red rose.
I played with Picasa's center tint function to highlight this dark red rose.
Following directions - green tomato salsa
Last year my favorite thing of all the food I canned was the green tomato salsa. It was seriously YUM - and I just finished my last jar of it, so it was the perfect time to make more. There's no shortage of green tomatoes right now either.
Lots of green tomatoes! Don't worry, there's still plenty left to ripen (if they ever do).
I spent a couple hours chopping all the onion, peppers, garlic, and tomatoes, in fact I spread the job over two days! Finally, I had it all in the pan, with the liquid - a mix of lemon and lime juice, and spices.
I boiled it, meanwhile I boiled the jars, and soon it was all ready to put together. I was following a canning recipe exactly. I had a little assembly line set up. I thought I had it all but I forgot one really important step! After you fill the jars you're supposed to use something to gently get rid of the bubbles down inside the jar before processing. I realized just as I put the last filled jar into the water bath that I hadn't done this! I pulled the jar back out and looked at it, and sure enough there were big air bubbles throughout the jar. I was really disappointed in myself - I'm supposed to be a master food preserver, and getting out the bubbles is basic stuff! I went ahead and processed them.
The trick is that if you realize you screwed up within 24 hours, you can reprocess the food safely. I had Dave pick up some more jar lids, and once it was cool enough to handle, I opened all the jars. I noticed the salsa was pretty chunky, and I remembered my teacher saying it should be kind of thin, so I dumped the jars, two at a time, into the blender and gave them a quick spin before dumping them into a pot.
While that heated to a simmer I washed the jars and got them heated up in the water bath again. Then I refilled them with the blended salsa. This time the salsa was so thin there weren't any air bubbles to worry about. I lidded them up and processed them like before.
There are very few small bubbles visible in the jars after processing, but that's ok. It was worth the time to reprocess these. All I lost was a few lids, and that's better than having to throw out spoiled salsa a few months from now. I think I will be enjoying these until it's time to make more next year!
_
I spent a couple hours chopping all the onion, peppers, garlic, and tomatoes, in fact I spread the job over two days! Finally, I had it all in the pan, with the liquid - a mix of lemon and lime juice, and spices.
I boiled it, meanwhile I boiled the jars, and soon it was all ready to put together. I was following a canning recipe exactly. I had a little assembly line set up. I thought I had it all but I forgot one really important step! After you fill the jars you're supposed to use something to gently get rid of the bubbles down inside the jar before processing. I realized just as I put the last filled jar into the water bath that I hadn't done this! I pulled the jar back out and looked at it, and sure enough there were big air bubbles throughout the jar. I was really disappointed in myself - I'm supposed to be a master food preserver, and getting out the bubbles is basic stuff! I went ahead and processed them.
The trick is that if you realize you screwed up within 24 hours, you can reprocess the food safely. I had Dave pick up some more jar lids, and once it was cool enough to handle, I opened all the jars. I noticed the salsa was pretty chunky, and I remembered my teacher saying it should be kind of thin, so I dumped the jars, two at a time, into the blender and gave them a quick spin before dumping them into a pot.
While that heated to a simmer I washed the jars and got them heated up in the water bath again. Then I refilled them with the blended salsa. This time the salsa was so thin there weren't any air bubbles to worry about. I lidded them up and processed them like before.
There are very few small bubbles visible in the jars after processing, but that's ok. It was worth the time to reprocess these. All I lost was a few lids, and that's better than having to throw out spoiled salsa a few months from now. I think I will be enjoying these until it's time to make more next year!
_
Canning Stock
We went grocery shopping late Labor Day evening, and ran across a pleasant surprise - the store had roasted too many chickens and was clearing them out for $3.50 each! What a score! You can't usually buy a whole chicken for that price, let alone roast it yourself! We bought two, brought them home, and picked all the meat off them, and threw the bones in the pressure cooker. I also got a deal on a package of 6 half breasts, so I de-boned those and threw the trimmings into the stockpot and froze the meat for later. Then I threw in all the onion and carrot trimmings I'd saved up in the freezer, along with some garlic and celery, and I let the pressure cooker do it's thing, and by evening I had a giant hot pot of stock.
The brilliant part is that my last batch of stock was packed in the freezer, so I took it out and dropped those stock ice-blocks into the pot of strained stock, and as they melted they cooled off the new batch, and within minutes the whole thing was ready for the fridge. I thought that worked particularly nicely! After a day in the fridge I skimmed off all the fat, and it was ready to can.
So today I spent my morning pressure canning 17 pints of stock. It took all day, because it required two batches. I should have done quarts, then it would have only taken one batch, but I usually use it a pint at a time. The pressure canner wasn't as nerve-wracking as last time. I've used it to pressure cook stock a couple times, and this is my second time canning. I think it gets easier the more times you practice.
The brilliant part is that my last batch of stock was packed in the freezer, so I took it out and dropped those stock ice-blocks into the pot of strained stock, and as they melted they cooled off the new batch, and within minutes the whole thing was ready for the fridge. I thought that worked particularly nicely! After a day in the fridge I skimmed off all the fat, and it was ready to can.
So today I spent my morning pressure canning 17 pints of stock. It took all day, because it required two batches. I should have done quarts, then it would have only taken one batch, but I usually use it a pint at a time. The pressure canner wasn't as nerve-wracking as last time. I've used it to pressure cook stock a couple times, and this is my second time canning. I think it gets easier the more times you practice.
Beautiful!
_