7/18/2021 – This Tartar Sauce was inspired by the recipe by Ina Garten here. Served it with fried catfish and fried okra it was good. Mary added a little cayenne pepper sauce to hers and that made it great…but then it was pink tartar sauce.
Continue reading7/15/2021 – This recipe was inspired by Ina Garten’s recipe here. We liked it as it was rich and the garlic was not too bold. Served it with her Salmon & Melting Cherry Tomatoes which was also very good.
Ingredients:
5 large garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
~½ cup extra-virgin olive oil; enough so the garlic chunks are almost floating in it.
4 medium red potatoes, partially peeled
Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
~¼ cup half-and-half
Directions:
In a No. 3 cast iron skillet, bring the garlic and oil to a boil, then turn the heat to low and cook uncovered for 5 minutes, or until the garlic is lightly browned. Turn off the heat and set it aside. The garlic will continue to cook in the oil.
Boil the potatoes in salted water and cook until the potatoes are very tender. Remove the potatoes from the water and save the water. Remove the garlic from the oil, reserving the oil.
Mash the potatoes and garlic with a potato masher.
Add the reserved olive oil from the garlic; salt; pepper; and half and half.
When ready to serve add more hot cooking water until the potatoes are creamy but still firm. Adjust the salt and serve hot.
7/11/2021 – Washed and stemmed our Jalasco Jalapenos from the garden and sliced through the top and bottom to let out the air…and let in the brine. Packed them whole into a 1-quart jar and had a lot left. Sliced them 1/4″ thick and packed them into a pint jar. Still had some left and sliced them in half length-wise and packed them into another pint jar. They turned out very good. Lotsa flavor without much bite.
Continue readingKelley made this cheese dip/spread for the July 4, 2021 party and it was great. It is based on Ina Garten’s recipe.
Yield: 1 quart
Ingredients
- 10 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 cup pickled jalapenos, chopped small
- 6 ounces piquillo peppers, chopped (regular pimento peppers can be substituted)
- 5 cups shredded Cheddar (approximately 1 1/4 pounds)
- “long squirt” of Sriracha
Directions
- Combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, garlic powder, onion powder, and celery seed.
- Mix in the pickled jalapenos, piquillo peppers, and grated Cheddar.
- Add the Sriracha and combine. Taste and add more mayonnaise and Sriracha, if necessary.
- Chill before serving.
6/24/2021 – Below was adapted from Ball Canning’s recipe here. Made 7 half-pint jars and a one-pint jar. They did not turn out such that we liked them. Will not make it like this if we ever try it again.
Ingredients
- 9 cups chopped cored tomatoes from our garden (¾-1″ inch pieces)
- 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 cup semi-dry Chardonnay wine
- 1 cup white wine vinegar
- ½ cup water
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp dried basil
- 2 Tbsp dried oregano
- 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Directions
- In our large Calphlon SS pot, combine garlic, wine, wine vinegar, water, sugar, basil, oregano, and balsamic vinegar. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars in simmering water until ready for use. Dipped lids in hot water to sanitize.
- Pack tomatoes into hot jars leaving a ½-¾ inch headspace with a few air pockets. Ladle hot vinegar mixture over tomatoes, leaving a ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles with a table knife. Place lid and rim. Place jars in boiling water canner, making sure water covers jars by at least 1 inch.
- Bring canner to a gentle boil and process jars 20 minutes. Turn off heat, remove the canner’s lid, let jars stand 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool 12-24 hours. Check lids for seal.
Comments
- We had a lot more tomatoes and brine than needed for seven ½-pints.
- Ball’s directions said to pack the tomatoes to within 1/2″ and then add the seasoning brine to within 1/2″. That would be impossible so we left a few air pockets in the packed tomatoes by not packing them down completely.
- We ladled the brine into the ½-pints so they did not get much of the solids parts of the seasoning. In the pint, made last, we left the tomatoes down about ¾-inch and then spooned the brine with a lot of garlic and the other solids on top along with the seasoned liquid.
- Be sure to note when trying this the difference, if any, in the level of seasoning in the ½-pints vs. the pint.
- A good approach could be putting about ¼-inch of seasoned brine and solids in the bottom of the jars, then the tomatoes, and topping it with ¼-inch of seasoning brine so there is ½-inch of headspace.
6/23/2021 – Had enough smaller Greek Pepperoncini peppers to pickle and so did them like we did the slices of the Italian pepperoncini last year. Removed the stems and cut a single slice into each one from end to end so the brine solution would get inside and they would not float. They filled 3 pint jars. They turned out almost mushy so the texture was not good. The flavor was fine.
Continue reading6/22/2021 – This was our first tomato canning day of 2021 using the Better Boy and Celebrity tomatoes from the garden. All had been picked over the past 3-4 days. We culled out the few with soft spots and holes and ended up with about 14 lbs. before skinning and cleaning. Both varieties had a lot of “meat” and little juice and seeds. They made 5 quarts. We followed the Ball instructions here.
Continue reading6/18/2021 – This experiment turned out great and uses similar stuffing to what we made for Shrimp Stuffed Mirlitons. Mary added Conecuh’s Hot & Spicy Sausage and pre-baked the patty pans rather than boiling them as done with the Mirlitons.
Continue reading6/16/2021 – Mary made this up as she went surrounded by piles of yellow squash and zuchinni and boneless chicken thighs in the refrigerator. It turned out very good and one she will want to repeat so here it is.
Ingredients
- 4 large boneless chicken thighs cut into 2″ pieces
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Bacon Grease
- 3 smallish young yellow squash from the garden this morning cut into 3/4″ coins
- 4 small zucchini from the garden this morning cut into 3/4″ coins
- 1 small bell pepper from the garden this morning
- ½ large yellow onion chopped into minimum ½” pieces
- 2 garlic cloves sliced thin
- Our Mediterranean Seasoning
- Kosher Salt and fresh coarse ground black pepper
- 3 medium tomatoes from the garden this week
Directions
- In our 10″ All-Clad skillet, sauteed the garlic in the olive oil and bacon grease until the oil is flavored but the garlic is not beginning to fry. Removed the garlic and saved it.
- Season the chicken with the Mediterranean Seasoning plus salt and pepper and saute until it is done. remove it.
- Added the onion, bell pepper, and the saved garlic and stirred until the edges begin to soften. Then added the squash and zucchini stirring as it all cooked.
- Sprinkled with more Mediterranean Seasoning and coarse ground black pepper and salt. As it cooked it became a bit dry several times so enough chicken broth was added to keep it simmering.
- Once everything was getting close to done, returned the chicken and added fresh tomatoes cut into 8ths.
- Once the tomatoes had heated and the edges began to soften, plated it and sprinkled with parmesan cheese slivers.
6/16 & 17/2021 – We tried this canning process as it is so different maybe it will work. It makes since that 10 minutes in a boiling water bath would cook the cucumbers at least to some extent and they would not be as crisp. So, this warm water bath is worth a try as it is included in the government’s healthy canning recommendations. We made no changes other than in how the spices were included. In general, we did not like them as the flavor was off and not crispy. This was based on trying some on 8/23/2022 so they are older.
Followed the advice from SimplyCanning.com’s website here, here, and here. Much of what is below was extracted from there and she deserves all the credit.
- Recommend canning this dill pickle recipe in pints. Quarts must be processed longer, so they tend to get mushy.
- On day one, wash your cucumbers and thinly slice off the blossom end. (The blossoms have an enzyme that will make your cucumber pickles soft.) The sooner you do this after picking, the better.
Ingredients
- Called for 8 pounds of 3-4 inch pickling cucumbers but we had 7 pounds of 1″-3″ diameter cukes picked this morning and so cut them into spears and the right length to fill wide mouth pint jars. There were rather large pieces from each end not used in order for the spears to fit in the jars. Note that when we were done the spears filled 7 wide-mount pint jars and luckily that was exactly what the large SS stock pot would hold.
- Brine:
- 2 gallons water
- 1¼ cups canning or pickling salt
- 1½ quarts vinegar (5% acidity)
- Pickling Brine:
- 2 quarts water plus ½ cup of pickling salt [she called for the salt in the directions although not in her ingredient list] and ¼ cup sugar.
- 2 Tbsp. whole mixed pickling spice. Below makes ½ cup.
- 3 Tbsp. mustard seed
- 1.5 Tbsp. whole allspice
- 3 tsp. coriander seed
- 3 whole cloves
- 1.5 tsp. ground ginger
- 1.5 tsp. red pepper flakes
- 1.5 bay leaves, crumbled
- 1.5 cinnamon sticks, crushed roughly
- To add to the filled jars:
- whole mustard seed 2 tsp per pint jar
- dill seed 1½ tsp. per pint jar. The alternate was fresh dill (1 to 1½ heads per pint jar).
Directions
Day 1
- Add 3/4 cup salt dissolved in 2 gallons water. Intended to soak cucumbers in the brine for 12 hours but ended up being about 18 hours as we cleaned the carport slab and west patio before it got too hot outside.
- Prepared Pickling Spices – See above.
Day 2
- Combined vinegar, 1/2 cup salt, sugar, and 2 quarts of water. Placed pickling spices in a cheesecloth bag and it was taking far too long to season the large pot of vinegar brine so we dumped the spice out of the bag. Heated to boiling.
- Drain the brined cucumbers and fill seven wide mouth pint jars while the pickling brine was heating.
- Add:
- 2 tsp. mustard seed per pint
- 1½ tsp. dill seed per pint
- Fill jars with hot pickling brine, clean the rim, and attach the lid and ring. The jars were well packed with cukes and so we had at least 60% of the pickling brine to throw out.
- The warm water bath pot was boiling at one point and we removed the lid and let it cool to 160 based on readings from the ChefWorks digital thermometer with a probe submerged in the pot.
- Added the seven pint jars that filled the large SS pot and turned up the fire watching the ChefWorks to not let it overshoot 185°. Once it reached 180 we started the 30 minute timer. Tweaking the dial kept the water temperature between 181 and 184 for 30 minutes. For the final 15 minutes, the dial was at the 30% point in the Simmer range. This sealing method comes from the following.
- The following treatment results in a better product texture but must be carefully managed to avoid possible spoilage. Place jars in a canner filled halfway with warm (120º to 140º F) water. Then, add hot water to a level 1 inch above jars. Heat the water enough to maintain 180º to 185º F water temperature for 30 minutes. Check with a candy or jelly thermometer to be certain that the water temperature is at least 180ºF during the entire 30 minutes. Temperatures higher than 185ºF may cause unnecessary softening of pickles. Caution: Use only when recipe indicates. The directions in this item are from NCHFP here. [NCHFP said they extracted it from the “Complete Guide to Home Canning,” Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA (Revised 2009).]
- At the end of 30 minutes, we removed the jars from the bath and let them cool. All the lids “popped”.