Well I'm here to tell you all I survived the Great Tomato Rush of all time! Yep sure did and I stood before all those tomatoes and conquered them all by myself. Oh I tried to find someone to help me but my calls for help went unnoticed. Oh well when winter comes and I am all curled up with a good book to read, sipping on my corn and tomato soup don't be surprised if I don't share! lol Oh it was a touch and go situation there at one time, we really thought the tomatoes were reproducing themselves while we all slept the night away. Several times at night I swear they appeared to be laughing at me from the dining room......but I conquered them! I canned every stinking tomato in this house.....except three....I left them for tomato sandwiches...love my mater sandwiches!
Anywho, I ended up with 38 qts. of tomatoes and 22 pints of some of the best salsa I've ever eaten. Even though I am dog tired and can hardly put my thoughts together tonight I thought I would put some of the things I have been thinking about as I stood before my kitchen window peeling, de seeding and chopping all those dang tomatoes.....
Did you know that tomatoes are good for your skin? Did you know that the acid is so strong it eats thru your gloves? Well it does or rather it did 4 pairs of mine and guess what? My hands are looking good folks! Who would have thought tomato acid would heal my poor hands....NO I AM NOT GOING TO PEEL 2 BUSHELS OF TOMATOES EVERYDAY. I may be crazy, insane or whatever but I ain't no sick fool.....besides did I tell you how bad my feet hurt????
All this canning I've done lately has brought out a lot of memories of my childhood summers. Summers spent around the kitchen and our garden. I remember spending countless hours working in the garden with my family only to enjoy the benefits of such work in the winter. I remember one summer the Cucumber Gods smiled down upon us kids. We loved sour pickles growing up!) We had so many cucumbers that year that we canned 100 quarts of sour pickles alone! I don't remember how many of the other kinds of pickles but I do remember the sour ones! lol My daddy built shelves all over the house trying to find places to store our bounty from that garden. My parents would enter the garden dragging #3 tubs (extremely large wash tubs) behind them and the rest of us carrying two buckets a piece. We would almost always leave with everything over flowing. I think that was the bumper crop to beat all years. Canning these last few days I thought about my mama and how she worked so hard in that kitchen. Without air conditioning too! If the soil here wasn't so poor I would have a garden. However, the Indians were right, this is not land fit for growning. The soil is too sandy. It's really depressing and if you are just wanting to throw your money away you are welcome to come over and try! I on the other hand would just rather buy my produce from the farmers market. Easier for me.
Found a great recipe on here from another blogspot.com user. This is a recipe for salsa. It is killer! We love it! Hope y'all do too. If you get a chance check the blog out. Just go to my profile on here and you will see who I follow. Actually there are two really good ones I follow, one is about Ontario living which is where I found this recipe and the other is about food storage and glutton free living. Check them out you are sure to find something you will love!
Killer Salsa
8qts tomatos peeled, cored, quartered, de-seeded and coarsely chopped.
pickling salt
1 lb jalapeno peppers deseeded and coarsely chopped
1/2 lb. banana peppers deseeded and coarsely chopped
2 1/2 cups of cilantro chopped
1 glove minced garlic
1 6oz can of tomato paste
6 med onions chopped coarsely
1/4 cup cumin
Layer tomatoes in large colander with pickling salt sprinkled between layers sit aside and cover allow to sit over night. Next morning combine all ingredients in a large pot. Add tomatoes last. Add water to the pot till you see the water about 2 qts. Bring to a boil. Take out one cup and mix tomato sauce with water. Add back to salsa. Bring to a boil again. Spoon into jars and top each jar with 3 teaspoons of lime juice. Use two part lid to close. Place in hot water canner bring to a boil and boil for 25 min for pints and 30minutes for quarts. Listen for pling! You know it's sealed! I suggest you work with someone it is a very tedious recipe to follow and will take you several hours to complete if not all day. Also wear gloves when handling peppers, they are very unforgiving if you have a sore or cut on your hands.
I also canned a few other things such as squash and strawberry jam. Used an old recipe of my mother's for Chow Chow. When you work with your hands it gives your mind a chance to rest and reflect on your thoughts. You have time to allow your mind to wander. As I chopped all that cabbage needed for the recipe, I could almost see my father with his sleeves rolled up chopping in a beat up metal bowl. Down would come the blade, chop and twist, up and down, chop and twist, always twisting his wrist when blade met the cabbage. Setting up a rhythm as he went about the task. My aunts would be packing jars for kraut while over in the corner Mama and Grandma were making the Chow Chow that I now make alone. My kitchen was a lonely place for me to work. I had no one to share the experience of canning. You see canning is not just hard work, it's also love, laughter, gossip, tears......it's everything! Why back in the "good ole days" women in the family would get together and go from house to house canning. Everyone had huge gardens in those days. Heck, everyone had huge families in those days how else could they feed them but to have a huge garden? So the sisters would band together and go from house to house until everyone's canning was done for the year. They shared everything together. The stories coming out of those kitchens were quite entertaining to say the least. It was what it was. Here is my mama's Chow Chow recipe:
Chow Chow
2 large heads of Cabbage chopped
4 hot peppers
4 banana peppers
4large green tomatoes
3large onions
3 cups sugar
5 tablespoons of pickling salt
4 tablespoons of mustard seed
3 cups vinegar
Chop every thing mix well let stand over night. Then pack into own juice in pint size jars. Place in hot water canner bring to boil. Allow to boil for 15 min. Boil for 20 for quart jars. Enjoy on hotdogs, hamburgers, beans or just right out of the jar! It's a great relish!
You know I can remember having a choice of playing outside in the 100 degree weather or being able to sit inside and watch tv if I shell butter beans....well inside there was A/C....ok inside it is.....I was always glad to see my bowl full and proud too. I have had "city folk" tell me that it was cruel for my family to make us work like that as children. All I can do is laugh. Cruel? You have got to be kidding me! You know it wasn't that my parents were using us as work horses. Not by a long shot. It wasn't that we were made to sit outside all day with no way in either. It wasn't like that, never was. You see in the south flies just seem to congregate outside the any door that even remotely looks like it wants to open. And if the even smell a hint of canning going on they invite their cousins even the 5th cousin 4 times removed from 8 counties away to come over for a buzz by.....so you guessed it! It was really "sit down, take this bowl and shell or go outside and play but you ain't gonna run in and out of this house all day letting flies in" kinda day! lol I wonder how many of those "city folk" could survive with out "store bought" food?
If the weather had been kinder to us this year I would have been able to put up more food stuff however it looks like I will not be able to put up any corn or green beans, my favorite veggies of course! lol I will however be able in the fall to travel once more to my cousin's home in South Carolina and chop kraut with her. It is always a joy to be with her and work side by side. She is an easy person to work with she too remembers how the old ways were. With only a son and two grandsons to teach the art of canning, she has turned more to my side of the family. We get together a couple of times a year to preserve food, fish, or just plain bond. Bonding is good to you know.
My baby girl has been moping around here for several days now, actually for 3 weeks and counting! Her boy friend of almost 2 years left the day before the 4th of July for Afghanistan. Although we know he won't be back before his birthday in January we can always hope he comes home early. We miss him every day He is the finest Marine I have ever met. I would say he is what all Marines should strive to be, he is honest , brave, attentive to detail and extremely honorable. Semper Fi Wooo Raahhh Hope I spelled that right!
My Wayfaring Son you remember him right? He used to be the Chosen One? Ok good glad to see you do remember him! Well it looks like he is moving to Rhode Island this fall. I'm sad to see him leave this area but then he has been gone all year hasn't he? lol One of our adoptive sons is already living up there and he is so homesick I'm sure the two of them together will be good. Let's hope they can be good for each other!
Every day that I stood at my kitchen window I had to look at my beautifully clear pool. It just glistened as if it were calling to me. Come, it would say, come and swim with me. But alas I could not. I had work that needed to be done. Work first then play that's what my parents taught me. lol So finally at 3:15 today I finish the 38th qt. of tomatoes. Wooo Hooo I shut down the kitchen! Threw the dirty towels in the washer, and turned on the dishwasher. Slipped on a bathing suit, grabbed a towel and headed out the back door but not before I opened up a daiquiri to go! Grabbed my favorite float and jumped in the blessed pool! Ahhhh the pool finally I got to get in the pool and wouldn't you know it? Thunder.......yeah......thunder......oh well there's always tomorrow. Well at least we got 1/10 in of rain every little bit helps!
Well I'm off to bed. Off to get the rest I so badly need after all the work I've done! Y'all have a great night and I'll catch up with you later. Good Night Betty!
Thoughts
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
What I learned this Month
Well my dears, it has been a few weeks since I last wrote you so I guess I should catch you up on what's going on in our little community. First of all our small fire has grown to over 31,000 acres!!! and would you believe the federal government doesn't want to help pay for it?? They say since it was never a threat to any homes they see no reason to help monetarily. Well that explains why it is still burning....if you can't pay the fire fighters then of course they aren't going to put out the fire! Oh yeah it's still burning! Whenever we do get a good rain (I consider any rain a good rain these days) we get smoke with it. Well at least it is 90% contained.
Took a short working vacation to South Carolina to visit some relatives recently. We helped work their garden and can some vegetables. Now I just love to can. Always have loved doing that, reminds me of my childhood watching my mother and my aunts work with my grandma. One of my earliest memories is of my dad chopping cabbage in a big metal bowl. He must have chopped all morning while all the women in the family packed the jars. They were making kraut. Homemade kraut is a wonderful thing. We call that "good eating". You know it is hard work to preserve food but it sure makes for a lot of "good eating" in the winter time! Nothing better than a warm cup of soup made with summer time tomatoes from a jar you put up yourself.
So since I have been home from South Carolina, I have continued canning. I have put up 19 jars of jam, 28 qts of tomatoes, 10 pts of chow chow and 2 qts of squash. As I write this to you I have 8 qts of tomatoes waiting in brine to be transformed tomorrow into salsa! Yum! Still got the blueberries to do something with, not sure if I want to make Blueberry Wine or Blueberry Jam....both are out of this world! Oh found a recipe today for Maple Peaches and Vanilla Jam. Thinking about making some of that too.
Just ordered me a pressure cooker and a dehydrator. Used to have a dehydrator til my kind yet eager to please ass decide to loan it out....yep you guessed it! It never came back! I was told "Oh it broke so I knew you wouldn't want it back". Yeah I was really told that.....kinda reminds me of a saying.....with friends like that who needs enemies! lol Anywho I learn the lesson. Now if you see something I have and you want it? Well there's a Lowes 1.5 miles up the road from me....oh and don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out either! lol
I decided back in the spring that this year at Christmas it would be a homemade Christmas for me. If I couldn't make it to give no one was getting it. This means my family and friends. My sisters, brother, parents, cousins, neighbors, friends, etc. would be receiving hand made gifts. So if you happen to fall into one of the categories, there is a very good chance you will receive some of what I have been working on the past few months and in the coming months! So if you are following this blog enjoy while I struggle making it and perhaps you will truly appreciate the gift. I know I have developed a high respect for those who make and give homemade gifts. Believe me there is a lot more love in this kind of gift then the kind of gift you buy at any department store. lol
I also read a book recently that I just couldn't put down my dears! This book was written by Katherine Stockert. The title is The Help. Excellent book! Reminded me a lot of my own childhood. Reminded me of what it was like when I first moved to Jackson MS back in the late '70's. Even though time had moved on everywhere else, in Mississippi it was as if time stood still. There are some places still like that there. Places were time never came and change didn't know. I learned a lot there too. I can see so many of my friends' mothers in that book, makes me wonder. I'm sure there was more than one garage door replaced when this book hit the shelves in Jackson, MS! So if any of you are looking for a good read, check it out! It's in most libraries now and it's available in large print for us old folks! lol
Got to see my Wayfaring Son today! First time I have seen him in months. My what long hair he has now! lol He tried to tell me there were no barber shops in New York....yep.....and I just fell of the turnip truck! But his stay was only for one night and half a day. He was gone by lunch back to New York he said. Well at least he's making money and not bumming off anyone. Looks like he may be moving to Rhode Island come fall. He and his girl friend have found jobs up there where there are none down here. I'm really interested to see how his skinny butt can handle a cold cold winter in the north. Oh well it is his choice isn't it? Besides I'm looking forward to finally getting to see the nation! You see the Hubs won't take me there but now that our Wayfaring Son is moving that way ....well it's only a matter of time before he will load up the Mater Car and off we go seeking our son! Yay!
Just found out two more of my friends are going to be grandmas come spring. Congrats to them both, especially Jeanie, she has been wanting a grandchild for a very long time. Maybe someday soon I too will have a grandchild to hold. Until that day comes along I will continue to dabble at making blankets and crocheting baby things. Have I told you how many patterns for baby things I have? Really? I have TONS. So when and if I ever get a grandchild, well she/he will be the most over dressed, spoiled, stink to high heaven, little kid in Hampstead! Yeap sure will.....
I guess now would be a good time to explain to you why you cannot find my last story under notes on facebook. I wrote a story a few weeks ago that apparently was not well meet by someone I love dearly. Sometimes this happens when people write, others tend to think it is about them when in reality it isn't. So instead of causing any further problems I removed it from view. I do still have it in my possession. I created that story and I cannot bring myself to destroy it. Sometimes when I write a character will come along that takes over a story. I know it is hard to explain but these character tend to take on a life of their own. At any rate I meant no harm to anyone. I will continue to write here on my blog and in other places too. But what have I learned? Ah lol I will not share with that person again! lmao
I hope you did take time to read my poem I wrote after I took down my last story. Poetry is not my strong point however words do come to me sometimes...lol
Well my dears, I have a delivery person coming in the morning, oh yeah I also bought a freezer.....I've got sooo much to do tomorrow I will be lucky if I have time to set down! lol So you folks be good to each other and until we meet again that's the way I see it!
Took a short working vacation to South Carolina to visit some relatives recently. We helped work their garden and can some vegetables. Now I just love to can. Always have loved doing that, reminds me of my childhood watching my mother and my aunts work with my grandma. One of my earliest memories is of my dad chopping cabbage in a big metal bowl. He must have chopped all morning while all the women in the family packed the jars. They were making kraut. Homemade kraut is a wonderful thing. We call that "good eating". You know it is hard work to preserve food but it sure makes for a lot of "good eating" in the winter time! Nothing better than a warm cup of soup made with summer time tomatoes from a jar you put up yourself.
So since I have been home from South Carolina, I have continued canning. I have put up 19 jars of jam, 28 qts of tomatoes, 10 pts of chow chow and 2 qts of squash. As I write this to you I have 8 qts of tomatoes waiting in brine to be transformed tomorrow into salsa! Yum! Still got the blueberries to do something with, not sure if I want to make Blueberry Wine or Blueberry Jam....both are out of this world! Oh found a recipe today for Maple Peaches and Vanilla Jam. Thinking about making some of that too.
Just ordered me a pressure cooker and a dehydrator. Used to have a dehydrator til my kind yet eager to please ass decide to loan it out....yep you guessed it! It never came back! I was told "Oh it broke so I knew you wouldn't want it back". Yeah I was really told that.....kinda reminds me of a saying.....with friends like that who needs enemies! lol Anywho I learn the lesson. Now if you see something I have and you want it? Well there's a Lowes 1.5 miles up the road from me....oh and don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out either! lol
I decided back in the spring that this year at Christmas it would be a homemade Christmas for me. If I couldn't make it to give no one was getting it. This means my family and friends. My sisters, brother, parents, cousins, neighbors, friends, etc. would be receiving hand made gifts. So if you happen to fall into one of the categories, there is a very good chance you will receive some of what I have been working on the past few months and in the coming months! So if you are following this blog enjoy while I struggle making it and perhaps you will truly appreciate the gift. I know I have developed a high respect for those who make and give homemade gifts. Believe me there is a lot more love in this kind of gift then the kind of gift you buy at any department store. lol
I also read a book recently that I just couldn't put down my dears! This book was written by Katherine Stockert. The title is The Help. Excellent book! Reminded me a lot of my own childhood. Reminded me of what it was like when I first moved to Jackson MS back in the late '70's. Even though time had moved on everywhere else, in Mississippi it was as if time stood still. There are some places still like that there. Places were time never came and change didn't know. I learned a lot there too. I can see so many of my friends' mothers in that book, makes me wonder. I'm sure there was more than one garage door replaced when this book hit the shelves in Jackson, MS! So if any of you are looking for a good read, check it out! It's in most libraries now and it's available in large print for us old folks! lol
Got to see my Wayfaring Son today! First time I have seen him in months. My what long hair he has now! lol He tried to tell me there were no barber shops in New York....yep.....and I just fell of the turnip truck! But his stay was only for one night and half a day. He was gone by lunch back to New York he said. Well at least he's making money and not bumming off anyone. Looks like he may be moving to Rhode Island come fall. He and his girl friend have found jobs up there where there are none down here. I'm really interested to see how his skinny butt can handle a cold cold winter in the north. Oh well it is his choice isn't it? Besides I'm looking forward to finally getting to see the nation! You see the Hubs won't take me there but now that our Wayfaring Son is moving that way ....well it's only a matter of time before he will load up the Mater Car and off we go seeking our son! Yay!
Just found out two more of my friends are going to be grandmas come spring. Congrats to them both, especially Jeanie, she has been wanting a grandchild for a very long time. Maybe someday soon I too will have a grandchild to hold. Until that day comes along I will continue to dabble at making blankets and crocheting baby things. Have I told you how many patterns for baby things I have? Really? I have TONS. So when and if I ever get a grandchild, well she/he will be the most over dressed, spoiled, stink to high heaven, little kid in Hampstead! Yeap sure will.....
I guess now would be a good time to explain to you why you cannot find my last story under notes on facebook. I wrote a story a few weeks ago that apparently was not well meet by someone I love dearly. Sometimes this happens when people write, others tend to think it is about them when in reality it isn't. So instead of causing any further problems I removed it from view. I do still have it in my possession. I created that story and I cannot bring myself to destroy it. Sometimes when I write a character will come along that takes over a story. I know it is hard to explain but these character tend to take on a life of their own. At any rate I meant no harm to anyone. I will continue to write here on my blog and in other places too. But what have I learned? Ah lol I will not share with that person again! lmao
I hope you did take time to read my poem I wrote after I took down my last story. Poetry is not my strong point however words do come to me sometimes...lol
Well my dears, I have a delivery person coming in the morning, oh yeah I also bought a freezer.....I've got sooo much to do tomorrow I will be lucky if I have time to set down! lol So you folks be good to each other and until we meet again that's the way I see it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)