Life's a Peach

Whew!  I'm so glad that's over.  It all started with this...

This is the harvest from our big peach tree.  I even weighed them - over 200 pounds.  Pretty unbelievable, isn't it???  Factor in the fact that I thinned over 50 percent of the peaches off the tree when they were about the size of an olive.  One branch on the tree was completely unreachable, even with a ladder, so it didn't get thinned and yep, it broke under the weight of the peaches.  Oh, and I harvested about 30 additional pounds from the baby peach tree.  Yikes!  After convincing my children that they needed to eat some, I started processing.

Remember the empty freezer?  It's not so empty any more.  I sliced thirty oversize quarts worth of peaches to go into the formerly empty cavern.  (I usually process peaches into 5 cup 'quarts' as after the juice is drained, there's just enough peaches for most recipes.)

Then I fired up the canner.  First day, I made 'sploosh' for Ben...

He was a bit disappointed with the flavor, thought it was a bit weak compared to the apricot sploosh that he'd been drinking from past years.  So, I tweaked the recipe a bit.  On the next canning day, I went all out...

Ten quarts of sploosh and seven quarts of peach halves in extra light syrup.  Whew!  What a day!  Makes for a pretty picture, though, I think.  I hadn't canned peach halves in a long time, so I thought it was time to refresh my skills. 

I also made three peach pies, but forgot to get a picture before we ate one and put two into the freezer.  In addition, I've sliced up about three gallons of peaches that have gone into the fridge and then mysteriously disappeared.  Apparently Yehudi likes peaches.

After I rest a bit, I'll post about all the other goodies I've made lately.

Salsa Verde - ish

I think I've finally finished the canning for 2011!

This is a batch of salsa verde, made with tomatillos and peppers grown in our garden.  Yes, I realize that salsa verde is supposed to be all green.  I tried. I really tried.  But while I was waiting for the tomatillos to finally ripen a large enough crop to make the salsa, the jalapenos and serranos turned red.  So my salsa is 'verde-ish'.  lol  It's also pretty dang hot as most hot peppers get hotter as they ripen.  Gonna need some help eating all of this as the gringos around here aren't going to want much of it!

Presto Change-o

I've blogged before about the pleasures of having a garden.  In spite of the fact that I complain A LOT about the amount of work a garden entails, the pleasures are many and often delightful.  Take today, for instance.  I went from this...

...to this...

...to this...

 
in less than an hour. Yummmmm, apple crisp.  I did have to wait another hour for it to cool off to get a taste.  It was worth the wait. 

Currant News

Although I've already posted about my currant-juice-making adventures (here), I want to update as to the quantity of the finished product.  This year, I bottled 20 pints of strawberry currant juice total.  Last year, we ended  up with 12 pints so this year's harvest was substantially larger.  And that's including the few pounds of currants that the grandkids ate during a recent visit.  lol.  Normally those berries are waaaaay to tart to eat plain, but the berries were also larger and sweeter than in past years.

So to recap, this year's currant harvest was bigger, sweeter, later and juicier than in years past.  *insert big grin smiley here*

Turkey Cannon - Experiment #1

Last fall, during a contest sponsored by PinchingYourPennies.com, I won a specialty turkey roaster called a turkey cannon.  Dorky name for a pretty cool product.  My cannon arrived last week (long story), so after my weekly grocery trip where I picked up a whole chicken, I was ready for a test drive cook.

The turkey cannon can be used for a turkey or whole chicken over 4 lbs. in weight.  It can be used in the oven or on the outdoor grill.  It assembles easily and can be just as easily disassembled to be washed in the dishwasher.  The included instruction book had lots of information, but it was a bit disorganized so it took a few minutes to figure out just what needed to be done.  I followed the instructions exactly this time (stop laughing!), but I thought of a few things to try differently next time.  Some instructions are critical to success:

1.   Use a pan with sides in the oven.  Just enough juice escapes that it would be a hazard without an edge to keep it off the bottom of the oven.  I did line the pan with foil which meant that the burnt on drippings didn't need to be soaked and scrubbed afterwards.
2.  Measure the liquid that is poured into the cannon.  The instructions say 1 - 1 1/2 cups of liquid.  I put in 1 cup of teriyaki sauce.  That was all it needed.  One more drop would have spilled out.
3.  Trim all excess fat from the bird before sliding it onto the roaster.  The instructions warn about spattering and there was plenty of that even with a carefully trimmed bird (thanks Harmons for taking care of that!)

Here's the chicken all decked out and ready for the oven:

I used teriyaki sauce in the cannon; salt, Mrs Dash garlic and herb blend, and Mrs Dash Fiesta Lime on the outside.

Ta da!  75 minutes later, here is the finished deliciousness.  We ate a great deal of the chicken for dinner tonight and there is enough for another good-sized meal leftover.  Yum!

Next time I use the turkey cannon, there are a few things that I will do differently...

...more seasoning inside and out.  The meat was juicy and seasoned, but could have used more zing.  I worried that using a liquid like salsa might make the meat too spicy for the gringos around here, but I think that I'm going to try it next.

...plan for more time in the oven.  The instructions say that the bird will cook more quickly using the turkey cannon, but I didn't find that to be true.  This 4+ lb. chicken needed 75 minutes which is what the instructions suggest that roasting a whole turkey would take.

...cook it at 425 for a larger portion of the roasting time.  I was worried about drying the chicken out by cooking it at the higher temperature, but I think that instead of 30 minutes at 350 and 45 at 425, I'll try it all at 425 next time.  The crispy skin was very tasty.

...gotta try the grill, too.  I think that a smoky, grilled flavor would be wonderful with meat that is so tender and juicy!

Thanks again PinchingYourPennies and Camp Chef for my new tool!

Big Job = Big Taste

Although today was the first time that I've ever canned chili sauce myself, I have had a long time love for it.  No, not the store-bought stuff with HFCS 'corn sugar' in it.  The lovely homemade tomatoey, spicy, sweet kind of chili sauce is what I'm talkin' 'bout! 

Over the years, I've tasted many people's version of this condiment.  Some were really awesome (thanks, Aunt Mary!) and some were pretty awful (names deleted to protect the innocent.)  I knew what I wanted my chili sauce to taste like and finally found a recipe that looked like it might work in the Ball Big Book.

After a trip to the Farmer's Market for tomates, I was able to harvest pretty much all the rest of the vegetables needed from the garden.  My one change to the recipe involved a jalapeno pepper.  I just couldn't figure out how a cook could call her finished product 'chili sauce' if it had absolutely no chiles in it.  So, I added one to give it a teeny, tiny little kick. 

Three and a half hours later, I was finished.  Holy cow, that took longer than the peach pie filling that I've previously whined about!  I ended up with 7 and 3/4 pints.  Since my canner only holds 7 pints at a time, that meant that I had to sacrifice and begin eating the 3/4 pint immediately.  Sam was good enough to help me out.  We ate one bowl full on tortilla chips.  Yum, yum, yum.  Then we put it on our cheeseburgers instead of catsup.  OMGosh!  It was lucious.  I'm going to really enjoy the fruits of my labors, but I don't think I'll be making another batch until next year.  I'm pooped!

Ah Ha Moment

Over the past few months, I have discovered the joy that is Greek-style yogurt.  Dedicated scientist that I am, I have eaten my way through every brand and variety that I could find.  My conclusion:  all Greek-style yogurt is not created alike.  Some are pretty darn yucky.  Some are a little bit of heaven in a plastic cup (Fage, you are my dream yogurt!)  They all have one thing in common...they are all much pricier than their French, American, and Dora, the Explorer-style counterparts.

So, ever thrifty shopper and cook that I also am, I began researching how Greek-style yogurt is made.  The manufacturers websites were little to no help.  Other than a few tidbits about it being a 'multi-step process' and 'made in the ancient traditional way' they were holding on to their secrets pretty tightly.  So, I did what I always do.  I Googled.  I found several home kitchen how-to recipes.  And that's when I happened.  The Ah Ha Moment.  I already knew how to make Greek-style yogurt!

I've been making 'yogurt cream cheese' for many years to use as a substitute for regular cream cheese in recipes.  It's really good on bagels and with salsa on crackers, especially.  This is what I do...

I line a steel strainer with a white paper towel.  It will hold a quart of yogurt.  I put the strainer over a bowl to catch the tart juice that drains away.  I usually cover the whole thing with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.  Come morning, I just roll the yogurt cheese out of the paper towel into a container.

Well, the 'ancient traditional way' of making Greek-style yogurt is exactly the same process, only I left it to drain for only 4 hours instead of over night.  I just ate some (mixed with a bit of homemade raspberry jam thankyouverymuch) and it is perfect.  And delicious.  And it's going to save me a ton of money.

The one quart container of yogurt (cost:  $2.99) yielded about 28 ounces of Greek-style yogurt.  So, figuring about 10.5 cents per ounce, that's 63 cents for a six ounce serving.  Add a dime or so for the homemade jam and that's a whole heck of a lot less than the
$1. 79 that my beloved Fage usually costs.  Sorry, Fage, I won't be back without a really great coupon.

Happiness is...

...a working microwave.

...a pantry full of homemade jam.  This one is banana bread nut butter.  Yum!

...someone willing to pickle their nose to help me make pickled beets.  Thanks Carin!  You are awesome!