More Canning? More Cooking? Why Yes, I Beleive So!



skins be gone - pizza, pasta, stew starter - turkey roaster waiting station





OK....

Remember those tomatoes from last week?

The ones I had to put in the freezer?
The ones from the farmers market? ($7.00 for about 20 lbs).

 Well yesterday we had  time.

 Let's get them canned up, I said!

We left them whole, more or less, and used the pressure canner.

I was running short on jars so we used a combo of quarts and pints.

Would have preferred to use all wide mouth, but....

We used the hot pack method,

keeping them between warm and hot in the turkey roaster.

Everything went well and we ended up with,

3 quarts, 8 pints and 3 juice.

The juice was the left over liquid in the roaster.

I'd say, we have quite enough tomatoes now!
(Remember, I canned some in January)...

 Anyone needing some of the "said tomatoes"

is welcome to come over and help themselves!

Let me back up!
Before we started on the tomatoes, I put a brisket in the electric roaster,
(about 10 1/2  lbs. for $1.49 a lb.)
and some dry (soaked overnight),  beans in the slow cooker.

OK, moving on....



Brisket waiting to be trimmed - all packaged up - meal size

 The Brisket
Typically, we don't do meat as a main course,
 use it for soups, stews, casseroles, tacos ETC.
I guess I get that trait from my mom, she was
trying to feed 9 people on a limited budget!
She did some wonderful recipes with very little to work with.
(Wish I would have told her, I love you, more often).

So, we packaged the brisket into meal size portions and popped them into the freezer.
(When I say meal size, I mean, big meal, several servings).
I would have rather canned it but I was low on jars, and by this time it was 5pm.

The Beans
My grand-daughter Lauren was over last weekend and
she was watching Nate and I make the crispy breakfast tacos.
(Not that Nathan was really helping, more like,
in and out of the kitchen while playing video games and watching a movie.
I guess he gets his multi tasking from me).

We were tossing around ideas for different fillings and she suggested
using re-fried beans as the binder, chorizo as the meat, and adding scrambled eggs.
Sounded good, might be ugly though, I'm not sure how the eggs will look.

And, as soon as I get my butt away from this laptop,
I'm going to smash some beans and give her idea a try.
I'll let you know how they turn out!

OH, and Sue,
I did at least manage to get the laundry done.
I might even get the dog hair swept up!!!

Yes, my grass is indeed that brown!

What are you guys going to do with your long weekend?

Till next time,
Bonjour

No Rain, No Problem! Farmer's Market To The Rescue!!!

So....

Since we had to quit the garden
 due to the  no rain issues/fines for using too much water,

a trip to the farmer's market on Friday was in order.

There was no arm twisting involved, I love to go,

only,
 I would rather not have to buy my produce.

Oh well,

the bright side is,

 I'm helping out a south or East Texas farmer.

(Gotta take the positive notes where you can)!

Anyway...

We scored about 20 lbs of roma tomatoes for $8.00

4 giant, red bell peppers for $1.00

okra @ $3.oo a pint (got 2)

green beans @ $3.00 a pint ( got 2 also)

new potatoes @ $2.00 for 2 pints

and, 2 fairly large cantaloupe for $5.00

Some of the goodies

Not too bad, especially compared to the supermarket!

We canned some of the okra yesterday for Steve's mom

and saved the rest to fry.
We'll do that on Sunday.

My Steve does enjoy his fried okra!

He also enjoys green beans and new potatoes,

Sunday on that one also.

Today I got started on or meals for the week.

First up was spinach/lasagna roll ups from Rachel Ray's kid cookbook.

Rachel Ray's cookbook

Naturally, I put my own spin on the recipe using ingredients I already had on hand.

Here's my take!!

Mince, mince, chop!

Ingredients:

1 small onion, minced

3 ribs celery, with some leaves, minced

1 red bell pepper, minced
1 roma tomato, seeded and minced

1 package spinach, drained and chopped (about one lb.)

(I had a package of blanched mixed greens in the freezer, swiss chard, spinach and beet greens)

about a 3/4  lb. of queso fresco, divided use (fetta or ricotta would work)

medium thick rue, about 1 and 1/2 cups  divided use (made with turkey broth)

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

6 lasagna noodles, cooked, rinsed and drained

olive oil for sautéing

Directions:

Sautee first 3 ingredients in heated olive oil about 7 minutes.

Add spinach/greens, 1/4 lb. queso fresco, 1/2 cup rue and nutmeg.

Stay with the skillet at this point.

Cook, stirring until queso fresco starts to melt.

Remove from heat.

Lay out your cooked lasagna noodles on a cutting board.

With a rubber spatula coat the noodles with your spinach/queso fresco mixture.
I added extra, crumbled, queso fresco at this stage, a little for each roll up.

Fill and roll up all noodles and place seam side down in a casserole dish.

Time To Roll!!!

Spoon extra rue over the rolled noodles, sprinkle with extra queso fresco or parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven till cheese melts and noodles heat through. About 15 minutes.

When I make these in the summer I stop at the baking step. I just cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge. When ready to eat just spoon out a noodle or two and microwave.

Great for gourmet, lunch box treats !!!

Yummo!!!

I'm curious...

Have you been restricted on your water usage,

fined for using too much?

Do you  recycle your water when possible?

Tomorrow we'll be canning the tomatoes,

frying okra and making the green beans and new potatoes.

Till next time,

Bonjour

Canning And A quilt

33 PINTS OF PINEAPPLE/PINA

Oh my gosh!!!

We've been canning since last Friday,
a few hours here a few there. (After work)



We finally finished up today.

7 QUARTS CHILI, 3 QUARTS VEGGIE BROTH



2 1/2 GALS. TOMATO VEGGIE MIX

The pineapple will be lunch bag snacks,

kabob fillers, diced for cookies, ham additive,

could even be squashed and simmered for syrup over pancakes.

(Use your imagination.)

The veggie broth is a beautiful amber color,
looks like a French Onion Soup starter.

Onion and garlic skins/ends with celery ends

simmered then strained and canned.

(Used the waste from the Tomato Veggie mix.)

The Tomato Veggie mix is toms, celery, onion, garlic,

mixed color bell peppers and dried chilies.

No seasonings, we'll use this base for tacos, spaghetti sauce,

pico de gillo, guacamole, lasagna, spanish rice ETC. 

Even managed to make a few batches of soap,

mow some of the lawn weeds, clean house and do laundry.

The temps. have been in the high 70's for the last 3 days

so I was able to hang the laundry out and

open the doors for some much needed fresh air.

Snow predicted on Tuesday, damm darn bipolar Texas weather.

Steve planted the carrot seeds, the lettuce, spinach and more of the onions.

We're spacing the onion plantings so they don't all come in at the same time.

Sure do want to finish that quilt.





THIS IS A CRAZY QUILT I DID YEAR BEFORE LAST



CLOSE UP







I think I spy some of the rose fabric from the placemats in the lower left corner of the quilt close up.

Frugal me.

Well, thats all I got!!

Till next time.

 Bonjour

Update on the canning project

Well, we got every thing done & labeled.

Where we are now! Good eats for this winter.

I did an 86  from work  today & hit the thrift stores in Waxahachie,

Stay tuned for my finds!!!

Bonjour

Our trip to The Dallas farmers Market

Sooooooooo.

Today I left my safe & secure comfort zone & ventured out into the world. We, as in Steve, Nate & I drove into Dallas (YIKES)  to visit the farmers market. (No, not on the tractor.)

I wanted to can some tomatoes & our garden just wasn't producing the amount needed for this project. (About 25 lbs). We found the wholesalers shed & went to town, well sort of.

VIOLA

We also bought a case of pineapples. (Steve cut them up before I could get a picture.)

Canning to commence on Sunday, Stay tuned.

Well after we took care of business we just kinda wandered around taking in the sights & posing for photos.

                        

Posing works up an appitite so we stoped for some tamales at La Popular Tamale House, MMM bueno!!!

We hung around people watching for a while, then it was back to the homestead.

It wasn't near as scarry as I thought it would be. (The traffic, not the market.)

I'll have to get out more often!!!

Bonjour