Garden Bounty: Holding onto Summer

After being teased with 2 months off during the summer, I am back into the swing of things (I know feel sorry for me now)...things being getting up at an unGodly hour, making lunches, and enforcing homework.....SIGH....summer can't last forever. As the last days of my summer break drew closer, I continued prepping for the zombie apocalypse winter. The Boy and I even made perogies for the freezer!

I started working on this post a while back but just haven't found the time.

The other day I made tomato sauce with the intent to jar it up and save it for later use. I wound up boiling the sauce down too much and it became quite thick. At first I thought what the hell? Then I tasted it and thought...Oh my!! I had inadvertently made tomato jam instead!! How divine!! I had actually been scouring resources looking for a tomato jam recipe but so many of them had so much sugar in them, which I didn't want. The
sauce recipe I followed was one I found on Pinterest from America's Test kitchen. It is simple, without too many ingredients and cooks down nicely. I have even made this twice, the second time cooking it down further on purpose and it turned out just as tasty!

Beautiful luscious jars of tomato jam!!

The original recipe calls to peel the tomatoes but I didn't do that. I washed the tomatoes, cored them and put them through the food processor. Other than that, I followed the recipe. (oh except for the fact that I didn't process that many tomatoes, I cut the recipe into fourths and did 1/4 of the amount...I just don't have the space for 4 pots of sauce and the water canner on my stove!)

Some of the tomatoes are from my garden and some I bought from the Farmers' market. Many of the farmers had bins labeled 'canning tomatoes'. These are just over ripe and extra juicy tomatoes and are cheaper than the others. Only $1/pound!!

We have used the jam to eat plain with bread, as a base for pizza bread, in sandwiches, as a dip for chicken, paired with ricotta or basil or both....the possibilities are endless.  So far the Boy's favourite sammy has been a waffle and grilled chicken breast with tomato jam...this of course is his own creation!

I fear not having anymore ripe tomatos on the plants but I'm sure cracking open a jar such as this mid winter will remind me of the summer bounty we were so fortunate to have this summer.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

There's Kale With My Bacon

Yesterday was CSA pick up day which netted us a lot of the same types of things as last week. We've had a busy week so I failed to take photos of our haul before I prepped it for the fridge. (Sorry about that.) I did however get excited because we got more edible flowers this week!!

People warned us when they learned we had signed up for a Community Supported Agriculture program, telling us that we'd get nothing but kale. We have actually only received 2 small bunches of the curly green stuff. I tried making kale chips with our small bunch of kale last week but I did not like them. Perhaps I need to try again and bake them a bit shorter? The Boy and I both like raw kale though. We even made ourselves some BKT sammies for lunch today and the kale worked so well with the sammie!

Our busy week actually started this past weekend with the Boy and his baseball playoffs. They managed to win all 4 games in the tournament and will play for the City championship tonight. (go team!) Sunday we had some people come on over so they could tear out yucky old garage down, knock the crumbly front steps off the house, take out some tree stumps, and tear out the old fence...I am sooooo glad someone else did the work.

Goodbye old garage...glad the garden made it safe and sound!

So long crumbly and dangerous steps!

Did I mention the water main break that caused me to be without water for a short while?

Now, we have a whole bunch of shirtless men working in the yard....life is sooooo darn tough sometimes.  A new fence is going up as are new stairs on the front of the house. I actually can't believe these guys just keep working in this heat. I almost feel bad sitting here inside blogging....almost.

Work is progressing nicely and I am excited about a new fence and a chance to get my yard done up the way I want it....once I decide what that is, it will be fun. I promise...

Until next time, stay warm stay cool and eat well.

A Southwestern Meatball's Chance in....

The view from my front door this morning. ACK!

Well, the prairies woke up to a blanket of snow this morning.  It was pretty wet snow and it melted off the sidewalks pretty quickly so I don't think it will last.  I hope it won't last.  I do enjoy the snow and in fact it looked quite pretty out there this morning.  I am just not ready for it yet. Also, I think I need a new winter coat but haven't had the time to go shopping yet....It also means there were PLENTY of snowballs being thrown out on the playground today!! (And not by me!!)

Tonight is a gym night, it has to be.  I have a headache but I need to go. My local expert tells me it is the best thing to do. When I got home from work I prepared everything to cook dinner. A mise on place if you will. I made the turkey meatballs and placed them in the fridge, cut up all the veggies for the warm corn and black bean salsa.  All I have to do when I get home is cook everything and according to the recipe in the October 2011 edition of Clean Eating Magazine, this will only take 10 to 15 minutes to cook....

Mise en place: everything is ready to go

Turkey meatballs ready for the fridge.

Okay, I am back from the gym and ready to cook.

Southwestern Turkey meatball skillet
Adapted from Clean Eating Magazine October, 2011

1 lb ground turkey
2 large egg whites (I used one whole egg)
1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (I used wheat germ tonight but don't tell Hubby or the Boy....)
1/4 tsp sea salt (I used kosher)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp olive oil (I may have used a little bit more...
1 cup frozen corn
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups diced fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth (I used water because I only had broth frozen in 4 cup blocks....)
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp cumin
1/4 fresh cilantro

I also added
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic

First mix up the meatball mixture.  In a bowl mix together the turkey, egg, crumbs, salt and pepper.  I also added extra cumin to the meat balls but after eating them, they need way more spice.

Heat a large skillet over medium, add the olive  oil, then the meat balls.  Brown the meat balls, turning to a new side as they brown for about 5 minutes.

Once the meatballs have a decent brown going on, add in the onions, green peppers, tomatoes, corn, black beans, broth, cumin, and lime juice. Mix everything up, being careful to not break the meatballs up. (This is where I added the garlic.  I grated it in with the micro plane...I just love garlic and I am glad I added it)

Slap a cover on the pan and let it all get happy happy for about 5 minutes.  Sprinkle on the cilantro and another squeeze of lime juice.

I served this with rice tonight, but the Boy ate his with multi grain tortilla chips.

It really did only take about 15 minutes to cook this dish!! Overall the warm salsa very tasty and I got the approval to make it again.  The meatballs were quite bland and I kind of knew they would turn out that way when I started. We decided however to add more spice to the meatballs. The winners of the spice discussion were smoked paprika and come chili flakes along with more cumin. (Perhaps some crushed garlic as well).

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

I Can't Believe We Ate The Whole Thing Peach Pie

 
Disappointments happen all the time. One minute you think you have a gorgeous crop of tomatoes.

Then you take a closer look and find this.

Bottom rot!! ARRRRRGGGGGG!  At least we can still use the top part of the tomatoes....SIGH

Have you ever had one of the weekends that was just one disappointment after another? We just had one of those weekends that just spilled out onto Monday.  Nothing seemed to go right.  The Boy didn't make the baseball team he tried out for, we came back early from the Little Cabin due to a malfunctioning water pump, the car needs a bunch of work and we have a sick cat to top it off. 

Oh, and Canada lost a wonderful man today, NDP leader Jack Layton passed away in the wee hours of the morning.  It is a sad day for our nation. You can read Mr. Layton's last letter to Canadians here.  He always had a way with words. 

Needless to say, we are feeling a bit down.  How to cheer ourselves up???  Well, a movie with lots of explosions and shooting helps....you know what else helps??

Bacon.  Bacon always helps.  We made BLT sammies for lunch today....let me tell you, they hit the spot!!

The Boy even made some scrambled eggs to go with the sammies!

Now, my whole weekend wasn't a complete bust.  On Sunday I baked a pie! I don't bake pies too often and I am always nervous about how the crust will turn out.  This pie turned out absolutely fabulous!!! How fabulous you ask? Four of us ate the entire pie....the boy had 3 pieces....after a full on steak dinner.....need I say more?

On The Fly Peach and Strawberry Pie
Printable recipe

For the pastry:
4 cups flour

1 tsp kosher salt

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ cups butter

1 cup ice water (you most likely won’t need the entire cup)

For the filling:
5 -6 peaches
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
squeeze of lemon juice

1 egg, beaten to brush the pastry

Put butter and water in the freezer to chill

Mix the flour, salt, sugar together in a bowl

Grate frozen butter with cheese grater to get lots of small bits of butter to mix in with the flour.  It should resemble coarse crumbs.

Pour ½ cup of ice water into the butter flour mixture and mix quickly to keep from warming the dough.  Add more water 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes together when squeezed. 

You don’t want the dough wet...kind of like a biscuit or scone dough.  Tip the entire mass of doughy crumbles onto the counter.  Fold the mass over onto itself, pressing flat each time and turning.  You will quickly see the dough come together and see the layers of flakey goodness you are creating. 

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions.  This will give you 4 single crusts or 2 double crust pies.  Wrap and freeze the dough you won’t use for another time and wrap and chill the dough you are using for a good ½ hour.

Cut an x on the bottom of the peaches just through the skin.

plunge the peaches into boiling water for 1 minute then plunge them into ice water.  Using a paring knife and starting at the x incision, peel the skin off the peaches.  

Slice into the peaches around the pit, twist to remove the peaches from the pits and slice the peaches.

Toss peaches with ½ cup of sugar, 2 tbsp cornstarch, and a squeeze of lemon....add sliced strawberries.

Roll out one pie crust and line the pie plate.  Brush the bottom crust with beaten egg. (This keeps the bottom crust from getting soggy).  Tip in the peach/strawberry filling.

Roll out the top crust.  You can cut the crust into strips to make a lattice top if you’d like.  

Add some spots of butter to the top of the fruit.

 Cut the edges down, crimp the edges, and brush with beaten egg.

Bake in a pre heated 425F oven for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350F Bake for 30 to 40 minutes more.  If the edges get over brown, cover with tin foil and continue to bake until done.

Allow to cool to warm before serving and make sure to serve with vanilla ice cream or vanilla frozen yogurt!

Seriously, this was so tasty, I am making it again for a dinner guest this week! 

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.