The green tomato relish has been a huge success! Yay!
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Garden
Green Tomato Relish
I didn’t weigh or count these, so we’ll just say for recipe purposes “about yea many”.
Along with the green tomatoes, I added two big sweet onions, and four bell peppers, two green and two red. Coarse chop all of that then spin it in a food processor to get the final mince on. Stir in two tablespoons of kosher salt and let drain in a colander for a while, then add to a big pot. I added yellow and black mustard seed, whole coriander seeds, a dollop of Dijon mustard, black pepper, many cloves of garlic, minced, some ground cumin, granulated garlic, granulated onion, 1 cup of sweetener, and one cup of vinegar.
Bring to a simmer and let it bubble for 20 minutes or so. I managed to cram everything into 5 wide mouth pint jars. Process in a water bath for 20-30 minutes.
Sammich Pr0n
Chunky tuna salad sammich on white toast with a side of tomatoes in vinaigrette with fresh thyme.
We stripped all the tomatoes from the vines in the back garden and pulled them from the ground so there won’t be any more fresh tomatoes coming on. What was on the bush yesterday is what we have. I’m going to make some green tomato relish today,
Tidbits
We brought in some more tomatoes and promptly turned them into stewed tomatoes with lots of peppers and onions.
We canned most of it but saved out enough to make our favorite sauce.
The tomatoes and peppers with chicken broth and a pound each of Italian sausage and hamburger. The usual herbs and spices went in: granulated onion and garlic, bay leaves, thyme, oregano, basil, black pepper and salt.
Which we had with rice because its’s good that way. The recipe was modified from a stuffed pepper soup recipe and the rice was a part of that. It’s great on pasta.
So we used the rest of that batch to make another lasagna, We used ricotta in this one and that turned it into maybe the best lasagna I’ve ever made. This one cooked at 350 for an hour, the mozz on the top browned up nicely.
We said goodbye to a humongous corkscrew willow. We planted it soon after we moved in, maybe 25+ years ago. It grew fast and started to lose big branches, we worried they would take out infrastructure.
Honey bees were attracted to the sap oozing from the fresh cuts. We are leaving the big ol’ stump right where it is for now.
Random sammich – we kept a tomato or three out of the pot just for one of these. That’s a lucky double yolk on that egg!
Yes, We Have Peppers
It looks like we will have more tomatoes tomorrow so I gathered some peppers to add to the pot. Most of those on the board are little mini peppers. We have a ton of those. They are a variety called “Lunchbox”. I planted two of them when one plant would have been plenty – they are prolific. I noticed, too late, that they were selling orange ones, too. I wish they would come in different colors on the same bush.
Tidbits
Picnicking ‘coons. They’ve learned how to flip the top but that’s a pretty low bar.
The tomatoes have finally started coming in after a miserable summer. I’ve been canning them as stewed tomatoes with peppers and onions. They are an essential component of the stuffed pepper soup recipe and they are good for chili and fine with elbow mac.
Bitsy enjoys the video clips. Here she’s watching some turkeys parade by…
…and is joined by Ollie as the scene shifts to a night capture of a raccoon. Homer is too tired to watch.
Some of the patio garden peppers that went into that batch of stewed tomatoes.
Sammich Pr0n – these have a few slices of Havarti that proved to be very stretchy. I managed to pull them apart enough to use up all of those jalapeno slices.
I started two rib eyes in the sous vide bath and ended up taking them out because I got to mowing the yard and by the time I finished 5-1/2 hours later It was dark and I was bushed. We warmed up that lasagna and put the steaks back into the fridge. I left the water bath setup stay out the night and started the steaks back up noon–ish. We ate them at 6 and they were delicious after spending around 14-15 hours at 136°. Melt in your mouth tender.
I saw Bea napping under the chives and started singing “A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh ..”
Instapot OxTail
I’m in the midst of clearing out some long-time freezer cruft and found a few ox tails that were vacuum sealed. “Let’s see what the pressure cooker will do with these” was my first thought. Added carrots, celery, onions, and scallions and placed the frozen ox tails on that bed. I also had some white wine that was past its prime but would work. Various herbs from the bench garden and a can of beef broth went in, then the cooker was set for an hour on high. The veggies were for the gravy and were discarded.
I went ahead and steamed some fresh carrots and potato chunks.
When the pressure was off the pot I cooled the oxtails and pulled the meat off them, not much there, and thickened the sauce. Finally, the meat and veggies ware combined and rewarmed in the gravy. Served with hot rolls. Nom nom!
Apple Crisp for Breakfast, That’s a Thing, Right?
…asking for a friend. 🤔
A few weeks back, the city once again sent out an alert: the apples in the city apple orchard were ready to be picked. So for the love of all that is holy, come and relieve them of these apples. Branches break, people get zonked by falling apples, the ground gets covered, so they seriously encourage people to “come and get it.” They are as organic as they come – other than some pruning, the city does nothing to them.
Photo from City of Longmont
Roger’s Grove Nature Area consists of 54.9 acres adjacent to the St. Vrain Greenway and includes Fairgrounds Lake, trails, a shelter, outdoor amphitheater, restrooms, native landscaping, demonstration gardens and an apple grove with fruit free for your harvest! Design and construction of the nature area was primarily funded by the Roger and Roberta Jones Foundation. Roger Jones (1915-1995), enjoyed walking along the river with his wife Roberta (1913-1992). Both educators in the St. Vrain Valley School system, the Jones’ wanted to contribute an environment for children and adults to visit, learn and enjoy. Roger’s Grove was developed as a nature area, arboretum and outdoor learning center.
…there are about 50 apple trees, of eight varieties, planted at Roger’s Grove, and they have not been sprayed with pesticides.
With all my apples, I made my Perfect Apple Crisp, recipe here, with a bit of twist. I came away with quite a few apples, and while a few are good to eat, most are better for baking. They sat in my fruit drawer for a week, and I decided I needed to do something with them, especially since I didn’t know if any of them were buggy – I didn’t want the bugs to multiply.
So I dumped them all in the sink, washed them and then sliced them up. I put them in my Multi-Pot (Instant Pot twin) and threw in about 1/2 cup of brown sugar, a dash of salt and just enough water to keep it from burning before the apples let go their juice. I set it for three minutes, assuming much of the cooking would take place while it pressurized. It was a good call.
I did the fast-release method, and the apples were perfect. Still had some shape and I thought would be great for baking. I had planned to freeze some, but best-laid plans and all, I instead went on an apple crisp spree. I’ve baked three in the last two weeks. Mmm–mmmm.
Oh, and those chicken thighs – I’ll put that recipe up later. Until then…
