Pickled Peaches

experimenting with a recipe that I cant find actually written down anywhere in my Grandmothers things but they were the most amazing. 

End of the Day. ... Start of a New Week

This is most of the fruits of my labor today.  Not quite all as several things I had already put in the refrigerator to be ready for the week.  Three containers of chopped lettuce to be ready for salads for my lunches this week.  The container of celery that came in my baskets is cut into sticks ready to be spread with peanut butter for snacks during the day.  A couple of the onions are chopped waiting both salad use and other meals during the week. 

The things that you can see here however are:

 Nine jars of Pasta Sauce using the zucchini, a couple of the yellow squash, some of the onions, mushrooms, celery, the basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary that came in this weeks basket. We also added some of the rainbow carrots left from a previous add on.   The tomato sauce came from the tomatoes that a friend gave to me that were getting a little mushy so sauce just seemed right.  yes I will share with her as well if she wants some. 

This picture contains Whats For Dinner, tomorrow night.. well partly at least.  The yellow squash is going to get battered and fried, the onion chopped to be added to the ingredients in the container.  Those ingredients are shredded zucchini, shredded carrot, chopped mushrooms all to be added with the onion when I chop it up.  Those things will then be mixed in with the hamburger and ground turkey that will make the meatloaf for dinner tomorrow night.  Some of the chopped lettuce and other things that are currently in the refrigerator will make the salad that will top off the main course tomorrow night. 

 

I pitted and sliced one bag of the add on cherry box that I got and decided that dessert needed to be a cobbler!!!   This shows half of that first bag of cherries and I decided to try a patriotic theme and threw in some of the blueberries that I had left from the last basket I got as well.  I have so far resisted "tasting" it. 

 

YYYUUUMMM YYYYUUUUMMMM I hope.  This is one of the easiest recipes in the world as far as I am concerned and I would be happy to share it with anyone who wanted it.

 

And last but not least.  I tried One lone test jar of Canned Cherries.  I kind of put together two different recipes as I am looking for a particular memory. 

Once a very long time ago I remember that my Grandmother and Mother canned cherries.  To me they were absolutely "heaven on earth" when we used them as a topping over my Mothers special home made ice cream.  They never made them again and no one completely remembers them except for me.  I am almost there.. I need to tweak a couple of the ingredients and keep trying but I am almost there......

 

So tomorrow night, it will be the ears of corn, and pitting more of the cherries to can the rest for later use.  Cherry pie, Cherry cobbler,  Cherry ice cream topping, and maybe just out of the jar with a spoon.  

Then, it will be time for some more mango salsa as I am down to just 2 jars of that. 

 

I have decided that if there is a Kitchen Fairy out there anywhere who delivers presents to good little cooks, I would wish upon a star for a food processor, a new ninja, and new canning equipment.  I used to have a lot, but over the years things have gone missing or I decided I didn't need them anymore so I let them go.. but I think, I am going to be doing this for years to come. 

Someone has to keep lost arts alive, right? 

But now, its time for lights out, everyone have a wonderful night, sleep well and join me for my next adventure.

 

Today is Bountiful Basket Day!!!!

This time I ordered 2 regular baskets, 2 Italian themed add ons and a box of cherries.  I cannot wait to get home this afternoon and start deciding what I am doing with it all.  My family is hoping for home made pasta sauce being canned for the next couple of months. 

I remember a time as a child that my grandmother canned cherries that were locally grown in the mountains near here.  I was very young but it is one of my fondest summer memories of my mothers home made ice cream.  We used those cherries to pour over the ice cream.  I have no earthly idea how she made them but I think I am planning to maybe try to hopefully figure out something close to the way she did it. 

So watch for updates. 
 UPDATE NUMBER ONE>   This is a combination of things that came in the Italian add ons and and things I already had in the fridge from past shopping trips and onions from the last basket.  Add to it a bunch of tomatoes that a friend gave me.  They were a little mushy in places so I turned them in to the tomato sauce that will be the base of this round of pasta sauce.  They are cooked and cooling over night now so I am going to hit the bed early and get up early to add to it before church tomorrow. 

Well, Here I am at the end of the weekend and Im here to report what has been accomplished. 

Im off to bed after canning 7 pints of mango salsa and another jar in the refrigerator that was partly used on the dinner of baked chicken thighs. 
I couldn't find the exact recipe that I used the first time I made it so I really hope that this turns out remotely good.  Major ingredients include mangos, red onions, jalapenos, and bell peppers.

I canned the three pineapples that we had left and let me tell you, the general concensus between *M* and I is that I may not ever use canned pineapple ever again.   I am very thankful to my aunt who told me how to tell when the pineapples were ripe and then how to make sure that the juices were through out the pineapple.  I put a touch of sugar in but Im not really sure if I needed it at all or not. 

I baked chicken wrapped in fresh herbs, roasted the artichokes for dinner tomorrow night, along with roasting most of the garlic that I have around here at the moment. 

I also made English muffins for breakfasts. We will be eating those in the morning with the blackberry syrup that I made a couple months ago.

I also roasted the eggplant and the zucchini later this week. 

thanks for reading.

Bountiful Basket First *A* Week.

Today was the first time our community has had an A week Bountiful Basket drop site.  This is spectacular because now we can indulge in our "habit"  every week if we want to.  This change also involved a time change from where we at in the afternoon to an 11 am drop site.  This was very exciting to me as I get finished with my "work day" by noon and can go home and start deciding what I am going to do with my new acquisitions. 

So, after a wonderful lunch with my hubby, I came home, got him ready for a trip he is heading off on and then started looking at what was in my basket. 

I contributed this week to get only one regular basket, and an Italian themed add on and a jar of organic coconut oil.  This is what it starts out looking like. 

 

So I have a head of romaine lettuce, one bunch of asparagus, 3 cucumbers, 3 artichokes, 3 mangos, 2 grapefruit, an eggplant, 3 yellow squash, 2 zucchini, 2 green bell peppers, 2 orange bell peppers,  2 small watermelons, a bunch of parsley, basil, oregano, and rosemary, a yellow onion, a red onion and a head of garlic,  2 boxes of mushrooms, 4 ears of corn,3 heads of broccoli. 

 

Add to that some green onions, kale, tomatoes, celery, cauliflower 2 more zucchini and ginger 3 spaghetti squash  and a couple of butter nut squash that I already have. 

 Left from last week are 3 pineapples just getting ripe, some more mangos, lemons, Anaheim chilies,  2 kinds of pears.

 

Next part of the plan is to turn all of those items into ingredients for the next week or so of healthy, delicious meals for my family.  If anyone has any ideas, be sure to comment to me, please. 

 

UPDATE TO FOLLOW

 

 1>  Eggplant/zucchini  Parmesean on tap using the eggplant, and probably 2 of the zucchini and some of the herbs. 

 

2>  Roasted artichokes along with the asparagus as sides for baked chicken using more of the herbs.

3. The bell peppers and onions will go into fajitas

4. Broccoli will go into both salads for the week and a side dish for fish out of the freezer later this week. I believe I will sautee the yellow squash and the rest of the zucchini along with some more onion as a side for that fish also.

Romaine lettuce, cucumbers, green onion, tomatos. cauliflower, celery into salads for my week for lunch.

 

So far, that gives me dinner for 4 out of 7 nights.  and a few lunches. 

Hi, My name is Sherry and I am a produce junkie

The End of the Week

Today was Bountiful Baskets day.  In any general week that makes it a good day, but today was our first time as a host site so that makes it an AMAZING day.  It was a great learning experience to see how the produce was brought in from the very beginning. 
Being a Trucking Family, we were interested in the operation from beginning to end. 

So, In rolls the truck, my husband goes out to the street to direct him in to our loading dock.  The back of the truck opens and there our shipment is.  Three pallets stacked and shrink wrapped, along with a pallet of the baskets.  Off it all came with very little trouble, even though knowing how it works now, next time will be an even better smoothly oiled machine. 

Sorting of boxes began, fruits over there...... Vegetables over there.... and add ons on that shelf there. 
Next came, lining up the baskets, 100 of them I believe.  Volunteers lined up to be given instructions by our site coordinator.  Two by two we began to grab boxes and work our way down the lines of baskets placing the produce. 

Looking out toward the front loading dock we see people beginning to line up.  Much talking and laughing and general camaraderie is going on everywhere, inside the warehouse and out.  There are a mixture of old and new at this site it seems.  I was excited because I am going to be able to see favorite old customers of mine who have become good friends, but now I see that I may make some NEW friends as well. 

Next the flurry of distribution of began.  Regular basket contributors on that side and add on packs over there.  With in minutes it seemed things were wrapping up and we were all ready to take our tired feet home. 

Of course, the first thing I had to do was lay my Bounty out and photograph it.