Pickles and Hats

I always forget how busy life gets in August. I have been busy making jam, picking and freezing quart after quart of raspberries, making pickles (over 50 quarts so far!)... Last week, Kevin's parents bought me a pressure cooker, which has me over the moon! Jerry, my father in law, picked me an entire grocery sack of green beans from his garden, and I canned 14 pints, including a bunch of hot dilly beans.

My friend Charity and I each bought half a bushel of pickling cucumbers from a local farm and spent a day making 44 quarts of dills. I have also been picking tons of cucumbers from my dad's gardens, and have so far made 9 quarts of hamburger dills and dill spears. I have a bag of 8 cukes sitting on my counter right now, meaning tomorrow I will make another batch.

Today I threw a baby shower for Liz, my sister in law, along with my sister Alyx and Liz's sister Cassie.

It's a girl!

Baby is due at the end of September, so I made her two hats:

The first one is the Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap. It's a nod to my dad and his Norwegian heritage. Plus it's so cute!

Here it is on Dana's baby, Dizzy. It will actually fit like a little pilot cap, framing New Baby's face, but Dizzy is the best model I could come up with. Since we know Baby is a girl, I did a yarn over rather than a make one because I thought the eyelets would look sweet, which they do. I also made the stripes 4 rounds tall rather than 2 rounds tall. I like the wider stripes.

Since our winters get pretty ugly, I also made a Meathead to keep her warm. It's 2 strands of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Bulky held together, so it will be really super cozy. The flower accent is just polar fleece from my stash. I sort of freehanded with my scissors, then found a suitable button in my button box.

Una Fiesta

Our friend Callie joined the Peace Corps. She's leaving for Guatemala in 9 days!

Callie hosts a Cinco de Mayo party every year (remember this post? or this one?). Since she will be gone this year (and next year, and I think the year after, too), she threw an early combo Cinco de Mayo/Adios party last night.

I sewed her a mini messenger bag as a going away present.

This the front, with the front flap closed.

And this is the front, including the strap. I used cotton webbing for the strap again. I think it will hold up better than quilting cotton.

The best side view I could get. The gusset is a dark orange background with magnolia blossoms.

The back view. There are pockets on the back (the magnolia fabric).

The front of the purse, with the flap open. There's a magnetic snap closure, and there are 2 pockets in front.

The inside. I am no photographer, that's for sure. There's an inside zipper pocket, perfect for securing small items. The pocket in my mini messenger holds lip balm and my Swiss Army card.

I made jalapeno poppers from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I did a few modifications: the bacon is Morningstar Farms, not actual pork; I used neufchatel cheese instead of cream cheese and reduced fat sharp cheddar; and speaking of cheddar, I used a whole cup, not half a cup; and finally, I pressed little bits of pineapple into the filling. They were awesome, if I do say so myself. My friend Charity, who is 36 weeks pregnant, ate 5 of them. I love her so much right now! She also ate 4 pieces of cake at Dana's birthday party. She is so good for my self esteem.

Callie's pinata. She totally outdid herself. See all those mini pinatas hanging off of the branch? Those are miniatures of pinatas she has made for previous Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Is that not amazing? And this bird had actual feathers! And she stuffed it full of really clever treats, like peace sign necklaces since she's joining the Peace Corps, and balloons with globes printed on them. And chocolate.

Buena suerte, Callie!

Random Produce

My parents have a Granny Smith tree in their yard. It is a prolific tree that produces gigantic fruit. Unfortunately, the apples are dry and sour and not useful for anything other than baking. And really, you can only bake so many apple treats at once.

So today my dad called. He was working outside and caught a glimpse of the Granny Smith tree, leafless but heavy with fruit. And he thought he would taste one. Just for the heck of it. And they are delicious! He suggested I come over and pick a bunch, not for baking but for eating.

So we put on parkas, hats, mittens and boots because it was cold out, and we trekked next door with a bag. We each tasted an apple, and WOW-my dad wasn't kidding! They are awesome! Juicy, sweet and delicious. Apparently they need to freeze 30 times or so before they are edible. So we picked a tote full, which probably weighs 20 pounds.

And then we picked some carrots. Check out the size of this one! That is MY hand, not a child's hand. Just ignore the Littlest Pet Shop bandage. I had a run-in with a paring knife while prepping the carrots.

And at dinner tonight, we finished off the first jar of pickles. Remember back in August when I made pickles? They are finally done and are amazing. What a relief!

So remember way back in January, when I made vanilla out of beans my parents brought back from Huahine? I've been using it for a couple of months now and it is so very nice. I split this into 5 smaller bottles for easier use, and I have already finished one of them. There's a teeny bit left in this bottle, as you can see. But do you see that brown stuff all over the bottle? That's the vanilla caviar. It is lovely stuff.

I am finishing up a small knitting project, and hopefully I can post that tomorrow. Things have been crazy busy around here for the last 2 months. I am thrilled that things may slow down. Even with the holidays approaching, it can't be as nuts as September and October were.

Salsa

My little brother, Sam, asked for salsa. I had a bunch of tomatoes left after making all of the spaghetti sauce, so I harassed my knitting group for recipes and then grabbed onions, limes, cilantro and jalapenos at the grocery store and went to work.

I used a recipe for fresh salsa from my friend Jill. She advised against canning it. Which is cool, because my friend Heidi provided 2 recipes that are great canned. I think that will be our weekend project.

Onions, garlic, cilantro and jalapenos. Can you smell it? Almost, right?

It made about 3 pints. I kept one and delivered the other 2 to Sam and Liz's refrigerator, being extra careful to go in the back door to avoid Diogi, who, in his skunk-sprayed state, was locked in the front porch.

I think this salsa is fantastic. In fact, I think I will go have some right now!

Tomato Sauce

Yesterday, Dana and I picked these from my mom and dad's house:

So just to clarify, we picked 2 gallons of cherry tomatoes and a big basket of regular tomatoes. Plus, on top of these lovelies, Kevin's mom gave us a gallon of tomatoes.

And so, since Nora and Dana ask for spaghetti every single night for dinner, I thought it would be smart to can a whole bunch of sauce. (Let me clarify that I do not actually serve spaghetti every single night.)

I halved the cherry tomatoes and sliced the regular tomatoes into thick pieces, chunked up some onions (some from our garden and some from the grocery store), cut the tops off of several cloves of garlic, drizzled it all in olive oil, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, and roasted it for half an hour in a hot oven.

Doesn't it look gorgeous, all browned and juicy?

I carefully transferred the roasted items into the food processor, along with fresh basil (some from my garden and some from the grocery store) and whirled it up.

I did this many times.

I ended up with 16 pints of spaghetti sauce!

I know that some of you can't understand why I made pints instead of quarts. The thing is, a pint of spaghetti sauce is exactly the right amount for two adults and two little girls. Nothing ends up in the garbage, and nothing ends up getting moldy in the back of the refrigerator.

Tomorrow there will be at least 2 more gallons of ripe cherry tomatoes. My little brother has requested salsa with lots of cilantro. I have never made salsa before, much less canned it. I may have to do some research here. Anyone have a good recipe?

Pickles!

Oh, how I had been dreaming of making pickles!

Nora and I got up really early on Saturday and went to the farmer's market in search of pickling cucumbers. I bought 2 pounds, but we ate those all up that same day! Crunch, crunch!

And so on Wednesday, I got up really early and went back, hoping to buy many more. Except that there were none. Fortunately, one of the farmers told me she was planning to harvest on Thursday. So I gave her my phone number.

Today, she called! It totally made my day. I have had a bottle of vinegar and a box of pickling salt sitting on my kitchen counter for over a week.

So this afternoon, we ventured out to the farm to pick up 1/4 bushel of pickling cucumbers. Luckily, the farm was not far from our house.

When we got home, we scrubbed the kitchen sink and then filled it with teeny tiny cucumbers and cold water.

Nora helped me scrub the little buggers with a vegetable brush (she scrubbed one and then asked if she could eat it). Then I cut off all of the blossom ends because I read somewhere that they contain an enzyme that makes pickles get mushy. Which sounds pretty gruesome.

Then, we put 10 pounds of ice into our camping cooler, put the clean cucumbers on top, and poured in some water. The cucumbers swam around in this icy bath for several hours while we walked next door to pick grape leaves, dill and raspberries.

Don't they look so eager to help me? Actually, they did an amazing job. We set up an assembly line, with a bowl each of peeled garlic, grape leaves and dill heads. Each girl put these into five jars, for a total of ten jars, and then filled them up with icy cold cucumbers. (FYI I also read in several places that grape leaves ensure crunchy, crispy pickles.)

While the girls played with Polly Pockets, I boiled the brine and ladeled it into the jars, then put on lids and did a 5-minute process. I also had to call my mom in to rescue me when I ran out of brine and had no more vinegar. She brought a bottle over even though she was busy with other things.

You're supposed to wait 8 weeks to try them, but I am not sure I will make it that long. I really want to go try one now, even though they are still warm, and warm pickles don't sound that great. I'll let you know how long I can contain myself and how they taste.

I am already dreaming of pickle spears and hamburger chips. Though that might have to wait until next year.

Raspberry Jam

Last week, Kevin's parents picked us 30 pints of raspberries from his Aunt Linda's farm. I cannot begin to tell you how excited we all were about this! We love raspberries in this house. In fact, Nora sat down and ate an entire pint herself immediately.

I know you only counted 29 pints. Remember what I just told you about Nora?

We ate many, many fresh raspberries, but 30 pints is a whole lotta berries. I froze about 2 billion berries for future use, and then I made jam.

I have to tell you that the recipes out there on the world wide web are sort of scary. They include ratios like 4 cups of berries to 6 cups of sugar. Why not just eat candy? I finally found a recipe that called for 4 cups of crushed berries to 3 cups of sugar.

See my "new" canner? My friend Tracy told me someone was offering a hot water canner on Freecycle, so I emailed the offerer and somehow managed to snag this for free! I have been dreaming of jam, pickles, canned peaches and green beans ever since.

Two cups of mashed raspberries. I enjoy mashing berries with my potato masher. Why is it so fun to squish them up?

I obviously used a cooked jam recipe. Basically, I heated up 4 cups of mashed raspberries over medium heat. When it was hot, I added the 3 cups of sugar. Once it came to a boil, I stirred and stirred for about 15 minutes, and then I poured it into the hot jars for processing. Pretty easy!

I thought I had jelly jars, but it turned out I had pint jars. I ended up with 6 pints of jam, which should last us a while!

And take a look at the Raspberry Incident of '09. It's good for a laugh.

Scarf+Ice Cream=Climate Confusion

Did I mention that I finished my scarf on Sunday? I did! I have just been busy blocking it, so I couldn't post a photo until now.

I do not have great photography skills, so it was hard for me to capture the zigzag kind of pattern and the wavy edges. Especially because it has been raining all day, and there weren't any clear surfaces in my house except for this small piece of kitchen floor. The girls were in fort-building mode.

Hopefully, better photos of me exist somewhere. If you click to enlarge, I am pretty sure you will see strawberry splattered on my face and soup on my shirt. Nice accessorizing, right?

Really, though, I am very happy with this scarf. It is so soft and squishy, and it is about the perfect shade of green. And I do enjoy the wavy edges and the lacy holes, even though they made the actual knitting sort of a headache.

And here is why there is strawberry splattered on my face: I made delicious strawberry ice cream today! It involved the blender, freshly picked strawberries, and much dairy. Maybe some sugar, too. The girls enjoyed watching it swirl around and become ice cream.

Doesn't it look yummy? And pretty, too?

I threw the ice cream canister back into the freezer because I remembered how much I love homemade ice cream. Nora asked if we can make sherbet next, so I am on the hunt for a recipe. She wants lime. Any ideas?

Strawberry Season

It's that time of year again!

On Saturday afternoon, we took a girls-only trip to Finke's. Grandma Bev drove, and between the four of us, we picked five gallons of berries.

We brought home three gallons, and I hulled and froze half of them for future use. Don't they look luscious?

I used a few to make a dessert for Sunday dinner. The crust is made out of crushed pretzels, sugar and butter. Mmmmmmm....

Tonight, I made a very small batch of strawberry jam while Kevin took the girls down to the lake to throw rocks in. I did a cooked jam and ended up with four half-pints. This was my first attempt at canning by myself, and I am happy to say that all four of my jars sealed! Which is extra exciting, since I don't even have a canner. I had to use a big stock pot.

I have the ice cream canister in the freezer and we are going to make strawberry ice cream in the morning. And that will be pretty much it for our berries. Because we just ate about a billion fresh, too.

I can't wait to go back and pick some more!

Pizza for the March Craft: Along

The other day, the projects for the March Craft: Along were posted over at Finnyknits. Both projects interest me this month. One is for quilted coasters. Now, I have no use for coasters since we do not own a coffee table and our kitchen table isn't really the type to require coasters. But I bought a walking foot for my sewing machine about two years ago now, and I have yet to use it. I am not really sure how. The coasters seem like a great opportunity to try machine quilting without investing much time or cash. So I plan to make those later this month.

The second project was pizza crust. Specifically, this recipe. I already had homemade pizza on our menu for the week, and I figured it would be easy enough to try a different crust.

Not being one to follow the rules in a recipe, I did make a couple of minor changes. First, I subbed 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour for 1/2 cup of the strong flour (also known as bread flour). I accidentally ran out of bread flour. Oops. Second, I had to add a ton of water-like half a cup, one teaspoon at a time-to get the consistency right. Third, my children do not like pizza sauce. They LOVE margherita pizza, which is sauceless, so to get some flavoring, I always add some spices right to the pizza dough. Here, I added 2 cloves of pressed garlic and 1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Nothing too fancy, but it does add some flavor. Finally, I used the dough hook on my stand mixer to do the kneading. I am just no good at kneading, and the mixer minimizes the floury mess, which I appreciate.

I rolled the crust out on a pizza stone and topped it with a block of shredded mozzarella, a sliced tomato and a bunch of fresh basil. This pre-baked pizza looks so pasty. Like not very appetizing.

The finished product. There weren't any baking instructions (or, at least, I didn't SEE any baking instructions) so I set the oven for 425 and stuck this gem in the oven for 15 minutes. In retrospect, I should have checked on it sooner. It got a wee bit brown. However, it was quite delicious.

So what is my verdict on this pizza dough? It is good, but I think I will stick to my regular recipe. It isn't so much the flavor as it is the time. My normal recipe requires no rising, so I can decide to make a pizza at 5pm and we will be eating it by 5:30. Now THAT I love.

Soup and Cupcakes

Monday was knit night. I love knit night. I look forward to each one. Sometimes we spend more time eating and chatting than we do knitting, but who cares? It is my kind of fun. Occasionally, we do a soup swap. Everyone makes soup and brings enough for everyone else, and then we swap. It's exactly like a cookie exchange, except with soup. This is, after all, Northern Minnesota. We NEED soup for survival.

I decided to try a recipe for vegetarian tortilla soup and I have to say, Kevin and I were both happy with the results. I altered the recipe a bit, because that is what I do, and it came out great. Super tasty and minimally spicy. Nora found it too spicy anyway, but she thinks peppermint gum is too spicy. I love her, but I do not trust her version of spicy.

I found the recipe here, but I am going to write it below the way I made it. Because I can't vouch for it as published since I didn't make it quite like that. Close, but not quite.

Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large red onion
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
3 cloves pressed garlic
1 tablespoon cumin
1 (28 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies (so 2 ounces)
6 cups vegetable broth
1 bag frozen corn (12 to 16 ounces)
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
shredded cheddar
sour cream
avocado

1. Finely chop the onions and peppers. I used my food processor and everything got pretty wet. I was OK with that, but if you aren't, then maybe use a knife. Whatever floats your boat.

2. In a large soup pot, sautee the onions, peppers and garlic in the oil until soft.

3. Add the cumin, tomatoes, chilies and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 30-45 minutes. You can season with salt and pepper if desired.

4. Add the corn and black beans and cook 5 minutes or so, until they are hot.

5. Serve with cheese, avocado, sour cream and tortilla chips. Yum!

Like I said, sometimes we spend more time eating than knitting. I baked cupcakes to share. They are white cake with lemon buttercream icing. I topped them with yellow cake sparkles. They are pretty nice. Three days later, we only have 5 left out of 24. I am happy about that because I have only eaten one. Yup, one.