I want to eat more ice cream really really badly but instead I'm going to write a blog post and hope that by the end of the post I've completely forgotten about the delicious stuff sitting in the freezer.
Once I started canning last weekend it was hard to stop.  There is something about having the canner going and everything kind of in gear that makes you think that since it's all started.
There are quite a few reasons for my sugar 'need' at the moment.  First off, I'm trying to quit.  Ok, not quit but slow down.  I just don't like being in a position of need or desperation when it's just a substance like sugar.  Friendship.  Sex.  Champagne.  Those are things that I don't mind 'needing' but sugar... nah.  So I'm cutting back a bit.  Secondly, work has been a bit harried lately.  I'm not going into details because I think talking about work in my blog post is totally boring.  Who wants to hear dumb details about that.  Needless to say, school is back - I'm back - the kids are back - and work is back - and the hustle is back.  Lastly, I'm feeling a little giddy.
When I arrived home from work today there was an email message sitting in my 'inbox'.  It was a request from one of the websites I add my recipes to.  They were requesting the use of one of my recipes as their 'recipe of the day'.  They would post it on their facebook page and on twitter and all that stuff.  I know it's not a big thing but it's a big thing.  It's flattering and all that.  It adds to my feeling of this space being something 'legit'.  I'm not sure what to do with that though 'cause it's not like it's gonna be my job or a huge money maker or anything.  But it's still cool to feel appreciated and 'legit' and to have my stuff in demand.  Right.


So needing to veer dramatically from the sugar thing and all the reasons for my craving, I'll jump rather clumsily back into the canner.  I've been canning outside this year.  Using the burner on my bbq.  It's mostly worked beautifully save for the overfilling that I did once resulting in the whole canner of boiling water and the bbq falling over and spilling all over the back.  So once that sucker is up and running it's best to make the most of it.  I took some of the fruit that I had frozen from fresh out of the freezer and whipped up some quick blackberry/black raspberry jam.  And I made this stuff.  I picked up the strawberries from the farmer's market and learned that apparently there are 'everbearing' strawberries.


I can't wait to taste this jam.  It smelled fantastic when I was making it.  I dipped my finger in a time or two and it was divine but it's supposed to be even more 'divine' if you wait for at least a month to crack it open.  It won't be a problem since I've still got a half dozen jars of jam from last year to finish up.  I'm really excited about this one though.  The addition of balsamic vinegar and cracked peppercorns just intrigued me.  It's definitely a small batch jam so if you're really into it you might want to double it up.  I got three small jars.  But go ahead, smell up your kitchen, sterilize some jars and boil yourself up some water.


Strawberry Jam with Balsamic Vinegar and Cracked Pepper
adapted slightly from 'We Sure Can'

4 cups strawberries, hulled, washed and halved
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice (fresh only)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp cracked pepper

Day 1:
Combine the strawberries and the sugar together in a non-reactive container.  Stir and set in the fridge for about 24 hours.

Day 2:
Sterilize about 3 small jars and seal lids.
Combine the strawberry/sugar mixture with the lemon juice and balsamic vinegar in a heavy bottomed pot.
Heat over medium heat.  once the mixture begins to boil remove the strawberries and continue to let everything boil together.  I let mine boil for about 25 minutes because I didn't want a thick jam.  If you want a thicker jam let the mixture boil a little longer and test for doneness adequately (cold plate test, etc).  After the liquid has boiled down then add in the strawberries again.
Remove from the heat and ad in the little bit of cracked pepper.
Place the lids on the jars and boil in a boiling water bath for about 12 minutes.  Place the sealed jars under a warm cloth for about 12 - 24 hrs.
Stores for up to a year.  Apparently if you wait for at least a month before using then the jam is even more 'divine'.

It's Mother's Day this weekend.  To be honest it's not something that factors heavily on my radar.  Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate my own Mom like crazy.  I'm sure that she wanted to (and probably should have) pound us through a wall on more than one occasion.  I'm positive that she got pretty tired of trekking me off to skating and piano lessons.  Let's not even go into how many hockey practices and games that my brother was involved in.   She was probably pretty tired of the 'get yourself downstairs to that piano and practice' routine as well.
She was pretty patient with us though.  We thought we were getting away with things when we probably weren't.  While she was teaching piano after school we were NOT doing our homework but watching tv instead for example.  When I told her that my brother J and I had to go out and run an errand it was really to try and find the 'thing' (don't even know what it was called) that I knocked off Dad's car while going around a corner.  J came with me to help me and we found it because he had his head stuck out the window and saw it lying on the grass at the side of the road.  Thank Jeebus.  She probably knew.
When we went to a friends place and left late but still made it home for curfew because we drove at speeds on the highway that would make any mother's heart stop... she probably knew.


My Mom should be comforted by the fact though that in spite of all the stupid things that we did we always loved and never wanted to worry or hurt her.  We knew when we were being stupid (also something that she would be comforted by I think) and we always appreciated that we didn't get the 'you're being so dumb right now' card shoved down our throats.


I'm sending my Mom and My Mom-in-Law flowers today.  They deserve it for bringing up D and I.  My own expectations around Mother's Day are pretty much zero.  I don't need anything except a quiet day.  Kid #2 already gave me his card because he made it at school and couldn't wait until Sunday and quite frankly didn't understand why he would need to.  That's cool.  Kid #1 says that she would like to make me breakfast in bed but I'm dubious about that even coming to pass.  D won't be doing anything and since he's not my kid I'm cool with that.
Thanks Mom for somehow knowing.  Enjoy the flowers and have a great day.


Pear Upside Down Cake adapted from Ezra Pound Cake
makes 1 8x8 inch square cake

Topping/Bottom:

1/2 cup butter (salted or unsalted.  either is fine)
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 med/large pears cored and sliced about 1/4 inch thick (I used ones that I had canned)

Cake

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 lg eggs
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg and cardamom
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the butter and brown sugar in the bottom of a 9x9 inch square cake pan.  Place the pan in the oven until the butter and sugar have melted together.
Remove from the oven and stir just to mix.  Line the bottom of the pan with the pear slices overlapping if and when needed.  In my opinion you can't have enough pears.  Set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cardamom together in a bowl and set aside.
Combine the milk and vanilla together and set aside.
With a mixer (or by hand ;-) mix the butter and sugar together until it's light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs and continue to mix until it's well combined and fluffy.  Add the flour mixture and milk mixture alternately beginning and ending with flour.  Should take about 3 additions for the flour.  Mix well after each addition.
Pour the cake mixture over the pear/butter mixture.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Remove from oven and immediately invert onto a serving plate.
Feel free to serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

I'm sitting on the hardwood floor in my living room.  There is glass of red on the floor beside me and a 'touch of sea salt' dark chocolate bar calling me gently but persuasively.  It sounds idyllic. It should be one of those moments in life which bring me deep satisfaction... except I feel like I've been hit by a truck.  One of those big ones withe more wheels than you can count.  Not those little things that people call trucks but are really just little SUV thingy's.  Nope a big, fat, hairy tractor trailer truck.
Yep.  There it is.  I'm not even sure why exactly.


One of the bright spots in this 'short-work-week-that-feels-like-two-work-weeks' was this bread.  I've made this bread before.  Hell, I've even blogged this bread before.  This time is a little different though.  I'm using pears this time.  Those crazy canned pears that I made last fall.  Those crazy pears that I made wayyyy too much of.  Those pears that I still have 7 jars of in the cold room.  Yeah.  Those pears.  Hindsight being 20/20 I totally could have used 3 cups of pears here.  If you were using fresh fruit then 3 cups would probably be about 3 large or 4 med/small pears.  In jar units that would be about 3/4's of a jar.  It would make for a slightly more moist bread and might therefor increase the baking time.  If it meant getting through almost an entire jar of pears then it would be worth it.


Work is in an odd place for me at the moment.  It's equal parts completely exciting and awesome and absolutely frustrating.  It took a lot of years to get to the 'exciting and awesome' part of the job that I'm starting to see now.  I'm trying to figure out a way to keep the 'absolutely frustrating' part from completely tainting the other part.  I understand that every job has it's 'challenges' and I'm more than willing to accept that and work with it.  This 'challenge' is really starting to rock my core though.  It goes a little deeper for me than just something that bugs me.  I gotta figure out how to turn this around but just at the moment I'm stumped... and utterly empty.


I won't tell you how big the slice was that I took to work with me today but I will tell you that it was what got me through the day with my hair intact ie. not pulled out of my head via their roots.


Pear Bread with Streusel adapted from 'More with Less'
makes 1 loaf

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup sour milk or buttermilk
2 cups diced pear or apple
1/2 cup streusel (find recipe here)

Butter and flour a loaf pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the four, baking soda and salt together in a bowl.  Set aside.
Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs and mix until all fluffy and well combined.  Add the vanilla and mix.
Add the flour mixture and the sour milk alternately beginning and ending with flour.  Mix thoroughly.
Add in the pear and stir until mixed.
Pour the batter into the greased/floured pan and bake for about 55 - 60 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean (I think mine took about 65 - 70 minutes this time around).

I'm not sure if it would be possible for me to find a way to have changed this recipe any further from it's original than say, ummm, just using a completely different recipe.
It was originally a Pumpkin Coffee Cake.
It was not supposed to have a 3 egg cake as it's bottom layer.
It shouldn't have had as much butter as I added.
I could go on but  instead I think that we need to take a moment here and consider inspiration and the roll that even the most mundane and everyday can have on inspirations' stage.  My inspiration for this Coffee Cake... a jar of pears.


If you've been following this blog for any length of time you may have picked up that I'm on a year long experiment so to speak.  I started canning seriously last summer and am now sitting back and watching how things get used up.  Did I make too much of this, too little of that.  That kind of thing.  Well, I've never done this before so I guess I should have maybe thought things through a little more and started smaller with a couple of things (I didn't think that 25 jars of jams would be too much).  I am now starring down 12 very large jars of canned pears.  Beautifully canned in a vanilla, cinnamon syrup.  Ready to be eaten with ice cream, plain yogurt (sounds great) or a simple pound cake.  I haven't done any of those things with the pears.  What I've done thus far is give 3 jars to my parents.  That felt good.
This situation needs some serious tackling and my first order of business was to come up with a way to get through a decent amount of pears (try about a half a jar here) in the most kid-appealing way possible (not so sure that this was a success in that department).
I must thank the author of this book because while I was meandering through it before falling asleep I kinda just latched onto this pumpkin coffee cake thing and my brain ran.  And ran.  And ran.  I like where it ran to with the pear thing.  I like that it has a topping and that after a day or so it got even better  'cause the topping got kinda soft and squidgy with the pears.  I definitely screwed up on the egg thing and put 3 eggs in the bottom layer where there should only have been 1... Oops.  It worked fortunately.
If you make this cake please don't pass final judgement until the day after it's been baked (or maybe the evening if you baked it in the morning) because I found it much improved with 12 hours under it's belt.


So look here, don't shrug off those mundane moments as completely lost time.  Those hours spent in line.  The waiting at the Dr's office.  The time spent waiting for your phone company to have an 'available representative'.  Those times when you get so desperate for a snack that you eat 3 tablespoons of peanut butter in a row (and not the healthy kind of peanut butter).  Those could be just the moments that will somehow produce that epiphany.


Pear Coffee Cake adapted from Winter Harvest Cookbook

3 cups sliced pears (canned or fresh)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and diced
1/3 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cardamom
3 tbsp brown sugar

Grease a 9x13 inch cake pan.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine the milk and eggs together in a bowl and set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a bowl.   Cut in the butter until the mixture forms a crumbly texture (mine never really truly got there but close enough).  Divide the flour mixture in half(ish).  Add the eggs/milk mixture to one of the flour bowls.  Stir until mixed and pour into the greased baking pan.  Bake for about 10 minutes or until just barely firm in the middle.
Place the sliced pears on top of the warm cake.
In the remaining flour bowl add the cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and brown sugar.  Mix.  Pour the mixture on top of the pears.  Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until the topping looks somewhat melted to the pears and the edges of the cake are golden brown.
Cool for about 10 minutes before cutting.

It used to be that if I added butter to a too hot pan and subsequently it turned brown that as far as I was concerned I had burnt the butter and it was no good to be baked with.  Now we call it 'browned butter'.
Granted, in this case I didn't put the butter into a pan that was too hot.  It cooked in there for a good 10 minutes.  But still, it's now something that I want to do.  It's a thing.  Browned Butter.
It's quite an amazing thing.  All dark brown and flecked with stuff (I don't know what the flecks are - fat maybe).  The taste intensifies as well.  All in all it's pretty amazing stuff... that I used to think was a dumb mistake.


I'm now at the tail end of the March Break and I'll be honest with you, I can't wait to get back to work.  I love me kids, don't get me wrong.  But we're all about ready to put each other through a wall.  It's that whole 'You-need-to-entertain-and-feed-me-all-day-every-day' kinda thing.  I'm done.  Plus, kid #1 is quickly approaching the age when things can become weird and volatile fast.  Ugh.  It's exhausting.  I get 'mommied-out' pretty fast admittedly and I've never been the go-to-the-park type.  Adult space is pretty important for me.  And it's been a good while since I've had any serious amount of it.  Now, here I am bawling about my lack of 'adult space' when I know full well that some of you never get it.  I don't know how you manage.  My heart goes out to you.  You deserve an award.  And now I will stop.


The highlight of our week was definitely D getting his Canadian citizenship.  We all hauled ourselves out to east Toronto (Scarborough) early (for a March Break) Friday morning and sat through the ceremony that will finally give D voting rights in this country and a passport which requires significantly fewer visa applications than his Trinidadian one.  Best part:  he can hold dual citizenship.  We celebrated with some of this, hung out with a friend for a while and then generally had a quiet (aka boring, if you're 11 yrs old) day.  We still have a couple of things planned - a library trip (provided it's open on a Saturday - thank you budget cuts) and a trip to see friends in Orillia.  Outside Orillia really... on 40 acres of trees and animals and insects and blackberries (oh the blackberries).  My friend C is always so inspiring.  She inspired me to get into canning last year.  She encouraged me to start getting an organic food box delivery and educated me about CSA's.  She's pretty cool.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow.  I'm going to be making something to take with us when we go because I think it's pretty lame to show up empty handed but in the meantime we've been munching on these guys throughout the week.


I'm just about done with the canned cherries from last year and the combination here was perfect.  The chewy browned butter cookie dough went well with the cherries too.  I thought of using white chocolate here but then I thought it might be just too sweet and went for the dark.  I'm glad I did.  I'm going to get a little picky here and tell you that using maraschino cherries will get you a completely different result.  Not necessarily a bad one but definitely a different one.  If you try it please let me know how it turns out.  Generally though, this managed to stay in the not-too-sweet-and-therefor-Wanda-pleasing category.  I would totally use this dough for plain old chocolate chip cookies too.  Dang, I would use this dough in ice cream.  I would use this dough in...


Browned Butter Cookies with dark chocolate and cherries adapted from 'Completely Delicious'
makes

1 cup unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cherries dried or preserved (I used my home canned cherries)
1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chunks or chips

Over low heat, melt the butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan.  Continue cooking the butter over low heat until it turns brown and gets little dark brown flecks in it.  Remove from heat and cool.  Continue cooling until the butter begins to solidify again.  It shouldn't be hard though.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a silicon liner.  Set aside.
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
Cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs and vanilla and continue to whisk until completely incorporated and smooth and fluffy.  Mix in the flour into the butter mixture and until completely combined.
Add the chocolate chips and cherries and stir just until they're evenly distributed.
Spoon by large tablespoons onto the cookie sheet, leaving some space between the mounds.  Bake 10 - 12 minutes.  Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack.  Cool and eat.

This is blooming in my front hallway.  Gorgeous.  I've got a weird plant thing. This is a plant that my grandmother had.  I finally got a piece of it from my Mom.  I think that it's really cool to get a plant when someone dies (that really does sound weird).  I have 3 plants in my house that have come to us when there has been a funeral in the family.  Each one of those plants represents that loved one who died.  It's like a part of them is still living with me... weird.


I ate this today... please don't tell.  I was out and bought it on a whim because I thought it was so small that it just needed to be loved.  But guess what?  I didn't eat all of it.  It wasn't as tasty as my own and I feel like life is too short to eat food just because it's there.  It should be relished and enjoyed.  Especially if it's a brownie.  So I took two bites and then moved on.  It did inspire me to make chocolate cake though.


I also ate this today... it's a quesadilla.  Just plain cheese.  With my own canned green tomato salsa.  Bliss.
I've also been eating my beet pickles and damn (!) they're good.


I'm super proud of Kid #1 right now.  She has just gotten through to the final round of a nation-wide short story competition.  She's going to be published.  Wow.
I'm cooking right now and getting a post ready to send out but I just had to fill you in on my life.

I don't have many photos for this stuff.  How many pictures do we all want to see of green tomato chutney in a jar? 
The reason I made tomato chutney is because I already had way too many jars of green tomato salsa.  There is only so much salsa you can eat.  Really.
Talking about green tomatoes is kinda boring though.  I think it should be enough to say that all my green tomatoes are gone from my tomato plants and from my fridge.  Sunday morning was spend seeing to that.  Done.
Now on to more interesting things.  Well, more like random things.

I can't believe that it's Wednesday already.  I'm having trouble keeping up with how quickly weeks are flying by.

All of a sudden I woke up with a pretty nasty case of Plantar Fasciitis yesterday.  Looks like I'm cycling and doing yoga for the next few days.  Jeez.  What's totally weird is that I have no clue what I did.

I walked through the 'Occupy Toronto' camp with my kids the other day.

I'm going to start reading this book - D is reading it at the moment and keeps saying things like 'Ok, listen to this' or 'You've got to read this book' ... So I'm gonna.

Kid #1 got a lightsaber when he was out for Hallowe'en.  So he became Spider Man with a lightsaber.  Cool.  He hasn't turned it off since.  It's Wednesday.  Here they are Kid #1 as a zombie and #2 as a very muscular spider man.



A couple of weeks ago Kid #1 got to tape a tv special with her choir for Russell Peters.  Coolest part:  she got to meet Michael Buble and they all got their picture taken with him.  Awesome.

I feel like I haven't seen my friends in forever and I'm trying not to let it bum me out.  I'm going with my BFF  KT to NYC soon though so that's gonna help a lot.  I'm broke so we're totally going to find cheap fun stuff to do and if you have any cool ideas PLEASE let me know.

...
So yeah, if you have green tomatoes that have been sitting around for a bit, looking for some lovin'  Well, give this a try.  It sounds good to me.  If I taste it and it bites I'll let you know but how wrong can some tomatoes and sugar go, right?



Green Tomato Chutney adapted from 'Food in Jars' and 'Lara Ferroni'
makes about 2 (scant) 500 ml jars

10 cups (or so) green tomatoes (any variety) coarsely chopped
1 med onion (red or cipolini) finely diced
1 jalepeno pepper finely chopped (deseeded)
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 tbsp salt
3 tbsp freshly ground ginger
4 cloves
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
3 dashes of nutmeg
1 dash of allspice

1/2 cup (medium handful) of raisins or currants

Throw everything except the raisins into a non-reactive pot (I used a ceramic covered caste iron pot) and simmer for at least 1 1/2 hrs on low heat.
Add in the currants and simmer for another 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, sterilise 2 clean 500 ml jars (put them in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes) and prepare the water canner.
Once the chutney has cooked down (should be about 1/2 of the volume as when it started) carefully ladle the chutney into the jars leaving at least a 1/2 inch at the top of each.  Seal with the lids and place in the water canner.  Boil for 10 - 12 minutes.
Remove from the canner and cover with a clean cloth.  Let it rest for about 24 hrs.
Enjoy with meats, cheeses or crackers or sandwiches or... whatever.

I have a lovely square recipe that I was going to use as my birthday post.  Then I felt bad about taking things out of chronological order.  I have a little 'thing' about chronological order.  I have to read my books in the order that I purchase them.  I don't know why.  It doesn't even make sense.  I've never really taken it seriously because... well, I just didn't.  Maybe I thought it was one of my fun/quirky things.  Except now it seems that my 'quirkism' (my word - duh) is bleeding into other areas of my life.
So there I was with my great sweets recipe, thinking that it could make such a lovely birthday post because I'm not making a cake for myself and then it hit me BAM.  I couldn't do it.
Maybe it's a product of age.
This got me wondering what else is a product of age.  I wonder if
 - not caring about toilet seats and toothpaste lids
 - worrying more about a blog post than a clean floor
 - not going out on a weeknight 'cause I won't be home by ten.
 - caring more about champagne than birthday cake
 - caring more about seeing my friends (you know who you are you two) than getting presents (that's a new one for sure)
... if this is all a product of age.  If so I guess it's ok to be a year older.  If I start not caring about wearing dirty underwear and talking to myself on the subway then that's cause for concern.
For now I'm just going to roll with it.

Plums and sugar soaking up some sun...

Last week I thought I was ordering 5 plums.  Cool.  I ordered 5 pounds.  Not so cool.  Fortunately they were lovely local plums that I didn't feel guilty about but really... product of age I ask you.  Not one to fuss to much about these things and also not going to see them go to waste I got proactive.  When life gives you plums then you make... plum jam.
The ground cherries (also known as gooseberries) just looked interesting so I ordered them in the food box and they were lovely.
So a weird happy birthday to me.  I'm not going to tell you which one because I'm sure that you don't care, I sure as hell don't.  Let's just toast a slice of homemade pilgrims bread (recipe coming soon), butter it and slather it in plum and ground cherry jam... with a candle stuck in it of course.


Plum and ground cherry jam from Hitchhiking to Heaven

9 cups sliced plums
1 pint ground cherries (i had a little less so I mixed mine with the last of my wild blueberries)
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 oz (juice from about 1 1/2 medium lemons) lemon juice

4 500ml canning jars and lids

Prepare the plums: slice and combine with sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl.  Cover the bowl tightly and set aside for about 24 hours (or 4 if you are like me and don't want to wait that long and decide that the process will go faster if they sit in the sun... p.s. it works).
Combine in a large pot with the ground cherries (and blueberries if you screwed up on that one too).  Boil down at med/low heat for about an hour or until the whole things starts to thicken up.  I cooked it for about an hour but it could easily have gone longer.
Sterilize the jars.  Place the jam into the hot sterilized jars.  Seal the lids until they are just sealed but not super tight.  Place in a boiling water bath for about 10 minutes.
Set on a clean towel and cover with another clean towel.  Lids should be sealed so that they didn't click or give when you push on them.
Let them rest under the towel for about 24 hours to set.
Place in a cool dry place.  They will keep for up to a year.

This has nothing to do with plum jam... it's just me and kid #2 on vacation.  I'm reminiscing.

I'm trying to churn out this blog post.  I'm sitting in front of my computer screen.  I'm even typing once in a while.  I get a paragraph down and then think 'that's so stupid.  Who cares'.  I delete the paragraph.  I write another few sentences.  I think 'what am I even thinking about here'.  I delete it.  And so on.  I realize that I've got nothing in my head.  What can I blame my complete empty brain on?  Even though it hasn't even been a month, it feels as though summer was an age ago... an era even.  This work thing is crazy.  How can we survive in our society without working?  And then flip the coin and wonder how we can survive working.
When I was reading this book (please don't start with me... I know, I know) the author talked a lot about working for money.  He thinks it immoral that we have to pay for food to sustain ourselves.  He also believes that working for a wage is yet another way to keep the masses down, occupied and compliant.  I kinda know what he means.  I have no idea though what life would look like without working for a wage.  I still have to exist in this 'world' that uses money for everything - absolutely everything.  I don't know what I would do without that paycheque and the benefits that come with it.  It terrifies me to think about it.  However, if it were ever a realistic option to survive without it believe me I'd be the first in line to try it out.  I can totally understand why we often define ourselves by what we do as opposed to what we are.  We spend so much time doing that work, so much energy there that it pushes out other things from our brains.  It starts to take over MY thoughts.  Sometimes my dreams.  I forget how to think without it.
I'm not going to quit my job anytime soon.  Maybe when I get to move to the country, live off grid, have my own chickens and root cellar and never cut my hair or shave again.  For now, I'm going to get up tomorrow morning and hustle my sorry ass off to work again.



All that to tell you that I made pickled beets this weekend.  Never in a million years would I have guessed that I would be interested in making beet pickles.  Less than a year ago I confess that I had never even cooked a beet before.  Here we are though, making beet pickles.  What?
Out came the stupid blue canner again and it happened.  I didn't make a whole lot because no one else in my house is going to eat them.  To be honest, I don't even know when I'm going to eat them.  I'm going to share them with my Mom though because she eats them too.  I haven't tasted them yet because they're in these jars that I just don't want to open up yet.  When I do open them up though, if they suck then I'll let you all know.    


Pickled Beets adapted from 'Canadian Living'

5 lbs Beets
2 1/2 cider vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp pickling salt (or I used coarse sea salt because that's all I had)
clove
mustard seeds
coriander seeds


Wash the beets and boil them whole for about 30 minutes.  Remove from water and cool.  Slice them as you want them in the jars.
In the bottom of about 4 sterilized jars place a couple of whole cloves, about 4 mustard seeds and 2 coriander seeds.  Place the beets into the jars leaving at least a 1/2 inch of space at the top of each jar.
Combine the cider vinegar, water, sugar and salt together in a saucepan and boil for about 5 minutes or until the salt and sugar have dissolved.
Pour enough of the liquid mixture into each jar to just cover the beets.  Place the lids on firmly.  Boil in a water bath canner for about 30 minutes.
Remove and tighten the lids if necessary.  Place under a clean towel.  Make sure that the lids have sealed properly and then store in a cool, dry place.  Will keep for up to a year.

I lied.
I said that it would be my last canning day yesterday.
It wasn't.
I canned today.  I'm sorry.
I'm not going to make any more promises because I know that I'm going to have a bunch of green tomatoes at the end of the growing season that will need to be made into some kind of salsa thingy.  So I'm not going to tell you that this is the last one.  Here's the kicker though.  I filled the jars too full so they didn't seal properly.  I had to redo them 3 times.  That was dumb... and frustrating... and...
I can tell you that it's tasty though.  Really tasty.  If you like salsa then you'll like this.  It's way better than anything I've ever bought.  Even though I had to stick it in my stupid canner more times than I want to even think about right now.
The corn landed in there because I had an ear in the fridge.  The cilantro almost didn't land in there at all because I bought flat parsley instead... duh.  I used a cilantro sauce that I had but fresh would be even better.  The tomatillo's could be swapped for green tomatoes (which is probably what I'll be doing in about 3 weeks or so anyway).  I guess you could swap out the hot peppers for bell peppers but... why?  Just for the record, this stuff tastes rad with tortilla chips.  Believe.  ( Saw this movie recently, if you haven't seen it then fix that really soon, ok?)


Otherwise, it's been a full week already.
This guy moved in on Sunday....


It's been cool hangin' with Spider Man.  He's shorter than he looks on screen though.

I'm getting ready to run this soon.  That's cool.

For those of you who've been reading my blog for a while you might remember that September is birthday month.  I'm proud of myself for not mentioning it before now.

Generally though 'life' is whatever I can squeeze into a weekend now that the summer is over.  That bites.

I'm still working my way through this book.  It's way long for me to be reading one book but it's lots to take in... and it's a little crazy which I kinda like.

My kids are almost ready to divorce me with all the canning I'm doing.  Steady meals have been just not happening and there's mutiny in the air.  So, it's taking a back seat.  This means that very soon I'll be baking again.  And cooking regular meals too.  Truth.


Tomatillo Salsa
makes 2 1/2 (remember the over-filling issue) 500ml jars

4 cups tomatillos small
1 small onion, diced small
2 small habanero peppers, diced small
1 small jalapeno pepper diced small
1 bunch cilantro (about 1 1/2 cups) chopped
juice from 1 1/2 limes
corn kernels from 1 medium ear of corn
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tbsp salt (more to taste)
2 1/2 tbsp sugar

combine all the ingredients in a bowl.  Let it sit for a little while (maybe 20 minutes).
Place the salsa into sterilized jars and seal properly with the lids.  Leave about and inch and a half (maybe even 2 inches!) at the top).
Place into a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Remove and cool under clean towels.  Check the seal on the jars (redo if needed... then give up and throw into freezer bags - wish I'd thought of that earlier).  Store for up to a year... but why?

Ok.  The honeymoon is over.  I'm so tired of canning, making lists of how much of everything I've canned and frozen, sterilizing jars and chopping veggies and/or fruit.  Tomorrow is my last day.   It will be the last time I see the canner for another 9 months.  We need a break from each other.  You know how it gets when you've been with each other just a little too long and the slightest thing can just set you off, right?  So, right now it's pissing me off that it's blue, that it takes 20 minutes to get to boiling and that it can't self regulate. Look, I know that it's just a pot.  I know that my expectations are way too high.  I know that it probably didn't choose it's colour.  But it's still pissing me off.

The Blue Canner

My food mill and I have had it with each other too.  I've got this small/normal hand crank food mill.  It works great for small jobs but when you are putting an entire bushel of tomatoes through that thing to make sauce... well, the food mill and I need a little break from each other too.  So after today it's going away for a little while.  We'll get a breather and it will be good.  These things happen all the time in relationships, it's normal.  I need a break from you for a little while and when I come back we'll be all the better for it 'cause I still love you no matter.
I think that it's important now, at the tail end of my canning adventure, that I submit to you all my insights on the experience:
1.  You have to be willing to put out money up front.  Jars are not cheap (you might get lucky though - garage sales, craigslist, that kind of thing - if you see 'em grab 'em).  The veggies and fruit aren't cheap either when you are buying them in bulk.  You just tell yourself that it's going to pay off down the road... fresher, fewer chems and you can eat that stuff in favour of buying something else at the store.
2.  Doing this really only makes sense if you are using local fruit and vegetables.  If I were buying strawberries in January from wherever and I was cool with that, then why would the hell would I ever put the money and/or time into canning and freezing local fruit in season.
3.  I totally understand why people do this in groups.  Understand, it's not difficult it's just... well, tedious AND LONG when you are doing it all by yourself.  It would be cool to have a few people doing it with me (that aren't 10 years old, but many thanks to Kid #1 for all her help) and maybe an extra person to keep us supplied with drinks and lunch.
4.  It is, despite my protestations above, very rewarding.  I feel proud of myself.  There it is.



So, since I've started making my own yogurt I've also decided that I need to have fruit stuff to have the yogurt with.  What a fantastic way to use up all the preserves and peaches and cherries and PEARS.  I've never done pears before (I've also never done most of the jams, cherries and tomatoes that I did this year either so this could all turn out to be a really really bad experiment) and I have to tell you that they smell beautiful when you are cooking them.  You should invite someone over just to enjoy the smell with you.  Seriously.  Also, if I were to make them again (and I think that I will - see, I'm not totally off doing it), I would booze them up a bit or at least some of them.  I would use a nice rum - you know, the stuff that has a lovely woody, vanilla scent - or a little bourbon.  Just sayin'.
I quartered my fruit 'cause I like it big and chunky but you could just as easily chop or slice the pears.
So quite honestly, what's keeping me going right now is the thought that we are really going to appreciate all of this in the dead of winter.  I'll keep you all posted on that one.


Canned Pears (I kinda got this from all over the place and just made it up when I actually got to doing it)
makes anywhere from 4 - 10 1litre jars but I got 11 jars out of the quantity below

70 - 75 bartlett pears, quartered, de-seeded and de-stemmed
6 cups sugar
3 cups brown sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
3 vanilla pods (used ones are fine here)
1/2 cup or so fresh lemon juice


1.  Divide the pears into 3 large pots (if you have one huge one then go for it in one pot) and add water just until the pears are covered.  Add both the sugars (2 cups sugar and 1 cup brown if divided into 3 pots), the cinnamon sticks and vanilla pods.
2.  Bring to a boil and continue to simmer for about 10 minutes.
3.  Turn off the heat and let the pears rest in the liquid 12 - 24 hours.
4.  Pack the pears (NOT the syrup) into 1 litre jars (Jars should be sterilized but to be honest I've been known to skip this step - huge gasp)
5.  Once the pears are packed then reheat the syrup until it's boiling.  If you wish you could boil it down a bit but I didn't do that.  Add in the lemon juice and add a little more sugar if needed.
6.  Pour the hot syrup into each jar of pears until the pears are just covered with the syrup.  Seal with a canning lid.  Place in a hot water bath for about 13 minutes.  Remove from the water bath and check the lids that might need tightening.  Place the hot jars on a clean cloth and cover completely with a clean towel.
7.  Let cool overnight, check that the lids are solid and have caved in just a bit (they shouldn't make a clicking sound when you push on them).  Store in a cool dry spot.  These will keep a good long time.
Serve with ice cream, use in cakes or pies, serve with homemade yogurt in January and think about all your hard work.