BREADS & REE DRUMMOND RECIPES

Happy Sunday to you all.  For me it is early morning (I stayed up til 5 a.m. and slept till 11 when Don's job called him to work and we both got up to start navigating our universe for the day).  It is noon-thirty and I am sitting on the front porch enjoying the not so hot yet day, a cup of coffee and a plate of last night's peach cobbler.  OMG! The cobbler is so much better today after being in the fridge overnight then heated in the microwave for one minute.  Still no ice cream or whipped topping, but it is so much more amazing today.  It is funny that I am sitting on the porch drinking coffee for a couple reasons.  Two summers ago I would sit on my porch drinking a diet dr. pepper and tapping away on my computer.  I am a big fan of outdoor rooms.  I don't really have one but I try to create them out of what I have.  I would love to create a checkerboard floor and hang some whispy sheer white curtains to dance in the wind... well maybe not here on the farm, i rather like how he has the porch screened in.  It is pretty much perfect just needs a bit of sprucing up and me to spend more time there.  Anyways I would pull my dining room table out to the porch sometime in late spring and an old rocking chair I used to nurse my daughter in and a couple throw rugs, and old end table and eventually i ended up with an old cast off love seat.  It was a great room.  I spent a lot of time out there after walks at night or just taking pictures from my porch.  I loved to drag out my $10 table-top bbq and make my supper or have the kids over (well it happened a couple times at least).  I enjoyed writing out there (yes I am also a frustrated writer) and Ocassionally talking to my sisters on the phone or reading one of my books.  I lived a block from the town square and there were constant festivals of one sort or another all summer long so it was quite fun to sit on the porch and people watch or smell the enticing aromas of the street vendors and the cotton candy and later in the evening listen to the music for the street dances.  I knew I was living in a magical place and I honestly never took it for granted.  I never thought I would ever leave there. 
    This little trip down memory lane started because I mentioned that I was sitting out here with a cup of coffee and my cobbler.  A  year ago, the man I love invited me to come live with him on his farm in NorthWEst Ks.  If you would have told me I would ever leave nebraska and a job i intended to do for the rest of my life to come to Kansas, live with a man on a farm of all places and work in a sandwich shop I would have laughed you off the planet.  Yet here I am.  and not only am I loving every minute of it (if I have any say in it I will never leave), but suddenly I am drinking coffee.  I have never liked the taste of coffee.  When I was a kid, my dad always had a cup of coffee in one hand and a can of budwiser in the other and a winston cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He was a bodyman (fixed the dents on wrecked cars) and it was not unheard of for the men in the shop to keep beer in the fridge and drink all day long while working.  So the smell of hard working sweat mingled with the essence of beer and coffee peppered with cigarette smoke just made me hate all those things.  I tried over the years to like coffee and beer and I even tried smoking, but for me I never could enjoy any of them.  I guess that is a good thing, because honestly who sets out to try to get an addiction and there are 3 of them there I didn't need. 
     The oddest thing happened a few months ago.  I had this migraine from hell.  I get bad ones but never one that lasted 3 weeks and got worse everyday.  At some point it came to me that perhaps my blood pressure was up cuz nothing I would do would control the migraine or make it any less.  I was popping some pretty potent pill coctails and it was not touching the pain.  It really is a wonder I didn't kill myself.  So about that time I suddenly could not stand the taste of pop anymore.  I have tried them all trying.  I can occasionally stomach a little root beer or a swallow of regular coke, but for the most part sierra mist is the only thing i can handle on my taste buds.  Don started making me coffee.  with splenda packets and caramel creamer and lo and behold, I love a morning cup of coffee with him and occasionally without him.  I am far from a coffee addict, though.  If he is not having a cup or forgets to make me a cup or he is not home, I don't even think to have coffee.  The only reason I thought about it now is because i walked past the pot and realized that he had made a fresh pot before he walked out the door.
     I have a pork tenderloin in the crockpot; i put it in at 5 a.m. when we went to bed thinking we wud have it for sunday dinner before he gets called to work with some au gratin potatoes and some green beans, but alas as you already know he was called to work early. so I turned the pot down and am working on other things.  I am trying to eat left overs out of the fridge.  It is funny cuz I make large batches so we have left overs for the week, but he seems to have an aversion to eating leftovers.  Neither of us really are home to eat, but it seems that he is always thinking the food is old and wants to throw it out and I am saying it is just fine and we are not wasting food, so I find myself eating leftovers over and over and over.  good thing I love what I cook.  So my breakfast today was a cup of beef stew warmed in the microwave.  I really want to make the zucchini chocolate chip scones i fouund in the diabetic magazine last week.  I have enough zucchini to make scones for the population of the maiden voyage of the titanic but i only need a cup for these scones.  I was going to find out what exactly the history of a scone is and give a little back ground here, but then i realized I don't really care that much and probably neither do you and if you do you will go google it for yourself anyways.  That and I turned on the foodnetwork.  I am obsessed with the food network.  There was a woman on there today Ree Drummond on a show called Pioneer Woman.  I almost turned it off because I didn't want to watch little house on the prairie or one of those "Love comes softly" Jeannette oak stories they play over and over on the hallmark channel.  But then I realized it was a cooking show and is a writer, a blogger and lives on a ranch so the food has to be approved by working men and her family I was like...'ok, i'm interested now.' I got a couple good recipes from here today so I am going to post them.  I have not tried them and not sure if I ever will but they seem like recipes I should try.  It is hard for me to find things don will eat.  He is a traditional farm boy and likes the old fashioned fat laden foods his mom and aunt used to prepare.  I used to cook like that before I lost 82 lbs and learned to eat chicken and fish and tons of fresh veggies.  The trouble is don does not eat how I eat so the pounds are starting to creep back up on both of us and I find myself giving in and saying what the hell I will just weigh 300 lbs again and cook all the yummie stuff I want to eat.  The interesting thing I found about Ree DRummond this morning is that the olive cheese bread she prepared, with i am sure enough calories to put the devil in a coma, she served it with a spinach salad and that was the meal.  If I served a salad as a meal don would look at me and say where is the rest? I get it in my head to eat how I am supposed to and buy all the right foods but then they tend to go to waste.  I wish I could find the happy medium. 
     So today I really need to process zucchini. I should go out to the garden and check and see if there is more before I start so i can do it all at once, but honestly I don't want to know the answer to that; as if I didn't already know. also I know there were 2 garter snakes out there yesterday and frankly it will be a cold day in hell when i get in the garden if i think there is a snake.  I need don to verify a snake free garden before i go in there today.
     I picked all those banana peppers yesterday to make my pepper butter so that needs to be done. and I have basil growing that needs to be picked.  I also want to make herb butter and basil jelly with that.  I planted a few herbs on mothers day and since then.  What I have learned is that I can grow dill and basil and apprently it don't matter if you harvest them or not they continue to grow. 
     I learned the basil.. if you pinch the leaves off the plants grow as fast as you pinch off the leaves.  I can make the plants totally bare and two days later I have more leaves.  I really need to use it for some stuff. right now i just have it in the freezer.  I take it in the house, don't even wash it, just drop it in a freezer bag and freeze.  I figure I will wash it just before I use it.
     I think it might be too hot outside to heat up the house for scones, but man oh man do I want to make them. 
     I see the computer only has 14 mins of battery time left out here so I need to get down to business and post these recipes. 

Ingredients

• One 6-ounce can black olives, drained
• One 6-ounce jar pimiento-stuffed green olives, drained
• 2 stalks green onions
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 12 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated
• 1 loaf crusty French bread, sliced lengthwise

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Roughly chop both the black olives and pimiento-stuffed green olives. Slice the green onions into thin pieces.
Combine the butter, mayonnaise, cheese, olives and green onions in a mixing bowl. Stir together until thoroughly combined.
Spread the mixture onto the French bread. Bake until the cheese is melted and browning, 20 to 25 minutes.
Cook's Note: The mixture can also be refrigerated (up to 2 days) and used as a dip. Great with crackers

    I don't know how I will like this recipe bec I am not a fan of green olives, but I really do want to try it.  It reminds me of a cheese bread recipe that my mother got from one of those monthly mail order recipe card clubs.  She made very little from those cards and I have yet to find the recipe for myself, but I have just adapted one of my own over the years.

KIM'S CHEESE BREAD

3 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 TBS parsley flakes
1 tsp oregano flakes
1 tsp sweet basil flakes
1 loaf french bread

    In a double boiler, melt the cheese, add the parsley, oregano and sweet basil.  when cheese is melted and all is blended, cut the bread into slices, but do not cut all the way thru the bread.  spread the cheese mixture evenly over the slices and put the left over across the top of the loaf.  place loaf on aluminum foil and wrap foil, tenting it a bit above the bread so the cheese topping does not stick to the foil.  Or you can spray the foil with some pan spray.  This is supposed to keep cheese from sticking, but I have not tried it.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes until loaf is crusty and cheese is melted into the bread.

Another recipe from Ree Drummond this morning.

Ingredients

Sauce:

• 1 pound linguine
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Three 14.5-ounce cans diced (or whole) tomatoes
• Salt and fresh ground pepper
• Red pepper flakes

Seafood:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound jumbo or large shrimp, peeled and deveined, rinsed and dried
• 1 pound scallops, rinsed and dried

To Serve:

• Warm cream
• Fresh basil leaves, torn
• Fresh parsley leaves, torn

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the sauce: Cook the pasta for half the recommended cooking time; the pasta should still be very firm.

In a skillet, cook the garlic in the butter and olive oil for a few minutes, and then pour in the wine. Allow this to reduce for a couple of minutes, and then pour in the tomatoes. Stir the mixture together, season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, and allow to cook for 10 minutes.

For the seafood: In a separate skillet, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Sear the scallops, then the shrimp, until they're nice and black/brown.

Meanwhile, grab 2 large sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil and overlap them in a platter with a little depth. It should be large enough to hold the entire pasta dish.

Mix the drained pasta with the sauce and tip it onto the foil. Then arrange the sauteed seafood on top. Tightly wrap the foil into a package.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and keep warm until serving.

To serve: Open the foil package right before serving. Drizzle warm cream over the top and sprinkle with torn basil and parsley.


ZUCCHINI-CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONES

1 1/2 CUPS all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat lour
3 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter cut up
1/2 cup refrigerated or frozen egg product, thawed or 2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk or fat free sour milk (to make sour milk, pour 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar into a glass measure and add milk to equal 1/2 cup)
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 cup semisweet mini chocolate pieces

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees.  in large bowl stir together all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.   Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Make a well in center of the flour mixture.  ( I personally do not use a pastry blender. I think fingers are better.  I believe you should feel the textures of food and not be afraid to touch it.  I feel this helps you know if the product is turning out right or if you need to change something.  do not be afraid to get messy with the food.  It really is part of the pleasure of the food if you touch it and enjoy it while you are making it and you really do have much more control over what size or shape or amount of stickyness,etc this way).

2. In a small bowl, combine eggs and buttermilk; stir in zucchini and chocolate pieces. add the buttermilk mixture all at once to the flour mixture. using a fork, stir just until moistened. 

3. turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  knead dough by folding and gently pressing it for 10 to 12 strokes or until nearly smooth.  pat or lightly roll dough into an 8-inch circle.  cut dough circle into 12 wedges

4. place dough wedges 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until edges are light brown.  Remove scones from baking sheet; serve warm. 

 

KIMS KOBBLED KOBBLER

     There is the most mouthwatering smell coming from the oven right now.  Remember those peaches Don brought home from his friend's tree? Remember how they sat on my kitchen table almost a week then I shoved them in the refrigerator?  I found out the other day that I should not have done that.  I turned to ask.com to find an outstanding recipe for peach cobbler and found the following:

                        
So how can you tell if a
peach will ripen sweetly when they are rock-hard at the store? I will let you in on my little secret. Look at the stem end of each peach. If it is red to the stem, it will ripen in a few days and be sweet left on your kitchen counter (don’t refrigerate fresh peaches). If the stem is yellow, put it back. Oh yes, use your nose, too; you should be able to smell a fruity aroma. No smell, put it back. This method also works for nectarines.

If you are lucky enough to be in peach growing country, no doubt the peaches will be available tree-ripened and at their best. So after you have made that delectable peach pie, shortcake, and ice cream, you’ll probably want to keep some peaches for later on in the year.

To freeze peaches, you need to plunge them in boiling water, then chill in ice water. Peel, stone and thickly slice. They go brown in freezing, so you’ll need powdered ascorbic acid to keep their color. It’s not rocket science; just a crushed 500 mg. tablet of vitamin C! Dissolve it in water and toss the peaches with it, then pack the slices in sealable airtight bags or containers.

After the early fall, fresh peaches never are good again until the next summer. Their texture is off, and even with my secret, they just don’t taste peachy. So my advice: savor the season while you can!

    I just now typed in "what is the propper way to store fresh peaches?" and was led to a site called stilltasty.com.  I have added the link to this post and it is supposed to open in a separate window when clicked on.  It worked when I tested it so I am hoping it will if anyone else does.
     Well, heck, looking at the info apparently I did preserve the peaches properly.  it says once peaches are ripe place in a plastic bag and refrigerate.  Granted I put mine in a walmart bag, but it was plastic and I did put the ripe peaches in the fridge.  Ok, well maybe more knowledge will come later.
     Are you asking, "why does a chef need to look for a recipe? why doesn't she have cookbooks and why is this knowlede in her head?" 
    First of all I have tons of cookbooks, everything from international cooking (my specialty) to pastry books that tell  you how to make croissants from scratch ( a very tasty, labor intensive process involving rolling pounds of butter into huge sheets of dough, folding them into thirds then refrigerating for several hours before repeating the process 3 more times)...just in case you care. 
     I am finding that i am turning more and more to the world wide web to get info on everything.  It seems I am in such a hurry to find the answers I get impatient and just point and click.  It would have taken me hours to find the recipe I was looking for if I was to look through all my cookbooks.  Well maybe not I am pretty familiar with them and I have my old standbys.  I was just too lazy to go out to the washhouse where they are being stored and climb the step stool to get them out of the cabinet they are stored 3 deep in. 
     It kind of saddens me that I do not take the time to go to my books because I love the feel of a book in my hand. Like I love writing letters.  I think letter writing is a lost art.  I really only know a couple people who still do it. 
     These days we are reading books on kindle (well I am not because I fit in the category of the 'working poor' meaning i work 2 or 3 jobs often and still don't make enough to pay the bills.  If it was not for Don's generosity not demanding that I help with more bills I would be working 2 jobs.  I have gotten many applications to fill out for a second job, but everytime Don sees them he says "now we will really never see each other." I agree so I give in hoping that we will indeed strengthen our relationship by having time together rather than strain it because I don't feel I am pulling my weight financially. I don't buy nearly the books I used to buy nor do I read as much as I would like.  What I have to do is cook to survive and it has become a hobby so I am lucky that I get to do the work I love  at work and at home.
     So back to my cobbler recipe...most likely if I would have just consulted betty crocker or better homes and gardens or food for 50 or any of the tons of books I have I would not have had to cobble together a recipe to get what I wanted.  What I ended up using for a recipe is a conglomeration of 3 or maybe more recipes.  I knew what i wanted the cobbler to look like and taste like.  I knew I like the taste of the oats and brown sugar streusel topping in apple crisp, but oddly there are very few peach crisp, cobbler recipes.  I don't know if that is because people don't like peach cobbler or if most people don't have access to fresh peaches (why this would be I don't know since we are in the year 2012) but that was the case. One of the great things about being a chef is that I spent hours in class learning how foods react with other foods and what ingredients interact with what chemicals to make the desired effect.  I have been cooking professionally for so many years that I can picture what I want to taste and then I can find recipes to use as maps to create the finished product.  I wish I could say it is always successful, but I do always learn something everytime.
     I used to get crazy frustrated when I would tell my grandmother I wanted her recipe for something.  she would say, "Oh its just a little of this and a little of that til it tastes how I want it to taste."  Technically she was right, I understood that, but I wanted to know how much of this and that it took to make it taste how she wanted because I wanted it to taste like hers. I feel like once our grandparents leave this earth, their ways of life, including the cooking, will go with them and be forgotten.  My grandparents were newly weds when the depression started the women in that generation had very little to cook with.  They could take dirt and add some flour and water and some salt and pepper and make sunday dinner.  This is the food I miss. The food that she continued to cook in better days when all us grandkids would stay the summers with her and learn how to process food from the garden and learning the confidence to trust my own tastebuds combined with the experience of my 47 years of life.   All of this is what has brought me to Kim's Kobbled Kobbler.

                                               KYM'S KOBBLED KOBBLER

About 14 small peaches - clean and drop into a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes (no longer), then plunge into a bowl of ice water.  I let them sit about 10 minutes in the ice water while I prepared the streusel topping.  I don't think it matters if you peel them right away or not.  I do know that no knife or peeler was needed i just took my thumb and ran it over the loose skin to make a hole then the sking practially came off in one piece... easy as pie.  Slice the peaches into bite-sized slices, remove the pits and any of the hard center part that is going to be hard to chew.  This would probably be a good time to toss some ascorbic acid (vitamin c) or fruit fresh into some water and then soak the fruit in it while slicing, but I did not do this.  I did put some lemon juice over the peaches and tossed before adding the sugar and cinnamon.  Put the peaches in a pan with 1 cup of sugar and 1/8 cup of flour and 1 tsp of cinnamon.  The original recipe called for nutmeg, but I hate nutmeg so I wanted the taste of cinnamon.  Bring this mixture to a boil over medium high heat then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 miutes.  pour this into a greased pan and put the streusel topping over it.  Bake at 375 for about 35 minutes.  I read 400 degrees in one recipe for 15 mins. then I got confused and baked mine at 350 for 35 mins.  I think the topping could look better, but it looks pretty amazing anyway. The important thing is that the topping is golden brown and the peaches bubbly. 

    STREUSEL TOPPING:  1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
                                                1/2 Cup rolled oats
                                                1/2 cup brown sugar
                                                1/2 cup sugar
                                                1 1/4 stick of unsalted butter, cut into pea sized pieces ( I don't know why it has to be cut into these pieces because I used my hands to mix everything and i broke it all up with my fingers into crumbs)
                                                1/2 cup sliced almonds ( I did not use these; most recipes i found called for 1 cup chopped pecans.  Nuts are way out of my budget right now so i left them out)
                                                 1 to 2 tablespoons water (I didn't use this, not sure if my topping would be more round and crumb like if i did.  I didn't leave it out on purpose, just forgot to put it in).

MMMMMM! Just finished a bowl of the kobbler.  It is amazing.  It would be even better with some cold vanilla ice cream or whipped topping, but since it is still warm and sweet and peachy... it is pretty much as perfect as it can
 get without any accompanyment.
                                        

BANANA PEPPERS

In my search for what to do with all the banana peppers we are harvesting, I have turned to the internet.  The following recipes/ideas I found by clicking on ask.com and typing in 'what do I do with banana peppers.' I just copied and pasted a few of the ideas/recipes that I thought we might use at our house.  I am not taking credit for any of these I am simply posting them on my blog to say look what I found to try.

A Southern favorite:

FRIED BANANA PEPPERS

Banana peppers, sliced in half and seeded
1 c. milk
1/4 c. flour
1 1/4 lb. cracker meal, unseasoned
1 1/4 tbsp. red pepper
Oil for deep frying

Cut peppers in half; soak in milk and flour. Combine cracker meal, flour and red pepper to make breading mixture. Remove peppers from milk and roll in breading. Deep fry at 350 degrees until golden brown.

　

　

1. Finely chop the pickled banana peppers and use them in turkey burgers or meatloaf

　
2. slit up the side and pull out seeds using the back of an Asian soup spoon. Stuff with goat cheese and chorizo or a good blue cheese, cover in egg bath and panko and deep fry.
 Serve with a sweet and sour.... oh so good

　
3. Brown bulk sausage and drain thoroughly. Either melt a soft cheese product or make a quick white sauce and add your favorite cheese to it. Mix the cheese (or cheese sauce) into the sausage. Slice the top of the banana pepper off and make a slit down one side, seed the pepper. Spoon the sausage and cheese mixture into the pepper. Cover the entire pepper with store-bought canned crescent rolls to seal them up ( Large peppers may take up to 3 crescents, but with this , the more the better). Bake according to the crescent roll can. These are simply delicious. I usually make 6-8 peppers and refrigerate the leftovers. A friend of mine gave me the recipe, but she uses hamburger instead. If you freeze your peppers whole, you can thaw them out and fix this any time of the year.

　
I tried this with goat cheese and puff pastry. It was really good! Thanks for the idea!
I basically did as instructed but because I’m a real home cook (and not a chef) I improvised with what I had. I used one pound ground beef and one pound Italian sausage. For the cheese sauce I made the white sauce (rue: butter, flour and milk) and then mixed in about ½ pound or so of Monterey Jack Cheese. Oh Yum….then I mixed it with drained meat and stuffed the filling in the peppers and stated and so forth in the above post.

I doubted the tenderness of the peppers to cook in the crescent rolls for only 8-12 minuets (It seemed as though it took about 15 minuets to start to brown out crescents) but the Pepper wasn’t hard and crunchy, it was nice and tender….so good. I had left over filling and later in the week I used some of our red bell peppers and quarter them long ways like a boat, filled, wrapped and baked…Still Delish! We served ours with Spanish rice and guacamole…then ate the leftover chilies as a snack during a movie…I have to say…These are Addicting! 4. Cut the tops off, and take the seeds out. Put in a zip-lock bag, add salt, pepper and a little olive oil. Close the bag, and coat the peppers with the salt, pepper and oil, by shaking the bag. Remove peppers from zip-lock. Grill on a medium-high grill (with the cover shut), for 2-3 minutes on each side. Take off grill, add slices of good feta cheese, and gently place back on grill for a few minutes without turning, to melt the cheese. These have been a favorite of ours this summer, either as an app., or side.


　5. It wouldn't be a problem with me. I eat them raw just clean them and eat them with salt. I'll eat 3 or 4 day if I have them in the house

　

　

Cheesy Grilled Banana Peppers

Mild banana peppers, creamy Gouda cheese, a bit of bacon for a smoky richness, and tomatoes to offer a bit of freshness. Grill them to add another layer of flavor to the dish.

Serve these as an appetizer or unexpected side dish at your next barbecue!

Uses panko, or Japanese breadcrumbs in this recipe. You can substitute whatever breadcrumbs you have on hand.

15 Minutes to Prepare and Cook

Ingredients
4 banana peppers, fresh
2 slices bacon
1 tomato, diced
3 oz smoked Gouda cheese, diced
1 T parsley or cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

Directions
Preheat the grill to medium heat. Wash and cut the stems off the peppers. Using a fork or vegetable peeler, scoop out the seeds.

Cook bacon until brown but not crisp; drain and crumble. Combine all remaining ingredients and stuff them into the peppers. Wrap each pepper in a piece of aluminum foil, taking care to cover the tops tightly.

Place foil packets on the grill so they stand upright, keeping the filling inside the peppers. Cook with grill lid closed for 10 minutes.

Number of Servings: 4

　

6. For a quick snack we like to split in half, wash and clean the stuff with cream cheese or pimento cheese. Great to take to work for lunch, too.

　

7. tried to freeze some last year in air sealed bags and when I thawed them they were soggy and lost their "crunch". Do you have to blanch them first?

The best way I've found for freezing peppers is to cut them into pieces and lay them on a cookie sheet in the freezer. they freeze evenly and completely, then after frozen, move to a ziplock freezer bag.

Thanks, I'll try that way as I'm about to get way more than I can eat. Last time I just put them in there whole, but ended up throwing them out since they weren't crispy like peppers.

　

8. I really like this Hot Pepper Butter. It is a good condiment on lots of things. Or mixed into hot dips.

Hot Pepper Butter

36-40 hot banana peppers
1 quart vinegar
1 quart prepared mustard
6 cups sugar
1 cup flour
water

Chop peppers VERY finely or process in food processor.
Cook peppers, vinegar, mustard & sugar in a large pot & cook until pepper is translucent).
Make a paste of flour and cold water and add that to mixture in pot, stirring
constantly. Cook until thick and smooth. Pour into hot jars, seal,
boiling water bath fifteen minutes

　

9. I threw some on the grill the other day with other vegetables. We really liked them grilled.

　

　
     Today is kind of a lazy day for me I am having a heck of a time getting moving today; at least in the line of cooking.  I just feel a bit burned out, but I know I need to keep going.  I have the weekend off so I am hoping that I will feel more in the mood to cook for the week or at least process what is likely to coming from the garden by then.  I just counted my banana peppers in the fridge I have 16.  Since I am planning to use a lot of the jalapeno and apple jelly I have created this harvest in christmas gift baskets, I am thinking of making the above hot peper butter, I don't find our banana peppers very hot but I will follow the recipe to the letter and see what happens.  I should have close to the required 36 peppers by Saturday.  I am also going to include the bottled hell I made the other day and probably some pickles and relish.  I was thinking last night while I was at the sandwich shop breaking down boxes for the trash that we have many strong appropriate sized boxes for these gifts.  Given the fact that I am kind of finanacially challenged, perhaps I could start getting my baskets purchased and start loading them up and bringing home boxes and getting everything addressed then at Christmas, all I have to do is drive them to the post office.  I wonder if I can possibly be that organized.

   I am also thinking seriously that I will try number 3 above... I have everything on hand except the monterey jack cheese and this involves actual cooking like I miss as a chef instead of all this canning I have been doing.  I would really like to make something we can eat now like a meal out of these things. 
    Speaking of a meal, there is sweet corn in the fridge that I guess i need to get cooked today.  I am honestly craving a tomato sandwich and grilled cheese for lunch.  I am thinking of inventing the grilled cheese/tomato sandwich and I know it is just more carbs but am thinking of making the sweet corn too since don is at work and we are not likely to have a meal together for some time. 
     Don brought home peaches from a friends farm the other day. at this time they are still just hanging out in our fridge expiring.  I had one this morning and they are very juicy so we are talking about making a nice peach cobbler.  I am going online now to find that recipe.
　

BOTTLED HELL

When we decided to plant hot peppers, I don't think either of us gave much thought to what we planned to do with them.  I am pretty sure we expected them to grow tons more than we are currently getting, but thank goodness we are not really getting any more than we are.  I have oodles of banana peppers and serranos and a modest amount of small jalepenos.  I have already posted the jalapeno jelly recipe.  I made a second batch which is just as sweet, maybe a little too sweet and just a tad hotter.  I would recommend leaving a few membranes in some of the peppers, maybe a quarter of them.  In an attempt to use up the zillions of serranos I have aquired I dug up a recipe that I was given years ago by my ex-husband's older brother.  He was an asshole,  but his hot sauce is not too bad.  I remember it being hotter when I have made it before.  Today I left a few membranes in and it made a medium hot sauce to be true "BOTTLED HELL" I  should have left more than half the membranes in and perhaps a few seeds.  My kids will see this as a weak attempt, but since I am middleaged and my stomach will no longer allow me to burn holes in it with volcanic foods. I tripled the recipe and got 14 half pints.  I plan to give it as Christmas gifts along with the jalapeno and apple jellies, perhaps I will tie the recipe to the jar.  What do I put it on.  I think anything you would put hot sauce on... eggs, maybe in chili or other recipes.  I don't use a lot of hot sauce but I will definatley have a quality sauce the next time the need arises.  Probably the most time consuming part of this recipe is the cutting up of the peppers.  WE used our handy tupperware chopper ( well Don did) to pulverize the peppers. So without further ado... the bottled hell recipe


                                  BOTTLED HELL

2 Cups chopped hot peppers
1/2 Cup vinegar
1 1/2 Cups of vinegar
2 12oz. bottles of ketchup

    Mix 2 cups fhopped hot pepper with 1/2 cup vinegar, let stand about 30 minutes.  Add another 1 1/2 cups vinegar and 2 bottles of ketchup.  Simmer 15 to 20 minutes and pour into sterilized jars.  The recipes says to cool then seal, why the heck would you cool it then waste time and energy bringing it all back to boiling.  I just ladeled it into half pint jars then processed 20 minutes in a boiling water bath.

CANNING PEACHES

Today was all about peaches.  We purchased some from our favorite locker.  I think they were a bit over priced for what we got, but we committed to them so they are ours.  They were very lovely peaches and a nice large size.  I would have liked more to make jelly with, but we canned these and they really did turn out quite nice as far as I can tell at this point.  We had a total of 41 peaches which yielded a total of 18 pints.  IN the past I have used quarts, but there are only 2 of us and we are not big fruit eaters; I am sure we will have these jars well into the year. 
    I started by washing the fruit and then I put them in a pan of boiling water for a few minutes.  I was sure they should be in there 3 to 5 mins as my tomatoes the other day then plunged into the ice water.  Come to find out that was too much time and the first 11 turned out kind of mushy.  Once I figured out to just leave them in a minute or so they were much firmer and gave a better product in my jars. 
     While those were in hot water, I prepared a batch of water with fruit fresh in it.  I used an entire jar with about 4 1/2 cups of water.  I just kept putting new batches of peaches into the same mixture and it lasted just fine and the peaches have not turned brown as of 2 hours later.  I chose to make a medium syrup using 10 cups of water and 6 1/2 cups of sugar, which I heated then ladeled over the fruit i placed into the jars.  I processed the pints for 20 mins in a boiling water bath.  The recipe says 25 mins for quarts.

APPLE JELLY

It has taken us two days of work, but we have finally processed all the apples off the first tree.  If I didn't mention it before we had some nice what I call AA quality apples without blemishes.  I am storing them under a cabinet (dark and cool) in a flat box in a single layer.  I decided on this method because keeping my onions in the same cabinet and flat box is preserving them so well.  I also read that I should keep our potatos in a cool dark place.  I have a plethera of pillow cases we don't use so I have them in the pillow case.  This seems to be keeping them wonderfully, though time will tell. 
    So today I processed 36 half pints of apple jelly.  Todays jelly is much darker than my previous batch.  I am using SureJell instead of my previous Ball fruit pectin, but I don't know what that has to do with it.  Also, I read that you can add 1/2 tsp margarine or butter to prevent foaming, which I did this time but not last time.  I am not sure if this has made my jelly the honey color it is.  The third thing is that I decided to process 14 lbs of apples at the same time.  This made 7 1/2 quarts of juice, which required 4 boxes of Sure Jell plus the 1/4 cup of the Ball fruit pectin I had left over from my previous jelly making.
     Since I wanted to do it all at once (all recipes I have seen have discouraged against making a double or larger batch; I have had no problem with this, which is why I am putting my experiences in this blog).  I used an extra canner that I no longer use for canning (I seem to have misplaced the lid in a couple of moves).  So I poured all the juice into the giant canning pot along with all of the pectin and 1 1/4 Cups of the premeasured 20 cups of sugar.  I was attempting to bring it to a boil while stirring constantly, but I ended up getting distracted and didn't stir constantly enough and it started getting burnt on the bottom so I emptied the juice mixture into two smaller pans.  I intended to cook it in 2 smaller pans, but I am impatient and didn't want to waste that much time. 
So I washed the canner good and poured all the juice back into the pan; don and I continued to stir constantly for about an hour til it came to a rapid boil we could not stir down. while he continued to stir I poured in the remaining sugar (18 3/2 cups).  It took quite awhile (maybe 40 mins) to get the mixture back to a full rolling boil, then to boil it for one minute, but the result was a perfect jelly that I am very proud of.  It is clear even though it is an amber color.  I know most apple jelly is a clear amber color, but I was quite proud of my previous golden yellow jelly. Todays jelly is somewhat thicker which was a goal.  I did feel the first batch was a bit too thin.  I found out that we are high altitude so I am processing an additional 5 mins. (brining time to 10 mins).  once the water bath comes to a full rolling boil.  I forgot to leave the jars in an additional 5 mins as I mentioned before (in another post) but it does not seem to have affected the sealing process or the jelly as far as I can tell. The lids are popping almost immediately after taking out of the water.  If I have not said so before, it is important not to put the hot jars right out of the canner onto a cool counter; always lay a towel on the counter to put the jars on, this keeps the jars from cracking when they come in contact with a drastic change in temperature between the boiling water bath and the cool counter.

JALAPENO JELLY

I wake up every morning fully intending to write something here, but I have become captive to my garden.  If it is not zucchini, it is bread and butter pickles, or apples from our tree; which at this point I have about 30 lbs waiting for me in the kitchen.  Four days ago, we went into town just to drop off some paperwork and wandered into our local meat locker.  Don thought we might look into purchasing some peaches in bulk.  Well turns out that the sold out the first day ( I was kind of relieved since I had 15 zucchinis on my kitchen table and 7 lbs of cucumbers not to mention all of the apples).  What we left with was a 25 lb box of tomatoes which were sold to us at a reduced price because the woman at the locker did not want to process them herself at home and probably 3 lbs of jalapenos that needed to be used ASAP.   The first day was devoted not to the apples, but to making salsa.  We have a package mix, but we apparently wanted a challenge.  I could find very few recipes that did not requite tomato paste but eventually I found one that was called Jalapeno Salsa.  It had a bit more jalapeno than tomatoes, but with my background we were able to cob together a combination of a couple recipes and the salsa came out amazing.  It would have been better if we actually had chips to dip it into in our house, but trying to be responsible healthy eating folk ( yeah right) we have none at this time.  Rest assured that will be remedied as soon as I have time to go to walmart.   Yesterday was devoted to 24 1/2 half pints of jalapeno jelly.  The first batch I made a few weeks ago, I took all the seeds and membranes out of the peppers and thought it was fantastic.  I thought this was the preferred way for our families sensitive tummies, but apparently Don was expecting a bit more bite, so yesterday I left a couple peppers with just a hint of membrane and it is a bit hot, but not so much that it sets your mouth on fire.  Speaking of fire, I have a recipe for what my ex-husbands brother calls bottled hell.  It is a homemade hot sauce that lives up to its name.  I plan to make a few pints of that.  My 23 year old daughter and 25 year old nephew love the stuff so I will make it for them and maybe a toned down version for us here at the farm, because every once in awhile I come across a recipe that calls for hot sauce and I never have any.  The day before that we canned diced tomatos.  I will get to all the processes we used for these things soon, but today is the promised TEXAS JALAPENO JELLY recipe.  So enough talk.. her we go.

                                                            TEXAS JALAPENO JELLY
This recipe comes from the Aug. 2012 Taste of Home Canning and Preserving magazine on page 18.  I have not adapted it in any way.  I have been doubling and tripling the batches, which most jelly making experts seem to discourage due to the possability of the jelly not setting up.  I did find this morning a blurb on the paper tucked inside my fruit pectin box (liquid) how to fix the problem of jelly that didn't set up correctly within 2 weeks.  I will put that at the end (if I remember or don't get stopped in my writing).

To give credit where credit is due this recipe was given to the magazine by Lori McMullen, Victoria, TX.  Again this is not my recipe, I am simply using this blog to tell what is working for me and what my results are.  I am not trying to take credit for anything other than to say, "I made this and this is what happened and I like or don't like it."

                                                               TEXAS JALAPENO JELLY

2 Jalapeno peppers, seeded and choped (I used 6 large)
3 Medium green peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces, divided (I had 4 small from my garden)
1 1/2 cups white vinegar, divided (you will use one half cup at a time...I only used 1 cup because I
         didn't have the right amount of green peppers.  I knew what it should like like from my previous
         jelly making so I knew it would turn out all right)
6 1/2 cups sugar (I used 19 1/2)
1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne pepper (I used 1 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes)
2 pouches (3 oz. each) liquid fruit pectin (I used 6 pouches)
About 6 drops of green food coloring, optional (I used somewhere between 18 and 24 drops to
           achieve the green I wanted)

     In a blender or food processor (I used a blender), place the jalapenos, half of the green peppers and 1/2 cup of the vinegar (even though I had tripled the recipe, I processed it 3 times in these amounts so I could be sure of the proper consistency).  Cover and process until pureed.  Transfer to a large dutch oven.
     Repeat with the remaining green peppers and another 1/2 cup of vinegar.  Add the sugar, cayenne pepper and remaining vinegar to pan ( I used all the 19 1/2 cups sugar and all my crushed red pepper flakes and all the rest of the vinegar... 3 cups) Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly (this takes quite awhile) over high heat.  Quickly stir in the pectin. (while I was waiting for the pot to boil I was cutting open the pectin pouches and standing them in a measuring cup so when it was time I could pick them up two at a time and squeeze them into the pan).  Return to a rolling boil (takes a while) and boil for one minute stirring constantly. 
     Remove from heat, skim off foam.  Add food coloring, if desired (the jelly is an odd yellow color without it. To me jalapeno jelly should be jalapeno colored, but it probably doesn't really matter).   Carefully ladle hot mixture into hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  Remove all air bubbles; wipe rims and adjust lids.  Process for 10 mins in a boiling-water bath canner.  (I have been putting the lid on my canner to get the water to boil faster.. found out this morning this has always been the recommended way to do this then when the water boils, set my timer for 10 mins.  I leave my lid on the canner to keep the water boiling, turns out that is the propper way.. and what I really didn't do is leave the jars of jelly in the water for an additional 5 mins after the timer goes off.  I have been taking them out of the water immediately...mostly because I am pressed for time and in a hurry to get the next 14 jars back in the water before it cools.. mine have all sealed fine, but apparently we are supposed to leave them in the water 5 mins.  after the processing time.)

I have never had jalapeno jelly before this summer so I did not know how to eat it.  We did dip it in some sun dried tomato basil wheat thins, which was a divine experience for my taste buds.  I have since learned from a co-worker that one should serve the jelly with cream cheese and dip crackers inthe cream cheese and jelly.  Don and I spread cream cheese on the crackers then put jelly on top.  A little jelly goes a long ways taste wise.  It can get overwhelming if I put too much on my cracker.  It is also delectable just dipping my finger into the cream cheese then into the jelly, but we are not telling anyone in my house that I did that.

TRYING TO KEEP UP/APPLE JELLY RECIPE

It has been a couple days since I have been able to post.  I appologize for that.  I cannot believe how incredibly busy I am just trying to keep the produce from the garden taken care of each day.  I have a couple of recipes today from this processing adventure.  I have to say upfront that prior to this season I have not made jelly or jam.  The farm I live on has fruit trees all over the place; two of which are the golden delicious type of apples.  I don't know about the rest of the country but where we live our winter was pretty much spring and our spring jumped strait to summer.  So everything is maturing faster than usual.  I am trying to leave as many of these apples on the tree as possible so that they can mature as much as possible and be the juicy apples they should be. We of course are having winds like i have never seen before and this is shaking the apples out of the tree and laying the corn over.  The corn seems to right itself in a day or so but the apples do not put themselves back on the tree.  I am now finding myself on daily apple patrol to find any apples that can be saved from rotting on the ground.  One side of our tree seems to have some sort of blight.  I do not know what this means, but I am given this info by the farmer in my life and since this farm has been in his family for a couple generations I guess he would know.  I have been slicing the apples around the blight spots into slices about the appropriate size to bake an apple pie and putting them in a pint bag with one half cup of granulated sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon then i sort of mix them together in the bag, squeeze out as much air as possible and put them in the freezer.  I think it will take about two pints per pie once the weather turns cooler.  My mouth is almost watering thinking about the Apple Crumb Pies I will bake for Christmas and Thanksgiving Dinners. So here are the recipes for the apple jelly I made yesterday.  I cobbed 2 recipes together because neither of them made sense to me.  That is the cool thing about being a chef.  You can picture how the ingredients work in a recipe and know if they are going to work together and if there is something extra needed.  I am sure either of the 2 recipes work out fine, but I found them confusing so I just used them as templates and used the principles i know to be true.  The result is a delicious clear yellow apple jelly that I am proud of.  I don't normally like apple jelly, but my boyfriend wanted some so I made this for him.  I will eat this jelly.  It is that good.
     The second jelly recipe is for jalapeno jelly.  I had never heard of this until a few weeks ago when i picked up a canning magazine at the local walmart. I thought "what kind of crazy person makes jalapeno jelly?" I mentioned to a co-worker about all my jalapenos growing in the garden and she asked if I make jalapeno jelly.  I remembered the recipe and tried it.  It is the best jelly I have ever eaten.  I think I was trying to picture it on toast.  Once my co-worker explained to me that you should put the jalapeno jelly over cream cheese and dip crackers into it I was all in.  This is an amazing jelly.  You won't be disappointed if you try it.


                                                             APPLE JELLY

Apples (I had 7 lbs. I know this because I used my boyfriends postal scale to weigh them.)

     The cool thing about this recipe is I didn't have time to core and peel all those apples.  I simply washed them and quartered them and threw them into a pot of water with some lemon juice added to it.  I just pour in a bit of the juice (probably about a tablespoon or so to 7 cups of water.) I know there was 7 cups of water because one of the recipes said to cover the apples with 7 cups of water or 1 cup of water per pound.  I found that this did not even come close to covering the apples. Once I had all the apples quartered in the pot I added enough water to cover the apples and put the pot on the stove to boil.  When it came to a boil, I put a lid on it and simmered it for 15 minutes. It seemed like there was a bit too much water so I took out a couple cups of the boiling water then my boyfriend used a potato masher to mash the apples in the water in the pot still on the stove (heat turned off). I then put the heat on under the apples and brought it back to a simmer for an additional 15 to 20 mins.  

     To make apple jelly  you need to strain the juice from the apple pulp mess you have made in the giant pot.  Normally one would use cheese cloth, but I have been trying to aquire cheese cloth for awhile now and have been unable to find it. I found one of my boyfriends older t-shirts that is a bit thin near the bottom.  He wanted to continue wearing the shirt so I did not cut it up like I had planned.  I lined a regular colandar that normally use to drain pasta with the shirt (one layer and hung the rest of the shirt over the side of the larger bowl that placed the colander in).  Just to make it more clear in cse it isn't:  colandar lined with t-shirt.  Lined colandar placed in larger bowl, t-shirt hanging over side of larger bowl, pour apple pulp mess into colandar being careful not to drip any into the outside bowl as this will make your jelly cloudy.  I got a bit in the bowl and just lifted it out with my finger.  I think the jelly is fine.  I let the fruit drain for a few hours while we ran some errands.  Carefully lift the t-shirt with fruit out of the colandar being careful not to squeeze as according to the recipe, you will get more juice, but your jelly will be cloudy.  I am not sure myself that it makes much difference if my jelly is cloudy or not but i was careful not to squeeze the bundle just in case. I put the fruit pulp into a trash bag and threw it out. 

    This is the part where the recipes didn't make sense and I had to start working between the two.  the first one did not call for any fruit pectin to be added.  Now I know apples have their own pectin and you can make your own pectin using apples.  I do not know this process at this time and I wanted to make sure my jelly was a success so I looked for another recipe that had dried fruit pectin added to the jelly.  I used low sugar or no sugar needed pectin.  Since I had 7 lbs of apples I used 3 1/2 tbs. My recipe called for 3 tbs for 4 lbs of apples.  I figured out that is 3/4 of a tbs per pound of apples so I multiplied that by 7 which should be (I see today as I am dividing it out) should be 5.25 tbs.  Huh... well i used 3 1/2 tbs and the jelly turned out perfect.  I used a wire whisk and blended the pectin into the juice, then brought the juice to a boil.  This recipe didn't require sweetner, but I cannot imagine jelly that does not have some sugar so I turned to the original recipe which calls for 1 cup of sugar per pound of apples, so we put in 7 cups of sugar.  I say we because at the point I started boiling the juice and adding pectin my boyfriend decided he wanted to help so I started doing dishes and supervising. This first recipe says skim foam if necessary, but we never got any foam.  The second recipe said to boil for one minute and if it started to thicken before one minute take it off the heat and it was done. Ours took a bit longer and I finally took it off the heat thinking maybe as it cooled it would thicken. This seemed to be the truth. We had been simmering our pint jars and lids to prepare them while we made our jelly  and we were now ready to ladel the jelly into the jars.  This was a 2 person operation for us.  Honestly one person can do it, probably quicker and with less frustration, but I am blessed to have a man who wants to help me and I very much enjoyed the time spent with him over our tiny counter space with him ladeling jelly into jars.  I stired it to remove the air bubbles and put on the lids and put them back in the boiling water while he filled others.  Once the jars (we got 9 pints from our 7 lbs of apples) were in their boiling water bath ( always make sure there is atleast 2 inches of water covering the tops) we brought it to a boil ( I have discovered if I put the lid to my pressure canner over the top of the pot and not tighten it down the water boils faster and more consistently). Once the water is boiling rapidly and consistently set the timer for 10 minutes.  When the timer goes off removes the jars and the lids started popping (sealing) for us almost immediately.   If you are going to eat some, refrigerate for a few hours before opening.  Otherwise, label and store.  I am told up to a year,  but we all know our grandmothers stored jelly for years and years and it was still good. 

I know i promised you  the recipe for Jalapeno jelly, but I am way out of time for today, so I will get it on in my next post I promise.  Til then I hope you enjoy cooking and that your culinary endeavors will be as frustration free as possible.