some more kitchen action

The funny thing about me…is that I am such a stickler to following my passion/hearts desire/what I want to do vs. what I feel like I have to do, that sometimes it might look like things are thrown out of proportion. As I look through my photos from this past weekend, I see evidence of large amounts of creativity…mostly from my kitchen. My house is such a disgusting mess right now, but hey…we have lots of food preserved! So I guess it all works out, right?!

I just have to wonder sometimes, how our elders did it? Did they too let their bathrooms (ahem- outhouses) get all cruddy with five thousand layers of toothpaste gobbed all over the place? I think we all fall prey from time to time to believe that someone “out there” does it all. Buuuuttttt…I don’t believe anyone really does. Instead, I think it is all about picking and choosing (and owning up to!) the choices we make.

I choose to put the things that I want to be spending my time on as top priority…so naturally, something has to give…and the bathrooms it is! They stay gross for the time being. So be it!

But anyways, my point was/is supposed to be the kitchen and what has been filling it these past few days. I picked up a giant tote last week of large quantities of beets, turnips, carrots, hot peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, baby bok choi, tatsoi, and tons and tons of greens, as a lingering farm share of sorts, and you know me…I can’t let that goodness go to waste if I can help it.

So, this past week I spent:

~freezing turnips to add to winter stews.

~canning more Hot Pepper Relish, using our favorite recipe from the Pepper Fool:

2 qt Hot peppers, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Salt
2 c Sugar
2 c Vinegar
Combine peppers and salt; let stand 3 to 4 hours. Add sugar and vinegar; cook, stirring frequently, about 45 minutes. Pour into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath. It is so delish and depending on the specific mix of hot peppers, it will be a tad different every time.

~making and canning some Diablo Jalapeno Jelly: sounds weird, but it’s actually pretty good. Kinda like a hot pepper novelty or something. I just omitted the green food coloring, hmmm.

As for the beets. We love beets. Kayla loves pickled beets. I am happy we will have plenty of them this winter. This time I used this recipe and added thinly sliced onions for a change. I am already looking forward to them. I had to laugh though when perusing the recipes on line to find recipes for pickled beets that call for canned beets rather then fresh beets…weird.

As for the kimchi, my friend Erin (who is a fermentation queen) let me know her secret of just how simple making it can be. I have always been a tad intimidated by the whole making of kimchi, especially since I ruined my sauerkraut! So, Erin’s recipe goes like this:

Chop up anything, literally, anything, even hot peppers…whatever you have or need to use up, just chop it all up. Push it down into a half gallon mason jar and pack it as tightly as you can. Then mix up a brine of 3 Tablespoons of sea salt to 4 cups of water. Pour brine into mason jar. A few times a day push down whatever floats to the top. Taste every day and once it gets to your liking, put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge. Tada. Simple enough and you now have something good to eat!

The pantry stores are growing and just when I think I am done with the canning and processing and all the efforts that go into it all…a giant box of something winds up in my reach and around I go again. I can’t wait to share my “final count”, once I figure it out, to document all of my food preservation efforts this year. Soon…as soon as I am finally done! What do you have in your kitchen these days? Is anybody else still preserving anything?