I did it

I canned the farmer's market. All of it.

I also saw the movie Contagion over the weekend. Should a pandemic ever break out we will be well stocked. Or next time we get a blizzard, we will be ok. Or next time I'm hungry, I'll be able to find something. Or when zombies strike, well I'm not sure canned goods will help in that situation.

Have noticed how one project will inevitably lead to another? I had so many canned items that I had to clean out a kitchen cupboard to hold them all. That led to some major reorganization. Then I filled said cupboard with the canned items and I still have about a dozen jars of this and that without a home. That means we need to make additional storage in the basement. That means we need to clean out a basement closet and build shelves. More reorganizing. I will also have to make that space look cute or I won't use it (or less likely). More and more projects. Fall seems to be the right time for such endeavors.

Also, orientation for culinary school is finally happening at the end of the week. I have been talking about going to school for so long that it started to feel like it was just something I talk about, not something I do. Now it is going to happen for real. Emotions. All kinds of them.

Banana Cake

My cat loves it when I buy more jars.

I haven't done a lot on the baking front lately. I have made a decision. I decided to can the crap out of the farmer's market while I can (hahahaha, can). There is all kinds of fresh goodness available right now and it is going to go away, soon. Today's high is in the 50's I believe. In preparation I went to 2 farmer's markets this weekend and spent a lot of money. I intend to do the same this weekend.

So far I have made canned blueberries in syrup, red wine vinegar red onions and chili okra. Today will bring salsa.

Hoi An, Vietnam

I did manage to bake one item a couple days ago. Banana cake. I got the recipe from Luke Nguyen's cookbook, My Vietnam. I love Asian desserts so much. They aren't too sweet but they just hit the spot in a way nothing else does. I have been eating them all my life (thanks to my awesome Vietnamese second family). Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to travel in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. My only regret of that trip is not eating more dessert in Vietnam. I turned down the ladies with the tasty pastries every time. What was I thinking? I went crazy in Thailand but nothing compares to Vietnamese desserts. I guess I have to go back. As soon as possible.

Anyway, the banana cake was so simple and so delicious. It called for finger bananas, which are plentiful in Asia and a little harder to find here. I did track them down and combined them with a little sugar, lots of eggs, butter and condensed milk and some flour (recipe here). The result is banana cake. Almost like banana pound cake. This deceptive little number doesn't even let on to the amount of naughtiness it contains so we gave half away and should have given away more.

Hopefully I will be canning and baking more but my peg leg is still slowing me down and I made the poor decision yesterday to test my foot to see if it still hurts. Yup. Sure does. I have a really hard time waiting for things to heal. I feel the need to keep testing the waters. Not smart. Today will be a day of rest (after I make the salsa... and maybe try out pickles again).

Like a Bandit

That is how I made out.

All of my crazy canning lately has been for a purpose, several actually.
1. I have more veggies in the garden than the three families participating in the FSA(friend supported agriculture) have been able to eat. More cucumbers at least. I wanted a way to preserve the overgrow for a later time.
2. I like learning new things.
3. Winter is coming. Won't it be nice to open a jar of farmer's market preserved tomatoes or blueberries in the dead of winter? I'll let you know.
4. I signed up for a food swap event.

The food swap event happened yesterday. My friend and co-conspirator Miriam and I had no idea what to expect and we were very nervous. What if no one wanted our things? I am really not good about putting any products I make out there for the world to see and sample. I am very self-conscious and a perfectionist when it comes to my own product. I will never think it is good enough (this is going to be a huge obstacle if I become a pastry chef). Anyway, all of these fears gave me the sweats, that and the 90 degree weather.

For my first swap I brought carrot daikon pickles, peach lavender jam, carrot habanero hot sauce, mago chili butter, wasabi green beans and petite baguettes. I only brought two or three jars of each item because I had no idea if they would be popular (and I becoming a canned goods hoarder).

Luckily all my items went away with happy people and I returned home with their things. I got candied sesame walnuts, matcha rice krispie bars, cowboy caviar, fresh pasta, giardinara, concord grape jelly, ponzu sauce, leek soup with dill oil, chocolate cake pops, healthy truffles, mock watermelon pickles, ginger plum applesauce, taco seasoning, savory seasoning and a fresh herb bouquet. Miriam and I also traded our opened sample containers so I also got zuccini relish and tomato apple chutney.

The fresh pasta we used right away along with a baguette that I didn't bring to the swap. My husband made a delicious, fresh tomato sauce with the herb bouquet and tomatoes from the farmer's market. The rest of my bounty is being slowly munched on as I type.

I had so much fun at this food swap. I really want to do it again, and again, and again. I have a feeling it will become super popular and hard to get tickets in the near future.

Help

I may have gone canning crazy.












I don't have a lot to do during the day.


Don't judge me.

Do the Can Can

What can you do with such a beautiful bounty of vegetables? You can can. It is scary but I was assured by this book that it is not rocket science. It is some kind of science but no rockets are involved.

First things first, I had to acquire the right equipment. It actually took me about a week to find a stock pot that was the right size and also worked on our crazy induction stovetop. Target to the rescue (as usual) and I was ready to go (and also shaking in my boots). At first I didn't realize why I was so scared of canning but I developed a list:

• It is cooking. I love to bake but I am terrified of cooking
• It seemed fast paced
• There is so much to go wrong
• I won't know if something is wrong until I open the jar
• I may poison my friends
• I may poison myself
• I may burn myself
• The name doesn't make sense to me (you use jars, not cans)
• There is a lot of prep work involved

I decided to dive in and face my fears. Turns out it is a combination of fast paced moments but also a lot of waiting. There is a lot of prep work but with the right music on it is sort of fun. I have burned myself but that probably would have happened regardless. There is endless potential for disaster but that is life. The poisoning is still a concern but that is a risk we will all have to take. I promise to taste everything first. The name still bothers me though.

First I made some simple salsa with tomatoes from a friend's garden and jalapeños from my own. Not too difficult and not too scary. Next I made mango chili butter because mangoes were on sale at the grocery store. Other than peeling pounds and pound of mangoes, it wasn't too difficult either! Success!

Then came the pickles. I recently made refrigerator bread and butter pickles with cucumbers from my garden and they turned out great. I assumed that meant that I could use any old cucumbers for any old pickle recipe. Wrong. So wrong. I made spicy dill pickles and everything went along fine, until I took one out of the jar to taste it. It was floppy. It was soft. There are a million jokes to be had here but I wouldn't touch them with a foot-long floppy pickle. Yuck. Out they went.

It seems I have caught the canning bug. And it is labor day weekend so what a better way to celebrate than laboring over a hot stove full of jars?