Mediterranean Salsa

If your harvest of tomatoes and cucumbers is coming in now it the time to enjoy some really terrific salads.  One of the other favorite recipes I like to make is for a salsa recipe that was published by Pampered Chef.  It is so simple to make, takes ingredients so easy to buy (or grow), and is a great dish to take to parties.  Best of all there are no utensils required to eat it!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Mediterranean Salsa                                 Pampered Chef recipe

½ medium cucumber, seeded and chopped

½ c chopped (red) onion

1 plum tomato seeded and diced

3.25 oz of ripe olives sliced or chopped

2 T olive oil

1 clove garlic pressed or finely diced

1 t Italian seasoning

4 oz crumbled feta cheese

Stir the ingredients together and chill.  Serve with pita chips or other flat crackers

Canning French Beans

Today was my day to get my beans Frenched and in the jars.  I had picked and washed the beans and tossed them in the frig yesterday as I did not have the energy to get the canning done.  I did snip the ends off the beans while supper was cooking, so I had part of the job done for today.  I start any canning process by gathering everything that I will need to do the job from start to finish.  I have my jar lifter, funnel, and wooden spoon that I keep together once canning season starts.  I also use canning salt, sealing lids with bands, and glass jars that I bring up from the basement when needed.  If I am canning vegetables, I use my pressure canner.  Fruits can be processed in a hot water bath.  I want to learn more about steam canning as an alternative to the hot water bath.

Jars need to be checked for nicks and cracks.  I run my finger around the top of each jar to make sure it has a smooth edge for sealing.  Sometimes they chip or get a stick residue from the sealing compound. Chipped jars will not seal.  Sticky jars have to have the goo removed with alcohol or other cleaner that will take it off.  Once they are washed in soapy water, they go into a hot rinse water where they stay until the food goes into the jars right before sealing the jars.

Always use new lids.  Some jars use canning rings or other compounds.  I choose the one use Kerr lids that I just use for dry storage once the seal has been used and broken.  Follow the directions on the box for sterilizing and keeping the lids hot before using.

I have a hand crank French beaner. The beans are fed into the top as you turn the crank.  A white nylon wheel moves the beans through the cutting disks turning each bean into a thin lengthwise slice.  I started out using a smaller hand held tool which the beans were pushed through and pulled out the other side one by one.  I eventually splurged on this with a 50% off coupon in the gardening catalog.  We like French beans, so this was worth the money I spent ($20 sounds about right).

I steam blanch the beans for 5 minutes before putting them in the jars.  Loosely pack the beans with 1" of head space.  Add a half teaspoon of salt.  Top off with boiling water to cover beans with the 1" head space.  Wipe down the top of the jar before placing a hot lid on top.  Use a screw band to hold the lid in place during canning.

Place the jars into the pressure canner with 2-3" of hot water.  My pressure canner can hold 10 pint jars which helps speed the process up.  Some canners are tall and can handle a double layer of jars.  I can only do that with half-pint jars.

Fix the lid on the pressure canner and place over heat.  Once the steam starts coming out the top.  I place my weighted pressure gauge in place.  Other canners will have a knob to close off and you set the gauge to the proper pounds.  Beans are canned at 10 pounds of pressure which raise the temperature at which water boils from 212 degrees to 240 degrees.  Vegetables are low acid and need the higher temperature to sufficiently stop bacterial action safely.  
Once the beans have been held at this temperature for 20 minutes for my pint jars, I remove the canner from the heat and let it cool down naturally.  I do not remove the weighted pressure gauge or run cold water over the outside of the canner to cool it faster.  This is just part of doing it right.  Once the temperature is down enough that the pressure in the canner has come down naturally, I can remove the weight and open the lid.  Always remove lids away from your face and hands to avoid steam burns.

Use a jar lifter to take the hot jars out of the canner.  Place them on a heat proof surface to cool completely.  Do not turn the bands or shake the jars, just let them set.  If some jars have not sealed, (read your lid box on how to tell what a sealed lid looks like) place those jars in the refrigerator or use right away.  I will let jars sit over night before removing the screw bands and cleaning the residue off the jars.  Make sure to label the jars with contents and date.  The year is usually enough unless you really like to keep track of canned goods.  Different sources will tell you how long you should keep canned goods but most things keep quiet well for at least a year or more.  Place jars in a cool, dark location to best preserve the color and quality of canned goods.  Don't let the jars freeze.  
This is just a general tutorial for canning.  I do recommend getting a book on canning to really understand the process and learn about how to do other types of foods and canning.  There is nothing quite so satisfying as going to your pantry in the dead of winter and enjoying last summer's harvest. 

Life is taking on a different sort of pace as we empty out the nest.  There is still one more week before we load up the trailer with our youngest and all her worldly possessions (minus the ones I'm sure will still occupy a good portion of our home).  The next week is her time to gather it all together, add a few more "necessities", and say her good-byes to all that is familiar to her now.
Tonight was one of those nights that became a logistical challenge of time and vehicles.  She needed to pick up a used futon and dorm frig from a friend that had them for sale on the southwest end of the county.  She also wanted to be at another friend's house for the evening on the southeast end of the county.  I wanted to be at a book signing on the northeast end of the county.  We wanted it all to happen in under two hours.
The first stop was for the futon.  After removing the legs and sliding it in the back of the Ford Explorer, we needed a couple more inches to get the door closed.  Both front seats were readjusted, a little push, a few bungee cords, and we were ready to roll.

My daughter took the wheel on the way to her friend's house.  We safely navigated into the driveway.  I took her seat from there.  Now, she normally has the seat slightly closer to the wheel than I do.  She drove to the futon friend's house so the seat had already been closer than I sit, now it was an additional two or so inches up with the seat fully erect.  The Ford logo of the air bag was staring square at me.  Too close for comfort, but nothing I could do about it.  I had to head north, get on the Lake Freeway, and follow the Lake Michigan shore line if I was going to make the book lecture in time.
I am accustomed to mirror driving with my work truck, so this was not a problem.  Sitting with bent knees and straight back was.  Fortunately, the area of town that I was heading to was very near the university she will be heading to next week, so large vehicles filled with furniture are fairly normal.
As luck should have it, a parking spot opened up just across from the bookstore as I pulled up (with 15 minutes to spare).  I was able to pull straight in to a spot with no risk of someone parking my ample sized, vision obstructed vehicle in too tightly.  
I had enough time to purchase a book and even read the first chapter before the lecture got under way.  If you have read any Michael Perry books, you know that he has a fine sense of humor with back road wisdom attached.  These are the kind of people I seek out to entertain me.  I was not disappointed.
Being raised Lutheran in a small town, I often choose the furthest seat from the front as is comfortable when presented with an unknown crowd.  There was already plenty of people when I got to the east side bookstore, so the back was my home.  I couldn't always see well, but I could hear just fine.  Michael Perry not only writes well, but he also tells a pretty good tale in a captivating fashion.  He was on Michael Feldman's "What Do You Know" this weekend.  You can listen to the broadcast in archives on Wisconsin Public Radio to hear what I am trying to convey.
When all was done, the back seat proved to be to my advantage as this put me closer to the front of the line for the book signing.  Perry's first book was Population 451.  My friend gave it to me as a birthday gift, and I have shared it with others.  I have read every Perry book since.  My favorite so far has been Coop.  I have high hopes for this one as it talks about the wisdom one can gain by getting to know their neighbors in Visiting Tom.

Perry also plays and sings in his band with the Long beds.  He talked about his gig the next night at the Oconto County Fair. As ironic as it may seem, he was heading for the very same county I grew up in.  The place where I learned small town wisdom, ethics, and how to get along in a bigger world.  It seemed fitting to have made the trip across three-fourths of my present county of residence to hear him speak.  
After I got my book signed, I headed out to my truck to drive home.  I folded myself back into the space behind the wheel.  I said another prayer that the airbag would have no reason to deploy while I challenged it by sitting too close.  As Bob Uecker called the Brewer game, I wound my way home on those streets that have become home to me and my family.  It doesn't matter where life puts you, its what you make of it that counts.  You don't have to live in a small town to know your neighbors and learn something along the way.

First basket of tomatoes

I happily went to the tomato bed and FINALLY picked a full basket of tomatoes.  Yes, they aren't all rosy red ripe, but they also do not have chipmunk or squirrel teeth marks in them.  I was able to get some fresh cilantro from the West Allis Farm Market, so fresh salsa will become a reality.  The jalapenos are also starting to produce peppers of harvest size.  The long wait has come to an end.
I got the tomato plants in late this year to allow for room in the driveway with our graduation party taking place during normal planting time.  With all the heat we had, I was sure the tomatoes would be earlier any way. Not so.  The nights have cooled off quite a bit and have slowed progress.  I still have to get my first celebrity tomato this year.  My farmer friend from college was in town for Irish Fest this weekend.  She told me her sister-in-law lost their garden to a storm when one of the nearby trees landed on the garden in June.  It is still there among  the weeds.  I guess I should count my blessings that it is just a wait and not a total loss.
Even the cherry tomatoes have been slow to start.  Today was the first picking that I didn't put directly into my mouth. There are more to come.

I am planning on putting more into canning jars than the freezer this fall to save on freezer space.  We have half of a steer coming in October which will take up all we have.  Another freezer is in the near future, hopefully and upright to save on the digging and lost items in the bottom of the chest.  I have done dilly beans and cut beans which put several jars on the shelf.  I also have sweet corn canned this year (a first for me) which put nine pint jars in store.  There would have been 10, but one went "ping" and spilled into the pressure cooker water.  I was not happy to start everything over to get the corn out of the water.  More beans are ready for picking, so I think french beans are next.  Fall is an exciting time of year for a gardener.

Mints and the things I have learned about them

Organic Gardening had a great article this winter/early spring about using different herbs in drinks.  I have grown peppermint for years in my garden.  When it came to making mojitos, I used what I had not knowing any differently.  According to this article, the old saying goes "Using peppermint in a mojito is like putting a scorpion in a baby's bed".  Spearmint is the preferred mint for this Southern specialty.
This Sunday I learned another thing about mints.  If you have more than one type of mint in your garden, they should be separated to prevent cross-pollination.  Over time, the mint flavors become muddled together with repeated cross-pollination and you need to start over with fresh plants.  That sealed the deal for me.  The peppermint, which has lost it's flavor (I thought it was a weather thing) is going into the trash.  The catmint has been pulled up and will be moved to another part of the yard entirely.  The brand new spearmint has been given a larger pot and gets to stay in the herb garden.  
I keep my mint in pots to keep them from traveling. The pots are sunk in the ground with a good 3" out of the soil to keep them confined to their small area.  I also remove any flower/seed heads to keep them from self-sowing.  This is a big problem with mint plants.  I have been in enough unkept properties where mint has run over everything in its path.  One yard was solid lemon balm from rear to side yard.  I convinced the owner that mowing it down was the best option to regain space for a lawn chair again.  She kept a small patch and hope to eventually kill the rest with constant mower action.  There is sometimes too much of a good thing.
If you have never had a mojito, give this recipe a try:

Ingredients for a "Mojito"

• Light Rum
• Lime
• Sugar
• Mint
• Soda Water

Quantities for one drink:

• 2-3 oz Light Rum
• Juice of 1 Lime (1 oz)
• 2 tsp Sugar
• 2-4 Mint Sprigs
• Soda Water

Blending Instructions:

• Lightly muddle the mint and sugar with a splash of soda water in a mixing glass until the sugar dissolve and you smell the mint
• Squeeze the lime into the glass, add rum and shake with ice
• Strain over cracked ice in a highball glass
• Top with soda water, garnish with mint sprig and serve

http://supercocktails.com/recipe/mojito

There is a video clip on the site on making a mojito if you aren't familiar with "muddling" and mixing.
Cheers!

A Whole Day of Rain

We got 1.5" of rain in the rain gauge during the last 24 hour period!  It was a nice slow rain that took to the dry ground.  It is (amazingly) still dry out there even with all that moisture.  I loved being woke up by a rain storm outside the window.

We had cloudy skies this morning which brought the sunshine in by mid-morning.  With it came wind.  I stopped at the lake front during lunch and watch the waves crash over the breakwater at South Shore Marina.  The air show is this weekend, so we had a little overhead entertainment as well.  There were a handful of people who chose this little spot to enjoy some water watching as well as enjoy the company of strangers.

I bagged up my onions tonight and hung them in the basement.  I weighed them and found that I have 30 pounds of onions! I thought I was being optimistic saving so many mesh bags, but I filled three large orange bags quite easily.  I will be able to share my bounty this year.  I sliced up one with eggplant and zucchini and fried the whole slices dipped in egg and flour on the griddle with butter.  The results were like having a lower fat, less batter onion disc.

Tomorrow, I will have to pick green beans and soy.  I had a handful of soy which I cooked up and put in a tomato salad for lunch.  Edamame is a nice addition to salads or just eating with a bit of salt.  (August 3, 2011) http://gardeninggwen.blogspot.com/2011/08/soybeans-aka-edamame.html I grew half of my soy beans from new seed and half from seed that I ripened on the plants and harvested dry last fall.  Both plots germinated and grew equally well, so I think that seed saving was successful with this crop.

My neighbor has shared his early tomatoes with me as well as enough to share with the other neighbors.  His garden is quite large even after shortening it 20' or so this past year.  He grew a row of beans the full length of the garden which is well over 40' long.  They have already canned and frozen all they will use.  I passed the word on to others and offered the suggestion to donate to Harvest for the Hungry as they were opting to rip out the plants to stop the harvest.  Several soup kitchens and food pantries are also nearby, so I think they have abandoned the thoughts of pulling the plants.  They also have several cherry type tomato plants which are producing heavily.  I took a bag to work and put them on the basket on the corner of my desk.  My coworkers did a good job of eating them all.

I am thankful for some cool weather as it is time to can some French beans this weekend.  I will eagerly share the results of that job.

A little of this and that...

The weather was beautiful on Sunday so I was able to open the windows and turn on the stove.  The first round of beans have been canned a dilly beans.  I have added the recipe from the Ball Canning and Freezing book which has been by my side for over 25 years.  It came with my pressure cooker and I use it all the time.

I ran across something somewhat alarming while out in the garden picking beans so I picked around the affected plants and did them last.  After some research, I decided I damage them while using the Weed Dragon to kill some weeds along the fence somewhat near the beans.  If anyone thinks otherwise, chime in and let me know.

The heat has been a killer and I dread what the water and electric bill will be from this heat wave.  I have been looking around at how other municipalities are dealing with tree watering, as Milwaukee has been trying to keep the new stuff going with water trucks.  I saw some water bags along the boulevards in West Allis on their new trees.  Alverno College had these water bins around their trees to do the slow soak.

The onions started bending over before vacation so I pushed them all down.  (See Onions post from 8/16/11) After a week or so of dying back, I pulled the plants, trimmed the roots and cut the tops to about 2-3" over the onion bulb.  I cured them in the trays in the garage for most of the period (it was just too darn hot for man and onion in that sun).  I pulled them out in the sun on the milder temperature days to dry them and now they are ready for storage.  Store onions in a cool, dry, dark location.  It is a beautiful crop that I am happy to have.  Now I have to get some lettuce in the ground for fall harvest.

Try these beans

I have been so impressed by one of my varieties of bush beans that I have to share it now so you can all give it a try.  I got them from Pine Tree Garden Seeds.  They were in the French vegetables selections. Maxibel Haricot Vert.  They are the bean on the right.  Very slender, tender and no strings attached!  I have some bean beetle damage in the garden (I haven't sprayed because they haven't eaten much).  This variety in particular has sustained some leaf damage but the beans themselves have remained untouched by the beetles.  It may be that the other variety on the left, Slenderette, has been more to their liking.  It may also be that the praying mantis have moved in and stopped them in their tracks.  All the same they are the best beans I have grown so far, and I have grown a lot of different beans.  The Royal Burgundy beans are also a favorite as they are so easy to find and pick as well as being tasty.  All varieties were purchased from Pine Tree this spring.