More Thanksgiving leftovers

What, you have several pounds of leftover ham?

Why not make Split Pea Soup?

Adapted from this recipe-ish thing, though I used ham juice instead of chicken stock. If you've got it flaunt it, huh? Oh, and the carrots were frozen from the garden.

And that was the latest bread experiment, with the sourdough started added to the dough and then aged for about a day, cooked at normal bread temperatures (~375) in a sealed casserole dish. Turned out pretty darn good, though the crust is still a little thick for my taste. I'll keep experimenting, I guess.

Last canning of the season

When they came for the rhubarb, I said nothing because I wasn't rhubarb.
When they came for the cucumbers, I said nothing because I wasn't a cucumber.
When they came for the tomatoes, I said nothing because I wasn't a tomato.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for the jalapenos.

Last condensed droplets of summer

Last tomatoes, salvaged from the garden.  Currently they're in the dehydrator, and will be in soups and such this winter, memories of the summer.

THE GOOD TIMES ARE OVER!

Supposed to get down to 26 tonight, and about the same tomorrow night.  So even the stragglers in the garden (still got a few peppers and tomatoes, surprisingly enough). will probably be frostbit tomorrow.  well, except maybe the kale.  It's been the star of the garden this year.

Guess I should drain out all the hoses and such--probably even blow out the sprinkler system, though it should be fine for a couple days, at least.  We're falling through fall and into winter...

Hot Sauce and etc.

Ran it through the food mill to get out the seeds, and added a couple more cups of vinegar for the flavor and for the canning process, so now I think it looks like baby food instead of baby puke. Still, perhaps not the best marketing, but any baby you gave this stuff to would grow up with an iron stomach!

In keeping in tradition with my beer, I'm calling it Bugeye hot sauce. It may not be as pretty red as some of the mainstream ones, but it sure is hot!

Because of the frost, the pepper plants were all starting to wilt, so here's a 2-gallon bucket with the Jalapenos and remaining Big Jims. Hey, wait--how did that dog get in the picture?

It's a Schnauzer photobomb!

To deal with cold weather, add hot sauce

So remember all those peppers I picked? Well, they were cooked down and run through the food processor, then set on the counter to ferment. They now like this, a loverly spicy baby puke color:

Everything has started bubbling, and the house smells like hot sauce.  It tastes like sweeter sriracha with more of a kick--pretty darn good.  And just the thing for a day like today, since coming home from work this afternoon it was colder than when I left at 7:30 this morning, and the Mesa has seemed to have turned white...

Anyway, I think I'm going to let it ferment a couple more days, then cook it again to kill off the bugs before canning it.  And we still need to do something with all the jalapenos.

THAT'S a lot of PEPPERS!

It's better if you say it like this guy:



Erm... hmmm. As I was saying, this is quite a few peppers:

I think they will be cooked down and blended and fermented into a loverly thick hot sauce, much like this.  Rubber gloves will be necessary for preparation.  These Santa Fe peppers may not be as threatening as those little Thai chiles, but they are still plenty hot.

Then there are still two jalapeno plants that are going to need attention... and the big jims...

What is it?

Hint: look at the labels.

Added:  Ok, here it is from the top

It's a Black Krim.  It looks almost like it's rotten, or under ripe on the outside and over ripe on the inside, but when you cut it open, the dark red, almost purple interior has very few seeds, is tender, meaty, and juicy, and tastes wonderful.  A great conversation piece, and a great heirloom tomato.

Tomatoes

Going in the dehydrator. We're going to have a lot of dried tomatoes this year...

On the Counter

String Beans

From the garden

to the grill

Delish!

Salsa-maker's motto

When chopping chillies and peppers: "I will not rub my eyes! I will not rub my nose! Will not rub my eyes! I will not rub my nose!" etc.

Unless you like that burning sensation...

R.I.P.

That is, Raisins in Progress:

Gardening

We just collected about 5 gallons of grapes off our grape vine; soon to be dried into raisins. It took 45 minutes and both me and my mother to de-stim them all--that's a lot of grapes!

Firsts

First eggs from the young chickens.

First corn from our garden.

First peaches from the little fruit stand.

It's a week of firsts!

Breakfast for lunch

First fried up half an onion (from the garden!) Added a grated potato. Chopped up a sweet pepper (from the garden!) and spreaded it on top of the potato. Don't touch the potatoes until they are getting crispy on the bottom, then flip everything. Meanwhile, I was crispifying some bacon. When the potatoes are starting to look almost done, add the bacon. Scootch everything in the skillet over to one side and add a couple of [fresh] scrambled eggs--let them get halfway cooked and then mix everything together, and add a good handful of grated cheese. Let it cook until the cheese makes a nice crispy layer in there. Add spices and seasoning (I had fresh rosemary and salt and pepper).

I ate it all...

Bacon and Green Beans

The first beans out of the garden are in the pot cooking with some bacon and onions.

Looking forward to dinner tonight!

what to do with an abundance of kale

White bean and kale soup. I am informed that it is very Portuguese.

Two onions (one red onion from the garden, one white onion from the store). Three cloves of garlic. Fried the white onion and the garlic. Half of a (very large) carrot from the garden. Three (very large) sprigs of rosemary from my herb planter. Four+ cups of chicken broth. "Eight servings" of white beans, soaked and softened before hand. Quite a lot of kale from the garden.

Home made sourdough was toasted with cheese on top, and the soup was served over the top of it. More cheese was added.

Very simple, and very, very good.

Gad Zukes!

First Zucchini of the year!

Dipped in milk before going into a mix of flour, cornmeal, chili powder, garlic powder, a little bit of cayenne, and some salt and pepper, then fried until deliciousness occurs. 

The leftover milk and dry mix was mixed into a batter and fried up as a hush puppy facsimile.

There are plenty more out there on the plant.  Can't wait to eat them!

The World Tree

Alternate title: Playing with my food.

What was on the plate was lasagna (made with my brother's homemade ricotta cheese) and some pickled beets picked this morning from the garden.

Then I started messing around.