Harvest!

My harvest season has begun! I'm trying to get as much done as possible before I leave for vacation next week...

This weekend, I canned about seven pints of corn relish (on the left in the picture below) and about 19 half-pints of tomatillo salsa (on the right). For some reason, my tomatillo salsa is more brown than green this year. I wonder if it's because I used purple onions? These recipes are from the PDF SALSA RECIPES FOR CANNING by Val Hillers and Richard Dougherty. I used all locally grown produce that I got at our farmer's markets. The tomatillos came from my own garden...

I bought a meal kit from a farmer's market vendor that included the following purple heirloom tomatoes (sorry, I cannot remember the entire name), swiss chard (left), and several types of summer squash (not pictured). I sauteed these vegetables into a delicious sauce that we put on a pizza crust with other pizza fixings and then put it on the grill. It was delicious.

In the background you can see tomatoes, which came from my garden. I'm gearing up this week to can a tomato-peach relish. This tomato-peach relish is from the Preserving Peaches document located at the Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center.

Before the season is done, I hope to can more salsa (tomatillo and regular tomato), plus some seasoned tomato sauce.

We have had an extremely humid and wet summer...and I'm looking forward to fall...wearing sweatshirts and jeans, watching football, making delicious soups from my frozen/canned tomatoes, and enjoying my jellies and salsas.

Homemade Pizza, Wheatberry Salad, and Jam

One reason I love summer so much is the abundance of fresh, home-grown ingredients available for cooking. Here are a few recipes for things I've made recently.

Bread maker Pizza Crust

I got this recipe from my sister when we visited her in Rochester, and she got it from a co-worker. It's funny how good recipes make their way around...

¾ C warm water from faucet
1 T oil
1T sugar
1 T dried milk
½ t salt
2 ¼ C bread flour
1 t dried yeast

Use the dough cycle in your bread maker (mine took about an hour and 24 minutes).

I added fresh pesto, spinach, mozzarella, parmesan, cherry tomatoes, and sweet pepper.

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, or until crust is brown.

Wheat Berry-Black Bean-Edamame Salad

My mom found this recipe in a magazine and she thought it was delicious.

Serves 6 (3/4 cup servings)

4 C water
½ C dry wheat berries
½ of a 15-ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 C frozen, shelled edamame, thawed
1 C chopped tomato
½ C chopped red onion
3 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine water and wheat berries in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 55 minutes or until wheat berries are tender. Place in a fine mesh strainer, run under cold water to cool quickly, drain. Combine the wheat berries with the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl. Serve immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 8 hours in advance.




Jam

The harvest season has begun! I used the following recipes to make about 20 jars of jam. These recipes are from Aunt Dee's Caldwell Family Cookbook, which was given to us when we visited Colorado for a family reunion.

Rhubarb Jam

4 cups finely cut rhubarb 4 cups sugar
1 package Strawberry-flavored Jello

Mix sugar with washed rhubarb in a bowl and let stand overnight. Put in a heavy kettle and cook until rhubarb is tender (about 10 minutes). At this point I like to add about 2 cups of fresh berries. I’ve even substituted raspberries for the strawberries and used Raspberry-flavored Jello in place of the Strawberry Jello. Add flavored Jello; stir until mixed and Jello is dissolved. Pour into hot sterilized jelly glasses or jars. Seal with covers or pour hot paraffin over top of hot jam.

AMISH RHUBARB JELLY
5 cups cut-up rhubarb 1 cup crushed pineapple (canned)
4 cups sugar 3 oz pkg Jello (Raspberry, Strawberry or Orange)
Stir together first three ingredients. Put on heat and stir till all juicy. Boil 15 minutes. Add Jello and mix in. Seal in jelly jars with paraffin. Refrigerate if desired.