Adventures in Summer Canning.

Tim — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:06:09 +0000

I know. Snooze. Canning sounds boring. But canning is one’s only option when the garden produces too many vegetables. Sure, you can always give some away. But I’ve always wanted to see if try my hand at this time-honored practice of preserving homegrown veggies.

But can what?

According to my trusty canning book (thanks Amazon!), Zesty Salsa™ looked doable.

Fresh garden tomatoes.

I started with five cups of homegrown tomatoes. Peeled and chopped. That took…let’s see…about 5 hours! Next came bell peppers. Another five cups worth. Diced into little salsa-sized cubes.

A bevy of bell peppers from our garden.

Add to that five cups of onions. Store-bought Vidalias. Um, peeled and chopped. Then I added 2-1/2 cups of banana peppers. Hungarian Wax. Hot, but too hot. I topped it off with three cloves of chopped garlic, one tablespoon of salt, two tablespoons of cilantro and 1-1/4 cups of cider vinegar.

Place into a large pot and bring to a boil.

Stirring the pot.

After boil, I reduced the heat and cooked (while stirring) for another ten minutes. As this was going on, I heated the jars and lids in the giant canning pot my wife and I bought from Wal-Mart.

Next, I ladled the salsa into the hot jars, leaving a half-inch of space at the top, and making sure there were no air bubbles in the liquidy-substance. I screwed on the lids (tight, but not too tight) and submerged the jars in water, making sure each jar was completely covered.

Rapid boil for fifteen minutes!

Boil those jars!

After fifteen minutes, I turned off the heat and removed the lid, allowing a 5-minute cool-down. Carefully, I removed the jars from the pot, placing them in a row on a towel, where the magic “vacuum” process would occur.

It did, but overnight while everyone was sleeping.

A dozen jars of Waller-made salsa.

Thankfully, my first “canning” was a success. The lids on the jars were properly sealed.

Zesty salsa close up.

And while this doesn’t look like any salsa I’ve ever eaten, it tastes darned good. Garden fresh!

We’ll be eating it from now until winter.

Coco contributes nothing to the canning effort.

Does Zucchini Bread Taste Like Zucchini?

Tim — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:24:17 +0000

The garden where it all began.

The timing was awful. Not what my wife and I had envisioned when we planted our garden in early May. Who knew the cucumber, squash and zucchini plants would produce so quickly, and in such abundance? How could either of us have known we’d be up to our eyeballs in veggies the very week my wife was out of town visiting her mother.

Cucumbers I can deal with. But zucchini? Puh-lease! What was I supposed to do with a sink-full of zucchini?

The bounty.

“You could always make some yummy zucchini bread,” my wife insisted on the phone.

My first thought: Why would someone do that? Zucchini bread? Eeeew!

“Yes dear,” I said, and Googled the recipe:

Zucchini Bread IV

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.

I have to say, it was a little freaky plopping two cups of grated zucchini into the batter. But who was I to second-guess centuries of tradition? Besides, the recipe had garnered 4-1/2 stars on AllRecipes.com.

Fast-forward an hour and ten minutes.

Zuchinni bread times two.

I don’t want to brag, but my zucchini loaves looked and smelled absolutely scumptuous! And why shouldn’t they? The bulk of the batter was sugar and cinammon, raising the question, would we even taste zucchini? We, as in me and my two teen daughters. Trust me, if they scarf down a slice, anyone will.

We all scarfed…and scarfed…and scarfed.

Half-eaten zucchini loaf.

Man it was good, especially served warm, and it didn’t even taste like zucchini! For that matter, does banana bread taste like bananas? Or does carrott cake taste like carrotts? If the answer is no, then why go to the trouble of lacing perfectly good bread or cake with vegetables?

Why?

Because when you’re stuck with a fridge-full of your least favorite veggies (excluding the cucumbers), you have to do something to get grown men to eat them.

Squash cookies anyone?

Man with a green thumb.

timwaller.com » recipes

Adventures in Summer Canning.

Does Zucchini Bread Taste Like Zucchini?