sparrowgrass

I have never been to NYC, but vendors at the fairs around here sell cinnamon sugared almonds and pecans. I replicated the recipe by mixing up some cinnamon and sugar. I tossed the nuts and sugar together in a heavy bottomed pan until the sugar melted and coated the nuts. I can't give you quantities, because I added more cinnamon sugar as the process went along, until the coating was as thick as I wanted. They were very good, the almonds better than the pecans, which sort of got too toasted in the process.

Too many variables to consider. Someone with a small flock may allow the birds to really "free-range"--travel thru the yard and barnyard, eating bugs and seeds and anything else that doesn't eat them first, and the eggs will be lovely, with rich orange yolks. Eggs are gathered every day, washed, and kept cool--superb. Or, they might have the same conditions, except they don't clean the nests, they don't collect eggs every day, and they don't keep them cool--in that case, the eggs from the chickens that are kept in a run and fed commercial feed might taste better. My girls are kept in a run. They get lots of garden stuff, old yellow cukes and zukes, wormy corn, soft tomatoes, grass clippings, pulled weeds. Their eggs are not as orange as when I used to let them roam the yard, but my flower beds are prettier when they girls are locked up.

When I empty my five pound flour bags, I fold them up and stick them in a ziplock. I use them to hold the breading for frying things--put the seasoned flour in, drop in the okra, and shake. I bake a lot more than I fry, so it works out pretty well.

Some of us must have had the same grandfather.

You should have picked your "lion's head" mushroom--it was actually a clump of oyster mushrooms, my favorite wild edible. Very common up there in June, and if you can get to them before the black beetles and their white larvae do, a good camp treat. As a former Ely resident, I can recommend the Chocolate Moose as well, just not on a summer weekend, when it is too noisy and full of tourists. Many of whom are a bit fragrant, having just come in off the canoe trails.

Snowangel, you are a woman after my own heart. I have been canning so many tomatoes, picking and washing and chopping and blending and pureeing and boiling and roasting, and my kitchen is so hot, and I am so tired, that dinner for last month or so has been crackers or peanuts, with a side of tomatoes. A wealth, a glory, of fresh tomatoes, and all I have done with them is dress them in olive oil, vinegar and garlic, or eat them sliced with salt or make an occasional bacon sandwich. Which is heaven in itself, but I feel like I should be "making" something once in a while. Bruschetta sounds lovely, but it would involve a trip to the next town for good bread, or (no way this is going to happen) baking my own.

plk, go the extra mile and order the canning tongs. You can use the other kind, but the risk of dropping a jar is much higher. Trust me on this. I know. I do use the "weiner tongs" to fish the lids out of the hot water, if I can't find my magnet-on-a-stick.

Ah, what great pix, hummingbird!! My blackberry patch looks just like that, but with more poison ivy than berries. Between the chiggers and the poison ivy, I rarely pick blackberries any more. Two rounds of prednisone this summer for PI has made me gunshy. My mom makes a custard blackberry pie--sweet custard and tart berries--yum. I don't have the recipe right here, but she puts a layer of berries in an uncooked pie shell, and pours the custard over them. She makes rhubarb pie the same way.

Aren't all the different varieties just gorgeous? Already thinking about next year. Cherokee purple is on the list, along with the German Pinks and the big yellow one I don't know the name of that is so good this year.

Do you think if I take TWO Lipitors I will recover from this thread? I could feel my LDL rising with each post I read. (I don't have to share my chicken skin with anyone. The dogs get the soggy bits, I get the rest.)

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

You can use the waterbath method with most tomato products. I use the pressure canner because it is quicker and heats the kitchen less, a consideration when the mercury hits 105 and there is only one small AC vent in the kitchen. I took the jars out of the canner this morning. They were still warm, so I haven't removed the rings yet, but all are sealed.

Tell him to try some Bean Cuisine packaged meals for his trip. They have several different bean and pasta or bean and grain dishes that cook up quickly and are light weight. I have seen them at WalMart and other grocery stores--sometimes with the packaged dinners, sometimes in the ethnic section.

The tomato primer continues. Last night, I made juice. First, I picked out about 25 pounds of nice ripe tomatoes. The green ones are green zebras, and though they don't look like it, they ARE ripe. Cut them into chunks and put them into a big stockpot, along with Chop those up a bit. I add garlic, too, sometimes, but I forgot. This photography business has me all in a kerfuffle. Simmer, adding a cup or two of water to prevent sticking, for 20 minutes. At this point, I turned the burners off and let them cool a little, until I could put them in fridge. Scoop the pulp into your Pressetomate. What!?!? You don't have one? Get yourself to eBay. The puree goes into the white container, the seeds and skins into a bowl, to be saved for the chickens. I scooped all of the pulp out of the pot and put the juice thru a fine strainer to get the seeds out. Because I chilled the juice overnight, I needed to heat it before putting it into the fresh out of the dishwasher jars. I tasted it first--mmmm. Pour a couple quarts of water into your pressure canner, and toss in the jar lids. They need to be warmed up in simmering water before you put them on the jars. I promise, as soon these tomatoes quit producing, I will scrub the pressure canner, and the stove. Before you ladle the warmed juice into the jars, add a half tsp of citric acid to the jars. This is one of those just to be safe things USDA recommends, and I must admit I don't always do it. Put the lids and rings on, firmly, but not too tight. Set the jars in the simmering water in the pressure cooker and put the lid on. Follow directions for your canner as far as how much water to use, and how to set the pressure. Mine has a weight, not a gauge. Because I am at 1100 feet in elevation, my pressure and time requirements may be different than yours. I can juice for 15 minutes at 15 pounds pressure. When the canner weight starts jiggling, start timing. Don't adjust the heat abruptly--doing so may cause the jars to lose liquid. When time is up, leave the canner alone--don't jiggle the weight or release the pressure--jars may break or fail to seal. It may take an hour or more for the canner to cool enough for you to take the top off. Be careful with the top, if you open a hot canner--open it away from you, so you won't get a faceful of steam. You may hear the lids PING--that means they have sealed. If they are indented in the middle, they are sealed. Let the jars cool overnight, take the rings off, and wipe the jars off. (Some of the liquid has probably escaped as they were cooking, and it will mold over time, if you don't wash the jars.) You should be able to lift the jars by the flat lid without it coming off. If you have any jars that don't seal, either reprocess them (NEW LIDS) or just refrigerate them and use them within a week or so. If you want to avoid the white film visible on some of my jars, add some white vinegar to the water in the canner. It is purely cosmetic, and wipes off with some effort. Don't use mayo jars--they are too thin and may crack. You can see a Classico spaghetti sauce jar (from my SIL). That is a Mason jar. For a complete guide to home canning, go to the University of Georgia Extension site. (edited because I don't speak Italian.)

I think it is a marketing ploy. Consumers picture Dick and Jane and Sally tossing corn to fat brown hens out in the farmyard, and that just ain't the way it is. Look at that picture--those hens don't have room to turn around.

They might work, they might not. With all the work you do to grow, pick and process your veggies, why would you risk losing some because you don't want to pay the little bit it costs for new lids? JohnBKK, USDA says 30-40 minutes of water bath canning. USDA canning recommendations for tomatoes.

Ah, Maggie--no advice, just a long distance hug. Take care of yourself, eat what your sweetie fixes, read your books. You will cook again someday, when the time is right. Probably when that first cold front blows in from Canada, and you get the craving for fresh bread and braised whatever.

The sauce is already canned, with no pix, but I have 2 pots of juice ready to go thru the tomato mill--I will try to snap some pix tonight.

It is not yellow--it is a sort of creamy white and has no fragrance yet, so I think I will take a chance and let it grow a bit longer.

Just eat over the sink, like I do.

Bought this for $125 from a friend who didn't have room for it any more. It would be cool to put it into working order and put it in the kitchen, but the oven is so small that it would be impossible to cook a big turkey. Or even a medium sized turkey. My grandpa and grandma used the big enamelware coffee pot back when they used to take my dad and the rest of the kids camping in the Pennsylvania mountains.

Any clues on how to tell if it is ripe? It still seems to be growing, so maybe the skin color will change. The little ones do indeed taste like cantaloupe/cucumber. I tried them, and didn't really care for the taste, but the dog likes them. There is a pile of them beside the porch, with the seeds all licked out.

I am going to try one of those posts with pictures and directions--how bout roasted tomato sauce for canning? First, pick the tomatoes. I guess if I am going to post pictures, I need to go buy a fancy trug or wicker basket. But drywall buckets work for me. Cut 'em up, and put them on a greased sheet pan with a cut up onion, as much garlic as you like, a green pepper, a stalk or two of celery. I don't peel the tomatoes, but I do peel the onions and garlic. Roast in the oven, 400 degrees, for about an hour. They should be just browning a bit when you take them out. Then I scrape them off into a bowl, and use the stick blender to puree them. No pix of that, too busy scraping tomato puree and seeds off the walls. (My next kitchen paint color will be tomato red, not sunny yellow.) Pictures of the actual canning process, later.

Beef Cheeks, you will have great fun with canning. If you have any questions, post them here, or call your local Extension office. I am an Extension Specialist (we used to be called Extension Agents) and our office spends a great deal of time walking people thru their canning efforts. (I am not a food and nutrition specialist--I work with 4-H, but I have been canning for lo these many years.) If you google your state + extension, you will find a link to your local office. Sometimes offices will have the Ball Blue Book for sale. Walmart or other sources of canning jars and lids often have copies for sale, too. Or check the library, but make sure they have a current copy, published sometime in the last 5 years. Old books sometimes have good recipes, but recommendations for canning times and procedures have changed to make them safer Or send me a pm. The Ball Book is out on the counter from July-September, and I would be glad to look up a recipe for you.

And how do I know if it is ripe? Size 8 Croc included for scale. (I planted some mixed melons from Burpee, and in my usual enthusiatic disorganization, I tossed the packet, so I don't even have a list of suspects.)