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ElainaA

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Everything posted by ElainaA

  1. @Shelby I agree. Refrigerated tomatoes lose so much flavor. It took a few years before my Mr. Neatnik Husband accepted the basket of tomatoes on the counter from mid August to mid October. But he learned.
  2. What is sold as "London broil" here is usually a thick piece of top round. Just plain 'top round' is usually available and I am not sure there is really much difference. I find it a cut that needs marination - at least over night if not longer - unless it is sliced very thin for a sit fry. Marinated and grilled, I like it a lot.
  3. I picked up a London broil (top round) heavily discounted in the "Use today or die" shelf of the meat section of my local supermarket. Marinated over night in red wine, balsamic vinegar, a little brown sugar and some assorted herbs then grilled. Accompanied by asparagus (also grilled), mushrooms Berkeley and roasted potatoes. Plenty left for nice sandwiches for lunch.
  4. Thanks! I will try it. I do not have an IP or pressure cooker of any kind so it will be stove top all the way. I will report back - but not until next week at the soonest. (I have garlic to plant.)
  5. I would certainly try your recipe if you post it or send it to me. It's apple season here (local apple festival is coming up). I am open to conversion....where food is concerned anyway.
  6. I have to admit I am not a great fan of apple butter. I love apple sauce, sautéed apples, baked apples, just plain crisp, juicy apples, apple pie, etc.etc. etc...... But there are so many more interesting jams and spreads......
  7. I'm not sure what happened to the quote, which seems to have disappeared, but in response to @Darienne and @lindag - Been there, done that.
  8. It's getting colder here too. We had our first, light frost on Monday night. Average date for first frost here is in late September - this is the warmest fall ever. Still, my garden is just about finished for the season. The basil and zucchini are dead and pulled. The green house tomato plants are still going strong but the fruit is ripening very, very, very slooooooowly. I've pulled and stored all the beets (not a good crop this year), onions (just the opposite - I have some as big as cantaloupes), shallots, carrots and winter squash. The leeks are still in the ground, being harvested as needed in the kitchen. The pepper plants which just sat in the ground without growing until late August, when it finally started to rain a little, now have lots of peppers. I don't see any chance of them ripening to red or yellow before a killing frost so I am using them as green peppers. Now, it's almost time to plant garlic.
  9. ElainaA

    Dinner 2016 (Part 9)

    Wednesday: Butternut squash and leek turnover (Annie Somerville, Fields of Green) with a salad of chicory, endive, romaine, pears and walnuts and a few beets. For the first time in 25 years, some deer jumped the garden fence and ate most of the remaining italico russo chicory. This is what I rescued. Our beloved dog is getting old. Pork chops with sage and mustard sauce, baked sweet potatoes and carrots with ginger. The carrots started out as a mix of orange, purple and white. The purple stayed purple but the orange and white all ended up sort of pinkish orange. They tasted good.
  10. ElainaA

    Dinner 2016 (Part 9)

    Freeze warning tonight so I brought in all the squash. I started dinner with this one - Sweet Mama, a kubocha varity. Ended up with this: Sweet Mama Squash Soup. Roasted squash pureed with apples simmered in chicken broth and sautéed onions, maple syrup, cream, s&p, a little nutmeg and hot sauce. Served with chopped, raw apples. One of my favorite soups. Served with a salad and biscuits with green onions, black pepper and sea salt.
  11. ElainaA

    Dinner 2016 (Part 9)

    @Dejah What a beautiful feast! It was pizza night here too - no where near as exotic as @liamsaunt though! Two of our favorite toppings - I guess an artichoke theme: Sauce made with some of the last of my tomatoes, ham, artichokes, onions, mozzarella and parm. For this one, the crust was brushed first with garlic olive oil , then with pesto. Then mozzarella, slices of Roma tomatoes, artichoke hearts, some parmesan. Basil was added after baking.
  12. @ChocoMom It sounds like you have a great crop! If there is a food pantry or soup kitchen in your area I am sure they would love anything you take them. Here, most of their donations are commercially canned or processed foods so they are always very happy to get fresh produce. In my state (NY) health laws will not let them accept home processed food but fresh produce is fine.
  13. You know, I thought I posted it last summer but I can't find it. So here it is again: We like this lots more than the commercial stuff. It looks like a million ingredients but i bet most are in your pantry. TOMATO KETCHUP here is the original recipe. My notes are at the end. 8 Quarts tomatoes (preferably plum tomatoes) 1 1/2 cups chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper 1/2 cup chopped celery 2 cloves garlic minced 2 T salt 2 cups cider vinegar 1 T mustard seeds 1 stick cinnamon 1 T whole allspice berries 1 bay leaf 1 T. whole black peppercorns 1 t whole cloves 2 T whole coriander seeds or 1 t ground coriander 1/4 t celery seed 1/4 t dried red pepper flakes or to taste 1/4 c. granulated sugar 1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar Wash, drain and quarter the tomatoes. Boil them stirring occasionally, until soft, about 30 minutes. Measure 4 quarts of pulp into a large pot. Add the onion, sweet red pepper, celery, garlic, salt and vinegar. Bring to a boil. In apiece of doubled cheesecloth, tie up the mustard seeds, allspice, cinnamon,peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, coriander, celery seed and pepper flakes. Add to the tomatoes. Add the sugars. Cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until ketchup thickens moderately. Strain through a large sieve, pressing hard on the vegetables. Discard pulp and spice bag and strain again through a finer sieve (or line the sieve with doubled cheesecloth.) Taste for salt and sugar. Boil until as thick as you want it, stirring occasionally. ladle into sterilized, hot jars, leaving 1/2” head room, seal and process in a boiling water bath 10 minutes for half pints, 15 minutes for pints, adjusting for altitude. Ketchup will be best if you allow it to mellow in the jars for a month. My notes: After cooking the tomatoes i put them through a food mill with the coarse disk to remove the skins. After I strain the ketchup through a sieve, I run the pulp through the food mill with the fine disk and add the resulting pulp to the pot. For me, cooking it down to the thickness I like takes HOURS - like 4-5 hours. So I do this when I have other things to do in the kitchen. This recipe is from Helen Witty's Better Than Store Bought. One of my favorite books ever.
  14. I just realized that we are down to the last 2 jars of ketchup. Luckily I still have lots of tomatoes. This started out as 4 quarts of cooked tomatoes pulp (put through the coarse disk of the food mill). It ended up as 5 cups of ketchup. In process: Finished:
  15. ElainaA

    Dinner 2016 (Part 9)

    A Greek style beef stew with lots of leeks. I got the recipe from Epicurious but it was originally from Psilakis's How to Roast a Lamb:New Greek Cookery. A pretty basic beef stew except for all the leeks and the spicing - cinnamon, and orange zest as well as sage, rosemary and thyme. With roasted garlic and lemon potatoes (from another Greek cookbook: The Foods of the Greek Islands). And salad.
  16. If you are growing oregano in the ground (rather than in containers) be careful - it is wickedly invasive. I planted some 25 years ago and now it is everywhere. This year it even invaded my vegetable garden which is a LONG way from the herb garden. When my husband mows the lawn or uses the weed eater around the edges it smells like a pizzeria. Some varieties of thyme can also be invasive. Both are hardy here and our winters can go down to -15F or lower.
  17. ElainaA

    Dinner 2016 (Part 9)

    My Italian husband calls this a WASP dinner - but he likes it anyway. Meatloaf with red hamburger relish from the recipe that @FauxPas posted in the preserving thread this summer, mashed potatoes and beets from the garden. Obviously I am not really into careful plating.
  18. @Shelby One way to get less fruit-float in jam is, once the jam is fully cooked, turn off the heat and leave it in the pan for 10 minutes or so, stirring it occasionally, before you put it in jars. It helps - but I still get float in some of my jams. For me, strawberry is the worst. Sometimes I pretend that it was on purpose - half jam, half jelly. (I'm not sure anyone believes me though.)
  19. ElainaA

    Dinner 2016 (Part 9)

    @Sartoric - That looks absolutely delicious. I want to come for dinner.
  20. The small tomatoes in the back look like Chocolate Sprinkles - very NOT ripe Chocolate Sprinkles. When ripe they are brown and red striped and delicious. These look like they need time on a sunny windowsill to ripen.
  21. Our local cider mill opened this weekend so I made cider jelly (recipe from Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures). The color is just lovely. After a month processing tomatoes into everything I could think of it was fun to do jelly.
  22. ElainaA

    Dinner 2016 (Part 9)

    I've been distracted by visiting family for the last week - it's amazing the beautiful meals that showed up in that time. The family house guests have departed and things are getting back to normal. I do love these people but I also love normal - which means my husband and me and our four legged family. Saturday (the first guest-less day ): Grilled lamb shoulder chops that had been marinated in Julia Child's mustard marinade for lamb,yellow tomatoes stuffed with red bell pepper, garlic, basil and breadcrumbs drizzeled with olive oil, pink fingerling potatoes roasted in my still new seeming CSO - these had a really nice texture and taste but at first glance looked just like kielbasa to me - and steamed green beans - the last from my third planting. So far my one issue with the CSO is size - it would not hold both the potatoes and the tomatoes. For efficiency i should have done both in the stove oven but I'm still experimenting with the CSO so the potatoes went there. Last night Barney cooked. Sautéed chicken breast with tomatoes and porcini. Pasta with garlic and olive oil. Salad.
  23. If you have a garden try growing and drying your own. Incredibly different from store bought.
  24. Yay! Tell me the airport and time and I'll be there to meet you!
  25. Those look a lot like the roasted tomatoes I make - halved or sliced tomatoes, sprinkled with chopped garlic, s&p, chopped basil and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Roasted about 3 hours at around 300 F. They make wonderful bruschetta with seasoned ricotta. Great sliced in salads or sandwiches. My husband eats them for breakfast with toast. I keep them in the refrigerator in air tight containers for a week or so. They freeze well. I'm starting another batch this afternoon since I am still overwhelmed with tomatoes. (Anyone needing tomatoes is more than welcome to stop by. I'm in major give away mode now.)
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