Now we're cooking...
The weekend was a flurry of activity all centered around the kitchen. We got working early around the house so to take advantage of the cooler temperatures. After loading the truck with the recycling we headed out. First stop was unscheduled, and was to buy produce from a guy selling off the back of his truck. Lovely tomatoes very cheap. Then off to Elias's Market for the stuff we knew we would not find at the farm stands. Once the recycling was dumped, it was off to Kutztown to our favorite Mennonite farmers to get corn, beans and a basket of plum tomatoes. We finised up at Renninger's Market to round out or shopping day.
It was early afternoon when we got home and we decided to try making caponata. The recipe calls for 8 eggplants so that should have clued us in to what we were in store for. After cooking eggplant, chopping cup after cup of celery, onion and pepper, along with other ingredients we finally had the caponata cooking. Seeing how much there was, we opted for canning a few pints.
Barb got 7 pints out and we cleaned them up, and got the canner full and hot. Finally the caponata was ready to pack. After about 4 jars, Barb realizes there is a lot more than we thought. She keeps packing jars and I get more jars ready. We have another large pot that will accomodate 5 more jars. She finished the first 7 and I got them in the canner and processing. She kept the caponata hot while the next batch of jars got hot. With those ready we filled the next batch of 5 jars and still had two pints left to put in the fridge. That's 14 pints of caponata. What were we thinking? The process was much longer than we anticipated, about 4.5 hours total. I made us a nice supper and we crashed for the evening.
Sunday was church and brunch with church members. We finally got home and ready to roll avout 1:30 pm. First matter of business was the abundance of peaches. We got some from a neighbor, and decided jam was in order. These were white peaches and the combination of the pink outside blush, and the red area around the pits made the jam a lovely pink lemonade color. We finished the peach jam and remembered that there was a basket of tomatoes to process. We first made tomato juice to pack the tomatoes in. Plum tomatoes have less water and the juice makes packing easier. We got a canner full of quarts in and while those processed, managed to clean and pack a bunch of tomatoes for the freezer. The only tomatoes left were the not quite ripe ones.
By then, both our butts were dragging and we set to work at making supper. Our local supermarket had a clambake for two special (lobsters, clams, corn, mussels, potatoes) that we got ready for supper. We were finally ready to eat at 8:30 pm. It was another long day. The bread machine was going and we took a fresh loaf of bread out at nearly 11 pm. I commemnt to Barb that I couldn't wait to go to work Monday to rest up.
It was early afternoon when we got home and we decided to try making caponata. The recipe calls for 8 eggplants so that should have clued us in to what we were in store for. After cooking eggplant, chopping cup after cup of celery, onion and pepper, along with other ingredients we finally had the caponata cooking. Seeing how much there was, we opted for canning a few pints.
Barb got 7 pints out and we cleaned them up, and got the canner full and hot. Finally the caponata was ready to pack. After about 4 jars, Barb realizes there is a lot more than we thought. She keeps packing jars and I get more jars ready. We have another large pot that will accomodate 5 more jars. She finished the first 7 and I got them in the canner and processing. She kept the caponata hot while the next batch of jars got hot. With those ready we filled the next batch of 5 jars and still had two pints left to put in the fridge. That's 14 pints of caponata. What were we thinking? The process was much longer than we anticipated, about 4.5 hours total. I made us a nice supper and we crashed for the evening.
Sunday was church and brunch with church members. We finally got home and ready to roll avout 1:30 pm. First matter of business was the abundance of peaches. We got some from a neighbor, and decided jam was in order. These were white peaches and the combination of the pink outside blush, and the red area around the pits made the jam a lovely pink lemonade color. We finished the peach jam and remembered that there was a basket of tomatoes to process. We first made tomato juice to pack the tomatoes in. Plum tomatoes have less water and the juice makes packing easier. We got a canner full of quarts in and while those processed, managed to clean and pack a bunch of tomatoes for the freezer. The only tomatoes left were the not quite ripe ones.
By then, both our butts were dragging and we set to work at making supper. Our local supermarket had a clambake for two special (lobsters, clams, corn, mussels, potatoes) that we got ready for supper. We were finally ready to eat at 8:30 pm. It was another long day. The bread machine was going and we took a fresh loaf of bread out at nearly 11 pm. I commemnt to Barb that I couldn't wait to go to work Monday to rest up.
Added on August 21, 2006 by bvdrangs
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