Friday, October 22, 2010

Garden to Table Challenge - green tomatoes

This week's Garden to Table Challenge began with a bowl of green tomatoes that I, as my husband says, "left out to rot". I did have good intentions though and even pulled a recipe for green tomato hot dog relish from my Ball canning book. My husband, in a moment of inspiration, grabbed the recipe and saved the green tomatoes from the compost bin. He didn't like certain ingredients (like cinnamon), couldn't find certain ingredients (like mustard seed), added certain ingredients (like some of the red ripened tomatoes), and quadrupled certain ingredients (like onions). The final product was not quite the green tomato relish of the recipe book. I commented that it seemed like he was making salsa rather than relish.


As we pondered just what in the hell he was making, he paused the chopping and looked excitedly at me, "I don't know, but I bet if we put it in a jar it would look really nice!" Boy do these moments make me proud.
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Anyone out there still using his/her own vegetables? Surely people are roasting winter squashes by now?

14 comments:

  1. btw - I have missed my regular blog-reading. A particularly busy time + computer viruses that my daughter keeps downloading via music and FB sites are really putting a damper on the fun!!!

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  2. btw - here's the apple pie filling recipe from the Ball canning book that I used in last week's post...

    12 cups sliced peeled cored apples, treated to prevent browning, then drained.
    2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
    3/4 ClearJel (I ordered this online)
    1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
    1/2 tsp nutmet
    1 1/4 cold water
    2 1/2 unsweetened apple juice
    1/2 lemon juice

    Can as you usually do - here are some specifics: blanch the apple slices in batches in a pot of boiling water for about 1 minute. Remove with slotted spoon and keep warm in covered bowl.

    combine sugar, ClearJel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water and apple juice. Bring to boil over med-high heat, stirring constantly and cook until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice, return to a boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove fromheat. Drain apple slices and immediately fold into hot mixture.

    Pack jars as you usually do, leaving 1 inch headspace.

    Process for 25 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes then remove jars, and cool.

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  3. Hi Wendy,
    I've been behind in my blog reading, too. I decided to go down my blogroll this evening, but I probably won't get too far, because I'm watching HGTV shows I've recorded, too.

    How cool that your husband put his hand to making something with the green tomatoes! I hope it tastes as good as it looks. I've been making soups with veggies I've bought at the Farmer's Market, which is now over for the season. I have made soup with fresh pumpkin (the pie kind), winter squash, spinach, green beans, etc. Oh, I have also been making soup with potatoes from our garden. I am on a soft food diet, to keep my jaw from hurting, so I'm making them smooth in my VitaMix.

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  4. looks like many people can partake with that, and surely it really looks nice. How sweet of him to help in chopping! haha

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  5. Oooh, thanks for posting the apple pie filling recipe. I have some green tomatoes still in the garden, I should try to make a relish out of it too.

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  6. Two from Grow It Eat It this week! And since you say you're behind in reading, Wendy, I did particularly want you to see this.

    I still have LOTS of Jerusalem artichokes to deal with, a bunch of lemon grass, and shelling beans (i.e. beans that got too big to eat pod and all). And green tomatoes.

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  7. Wow! I'm thoroughly impressed that you have a hubby who is so inclined to help you with kitchen work and preserving. Tell him I give him mad props for that. :-) His "relish/salsa" looks very pretty in the jar, was it as yummy as it looks?
    I'll get to my post soon... things are really slowing down here. We're still eating our own foods, but not day in and day out like we were in the summer. It's going to take some thinking to figure out what I'll write about. :-)

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  8. Hi Wendy, I finally can join your garden to table challenge this weekend. I accidently made a double link sorry about that with your previous post. By the way I changed the title a bit to ~ Ocean and Garden to table challenge.

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  9. Hi Wendy, Sorry for my absence. Life's been crazy. Your husband was right the relish does look good.

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  10. You have a impressive husband who help in the kitchen! The relish do look good!

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  11. Wendy,
    It looks very healthy and delicious. I always tell my husband he is sexy when he cooks and does the dishes.

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  12. Hi Wendy..yumm..looks lovely..and beautiful! I'll have to play sometime..suhc fun!
    thans for visiting me and for your lovely commnents!

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My awesome gardening friends...thanks for leaving a comment! I don't typically repond here, but I love knowing who you are so I can visit your blog as well.

btw - if you're trying to show me nude Miley Cyrus photos, sell me nikes or viagra or antibiotics, or encourage my lovely garden readers to visit your site on solar panel construction, or seo-whatevers, sorry, but I'm not publishing your comment. If you want to moderate my blog - well, I can't keep you too busy, and the pay would be horrible. And lastly, no. I'm not interested in Club Penguin cheat codes. Thanks anyway.

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