TOMATOES, TOMATOES, TOMATOES!

Who knew that planting four Cherry Tomato plants would produce so many and how come they decided to finish the season by maturing all at once! I was left with the question of how can I preserve these lil ball of red heaven? I knew eventually I would google and find my answers, but before that happened I had visions of me trying to peel the skins off of these lil buggers. 

I imagined me at the kitchen sink with steam pouring out of my pot of hot water as the bath to rid the red monsters of their skin, with my fingers wrinkled and pruned. Gobs of juice and seed bits all over the walls and counters, in my hair on my clothes... thinking that in the end I would only end up with a cup of some red globby tomato substance that I could can. It wasn't looking very promising.

That's when I googled. I found two ideas that fit my idea of easy and yummy.  Dehydrating looked super simple. And I had a drying feature on my Jennaire oven.  That works.  And Pickled Cherry tomatoes.  Simple recipe and when I read that it was a nice garnish for Martinis I WAS SOLD!!!  I also had a small bucket of Big Boy & Roma tomatoes that produced very little in comparison to the Cherries. 

In the end I would have three tomato projects to do.

1. Pickled Cherry Tomatoes
2. Dehydrated Cherry Tomatoes
3. Good ole fashioned Canning of the Big Boy & Roma Tomatoes

Bowl on left for dehydrating, glass on right for pickling

So ripe and juicy when cut.
I believe I was about a day away from overripe!

This was the most time consuming,
middle back needs a rub down right between the shoulder blades,
part of the process!!
Placing the buggers on the foil lined pan.

Lined up like soldiers. You MUST placed
these guys shoulder to shoulder.
They lose about 25% or more of their size
in the drying process. 
Top them off with salt.

200° oven for about 2-3 hrs
I've read it can take longer.
Mine took about 3 hours.
Keep an eye on these. Pull them when they are like leather.
Keep them in if they still are juicy.
You'll end up picking through and pulling some and leaving others.

First look, pretty good... still a bit juicy but the ends are shrinking!

OOOOOH, THEY ARE DONE!! YUMMY :)
I put them in a baggie and threw them in the fridge to add to
salads, soups, pizza at a later date.

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes (Tomates-Cerises a l'Aigre-Doux)

(Source: GardenWeb's Harvest Forum)
Makes 1 quart

1 quart water
2 tablespoons coarse sea salt or kosher salt
1 pound FIRM (almost under-ripe) cherry tomatoes (round and plum varieties of all colors can be used)
2 cups cider vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar or more (to taste)
2 sprigs fresh summer savory or tarragon (or fresh herb of your choosing)
12 black peppercorns

In a large bowl, combine the water and salt, and stir to dissolve the salt. Prick the bottom of each tomato once with a clean needle. Place the tomatoes in the salt brine, cover and marinate for 24 hours at room temperature.

In a large saucepan, combine the vinegar and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring just to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and cool thoroughly.

Remove the tomatoes from the salt brine and drain thoroughly. Discard the salt brine.

Carefully place the tomatoes in a 1-quart canning jar. Arrange the herbs and peppercorns around the edges of the jar. Pour the vinegar-sugar mixture over the tomatoes. Secure the jar tightly. Let sit in the refrigerator for 3 weeks before tasting.

Serve as a pickle, or as an appetizer, with toothpicks to spear.

My bowl of tomatoes swimming in their brine bath.

Completed!

Pickled Cherry Tomatoes

Finalized Canned & Dehydrated

Last days of summer

WHERE did summer go???

This morning I looked at my deck flowers and were shocked that those gorgeous flowers that I nurtured and tended over the spring and summer now have vines that look like Witch's crooked fingers!! Wow. When did that happen??  Although, I do have to say I'm pretty impressed with myself... normally the flowers look like this by mid-July when I get tired of dealing with them.

Pretty scarey looking flowers eh???

For the ugliness of the ever expiring summer deck flowers... there are the grapes.  Waiting to be harvested and made into Jelly!!! The beautiful dark purple concord grapes are hanging from my arbor begging to be plucked!  I'm excited to make my jelly.  I found ot last year that my jalepeno grape jelly was a huge success.  It was in high demand!  I could not find a recipe for it so I did research and made my own.  Hopefully I'll remember how I did it because I didn't write it down. WHOOPS!

"Pick me! Pick me!!"

Summer is slowly moving to fall. Oh how I hate hate hate saying goodbye to summer. 

Mom's BBQ sauce

Easy, simple and delish! Or is it just the memories that flavor my history of this sauce??

I'm going to use this sauce to make BBQ Turkey legs/wings.  I'll boil the wings first to tendorize them in a chicken broth.  Once they are cooked through, I will put the turkey legs/wings on a broiler pan and bake at 350° for about 20 mn.  Keep an eye to make sure they don't burn!! (Today it went on the grill because it was too hot in the house to use the oven)

dem veggies are sweatin'

In a sauce pan add:

1 large onion chopped

1/4 cup chopped celery

2 cloves of garlic chopped

Saute until they start sweating and look translucent

All the ingredients chillin' in the pot

 Add:

1 Cup ketchup

1 tsp dry mustard

1 Tbl chili powder

1 - 2 Tbls brown sugar

1 Tbl white vinegar

I ladled in some of the turkey broth because it was too thick.

Bring all ingredients to a boil and simmmer for 20 minutes

If it is too thick, add broth or water

I put the turky legs/wings in a pan on the grill, tossed the BBQ sauce on. If it looks too thick, than add a bit more broth. It all depends on how thick or thin you want your sauce.

 Remember the turkey legs/wings were cooked in broth before so aren't going to worry about cooking them on the grill.

ENJOY!

Getting started

I think I annoy fellow facebookers with all of my posts.  What to do? I'm going to try blogging!  We'll see how it goes. I've never been one to have a journal or diary because I really don't get it how writing to myself works. Yes, I know... it's supposed to be therapeutic and reflective. But honestly? I don't like to write and my brain works much faster then my hand does writing. Typing seems so much easier.  In addition, I want the call and response effect. I want to have a place where people choose to see what I'm writing and looking at my pictures. I want to have people respond!!! I want to generate conversation. So... this blog has been born.

Why did I call it "Inching into the Good Life"? You may ask what is the good life? For me, the good life is finding discoveries that have been right in front of me all along. Trying to eat healthy, whole foods. Loving my family. Accepting my financial limitations (ahhhhh!!!! still working on that).  And so much more.  That is why I'm inching. It's hard sometimes, I don't always jump right in, I tend to inch in.

I also really enjoy sharing blogs and links with friends and families.  My nieces and nephews and facebook friends have such AWESOME ideas for food and "living" (that sounds so Martha that it kinda is icky... I need to come up with a better word).  I want one place to collect all of that information.

Okay, so... here is my start. I'm looking forward to see if this takes off. 

READY
SET
INCH