Today's Food Endeavors

I need to be held accountable somehow, so I'm blogging about what I hope to accomplish in the food arena today. I'll provide a progress report at the end of the day with how far I managed to get. These are in no particular order.

1. Make a new batch of bread-and-butter pickles to begin curing.
2. Eat the yellow doll melon (okay, only half--hubby gets the other half) I cracked when I dropped it this morning on my way into the house with it.
3. Make dinner--venison stuffed green peppers with a side of fresh broccoli
4. Make a batch of whole wheat bread--unfortunately, not with my own freshly ground flour. Still working on the flour mill.
5. Make a batch of freezer tomato sauce.
6. Test the previously made freezer dill pickles to see if they're any good before giving some to others.
7. Make homemade applesauce.
8. Make homemade freezer slaw.
9. Make homemade cashew butter (like peanut butter, but from roasted, salted cashews).
10. Make raspberry-almond muffins for tomorrow's breakfast.
11. Chop and shred a LOT of zucchini.
12. Make honeyed carrots.
13. Eat leftovers for lunch to make room in the refrigerator.
***Added later***
14. Sautee 4 lbs. of button mushrooms for freezing.
***
A baker's dozen [sorry--added #14, so it's no longer a baker's dozen]--seems like a good number. Now, I wonder how far I will get? Care to guess?

"The best laid schemes o' [Bread] an' [Wom]en, gang aft agley"

See my bright, shiny new toy?

I was ecstatic to see it on my porch today. You see, I have 3 pounds of hard red winter wheat berries from the Farmer's Market that I want to grind into whole wheat--real whole wheat: bran, germ, and endosperm all. I have been waiting three weeks to grind this wheat, and had finally found a manual cast-iron, tinned grain mill on eBay that I felt I could afford. With shipping, it cost just over $48, which I thought a reasonable cost given the fact that it would last me a very long time.

It came in the original box (manufacturer: King; model # 3336-0) in about 5 pieces, which I managed to put together based on the picture on the box. It was quick and simple to assemble, which pleased me immensely--I am not mechanically inclined. Just ask my hubby, who can tell you about the just-shy-of-hysterical (I do not mean hysterical in the sense of humorous, by the way; rather, I mean hysterical in the sense of crying/screaming/cursing illogically while resisting the nearly overpowering urge to crush the remote control with a cement block) fits I throw when I can't make the remote control make the television upstairs do what I want it to do. Which is one reason I got the hand-crank model instead of one of the fancy-schmancy digital models. It's safer for all involved, especially the mill.

Except I can't. make. it. work.

To test it out, I dumped in a couple of handfuls of the wheat berries and began happily grinding. The result was a bit too coarse, so I tightened the bolts on the thingamabob that puts pressure on the gears and began grinding again. About the time I finally got the gears adjusted to the right grind, the gear began slipping. As best as I, with my non-mechanical mind, can tell, the gear sort of fits into the thingamabob that runs through the center. When it isn't fitted right, the crank doesn't turn the gear. But now I can't figure out how to get the bleeping gear to stay fitted to the center whatchamahoogie. Seriously frustrated, I gave up for the evening in the hope that hubby can help me sort out the problem in the morning.

Meanwhile, I did take my curing bread-and-butter pickles out of the refrigerator and put them in jars for the freezer. I managed nine 1/2-pints, with more to be made tomorrow, along with homemade tomato sauce--I just need some fresh celery for the recipe.

If anybody has dealt with this problem before, please help!

Bring on the Pickles!

I finally found my recipe for freezer bread-and-butter pickles last night, still packed away in a box from the move with all the loose recipe sheets I never got organized. After looking over the recipe, I realized that the cucumbers I picked yesterday would not be enough for one batch of freezer bread-and-butter pickles.

So I headed back out to the garden this afternoon and found 11 more, for a total of 20 harvested, and promptly set out to clean and slice them. The recipe is very easy--my kind of recipe--and doesn't require any kind of canning. You can freeze them in canning jars designed for the freezer or in freezer bags, whichever you prefer. I've used freezer bags in the past, but this year, I'm going to freeze in canning jars. That way, I can give them away as gifts much easier and can reuse the jars. Plus, I don't have to worry about the mess I always make trying to transfer the pickles and juice from the bags to a jar for current use.

To show you just how easy this recipe is (and I can attest to its tastiness), I've provided the recipe below. As usual, I have made an adaptation, so I'll give you the recipe as it was given to me and then tell you how I change it.

EASY FROZEN PICKLES

16 c. cucumbers, sliced thin (not peeled)
1 c. onions, sliced thin (I leave this item out and substitute another cup of cucumbers)
3 Tbsp salt (I use sea salt)

Combine the above ingredients, then set aside for three hours. Rinse and drain. Meanwhile, mix together

2 c. white vinegar
4 c. sugar
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. powdered alum
1 tsp. whole mustard seed

Set aside for three hours, stirring often to dissolve sugar. After three hours, pour over cucumbers and onions. Refrigerate for several days, then put in containers and freeze.

These pickles are crisp and very refreshing--I think you'll enjoy them!

Pickles on the Horizon

I've been looking every day since the cucumbers blossomed to see if I had any cucumbers actually growing. Today, I spotted this little guy, about the size of a small gherkin pickle. My first cucumber, I cooed.

And then I spied another one. And another one. And another one. They're all fairly small, although some are bigger than this one. But within a couple of days, I suspect I'll have pickable cucumbers.

I did pick one today, despite its small size. I couldn't help myself. It wasn't fully grown by any means, but I have been dying to be able to pick that first cucumber, and decided today was the day. I also harvested two more sizable zucchini (not shown--I'm getting tired of photographing zucchini) and three sun sugar tomatoes. How sweet they are!

I can hardly wait for pickable cucumbers so I can make freezer bread-and-butter pickles...