Stuffed Acorn Squash

In case you weren't already sure of this fact, I have the best husband! He has been such a great partner, and each and every day I thank God for putting him in my life. Today I am especially amazed by his cooking skills. 

All the ingredients for tonight's meal are from our Garden, except for the venison that was harvested by a friend of ours. 

I am disappointed that you cannot smell how wonderful my house smells. As I am thinking about how wonderful dinner smells, and I am realizing how hungry I am, my husband appears with the meal. The star of the dish is the Acorn Squash that was picked just hours prior. 

He stuffed the squash with a barbecued pulled venison and veggies and a panko crumble on top for crunch. It is searched on a bed of garden veggies. Oh my, I certainly do not deserve this...but I'm sure going to enjoy it!!

Fall Drive

I am such a fan of the seasons. Each season offers such a variety of activities, sights, as well as the different temperatures. Although I do love each season. Fall may be my favorite. The changing colors of the trees, the sound as the leaves fall from the trees, the crispness in the air. I love it all. Today we went for a drive to see some of the fall colors and nature did not disappoint. It was spectacular. The colors, are beyond words. So instead of even trying, I will shut up and show you (but even photos do not do it justice)

Fall Harvest

Fall is officially here. The trees are changing color, there is a crispness to the air, and the garden is nearing its end. Tomatoes have slowed, still getting a few tomatoes a day, but I can see the end is near. The corn is still on the plant, this week will be its last and we will pick all the corn next week. This week we were blessed with quite a few acorn squash, green beans and a few small summer squash. It has been such a wonderful "first" year of our garden. We learned a bunch, and I'm already starting to plan for next springs garden :) but for now, off to dinner.

Organic Peas 

Organic Green Beans

Corn

We picked a bunch of corn today. It would have been better to leave in the field a little longer but with the pending frost warning, we opted to err on the side of too early.   

Popcorn versus Sweet Corn: Although the popcorn has more starches (and tastes nasty raw) I was more surprised to learn that there is a big difference in the kernel itself. You can see in the photo, the popcorn has smaller, almost pointy kernels. They even feel pokey to the skin when caring the cob. I was amazed.  

Popcorn (left) Sweet Corn (right)

Did you know? Did you know that the hair on each cob of corn, attach to a different kernel. Each kernel has one strand of hair.  So weird. I had no clue. 

Each kernel has a hair attached

Living in the north we should have planted a quicker growing, shorter growing time, for our corn. It was hard to drive past all the fields of corn that was producing such huge amounts of corn. Of course most of it is GMO corn, which I have no interest in. However, there are hybrid versions that will offer a shorter timeline. We will look into that on the off season. 

So, the whole corn experience has taught us a lot. We will take what we learned and hopefully have better results next year. 

Sunflowers

Well, I just had to share this!  They are so beautiful :) 

Jalapeno Jelly

The canning continues today. On today's docket is Jalapeno Jelly. I LOVE jalapeno jelly. I am very excited as this will be our first time of making it ourselves. The Jalapeno's are from our garden, so obviously, they will be fantastic :).

We made this on the first cold day of the year. I would not do that. I would cook on a day that the windows can be opened. Between the vinegar opening up your sinuses to the jalapenos' burning my sinuses, it would have been nice to be able to vent the house...but SO worth it. This is so good! I served crackers with cream cheese and then a spoonful of Jalapeno Jelly on top. So good. Reminds me the Pike Street Market in Seattle.

Ingredients makes 2 - (8 ounce) jars

• 1 large bell pepper

• 14 jalapeno peppers

• 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

• 1 pinch salt

• 4 1/4 cups granulated sugar

• 4 ounces liquid pectin

• 3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped

Directions  
Combine the green bell pepper and 14 jalapeno peppers in a food processor. Process until finely chopped. Put mixture into a large saucepan, and stir in the cider vinegar. Bring to a boil, and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth or fine strainer and discard pulp. Return the liquid to the saucepan, and stir in the salt and sugar until dissolved. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. When the mixture comes to a rolling boil, boil for one minute, then stir in the liquid pectin. Stir in the remaining jalapeno peppers, and ladle into sterile jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal jars in a hot water bath. Process per instructions for 10 minutes. Wait a day, or more, to allow jelly to fully "gel" prior to eating. Refrigerate once open. 

Emile Henry Stew Pot

I am so very excited. I just received my Emile Henry 10' Stew Pot. It is so pretty. I chose the red color and I couldn't be happier. I have been getting away from cooking on non-stick surfaces, and have moved to ceramic, glass, cast iron, or copper pans for all of our cooking. This is my latest addition to our cooking family and I could not be happier. The Emile Henry Stew Pot is made in Marcigny France from high fired Burgundy clay. There is no lead, cadmium or nickel in their products (including the glaze)  ensuring no contamination of metal and toxins in the food.

It is heavier that my cooper stew pot, quite a bit heavier. However, it is light compared to our cast iron stew pot (30% lighter). I love using my cast iron stew put for most things, but any red sauce, tomato or highly acidic foods, I try to avoid the cast iron. I have a very sensitive palate, and I can taste the iron in the food and that is very off-putting. So, the ceramic glazed pot should be perfect for stews, chili, and soups. The pot has a very durable glaze that allows for it to be stove-top, grill, and oven safe. This is awesome. I like the idea of cooking on the stove-top and then being able to bake in the same pot!

Our first experience with the Stew Pot was for Split Pea Soup. I was amazed by how well the stew pot cooked, but even more by how well it cleaned up! So easy!! It really didn't even look dirty after the last drop of soup was poured out. Considering the soup was cooked all day long, the fact that the soup poured out without leaving the least amount of cooked on food particles. Super happy :)

This is an expensive pot and I hope to never need another. However, I think it is worth the higher price to ensure the food we cook tastes good, and is free from chemicals, metals and toxins. Not to mention the time-saving easy clean up :)

Pickles - The Canning of Cucumbers

Today is the super exciting pickle canning! Tee hee. It's not really that exciting, but it feels good that we are preserving the cucumbers before they spoil. Our goal is to have no waste from our garden.

The new Fagor Pressure Cooker/Canner has been doing a fantastic job. I'm very excited to see how these pickles taste versus the overwhelming vinegar taste that we had with water canning. The cooker/canner that we have does not allow for a dial of pressure, but relies on two different set pressures. This will work for us. As we become more familiar with the process, and if we find that we will continue to pressure can, then we will purchase a canner with a pressure dial. Until then we are quite happy with the one we have.

Today we making dill pickles and sweet pickles. I have posted the Dill Pickle Recipe that we used for the dill pickles. Let me know if you have another recipe to share. I am excited to try this one but have not yet, so...use with that in mind.  We did have 1 casualty, one of our Mason Jars broke while cooking. I guess that is fairly common, but it is a first for us. I don't like waste so it was hard to see, but cleaned it up and now all is well.


The last batch is cooking as I write this. There is nothing better than sitting with the windows open, and the smell of the coming autumn in the air. Then when the world and my thoughts are silent...all of a sudden there is a "pop". The pop is the sound of the jars finishing the sealing process.  It is a little smile at the end of a busy day.

And...pop...there goes another. Oh life is good  :)

Dill Pickle Recipe

Garden Cucumbers

Dill Pickles

Serves: 4 Pints

Pressure Cooking Time: 10 minutes/High Pressure

Headspace: ½ inch

Recipe complied by Fagor America

Ingredients:

• 12- 4” cucumbers, sliced in quarters
• 1 ½ cups vinegar, 5% acidity
• 2 ¼ cups water
• ¼ cup kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons dill weed, fresh, 1 per pint
• 4 garlic cloves, 1 per pint
• 4 teaspoons mustard seed, 1 per pint
• 16 peppercorns, 4 per pint

Directions:

1. Place washed and sliced cucumbers in a large bowl. Cover with a layer of ice cubes and refrigerate for 4 hours. Drain completely.
2. Combine salt, vinegar and water. Heat to boiling. Pack the cucumbers into jars. Leave 1 inch headspace.
3. Place dill, garlic, mustard seeds and peppercorns into each jar. Pour hot vinegar brine over cucumbers and spices in each jar, leaving ½ inch of headspace.
4. Cap and seal. Place in canner with 2 to 3 inches of hot water, process for 10 minutes per instructions for your pressure cooker/canner. 

* We used our Fagor Pressure Cooker/canner. We had great results and really liked this recipe. We will use again!

Canning Day

Our beautiful Bounty

Today is officially "Canning Day" at my house. We woke early and started with tomatoes. We decided to do only tomato paste and then, as we need items, we would use the paste and build on it, versus having a zillion cans of sauce and no ketchup. It seemed like a great idea. However, after reducing down the sauce or hours. We opted to do all sauce and a couple jars of paste.

We used the "no mess" tomato mill and once again made a gigantic mess. Still fun, but so messy!  We have a new pressure canner, so we were excited to try new recipes. We were not found of the vinegar/acid that we had to add for the water bath canning method. So we ended up doing sauce, paste, stewed tomatoes, tomato soup and salsa. I am so excited to have so many wonderful canned goods for the winter.

See, No Mess ?!!?!?!?

All in all, it took just over 12 hours and we are nowhere near done. It is definitely a labor of love. I did learn that I LOVE our new pressure canner.

Tomorrow I think we will go pick raspberries. Seems like that would be perfect to go with our blueberries. God has blessed us with so much and we are grateful. Just 9 days to deer season (archery). Hoping that we will get some meat for the freezer as well.

Wishing everyone a blessed day.