Sea of Cranberries

Our friend works at the Richmond Nature Park, where they have an annual cranberry sale in the fall as a fundraiser for the park. We ended up with a windfall of cranberries, and had to figure out some way to use them. Some we juiced - the hard way: pile lots of cranberries into a stock pot & cook until most of the berries burst, then strain through a jelly bag. We brought the resulting juice up to a boil then canned into sterilized, hot jars and let the cooling process form a seal. If we'd had a steam juicer, the end result would have been easier to obtain and much clearer (ours is more of a syrup than a juice, but not sweet as syrup might imply!). But our result is great as a cordial with ginger ale; very refreshing and such a gorgeous colour.

I tried a couple of other recipes, one of which was candied cranberries. As we've not cracked those open to taste yet, I'll wait to post that one. Here are the ones that we have tasted, and they're great. I recommend the salsa on poultry, sausages or pork.

Cranberry Marmalade (sort of similar recipe here)

10 cups fresh whole cranberries, washed & sorted
2 tangerines, seeded & finely chopped
1/2 lemon, seeded & finely chopped
3 cups honey
1/2 cup peeled & finely diced ginger (optional, if you're not a fan of ginger)

Yield: about 6 pints

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until mixture thickens to marmalade consistency, stirring often to prevent scorching. Ladle hot into clean, sterile hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations below.

Recommended process time for Cranberry Marmalade in a boiling water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	5 min	10	15

Cranberry Salsa (original recipe here)

14 cups whole, fresh cranberries, washed & sorted
3 large red bell peppers, seeded & chopped
6 cups sweet red onions, chopped
1/2 cup jalapeño peppers, seeded & chopped
1 1/2 cup apple juice
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice
1 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp pickling salt
1 1/3 cup honey

Yield: about 6 pints

Caution: Wear plastic or rubber gloves and do not touch your face while handling or cutting hot peppers. If you do not wear gloves, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before touching your face or eyes.

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2O minutes, stirring often to prevent scorching. Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner as follows.

Recommended process time for Cranberry Salsa in a boiling water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Half-pints or Pints	10 min	15	20

Want some more cranberry recipes? Check out:

Salsa!

This summer provided us with a bumper crop of tomatillos, with a successful experiment growing some jalapeño and baby bell peppers. As a result, we cooked up a ridiculous amount of salsa, which is good thing, because we use it a lot in cooking. I found an invaluable resource for canning recipes at the National Center for Home Preservation, as well as the Bernardin canning website.

Here are some salsas from the summer. All were processed using the boiling water bath method. If you're not familiar with canning techniques, you definitely need to read up on it before proceeding. Check out the "How Do I ... Can" section of the National Center for Home Preservation's site.

Some general instructions first:

Caution: Wear plastic or rubber gloves and do not touch your face while handling or cutting hot peppers. If you do not wear gloves, wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before touching your face or eyes.

Preparing Tomatillos: Remove the dry outer husks from tomatillos; wash thoroughly. They do not need to be peeled or seeded.

Preparing Peppers: The skin of long green chiles may be tough and can be removed by heating the peppers. Usually when peppers are finely chopped, they do not need to be skinned. If you choose to peel chiles, slit each pepper along the side to allow steam to escape. Peel using one of these two methods:

• Oven or broiler method to blister skins - Place chiles in a hot oven (400°F) or broiler for 6 to 8 minutes until skins blister.
• Range-top method to blister skins - Cover hot burner (either gas or electric) with heavy wire mesh. Place peppers on burner for several minutes until skins blister.
• To peel, after blistering skins, place peppers in a pan and cover with a damp cloth. (This will make peeling the peppers easier.) Cool several minutes; slip off skins. Discard seeds and chop.

The jalapeño peppers do not need to be peeled, but seeds are often removed.

IMPORTANT: The only other change you can safely make in these salsa recipes is to change the amount of spices and herbs. Do not alter the proportions of vegetables to acid and tomatoes because it might make the salsa unsafe. Do not substitute vinegar for the lemon juice.

Tomatillo Green Salsa (original recipe here)

5 cups chopped tomatillos
1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped red bell peppers
1/2 cup seeded, finely chopped jalapeño peppers
4 cups chopped onions
1 cup bottled lemon or lime juice
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp green coriander berries (unripe seeds of cilantro plants)
1 tablespoon pickling salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Yield - about 5 pints

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2O minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Note: You may use green tomatoes in this recipe instead of tomatillos.

Tomato Salsa (original recipe here)

6 cups peeled, cored & chopped tomatoes (we used yellow plum, black zebra, novi sad & calabash)
6 cups seeded & chopped bell peppers
1 1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup seeded, finely chopped jalapeño peppers
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
1 1/4 tsp ground cumin
4 tsp dried oregano leaves
3 tsp pickling salt

Yield: about 6 pints

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thickened, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Orchard Fruit Chili Sauce (not exactly a "salsa" but we use it the same way; original recipe here)

4 cups chopped tomatillos
1 cup chopped green tomatoes (or only use 5 cups total tomatillos instead)
4 1/2 cups pitted, chopped purple plums (we used Italian prune plums)
3 cups cored, chopped pears and/or apples
3 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup seeded, chopped bell peppers
1 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tsp pickling salt
2 tbsp pickling spice
2 tsp celery seeds

Yield: about 6 pints

Combine pickling spice* & celery seeds in spice bag (folded square of cheesecloth) or stainless steel herb diffuser.

Hot Pack: Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes until thickened, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Table 1. Recommended process time for Salsa in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints	15 min	20	25

*Pickling Spice

4 cinnamon sticks (3" long), crumbled
1 dried ginger root (1" long), crushed/crumbled (with mortar & pestle)
2 tsp yellow mustard seed
2 tsp whole allspice
2 tsp whole black peppercorns
2 tsp whole cloves
2 tsp dill seed
2 tsp coriander seed
2 tsp whole mace
8 bay leaves, crumbled fine

Mix all together and store in a clean, dry sealable jar. Yield about 2/3 cup total.

What's not to love about eggplant?

Personally, they're one of my favourite items in the grocery aisle, at least to look at. Not entirely from taste: I've had some really bitter ones, and those aren't great. But they are such a beautiful colour and their shape is also very appealing. What do you do with them? Here are a couple of options for you to get started with this intriguing fruit (yeah, I know, everyone thinks of them as a vegetable, but technically, and I am a science geek, they are fruit).

Baba Ganoush (my version of it, at any rate!)

1 - 3 eggplants (one really large one or 3 really small ones; or something in between!)
2 small golden zucchini squashes
(1 or 2 ripe tomatoes, if you have any)
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
dash of hot sauce
pinch of kosher (or better yet, grey sea) salt

Steam the eggplant(s) and zucchini in the microwave: poke them repeatedly with a fork to allow the steam to escape them, and place rinsed fruit on a paper towel lined microwave safe dish. Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, rotate the zucchini & eggplant so that a different surface is up, and microwave again. Repeat until softened. Scoop the contents of the eggplants into a food processor, chop up the zucchini into food processor, and add the remaining ingredients. Pulse the mixture until its paste-like. Serve with pita wedges or tortilla chips.

Eggplant Casserole

1 large eggplant
1 cup garbanzo beans, cooked
1 cup salsa (I used our home-made tomatillo salsa verde, and it was great)
1 tbsp tahini
2 tsp tamari sauce
1 cup grated aged cheddar cheese
(sprinkling of cornmeal for topping)

Cut eggplant lengthwise in 1/4" thick slices. Microwave in microwave-safe dish until slices are softened (about 4-6 minutes on high; rotate the slices mid-way through cooking to cook evenly). Place cooked garbanzo beans, salsa, tahini and tamari into a food processor and pulse until well blended and the garbanzo beans are chopped and somewhat mashed (but not total paste). Lay half of the softened slices of eggplant in a baking dish, spoon half the garbanzo bean mix in a layer on top of the eggplant slices, and sprinkle half of the grated cheddar cheese. Layer the remaining eggplant, then garbanzo bean mix, then cheese. Sprinkle cornmeal for topping if desired. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and centre of dish is heated right through.

Tractor!!!

Dave's new toy arrived this summer: a two-wheeled, walk behind tractor. This sounds kind of unusual to most North Americans, but they're very popular in Europe. This model is from Italy. Also with the tractor arrived a rotary plow, rototiller, brush mower, and wood chipper. We are so set!

Back on Track

I've been very busy with work over the summer, and hence have not really cherished time spent on the computer for a use of my leisure time. That doesn't mean that I haven't been doing anything worthy of posting here, though. I shall be catching up with all of my recipes discovered over the summer, from baking to canning to slow cooking, plus highlights from some interesting events.

Summer Delights

We've been busy harvesting & processing our pea crop. We shell & freeze them for winter enjoyment, but we've also been eating them for the last few weeks to enjoy them during their right season.


Yesterday, I did a 5km walk in the Underwear Affair, my third year in a row raising money for research towards cancers below the waist (thanks to all my donors whom together contributed over $1,000 for this year's event). They had a lady doing mehndi (henna) for donation, so I got my hand done. I've never had mehndi before, and it's just lovely.


After the walk, we went over to Elizabeth's for dinner and cherry picking. Dave did about 2/3 of the work, and the haul was easily 10-15 lbs of cherries, of which we probably got half. This morning, we needed to process them fast, so Dave figured out an ingenious pitting method, using a thin metal bar, and a piece of plexiglas which he'd drilled a hole into. Isn't he clever? Made the job heaps easier. We had some in our morning smoothie, but the rest went into two-cup packages in the freezer for enjoyment this winter.

Finally Summer!

Yikes! Has it ever been a while since I blogged here. Not that many people read it, so no big deal, but nonetheless. I'll have a few recipes to upload in the nearish future, but I've been crazy-busy at work. Don't know what my excuse was otherwise before that!


We've done practically nothing on the house since the lighting. Dave's been working on a beautiful bed commission, which I will post about when it's done & I have photos. We've been back & forth to Dad's (May) and Mom's (well, lots). Last trip to Mom's, we had tree fellers in to clear three trees in the field for the future orchard.

Lots of neat critters, too.

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly

Rough-skinned Newt

Garter Snake (juvenile)